{"id":403117,"date":"2019-04-15T01:12:31","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T00:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/the-martyrdom-of-julian-assange-consortiumnews\/"},"modified":"2019-04-15T01:12:31","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T00:12:31","slug":"the-martyrdom-of-julian-assange-consortiumnews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/the-martyrdom-of-julian-assange-consortiumnews\/","title":{"rendered":"The Martyrdom of Julian Assange \u2013 Consortiumnews"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">Assange and <i>WikiLeaks\u00a0<\/i>allowed us to see the inner workings of empire \u2014 the most important role of a press \u2014 and for this they became empire\u2019s prey, writes Chris Hedges of Truthdig.<span id=\"more-35057\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">By <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/tag\/chris-hedges\/\">Chris Hedges<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/strong><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.truthdig.com\/articles\/the-martyrdom-of-julian-assange\/\"><em><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">Truthdig<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/hedgesnew_350.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/hedgesnew_350-100x100.jpg\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-35060\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-35060\" src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/hedgesnew_350-100x100.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\"\/><\/noscript><\/a>T<\/strong><\/span>he arrest Thursday of Julian Assange eviscerates all pretense of the rule of law and the rights of a free press. The illegalities, embraced by the Ecuadorian, British and U.S. governments, in the seizure of Assange are ominous. They presage a world where the internal workings, abuses, corruption, lies and crimes, especially war crimes, carried out by corporate states and the global ruling elite will be masked from the public. They presage a world where those with the courage and integrity to expose the misuse of power will be hunted down, tortured, subjected to sham trials and given lifetime prison terms in solitary confinement. They presage an Orwellian dystopia where news is replaced with propaganda, trivia and entertainment. The arrest of Assange, I fear, marks the official beginning of the corporate totalitarianism that will define our lives.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_35075\" style=\"width: 2506px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/4515586555_3e72bda051_o.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/4515586555_3e72bda051_o.jpg\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-35075\" class=\"size-full wp-image-35075\" alt=\"Assange giving talk in 2009. (New Media Days via Flickr)\" width=\"2496\" height=\"1664\"  \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-35075\" class=\"size-full wp-image-35075\" src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/4515586555_3e72bda051_o.jpg\" alt=\"Assange giving talk in 2009. (New Media Days via Flickr)\" width=\"2496\" height=\"1664\"  \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-35075\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;\">Assange giving a talk in 2009. <span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">(New Media Days via Flickr)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">Under what law did Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno capriciously terminate Julian Assange\u2019s rights of asylum as a political refugee? Under what law did Moreno authorize British police to enter the Ecuadorian Embassy \u2014 diplomatically sanctioned sovereign territory \u2014 to arrest a naturalized citizen of Ecuador? Under what law did Prime Minister Theresa May order the British police to grab Assange, who has never committed a crime? Under what law did President Donald Trump demand the extradition of Assange, who is not a U.S. citizen and whose news organization is not based in the United States?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\">I am sure government attorneys are skillfully doing what has become de rigueur for the corporate state, using specious legal arguments to eviscerate enshrined rights by judicial fiat. This is how we have the right to privacy with no privacy. This is how we have \u201cfree\u201d elections funded by corporate money, covered by a compliant corporate media and under iron corporate control. This is how we have a legislative process in which corporate lobbyists&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2019\/04\/14\/chris-hedges-the-martyrdom-of-julian-assange\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Assange and WikiLeaks\u00a0allowed us to see the inner workings of empire \u2014 the most important role of a press \u2014 and for this they became empire\u2019s prey, writes Chris Hedges of Truthdig. By Chris HedgesTruthdig The arrest Thursday of Julian Assange eviscerates all pretense of the rule of law and the rights of a free [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2612,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-403117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2612"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}