{"id":403100,"date":"2019-04-14T18:38:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T17:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/the-assange-arrest-is-a-warning-from-history-2\/"},"modified":"2019-04-14T18:38:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-14T17:38:00","slug":"the-assange-arrest-is-a-warning-from-history-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/the-assange-arrest-is-a-warning-from-history-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Assange arrest is a warning from history"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3 class=\"nomargin\">\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h2>The Assange arrest is a warning from history<\/h2>\n<h5>\n<p>    Comment by John Pilger<br \/>\n    <br \/>13 April 2019<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n<p><em>John Pilger, well-known and respected filmmaker and investigative journalist, issued the following<\/em> <em>statement on the arrest of WikiL<\/em><em>eaks publisher Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London on April 11.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"imageRight\" style=\"width:200px; oveflow:hidden;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/asset\/616366f8-af3f-477f-91fb-c52413f9461A\/image.jpg?rendition=image480\" srcset=\"\/asset\/616366f8-af3f-477f-91fb-c52413f9461A\/image.jpg?rendition=image960 2x\" width=\"200\" style=\"width:200px;\" \/><span>John Pilger<\/span><\/div>\n<p>The glimpse of Julian Assange being dragged from the Ecuadorean embassy in London is an emblem of the times. Might against right. Muscle against the law. Indecency against courage. Six policemen manhandled a sick journalist, his eyes wincing against his first natural light in almost seven years.<\/p>\n<p>That this outrage happened in the heart of London, in the land of Magna Carta, ought to shame and anger all who fear for \u201cdemocratic\u201d societies. Assange is a political refugee protected by international law, the recipient of asylum under a strict covenant to which Britain is a signatory. The United Nations made this clear in the legal ruling of its Working Party on Arbitrary Detention.<\/p>\n<p>But to hell with that. Let the thugs go in. Directed by the quasi fascists in Trump\u2019s Washington, in league with Ecuador\u2019s Lenin Moreno, a Latin American Judas and liar seeking to disguise his rancid regime, the British elite abandoned its last imperial myth: that of fairness and justice.<\/p>\n<p>Imagine Tony Blair dragged from his multi-million pound Georgian home in Connaught Square, London, in handcuffs, for onward dispatch to the dock in The Hague. By the standard of Nuremberg, Blair\u2019s \u201cparamount crime\u201d is the deaths of a million Iraqis. Assange\u2019s crime is journalism: holding the rapacious to account, exposing their lies and empowering people all over the world with truth.<\/p>\n<p>The shocking arrest of Assange carries a warning for all who, as Oscar Wilde wrote, \u201csow the seeds of discontent&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2019\/04\/13\/pilg-a13.html\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 The Assange arrest is a warning from history Comment by John Pilger 13 April 2019 John Pilger, well-known and respected filmmaker and investigative journalist, issued the following statement on the arrest of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London on April 11. John Pilger The glimpse of Julian Assange being dragged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2526,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-403100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}