by Mary W Maxwell, LLB
Commenting yesterday, at Gumshoe’s article about young lawyer Serene Terrafa, retired barrister Terry Schulze said:
“‘I hope Serene is on the right track’ – Having taken that track through the Courts and having three judges of the Court of Appeal lie about what the case was about in order to dismiss it – and then two of those judges went on to become High Court judges in Canberra, one of which became the Chief Justice of the High Court – I don’t like her chances, but maybe, maybe….”
The same could be said of the judge presiding over the Assange trial in London. The purpose of the trial, I think, is to see if it is legal for the UK to extradite Julian to the US. One thing is that is required for it to be legal is that the “receiving nation” have a fair criminal justice system.
Fairness in the US
I guess if they wanted to get an expert opinion on that, they could ask John Remington Graham of the Minnesota Bar to describe how the federal Court of Appeal in Boston dealt with amicus brief provided by myself and two others, in US v Tsarnaev. Namely, the court had promised to take our information into account in Jahar’s appeal but did not do so.
Our information included the most relevant piece of exculpatory evidence of Jahar’s innocence – the color of the backpack – as well as a reprint of the letter sent by Jahar’s aunt Maret Tsarnaeva, LLM, to the trial judge, regarding threats made to Jahar’s family if they did not cooperate in persuading the boy to “not resist conviction.”
(No typo there: they said if he resisted even the “help” of the public defender, he may encounter difficulties in jail. Is it true that Jahar was threatened in that way? I’d like to ask him, but since 2015 the Attorney General has made Jahar incommunicado under the disgusting SAMs – special administrative measures. And you can be dead sure that Jahar does not know he could challenge those measures in court, or that he could, per McCoy v Louisiana, appoint a public defender who does not take his guilt as axiomatic.)
Day Seven
Craig Murray in London has given an astonishingly clear report of what happened at Day 7 of Assange’s trial. It’s at CraigMurray.org.uk, and he permits anyone to copy it. I saw it, in full, at Globalresearch.ca.
I won’t attempt a summary. I am only making the point that Julian is not on trial for crimes. He is trying to avoid being sent to the US. One way that he could win freedom is to show that the US indictment of him is political. Craig Murray quoted the defense witness Professor Feldstein, chairman of Broadcast Journalism at Maryland University. Despite being bullied by the examiner, Feldstein said (I’ll paraphrase): Don’t be ridiculous, of course it’s political.
As mentioned above he could win on the grounds that the receiving nation doesn’t respect rule of law, performs torture, or whatever. In the Day 7 proceedings nothing was said of that as such. Surely it is hard to say that the US does not have rule of law when it always proclaims that it does!
Anyway, observer Craig Murray is British and he was as ticked off with his government as I am with mine. Here is a very stirring quote from Craig’s notes:
“Feldstein was browbeaten by Lewis and plainly believed that when Lewis told him to answer in very brief and concise answers, Lewis had the authority to instruct that. In fact Lewis is not the judge and it was supposed to be Feldstein’s evidence, not Lewis’s. [Judge] Baraitser failed to protect Feldstein or to explain his right to frame his own answers, when that was very obviously a necessary course for her to take….
“Clive Stafford Smith testified today that in 2001 he would not have believed the outrageous crimes that were to be perpetrated by the US government. I am obliged to say that I simply cannot believe the blatant abuse of process that is unfolding before my eyes in this courtroom.” [Emphasis added].
Craig Murray, age 62, is known for having spoken up for human rights in Uzbekistan – when he was British ambassador to that country! Do you recall that brouhaha? Of course he lost his job (in 2004) but is still going at it.
Note: I recall R John Vincent, author of Human Rights and International Relations, saying that diplomats thought it wise not to pack human rights in their suitcase when going on a mission. (John died at age 47 of very fast-acting cancer.)
Craig Murray has also been a supporter of Scottish nationalism. Perhaps it was in reward for that, that Murray was made Chancellor of the University of Dundee (the university from which he had barely graduated, having made a resolve not to attend classes but to read in the library. Yay!)
Two Miscellaneous Items but It’s All Connected, Isn’t It?
I will display below a video made outside of the court in London this week, featuring Julian Assange’s father. But first two quick reports of “Childhood in a time of Covid”:
Per the Concord Monitor of September 9, 2020, the New Hampshire education system has announced that kindergarten will begin today, and that all kids have been provided with a free ipad so they can participate fully in kindergarten activities. You understand, don’t you, that these five-year-olds will be “attending” by Zoom.
Secondly, as reported this week by Shane Trejo, at BigLeaguePolitcs.com:
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning parents that their children may be kept from their parents overnight due to COVID-19 concerns, as states set up COVID-19 shelters where infected individuals could be forcibly quarantined.
“‘Tell school administrators about any extra supplies your child may need to safely make it through a night away from home,’ the CDC wrote to parents in their advisory. ‘Bring extra medicines, special foods, or supplies your child would need if separated overnight’.
“At the same time, Ohio is taking measures to create isolation camps with assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that can house COVID-19 patients in certain instances.”
Melbourne is not alone!
Here be Julian’s Dad outside the Old Bailey. Naturally, it had to have been filmed by RT. Who else?
Here is Craig Murray in the pink shirt. Thank you, Craig. And thank you for objecting to Uzbeki’s being boiled.
As of today, the judge adjourned Assange’s case till at least Monday Sept 14, as the brother-n-law of the cleaning lady at the Old Bailey may have been exposed to a broom that had once been in possession of a person whose uncle died n the 1918 flu pandemic. Or something like that.
Craig Murray – you bloody beauty.
Wouldn’t t have been funny if one of the convict ships reached Botany Bay only to be turned away due to a pandemc.
I presume these kids are Australian citizens:
Maybe they are also Ecuadorean citizens!
To people of my generation growing up in New Zealand, the words British and Justice were synonymous. It is now an oxymoron and the hearing in the Old Bailey is a classic illustration of that point. It is difficult to know which is the worst feature. The unindicted war criminals like Bush, Blair and Obama; or the travesty of a hearing that imposes time limits on defence witnesses; a Judge who has written her judgments on procedural objections before they have been argued; or a whole range of issues exposed in the comprehensive coverage of Craig Murray.
To the appalling travesties of justice represented by the British and US governments, one would have to add the complete lack of support by Assange’s own government. Not for the first time I thank my lucky stars that I will never have to rely on the support of the Australian government should I ever raise the ire of the UK or US governments. That is perhaps the point that should be of most concern to every Australian.
Thank you, James. Do you mean that the NZ govt goes to the aid of any wrongly-inidcted kiwi’s abroad?
James wrote “complete lack of support by Assange’s own government” – Either they’re complicit in this up to their eyeballs OR they’re totally incompetent. Take your pick.
Here’s an oxymoron for you: Philip Ruddock/human rights. (Note: he was an MP for 42 years)
Another Dr Jeckle and Mr Hyde groomed for the job.
Cut my alumnus some slack, he is currently mayor of Hornsby, my old be stomped on area of our schooling.
Think he was a moot before head prefect
/dux(I think he was a few years older like Peter Garrett) . (Think TV linked some funny Church of England schooling comedy that was more truth than satire about this in past).
Just joking, no slack for those and entities like ANU, ASIS, CSIRO and satan etc.
your alumnus put out some good guys too I pray
Me too, a lot of coolade was served on a daily basis. Seen good men out of that place go to the forces. Others bide their tongues, so are unknown but if they use their skills for freedom for all. They would make a great spanner to drop into the transhumanist machine.
Why he (David Hicks) can’t return.– Phillip Ruddock explains.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/why-he-cant-return-20070107-ge3xrm.html
Re my Jeckle and Hyde comment–
The making of Mr Methodical.
Philip Ruddock has become one of the most controversial figures in Australian public life: implacably defending a refugee policy that has split the nation.
By Richard Guilliatt
Updated September 17, 2014 — 10.08am
The last 30 years’ worth of Attorneys general in the US. This reading is not for the faint of heart:
In chronological order:
William Barr, Janet Reno, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzalez, Eric Holder, Loretta Lynch, Jeff Session, and… Willam Barr!
Thank Gawd!….
At 2.20 mins, Snowden says he could put his IT skills to use to help fight election riggng:
Has he maintained his skill up to date therefore relevant to deep state improvement behind the “iron curtain” over the years. Maybe his intelligence family background have been emailing the cutting edge MIT papers.
Sounds fanciful, just saying.
The Freedom Articles
Friday, September 11, 2020
Assange Hearing Day 7: this morning we went straight in to the evidence of Clive Stafford Smith, a dual national British/American lawyer licensed to practice in the UK. He had founded Reprieve in 1999 originally to oppose the death penalty, but after 2001 it had branched out into torture, illicit detention and extraordinary rendition cases in relation to the “war on terror”.
Clive Stafford Smith testified that the publication by Wikileaks of the cables had been of great utility to litigation in Pakistan against illegal drone strikes. As Clive’s witness statement put it at paras 86/7:
Read on –
https://thefreedomarticles.com/assange-hearing-day-7/
Bring on the reset. Lady Justice has looked away consorted with bankers(cabal) and has the power of alleged full force with weapons withheld from the accused, without reason or explanation. Exactly like the statues suggest.
We are told that there is no return to normal, good. The outcome could be like the fold out brochure that the”sheep” believe is the “reality” of law.
(Mary excluded, no sheep here, but a just system is required and Mary types can save us a lot of time on the rebuild/reset.
In my article I wrote “Day Seven.” Sorry, that was a mistake. It was Day Three. Now there has been an announcement that the case will resume on Monday Sept 14 at 9am at the Old Baley.
Maybe it will have a happy ending:
That was sensational …
Friday, 11 September 2020
Of Barristers and Baraitsers http://veaterecosan.blogspot.com/2020/
Timothy, that’s a great article that you’ve linked. I quote from it:
“Many others who had expected to attend, such as Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders, were simply excluded, as were MPs from the German federal parliament (both the German MPs and Reporters Without Borders at least later got access to the inadequate video following strong representations from the German Embassy).”
Thank you, Germany. Please give Marissa Payne a ringie-dingie and tell her how it works.
Baraitser, the Jewish woman presiding over the Julian Assange case, has much to answer for.
Her handling of the proceedings to date has been a disgrace.
https://www.henrymakow.com/2015/05/Freemasons-Control-the-US-Justice-System%20.html
http://www.talmudblasphemy.com/truth-talmud.htm
https://apolloniangerm.wordpress.com/2018/05/12/checking-up-on-chequering/
“This was the measles crisis of 1988.”
Charles of Infected Blood Australia talking about the CSL infected blood scandal.
https://youtu.be/Or8QcCdJhlY
Your Man in the Public Gallery – Assange Hearing Day 8
Assange Hearing Day 8: The great question
after yesterday’s hearing was whether prosecution counsel James Lewis QC would continue to charge at defence witnesses like a deranged berserker (spoiler – he would), and more importantly, why? QCs representing governments usually seek to radiate calm control, and treat defence arguments as almost beneath their notice, certainly as no conceivable threat to the majestic thinking of the state. Lewis instead resembled a starving terrier kept away from a prime sausage by a steel fence whose manufacture and appearance was far beyond his comprehension. Perhaps he has toothache.
PROFESSOR PAUL ROGERS
The first defence witness this morning was Professor Paul Rogers, Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford. He has written 9 books on the War on Terror, and has been for 15 years responsible for MOD contracts on training of armed forces in law and ethics of conflict. Rogers appeared by videolink from Bradford.
Prof Rogers’ full witness statement is here.
https://thefreedomarticles.com/assange-hearing-day-8/
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