by James O’Neill*
In all societies that are pleased to describe themselves as adherents to the basic principle we commonly refer to as the “rule of law” there are certain basic fundamental principles that are taken as the bedrock of the system.
Among the foremost of these principles is that all citizens are deemed to be equal before the law. There is one set of laws and all are expected to adhere to those laws. If one deviate from those laws, then the alleged trespassers are to be treated equally.
We know of course that the treatment one receives, the processes one undergoes, even the outcomes are not equal. But for all its flaws it is the system we have. All are expected to honour their obligations under the system.
Similarly, when one falls foul of the law, whether it is something as relatively innocuous as breaking the speed limit right through to the most serious crimes on the statute books, the expectations remain the same.
One of those fundamental principles is that in return for being a good citizen the government will exercise its powers to ensure equal treatment to all those that are alleged to violate the basic principles That truism is expected to apply irrespective of where the alleged crime is said to have been perpetrated, or the status of the alleged violator.
Where a citizen of the country is alleged to have fallen foul of laws of another country, the principles remain the same, but with added conditions.
It is part of the social contract that all citizens in a professed democracy such as Australia should be entitled to rely upon. When those principles are violated, as in the case of Julian Assange, widespread outrage and condemnation should be the immediate response. With some honourable exceptions that has not been the case in Australia.
The outrage is certainly coming from concerned individuals. They have joined protests, petitioned the local members of parliament and taken other various actions to record their concern. In those endeavours they should be able to enjoy the support of the local mainstream media. That also is conspicuous by its scarcity.
There are many disturbing features of the treatment of Julian Assange by the British authorities. That treatment makes a mockery of fundamental principles that we have been enjoined since we were in the cradle of being synonymous with “British justice”.
If there is one lesson to be drawn from the Assange saga it is that all of those fundamental principles we were nurtured to believe in can be quickly sacrificed in the crude exercise of state power. The shattering of naïve illusions is perhaps one small benefits to be gained from this process that is otherwise a travesty of what we would nurtured to believe was British justice.
What has happened to Assange during the recent preliminary hearing in a London Court (in fact part of a maximum security prison complex) has been superbly chronicled by former United Kingdom diplomat Craig Murray on his website www.craigmurray.org.uk. People are urged to go to his website to read the grisly details of the recent travesty of justice described as a preliminary hearing. If one has any lingering belief in the efficacy and value of British justice, then Murray’s detailed account should be a radical antidote.
Assange’s alleged crime was to publish details of war crimes and other atrocities carried out by United States military forces in Iraq. That information was passed on to mainstream media outlets such as the New York Times and the United Kingdom Guardian, neither of whom have been prosecuted for their publication of US war crimes.
It is almost redundant to add that the perpetrators of the crimes revealed by those media outlets, as well as Assange and the original source of the leaks, Chelsea Manning, have not been prosecuted, whereas Manning has served jail time and has been re-imprisoned for failure to disclose his sources. Assange has received unprecedented abuse and ill-treatment by the United Kingdom authorities.
There could not be a clearer illustration of shooting the messenger but leaving unscathed the perpetrators of the crimes and their political and military leaders who are ultimately responsible. The Nuremberg principles are well and truly dead.
The other travesty of accepted principles of justice and international law revealed by the Assange prosecution is the almost complete indifference and inaction by the political leadership of his country of nationality, Australia.
That indifference and inaction by Australia’s political class (with a very few limited exceptions of whom the Independent Andrew Wilkie deserves a special mention) is one of the most alarming features of the Assange prosecution.
It is a fundamental principle that governments have a duty of care to their citizens. That principle was demonstrated recently with reports that the Australian government was taking steps and making representations about the fate of an English citizen but Australian resident and academic sentenced to prison by an Iranian Court.
No such concern or action has been detectable on behalf of Assange, either by the government or the official Opposition. In this, as in so many other areas of international conduct, including but not limited to the waging of illegal wars, the two principal parties are indistinguishable.
One does not have to delve too deeply to determine a likely explanation for this complete abdication of a government (and Opposition) as to the ill-treatment, violation of fundamental legal principles (see Murray’s reporting for excruciating details). In this writer’s review the behaviour and inaction of the Australian government, its tolerance of the breach of the most fundamental principles of due process in international law, is explicable in terms of Australia’s utter subservience to the United States.
If this hypothesis is correct, then it ought to be a matter of the greatest concern to all Australians, irrespective of their political allegiance or views on the propriety or otherwise of one individual’s actions.
It means no Australian citizen can do or say anything, anywhere in the world that might violate the firmly entrenched American view that they have universal jurisdiction to pursue and punish anyone who violates their sense of moral and legal entitlement to do as they wish anywhere in the world.
If that is indeed correct, and the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that is the case, then we are all imperiled. That includes the smug and self-righteous journalists whose hubris utterly inoculates them to the very great dangers to us all that the persecution and fundamental breaches of international law that the British treatment of Julian Assange exposes.
*Barrister at Law and geopolitical analyst. He may be contacted at joneill@qldbar.asn.au
A comment Ned asked me to post:
Leaked U.S. video EXPOSED BY WIKILEAKS) shows deaths of Reuters’ Iraqi staffers
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-usa-journalists/leaked-u-s-video-shows-deaths-of-reuters-iraqi-staffers-idUSTRE6344FW20100406
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Classified U.S. military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff, was released on Monday by a group that promotes leaking to fight government and corporate corruption.
The group, WikiLeaks, told a news conference in Washington that it acquired encrypted video of the July 12, 2007, attack from military whistleblowers and had been able to view and investigate it after breaking the encryption code.
A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the video and audio were authentic.
Ta Dee,
Sorry, my last comment posted without knowldge of your latest.
I simply ask for other readers and msm.
When will truth not be proscuted to protect murderers?
Below, in many comments, there is all manner of philosophy .
Give me a break.
Government is murdering innocents and we are debating law and philosphy!
No. We are bullshitting whilst animal murderers kill, thieve and their is a bs debate.
No. Simple. Stop killing and invading thi neighbour and support those who expose our murderous thieving politicians and msm who massage themselves in a mirage of pretending to be rightous moral humans.
Sorry, I am so annoyed with bs persecuting of Assange who has enlightened the world with reality, exposing murderers.
My suggestion to the US killers, msm pressitutes, and bed wetters, you lot have been exposed as crapping in your two month old nappy and the world is now sniffing the product/s.
Go broke, die with AAP.
Ned, I agree about your comments about ‘talking’ about this stuff. Hell, I’ve been giving speeches, making videos, writing articles for (reaches for calculator) more than 33 years now. A third of a century of banging my head against the wall.
The moronosphere is THICK, it can’t process the information and the PTB fully intends to keep it that way. Maybe this Coronavirus could be a good thing!
Perhaps with the Grand Solar Minimum (no, there is no man-made global warming), the resultant food shortages and an economic collapse (in conjunction with the pandemic) it will thin the herd of dumb-asses. (imagine a surviving population of only intelligent humans)
Unfortunately, at my age I will only get to see the collapse, but at least I have a ring-side seat to watch it.
Terry,
It is a stage play, we are now in the balcony enjoying the actors and laughing at the peasants in the stalls soaking up the performance.
Enjoy the show …. we paid for our ticket.
I must admit, I don’t know what to make of this paper. I feel the indignation and outrage jumping off the page, only to find out the author is one of them. A merchant of smoke and mirrors. There is no room for Julian Assange’s truth in a network of smoke and mirrors, he is doomed unless the Australian Government can be exposed for what it really is. Thankfully, dedicated, loyal subjects of the Commonwealth are working on it. Perhaps then Martin Bryant will get the trial denied by Damian Bugg.
Clause 5
Glenn, are you saying James is a “merchant of smoke and mirrors”? Hardly.
And what is Clause 5?
His email address says it all Mary. qldBAR. where is their head of power? City Of London.
I’m sorry for being a little obtuse. I was waiting to see who clicked.
This is clause 5 as per the correct and proper constitution.
This Act, and all laws made by the Parliament of the Commonwealth under the Constitution, shall be binding on the courts, judges, and people of every State and of every part of the Commonwealth, notwithstanding anything in the laws of any State; and the laws of the Commonwealth shall be in force on all British ships, the Queen’s ships of war excepted, whose first port of clearance and whose port of destination are in the Commonwealth
It probably doesn’t mean too much as it is, but if you pair it with PUBLIC GOVERNANCE, PERFORMANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT 2013 – SECT 10
and consider what it says about the high court there, then apply Parisienne Basket Shoes Pty ltd v Whyte [1938] HCA 7; 59 CLR 369 it will give you very good insight into what, or what our courts are not today.
It has been tested in court and apparently is is met with .. oops, I seemed to have forgot the evidence or similar. Please check it for yourself and do a word search for ‘coram judice’
As I said, smoke and mirrors
Glenn, admittedly the reputation of the legal profession in Oz is in the toilet, however, there are some lawyers that still try and do the right thing. Here’s an article I wrote about a case I did that refers to those ‘fundamental principles of English Law’ that James alluded to in his article – https://gumshoenews.com/2018/06/19/review-of-australian-law-and-its-decline/
It is gut-churning to sit at a ‘Bench and Bar’ function and have some ‘respectable’ member of the profession waffle on about “the great English heritage of jurisprudence”, “guardians of the Rule of Law”, yadda, yadda, when you have actually tried to run such cases.
Their moment in time – the judges get blessed with a case where such principles are in question and they have their rare chance to make history in Australian jurisprudence – and then they put their tail between their legs and crap on with some ridiculous sophistry that a first year law student can see through.
You pointed out the Martin Bryant case, a point well taken. That one case encapsulates the incredible decline in the Rule of Law in Oz. It is difficult to see Assange getting any resemblance of justice from an Australian legal/political system that has become so corrupt.
Thank you for your reply
The very people we need to save our country though, have sworn allegiance to a foreign power.
Having decided to resist the imposition of tolls, nothing could have prepared me for the frustration of playing a game, where you don’t know what the game is called. The rules are hidden behind glossas and obfuscation and you are treated like cattle and infants. Meanwhile, lawyers are up there making excuses for their clients like they are trying to make an apology to the school principal for egging their car. If they knew what i know now, they would likely burn the place down. Even knowing the rules of the game, then you have to learn how to apply it in there. Then, if I get a lawyer, they can’t even use a considerable numbers of the defences available to me.. and we are back to the oath.
The English legal system is no different to the mess we have here. You only have to see how well Tommy Robinson fared in the UK, to know that their justice system is broken too.
“Even knowing the rules of the game, then you have to learn how to apply it in there.”
The ‘rules’? Crikey mate, I’ve had a Supreme Court judge throw out 700 years of established contract law in order to twist a judgement to allow the NSW Government to win. They will not only ‘move the goal posts’, but pull them up and take them home to keep you from winning.
He obviously knew more about the ‘Rule of Law’ in Oz than I did as 18 months later he was elevated to the Court of Appeal.
I can’t imagine that happening in our bastions of virtue 🙂 Am I surprised? No
Glen – are you familiar with the youtube program titled ‘Justinian Deception’ ?
You write as if you are well versed in Admiralty law and the law of the sea which is the law that governs us all?
Very much so. Did you see the release this morning? I love watching the ‘sovereign citizen’ channel 😉
Mind you, what I heard yesterday, I am not sure that it is admiralty law.
Glen – ‘International Law’ is derived from Admiralty/Maritime Law. As you probably realize, it is that concept that deceives all of us.
Yes, I watched yesterday’s episode of Justinian Deception last night. There is no manual for birth certificates – interesting!
Did you see this mornings drop? like wow! There is another party who also found a way to defeat councils in regard to rates.. and I think a prominent bank just stepped themselves into a world of pain too. Its interesting the timing of the virus, just when things are unravelling for the administration of this territory.
Hello Terry, Hope you don’t mind, but I would like to ask you a question unrelated to the topic above.
I don’t know without researching it if you bound by any BAR oath when retired, but I was wondering if you were aware of any good reference guide to interpreting the ‘legal speak in legislation’?
Some of the reference books I would like to get a way too expensive, not too mention a bit of a challenge getting to the library during the ‘lockdown’. I will understand if your hands are tied.
“There could not be a clearer illustration of shooting the messenger but leaving unscathed the perpetrators of the crimes …. The Nuremberg principles are well and truly dead.”
Not dead, James, just violated with impunity. This can be stopped. Did you see my video on caning?
At 3 minutes, he and she add a new verse to commemorate the Bushfire.
How about a new verse saying that it was (likely) set? Any composers out there want to have a go? “I am, you are, we are… not stupid.”
The “Nuremberg principles” have never been implemented. It they had been, many so-called heroes on the Allied side would have rotted in jail or been hanged. Churchill and Stalin being in the leading group.
” …….. heads of state would be liable for their crimes…”
B%%”$+t.
“…… making murderers of otherwise decent people….”.
And who are they that do that?.
Public opinion is orchestrated by the msm presstitutes.
Glad to note that AAP presstitutes are at least being dispensed with. “Public opinion”.
What uncivilised animal (canberra?) supports home invasions and theft in countries that are no real threat to Australia?. Oh, they are in our parliament in Canberra and behind msm editors desks.
What say Winston?
Re Benjamin B. Ferencz (I know you were baiting, M …):
From “The United Nations Exposed” by William F Jasper
“Professor of international law and one-world architect Benjamin Ferencz asserts that “antiquated notions of absolute sovereignty are absolutely obsolete in the interconnected and interdependent global world of the 21st century.””
and
“With the stroke of a pen, President Bill Clinton has a last chance to safeguard humankind. He must simply sign a treaty, finalized in Rome in 1998, to create a permanent International Criminal Court.
— Robert S. McNamara (CFR, TC) and Benjamin B. Ferencz, New York Times op-ed, December 12, 2000
The United States is today signing the 1998 Rome Treaty on the International Criminal Court.
— President Bill Clinton (CFR, TC), December 31, 2000”
(This is the very same ICC that persecuted/murdered Slobodan Milošević [topical for Assange thread] – later completely exonerated posthumously once his usefulness had expired – but is doubling down on exempting Israel from being investigated for its well documented crimes against humanity.)
Canada Joins ‘Friendly States’ in Opposing ICC War Crimes Investigation in Palestine
https://alethonews.com/2020/02/26/canada-joins-friendly-states-in-opposing-icc-war-crimes-investigation-in-palestine/
But I digress – here is more of what Benjamin B. Ferencz said (and you can even find this on wiki):
“In a 2005 interview for The Washington Post he [Ferencz] revealed some of his activities during his period in Germany by way of showing how different military legal norms were at the time:
“You know how I got witness statements? I’d go into a village where, say, an American pilot had parachuted and been beaten to death and line everyone one up against the wall. Then I’d say, “Anyone who lies will be shot on the spot.” It never occurred to me that statements taken under duress would be invalid.”
[Reading that again slowly – It never occurred to me that statements taken under duress would be invalid..]
“Someone who was not there could never really grasp how unreal the situation was … I once saw DPs beat an SS man and then strap him to the steel gurney of a crematorium. They slid him in the oven, turned on the heat and took him back out. Beat him again, and put him back in until he was burnt alive. I did nothing to stop it. I suppose I could have brandished my weapon or shot in the air, but I was not inclined to do so. Does that make me an accomplice to murder?”
That Australians are U.S. subjects without Constitutional rights is a given
But due to certain factors I strongly suspect that the Assange case is not as depicted
Berry – The United States is ‘owned’ by the British Empire, an empire that crept back into the shadows and behind the curtain, and has never been extinguished, and that is the real power that controls the West. This country is part of the ‘corporation’ that is Washington D.C., The Vatican, and the City of London.
Assange is THE key to bringing down the controllers of this world, his knowledge of how this world works goes much deeper than James O’Neill has an understanding of.
As language is the seat of human power and English remained the only officially spoken tongue after the
U. S. was founded it would appear that a certain connection was never broken.
But I can’t say I really share your belief about Assange. I mean, what about the fact that he’s taken the lies about 9/11 on board?
Berry – are you able to be more specific concerning Assange’s belief re: 9/11? I am not familiar with what he has put forward on that event.
He doesn’t count 9/11 as being “a real conspiracy for war”, quote’
“I’m constantly annoyed that people are distracted by false conspiracies such as 9/11, when all around we provide evidence of real conspiracies, for war or mass financial fraud.”
http://911blogger.com/news/2010-07-22/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-annoyed-911-truth
He didn’t say “well we’ve not found a specific paper trail, but due to what we have found that’s unnecessary”. From memory that’s pretty much what John Kiriakou said and it’s an important point. Unless you can nail down a record of damning communications there’s really nothing to go on but speculation and if you make that your platform you’re really no better than the very erring “news” outlets you so despise.
The phenomena isn’t exactly uncommon: Undisciplined thinking should be called out as such but dismissing anyone as above renders one no less guilty.
As far as I’m concerned the overarching lesson is to refrain from putting anyone on a pedestal
Berry – thanks for that link. Having read Assange’s response to a straight forward question it seems, to me at least, that maybe at that time (2010) he had bigger fish to fry, and rather than go into his own knowledge of that event, that could lead him onto God knows what, he has thrown the interviewer a red herring to throw him off the scent?.
All will be revealed soon concerning Assange’s knowledge, so I wouldn’t discount anything that he will be exposing at this time, or that he has not exposed in times past.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freda_Utley
Maxwell and O´Neill both seem to think that the Nuremberg principles, what are they? are praiseworthy.
To disabuse themselves they can read the eyewitness “The High Cost of Vengeance” by Nuremberg eyewitness Freda Utley, with her own Wiki biog., see above.
While pondering the ethnicity and hence in-group interests of the owners and writers of the UK and US media as Nuremberg gatekeepers and falsifiers before, during and since that time, they might draw a parallel to the media situation in Germany 1918-1933.
For the record: Lazy thinking on my part. I really only know or care about one of the 10 Nuremberg principles, as follows
Principle IV
“The fact that a person acted pursuant to (an) order of his government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him”. Before the time of the Nuremberg Trials, this defense was called “Superior Orders”.
Can’t discuss it now. I don’t just mean it for soldiers but for anyone. It’s a huge issue.
Thank you DS – a companion read might be “An Eye For an Eye” by John Sack which I am only part way through.
I have read this post. And it is a thoughtful post that reflects more of the writer and his aspirations for a return to a fair and just, judicial system. A most worthy endeavour in my opinion.
However, since the abandonment of common law and its legal precedents, precedents that set Bench decisions for hundreds of years, and that has been abandoned by a class of the ‘legal fraternity’ that no longer entertains justice or fairness in their deliberations, apart from a few exceptional practitioners whose moral based principles still guide them, the once accepted norm of ‘equal justice for all is no longer exercised.
One only need to read the sometimes shocking and inadequate sentencing from the courts, against those who have committed some really horrific criminal actions, and who by those actions, will never readjust back into what is now left of our ‘society’. One becomes only too aware, almost on a daily basis, of the ‘inequality’ of the justice system for the victim, and the family and society of those victims, who all have to live with the fallout of inadequate sentencing by the courts, and a parole system that has become a farce.
What the author seems to be unaware of, is that Assange holds a very special key, a key of information that is irrefutable evidence of such profound magnitude that it will transfix many and be so shocking to others, that its exposure will transform the world in which we live. Assange is the pawn in a very high stakes game of a tug of war between what Trump is quietly achieving and what the Globalist/Deep State is pulling out all stops to avoid.
Do you the reader still think that the latest designer bug ‘coronavirus’ is not part of the Globalist/Deep State action to bring western economies down while blaming Trump for the problems caused?
Assange would be a dead man walking if given his freedom that so many are pushing for.
Assange knows exactly what is at stake and he is willing to tell all when the time arrives.
I have sent to dee and James a reference to the 2007 massacre by a Apache helicopter crew, that included the murder of two Reuters jounos all exposed by Assange.
So they prosecute Assange and apparently do not lynch the Apache crew and their supperiors.
Rooters, you lot are just that….. traitors to colleagues.
Ned – I understand your frustration, but you of all people must realize that to get any conviction via our system of injustice, one needs to know how the system really works against those who become whistleblowers/champions of law and order.
The system is ‘maintained’ through a series of ‘gate keepers’ put in place after having been thoroughly vetted for their political leanings, psychopathic tendencies and vulnerability to blackmail – it’s worked for hundreds of years in keeping the criminal class as overlords to the rest of us.
And if the Champion for the rule of law does not have the backing of the people, then he/she soon crashes and burns, or is suicided/assassinated out of the picture.
Most Americans are now awake, and one only need to watch the attendances now being recorded at Trump’s rallies to realize that Trump now has the backing of the people!
The Great Awakening is upon us! Look a little harder at what is really going on.
Look a bit harder at what is going on!!!
Very presumptuous and judgemental. Have we ever met?
Kindly desist from your uninformed judgements of me made in ignorance, until you are informed.
Ned – my intention is not to antagonize you, but is a suggestion put to you out of concern, that you are not seeing the bigger picture.
To wit; your demonstrated frustration is deflecting you from what is currently occurring in rectifying your noted grievances that most of us on this site also share.
Have you not noted the change of course we are all now under since Trump became president?
Please reflect on what has been occurring around the globe over the past three years.
It has taken a long time to devolve Western Civilization to the point that many of us are now only too acutely aware of, and to expect that our current topsy turvy world is able to be righted by the application of some certain things, but without the wake up call and backing from the majority of the people, the numbers of which truly matter when the act of running against the status quo is paramount to bringing about change, says much about the individual who is unable to grasp the fundamental aspect in how we have survived so long as a civilization, and of the freedoms that has cost so much blood in obtaining.
Many forget their history which demonstrates, that every freedom we are still able to keep today has had to be fought for.
And today is no different.
WWG1WGA (Where We Go One We Go All) John Fitzgerald Kennedy
The False Flag destruction of the World Trade Centre and subsequent 20 year coverup is a inside job, here’s the proof, wikispooks.com/wiki/9-11 why does Assange ignore this ?
NemiMISS
Do not be concerned about my perception of the big picture.
Still judging with ignorance is a disease.
And now, this scintillating speech last week by someone who’s always stood by Assange – none other than the great George Galloway :
https://russia-insider.com/en/watch-one-best-orators-alive-uk-politician-george-galloway-electrifying-speech-lynching-assange
An earlier comment stated that ' Assange is the KEY to bringing down the controllers of this world ' .
I would have thought that exposing & prosecuting that entity / cabal that was behind 9/11 & the JFK assassination ( hint : it is one & the same ) , would have been orders of magnitude more significant in destabilising and/or unravelling said cabal.
Abolishing that private banking cartel otherwise known as the Federal Reserve would also pummel the ‘ controllers of the world ‘ into the turf .
As for the comment posted earlier that ‘ Assange would be a dead man walking if given his freedom ‘ , it’s now dawned on me.
Of course, the British establishment have incarcerated Assange in a dog kennel , for up to 23 hours a day in isolation because they are a benevolent entity that genuinely cares for him.
What was I thinking to surmise other than this obvious explanation .
Truth – not even the Sun dawns on you!
Global mass vaccinations will be medical martial law.
De-facto military eugenics, targeting the sick and elderly – selective soft kill culling world wide!
We were warned about these changing times, by Jesus and many brave prophets past and present.
These are our days and the only remedy is for Love to overcome all evol.
Have faith in truth and goodness.
As I watch the world implode from afar …
Russia’s Patriarch Reminds the World: Pacifism is NOT a Christian Ideology
https://russian-faith.com/patriarch-kirill-christianity-has-nothing-do-ideology-non-resistance-n2752
“And when people unwittingly and meekly accept evil, agree with it and bow their heads before it, it inevitably wins,”
Hello and thank you James, I posted this on your excellent MH17 thread, but it is so important and covers so many related topics (including OPCW, bellingcat etc) that I had to share it here
UKC Special Edition: MH17 Revelations
Fish, Clinton may have signed “the Rome Treaty” for an International Criminal Court, but the US Senate did not ratify it and thus the US is not a member of the ICC.
I heard on the grapevine that the US “stayed in it” long enough to water it down before withdrawing.
James, can John Howard be brought before the ICC?
Thanks Julius. I am a fan of the UK column and watch it religiously.
Thanks Mary. Howard can be brought before the ICC. No Australian government is going to do so in my view, because once one is prosecuted, where does one stop? Every Australian PM since Menzies with the honourable exception of Whitlam would be in the dock.
And John Gorton?
James – ‘The honorable exception of Whitlam’? One of our worst traitors, IMHO. The Indonesian invasion of Timor happened on his watch! And you would give him Honor! I believe Barry Humphrey’s character. Sir Les Paterson, is more than a parody of what Whitlam truly represented.
Maybe you need to watch it?
Now Nemisis, you are a ‘big picture’ guy, show us and link up the ten minute video summarising the Lima Declaration and opine on the historic sabotage of our workers, industry and of Australia all for the globalist corporates and UN commies.
Ned – the list of Whitlam’s treachery is rather long – my example was the betrayal of the children of the Timorese people, those alive during the Second World War, and who provided shelter and sustenance to this country’s Special ‘Z’ Force operating behind Japanese lines on that Island, specifically to disrupt and to sabotage Japanese war efforts, and for which the operation was very effective.
Many Timorese lost their lives in protecting Australian Commando’s.
Not to mention, the five Australian journalists cornered, and then murdered by the Indonesian military while covering the Indonesian invasion of Timor and the slaughter of the Timorese that went with such an invasion.
I was in the army at the time and the sense of outrage and betrayal from many soldiers concerning Whitlam’s support of Indonesia against the Timorese was quite noteworthy.
The author of this article has little to merit when it comes to past injustices and political history of this country, especially concerning his hero, Whitlam.
Sorry James,
I think you missed the labor government’s betrayal of Australia, our workers and industry when Whitlam’s foreign minister Don Willisee signed up in Lima Peru to the UN dictate to sabotage our country.
Look up ‘the Lima declaration 1975’.
Now That was a betrayal’ ( apols; Pail Hogan)
I really don’t know if Julian Assange is ‘legit’ or not. I never really ‘followed’ wikileaks (you can only pay attention to so much).
But if he is genuine then there is no such thing as civilised ‘rule of law’. However, if he is an actor, then the whole thing is a circus and there is no such thing as civilised ‘rule of law’.
I will say though, that I have been impressed by the few interviews I watched from time to time.
And I do remember seeing that video of the cold blooded atrocities committed by the US military that Dee referred to above. That’s a strange card to play if JA is an actor.
On John Pilger – again, I don’t know, but I am certainly impressed with his efforts in exposing certain matters such as:
JOHN PILGER: “WHITE HELMETS ARE A COMPLETE PROPAGANDA CONSTRUCT IN SYRIA”
Full article by Vanessa Beeley here …
https://www.mintpressnews.com/john-pilger-white-helmets-propaganda-construct/228238/
And I have carried a latent respect for him ever since watching his exposé on Diego Garcia:
Stealing a Nation – How the UK/US Stole the Diego Garcia Island – presented by John Pilger
here is some opinion on what wikileaks is at least –
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/421949/everything-you-need-to-know-about-wikileaks/
it refers to an encrypted “insurance file” containing unredacted cables.. that was released years ago, ( maybe assange should consider releasing the encryption key now as it seems he has nothing more to lose? ) – apparently, it was made a crime to be in possession of that encrypted file?
I used to really like John Pilger as he seemed to be a voice against govt wrong doing, but then after i heard his opinion on 9/11, which in short boils down to “they let it happen” – well, how can they let hijackers plant explosives in the towers without them being complicit themselves, i ask myself – his views on 9/11 are as perplexing to me as assanges.
having said that, the fact that
“The Travesty of Julian Assange’s Prosecution Raises Wider Issues” I agree entirely. very serious issues, but it seems theres no stopping the criminality.
I think I heard something about ICC looking into war crimes in Afghanistan by US military, with the US gov saying they dont pay any attention to the ICC? – well, considering people more knowledgeable than myself have said that the Afghanistan war was just as illegal as the Iraq war.. id have thought that would have been a good place to start with prosecutions…
but on and on it goes.. with none being held accountable for anything, and there are so many other innocent people around the world suffering as much as or worse than assange, and the world doesnt care.
Thank you FD. One can only watch on in ‘awe’ … as Pompeo declares that the ICC is “an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body.”
Pompeo: US Will Take ‘All Necessary Measures’ to Prevent ICC War Crimes Probe
https://news.antiwar.com/2020/03/05/pompeo-us-will-take-all-necessary-measures-to-prevent-icc-war-crimes-probe/
and reading from the link to ASPA (American Service-Members’ Protection Act) …
ASPA authorizes the U.S. president to use "all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any U.S. or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court".
Notably, the ASPA was enacted within a month of the ICC the beginning functioning despite strong advocacy by the US for this “an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body”. Makes one think that the ICC must have been set up just as a temporary geopolitical weapon …
I think it was that comment from pompeo that i was referring to…
if im not wrong.. I think I heard the USA was signed up to the ICC only long enough to water down any real powers, before abandoning any association with it?
but .. perhaps serendipitously – just now on cryptome… https://cryptome.org/
i see, maybe regarding the “insurance file I was talking about..
( i didnt know there had been a release of the password.. I still dont know. might have to look around. – maybe there was nothing in it to start with? I think I know where I might be able to still get hold of the original file…. )
[code] Assange’s counsel mistated that Cryptome hosted, and still hosts, the State Department cables. Cryptome posted, and still hosts, the torrents for accessing the cable files after decrypting the torrents with the book-published password. But did not publish the very large files themselves.
Of the three encrypted files only one, the y-file, could be decrypted with the password, not x and z. Still don’t know what is in x and z.
https://cryptome.org/xyz/x.gpg.torrent
https://cryptome.org/xyz/y-docs.gpg.torrent
https://cryptome.org/xyz/y-gpg.torrent
https://cryptome.org/xyz/z-gpg.torrent
Cryptome archived the decrypted y file, cables.csv (1.7GB), but did not publish it.
Not aware of where or who hosted the files accessed by the torrents.
Don’t know if the others who downloaded the torrents then decrypted and published all of them.
If not, it is possible WikiLeaks first published the unredacted files, maybe all of them, thinking that others had already done so. [/code]
cheers
How did you do the “code” in your replies JS? 🙂
By sheer accident and then trial and error I found that ‘wrapping’ text between single asterisks will make it italic, between double asterisks will make it bold.
I wanted to indent a passage to highlight it as a quoted passage – so did four or five space bars at the beginning of the paragraph and it came out in that grey format
Like this
I prepare the comment and set these up in Word before pasting and fixing the line spacing.
good to know!
this will be handy in future
thankyou
I just posted a comment that didnt go through, Ill try again.
(Dee please delete this if the previous one was held back for too many links or whatever )
I think that remark from Pompeo was what I was referring to.
perhaps slightly serendipitously, on https://cryptome.org/ just now, Ive seen what may be a reference to the “insurance” file I was talking about
I didnt know a password had been released.. but from the site just now…
” Assange’s counsel mistated that Cryptome hosted, and still hosts, the State Department cables. Cryptome posted, and still hosts, the torrents for accessing the cable files after decrypting the torrents with the book-published password. But did not publish the very large files themselves.
Of the three encrypted files only one, the y-file, could be decrypted with the password, not x and z. Still don’t know what is in x and z.
****https://cryptome.org/xyz/x.gpg.torrent
****https://cryptome.org/xyz/y-docs.gpg.torrent
****https://cryptome.org/xyz/y-gpg.torrent
****https://cryptome.org/xyz/z-gpg.torrent
Cryptome archived the decrypted y file, cables.csv (1.7GB), but did not publish it.
Not aware of where or who hosted the files accessed by the torrents.
Don’t know if the others who downloaded the torrents then decrypted and published all of them.
If not, it is possible WikiLeaks first published the unredacted files, maybe all of them, thinking that others had already done so. ”
Cryptome have had their twitter account suspended so they cant respond to assanges counsel directly to correct their mistake I guess….
I can’t remember if this is the right thread for this comment – but no matter.
I went back over a couple of videos from a year or two ago to see if could identify any milestone ‘achievements’ on the “Q” front. I wanted to be ’uplifted’.
The title of this one caught my eye – from 14 January 2018, just over two years ago.
I’ll just wind it back to around 4:20 just before we hear a list of Trump achievements
Q: STRINGS CUT – THERE IS NO ESCAPE FOR THE CLINTONS
https://youtu.be/zG30G7sqNnQ?list=PLHT1beoMl6U2JOpQgrmQzYhqUKLX4N52y&t=260
At 4:30 – “Clinton Dynasty neutered and disgraced” [SHAME on her! So there !!]
[Is that it? … Mission accomplished? What about all those sealed indictments? Did I miss Red October – or November –or whatever it was called?]
[How about “locking her up”? – and what does the ICC exist for anyway?]
At 4:50: “ISIS Neutered” [Aah yes, I recall that announcement]
At 4:56: “CIA Covert Aid for ISIS ended” [Say what? – so the CIA WAS providing covert aid for ISIS after all!?]
At this point I just had to laugh … because the ‘covert’ aid has simply stepped up to ‘overt’ aid by openly funding “no-they-are not-terrorist” groups and channelling multi millions via the “White Helmets” façade.
State Department Crosses Into AQ-Held Syria for a Photo-Op, Offers Turkey “Ammuniton” for Syria Campaign
https://www.anti-empire.com/state-department-crosses-into-aq-held-syria-for-a-photo-op-promises-turkey-ammuniton-for-syria-campaign/
That picture of Kelly Craft with the group of ISIS/al Qaeda/Nusra Front (… whatever) terrorists masquerading in their very polished ‘White Helmets’ outfits (remember James Le Mesurier? – RIP??) – she can’t possibly have any sense of sincerity, warmth, belief – or integrity. Never mind the post truth world, it is apparent that we have entered the post human phase.
[I think John McCain was more photogenic in that role.]
Don’t you just love that piece of work named Lindsey Graham?
And I do like the 2013 tweet by Donald J Trump – “The terrorists in Syria are calling themselves REBELS and getting away with it because our leaders are so completely stupid!“
?Off topic …
I was involved in a discussion elsewhere and thought Gumshoe readers would be interested in being introduced to Sheikh Imran Hosein. I catch him from time to time and he always makes agreeable sense. I regard him as a genuinely good and wise man.
Sort of reminds me of these words:
*When all the stars are falling down*
*Into the sea and on the ground*
*And angry voices carry on the wind*
*A beam of light will fill your head*
*And you'll remember what's been said*
*By all the good men this world's ever known*
… Moody Blues – Melancholy Man
Anyway, Sheikh Hosein certainly doesn’t hold back on Erdogan/Turkey. (The other three parts are of a longer talk – various topics- and are the prior videos on his channel.)
Turkey’s Tattered Islamic Credentials: Part 4 of 4
Julius – one must remember that there are peacemakers and warmongers in every religion who will interpret their ‘good book’ to suit their own designs. Your link shows an Iman who knows his stuff and who uses his authority to educate others. You may be interested in looking at Sheik al Tawhidi our very own Iman of Peace, who has much to offer as to what Islam can truly represent given the reformation and enlightenment so necessary to come forth if Islam wishes to survive as one of the world’s major religions.
You’ll find him on youtube.
Thank you for that. He is on the right track –
At 3:12 – “it’s about time – we don’t want these beheadings in our society or even people that think it’s okay – and we brought in a new curriculum – a new methodology of Sharia law that basically says love for your brother what you love for yourself”. [I thought we already had that curriculum …]
I maintain that inherently good [or inherently evil] people will tend to shape their particular ideology or ism (that they were brought up under) to fit their essential character. There are currently several billion varying opinions and interpretations, and unfortunately the vast majority will never be as educated or enlightened as Hosein or al Tawhidi.
Now how to get that message to the masses – we don’t want any more Farkhunda Malikzada atrocities (the video is too distressing to share – see nytimes link]
People can search for and read about the [Richard von Coudenhove] Kalergi Plan themselves.
But in the meantime the following examples reveal the real agenda and motivation …
Barbara Lerner Spectre calls for destruction of Christian European ethnic societies
Rabbi Rav Touitou – “Islam Is the Broom of Israel”
https://archive.org/details/youwillhavenoplacetorun.islamisthebroomofisrael.rabbiravtouitou
Julius – Islam has attempted two previous assaults on ‘fortress Europe’ – AD 765 and 1683.
Erdogan’s third attempt since 2015, by flooding Europe with young Muslim Men of military age is simply in line with Islamic doctrine and Globalist ambitions – and if you don’t pay Islam the jizya you cop what Islam likes to dish out to the infidel!
In answer to a number of points raised in the above comments, I am always reminded of the old joke: how do you tell a politician is lying? His/her lips are moving. I have now lived in Australia for 18 + years so i readily concede my knowledge of its politicians is incomplete. All have faults, but it seemed to me that some tried harder than others to do what I would call ‘the right thing’. Hence my relatively high regard for Whitlam, overthrown in what was manifestly a CIA coup. The relevant facts are well documented, but in this, as in so many unsavoury elements of Australian history (past and present) the mainstream media prefer to ignore the uncomfortable truths.
One of the great features of Gumshoe is that it tries to being these truths to light. Long may it continue. One doesn’t have to agree with every point put forward by a writer. Disagreements however, should be civil, a tone I try to maintain in my writing.
James, I am always uplifted when I see your name as the author on a thread – I say to myself “here comes a whole batch of new stuff to learn”, and your ability to compile, collate and articulate the narrative on any topic is much appreciated.
And yes, a special acknowledgement to Dee and Mary for providing this forum.
Quite often you shine a light on a topic that I know nothing about or challenge my previous limited or misguided understanding and I just reflect on the words of that great (and very cool) philosopher Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli …
PS – a very respected friend who in fact introduced me to Gumshoe via one of your own articles gave me the following quote:
“Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.”
Thomas Szasz, author, professor of psychiatry (1920-2012)
James – as Mark Twain once quipped, ‘Everyone has two great events that happen to them, the first event is to be born into this world, and the second event is to find out why we were born into this world.’
Each of us has the ability to learn who we are and why we are here, but many simply refuse to do so because they find comfort in those things that they choose to believe, and not from what they could have learned.
Each of us will find our own way in life, regardless of the forces that may tug at us, from time to time because each of us will see things that others do not. A good example of that kind of diverse outlook would be the cop who attends a crime scene only to find that there are ten eye witnesses to interview – a policeman’s nightmare – because every one of those witnesses will present a different version as they saw it.
But there is one common denominator that links together those ten eye witnesses – the event of the crime itself. So the diligent officer must then explore what caused each person at that crime scene to become a witness so as to ascertain the proof/truth of the offence committed.
And so, life has its compelling events that cause some to note, but then pass on without attaching any personal relevance to the event itself, while others will be personally affected by that event that then becomes another part of a far bigger picture for them.
History can be a good teacher, but only if what has been taught to us can be verified through one’s own research because nothing that has been taught to us over the past 170 years as a ‘government/church curriculum’ should be trusted as being reliable.
Our education is also an indoctrination process that keeps us all in a little collective box that many feel quite comfortable in not looking outside of.
To be criticized by others is seen by some as a personal attack. Civilizations can only ‘progress’ if criticism is practised as a means to correct wrong or ignorant thinking, and to enhance the learning process that should encompass us all. Everyone of us will make mistakes – it is how we as humans learn to grow and to appreciate that which God has given us all – the ability to be free thinkers.
Please accept any criticizm that I have offered you, as not being a personal attack. Lord knows, i have copped my fair share of criticizm on this site, but in the process, I have also learned a few things. We write because we also wish to express, to share, and to learn.
Sorry James, if you have only lived ‘here’ 18 years, kindly respect our previous knowledge of history going back to the Whitlam era and desist from your conceptual naivety re the Labor government in that period, betraying the Timorese and all the workers, that Whitlam relied upon to ultimately be elected and then betray them and Australia, the adverse effects now being experienced, surrendering our sovereignty to the Commie Totalarian NWO misery now at our doorstep.
Please review your appartent historical limited knowlege of your new country.
James, as a further thought.
Have you ever looked up the Lima Declaration signed by your apparent heroes, in Peru in 1975 by Whitlam’s foreign minister, Don Willisse?
If not, with all respect to a 18 year interloper, DO SO and rethink your concepts of being a Australian.
Let’ s have a beer to discuss it in the previous place and if I may, I will fill you in on some reality relating to your apparent hero.