{"id":16146,"date":"2024-02-28T17:53:09","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T17:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=16146"},"modified":"2024-02-28T17:53:09","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T17:53:09","slug":"david-langwallner-podcast-interview-on-julian-assange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2024\/02\/28\/david-langwallner-podcast-interview-on-julian-assange\/","title":{"rendered":"We are in a new dark age: David Langwallner on Julian Assange"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe id=\"embedPlayer\" style=\"width: 100%; max-width: 754px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px; transform: translateZ(0px); animation: 2s ease 0s 6 normal none running loading-indicator; background-color: #e4e4e4;\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/cassandra-voices-podcast\/id1728086643?itsct=podcast_box_player&amp;itscg=30200&amp;ls=1&amp;theme=light\" height=\"450px\" frameborder=\"0\" sandbox=\"allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">David Langwallner is a barrister working in the U.K.. He has <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/author\/davidlangwallner\/\">written numerous articles for Cassandra Voices<\/a><\/span>, and was a natural choice to speak to about the Julian Assange case, which shows every sign of drawing towards a <em>d\u00e9nouement<\/em> in a London courtroom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Between Tuesday, February 20 and Wednesday, February 21, a strange scene played out before the High Court. As the judges listened to Assange\u2019s lawyers and to American envoys advance contrasting arguments about the case, outside the chamber protestors demanded freedom and clemency for the Australian journalist. Facing a 175-year custodial sentence in the U.S. in what could be a CMU (a <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/ccrjustice.org\/home\/get-involved\/tools-resources\/fact-sheets-and-faqs\/cmus-federal-prison-system-s-experiment-group\">Communications Management Unit<\/a><\/span>), Assange must struggle with the possibility of a future that could mean death \u2013 or even worse.<\/p>\n<p>The CMU, as we discuss in conversation with David, represents <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/thenigerialawyer.com\/john-gilligan-woolwich-crown-court-the-bridge-of-sighs-and-belmarsh-high-security-prison\/\">a carceral system<\/a><\/span> many degrees more cruel than the Belmarsh Prison where he has languished for half a decade.<\/p>\n<p>In places like the Terre Haute, Indiana facility or Colorado\u2019s Supermax, inmates typically enjoy nine hours of visiting time per month, and CMU prisoners <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/ccrjustice.org\/home\/what-we-do\/our-cases\/aref-v-garland\">are barred<\/a><\/span> \u2018from any physical contact with visiting friends and family, including babies, infants, and minor children.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>However, Assange\u2019s lawyers may have a compelling argument to work with in this respect, as Britain, despite Brexit, still adheres to the European Convention on Human Rights. A U.K. Court must still follow judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. Assange\u2019s lawyers based their arguments on his current condition, and the probability of torture and death resulting from the extradition.<\/p>\n<p>Over the two days \u2013 with their client unable to attend due to physical weakness \u2013 Assange\u2019s lawyers pushed back against the U.S. argument that Assange and Wikileaks committed harmful acts of espionage when they published huge tracts of confidential material, as America\u2019s post-9\/11 wars were raging across the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>The publication of diplomatic cables <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prospectmagazine.co.uk\/politics\/64791\/enough-is-enoughits-time-to-set-julian-assange-free\">revealed the casual corruption of many regimes<\/a><\/span>, not only the U.S.. Videos like \u2018<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2020\/jun\/15\/all-lies-how-the-us-military-covered-up-gunning-down-two-journalists-in-iraq\">Collateral Murder<\/a><\/span>\u2019 showed U.S. war crimes \u2013 <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leefang.com\/p\/why-wikileaks-matters\">revelations that were surely in the public interest<\/a><\/span>. Indeed, the U.S. Espionage Act, with the severe punishments it entails, has never before been used to prosecute a journalist.<\/p>\n<p>The Court\u2019s decision on whether to grant a final appeal hearing in this case is expected in the coming weeks. For David Langwallner, while he did entertain a number of options \u2013 including one whereby Assange might be publicly condemned but eventually released after informal, behind the scenes diplomacy \u2013 Assange\u2019s fate, and the state of the world more broadly, looks increasingly dark.<\/p>\n<p>He argues that a \u2018New Dark Age\u2019 may be upon us, whereby authoritarian dictatorships and Western democracies alike are emboldened to fling their truth-telling critics into the oubliette with impunity.<\/p>\n<p>Citing the proposed \u2018<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/law\/weighing-up-irelands-hate-crime-law\/\">Hate Speech<\/a><\/span>\u2019 bill in Ireland as an example of creeping authoritarianism in the digital age, he condemned the clear hypocrisy:<\/p>\n<p><em>We\u2019ve reached a world where a subversive is what you designate to be a subversive\u2026 Under the Hate Speech bill in Ireland, which is totally ludicrous in my view,\u00a0 we are going to have the criminalization of offense. As long as you offend them. They can offend you by locking you up, but if you offend the establishment they\u2019ll prosecute you\u2026 Also, with the notion of taking rigorous actions against hackers who may not have done anything criminal, it is the slippery slope to \u2018pre-crime,\u2019 and guilt by accusation.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The interview began with a question about the prison where Assange is being held \u2013 His Majesty\u2019s facilities at Belmarsh, a place with which David Langwallner has <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/thenigerialawyer.com\/john-gilligan-woolwich-crown-court-the-bridge-of-sighs-and-belmarsh-high-security-prison\/\">an interesting history<\/a><\/span>. It was apt to start by discussing complex questions of fundamental rights and justice systems in democracies, and our ability to trust the behaviour of technocratic leaders in this digital age.<\/p>\n<p>The brutal treatment of an increasingly frail Julian Assange is diminishing any trust in the rule of law, natural justice and freedom of speech.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Langwallner is a barrister working in the U.K.. He has written numerous articles for Cassandra Voices, and was a natural choice to speak to about the Julian Assange case, which shows every sign of drawing towards a d\u00e9nouement in a London courtroom. Between Tuesday, February 20 and Wednesday, February 21, a strange scene played [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,13],"tags":[320,333,645,715,1771,1772,1806,1826,2112,2213,2224,2244,2271,2281,5076,5079,5348,6513,7298,8903,8904,9689,9985,10110],"class_list":["post-16146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-podcast","tag-affairs","tag-age","tag-are","tag-assange","tag-cmu","tag-cmu-julian-assange","tag-colorado-supermx-cmu","tag-communications-management-unit","tag-current","tag-dark","tag-david","tag-david-langwallner","tag-david-langwallner-julian-assange","tag-david-langwallner-podcast-interview","tag-julian","tag-julian-assange-wikileaks","tag-langwallner","tag-new","tag-podcast","tag-terre-haute-cmu","tag-terre-haute-prison","tag-uncategorized","tag-we-are-in-a-new-dark-age","tag-wikileaks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}