THE PERSECUTION OF JULIAN ASSANGE: CRIMES UPON CRIMES WITHIN CRIMES

In this Whistleblower Newsroom editorial, host Kristina Borjesson discusses the illegal actions to which Assange has, and continues to be, subjected to by three nations—the US, UK and Sweden, working to fulfill the American government’s aim to get him to the US to face espionage charges. The illegal pursuit of Assange was triggered by, most prominently, the Wikileaks release of “Collateral Murder,” a video depicting a war crime in progress: US military gunfire from an Apache helicopter mowing down eleven civilians, including two Reuters journalists. Borjesson points out that this war crime was a crime within the larger crime of the illegal Iraq war, both of which paved the way for the crimes committed during the persecution of Assange.