[News:] ‘No question’ Assange is held for political offences, British academic tells Old Bailey

There is “no question” Julian Assange is being persecuted for his political beliefs and actions, a senior security academic has stated at the third day of the WikiLeaks publisher’s U.S. extradition proceedings.

Professor Paul Rogers, a senior fellow at the Oxford Research Group and a peace studies professor at the University of Bradford, told the Old Bailey on Wednesday (September 9) that Assange has come into direct conflict with the United States because of his political positions – especially following the changes in successive White House administrations.

Rogers, 77, outlined that he believed Assange’s political views boiled down for the need for transparency and accountability in government and transnational organisations — mantras that are well known to WikiLeaks supporters — and that these views have been the cause of his antagonism between him and both President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump.

President Obama prosecuted eight whistleblowers for “unauthorised leaking” throughout his two terms in office — more than any other President in U.S. history — and President Trump has been notorious for his attacks on the press and what he has consistently labelled the “fake news” media.

Rogers made efforts to stress that Assange’s political views showed no distaste for the United States itself, pointing to a speech he gave to a United Nations panel in 2012 where Assange expressed sympathetic views to its people and history, but that he condemned certain actions and policies where those actions and policies were found wanting.

Although the academic did not go as far as labelling Assange a political prisoner, the notion that he is being prosecuted for political ends is one that is widely accepted among human rights organisations and press freedom advocates — a notion that the prosecution on behalf of the U.S. government rejects.

Whether or not Assange’s imprisonment is a political one will be central in District Judge Vanessa Baraitser’s final decision as the U.S.-U.K. treaty on extradition forbids both parties from handing over prisoners for political offences.

Rogers further stressed it would also be wrong to view WikiLeaks as an organisation whose raison d’etre was to take on the U.S. government — insisting instead it had fallen foul of the Obama and Trump administrations after sources within those governments wished to reveal embarrassing secrets.

Rogers — who has published extensively and written nine books on “the war on terror” — pointed to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as examples of where WikiLeaks did this.

“From the very start of the war in Iraq, the feeling among the U.S. government was this was going to be a big success,” he said. “Within three weeks of it starting, the statue in Baghdad fell and three weeks later, President [George W.] Bush gave his victory speech.

“The U.S. government gave the impression to the public that it was a success story from the very start when in fact, internal information was saying it was going very wrong.”

As a result of the WikiLeaks disclosures on Iraq, Rogers added, the humanitarian organisation Iraq Body Count was able to document an additional 15,000 civilian deaths in the conflict.

Read professor Paul Rogers’ full witness statement: