Julian Assange case: Australian ties to US kill list

A witness has told the Julian Assange extradition trial in the Old Bailey that Australia and other allies were involved in a US assassination program.

John Shipton, the father of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, outside London’s Old Bailey court on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

A witness has told the Julian Assange extradition trial in the Old Bailey that Australia and other allies were involved in the US assassination program that included a list of 669 prime ­targets to kill in Pakistan and ­Afghanistan.

Clive Stafford-Smith, a US lawyer, said the WikiLeaks leak of the Joint Prioritised Effects List of assassination targets “was a fascinating document that has received far too little attention”.

He said it revealed “an imperial attitude to assassination’’.

Mr Stafford-Smith said military weapons used in the program were even named “after porn stars and revealed names clearly from US allies, particularly identifiable to Great Britain or Australia’’.

He said the “most disturbing thing’’ was that the assassination program related to narcotics and a notion that drugs were funding terrorism.

The JPEL is part of the WikiLeaks Afghan War diary dump of secret US military logs that was published in 2010.

Outside court, Mr Stafford-Smith’s charity Reprieve documented how missiles used in attacks against JPEL targets were given names: JPEL target 330 OBJ was called “Brumbies’’, JPEL 19 OBJ was named after the “Humpty Doo Barra Farm’’. Another weapon was named Bomba, after an Australian reggae band.

Assange, 49, yelled from the dock “This is a nonsense’’ when US prosecutor James Lewis told Mr Stafford-Smith that his evidence wasn’t relevant to the indictment as there were no charges against Assange for publishing to others.

There was lengthy disagreement between Mr Lewis and the witness about interpretation of the indictment and the conduct of US court trials but Mr Lewis insisted the indictment was confined to documents where Assange put informants in danger.

Mr Stafford-Smith said in his experience, American trials would involve a much broader scrutiny of terrorism and terrorism groups.

Mr Lewis retorted: “Are you saying the US Attorney-General is lying?”

Judge Vanessa Baraitser briefly adjourned the court, warning Assange case would continue without him if he interrupted proceedings again.

Mr Stafford-Smith has represented 87 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and most recently had a 10 years focus on US extra­judicial killings, including those involving drones, in and around the Afghan conflict.

He said: “People pretend they (assassination programs) are lawful, but they are unlawful and morally reprehensible.’’

He agreed WikiLeaks documents revealed US government involvement in renditions, rogue killings and ­assassinations.

The US Department of Justice has indicted Assange on 17 counts under the US Espionage Act and another of helping US military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning access computer information, which could ­result in 175 years in prison.