Campbell: Way people repeated Assange’s nonsense shows how far Leftoids overlook anything if you share the right enemies
You would assume progressive politicians would not be seen anywhere near a bloke who skipped bail to avoid extradition over alleged sex crimes – but, for Julian Assange, different rules apply, writes James Campbell.
Opinion
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Every now and again an event occurs that helps to clear up any doubts you might have had that Lefties see the world differently.
Most of us would probably assume progressive politicians would not want to be seen anywhere near a bloke who had skipped bail to avoid extradition over alleged sex crimes.
But if, like Julian Assange, you also happen to be a thorn in the side of the US government, different rules apply.
For some bizarre reason, the Australian government – your government – felt it was a good idea for Assange be accompanied on his journey home by not one but two former Labor politicians, Stephen Smith, our man in London, and the Ruddster himself, currently taking care of business in Washington until the commencement of the second Trump administration.
Assange, it must be remembered, took shelter in the Ecuadorean embassy in London after he lost his fight against extradition to Sweden where authorities wanted him for questioning over sexual assault allegations by two women.
That the US subsequently did seek his extradition on espionage charges does not change the fact the claim he needed to stay out of Sweden because he risked being sent to America was always absolute bullshit.
As one of his alleged victims pointed out to The Australian this weekend: “Sweden doesn’t have an extradition agreement with the US that the UK has.”
The way Assange was able to get otherwise sane people to repeat his nonsense shows the extent to which Leftoids will overlook anything as long as you share the right enemies.
The government’s embrace of the bloke is even harder to understand given there’s no real question he damaged Australia’s national security. As Peter Jennings, who at the time was a senior bureaucrat in Defence, wrote this week, Assange’s 2010 publication “of uncensored battlefield reports put our forces, indeed the whole of the international coalition in Afghanistan, and the many brave Afghans fighting with us, under serious risk”.
Bizarrely, however, there are still people who claim there’s no evidence Assange’s actions caused danger to anyone. Tell that to the family of Majid Jamali Fashi, a kickboxer hanged by Iran in 2012 after “confessing” to killing an Iranian nuclear scientist on behalf of Mossad.
In 2010, Fashi was arrested within days of WikiLeaks publishing a US diplomatic cable which related material from an Iranian source who described how “private martial arts clubs and their managers are under intense pressure to co-operate with Iranian intelligence and Revolutionary Guard organisations, both in training members and in working as ‘enforcers’ in repression of protests and politically motivated killings”.
Assange’s publication of this cable, written by a diplomat in Baku, Azerbaijan – who described the information as coming from “a licensed martial arts coach and trainer from Tabriz currently visiting Baku” – allegedly enabled Iranian authorities to identify Fashi as the source. If that was so, then Assange deserved everything he had coming to him from the US justice system, and it’s a damn shame our Prime Minister shielded him from it.
According to The Guardian’s Karen Middleton, “the deliberate and determined effort to secure Assange’s release involved many people – but prime ministerial advocacy was central to achieving it”.
Bizarrely, despite the fact he released a photo of himself on the phone with Assange, Middleton was in awe at Albanese’s restraint: “With all the accolades flowing, he must have been tempted to meet him off the plane and receive them in person. But he chose to stay away from the media circus surrounding his return.”
Fear not, though. Albo intends they will catch up “but he’ll gauge the response first”, Middleton reassured Guardian readers, who may have felt the nation’s leader wasn’t doing enough for their hero, adding: “That will determine how soon and whether he does it in public or in private.”
Lefties, they’re different I tell you, different.
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Originally published as Campbell: Way people repeated Assange’s nonsense shows how far Leftoids overlook anything if you share the right enemies
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