I will never end my media career without commenting on Julian Assange

Jan 24, 2023 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – What a warped personality like Donald Trump did to Julian Assange is sick. Anyone who likes Trump is equally sick. Mr. Trump is a threat to global democracy.

The sooner Mr. Trump sinks deeper in enveloping obscurity, the better for global peace. Mr. Trump trumped up charges against Assange and the ruling Conservative Party of the UK participated in prosecuting Mr. Assange.

Mr. Assange secured security materials on US military action in Iraq and Afghanistan that he released to some of the biggest global newspapers. One was the Guardian of the UK. The other was the New York Times.

The Trump Government instituted 18 charges against Mr. Assange with possession of the documents but not the New York Times which published the very documents. Most of the items that Assange received was from then, security analyst, Chelsea Manning.

Ms. Manning was pardoned by President Obama but Trump asked the UK Government to extradite Assange. One would have thought that the persecution of Assange would have come to an end with the assumption to power of a man known to be one of the great liberal politicians in recent years – Joseph Biden.

Mr. Biden’s Vice-President is a Black woman – Kamala Harris – who has uttered not one word about what Trump did to Assange. Any Black professor of American politics would find it hard to think that President Obama refused to pardon Edward Snowden and that Harris would sanction the American persecution of Assange. It just goes to show that people of colour must vote on issues and not on race.

As we mentioned Obama, readers need to read a chapter titled, “Manhunt Presidency: Obama, race and the Third World” in a recently published book captioned, “Violence and the Third World in International Relations.” Interestingly, the book is co-edited by a Guyanese scholar who is currently an advisor to President Ali, Professor Randolph Persaud.

The chapter is written by Sankaran Krishna of the University of Hawaii. During his presidency, Obama stressed the exceptionality of the Unites States but Krishna showed that there was nothing exceptional in the rule of the first Black president of the US.

Understanding Krishna’s brilliant dissecting of Obama’s comprehension of the world, Krishna destroyed any willingness we may have of accepting a legacy for Obama. I like how he puts it and I quote him; “Obama found himself imprisoned –or chose to imprison himself- in narratives that arguably produced yet another white president rather than its first black one” Read Krishna and you will see the true colours of Obama.

Assange languishes in a high security prison while the same Western leaders, including Biden, that have him there, denounce the persecution of journalists in other countries. Biden did just that in his 2020 campaign. This is the inherent problem with Western powers teaching Third World people about democracy.

I believe Western countries are democratic landscapes far superior to what obtains in China, Russia, Cuba, Iran etc. I don’t believe there can ever be a comparison though I think India is far more democratic than Western nations.

Western leaders confuse the Third World because the democratic values they insist all countries must have are themselves not fully manifest in their own countries. If journalists must be allowed to do their work why then Assange faces 18 indictments?

If it is wrong for Russia to claim other nations’ lands, why is it right for Israel to do the same? If it is wrong for Russia to use security concerns to invade Ukraine how can it be right for the US and its Western allies to do the same in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen?

These are the double standards that bamboozled young people about their understanding of democracy who have grown up to see the Western countries as the embodiment of democracy. Foreign workers are cruelly exploited in Qatar and the Western world was right in denouncing the World Cup being staged there.

But the next World Cup is in the US. How different are the accusations for Qatar and the US in hosting the World Cup? One of the world’s great names in football, Englishman, Gary Lineker, said this as a reaction to the US being host: “It is an extraordinarily racist country.”

The entire world read how FIFA head Gianni Infantino reacted to criticism of Western countries denouncing Qatar. He said that instead of handing out moral lessons, the West should be apologising to Third World people for conquest and colonialism. I would never want to look back at my collection of thousands of columns without my advocacy for Julian Assange to be freed. I hope he soon is and I hope all voices of all peoples of the world join me.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.) 

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• Edward Snowden, Freddie Kissoon, Julian Assange, Kamala Harris, Sankaran Krishna

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