#长文创作激励计划#这两天, the name Julian Assange has swept the screen in Western countries. The life story of this man is not complicated, he taught himself to code at the age of 13, founded a hacker organization at the age of 16, and is just an unremarkable genius. But as he founded WikiLeaks and began to be the Robin Hood of the Internet and the 007 of the news circle, it didn't take long for him to become a thorn in the side of the U.S. government because of an exposed video.
In April 2010, WikiLeaks released video footage of the U.S. air strike on Baghdad on July 12, 2007. The story is that a U.S. military helicopter shot and killed 18 Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters journalists, and two children were seriously injured. In the video, the US military commander sitting in the helicopter talked and laughed and said lightly, "It's all their fault for bringing their children into the war." ”
At that time, the United States still had the aura of world hegemon, and it would call itself a model of human rights. The video released by Assange immediately sparked heated discussions around the world. It is clear that this is ironclad evidence that the US military has committed war crimes in Iraq, and the world would not have known the truth without Assange's exposure. The U.S. government reacted swiftly and immediately began to "hunt down" Assange, instructing the judicial department to impose 18 charges on him and sentence him to 175 years in prison.
It is said that WikiLeaks is an Internet platform with no confidentiality obligations, and Assange did not directly steal secrets, but only made public the documents provided by others.
Assange is not a fool and decisively chose to run away. But as soon as he arrived in Sweden, he was wanted by Interpol for sexually assaulting a Swedish woman, and when he arrived in London, Britain also planned to extradite him to Sweden for trial. It wasn't until Assange hid in the Ecuadorian embassy that the drama hit the pause button, and in the process, the United States demonstrated its strong control over its allies, which is entirely about what the United States is pointing at, its allies are fighting, and what reasons they want.
After Assange moved into the Ecuadorian embassy, the British police sent people to stay on guard around the clock for seven years. Ironically, in the process, Sweden dropped the charges against Assange, citing insufficient evidence. Ecuador was a country that chose to shelter Assange in the first place in order to engage in confrontation with the United States. But how strong the United States is, people directly pushed a pro-American government to power in Ecuador, and gave Assange a salary from the bottom of the kettle.
In 2019, when Assange had to walk out of the Ecuadorian embassy, British police immediately arrested him and imprisoned him in Belmarsh prison, known as the "British Guantanamo". During this time, Assange was tortured, isolated from the rest of the world, and often received death threats. As soon as the United States heard of Assange's arrest, it immediately asked for extradition and wanted to arrest Assange and return to the United States to go to prison, but the question is, what did Assange do wrong? Is it wrong to disclose the fact that the US military has committed war crimes? If Assange had made public Russia's war crimes, would he have been confessed as a hero by the United States?
At that time, many people felt that Assange was finished, not to mention offending the United States, the Australian government at that time, which was also governed by Morrison of the Conservative Party, was the only one in charge of the United States. It's ironic to say that the Australian prime minister refuses to protect Australian citizens in order to please the United States, does this still look like a government? It wasn't until 2022, when the Labor Party came to power and Albanese was elected Prime Minister of Australia, that things took a turn for the better.
Albanese had been a fan of Assange before, signing the petition "Let Assange Go Home". Coupled with the fact that the Labour Party is at odds with the Conservative Party, it is necessary to show its attitude on the Assange incident. Under Albanese's active lobbying, the US government has softened its attitude, but US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also rejected Australia's proposal at first, saying that Assange endangered US national security and "committed very serious crimes".
Ultimately, Assange's release was due to the current changes in the international landscape, or more specifically, the enormous pressure on the U.S. government in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Now that the election is in full swing, Biden is overwhelmed by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and he urgently needs to do something to change the trend of public opinion and spare Assange's life, which can save some face and add some points to himself. Just like the previous election in the United States, the ruling party would exchange hostages with hostile countries such as Russia and Iran.
After a series of behind-the-scenes deals, the United States agreed to let Assange sign a plea agreement and was sentenced to 62 months in prison, which was used to offset the time spent in British prisons. The so-called freedom of speech and the supremacy of human rights are nothing more than bargaining chips for politicians to compete for power and profit. And Assange must also understand that regaining freedom does not mean that he is safe, and it is better not to sit on high-risk vehicles such as convertibles and helicopters in the future.