[rad-green] German TV Exposes the Lies That Entrapped Julian Assange

*https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/06/ray-mcgovern-german-tv-exposes-the-lies-that-entrapped-julian-assange/
<https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/06/ray-mcgovern-german-tv-exposes-the-lies-that-entrapped-julian-assange/>Consortium
News          February 6, 2020*






*German TV Exposes the Lies That Entrapped Julian AssangeA major German TV
network has aired an interview with the UN rapporteur on torture that
reveals the invention of the Swedish “rape” case against Julian Assange.By
Ray McGovernSpecial to Consortium News*

*Truth has broken through for those confused about how a publisher ended up
in a maximum security prison in London with a one-way extradition ticket to
court in the U.S. and the rest of his life behind bars.*

One of the main German TV channels (ZDF) ran two prime-time segments on
Wednesday night exposing authorities in Sweden for having “made up” the
story about Julian Assange being a rapist.

Until last night most Germans, as well as other consumers of “major media”
in Europe, had no idea of the trickery that enmeshed Assange in a
spider-web almost certainly designed by the U.S. and woven by accomplices
in vassal states like Sweden, Britain and, eventually, Ecuador.

ZDF punctured that web by interviewing UN Rapporteur on Torture Nils
Melzer. One ZDF “Heute Sendung” segment
<https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/heute-19-uhr/200205-heute-sendung-19-uhr-100.html>
(in
German) is especially telling from minute 13:00 to 15:30 . The second
<https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/heute-journal/heute-journal-vom-5-februar-2020-100.html>
 is ZDF “Heute Journal” (minute 25:49 to 30:19.)

Both ZDF programs show Melzer being interviewed, with minimal interruption
or commentary, letting his findings speak for themselves about how
allegations against Assange were “made up” and manipulated to hold him
captive.

The particularly scurrilous allegation that led many, including initially
Melzer, to believe Assange was a rapist — a tried and tested smear
technique of covert action — was especially effective.  The Swedes never
formally charged him with rape — or with any crime, for that matter.  ZDF
exhibited some of the documents Melzer uncovered that show the sexual
allegations were just as “invented” as the evidence for WMD before the
attack on Iraq.

Melzer had previously admitted to having been so misled by media portrayals
of Assange that he was initially reluctant to investigate Assange’s case.
Here is what Melzer wrote last year in an op-ed marking the International
Day in Support of Torture Victims, June 26.

No major media would print or post it. Medium.com posted it
<https://medium.com/@njmelzer/demasking-the-torture-of-julian-assange-b252ffdcb768>
under
the title “Demasking the Torture of Julian Assange.”

Excerpts:

“But surely, I found myself pleading, Assange must be a selfish narcissist,
skateboarding through the Ecuadorian Embassy and smearing feces on the
walls? Well, all I heard from Embassy staff is that the inevitable
inconveniences of his accommodation at their offices were handled with
mutual respect and consideration.

This changed only after the election of President Moreno, when they were
suddenly instructed to find smears against Assange and, when they didn’t,
they were soon replaced. The President even took it upon himself to bless
the world with his gossip, and to personally strip Assange of his asylum
and citizenship without any due process of law.

*In the end it finally dawned on me that I had been blinded by propaganda,
and that Assange had been systematically slandered to divert attention from
the crimes he exposed.” *(Emphasis added.)

Melzer ended his op-ed with this somber warning:

“… This is not only about protecting Assange, but about preventing a
precedent likely to seal the fate of Western democracy. *For once telling
the truth has become a crime, while the powerful enjoy impunity, it will be
too late to correct the course. We will have surrendered our voice to
censorship and our fate to unrestrained tyranny.” *(Emphasis added.)

Melzer’s indefatigable efforts to expose what Assange has gone through,
including “psychological torture,” met with some modest success
<https://raymcgovern.com/2020/01/31/a-must-read-on-assange/> in the days
before the German ZDF aired their stories. Embedded in the linked article
is by far the best interview
<https://www.republik.ch/2020/01/31/nils-melzer-spricht-ueber-wikileaks-gruender-julian-assange>
of
Melzer on Assange.

Opposition to extraditing Assange to the U.S. is becoming more widespread.
Another straw in an Assange-favorable wind came last week when the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called
<https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/council-of-europe-declares-support-for-julian-assange,13565>for
Assange’s immediate release, ending years of silence by such European
institutions.

It remains, nonetheless, an uphill struggle to prompt the British to think
back 800 years to the courage of the nobles who wrested the Magna Carta
from King John.

*Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical
Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He is co-creator of Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).*

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