Reading the blog posts by Craig Murray on the Julian Assange trials really does show you the naked power of the state and the torture regimes of the US and the UK at work. Just the description of some of the prison practices. Here’s how Administrative Segregation, (AdSeg or X block) where high profile and national security prisoners are held, is described:
He testified that pre-trail detention could last many months or even years. Isolation from other prisoners is the purpose of the X block. Prisoners are in tiny cells of approximately 50 square feet, which is under 5 square metres. The bed is a shelf. On a daily basis only one to two hours are allowed outside the cell, into a small area outside at a time when nobody else is there. The second hour was generally available only in the middle of the night, so was not utilised.
How to rot away in a modern prison, US style.
So many things need reform. There is so much to do and it seem that the to do list keeps getting longer. I’m sure the US can clean up all their shit, once the slumbering giant awakens. For now, however, the grinding down of humans continues.
#USA #UK #Wikileaks
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The US prison system has never been about reforming criminals; it’s always been about punishing them. The very founding of the nation rests on that fact, so I’m not sure that change is possible without fundamental reorganization of the very foundations.
~ acdw 2020-09-29 ... about 12:00 UTC ish
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I don’t know. Many people say this, for sure. But the prison systems in Europe used to be pretty bad as well (and some of them still are). Europe also has a history of punishment in prisons. Apparently the reason the Swiss penal system looks so positive in comparison are recent changes, the most recent one from 2007. I therefore hope that significant reform is possible, even if the origins are terrible.
Related:
Weighing up the "unusual" Swiss justice system
Publications of the Association of Swiss Prison Research, founded 2010, in German and French
– Alex 2020-09-29 14:52 UTC
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You make some great points, and maybe there is hope. I just don’t think, given the bent of national politics in America, it’s going to happen any time soon.
– Case (acdw) 2020-09-29 21:39 UTC
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“The ability of the US to unleash violence against foreign populations depends on its domestic citizenry not being aware of the consequences. Consent for the Vietnam war, for example, began to crumble when US citizens saw footage from the conflict of screaming children with their clothes burned away by napalm, or became aware of the hundreds who were slaughtered by US forces in the My Lai massacre. Since then, the US government has become more adept at managing media coverage…” – The Julian Assange extradition ruling: right result, wrong reason, by Owen Jones, Guardian
The Julian Assange extradition ruling: right result, wrong reason
– 2021-01-04 18:49 UTC
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“… Judge Baraitser backed all the Trump administration’s main legal arguments for extradition, even though they were comprehensively demolished by Assange’s lawyers … investigative journalism as “espionage” … the 2007 Extradition Treaty applies … protecting sources in the digital age … now amounts to criminal “hacking” … appeared to approve of the … evidence showing that the US spied on Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy … a CNN article as evidence or justification for US government to engage in spying operation against Assange and the Ecuador embassy … argued that Assange would receive a fair trial in the US … So as we celebrate this ruling for Assange, we must also loudly denounce it as an attack on press freedom … .” – Assange wins. The cost: Press freedom is crushed, and dissent labelled mental illness, by Jonathan Cook
Assange wins. The cost: Press freedom is crushed, and dissent labelled mental illness
– 2021-01-04 19:01 UTC
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“In December 2011, the WikiLeaks founder had just been granted permission to appeal to the British Supreme Court against his extradition to Sweden. The FOIA document reveals that on the 8th of December 2011, the Swedish member of Eurojust – the European Union’s agency for criminal justice cooperation – contacted his British counterpart expressing optimism that the British Supreme Court in London would deliver a verdict in Sweden’s favor.” – Will Assange be able to appeal to the European Court of human Rights to fight his extradition to the Us? by Stefania Maurizi, il Fatto Quotidiano
– Alex Schroeder 2021-01-06 11:15 UTC