Wikileaks founder Julian Assange finally free in battle with US security state
The years-long campaign to successfully free the Wikileaks founder was an important win for independent and critical journalism.
Ever since Wikileaks emerged in 2006, it’s been an invaluable organisation which has released a massive amount of documents on how global power operates. The scale of its work is hard to fully appreciate but I’d argue that there hasn’t been a more significant media outlet this century that’s delivered more information on a myriad of issues, from US imperialism to Israeli occupation and the CIA to Guantanamo Bay.
I’ve been a Wikileaks supporter since 2006, in correspondence with founder Julian Assange from the beginning, so long admired its interest in revealing and challenging power at the highest level. This attitude certainly contributed to the US pursuit of Assange for more than a decade (and why so many mainstream journalists always hated Assange and Wikileaks, resenting the group’s unwillingness to play by the unspoken, cozy “rules” between reporters and those in officialdom).
I’ve used Wikileaks documents in virtually every major project I’ve done in the last years, from my book on the global drug war to the Palestine laboratory. Anybody who’s serious about understanding how (largely unelected) power works in our world should regularly read Wikileaks documents.
It was therefore exciting to have Assange back home in Australia, a long overdue return after years of torture in a British maximum security prison and 12-year struggle for freedom. He deserves peace, time with his family and space to recover.
The arrival of Assange in Australia led to a slew of interviews about the legacy of Wikileaks, the toxic US/Australia relationship and why hard-hitting investigative journalism has never been more necessary across the globe.
Below are my TV interviews with BBC News, Al Jazeera English, Democracy Now!, ABC News Australia and Sky News:
I spoke to The Washington Post about the client state relationship between Australia and the US.
As the co-founder and co-editor of Declassified Australia, we’ve spent years detailing the political struggles of Assange by publishing invaluable investigations by lawyer Kellie Tranter. There were serious risks to his life by indefinite incarceration in the UK and (potentially) the US. We offered two articles that frame the Wikileaks story in its proper context.
I’m an independent journalist without any institutional backing. If you’re able to support me financially, by donating money to continue this work, I’d hugely appreciate it. You can find donating options in the menu bar at the top of my website.
The catastrophe in Gaza continues to be a major focus of my work and thoughts. Israel’s ongoing genocide, and acceleration of brutality and illegal colonies in the West Bank, are clear signs of a Jewish supremacist government off the leash.
Meanwhile, (too) many Jews in the Diaspora are undertaking October 7 tourism in Israel at the sight of the massacres. As Jewish Currents writer Maya Rosen explains:
By pausing time on October 7th and excluding its aftermath [in Gaza], the tours reinforce that myopia, consolidating a focus on Jewish victimhood and a refusal to see Israel as the perpetrator of Palestinian suffering.
In Israel, racism against Palestinians is deep and getting worse. In an interview for the UK outlet, Middle East Eye, which attracted at least 1.4 million views on multiple platforms, I explain the source of this anti-Arab hatred and why it’s so mainstream:
On Al Jazeera English, when video footage emerged of Israeli forces using a Palestinian as a human shield in the West Bank, I detail how common this kind of behaviour has become after decades of Israeli occupation:
Since my book, The Palestine Laboratory, was released last year, many people have asked about an audiobook. I’m happy to announce that it’s now released and available on all platforms from Audible to Kobo:
Here’s Chapter 1, read by the UK actor Finlay Robertson:
In May, ABC TV Australia screened a documentary, Not In My Name, about dissenting Judaism in a time of mass slaughter in Gaza, my work and life. It had a large response and I’m still receiving messages from viewers who positively responded to the work.
I’m pleased to announce that the film, directed by Brietta Hague, has just been broadcast by Al Jazeera English to reach a global audience:
The film can be watched here:
My latest book, The Palestine Laboratory, is coming out in multiple translated editions around the world. Here’s the new Brazilian edition with a spectacular cover (the publisher is strongly pro-Palestine) and an extract from the post 7 October preface:
I’m honoured to be on the advisory committee for the Jewish Council of Australia, a wonderful organisation that fights the weaponisation of anti-Semitism, defends Palestinians and shows that not all Jews back extreme violence in Gaza:
I’m pleased that the Arabic edition of my book, The Palestine Laboratory, is now available in multiple Arab states and I was interviewed about it in Al Jazeera Arabic:
Robert Fisk was one of the leading journalists of the last decades, brilliantly covering the Middle East from a critical perspective. He was also a friend, colleague and mentor of sorts, inspiring my work (especially on Israel/Palestine). I appeared in the 2019 film about his work and life, This Is Not A Movie.
Sadly Fisk died in 2020, but his final book, Night of Power: The Betrayal of the Middle East, is now out and I was honoured that his wife, Nelofer Pazira, asked me to endorse it:
Here’s my endorsement:
The global arms trade is one of the most destructive and corrupt industries on the planet. I’ve got a new chapter in this forthcoming book, out in August in the UK via Pluto Press, examining how Israel uses Palestine as a key testing ground for new weapons and surveillance:
One of the most extraordinary pieces of journalism since 7 October is this recent Al Jazeera English film, The Night Won’t End, on Israel’s mass killings in Gaza and Washington’s complicity:
In other recent news:
The Spanish edition of my book, The Palestine Laboratory, continues to generate media interviews including with Info Libre and Spain’s Radio 3;
As Europe moves further to the political right, Israel is finding new support among some groups who are explicitly anti-Semitic. I spoke to EU Observer about these disturbing trends;
Earlier this year, After Zionism was released, a book I co-edited with Palestinian Ahmed Moor, on the one-state solution in Israel/Palestine. The neo-conservatives are upset;
As co-founder and co-editor of Declassified Australia, we recently published a powerful story on Australia’s complicity in Israel’s F-35 war machine over Gaza.
You can follow me on Instagram and Twitter for constantly updated content. My website has information about all my work, books and documentary films stretching back to 2003.
I’m an independent journalist without any institutional backing. If you’re able to support me financially, by donating money to continue this work, I’d hugely appreciate it. You can find donating options in the menu bar at the top of my website.
Thanks very much for reading.
Take care.
Antony