Law, Power, and Justice

MONDAY 26 FEBRUARY 2024

Assange: Democracy Now (2/26/24)

• Assange has been charged in the US under the espionage act. 
• There was a hearing last week about extraditing him to the US.
• According to Jennifer Robinson, Attorney for Julian Assange, arguments were made that Assange revealed information about state criminality.
• (Note: Explore the connection between Assange and Stone?  DNC emails.)
• US attorneys had a hard time dealing with questions about free speech guarantees. 
• There is a possibility that Assange could face the death penalty if removed to the states.
• Michael Isikoff, in 2021, stated that Pompeo was incensed by the Vault 7 disclosures.  2017 April, Pompeo described Wikileaks as a “hostile non-state intelligence service.”  This opened the door for the CIA to plan all sorts of operations that could be kept secret even from the government.  There were plans to kidnap Assange from the Venezuelan embassy.
• Robinson: There were plans to attempt to poison Assange. 
• Obama chose not to indict Assange because of free speech concerns.

Israel (2/26/24)

• An active U.S. Airforce member filmed and livestreamed his self -immolation outside the Israeli embassy in Washington (NYT).

Reported in Haaretz (2/26/24)

• Haaretz is reporting that Hamas is saying that 90 Palestinians were killed over the past 24 hours (2/26/24)
• Defense Ministry is to build housing units for military personnel in 45 Gaza border communities (Haaretz, 2/26/24)
• Israel has not transferred tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority (Haaretz)
• In talks there is a discussion of integrating Hamas and Islamic Jihad into the PLO (Haaretz).
• Protestors in Israel are calling for ultra-orthodox males to join in military duty.  Israel’s High Court is considering petitions against exempting ultra-orthodox yeshiva students from military service.  In June, the government instructed the IDF not to draft yeshiva students despite the expiration of a law exempting them. 

House Notes

Music: Don’t Forget Me by Maggie Rogers.