LONDON, United Kingdom. Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks – an organization which publishes leaked classified information from around the world, including from and regarding the United States government – is finally free.
In a deal with U.S. prosecutors, Assange agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a 62-month-long sentence – the exact length of time he spent in a maximum-security prison in the United Kingdom, allowing him to be released on time served. He has been detained for nearly 14 years, from his initial trials in the UK to his time in the Ecuadorian embassy. After the plea agreement is entered in a court in the Northern Mariana Islands, Assange will be able to go home to his family.
While Assange has not always been a perfect person, his freedom is still important. The leaks that he published have revealed substantial amounts of illegal and immoral activity by the U.S. government and military, among others, and have helped lead pushes for real governmental accountability. Transparency in government is critical for defending the masses against capitalist and bureaucratic tyranny, and we are glad that one of the key figures in the turn-of-the-millenium push against U.S. war crimes is free.
However, it should be noted that many others are still in prison, in exile, or otherwise facing severe repercussions for their actions exposing the U.S. government. While Reality Winner was finally released, she spent three years in prison post-conviction (of a five-year sentence) for releasing just a single document cache. Edward Snowden is still in exile in Russia, being effectively unable to leave the country. Chelsea Manning, even after her pardon, was still re-jailed for a year for refusing to testify against Assange.
Others who have fought for liberation against the U.S. government are also still imprisoned, including Leonard Peltier. A member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe and a key figure in the American Indian Movement, Peltier was convicted in 1977 of killing two FBI agents during a shootout over arrest warrants served to AIM members attempting to enforce Native treaty rights.
For decades, Peltier has said that – and documented how – evidence in his case was falsified. Significant amounts of misconduct by the FBI and DOJ should also have been grounds for appeal, and yet he has remained locked up ever since. This was in a time where COINTELPRO and other now well-known anti-leftist operations by the FBI and CIA were running without any form of oversight, control, or restraint – it is no surprise that, given his role in AIM, he was a major target for this type of unconstitutional action.
Peltier is 79 years old and in failing health. He is finally getting a parole hearing, but it is unclear whether he will be released – and even if he does, his name will not be legally cleared. If he does not get a parole hearing, his life term in prison will continue, where he will likely die (and soon).
Even as the AIM has fallen, the FBI and other parts of the federal government are still fighting to keep him behind bars, as they do with all revolutionary figures they can get their hands on. The FBI and societies of former FBI agents have all written letters to the parole board asking them to deny parole to Peltier. This is reminiscent of the treatment of Assata Shakur, who is still in hiding after having been alleged to have killed a state trooper in New Jersey while part of the Black Liberation Army.
Peltier’s case – as well as Assange’s, Winner’s, Snowden’s, Shakur’s, and others’ – are constant reminders of the lengths the U.S. government will go to in order to defend its capitalist interests and maintain control in the face of popular movements and revolution. Whether killed, forced into exile, imprisoned for life, or otherwise heavily controlled, we can never forget what the government is willing to do against those who have fallen out of its favor. Never believe that “the government would never do that,” because they would – until we achieve liberation. As Assange has been freed, free Peltier, and free all those who have led the struggle for a better world.