Milwaukee – 1st of 2 events: Why should I care about Julian Assange?

Friday, October 22 |Catalano Square in the 3^rd Ward, 147 N. Broadway | 5-7 pm
Emcee – George Martin, former National Co-chair United for Peace and Justice

If the government can skirt the law by redefining journalists and publishers as “information brokers” or operations against them as “offensive counterintelligence,” do we have a free press?

That is exactly what our government did to Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald, WikiLeaks, and Julian Assange, according to Yahoo! News. Freed from traditional press freedom constraints, extralegal activities ensued, while kidnapping and assassinating Assange were seriously considered. Even the Senate committee providing oversight gave their stamp of approval to the new designation in 2017, while Senator Ron Wyden was the lone dissenter.  Today Adam Schiff asked for clarification from the CIA.

The appeal in the extradition case against Assange will be held in the U.K. on Oct 27 – 28, a case two dozen civil liberties and journalist organizations around the world have opposed with a recent letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

To raise awareness of this grave threat to press freedom and in collaboration with events planned around the world, please join Peace Action Wisconsin in the Third Ward Friday, October 22 as we view and discuss the Collateral Murder video released by WikiLeaks in 2011. It shows a U.S. Apache helicopter gunning down a dozen Iraqis (including two Reuters employees) walking in a Baghdad neighborhood.  The video-game-like banter of the soldiers belies the tragedy unfolding that the U.S. government tried to cover up – until WikiLeaks released this evidence.

At 5 pm  – Listen to Chris Borg singing Pink Floyd covers! Make your own video answering, “Why should I care about Julian Assange?” as modeled in a video by Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK.

At 6 pm – View the Collateral Murder video.  A public question and answer session will follow.

This outside event is free and open to the public.

Websites:

https://peaceactionwi.org

https://AssangeDefense.org/events

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.