Assange saga is over

Julian Paul Assange, the  Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006, came to international attention in 2010 after WikiLeaks published a series of leaks obtained from Chelsea Manning, a former US Army intelligence analyst. These included footage of a US airstrike in Baghdad, US military logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and US diplomatic cables.

It has been some 14 years since a shocking video went around the world showing US soldiers in a combat helicopter slaughtering twelve civilians on a street in Baghdad, including two journalists from Reuters. When a man drove up to help the victims, he and his two children were also shot. A member of the US crew is heard saying: ‘Nice, good shoot’ while another said: ‘Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards!’

The recording revealed the cruelty of the war in US-occupied Iraq. At the same time it marked the beginning of the saga of Julian Assange, an Australian computer nerd who founded Wikileaks precisely to uncover such stories. But, by exposing bloodbaths and publishing thousands of secret documents from the US Department of Defense and the US Department of State, he ended up in trouble with the US pursuing him as an enemy of the state and accusing him of being a spy.

Doctors and UN experts had been calling for an end to ‘the psychological torture’ of Julian Assage amid contrived espionage charges. They argued that what was happening to him was not only a terrible injustice but also a major threat to the freedom of the press.

The British authorities had been holding Assange in a maximum security prison since April 2019, mostly in solitary confinement. Previously he had spent nearly seven years at the Embassy of Ecuador in London until a new Ecuadorian governement yielded to pressure from the Trump administration and handed him over to the British.

Immediately, the US government issued new indictments against Assange, charging him with violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and alleging he had conspired with hackers.

A few days ago, Assange agreed a plea deal with the American prosecutors, after pressure was made by the Australian Prime Minister, Assange being an Australian citizen. He pleaded guilty in the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands to a charge of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents under the Espionage Act. Under the terms of the deal, prosecutors from the US Department of Justice sought a sentence that allowed for his immediate release.

Views on Julian Assange have been given by a number of public figures, including journalists, well-known whistleblowers, activists and world leaders. They range from laudatory statements to calls for his execution. Various journalists and free speech advocates have praised Assange for his work and dedication to free speech. Some former colleagues have criticised his work habits, editorial decisions and personality. But, in truth WikiLeaks had achieved Assange’s goal of exposing powerful information and advocating for freedom of speech.

The US government accused him of espionage and ‘conspiracy to betray secrets’, but these accusations were contrived and many argue that they violate the American constitution. Assange had neither used violence nor hacked American government computers. He merely published secret US military documents.

The New York Times had commented that by attacking Assange with the outdated 1917 espionage law, the US government ‘blurs the distinction between journalists who expose government violations and foreign spies who undermine national security... This deprives the freedom of speech and the press, and with it the strength of American democracy itself.’

To his supporters – and I am one of them – Julian Assange is a valiant campaigner for truth.

No wonder that rights groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) were all calling for his release, saying his treatment had been cruel and that the way he was being persecuted was a threat to the freedom of the press.

A wandering star

When Colonel Mark Mallia takes up on his new job as the prime minister's right-hand man, it will be his fourth government appointment in the space of just six months.

Surely this must be a record... almost but not quite as it is surpassed by Mallia’s own record in promotions!

An Ombudsman report had found that Mallia, who was made an army major in 2011, had received three promotions in the space of three months. He was first appointed lieutenant colonel in September 2013, then given the rank of colonel just a fortnight later, and finally named AFM’s deputy commander in December of the same year.

Mallia, who was announced as the successor to Glenn Micallef on Wednesday, has an ‘occasionally’ controversial, history of employment with the state.

Earlier this year, he was announced as the new CEO of the Foundation for Medical Services. Just days later, news emerged that Mallia would instead be taking the helm at an entirely different government agency, Transport Malta.

At the time, Transport Malta was dealing with the fallout from the driving licence racket, which saw officials from the agency irregularly fast-tracking candidates hoping to obtain a driving licence. Mallia was Transport Malta’s third CEO in the space of a year.

Mallia had previously spent two years heading Identity Malta, last year telling Times of Malta of the agency’s plans to combat abusive employment of third-country nationals.

Mallia had served as aide-de-camp to George Abela – Robert Abela’s father – when he was President between 2009 and 2013.

The Times of Malta recalled that Mallia was described by George Abela as the ‘decision-maker’ within his team, telling an inquiry into the fateful Paqpali Għall-Istrina incident that Mallia was responsible for chairing a central committee which would oversee several sub-committees working on various fundraising events.

Mallia is also believed to be close to the family of Robert Abela’s predecessor, Joseph Muscat. According to The Times of Malta, this indicates that he could act as ‘a bridge-builder between the two camps who are believed to not always see eye-to-eye’. Tell me another!

These frequent moves from one job to another imply that everybody wants Mallia or, otherwise, that nobody wants him. Nowadays it is very hard to conclude which is the correct notion.

There is no doubt, however, that he is Malta’s foremost wandering star.