Richard Phillips

While Obama administration spokesmen and the Australian government continue to insist that Washington is “not interested” in prosecuting WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange, the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence head, Dianne Feinstein, has issued another call for the Australian citizen to be put on trial.

“Mr Assange should be prosecuted under the Espionage Act [of 1917],” Feinstein told the Melbourne-based Age last week. “I believe Mr Assange has knowingly obtained and disseminated classified information which could cause injury to the United States. He has caused serious harm to US national security, and he should be prosecuted accordingly.”

US Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd told the newspaper that “there continues to be an investigation into the WikiLeaks matter.”

Assange is currently inside Ecuador’s embassy in London, pending a response to his June 19 application for political asylum in that country. Ecuadorian embassies in the US and Britain reported last week that they had received over 10,000 email messages in support of his application.

Assange’s decision to seek asylum followed the recent UK Supreme Court rejection of his legal appeals against extradition to Sweden. The WikiLeaks editor fears that if removed to Sweden, Washington will intervene and extradite him to the US. There he would face trial, on trumped-up charges, for the “crime” of publishing hundreds of thousands documents exposing war crimes by Washington, and the intrigues of the major powers.

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Stephen Lendman

In 2011, Washington-led NATO forces destroyed Libya. It was ravaged, not liberated. Humanitarian intervention was cover to wage war. "Responsibility to protect (R2P)" was subterfuge to colonize and plunder another country. Tens of thousands were killed. Vital social services were lost. Imperial control replaced Jamahiriya governance. Pre-2011 Libya no longer exists. Libyans call what NATO wrought "dimacracy." Dima in Arabic is blood. NATO gains control by shedding it. An illegitimate National Transitional Council (NTC) was appointed. Puppet leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil was made chairman. Mahmoud Jibril became prime minister. Abdurraheem el-Keib replaced him. He's a businessman and prominent Tripoli family scion. He taught at the UAE's Petroleum Institute. Oil giants fund it. Last August, Washington parachuted him in as its man. Protracted conflict continues. Libyans want to live free. Their struggle won't end until NATO's removed.

On July 7, sham elections were held. Originally scheduled for June 19, violence and instability postponed them. Current conditions are just as chaotic. Tribes and insurgent gangs control much of the country. Turf battles continue.

Anyone holding a position in any capacity in Gaddafi's government was excluded from participating. So were ordinary Libyans. Only those judged professionally qualified could run. NTC stooges decided. Washington had final say. Democracy wasn't on the ballot. It never is with America in charge. Obama officials claimed otherwise.

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Robert Stevens

The New Democracy-led Greek coalition government is meeting officials from the troika—the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)—today.

Christine Lagarde, IMF’s managing director, marked the occasion with a stern warning to Athens that the austerity programme must continue. In an interview with CNBC Tuesday, Lagarde said, “I am not in a negotiation or renegotiation mood at all.”

Referring to reports that the Greek government is to present figures recording the social misery caused by years of austerity to press the case for a renegotiation of the country’s debt, she added, “I’m very interested in seeing what has been done in the last few months in terms of complying with the programme.”

Despite the majority voting in the June 17 general election against parties supporting the Memorandum with the troika on harsh debt repayment terms, the coalition of ND, the social democratic PASOK and the Democratic Left is intent on meeting the demands for further savage cuts. Its talk of renegotiating a two-year extension for paying back Greece’s 350 billion euro debt is hot air. No such compromise is on offer, as Lagarde makes clear.

A popular repudiation of the austerity agenda of ND and a collapse in the vote for PASOK, with SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left) finishing second by campaigning on an anti-cuts ticket, forced the coalition to pledge not to impose certain planned cuts, such as a 22 percent reduction in the minimum wage.

Within days they were forced to retract such promises due to the hostile response of the troika. Prime Minister and ND leader Antonis Samaras responded with a letter to EU leaders affirming that government accepted “ownership of the adjustment programme and is fully committed to its targets, its objectives and all its key policies.”

Lagarde’s remarks neatly bookend comments she made just weeks prior to the election, in which she insisted that there was no alternative to the mass social immiseration being imposed in Greece. Asked by the Guardian if she was “essentially saying to the Greeks and others in Europe, you’ve had a nice time and now it’s payback time,” she responded, “That’s right.”

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