By Neenah Payne

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, is an Australian publisher for top stories including those leaked to him by Chelsea Manning about the US murder of civilians in Iraq. The prosecution of Assange and other whistleblowers is a case of “Shoot the Messenger” rather than resolving the serious issues they raise.

Assange is awaiting an extradition hearing by the United Sates where he faces 17 charges under the Espionage Act and one of conspiracy to commit computer instruction for leaking classified documents. If extradited, Assange will be tried in a Virginia court where he will probably be found guilty and would face 175 years in prison.

All charges relate to 700,000 classified documents handed to WikiLeaks by former US intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning (then Bradley Manning) in 2010. The US says the leak endangered the lives of American agents and their sources working in the field, although no evidence of any harm has been presented.

Key Witness In Julian Assange Case ADMITS TO LYING provides a quick overview of the case against Assange whose “crime” was being a world-class journalist and reporting the egregious war crimes of the United States that were revealed to him. However, the case has fallen apart because the primary witness (a convicted criminal) recently admitted that his testimony against Assange was entirely false.