Articles by: Mike Head

US carrier group heads toward Taiwan as Pelosi flies to Asia

US carrier group heads toward Taiwan as Pelosi flies to Asia

The American aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group, including a guided missile destroyer and cruiser, set out from Singapore on Monday heading toward the South China Sea and Taiwan. This deployment, clearly linked to the planned highly provocative visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, greatly heightens US military and political tensions with China, which[Read More…]

by 30/07/2022 Comments are Disabled World
Julian Assange “slowly dying” and “often sedated” in Belmarsh prison

Julian Assange “slowly dying” and “often sedated” in Belmarsh prison

On Christmas Eve, WikiLeaks founder and prize-winning journalist Julian Assange phoned a friend to alert the world that his life is in danger inside London’s notorious maximum-security Belmarsh prison. Vaughan Smith, a freelance video news journalist who gave refuge to Assange in 2010 when he was legally fighting against attempts to extradite him to Sweden, tweeted that Assange called his[Read More…]

by 29/12/2019 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
UN official visits Julian Assange, investigating Ecuador’s illegal surveillance

UN official visits Julian Assange, investigating Ecuador’s illegal surveillance

The United Nations special rapporteur on the right to privacy, Joe Cannataci, was finally permitted yesterday to meet with Julian Assange inside London’s Belmarsh prison. The WikiLeaks journalist and publisher has been held virtually incommunicado, in denial of his fundamental legal and democratic rights, since the British police dragged him out of Ecuador’s embassy more than two weeks ago. This[Read More…]

by 26/04/2019 1 comment World
US government threatens to jail Chelsea Manning for refusing to testify against WikiLeaks

US government threatens to jail Chelsea Manning for refusing to testify against WikiLeaks

In a heroic and principled stand in defence of fundamental democratic rights, former US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning yesterday refused to answer questions before a grand jury in Virginia. Manning stood firm and refused to incriminate WikiLeaks and its publisher Julian Assange—or any other media organisation and individual—over her courageous 2010 disclosure of hundreds of thousands of documents that[Read More…]

by 08/03/2019 Comments are Disabled World
At least 85,000 child deaths in Yemen highlight Saudi-US war crimes

At least 85,000 child deaths in Yemen highlight Saudi-US war crimes

A new estimate by the aid agency Save the Children that 85,000 children have died of hunger since in Yemen since Saudi Arabia’s US-backed bombings of the country began in 2015 underscores the criminal character of Washington’s sponsorship of this horrific slaughter. The charity said 85,000 was a conservative estimate of how many children under the age of five had[Read More…]

by 23/11/2018 1 comment Imperialism
Ecuador’s government cuts off all access to Julian Assange

Ecuador’s government cuts off all access to Julian Assange

According to the Courage Foundation, which has campaigned against the persecution of Julian Assange, the Ecuadorian Embassy in London has forbidden access to all visitors to the WikiLeaks publisher, including his lawyers, until Monday, amid an urgent lawsuit. Most immediately, the ban obstructs a legal appeal by Assange against an Ecuadorian judge’s decision last week to uphold a draconian “protocol”[Read More…]

by 02/11/2018 Comments are Disabled Human Rights
Julian Assange warns that Ecuador is moving to end his political asylum

Julian Assange warns that Ecuador is moving to end his political asylum

Before being abruptly cut off by an Ecuadorian government lawyer during a court hearing on Monday, WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange accused that government of seeking to end his asylum in its London embassy and hand him over to the United States. Assange spoke from the tiny embassy via teleconference to a hearing in Quito of a lawsuit in[Read More…]

by 30/10/2018 1 comment World
Imminent threat to Julian Assange underscores need for global defence movement

Imminent threat to Julian Assange underscores need for global defence movement

Credible reports indicate that Ecuador’s government is about to renege on the political asylum it granted to WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange and hand him over to British police, possibly within days. The reports also indicate that Assange would be subjected to lengthy imprisonment by the British authorities, perhaps for two years or more, pending extradition to the US, where he[Read More…]

by 23/07/2018 Comments are Disabled World
Julian Assange Loses Initial Bid To Overturn British Arrest Warrant

Julian Assange Loses Initial Bid To Overturn British Arrest Warrant

A judge in London yesterday rejected an application by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to withdraw a British arrest warrant issued against him in 2012. In a judgment full of obvious contradictions, she ruled that way even though a Swedish-initiated European arrest warrant—the trigger for the British warrant—was cancelled in May 2017. Despite the trumped-up Swedish government “sexual assault” allegations against[Read More…]

by 07/02/2018 2 comments World
Trump Dresses Down Australian Prime Minister

Trump Dresses Down Australian Prime Minister

In what appears to have been a calculated leak from the highest echelons of the White House, US President Donald Trump reportedly “blasted” Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during a phone call last weekend and then abruptly cut off the call. According to the details first published by the Washington Post yesterday, Trump fumed at Turnbull for asking him to[Read More…]

by 03/02/2017 1 comment World
Australia: Deepening Social Discontent Produces Post-Election Turmoil

Australia: Deepening Social Discontent Produces Post-Election Turmoil

Anger over job losses and declining living conditions, combined with years of bitter political experiences with both Labor and Liberal-National Coalition governments, were the primary factors in the further collapse of support for the major parties in last Saturday’s Australian election. With 1.5 million postal votes still to be counted, some of which will not arrive until July 15, it[Read More…]

by 05/07/2016 1 comment World