In 2010, Wikileaks, founded by Assange, published a treasure trove of 750,000 emails and other documents exemplifying the dirty tricks and infringements of international law committed by the US Army in Iraq and Afghanistan. The leaks were provided by Chelsea Manning, a US Army intelligence  analyst. The authenticity of the documents has never been denied, but the US government has been desperate to  capture and imprison Assange.

Manning was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment, but was released after seven years, when her sentence was commuted by President Obama.

In 2010 Assange was accused in Sweden of sexual misconduct, a case which has been dropped. In order to avoid extradition to Sweden, from where he could have been extradited to the USA,  where he could face  a sentence for espionage in excess of 100 years, he slipped bail and spent several years of political asylum in the London Equadorian embassy.

Regarding the leaked Iraq and Afghanistan documents, the US authorities claimed that their publication had put at risk the lives of hundreds of intelligence and other personnel. In all the years since 2010, despite assigning 120 intelligence officers to the task,  not one such death has been identified.

In one of his many bad tempered strops, Trump demanded that Assange be snatched from the Equadorian embassy, or otherwise dealt with,  by the CIA.

When the British government was alerted to this plan, to its credit, it did not sanction it.

This is not surprising as it echoed the polonium poisonng of Litvinenko by the Russians, in London, in 2006 and the nerve agent killing poisonings  by Russian agents, in Salisbury.

This Trumpian plan for abduction and/or assassination was leaked and confirmed by a group of US officials. Don’cha grieve for the poor Donald?

This information has been effectively  suppressed by the BBC and the rest of the British media. Why? Why should our media act as if  beholden to the discredited ex-President?

I have gleaned this story from a column by Patrick Cockburn, published in the Independent  on 1st October, 2021.

I hold Cockburn in highest esteem as a journalist and columnist.

Why has there been no statement in Parliament on this matter?

Will  the Leader of the Opposition, limp lettuce leaf though he is,  raise this at PMQs?

The story appears on Wikipedia, thanks to Aljazeera.