Common Dreams reports: “Days Before Extradition Hearing, Australian Parliament Tells U.S. to Drop Assange Case.” Reuters reports: “Julian Assange’s appeal against US extradition is life or death, Wife Says.”

KEVIN GOSZTOLA, kgosztola@protonmail.com, @kgosztola
Gosztola is author of Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case Against Julian Assange and curates The Dissenter.

He has been publishing a series of pieces “Countdown To Day X” ahead of a major appeal hearing before the British High Court of Justice on Feb. 20 and 21, highlighting key aspects of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition to the United States.

The pieces include “CIA Reportedly Plotted To Kill Assange” and “Assange & The ‘Political Offense’ Exception” which states: “The legal team for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange contends that District Court Judge Vanessa Baraitser erred by failing to recognize that it was an “abuse of process” for the United States government to seek Assange’s extradition for political offenses. They hope the British High Court of Justice will reconsider this aspect of the case. Individuals accused of treason, sedition, or espionage have historically been protected from extradition because those offenses involve acts directed at a particular government. Such offenses are viewed in international law as ‘pure political offenses’ and not ‘ordinary crimes.'”

Gosztola also just wrote the piece “In Lawsuit Against Spying On Assange Visitors, CIA Will Invoke ‘State Secrets Privilege.'”