We appreciate the initiative of the six cross-party parliamentarians who recently travelled to the United States to make direct representation to members of the American Congress on behalf of Australian citizen, journalist and publisher Julian Assange.
A major objection that the Australian MPs voiced is the fact that Julian Assange, who is not an American citizen, nor living or working in America, can be subjected to extraterritorial legal reach of the United States.
The material on US war crimes published by Wikileaks originated from US citizen Chelsea Manning who at the time was a serving member of the US military in Iraq.
Chelsea Manning’s sentence of 35 years was commuted by President Obama.
The parliamentarian group carried a letter to the US government signed by 63 other MPs, making the case for the charges against Assange to be dropped, allowing him to return home.
The Australian people and the parliamentarians expect Julian Assange’s extradition and prosecution to be high on the agenda of coming talks between PM Albanese and President Biden.
Particularly if they expect the AUKUS deal involving an expenditure of Australian taxpayers’ money exceeding $A368 billion to proceed smoothly without objection from the Australian electorate.
Julian Assange’s father John Shipton continues with his long journey for his son’s freedom. He is back in Lismore on Thursday 12 October.
As detailed in Eve Jeffrey’s article and interview in last week’s Echo with former military lawyer and army major, David McBride, John Shipton will be speaking at the Star Court Theatre together with McBride and well-known local social justice lawyer Edwina (Eddie) Lloyd.
Following the showing of the film David McBride: Declassified all three speakers will participate in a Q&A.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
