 The story of Wikileaks and Julian Assans has two main components, two chapters, both equally important. One is about the publications, the most important journalistic work of this century. The other chapter is about the reaction to this work and it is equally revealing. The explosive stories that emerge from the publications more than a decade ago are well known, war crimes, killing squads, human rights abuses in Iraq, Afghanistan and Quantanamo Bay, the underbelly of US diplomacy in the diplomatic cables released in 2010 and 2011. The reaction site in the Wikileaks saga is an ongoing one. It is the story of how empire is used, all his might against one individual, Julian Assans. In an attempt to crush him, silence him, kill him. His resistance has not yet brought him any justice, but it has laid bare the raw elements of the empire, the one that totally disregards the principles it so proudly preaches of human rights, freedom of the press, the rule of law. The quest of brutal revenge and the attempt to make an example out of Julian, the United States, is willing to disregard and undermine the fragile system of international order. It has blatantly dismissed the United Nations findings in favor of Assans and thereby weakened two important human rights bodies, one being the United Nations Tribunal on Arbitrary Detention that often has successively contributed to the release of politically persecuted dissidents. The other body is United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture who found in Julian's favor. By disrespecting and dismissing these UN mandates, it undermines their ability to assist other politically persecuted and tortured individuals. Authoritarian regimes will simply say, why should we abide by findings of these UN institutions when the US, the UK and Sweden totally disregarded? Similarly, other multilateral bodies are disregarded, the European Council, the European Parliament, the OAS and on we can go. So the raging pursuit of Julian Assans stops at nothing, including undermining fragile international legal structures that have been built up over decades with great effort in an attempt to increase order on our planet. In the Assans case, the US and the UK are even violating their own bilateral treaty on extradition. That treaty exempts extradition for political offenses. Despite this exemption, the United States demands the extradition of Julian Assans on the basis of this treaty, whilst at the same time, accuse Assans of political offenses. Not only is espionage a pure form of political offense, but the indictment against him is littered with accusations of political motives. It is true that Assans is guilty of attempting to put an end to war crimes and corruption by exposing it. You could call that political, but if it is truly a political crime, it is a crime every decent journalist should be committing. It is a journalistic duty and Julian is clearly guilty of journalism and the evidence of fit are the dozens of words he and WikiLeaks have received over the last decade. In our twisted world, it has been decided by the empire that exposing the truth is now considered a political crime. The desire to make an example out of Assans and send a threatening signal to every journalist in the world is so excessive that the United States is ready to put in jeopardy its press freedom principles enshrined in the First Amendment. Now, finally, all major mainstream media in the US have seen the danger in the Assans persecution to their own position and have raised concern. So have all major press freedom, free speech and civil liberties organizations in the United States and indeed in the world. Still the case is ongoing. Despite this, the US is still demanding a tradition from the United Kingdom and Julian is still in Belmont's prison. In April, he will have spent four years there, the longest serving remand prisoner in the UK in latter times. The attacks on Julian continue despite the fact that the indictment against him is totally inconsistent with newly introduced press guidelines of the United States Department of Justice. These guidelines are de facto part of US law since November. These guidelines recognize the journalistic right to request, receive, process and publish classified government information in the public interest. At least 17 out of the 18 counts in Julian's indictment are completely incompatible with these new guidelines. Mary Garland's Department of Justice should be flooded with urgent demand to explain this obvious discrepancy. Already the persecution of Assans has severely damaged the reputation of the United States. The fact the US government is acting against its own principles, the one they preach around the world has not gone unnoticed. In recent weeks, I've traveled to several Latin American countries and met presidents who are very concerned about the precedent set in the Assans case. After meeting President Alberto Fernandez of Argentina and his vice president, Cristina de Kirchner, they both sided with the Assans campaign urging the Biden administration to drop the charges against him. Ardentiniens, us two others in the region, know fully well the capability of the CIA in planning kidnapping or killing of individuals, as we now know the agency was plotting against Julian in 2017. I met Louis Arsir, the president of Bolivia, who fully committed himself in support of Assans. The same applied to the newly elected president of Brazil, Lula da Silva, who understands better than most the nature of the lawfare against Julian. Having himself spent more than 500 days in prison because of such a lawfare, a lawfare where it is well documented that the US Department of Justice was involved. President Lula assured me that the fight to end the injustice entailed in the Assans case would be a priority in his foreign policy. I got the same strong support from Gustavo Pietro, president of Colombia, who called for Julian's release and the end of the persecution. Lastly, I met Andreas Manuel López Operador, president of Mexico, who has been constant supporter of Julian, and one who understands that this case is more than the battle for the freedom of one individual, but a priority fight for underlying principles. It was Operador who said that if Julian is extradited to the United States, the Statue of Liberty should be dismantled and returned to the friends. The Mexican president received us in the Wikileaks delegation earlier this month and assured us he would take the matter up personally with President Biden. They met last week in Mexico City. It is not just the political leaders of every major country south of the border of the United States that now recognize the gravity of Julian's case, as Anthony Albanese, prime minister of Australia, has recently added his voice to the demand for Julian's freedom. He said in the Australian parliament that enough is enough, and we agree. All those leaders are now pointing a finger at the empire, they are pointing out that the emperor is naked. They are drawing attention to the naked brutality in the Assange case and the underlying principles that are threatened, and more world leaders will follow. Any message from the United States on liberty, human rights and press freedom is now measured against the Assange case and dismissed as hollow and meaningless unless the Biden administration drops the charges against Julian. Before the turn of the century, the U.S. State Department used the term rogue states to describe violent regimes with appalling human rights records. The terminology was officially dropped at the beginning of this century, probably because many of the activities of the United States in latter times have fallen under the criteria of a rogue state as defined in the 90s. If there's any desire in the United States to regain a position of credibility in the international arena, there needs to be a multi-layered policy changes. A priority should be put on doing the right thing to drop the charges against Julian Assange and the moment to do so is now.