Fight Back News Service is circulating the following April 14 statement from the Office of the Chairperson, International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS).

We, the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS), strongly condemn the arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange by British authorities under the direction of the US government. We defend his rights as a journalist and demand his immediate release.

Assange has earned the ire of the US for exposing the truth about US behind-the-scenes machinations in its drive to carry out foreign interventions and launch wars of aggression for regime change and economic plunder. Wikileaks has published volumes of material documenting the crimes of US imperialism around the world.

The arrest of Assange is based on a charge of engaging in theft of US state secrets. Assange is accused of conspiring with US Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning to crack a password on a Defense Department computer network for classified documents and communications to download classified records and transmit them to WikiLeaks.

The charge sheet released to the public by the US State Department states that between January 2010 and May 2010, Manning downloaded databases from US government departments and agencies containing nearly “90,000 Afghanistan war-related significant activity reports, 400,000 Iraq war-related significant activity reports, 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment briefs, and 250,000 US State Department cables.”

These materials including videos and classified documents revealed the crimes of US imperialism that the US wanted to keep secret from the world. One of the most damning evidence of US crimes is a video footage from an Apache helicopter viewed by millions around the world showing Reuters journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, his driver Saeed Chmagh, and several others as the Apache shoots and kills them in a public square in Baghdad. A group of adults and children in a minivan arrives and attempts to rescue the wounded but they are also fired upon.

The arrest of Julian Assange exposes the utter hypocrisy of the US, its most trusted running dog, Britain, and other Western governments of their avowals for democracy, freedom of the press and freedom of speech.

Experts and scholars say that this is a direct assault on the basic rights of journalists protected by the First Amendment in the US Constitution. But the ruling regime in the US will even trample upon its own constitution, as it has done in justifying the use of torture and other criminal practices.

Every US ruling regime has time and again proven that it can tear to pieces universally accepted conventions on international relations in order to carry out interference in the internal affairs of other countries and launch wars of aggression and plunder in pursuit of US imperialist interests.

For almost 7 years, the US and its lackeys tried every foul means to get their hands on Assange and stop him from carrying on with his journalistic work. Julian Assange was able to survive almost seven years of threats, harassments and pressure from the US and its lackeys because of his own courage in defending his rights and the overwhelming support of the people of the world and some sympathetic governments.

Despite all the threats and pressures, Assange continued with his journalistic work while holed up at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. His defiance inspired whistleblowers in the belly of the beast like Edward Snowden to come forward and expose the crimes of US imperialism around the world.

The US is an imperialist power in decline. But it is still capable of doing the most hideous crimes against the people of the world in its desperation to prevent its total collapse. The people of the world must therefore continue to resist this monster wherever it rears its head until it is mortally wounded and collapses like all the empires before it. And, the work of such courageous journalists like Julian Assange serves the goal of humankind in ridding the world of the evils of imperialism and human oppression.

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