A Letter Template to Home Secretary Priti Patel concerning Julian Assange’s pending extradition order.
Now is the time to stand up for justice, the rule of law, and the freedom of the press
Dear Readers,
I am sharing a template I wrote and sent to Secretary Priti Patel concerning the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States. Feel free to copy, paste, and modify it as you see fit. Importantly, I urge you to sign it and send it to Secretary Patel as soon as possible.
Email: public.enquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk
Thank you for considering it.
Peace,
Terence
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Dear Secretary Patel,
I write today concerning Julian Assange’s potential extradition to the United States to face charges for publishing inconvenient facts about US war crimes in Iraq. Of course I am referring to the now infamous ‘Collateral Murder’ video published in 2010, an audio-visual document made by the US military itself which starkly details the brutal murder of journalists on the streets of Iraq at the hands of US drone operators. To date, no one has faced justice for these gross criminal transgressions. That fact alone is morally, ethically, and politically troubling.
Make no mistake, Julian Assange is guilty of exposing US war crimes. Mr Assange and Wikileaks exposed those crimes for the world to see, should anyone be willing to look, knowing that he was putting his own personal safety and freedom on the line. To me, Mr Assange’s conviction — not in a US court of ‘law’ but his conviction to do the right thing — is beyond compare. In a world where people bleat endlessly about the danger of ‘fake news’ and the spread of mis- and disinformation online, Mr Assange and Wikileaks are a rare light in a frighteningly darkening world. Should you sign his extradition order simply because he offended the United States, we will enter an even dark chapter, one in which all the professed ideals we claim to uphold (freedom of press, the public’s right to know, and the entire concept of justice itself) will be called into question. Personally, I — and perhaps you, too — do not wish to live in a world where people who expose wrongdoing are prosecuted while those who commit crimes walk free. Such a world would be a perversion of everything we claim to hold dear.
Many people erroneously believe that Mr Assange and Wikileaks have operated in service to Russia. These beliefs are without evidence. On the contrary, Mr Assange and Wikileaks have exposed the double-dealings and malfeasance of many governments, Russia included. Regarding the latter, Wikileaks has published more than 800,000 leaked documents alone! Importantly, Wikileaks has never had to issue retractions for publishing false information. Can the same be said of The Guardian, the New York Times, or the Washington Post, to name just a few big players in the global media landscape? I think not.
Extraditing Mr Assange to the United States will not only threaten press freedoms but usher in a dangerous new phase in the post-911 world. Not only has it been widely reported that Assange and his legal team were illegally surveilled while he was holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, many news outlets reported last year that the CIA had drawn up numerous plans to kidnap and/or assassinate him. While the former indicates that there is zero chance he would get a fair trial in the United States, the latter demonstrates the crass impunity with which US intelligence services feel they can operate. No one should be above the law, and that applies to everyone and anyone who works for the CIA and its British equivalent.
You are in a unique position, Secretary Patel. Amidst the Sturm and Drang of domestic and international politics, you have the rare opportunity to right our shaken moral compass. I urge you to refuse to sign Mr Assange’s extradition order. Please stand up for the rule of law and the preservation of the freedom of the press. You will be celebrated for your commitment to all that is right and good in this world — even if, and especially if, the practice of our ideals makes those in power deeply uncomfortable.
Thank you for your time and attention in this matter.
Yours faithfully,
[name]
