On the same day that a prosecutor from the International Criminal Court (ICC) requested arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister for committing genocidal war drimes in Gaza, Julian Assange has won the right to appeal his extradtition to the United States to face charges of committing journalism.
As far as American officials are concerned, the exposure of their war crimes is worse than the actual commission, or aiding and abetting of, war crimes. They've already been caught aggressively trying to quash the warrants against Bibi and his fellow genocidaires. Some hardliners in the US Congress had even explicitly threatened to invade The Hague if Bibi should ever be captured and held for trial there. (Congress already passed a law that requires the US military to swoop in and rescue, say, George Bush or Dick Cheney if they are ever brought to international justice for their Iraq war crimes. So l imagine Lindsay Graham and Tom Cotton feverishly writing legislation right this minute to codify things and specifically add Bibi to the official rescue list of mass murderers kidnapped by those vicious human rights terrorist folks.)
At the same time, both political parties in the United States have ensured that Assange continues to rot in jail. This is notwithstanding President Biden's recent vague mutterings that his administration is considering dropping the Espionage Act charges against Assange.
He left the impression that they're running out the clock on the ailing Assange. They have already done their utmost to destroy both his physical and mental health. By the time Biden belatedly decides to set him free. Assange's condition will have deteriorated to the point that they feel he no longer poses a threat to them, His appearance upon release will be so shocking that it will put the big chill on aspiring truth-tellers all over the world. The lucrative US war racket will survice and thrive while killing and maiming and displacing even more victims.
As I write this post, there still has been no official reaction from the White House concerning the ICC request for the arrest warrants against the Israeli officials as well as for two top leaders of Hamas. There also has been no reaction from the Biden administration regarding the granting of the Assange appeal.
Coverage of both legal stories has been relatively muted in the mainstream media, what with the helicopter crash killing Iran's president and the overheated saga of the ongoing Trump hush money trial, both of which were taking pride of place on the New York Times digital home-page this morning.
The two separate court cases, regarding as they do US-financed and abetted violations of human rights - against Assange as an individual and against innocent civilians in occupied territory in Gaza, the West Bank and in Israel itself - do not put the Biden administration in a good light, as they attempt to install the aging president in another four year term.
It wouldn't even be a stretch for the ICC prosecutor to include Biden and the entire US Congress in his arrest warrant request. After all, without the billions of dollars in American military aid, this genocidal rampage would not be possible.
One ominous sign that the ICC will never touch the United States with a ten foot pole, and that this legal process is as much about political theater as it is about justice, is that prosecutor Karim Khan singled out human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, wife of George Clooney, for special thanks for her assistance in building the cases against Israel and Hamas leaders.
Her husband is set to headline a gala fundraiser for Joe Biden next month before heading to Broadway to reprise his film role as legendary journliast Edward R. Murrow. Playing a journalist beats actually working as one every single time. Just ask the stenographers in the modern war-funded corporate media.