Bring me the head of Julian Assange

The US government actually wants his whole body to sit in a US prison till he's dead. A 175 year sentence for publishing factual evidence of US war crimes in Iraq should do the trick. The century old Espionage Act has never been used against a publisher but becomes easy with Australian journalist Assange by simply designating him a non-journalist.

Demonizing Assange becomes easy with US progressives who normally honor free speech as Job One in America. They jettison that sacred principle to blame Assange for electing Trump through alleged collusion with Russia in leaking Democratic campaign email. Their punishment for that offense? Life in prison, the concept of free speech be damned.

Trump has come full circle on Assange, from trumpeting his love for Assange's alleged help on the campaign trail to seeking his eventual death in prison for interfering in US criminal wars.

Assange is currently being primed for a one way ticket to a lifetime US cage by a UK Extradition Court. Assange has an ironclad defense that his extradition is unlawful due to political persecution, outlawed by US and UK extradition law. Like the US, don't count on the Brits to honor that hallowed principle. They worked in lockstep with the zealous US war party to scoop up Assange in Ecuador's London Embassy after the US bullied and bribed Ecuador into withdrawing his diplomatic immunity.

Every US official and every citizen involved in this despicable venture is in violation of the 1971 New York Times v. United States decision in the Pentagon Papers case. It expressly forbids any attempt to prosecute journalists for publishing factual material no matter how they are obtained. Without that explicit safeguard of free speech, democracy withers, may even die. And without undiluted free speech protection to protect us all from governmental mendacity, untold thousands will continue to die in America's endless and unchallenged criminal wars.