The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture was "blinded by propaganda"

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In a recent article Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture writes that it dawned on him that he had been 'blinded by propaganda', and that:

'Assange had been systematically slandered to divert attention from the crimes he exposed. Once he had been dehumanized through isolation, ridicule and shame, just like the witches we used to burn at the stake, it was easy to deprive him of his most fundamental rights without provoking public outrage worldwide.'

Interestingly, he compares slander and mud throwing with torture, as a large amount of continuous slander and mud throwing is a kind of mobbing.

'Now just add purposefulness and severe suffering, and what you get is full-fledged psychological torture.'

Melzer forgot to mention there additional purposeful mobbing tactics that were thrown upon Assange, such as a full-time (and no doubt illegal) spying over webcams of his whole personal life, and even such little things as three months without access to shaving tools (yes THAT's why he had a long beard!).

Yesterday big news media awarded a lot of time on the UN Rapporteur's report about the Khashoggi murder, and I think rightly so. Similarly there was a lot of reporting when a journalist had been shortly jailed in Russia based on fake drug charges. In contrast, the articles from the UN Rapporteur on Torture concerning the Assange case (who was similarly smeared with a fake rape charge) fare a different fate. He remarks:

'This Op-Ed has been offered for publication to the Guardian, The Times, the Financial Times, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian, the Canberra Times, the Telegraph, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Thomson Reuters Foundation, and Newsweek. None responded positively.'

What is now happening to publishers such as Assange (as well as what is happening to numerous USA whistleblowers including Manning who STILL serves much of her time in prison), is a threat to independent information worldwide. At the same time Western state propaganda is increasingly overwhelming the narratives on TV and in newspapers. Without free Internet access, we would drown in it.

Remember, Assange is:
- NOT American
- NOT residing in the USA
- NOT thought to have committed any crime in the USA
- forced out of Panama, apparently by means of economic blackmail
- slandered by the UK and Sweden in collusion with influential media organisations
- he is now unjustly imprisoned in the UK, awaiting possible extradition.

Most people seem not to care; apparently they were successfully affected by state propaganda (in contrast, compare the Hong Kong protests!).

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