Investigative journalist Assange exposed US war crimes

Stephen Lendman, a Chicago-based author and radio host, described the Australian whistle-blower, who was arrested on behalf of the US government last Thursday in London, as a prominent and well-known investigative journalist wanted by US authorities for exposing crimes committed by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Assange, who spent seven years at the Ecuadorian embassy in London before his arrest, has been indicted by a US court for publishing secret documents related to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars that were leaked by American whistle-blower former soldier Chelsea Manning.

Lendman said the war crimes committed by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan were leaked by Manning and published in WikiLeaks by Assange, because that's what an investigative journalist does. 

"Assange and Chelsea Manning are very prominent people well-known worldwide, and that is the reason they have been gone after," Lendman said.

"Assange is an investigative journalist,"Lendman said, adding that, "He not a Russian agent."     

"They exposed US wrongdoings and war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan," Lendman said emphatically, noting, "That's why they are going after them!".

Lendman pointed out that "these are high crimes that everyone needs to know about."

The American author and radio host said the US leadership all wanted to hide the truth.

"The people in Washington, and it’s not just [US President Donald] Trump, its Republicans and Democrats --- that why I call them undemocratic Dems because that what they are – there is nothing democratic about them – there are probably no Democrats in Washington, maybe a couple here and there, but they are very very rare ... The idea is to destroy truth-telling about the wars." 

"Freedom in America is a war on truth-telling in America -- this is what's going on," he said.

Lendman said the idea is that in today's America no one is allowed to tell the public the truth, not even a prominent investigative journalist.