The man's had 15 years of incarceration in one form or
another - from house arrest, jail, and asylum in an
embassy. Now finally the possibility of release.

He's expected to plead guilty to one criminal charge
but will be released soon after, given time already
served in a British prison.

Australian Ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, Australian
Ambassador to the UK, Stephen Smith and HUman Rights
Lawyer Jennifer Robinson were all in court in Saipan,
the tiny Pacific Island and US territory where this
court case is being heard.

What effect will this case have on press freedom in
the future? Many publishers and journalists have
expressed their fears that if this case was meant to
chill national security reporting - it's probably
worked. Nor every publisher would take the risk that
Assange did.

Assange may be a free man - but his reputation has been
smeared. I guess it would be a bit of wishful thinking
if a US President could grant a pardon to Assange?
Now that would be an acto of integrity and leadership.

Wishful thinking, I know.

But who was it who said - Miracles do happen?

Assange has pleaded guilty in a “remote court”.

We had to pay for our Ambassador to the U.S, the charming Kevin Rudd to be there.

Assange's family are “overwhelmed”. It is Australians who should be overwhelmed by this pathetic turn of events.

The BBC has an interesting article on how the deal to
free Mr Assange was agreed. The BBC tells us that the
origins of this deal:

"Probably began with the election of a new Australian
government in May 2022 that brought to power an administration
determined to bring home one of its citizens detained overseas."

We're told that "Anthony Albanese, the new Labor Prime
Minister, said he did not support everything Mr Assange had
done, but "enough was enough" and it was time for him to
be released. He made the case a priority, largely behind
closed doors."

"Mr Albanese had cross-party support in Australia's
parliament too."

"A delegation of MPs travelled to Washington to lobby US
Congress directly. The PM then raised the issue himself
with US President Joe Biden at the White House during a
state visit in October. This was followed by a parliamentary
vote where MPs overwhelmingly supported a call to urge the
US and the UK to allow Mr Assange back to Australia."

"They lobbied hard the influential US Ambassador to Australia,
Caroline Kennedy."

"A key player was also UK Ambassador, Stephen Smith who did a
great deal of "heavy lifting."

Hopefully this is just the beginning for a happier life for
the Assange family.

Whatever you think of Assange, he is an Australian citizen
and as our PM stated, " Enough is Enough!"

Many people will agree on all sides of politics that our
PM deserves credit for his judgement and determination in
never giving up and pursuing resolution to this case.

An interesting take on all this is that one of the reasons the US pursued Assange so assiduously is that he had pissed of the Clinton crime family when he released Hilary's emails showing just how corrupt and anti-democratic she and indeed the entire Democrat organisation were.

The take is that the sudden release of Assange is indicative that the Clinton's have lost all influence in the DNC and that the Obama cartel (and Biden is just a figure for Obama's third term) are now fully in control of everything that matters.

One wonders if there's been a secret deal in regards to the unreleased Clinton emails and the real person/group behind the hack of the DNC server back in 2016.

Yeah. Conspiracy theories abound - especially for Trump supporters.

You ain't seen nothing yet!