Conspiracy Theories and Freedom for Assange

After the Stundin story broke, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden tweeted on June 27: this is the “end of the case against Assange”. Investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald posted Snowden’s tweet, adding that “It should be” (the end of the case). At the beginning of June, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer once again called on the U.K. government to release Assange, and called his incarceration “One of the biggest judicial scandals in history.”

On a similar theme, Edward Snowden penned an insightful article on June 29 on his Substack, on the “theory and practice” of conspiracies (https://edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/conspiracy-pt1). He begins thus: “The greatest conspiracies are open and notorious — not theories, but practices expressed through law and policy, technology, and finance.” And yet, they are covered up by the ruling powers, as he has come to realize. For space reasons, we can only give the following quote: “It took years—eight years and counting in exile — for me to realize that I was missing the point: we talk about conspiracy theories in order to avoid talking about conspiracy practices, which are often too daunting, too threatening, too total… Especially pernicious is the way that false conspiracies absolve their followers of engaging with the truth.”