Julian Assange is now a free man after a plea deal secured his release from an English prison and avoided extradition to the United States. To travel home from London to Australia, Assange chartered a private jet for $500,000 and flew via Bangkok and the remote US territory of Saipan.
Julian Assange Arrives Home In Australia In Private Jet
On June 24, 2024, Assange was released from Belmarsh Prison in London and traveled to London Stansted Airport (STN). From STN, he boarded a 2017 Bombardier Global 6000 executive jet with the tail number 9H-VTD, the same jet recently used by Taylor Swift to travel from Japan to Las Vegas to attend Super Bowl LVIII.
Both Assange, 52, and Swift, 34, hired the Bombardier jet from charter company VistaJet. The cost for Assange’s passage was $500,000 and bore by his organization, WikiLeaks.
His journey home traced the following path:
- London Stansted (STN) – Bangkok Don Mueang (DMK)
- Bangkok (DMK) – Saipan (SPN)
- Saipan (SPN) – Canberra (CBR)
(the stop in Bangkok was for refueling)
While in Saipan, the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Western Pacific, Assange appeared in court to plead guilty to conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information. He was sentenced to time served in London and released. The aircraft was on the ground in Saipan for less than six hours.
At 7:37 pm local time on June 26, 2024, he arrived home to cheering crowds in Canberra, where he was greeted (via telephone) by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
CONCLUSION
Assange is a free man after having traveled from London to Canberra via the US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands in a Bombardier Global 6000 executive jet.
I’m deliberately not commenting on the case of Assange because I find it one of the most difficult to wrestle with. On the one hand, locking up journalists for exposing truth, however unsavory, is itself very unsavory. On the other hand, Assange exposed the sort of information that should not be exposed…like civilian informants in Afghanistan who now have to fear for their lives. We can debate the legality of his actions under US law, but his actions were callous…there is no debate there.
And while Assange is now a free man, I would definitely avoid hanging out too close to windows…
image: WikiLeaks
I think it’s shocking that an ostensibly charitable organisation paid that sort of money for one person to travel when a first class ticket with extra VIP security etc would’ve only been $10k or so.
I despise Assange, but the need to stop in US territory to plead guilty probably made the private transportation necessary.
Thank you for your comment, PM. Everyone was waiting to hear what you thought about it.
Oh the troll hag is back. What rock or institution have you been hiding at Miss Jackson? We missed you.
And, really, no one was waiting for yours either.
You’re welcome, Loretta. I am sure you are delighted to have your taxes support governments and third-sector organisations which are just as fiscally prudent as Wikileaks!
Imo, he should have never been locked up, or even dealing with this. The fact that he still had to plead guilty is bothersome to me. Then again, Snowden who only exposed the NSA for the lawbreaking agency it is, is still in exile, so……
Most Americans are a lot dumber than Europeans. So they’ll default to just going with whatever their religious leader (Pope, Greta Thunberg, CNN etc.) says.
The fact a single American can think Assange or Snowden are criminals says more about how stupid you are as a nation than about those two heroes.
I just said I was against the persecution of Snowden and Assange. Also, clearly the UK carried water for the US in extraditing him. Yeah, many of the US, just like every other country in the world, are blithering idiots. That doesn’t apply differently to a specific nation, as we saw during the entire human rights destruction event known as covid.
>That doesn’t apply differently to a specific nation, as we saw during the entire human rights destruction event known as covid.
Well, you weak men over there didn’t do jack against the tyranny you needed for your election. I’m not from the UK, by the way.
Now go give your ugly children another participation trophy so they can grow up weak, too. Or beat them senseless like the other half of you do, which also will make them as r*tarded as you are. Most parents who spank their children are molesters anyway.
And yet here you go again….no one cares what you think, Loretta. But it’s fun watching you sink to your first comment here.
Amazing how this nation of dummies has, in the span of less than 250 years, achieved more power and influence than the entire continent of Europe.
I guess the joke’s on you.
Yeah, not thanks to you, but thanks to the Europeans who came to the us, a select few group of intelligent people who made life cushy for the ingrate future generations like you! Y’all are ignorant and very naïve, just accept it.
Telling the truth is never wrong. Calling out abuse and providing evidence for it is a vital function. The only people who oppose telling the truth are those who support the government abusing the public or work for the government and abuse the public. All cops, agents, and soldiers who blindly follow orders are not innocent but 100% culpable in infringing freedom. All the people who forcibly held Assange are evil doers and should be recognized as criminals.
Free speech is a principle that’s absolute unless you are evil and don’t want the truth heard. There is one group on earth who consistently pushes speech and thought control in the West because people point out their collusion and bad aims. This group can commit a genocide under thousands of cameras but get people fired for complaining about genocide. The same group who pushed for Assange to be held are the same group who commits genocide in Gaza.
The Clinton emails were removed from Wikileaks. I suspect this was part of his deal with Biden’s DOJ.
Really? Asking, because I genuinely do not know.
The internet never forgets. Hillary is done. What a loser, lol
Yes, still waiting for you to lock her up. How’s that going? Last I saw we have 34 counts to zero.
He is a hero. Without him and Wikileaks, the public would have been gaslit even more.
Remember the 2020 debates when the racist-in-chief, Joey, said his crackhead pedo son’s laptop was ‘Russian disinformation’. Well, it wasn’t.
They lie all the time, and they do it on your dime.
You are triggered by Assange criticism. Schoolgirl crush? Or an old lady bored with her husband?
The $520,000 cost of the charter was paid by the Australian government, with the expectation that Assange or related parties will reimburse. Allegedly, an anonymous Bitcoin donor has already funded the entire expense.
I’m torn about the leaks but think he should spend many more years in prison for rape.
Lol, don’t you have a riot to go to? Some fat black woman to gossip with?
He never raped anyone, but like most Americans, you think you understand legal systems everywhere despite barely understanding your own.
YOU WERE THERE?!? That’s awesome! Now we know that the rape charges were spurious. Why didn’t you come forward before now?
I think the fact that Australia, who is basically our closest Pacific ally seems to be giving him a heros welcome tells you all you need to know.
The video of the helicopter gunning down civilians in Iraq as the men laughed was damning. It was embarrassing, and Assange became what is essentially a political prisoner. It was actually convenient that he was outside of the US because the FBI and CIA didn’t really want this going to trial.
If the US doesn’t want informants to be harmed, perhaps they shouldn’t start unjust forever-wars in other countries.
Lock him up!
Loretta’s out for bear today, isn’t she? Hates anyone and everyone apparently. But loves rapists I guess.
Sometimes mommy needs to school you kids. It’s all good.
Yes, “Mommy.” Old, deranged, and desperately needing care in a facility. Don’t worry, Mommy, help is coming.
Methinks Loretta is a Russian troll whose name is Ivan in real life.
Yep. Proof that White Nationalists don’t hate everyone since she welcomes rapists. At least white ones.
An innocent man who exposed wrong doing is free.
If the US want to lock up a criminal, Trump is waiting, get on with it.
Gross. A criminal gets to fly private using the money swindled from all his cultist supporters.
He’s pretty Lucky to get away from the harsh American Laws. Him and Snowdon.