Australia’s forgotten hero Julian Assange rots in a UK supermax for exposing US war crimes, rape, and mass murder. No charges and expected to die in solitary while the real criminals walk free. John Urane, co-founder of the Brisbane Assange group, tells us why it's time to bring the Queensland truth-teller home.

Triccy:
An often forgotten unsung hero of this country is Sir Julian Assange. His only crime was exposing the heinous acts and terrorism of the Western governments. He is now in prison.

He's not in good health. He's also an Australian. This is one guy that actually apologised to everybody for not getting behind a lot earlier.  Julian Assange is so important to this country in more ways than one. His case is exceptional. We really have to get behind Julian and try and get him back here.

So please welcome John Urane to the stage, you guys.

John Urane:
May I apologise for my reliance on notes, as my grey matter is less sharp than it used to be. I have no choice.

Good afternoon, my name's John Urane. I believe in a democracy. I'm not talking about what we have currently.

I'm talking about a democracy. You, my friends, and I have significant power. We must participate or we will continue down the slippery slope as our democracy declines further.

It is inevitable. Leaflets are available and I would ask you to obtain one because there's a wealth of information on it, to share it with your friends. The Assange story is particularly critical because it addresses so many of the issues that we're talking about today.

Transparency. The people should know what is happening. The politicians are happy to tell us the lies that suit their purpose.

I'm an unapologetic supporter of Julian Assange. I'm strongly opposed to both Australia's participation in what generally turn out to be unnecessary wars. Both participating and providing weapons or finance used for killing civilian people is appalling.

Our track record is horrendous. Julian Assange has paid an unacceptable price for living and speaking his principles. Julian said if wars are started by lies then peace can be attained by truth.

His views are a threat to warmongering governments worldwide and the military industrial conflicts who criminally manipulate governments worldwide. Who is Julian Assange? Julian is an Australian citizen. He's actually a Queenslander.

He was born in Townsville. Julian's mother, Christina Assange, is a person with a strong social conscience and Julian, as a child, developed a strong social conscience. Julian is on the autistic spectrum.

At an early age, he displayed extraordinary computing skills which he later utilised as he assisted Victoria Police to shut down a pedophile ring. He studied mathematics and physics at the University in Melbourne and those close to him believed he was an extraordinarily gifted human being. Julian came to prominence when he created an organisation called Wikileaks.

It was designed to enable persons with information which troubled their conscience to anonymously whistleblow. Julian believed that the public deserved to know the truth about government activities and he published evidence of criminality by governments worldwide and those with influence. No one should underestimate the corrupt power of the military industrial complex.

Julian understood and said, they will chase me to the ends of the earth for exposing their actions and criminality. Julian knew they would target him and he sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy on 19 June 2012. He legitimately feared for his life.

His concerns were justified as credible evidence has been provided by 30 witnesses employed in America's intelligence and security industry. These witnesses confirmed that our allies, the USA, and I say allies, I would like to see it differently, planned to murder Assange on the streets of London in an extrajudicial killing if he escaped the heavily guarded embassy. We also know that the London Metropolitan Police spent more than 12 million British pounds ensuring Assange did not leave the embassy.

This is publicly available information. As time passed, a new corrupt Ecuadorian president, Marino, took office and he was offered what simply constituted a 4.2 million dollar bribe. We'll just adjust the microphone.

Thank you. He was issued a 4.2 million dollar bribe by the International Monetary Fund. In return, Marino agreed to traffic Assange from the embassy into the arms of the corrupt British legal system.

The mainstream media treated Julian with contempt and trashed his reputation as desired by the criminally powerful who hated him for exposing their crimes. Julian is non-violent, has never posed a threat to any individual, yet the British authorities have held Julian for three years and 313 days in the highest security Belmarsh prison. Julian has been held in solitary confinement for much of his time whilst incarcerated.

Belmarsh, in the UK, is their highest security prison which is designed to hold the worst of the worst. Murderers, rapists, terrorists. He is held in solitary confinement.

Such solitary incarceration in Belmarsh prison is a weapon used by the British authorities to psychologically and physically destroy Julian and to slowly murder him by process. Julian's crime was publishing the truth of US war crimes in a video called Collateral Murder. I would appeal to everyone in the audience to view that video.

If you haven't seen it, then you're unaware of what this is about. Julian effectively pulled down the United States pants in front of the whole world. He has been held in some form of detention by the corrupt British establishment now for 12 years and 72 days.

He is held without charge having served his sentence for skipping bail. The American administration want to extradite Julian to face trumped up charges where he would be incarcerated in a supermax prison for 175 years. He would be incarcerated under what are called SAM, Special Administrative Measures, which is simply Julian would disappear, never to be heard of.

I wish to speak about the importance of whistleblowers and some examples of cowardly criminal actions committed in our names. What I'm about to tell you is quite graphic. It's factual.

You can Google it or use some other search engine to find the truth. A 14-year-old Iraqi child, her name was Abeer Qasim Al-Janabi, was raped and murdered after her family was murdered on March 12, 2006. During a pre-planned attack, five American soldiers walked in broad daylight into the child's house.

They separated the child, Abeer, from her family into two separate rooms. An American soldier named Stephen D. Green murdered both of Abeer's parents and her young sister. Meanwhile, two other soldiers took turns to hold the child down and rape her in the adjacent room.

Green emerged stating, I just killed them, all are dead, and proceeded to rape Abeer himself. Finally, when finished raping the child, Abeer, he executed her by shooting her in the head. He then doused her in kerosene and set her on fire.

This is on public record. It's the outcome from a trial held in America. Green later described the crime as awesome.

The other soldiers who participated in the incident told the Iraqi Army soldiers who arrived on the scene it had been perpetrated by Sunni insurgents. The truth only came to light when an unidentified soldier, obviously a man that had a conscience, later revealed the crime. If it was not for this, these criminals who had committed the most heinous crimes would still be free men.

The Daily Mail reporter is a UK paper and it called for a full inquiry into civilian deaths in Iraq. It came about because Julian Assange obtained 391,832 military reports, which we now call the Iraqi War Logs. These documents document the USA's occupation for the duration from 2004 to 2009.

The files were published on the website Wikileaks. The files recorded 66,081 civilian deaths that we didn't know about that hadn't been reported. One such civilian death was reported as follows.

The story of the girl in the yellow dress. We don't know her name. Soldiers were handing out sweets to children in their bid to win the hearts and minds when she was allegedly killed.

The newspaper reported a British rifleman shot dead an eight-year-old Iraqi girl as she played in the streets. It was claimed today. The tank stopped at the end of the street.

She's there in her yellow dress and a British rifleman blows her away. The Iraqi War Logs also claim that a helicopter gunship involved in the shooting of journalists also shot insurgents after they tried to surrender. It also revealed 15,000 previously unknown civilian deaths.

Eight years and some months later, on the 18th of September, 2011, the last US troop left Iraq. And the Congressional Budget Office, these are not my figures, it's the US's Congressional Office, say that the cost was $2.4 trillion. That accounts for every man, woman and child in the USA, a cost of 6,300 US dollars.

And who footed the bill? The taxpayer. Will Australia's recent change of government make any difference? The ALP has not brought transparency in dealing with criminality and war crimes. The ALP and the LNP are like two peas in a pod.

They voted together to ensure the recently introduced ICAC, Independent Commission Against Corruption, hearings are conducted secretly and clandestinely behind closed doors. There is an exception in exceptional circumstances. The matter will be dealt with openly, so you can imagine the field day the legal people will have over that.

Australia's laws for dealing with criminality and war are designed to facilitate secrecy to protect the guilty. They simply don't want you to know what is going on. What can you do? Assange, without fear or favour, has shone a light on corruption worldwide and has paid an unacceptable price.

What you can do is to get involved as your voice is powerful. Join the Julian Assange Brisbane Facebook group where we will endeavour to keep you informed. I'm not a lover of social media, but it is an opportunity to reach out to many, many thousands of people.

We have to bring pressure to bear on our political leaders and tell them we will not forget if they fail to have Assange released. We will remember at the ballot box, we need to tell them that message. Your participation is crucial to our fight to free Assange.

The grassroots campaign is not just about numbers, it's all about numbers. Assange's freedom requires political intervention and it requires Albanese to spend some political capital to have Julian freed. If you would like to participate, please come forward, provide an email address and you will be provided with guidance on how to assist the campaign.

In closing, I wish to tell you a brief story about Julian's wife, Stella Assange. Whilst tucking her two young boys into bed very recently, and I'm only talking about two weeks ago, she was listening to the Belmarsh Tribunal speakers in New York. Young Gabriel, her eldest son, overheard the commentary while speakers were discussing the death plots that our allies plotted for Julian.

Gabriel said to his mother, Mummy, did that lady just say they wanted to kill Daddy? I wonder how Julian and Stella's young son Gabriel slept that evening. Thank you for your attention. Free Julian Assange!