Day 17 of the #AssangeHearing, with three days left, open justice has not been done in these proceedings. The Judge blocked 40 political and NGO observers (including @amensty & @RSF_inter) from monitoring the most important #FreeSpeech trial of the century.
Thread:

Defence is reading from/summarizing a witness statement from war reporter Patrick Cockburn. He was in Kabul when the war logs were released, and he says they confirmed civilian casualties he and other journalists suspected.
#AssangeCase

Cockburn's statement includes the importance of the war logs and Collateral Murder video to prove these incidents in the face of official denial.

As background, read Patrick Cockburn 'Julian Assange in Limbo' https://lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n12/patrick-cockburn/julian-assange-in-limbo

Cockburn's witness statement calls WikiLeaks releases a great victory for freedom of expression in the face of government secrecy.

Summers now reads from investigative journalist Ian Cobain. He talks about the importance of the releases, uncovering British collusion with US rendition / mistreatment of detainees in the wars following 9/11

Cobain talks about the near-impossibility of uncovering these crimes -- it's always known that those with knowledge of them face fear of reprisal if they disclose. Cobain talking about how difficult it was to report on rendition before WikiLeaks documents were released

They are reading out in a quick fashion all the crimes and the blood spilled by the United States, all the lives lost, torture, kidnap, murders, seem to have less importance than holding documents that the US considers secret. #AssangeCase

They move on to Stefania Maurizi's testimony. She talks about the methods used to protect data and sources, encrypted methods of communication that no newsroom had available and are now used widely. #AssangeCase

Maurizi says that the motivation for both her and #Assange was to reveal the crimes committed in the Afghan and Iraq wars that couldn't otherwise been known about. All data handled with high encryption methods.

Maurizi also talks about the public interest value of the documents, very rarely such type of information is available to the press, the documents were of unparalleled importance that could change policy in war.
#AssangeCase

Maurizi talks about torture by the @CIA that concerned Italy, the Italian justice department investigated the issue however the perpetrators of torture never served any time. The cables highlighted the US pressure put on the Italian government to bury the investigation.

Maurizi: Now talks about harm minimization process. The protection involved whereby the local investigator found a name that should be redacted, it should be done with 12 X's. I worked with @wikileaks on this, and only the redacted cables were published.
#AssangeCase

Maurizi: Everything was done with extremely cautious and that would go far beyond any journalistic organization at the time. It required encrypted data, air gapped machines, and other unprecedented measures.

None of the other media partners published the passwords given and all were aware about sensitivity of the handling of the data. Even the Mafia information handled earlier had not gone through such rigorous security measures.

Maurizi: I was very surprised that the Guardian's David Leigh published the password as the protocols were very clear and followed by all media partners. If anyone made a mistake that made the data available it was the Guardian by publishing the password.
#AssangeCase

Even after the password was revealed #Assange did everything he could to limit the possible damage. Maurizi was present when #Assange talked to the State Department to alert them several days before the documents were made public by http://Cryptome.org .

The statement of Robert J. Boyle attorney in NYC and expert in grand juries. Has been involved in Manning's grand jury participation.
He talks about the solitary confinement suffered by Manning which was described as torture by Juan Méndez UN SR on Torture.

I have missed most of Mr. Boyle statement, updates in this thread: https://twitter.com/DefenseAssange/status/1311242362824396800?s=20

I find it incredibly awkward that the lawyers twice today have asked permission to turn their backs to the judge to get papers on their desks.

Next statement Bridget Prince, Executive Director of One World Research, has worked on a number in the Eastern District of Virginia.

#Assange is indicted in the Alexandria district of Virginia, the population is majorly of CIA, Department of Defence, cybersecurity contractors, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and their families. The organizations above are also the largest employers in the area.

Eastern District of Virginia is considered a good place to establish business for national security contractors.
#AssangeCase

The jury in the #AssangeCase would take place in the Court of the Eastern District of Virginia, and the jury would be selected from a population of people working in CIA, Department of Defence, cybersecurity contractors, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and their families.

Ok we are going to enter into the Spanish case and Dobbin says that they could not enter into the confidentiality agreement. Somehow this doesn't seem to be a problem and anonymity will be respected in the UK.
#AssangeCase

Witness 1: UC Global basically had a sole contract which was security services to the Embassy. David Morales (owner) flew to Las Vegas, he insisted on going by itself. He came back with a contract with Sheldon Adelson to guard his boat, but the boat already had security.

David Morales told his staff that they were now working on the big leagues, and on the dark side. #AssangeCase

The security system that the daily reports were sent to Ecuador concerning events. Morales said that they would also start sharing these reports with his American friends. When I asked who were they, he said the American intelligence. I asked which, he eluded to answer.

Witness 2: Once Trump came into power the collection of information intensified. Morales indicated that the cameras needed to change the cameras with concealed audio capabilities.
#AssangeCase

I was told to deny that the cameras recorded audio. In June, Morales asked for streaming capabilities for our American friends. He emailed me a detailed instructions in English on how to do it. I refused because it was illegal. #AssangeCase

We were asked to place microphones under a fire extinguisher in the meeting room and in the bathroom where #Assange held his legal meetings. The lawyers were the primary objectives as was required by "American Friends".

Morales asked for #Assange's fingerprints. He also instructed me to steal a nappies of a baby who was brought into the Embassy, to get the DNA as they believed it was #Assange's.

Stickers were placed in the windows so that laser microphones on the windows would be able to circumvent a noise machine.

All telephones and belongings of visitors were kept and they would go through them, and take pictures and all information possible.

Morales said that he and his American friends were considering leaving the embassy door open for a kidnap and even poisoning #Assange.

The American friends were happy with all the information provided but wanted more, they discussed going into Baltazar Garzon's office. Two weeks later the lawyer's office was broken into.
#AssangeCase

When the contract with Ecuador came to an end Morales displayed huge increment in his assets, including a $200,000 monthly payment, new house and cars.
#AssangeCase

When the contract was terminated Morales asked that everything in "Operation Hotel" would be terminated.
#AssangeCase

Spanish courts ordered the arrest of Morales due to the information provided by both witnesses. They found thousands of dollars in cash and two loaded guns with the serial numbers removed.
#AssangeCase

Now we go onto the statement of Noam Chomsky. It's so sad that we can't get to hear from him in person!