4.8 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2024
⏱️ 46 minutes
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Starting Tuesday, a U.K. court will review Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition to the United States. At the center of the extradition controversy is concern that Assange will be tortured and put in solitary confinement in what’s known as a CMU — communications management unit — in federal prison. This week on Deconstructed, Ryan Grim is joined by Martin Gottesfeld, a human rights activist who was formerly imprisoned in two of the nation’s CMUs. Gottesfeld shares his experience incarcerated in CMU facilities, where his access to visitors including his wife were severely restricted.
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0:00.0 | Welcome to Deconstructed. I'm Ryan Grimm. Later today in the United Kingdom, a court will be reviewing over the span of two days a high court decision made to extradite Julian Assange in the United States. |
0:16.3 | This could be the final appeal, the final hearing that Julian Assange has before he sent over here to the United States. At the center of the |
0:25.8 | controversy over the extradition in the court proceedings has been whether or not |
0:30.9 | Julian Assange will be tortured, will be mistreated here in the United States, |
0:35.1 | whether or not he will be put in solitary confinement and specifically in what's known as |
0:39.8 | a CMU, a communications management unit. |
0:43.0 | Now, the Department of Justice |
0:44.7 | sort of pretended to make some kind of offering |
0:49.0 | to the UK High Court that they would not do this. |
0:52.0 | But then in the very next sentence of their pleading, |
0:54.0 | they said, unless we decide that we actually would need to do this. |
0:58.0 | So to talk today about what a CMU is |
1:02.0 | and why this has been the focus of human rights advocates who are concerned |
1:06.8 | that he may actually wind up in one of these. |
1:09.9 | We're going to be joined by Martin Godesfeld, who himself has spent a significant amount of time in an American CMU. |
1:17.0 | Marty, thank you so much for joining me on Deconstructed. |
1:21.0 | I'm happy to be here, Ryan. |
1:22.9 | And so, Marty, before we get to your experience in the CMU, let's talk about how you wound |
1:29.5 | up in prison in the first place because I actually think that's relevant to this conversation because it does appear like this is a place where a lot of people who are, you know, essentially political prisoners wind up. |
1:43.0 | Yeah, and I was not the only one, although I do think my case is representative of the larger group, largely representative of the larger group. |
1:53.6 | So the government alleges that I am a master hacker with anonymous. |
1:58.3 | The government also alleges that during a 2014 human rights and child custody matter, I launched one of the largest distributed |
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