Letter to the Editor: For nations to make wise decisions it is essential they have access to the truth, delivered by a free press. Ben Lake, the Member of Parliament for Ceredigion has been a strong supporter of Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder, who is fighting against extradition to America (Frankly Speaking, Cambrian News, 18 January),  where he faces long imprisonment for publishing leaked government documents which revealed widespread military and diplomatic scandals.

The Vietnam War provides a classic example of why governments prefer to treat their citizens like mushrooms, keeping them in the dark, and feeding them manure. It is powerfully illustrated in The Post, a film that reveals the US government’s deception of the American public about that war.

Robert McNamara was the US Defence Secretary, and a family friend of the owner of the Washington Post, Katherine Graham. She agonised whether the newspaper should publish the Pentagon Papers, which revealed that the US Government knew the war was a disaster, but would not withdraw because of the national humiliation.

Upon publication, the government prosecuted the Washington Post and, ultimately the Supreme Court upheld the right to publish. Despite McNamara knowing the futility of pursuing the war, he remained silent as Katherine Graham’s son volunteered to enlist.

Initially Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled against the extradition of Assange,but the High court over ruled her judgement, denying an appeal, and the case is now before the European Court of Human Rights.

The legal profession are very fond of the phrase ‘to defend vigorously’, a euphemism for lying, and equally popular is ‘a moot point’, or a debatable point.

To both we can add political pressure, which in this case was during Priti Patel’s tenure in the Home Office.

Commentary upon her role, and that of the High Court, could be described by an interesting experiment in America. The likely outcome of several legal cases was determined by two groups of law students, one group employing points of law, the other employing the known prejudices of the judge. There are no prizes for guessing the more accurate predictions.

‘Truth is the first casualty of War’ can be illustrated by the following. At the beginning of the Second World War, Communists in the British army were agitating, unsuccessfully, for their discharge because they saw the war as a capitalist conflict. However, just before Operation Barbarossa, when Hitler invaded Russia in June 1941, they were suddenly given their discharge. In May 1941, Rudolph Hess flew to Britain to negotiate our exit from the war with Germany, and around the same time Edward VIII was advising Hitler to continue the Blitz to force us to negotiate. His letter is in the Parliamentary archives.

What I have described does not reflect the conventional ‘mythstory’ of official records.

My mother’s house was bombed in Portsmouth, and as an infant I survived when thousands did not. The reader may now understand why I commend Ben Lake for his support for Julian Assange.

Roger Louvet,

Portmadog