In Burma, the mutilated body of independent journalist Myat Thu Tan [14] was found at the military base where he had been detained, after the camp was overrun by rebels of the pro-democratic resistance. In Kazakhstan, detained activist Aqylbek Muratbai [15] is fighting extradition to Uzbekistan, where he had been speaking out against bloody repression faced by his Karakalpak ethnic minority. And in Burkina Faso, human rights defender Daouda Diallo [16] remains missing months after he was "disappeared," presumably at the hands of the ruling military junta. Yet neither the mainstream media nor "progressives" in the West pay heed to these cases—while the reactionary and Kremlin-coopted [17] Julian Assange [18] is a cause [19]célèbre [19]. In Episode 214 [20] of the CounterVortex podcast [21], Bill Weinberg asks: Why is that [22]?
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