Here is Jonathan Cook's bio: <https://www.jonathan-cook.net/about/>
I don't see any relation to the Unz report nor do I understand why you're even mentioning it. The page you link to doesn't mention Johnathan Cook at all.
Please provide a citation that backs up your allegation.
It's the same article, published on the UNZ review. The UNZ review also helpfully gives you a page of all articles a given author has published on their page. http://www.unz.com/author/jonathan-cook/
It seems conclusive that Jonathan Cook is a regular writer for the UNZ review.
UNZ is fringe. It definitely posts some anti-semitic stuff, some truther stuff, some straight up foreign propaganda... That said, I've always seen it as a sort of free speech public service, a place where you can go and dip into some wrong stuff. It's an intellectually interesting place even if you disagree with most of the articles there.
You can also read Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul there. There is something to be said for writers allowing a place like that to exist. By allowing their work to be published there, they are making a statement against censorship. UNZ feels more philosophical and principled than some sort of hate speech depot. This isn't Stormfront.
Here is a quote from the mission statement:
"This is not to say that I personally agree with all or even most of what these writers believe or claim. However, sometimes the most valuable insights are obtained by reading opinions sharply divergent from one’s own. Facing a sharp intellectual or ideological challenge forces us to more effectively frame our arguments and buttress the weaknesses in our logic and evidence that had previously remained unnoticed. Taking the measure of an effective critic is always more valuable than listening to a mindless echo. And I would always prefer reading something disturbing than something dull."
The author gets to choose where their writing get syndicated to. It’s a conscious decision, for whatever reason they make it: money, principle, or just good friends with the owner. So I don’t think it’s disingenuous to point it that they have chosen to write regularly for UNZ.
I haven’t judged UNZ either way, I’m just providing a citation for the claim that Jonathan Cook writes fro UNZ. Make of that information what you want.
Is it? I don't know how writing syndication works, but I had the understanding that you worked with a syndication company, and they just make the content available for anyone willing to pay the syndication fees for access to the content.
Julian Assange's case has been a witch hunt, from the "outside" it is so easy to see, how the US institutions move the strings to get a person. It almost happened with Gary Mckinnon, it happened with some hackers in Australia, it was about to (and still might) happen to Edward Snowden.
Like it or not, US influence in the world right now looks very similar to how the Roman empire was, and as it is expected, it will do everything possible to keep it that way.