Julian Assange Discussion

October 14, 2018 - Ecuador party restores Internet Access for WikiLeaks founder Assange
Ecuador partly restores internet access for WikiLeaks founder Assange | Reuters


FILE PHOTO: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seen on the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Britain, May 19, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/FIle photo

Ecuador has restored partial internet access to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who took refuge in the country's London Embassy more than six years ago, WikiLeaks and an Assange lawyer said separately on Sunday.

The move comes nearly six months after the Ecuadorean government suspended Assange’s communications in March, after he discussed issues on social media that could damage the country’s diplomatic relations, including a diplomatic crisis between London and Moscow as well as Catalonian separatism.

“Ecuador rolls back @JulianAssange isolation,” WikiLeaks said in a message on Twitter. The change was also confirmed by Assange’s Australian legal adviser, Greg Barns, who called it “a welcome development.”

An Assange spokesman said his communications have been only partially restored.

Assange took refuge in Ecuador’s London Embassy after British courts ordered his extradition to Sweden to face questioning in a sexual molestation case. That case has since been dropped. But friends and supporters say Assange now fears he could be arrested and eventually extradited to the United States if he leaves the embassy. WikiLeaks, which published U.S. diplomatic and military secrets when Assange ran the operation, faces a U.S. grand jury investigation.

“The main issue, the requirement for the UK to give an undertaking that Julian would not be extradited to the U.S., remains unresolved,” Barns told Reuters.

Friends and supporters of Assange say he has had contact only with lawyers since Ecuador suspended his communications with the outside world. WikiLeaks recently announced that one of Assange’s longtime associates, Kristin Hrafnsson, had taken over from him as WikiLeaks editor in chief.

As a 2016 presidential candidate, President Donald Trump praised WikiLeaks for publishing hacked emails that embarrassed his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

But Trump administration officials have condemned Assange, while a federal grand jury continues a long-running criminal investigation of WikiLeaks and its personnel, a U.S. official recently confirmed.
 
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange must follow a set of rules to stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in the United Kingdom, which wants to arrest him for jumping bail six years ago.

15.10.2018 - Ecuador Embassy sets Rules for WikiLeaks' Assange Asylum - Reports
Ecuador Embassy Sets Rules for WikiLeaks’ Assange Asylum - Reports

The 10-page protocol, unveiled by the Codigo Vidrio website, lists conditions for the whistleblower’s stay as of last Saturday, ranging from Internet access and visits to pet keeping.

The protocol reiterates that the 47-year-old is banned from speaking about politics or interfering in affairs of other countries, which could have him expelled.

Assange is allowed to receive no more than three guests at a time, who are required to arrange their visit with the embassy at least three days in advance.

He may only access the Internet and make calls using the embassy’s Wi-Fi, the memo says. He needs to file a request to use communication devices at the mission.

Assange is also expected to pay for additional communication expenses, as well as for regular health exams, food, dry cleaning and other services, save heating, water and electricity bills.

He has also been told to feed and clean up after his cat or else the feline will be handed over to embassy staffers or placed in an animal shelter

Assange asked for asylum in 2012 after leaking sensitive US cables that exposed war crimes in Iraq. He was accused of rape in Sweden but the charge was dropped. He fears being handed over to the United States if he ventures outside.
 
October 19, 2018 - WikiLeaks' Assange sues in Ecuador for better asylum terms: Lawyer
WikiLeaks' Assange sues in Ecuador for better asylum terms: lawyer | Reuters




WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has filed a lawsuit in Ecuador against new terms of asylum in the Andean country's London embassy that require him to pay for medical bills and phone calls and clean up after his pet cat, his lawyer said on Friday.

Ecuador this month created the new protocol governing his stay at the embassy. Lawyer Baltasar Garzon told a press conference in Quito that the rules were drawn up without consulting the Australian national, who has sued Foreign Minister Jose Valencia in a Quito court to have them changed.

Assange has not had access to the internet since it was cut off in March, Garzon added, despite a WikiLeaks statement this week that it had been restored.

“He has been held in inhuman conditions for more than six years,” Garzon said. “Even people who are imprisoned have phone calls paid for by the state,” he added, describing the obligations regarding the cat as “denigrating.”

Garzon said Valencia was named in the lawsuit because he serves as the intermediary between Assange and the Ecuadorean government.

Valencia said the government “will respond in an appropriate manner.”

“The protocol is in line with international standards and Ecuadorean law,” he told reporters in the Ecuadorean city of Daule on Friday.

Assange’s stay has become an increasing annoyance for Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno, who has said the asylum cannot be eternal but has been reluctant to push him out of the embassy on concern for his human rights.

Assange believes he would be handed over to the United States to face prosecution over WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents.

Former Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa in 2012 granted Assange asylum as he sought to avoid extradition to Sweden for interrogation on alleged sexual assault crimes.

Sweden later dropped its investigation of Assange, but Britain says he will be arrested for violating the terms of his bail if he leaves the embassy.

Ecuador in 2017 gave Assange citizenship and named him to a diplomatic post in Russia, but rescinded the latter after Britain refused to give him diplomatic immunity, according to an Ecuadorean government document seen by Reuters.
 
October 23, 2018 - Exclusive: Ecuador no longer to intervene with UK for WikiLeaks Assange - Foreign Minister
Exclusive: Ecuador no longer to intervene with UK for WikiLeaks Assange - foreign minister | Reuters

Ecuador does not plan to intervene with the British government on behalf of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in talks over his situation as an asylee in the South American country’s London embassy, Ecuador’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister José Valencia said in an interview with Reuters that Ecuador’s only responsibility was looking after Assange’s wellbeing, after the Australian national sued the country over new conditions placed on his asylum in the London embassy.

“Ecuador has no responsibility to take any further steps,” Valencia said. “We are not Mr. Assange’s lawyers, nor are we representatives of the British government. This is a matter to be resolved between Assange and Great Britain.”

The UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment after normal business hours.

Greg Barns, an Australian lawyer advising Assange, said in an email that “developments in the case in recent times” showed the need for Australia’s government to intervene to assist “one of its citizens who faces real danger.”

This position marks a departure from Ecuador’s previous practice of maintaining dialogue with British authorities over Assange’s situation since granting him asylum in 2012, when he took refuge in Ecuador’s London Embassy after British courts ordered his extradition to Sweden to face questioning in a sexual molestation case.

That case has since been dropped, but friends and supporters have said that Assange now fears he could be arrested and eventually extradited to the United States if he leaves the embassy.

WikiLeaks, which published U.S. diplomatic and military secrets when Assange ran the operation, faces a U.S. grand jury investigation.

Valencia said he was “frustrated” by Assange’s decision to file suit in an Ecuadorean court last week over new terms of his asylum, which required him to pay for medical bills and telephone calls and to clean up after his pet cat.

“There is no obligation in international agreements for Ecuador to pay for things like Mr. Assange’s laundry,” he said.

Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno has said that asylum is not meant to be eternal, but he has expressed concern about the possibility that Assange may be extradited to the United States. Valencia said on Tuesday that he has not discussed Assange’s situation with the United States’ government.

Last December, Ecuador granted Assange Ecuadorean citizenship and sought to name him as a member of the country’s diplomatic mission in Britain and Russia, which could have assured him safe passage to leave the embassy. Britain denied the request.
 
Although his communications may have been ‘partly restored’ in recent days, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange continues to be denigrated largely by Western governments and media – and even by his own host country, Ecuador, of which he is a citizen.

October 22, 2018 - Assange and Wikileaks Should Be Thanked – Not Smeared, Threatened or Censored
https://21stcenturywire.com/2018/10...e-thanked-not-smeared-threatened-or-censored/

1-julian-assange-wikileaks.jpg


It’s widely known that when Assange and Wikileaks began their project in 2006, and later came to international prominence with the publishing of a series of leaks from then-Bradley Manning, “western liberals and quite a few Establishment figures loved them,” writes Neil Clark.

The problem for the whistleblower organization largely began when it stayed true to its mission to ‘open ALL governments’ – including those in the West. That also posed a problem for the West, and especially for the U.S. and U.K., because the information Wikileaks released to the public has never been proven wrong.

Wikileaks has a 100% perfect record on the facts in those reports.

Further, here’s a list of past awards Assange, Wikileaks and its journalists have collectively received:

  • The Economist New Media Award (2008)
  • The Amnesty New Media Award (2009)
  • TIME Magazine Person of the Year, People’s Choice (highest global vote) (2010)
  • The Sam Adams Award for Integrity (2010)
  • The National Union of Journalists Journalist of the Year (Hrafnsson) (2011)
  • The Sydney Peace Foundation Gold Medal (2011)
  • The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism (2011)
  • The Blanquerna Award for Best Communicator (2011)
  • The Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism (2011)
  • The Voltaire Award for Free Speech (2011)
  • The International Piero Passetti Journalism Prize of the National Union of Italian Journalists (2011)
  • The Jose Couso Press Freedom Award (2011)
  • The Privacy International Hero of Privacy (2012)
  • The Global Exchange Human Rights People’s Choice Award (2013)
  • The Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Award for the Arts (2013)
  • The Brazillian Press Association Human Rights Award (2013)
  • The Kazakstan Union of Journalists Top Prize (2014)
As well as nominations for the UN Mandela Prize (2015) and nominations in six consecutive years for the Nobel Peace Prize (2010-2015)
WikiLeaks is cited in more than 28 thousands academic papers and US court filings
Source: Wikileaks.org​
The level of recognition and admiration for the work of Assange and his organization is staggeringly impressive. The accolades and citations received would put most newsrooms to shame. Then why all the coordinated smears, threats and censorship?

Looking to history as a guide and likely explanation, the following commentary provides a ‘snapshot of Wikileaks’ revelations’ focusing mainly on British foreign policy in the Middle East.

Mark Curtis
Middle East Eye

The UK government is ignoring a UN ruling that determined the Wikileaks founder was being held in ‘arbitrary detention’ at the Ecuadorian embassy

Twelve years ago this month, WikiLeaks began publishing government secrets that the world public might otherwise never have known. What it has revealed about state duplicity, human rights abuses and corruption goes beyond anything published in the world’s “mainstream” media.

After over six months of being cut off from outside world, on 14 October Ecuador has partly restored Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s communications with the outside world from its London embassy where the founder has been living for over six years.

The treatment – real and threatened – meted out to Assange by the US and UK governments contrasts sharply with the service Wikileaks has done their publics in revealing the nature of elite power, as shown in the following snapshot of Wikileaks’ revelations about British foreign policy in the Middle East.

Conniving with the Saudis

Whitehall’s special relationship with Riyadh is exposed in an extraordinary cable from 2013 highlighting how Britain conducted secret vote-trading deals with Saudi Arabia to ensure both states were elected to the UN human rights council. Britain initiated the secret negotiations by asking Saudi Arabia for its support.

Cables show Miliband approved a loophole created by diplomats to allow US cluster bombs to remain on UK soil​
The Wikileaks releases also shed details on Whitehall’s fawning relationship with Washington. A 2008 cable, for example, shows then shadow foreign secretary William Hague telling the US embassy that the British “want a pro-American regime. We need it. The world needs it.”

A cable the following year shows the lengths to which Whitehall goes to defend the special relationship from public scrutiny. Just as the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq War was beginning in 2009, Whitehall promised Washington that it had “put measures in place to protect your interests”.

American influence

It is not known what this protection amounted to, but no US officials were called to give evidence to Chilcot in public. The inquiry was also refused permission to publish letters between former US President George W Bush and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair written in the run-up to the war.

Also in 2009, then prime minister Gordon Brown raised the prospect of reducing the number of British nuclear-armed Trident submarines from four to three, a policy opposed in Washington. However, Julian Miller, an official in the UK’s Cabinet Office, privately assured US officials that his government “would consult with the US regarding future developments concerning the Trident deterrent to assure there would be ‘no daylight’ between the US and UK”. The idea that British decision-making on Trident is truly independent of the US is undermined by this cable.

The Wikileaks cables are rife with examples of British government duplicity of the kind I’ve extensively come across in my own research on UK declassified files. In advance of the British-NATO bombing campaign in Libya in March 2011, for example, the British government pretended that its aim was to prevent Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s attacks on civilians and not to overthrow him.

However, Wikileaks files released in 2016 as part of its Hillary Clinton archive show William Burns, then the US deputy secretary of state, having talked with foreign secretary William Hague about a “post-Qaddafi” Libya. This was more than three weeks before military operations began. The intention was clearly to overthrow Gaddafi, and the UN resolution about protecting civilians was simply window dressing.

Deception over Diego Garcia

Another case of British duplicity concerns Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos archipelago in the Indian Ocean, which is now a major US base for intervention in the Middle East. The UK has long fought to prevent Chagos islanders from returning to their homeland after forcibly removing them in the 1960s.

A secret 2009 cable shows that a particular ruse concocted by Whitehall to promote this was the establishment of a “marine reserve” around the islands. A senior Foreign Office official told the US that the “former inhabitants would find it difficult, if not impossible, to pursue their claim for resettlement on the islands if the entire Chagos Archipelago were a marine reserve”.

A week before the “marine reserve” proposal was made to the US in May 2009, then UK foreign secretary David Miliband was also conniving with the US, apparently to deceive the public. A cable reveals Miliband helping the US to sidestep a ban on cluster bombs and keep the weapons at US bases on UK soil, despite Britain signing the international treaty banning the weapons the previous year.

Miliband approved a loophole created by diplomats to allow US cluster bombs to remain on UK soil and was part of discussions on how the loophole would help avert a debate in parliament that could have “complicated or muddied” the issue. Critically, the same cable also revealed that the US was storing cluster munitions on ships based at Diego Garcia.

Spying on the UK

Cables show the US spying on the Foreign Office, collecting information on British ministers. Soon after the appointment of Ivan Lewis as a junior foreign minister in 2009, US officials were briefing the office of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about rumours that he was depressed and had a reputation as a bully, and on “the state of his marriage”.

Washington was also shown to have been spying on the UK mission to the UN, along with other members of the Security Council and the UN Secretary General.

The document refers to investigative journalists as “threats” alongside subversive and terrorist organisations, noting that “the ‘enemy’ is unwelcome publicity of any kind, and through any medium”​
In addition, Wikileaks cables reveal that journalists and the public are considered legitimate targets of US intelligence operations. In October 2009, Joint Services Publication 440, a 2,400-page restricted document written in 2001 by the Ministry of Defence, was leaked. Somewhat ironically, it contained instructions for the security services on how to avoid leaks of information by hackers, journalists, and foreign spies.

The document refers to investigative journalists as “threats” alongside subversive and terrorist organisations, noting that “the ‘enemy’ is unwelcome publicity of any kind, and through any medium”.

Britain’s GCHQ is also revealed to have spied on Wikileaks itself – and its readers. One classified GCHQ document from 2012 shows that GCHQ used its surveillance system to secretly collect the IP addresses of visitors to the Wikileaks site in real time, as well as the search terms that visitors used to reach the site from search engines such as Google.

Championing free media

The British government is punishing Assange for the service that Wikileaks has performed. It is ignoring a UN ruling that he is being held in “arbitrary detention” at the Ecuadorian embassy, while failing, illegally, to ensure his health needs are met. Whitehall is also refusing to offer diplomatic assurances that Assange will not be extradited to the US – the only reason he remains in the embassy.

Smear campaigns have portrayed Assange as a sexual predator or a Russian agent, often in the same media that have benefitted from covering Wikileaks’ releases.

Many journalists and activists who are perfectly aware of the fake news in some Western media outlets, and of the smear campaign against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, are ignoring or even colluding in the more vicious smearing of Assange.

More journalists need to champion the service Wikileaks performs and argue for what is at stake for a free media in the right to expose state secrets.
 
31.10.2018 - CIA Coder jailed for 'Vault 7' leaks complains of 'Cruel and Unusual' Punishment
CIA Coder Jailed for 'Vault 7' Leaks Complains of 'Cruel and Unusual' Punishment

Joshua Adam Schulte, the 30-year-old former Central Intelligence Agency coder jailed in 2017 under the US Espionage Act for allegedly leaking 8,000 files to WikiLeaks, which were subsequently published under the auspices of 'Vault 7', claims he’s been made subject to solitary confinement under conditions amounting to "torture".

The revelations come in a letter to US Judge Paul Crotty of the Southern District of New York, who in December 2017 revoked Schulte's pretrial release and ordered him to be remanded without bail, a decision upheld March this year by an Appeals court.

"I am writing to you because I have been unable to contact my attorney, review my discovery, or even assist on my case in any capacity for the entire month of October. This is outrageous and clearly unconstitutional so I write to you for relief. On October 1 I was called down for a legal visit. When I arrived, I was told I was going to the ‘box' for an indeterminant amount of time while they investigated me for something they refused to tell me. So I was handcuffed in prison and led away in chairs to the notoriously inhumane torture chamber that is MCC's 9 South," Schulte said.

MCC (Metropolitan Correctional Center) staff are said to have subjected Schulte and other inmates in ‘9 South' — the prison segregation unit — to "cruel and unusual punishment". In particular, the accused former coder — who boasted a ‘top secret' clearance while at the CIA — complains of "shit-filled showers" which "leave [you] dirtier than when you entered", "flooding" of cages with "ice-cold water", being exposed to extreme cold "without blankets or long-sleeve shirts", "uncontrollable lights" that are "always on as we are sleep deprived". "No human being should ever have to experience this torture," he wrote.

Moreover, since being placed in the "torture chamber", Schulte has been refused access to his legal papers and his lawyers, preventing him from constructing a fresh bid for release prior to his eventual trial.

'Fellow Slaves'
"My day here consists of nothing but attempted meditation. My fellow slaves constantly scream, pound and claw at their cages attempting to get attention for basic needs fulfilled. I've witnessed men dragged from their cages and beaten and maced. An officer even uncuffed an inmate and told him to fight away from the cameras. Abuse runs rampant…I was strip searched and my cell was raided early in the morning on my birhday. Coincidence? Or birthday gift from the government? They will hold me in this hell forever while they do nothing. I am unconvicted. I am an American. I am a human being. How is it I should be subjected to this? Terrorists receive better treatment in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba-I have seen the footage myself," Schulte despairs.

In closing, the embattled coder asks Judge Crotty to order the Bureau of Prison "to give me back my legal work" and "access to the public defender phone to contact my lawyer during the day", as well as pens, papers, legal books, and access to medical support and blood pressure medication. He even goes so far as to argue the FBI "outright lied" in their search-warrant affidavits, and the Bureau is said to "now acknowledge roughly half" of these falsehoods.

The files Schulte is said to have disclosed to WikiLeaks were copied in 2016 from an internal Agency server, and documented a number of hacking tools used by CIA digital intrusion teams when conducting foreign surveillance. The US government still hasn't brought a case against Schulte over the leak though — and his lawyers have said dozens of staff had access to the server in question. In May, he was assigned a federal public defender after his private attorney dropped out, his family having spent most of their savings on legal fees.

However, in addition to espionage, hacking, and related crimes, Schulte's federal indictment also charges him with possession of child pornography, due to images FBI agents apparently found on his hard drive while investigating the WikiLeaks dump.

Schulte also faces charges in a sexual-assault case in Loudoun County, Virginia — the FBI claims to have found photos one of his phones, showing a woman "passed out on the floor" of his bathroom and being sexually assaulted. The unnamed woman has been referred to as Schulte's friend and former roommate, and he's charged with a felony count of object sexual penetration and a misdemeanor count of unlawful creation of an image of another.

The Virginia case was the pretext for the revocation of Schulte's bail. Prosecutors also said he violated his release conditions by accessing his email and anonymous internet network TOR.


October 29, 2018 - WikiLeaks' Assange says Ecuador seeking to end his asylum
WikiLeaks' Assange says Ecuador seeking to end his asylum | Reuters

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Monday that Ecuador is seeking to end his asylum in its London embassy and hand him over to the United States, but a judge rejected his lawsuit over embassy living conditions.

Assange spoke from the embassy via teleconference at a hearing in Quito of a lawsuit challenging the Ecuadorean government requiring him to pay for medical bills, phone calls and clean up after his pet cat.

He took refuge in the embassy six years ago to avoid extradition to Sweden in a sexual assault case that was later dropped. He remains there to avoid being jailed by Great Britain for violating the terms of his bail, which he has said would result in his being handed over to Washington.

During the hearing, Assange said the new rules were a sign Ecuador was trying to push him out, and said Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno had already decided to end his asylum but had not yet officially given the order.

“If Mr. Assange wants to stay and he follows the rules ... he can stay at the embassy as long as he wants,” said Attorney General Inigo Salvador, adding that Assange’s stay had cost the country $6 million.

Foreign Minister Jose Valencia declined to comment on Assange’s assertion that Ecuador sought to hand him over to the United States.

Judge Karina Martinez rejected the lawsuit, saying the Foreign Ministry was in charge of determining his living conditions.

Assange’s legal team said it immediately appealed the ruling.

Embassy staff had complained of Assange riding a skateboard in the halls, of playing soccer on the grounds and behaving aggressively with security personnel.

Ecuador’s government also objected to his making online commentary about sensitive political issues in other countries, including publishing opinions about the Catalonia separatist movement in Spain.

The new rules were meant to address these concerns, Salvador said.

The United Kingdom in August had assured Assange that he would not be extradited if he left the embassy, Salvador told reporters last week.

Valencia told Reuters last week that the government was “frustrated” by the lawsuit and that it would no longer intervene with British authorities on Assange’s behalf.

U.S. federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia, have maintained a long-running grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks, which according to one source includes a probe into leaks of Central Intelligence Agency documents to the website.
 
November 16, 2018 - US prepares charges against WikiLeaks' Assange, Document shows
U.S. prepares charges against Wikileaks' Assange, document shows | Reuters

American prosecutors have obtained a sealed indictment against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, whose website published thousands of classified U.S. government documents, a U.S. federal court document showed on Thursday.

The document, which prosecutors say was filed by mistake, asks a judge to seal documents in a criminal case unrelated to Assange, and carries markings indicating it was originally filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia in August.

A source familiar with the matter said the document was initially sealed, but was unsealed this week for reasons that were unclear.

In a post on Twitter, Wikileaks said it was an “apparent cut-and-paste error.”

Reuters was unable to reach Assange for comment.

“The notion that federal criminal charges could be brought based on the publication of truthful information is an incredibly dangerous precedent to set,” Barry Pollack, his U.S.-based attorney, said in a statement.

U.S. officials had no comment on the disclosure in the document about a sealed indictment of Assange. It was not clear what charges he would face.

Officials in the United States have previously acknowledged that Virginia-based federal prosecutors have been conducting a lengthy criminal investigation into WikiLeaks and its founder.

Assange and his supporters have periodically said U.S. authorities had filed secret criminal charges against him, an assertion that some U.S. officials pushed back against until recently.

U.S. prosecutors are investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible collusion by U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign. Both Trump and Moscow have denied any interference or collusion.

Wikileaks has faced scrutiny for publishing emails hacked from the Democratic Party and the campaign chairman for Trump’s rival candidate, Hillary Clinton, before the 2016 contest.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded the material was obtained by Russia through hacking, and U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office has charged a number of Russians and Trump associates as part of his investigation.

Mueller’s office is also questioning Trump ally Roger Stone and others in his circle over their ties to Wikileaks, according to lawyers and some of those in Stone’s orbit who have testified.

U.S. criminal charges against Assange would further put pressure on Britain to extradite the Australian national, who has been holed up in Ecuador’s London embassy since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden in a separate sexual molestation case.

The document posted on Thursday was part of an unrelated criminal case involving a 29-year-old man charged with enticing a 15-year-old girl. In that case, the judge wrote in a detention memo that the defendant, Seitu Sulayman Kokayi, “has had a substantial interest in terrorist acts.”

Reuters was unable to trace contact details for Kokayi.

Joshua Stueve, a spokesman for the prosecutors’ office that filed the document, told Reuters the court filing was an error.

Prosecutors sought to keep the charges confidential until after Assange’s arrest, the document shows, saying the move was essential to ensure he did not evade or avoid arrest and extradition.

Any procedure “short of sealing will not adequately protect the needs of law enforcement at this time because, due to the sophistication of the defendant, and the publicity surrounding the case, no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged,” the document reads.

Greg Barns, an Australian lawyer advising Assange, said in an emailed statement it was “no surprise” that the United States was seeking to charge Assange and that Australian officials should allow Assange to return there.

Assange was initially welcomed at Ecuador’s embassy, but Ecuadorean authorities this year have begun to distance themselves. Last month, Ecuador said it would no longer intervene with Britain on his behalf.

In a statement on Friday, Wikileaks said Assange was willing to work with British officials as long he was not extradited to the United States.

The website gained prominence in 2010 after publishing a classified video showing a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack in Iraq that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff. It has also released thousands of classified U.S. military documents, among other disclosures.

Mike Pompeo, now U.S. Secretary of State, called Wikileaks a “hostile intelligence service” during his tenure as Trump’ CIA chief.

Assange’s lawyers and others have said his work with Wikileaks was critical to a free press and was protected speech.

“Any prosecution ... would be unprecedented and unconstitutional and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations,” said Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Trump publicly praised Wikileaks over its disclosures during the 2016 campaign.
 
I doubt that Trump is behind this? On the other hand, I would question VP Pence's involvement and possible motives? Or, is it possible, the writer Eric Zuesse is "projecting" a false narrative?

November 16, 2018 - Trump Quietly Orders Elimination of Assange
Trump Quietly Orders Elimination of Assange | Washington's Blog

On June 28th, the Washington Examiner headlined “Pence pressed Ecuadorian president on country’s protection of Julian Assange” and reported that “Vice President Mike Pence discussed the asylum status of Julian Assange during a meeting with Ecuador’s leader on Thursday, following pressure from Senate Democrats who have voiced concerns over the country’s protection of the WikiLeaks founder.” Pence had been given this assignment by U.S. President Donald Trump. The following day, the Examiner bannered “Mike Pence raises Julian Assange case with Ecuadorean president, White House confirms” and reported that the White House had told the newspaper, “They agreed to remain in close coordination on potential next steps going forward.”

On August 24th, a court-filing by Kellen S. Dwyer, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Alexandria Division of the Eastern District of Virginia, stated: “Due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case, no other procedure [than sealing the case, hiding it from the public] is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged. … This motion and the proposed order would need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested in connection with the charges in the criminal complaint and can therefore no longer evade or avoid arrest and extradition in this matter.” That filing was discovered by Seamus Hughes, a terrorism expert at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. On November 15th, he posted an excerpt of it on Twitter, just hours after the Wall Street Journal had reported on the same day that the Justice Department was preparing to prosecute Assange. However, now that we know “the fact that Assange has been charged” and that the U.S. Government is simply waiting “until Assange is arrested in connection with the charges in the criminal complaint and can therefore no longer evade or avoid arrest and extradition in this matter,” it is clear and public that the arrangements which were secretly made between Trump’s agent Pence and the current President of Ecuador are expected to deliver Assange into U.S. custody for criminal prosecution, if Assange doesn’t die at the Ecuadorean Embassy first.

On November 3rd (which, of course, preceded the disclosures on November 15th), Julian Assange’s mother, Christine Ann Hawkins, described in detail what has happened to her son since the time of Pence’s meeting with Ecuador’s President. She said:

“He is, right now, alone, sick, in pain, silenced in solitary confinement, cut off from all contact, and being tortured in the heart of London. … He has been detained nearly eight years, without trial, without charge. For the past six years, the UK Government has refused his requests to exit for basic health needs, … [even for] vitamin D. … As a result, his health has seriously deteriorated. … A slow and cruel assassination is taking place before our very eyes. … They will stop at nothing. … When U.S. Vice President Mike Pence recently visited Ecuador, a deal was done to hand Julian over to the U.S. He said that because the political cost of expelling Julian from the Embassy was too high, the plan was to break him down mentally… to such a point that he will break and be forced to leave. … The extradition warrant is held in secret, four prosecutors but no defense, and no judge, … without a prima-facie case. [Under the U.S. system, the result nonetheless can be] indefinite detention without trial. Julian could be held in Guantanamo Bay and tortured, sentenced to 45 years in a maximum security prison, or face the death penalty,” for “espionage,” in such secret proceedings.

Her phrase, “because the political cost of expelling Julian from the Embassy was too high” refers to the worry that this new President of Ecuador has, of his cooperating with the U.S. regime’s demands and thereby basically ceding sovereignty to those foreigners (the rulers of the U.S.), regarding the Ecuadorian citizen, Assange.

This conservative new President of Ecuador, who has replaced the progressive President who had granted Assange protection, is obviously doing all that he can to comply with U.S. President Trump and the U.S. Congress’s demand for Assange either to die soon inside the Embassy or else be transferred to the U.S. and basically just disappear, at Guantanamo or elsewhere. Ecuador’s President wants to do this in such a way that Ecuador’s voters won’t blame him for it, and that he’ll thus be able to be re-elected. This is the type of deal he apparently has reached with Trump’s agent, Pence. It’s all secret, but the evidence on this much of what was secretly agreed-to seems clear. There are likely other details of the agreement that cannot, as yet, be conclusively inferred from the subsequent events, but this much can.

Basically, Trump has arranged for Assange to be eliminated either by illness that’s imposed by his Ecuadorean agent, or else by Assange’s own suicide resulting from that “torture,” or else by America’s own criminal-justice system. If this elimination happens inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, then that would be optimal for America’s President and Congress; but, if it instead happens on U.S. soil, then that would be optimal for Ecuador’s President. Apparently, America’s President thinks that his subjects, the American people, will become sufficiently hostile toward Assange so that even if Assange disappears or is executed inside the United States, this President will be able to retain his supporters. Trump, of course, needs his supporters, but this is a gamble that he has now clearly taken. This much is clear, even though the rest of the secret agreement that was reached between Pence and Ecuador’s President is not.

Scooter Libby, who had arranged for the smearing of Valerie Plame who had tried to prevent the illegal and deceit-based 2003 invasion of Iraq, was sentenced to 30 months but never spent even a day in prison, and U.S. President Trump finally went so far as to grant him a complete pardon, on 13 April 2018. (The carefully researched docudrama “Fair Game” covered well the Plame-incident.) Libby had overseen the career-destruction of a courageous CIA agent, Plame, who had done the right thing and gotten fired for it; and Trump pardoned Libby, thus retroactively endorsing the lie-based invasion of Iraq in 2003. By contrast, Trump is determined to get Julian Assange killed or otherwise eliminated, and even Democrats in Congress are pushing for him to get that done. The new President of Ecuador is doing their bidding. Without pressure from the U.S. Government, Assange would already be a free man. Thus, either Assange will die (be murdered) soon inside the Embassy, or else he will disappear and be smeared in the press under U.S. control. And, of course, this is being done in such a way that no one will be prosecuted for the murder or false-imprisonment. Trump had promised to “clean the swamp,” but as soon as he was elected, he abandoned that pretense; and, as President, he has been bipartisan on that matter, to hide the crimes of the bipartisan U.S. Government, and he is remarkably similar in policy to his immediate predecessors, whom he had severely criticized while he was running for the Presidency.

In any event, the destruction of Assange has clearly been arranged for, at the highest levels of the U.S. Government, just as the destruction of Jamal Khashoggi was by Saudi Arabia’s Government; and, just like in Khashoggi’s case, the nation’s ruler controls the prosecutors and can therefore do whatever he chooses to do that the rest of the nation’s aristocracy consider to be acceptable.

The assault against truth isn’t only against Assange, but it is instead also closing down many of the best, most courageous, independent news sites, such as washingtonsblog. However, in Assange’s case, the penalty for having a firm commitment to truth has been especially excruciating and will almost certainly end in his premature death. This is simply the reality. Because of the system under which we live, a 100% commitment to truth is now a clear pathway to oblivion. Assange is experiencing this reality to the fullest. That’s what’s happening here.
 
angelburst29 said:
I doubt that Trump is behind this? On the other hand, I would question VP Pence's involvement and possible motives? Or, is it possible, the writer Eric Zuesse is "projecting" a false narrative?
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I hope Trump is not "behind this" but who knows. And as you say VP Pence's involvement and motives to me are not that difficult to question. I would not put it past him to be "all systems go" for hanging Assange out to dry.

angelburst29 said:
In any event, the destruction of Assange has clearly been arranged for, at the highest levels of the U.S. Government, just as the destruction of Jamal Khashoggi was by Saudi Arabia’s Government; and, just like in Khashoggi’s case, the nation’s ruler controls the prosecutors and can therefore do whatever he chooses to do that the rest of the nation’s aristocracy consider to be acceptable.

The assault against truth isn’t only against Assange, but it is instead also closing down many of the best, most courageous, independent news sites, such as washingtonsblog. However, in Assange’s case, the penalty for having a firm commitment to truth has been especially excruciating and will almost certainly end in his premature death. This is simply the reality. Because of the system under which we live, a 100% commitment to truth is now a clear pathway to oblivion. Assange is experiencing this reality to the fullest. That’s what’s happening here
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The above observations are sadly looking like the fate Julian Assange is facing.

I have been somewhat ambivalent in my feelings about Assange due to what the Cs said here:

Session12 December 2010:
Laura said:
Q: (L) Our next question is about Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Is Wikileaks what it presents itself to be? A grassroots, document leaking organization formed by a bunch of activist hackers and so forth?

A: It was briefly.

Q: (L) You say it was briefly; that means it was probably co-opted fairly early on. So, can you tell us if Julian Assange is an agent?

A: This is a question that you have already answered.

Q: (L) What I mean is, is he consciously an agent?

A: To some extent, yes. But remember programming of both the human and 4D varieties.

Q: (Perceval) Is it true that he had that meeting with the Israelis to agree that he would not release damaging documents about them?

A: Yes.

Q: (L) And what is the objective of this Sideshow?

A: You guessed it this afternoon; preparation to accept global control. Or so it is planned.
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Now that I see his fate drawing near I can't help but have feelings of disgust and sadness that the 4D STS are licking their chops to destroy him.

With all he has been through I couldn't blame him if he just wanted to check out. Also it wouldn't surprise me if they are not using HAARP-like weapons on him as well as conventional tactics.

Session 20 June 2009:
Laura said:
Q: (A**) So people are just disintegrating, and they're all hanging themselves. (Joe) Twenty four of them, all hung themselves. (A***) All under the age of thirty. (L) Well, you've got HAARP going, you've got microwave towers going, you've got cosmic waves going. (DD) I had a friend commit suicide in Tulsa last week.

A: Expect a lot more unstable behavior all over.
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The “Resistance” Struggles To Justify Support For Trump’s Prosecution Of Assange

Ever since suspicions were confirmed that the Trump administration is indeed working to prosecute and imprison WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for publishing authentic documents, the so-called “Resistance” has been struggling to explain exactly why it is so enthusiastically supportive of that agenda. And when I say struggling, I am being very, very generous.

When news broke that a court document copy-paste error had inadvertently exposed the fact that the Trump administration is pursuing an agenda which experts of diverse political persuasions agree would have devastating effects on the freedom of the press, #Resistance pundit and DC think tank operative Neera Tanden responded by tweeting, “Never mess with karma”. As of this writing if you do a Twitter search for the words “Assange” and “karma” together, you will come up with countless Democratic Party loyalists using that concept to justify their support for a Trump administration assault on the press that is infinitely more dangerous than the president being mean to Jim Acosta.

The trouble with that of course is that “karma”, as far as observable reality is concerned, is not an actual thing. It’s a Hindu religious concept that is supported by no more factual evidence than the Roman Catholic claim that a priest literally turns bread and wine into the body and blood of a Nazarene carpenter who died thousands of years ago. A Democratic pundit using the concept of “karma” to justify enthusiastic support for Trump’s fascistic attack on press freedoms is exactly the same as a Republican pundit using “God wills it” to justify the existence of poverty, and it is just as intellectually honest.
But it’s also the best argument these people have got.

I mean, think about it. There’s really no other way you can justify supporting a Trump administration agenda–an administration you claim to oppose–in a prosecution with legal implications that are severely detrimental to the free press, which you claim to support. The only way to justify it is with some vague, abstract notion that Assange is just “getting what he deserves” since the 2016 WikiLeaks publications of Democratic Party likely contributed to Trump’s electoral victory over Hillary Clinton, and the only way to reify that vague, abstract notion is with an appeal to some imaginary metaphysical principle, i.e. karma.

But, again, that is not a thing. There is no invisible eight-armed deity floating around behind the scenes arbitrating and distributing the consequences of WikiLeaks drops, and there is no rational argument that the Trump administration prosecuting Assange is desirable because Assange “deserves” it. The fact of the matter is that these people are supporting Trump’s fascism in the most toxic ways possible, they are utterly incapable of defending that support with any intellectual honesty, and the self-proclaimed “Resistance” would be more aptly named “the Assistance”.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald described this phenomenon as follows:
But the grand irony is that many Democrats will side with the Trump DOJ over the Obama DOJ. Their emotional, personal contempt for Assange – due to their belief that he helped defeat Hillary Clinton: the gravest crime – easily outweighs any concerns about the threats posed to press freedoms by the Trump administration’s attempts to criminalize the publication of documents.

This reflects the broader irony of the Trump era for Democrats. While they claim out of one side of their mouth to find the Trump administration’s authoritarianism and press freedom attacks so repellent, they use the other side of their mouth to parrot the authoritarian mentality of Jeff Sessions and Mike Pompeo that anyone who published documents harmful to Hillary or which have been deemed “classified” by the U.S. Government ought to go to prison.

…It is this utterly craven and authoritarian mentality that is about to put Democrats of all sorts in bed with the most extremist and dangerous of the Trump faction as they unite to create precedents under which the publication of information – long held sacrosanct by anyone caring about press freedoms – can now be legally punished.​

And indeed this is exactly what has been happening. Check out the joyous celebrations in online comments sections from when the news broke that the Trump administration has brought sealed charges upon Assange (here, here, or here for example) for a taste of where the “blue wave” zeitgeist is at right now. Their hatred for Assange has overpowered not only their hatred for Trump, but the most important ways in which they are meant to be resisting him.

When you find yourself supporting conflicting principles, it’s a sure sign that you were never guided by principle to begin with.
And this is really the lesson we can take from all this. The noxious strain of American liberalism which promotes Russia conspiracy theories, supports the prosecution of government transparency advocates, and only attacks Trump as an idea rather than actually resisting his actual policies was never about any principle of any kind. There were preexisting agendas against Russia, alternative media, WikiLeaks, and government transparency long before Trump took office, and all of those agendas have been systematically advanced by the powerful using the “us vs them” herd mentality of the McResistance. These people aren’t supporting the prosecution of a leak publisher because of their ideological values, they are supporting it because that’s what powerful manipulators want them to do.

Trump’s despicable prosecution of Assange, and corporate liberalism’s full-throated support for it, has fully discredited all of mainstream US politics on both sides of the aisle. Nobody in that hot mess stands for anything. If you’re still looking to Trump or the Democrats to protect you from the rising tide of fascism, the time to make your exit is now.
 
Laura said:
Trump’s despicable prosecution of Assange, and corporate liberalism’s full-throated support for it, has fully discredited all of mainstream US politics on both sides of the aisle. Nobody in that hot mess stands for anything. If you’re still looking to Trump or the Democrats to protect you from the rising tide of fascism, the time to make your exit is now.
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If Trump hasn't seen the "writing on walls" of the oval office yet maybe it is time those giving him the benefit of the doubt to think about what those words might be saying such as:

מנא מנא תקל ופרסין‬

"MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN"

Daniel reads the words "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN" and interprets them for the king: "MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed ... and found wanting;" and "PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed in purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made… that he should rank third in the kingdom; [and] that very night Belshazzar the Chaldean (Babylonian) king was killed, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom."[4]
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I think implications of those words could apply to any of us, not just Trump, who "ignore reality right and left" (in an unbiblical sense that is).
 
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Laura said:
Trump’s despicable prosecution of Assange, and corporate liberalism’s full-throated support for it, has fully discredited all of mainstream US politics on both sides of the aisle. Nobody in that hot mess stands for anything. If you’re still looking to Trump or the Democrats to protect you from the rising tide of fascism, the time to make your exit is now.
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Trump was vetted by the PTB way before he became president.
Those who were not, got pushed aside by their parties, like Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders.

This is exactly why I feel that Trump was allowed to get past the primaries. If they didn't want him as a candidate, it would be simple to either pull a movement like what the DNC did to Sanders or put the focus on some stupid scandal.
Heck, even Howard Dean was dropped like a rock just by taking audio from one of his campaign speeches and making it sound "crazy" by modifying the volume of his scream.

I'm also a bit dissapointed with Assange though. He poo poohed 9-11 as nothing important at the time and promised huge revelations about the banking system. We didn't get much of that info. The 'Vault' was also a disappointment. I still feel that he is a 'limited hangout'. It's like Trump being a 'limited outsider'- you need to have someone out there with a voice that pretends to be representing the alternative groups that DO have legitimate questions/issues.
 
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