Ecuador's lead opposition candidate is offering a sharp break with ten years of leftist rule in the Andean country, vowing to remove Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from the nation's London embassy,
Ecuador opposition candidate vows to remove Assange, denounce Venezuela
http://webcenters.netscape.compuserve.com/news/world/story/0002/20170217/KBN15W1G1_1
Conservative former banker Guillermo Lasso is the opposition's frontrunner in Sunday's presidential election.
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In an interview at campaign headquarters in his humid coastal hometown of Guayaquil, Lasso vowed that within a month of taking office in May he would remove Assange from Ecuador's embassy, where he has been holed up since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over rape allegations.
"Ecuador had no business spending a single cent protecting someone who definitely leaked confidential information," Lasso said from his 24th-floor office at the headquarter, overlooking the Banco de Guayaquil where he was executive president from 1994 to 2012.
"I will take on the responsibility of inviting Mr. Assange to leave the Ecuadorean embassy at the latest 30 days after the start of our government," he added on Thursday afternoon. (Article continues.)
If he wins on Sunday, the lead opposition candidate in Ecuador’s presidential election has vowed to immediately remove Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange from the country’s embassy in London.
Ecuador’s Opposition Presidential Candidate Promises to Kick Out Assange
https://sputniknews.com/latam/201702171050801734-ecuador-lasso-assange-embassy/
Guillermo Lasso, a former banker, is running against former Vice President Lenin Moreno, who is expected to take the lead in the first round of the election on Sunday, but is predicted to fall short of winning by a large enough margin to avoid a second round in April. Analysts expect Lasso to fare better in the runoff.
Lasso, a right-wing candidate, would be a sharp departure from the leftist politics that have been in place throughout most of South America for the past decade.
As his first order of business, should he win the presidency and take office in May, Lasso has vowed to remove Assange from the embassy, thereby forcing the publisher’s extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over an alleged rape.
The rape allegation comes from Assange sleeping with two women in Sweden, separately, but during the same month. During one of the encounters, a condom reportedly broke. When the two women learned that he had slept with both of them, they went to the police to have him compelled to take an HIV test.
“Once they were at the police station and told their stories, the female police commissioner informed them that this all fell within ‘rape’ law, and soon thereafter—that Mr. Assange was going to be arrested. Ms. Ardin and Ms. Wilen were upset when they heard this,” the Observer reported in a detailed explanation of the rape case documents.
Many groups, including the Women Against Rape (WAR) organization, have long contended that the allegations are false, and simply an effort to get Assange into Sweden, where he would likely be extradited to the United States.
“We oppose the use of rape for political agendas which undermine protection and justice for both rape victim and accused. We are appalled that rape allegations may be manipulated to facilitate Mr Assange’s extradition or even rendition to the US where elected officials have called for his execution for his Wikileaks activities. How can anyone ignore this threat? WAR cannot. We oppose the death penalty for any crime, let alone when no charges have been brought,” Women Against Rape wrote on their website in 2011. The organization has an entire section of their website dedicated to what they assert is the political persecution of Assange.
Now, Ecuadorian presidential candidate Lasso has made Assange’s ouster a central point of his campaign, and has vowed to have him removed from the embassy within 30 days of his inauguration.
“Ecuador had no business spending a single cent protecting someone who definitely leaked confidential information,” Lasso said during an interview on Thursday afternoon. “I will take on the responsibility of inviting Mr. Assange to leave the Ecuadorean embassy at the latest 30 days after the start of our government.”
Assange entered the Ecuadorian Embassy on June 19, 2012, and applied for political asylum, which was granted. Since that time, the building has been encircled by police waiting to arrest him and extradite him to Sweden. Stockholm has not ruled out handing the publisher over to the United States.
Lasso has also vowed to take a firm stance against Venezuela, ironically demanding that they release their political prisoners, including Leopoldo Lopez.
WikiLeaks has puzzled the public with a mysterious "Vault 7" riddle. Given several hints dropped by the organization the world may witness a new disclosure. WikiLeaks says it will be big.
New Clinton Emails? WikiLeaks Teasing Public With Mysterious 'Vault 7'
https://sputniknews.com/politics/201702161050763732-wikileaks-clinton-emails/
WikiLeaks continues to tease the public with the alleged upcoming exposure of new explosive information. Apparently, it may have something to do with Hillary Clinton.
"WikiLeaks asked what is Vault 7, where is Vault 7, when is Vault 7. While the world waits for the 'why' and 'who', we assume that the answer as to 'when' is on February 19," a video released by Anonymous Scandinavia on Twitter says.
"What do Hillary Clinton, Google and WikiLeaks have to do with each other?… Is Hillary Clinton going to be prosecuted?" the video asks.
Zero Hedge reported Wednesday that WikiLeaks, an international non-profit organization that publishes news leaks and classified information has started releasing cryptic questions about the mysterious "Vault 7" on Twitter from February 4, 2017.
Every day the organization posted a question on Twitter with an image attached: "What, Where, When, Who, Why and How did WikiLeaks Acquire Vault 7?"
The riddle has prompted a lively debate among social media platform users. One of the assumptions was connected with the fact that on February 4 the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released "Part 6" of Hillary Clinton's email investigation documents.
Back in March 2016 WikiLeaks launched a searchable archive for over 30,000 emails and email attachments from Hillary Clinton's private email server. The documents span from June 30, 2010 to August 12, 2014.
On July 22, 2016 a collection of Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails leaked to WikiLeaks also found its way to the public domain.
Furthermore, in October and November the organization released thousands of emails belonging to Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta and the second part of DNC emails.
The hack was groundlessly blamed on Russia by then Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, although no evidence was presented to confirm these claims. Julian Assange denied that Moscow could have had a hand in it.
In an exclusive interview with Sputnik former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray revealed in early November that the Podesta and DNC emails were not leaked by Russian hackers, but by a Washington insider.
"The source of these emails and leaks has nothing to do with Russia at all. I discovered what the source was when I attended the Sam Adam's whistleblower award in Washington. The source of these emails comes from within official circles in Washington DC. You should look to Washington not to Moscow," former British ambassador told Sputnik.
Some observers argue that the leak could have been the reason behind Hillary Clinton's resounding defeat in the 2016 presidential election.
The question then arises how an upcoming disclosure by WikiLeaks may affect the former Democratic presidential nominee.
