Ecuador vs. Assange; One Year Silenced

It seems that in recent days, Ecuador has become more tyrannical towards Assange than Britain is. With the recent terrible visit that Cassandra Fairbanks had and threats from the government to increase their protocol against Assange, it seems the country that once gave him asylum and support has turned on him. In fact, due to the US government coercing Ecuador, Moreno and his colleagues view Assange as an enemy. By gagging Assange for 8 months without visitors, phone or internet, the Ecuadorian government violated international law and literally tortured a man they gave refugee status.

When Julian’s lawyers took his treatment to the International American Court of Human Rights, the United States government threatened to stop funding them. 9 US Senators urged the defunding in December of 2018 but the timing is actually unusual and though it may be coincidental, seems to be fishy. Especially with the court ruling in Ecuador’s favor on his recent treatment.

In fact, a recent threat of arrest by Ecuador has circulated over the INA papers and the alleged offshore corruption. The problem with that is simple. Wikileaks simply retweeted articles that were already available on social media. They did nothing that we as individuals don’t do on a regular basis.

Regularly, Ecuador shows that it does not value free press or free speech by threatening Assange whenever their own corruption is exposed. Former President Correa of Ecuador has been quoted as calling Assange’s treatment torture on various occasions and has called out on Twitter the various crimes committed by Moreno’s own administration. In fact, recently a report was released that Moreno’s approval rating has plummeted to 17%!

During Cassandra Fairbank’s horrible visit where she was locked in a room, the evidence of the further persecution of Assange was evident. (Article seen here). One of her first statements appears below:

“The room was inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where 2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Julian Assange currently lives under the ostensible protection of political asylum. Yet the WikiLeaks publisher was barred from entering the room, where he was supposed to join me for a pre-approved meeting because he refused to submit to a full-body search and continuous surveillance.”

Assange was quoted as saying,

“I don’t want to do the body scan. It is undignified and not appropriate,” I heard Assange say. “I am just trying to have a private meeting with a journalist.”

Further into the article, she explains how she was locked into the meeting room for over an hour and then taken to the lobby to wait while the current ambassador and Assange met. The overheard argument before staff muffled it with a television and a fan included the following:

“You have been illegally surveilling me,” Assange sternly insists.

“I want you to shut up,” the ambassador says.

“I know you want me to shut up — the Ecuadorian president has already gagged me,” Assange fired back. “I am banned from producing journalism.”

Being a political refugee does not mean you are treated as criminal or prisoner. You have the same rights as anyone else should, yet Ecuador has been torturing Assange psychologically for over a year now. They have put in place protocol which takes away his right to do his job as a journalist. They have removed his right to free speech and are now attempting to punish him for retweets by Wikileaks from other media sources. This is not only cruel and unfair but it is illegal.

Another statement made by Assange during the argument was this:

“You are acting as an agent of the United States government and preventing me from speaking with a US journalist about these violations,” Assange demanded. “What kind of sovereign state allows its ambassadors to be interrogated by another nation? No self respecting state does that!”

“You have been working with the US government against me, it’s disgraceful! You are an agent of the US government, and there will be consequences for your illegal acts,” Assange continues.

Something must be done to free this man!

However, no matter the treatment Assange has not given in. He knows if he does, it will set a precedent for the persecution and prosecution of other journalists now and in the future. He remains strong even when it would be easy to bow. He is a modern day hero and we all must stand up for his rights now or lose our own!

#FreeAssange

The Prosecution of Julian Assange

With Chelsea Manning recently subpoenaed as a witness in the secret Grand Jury against Assange, it is evident that almost ten years after the fact, the U.S. government still wants to jail Assange for publishing Manning’s leaks.  Manning has refused to testify against Julian, and now faces prison time for obstruction. However, this shows that Chelsea at least has integrity on his side.  The results of a full prosecution against Assange would be a great catastrophe for Free Press and Free Speech as well as human rights.  Setting a precedent for future journalism and its ability to tell the truth, it would slowly be the end of the First Amendment in America and the end of freedom and justice as well as honest news.

 

Many do not believe that the current administration would seek to prosecute Assange due to his exposing the Clintons, but it is happening right before our eyes. In an effort to silence Fake News against Trump, he is also silencing those who are independent and is openly attempting to set a precedent against truthful journalism by further promoting the prosecution against Assange. See Caitlin Johnstone’s quote below and here:

 

It’s more than that though. It’s the degradation of our liberty at stake here in the United States by allowing such an atrocity against a publisher to take place who has given up a good part of his life that we might know the facts.  Julian Assange is living in a torturous hell worse than prison because he has principles and won’t give in to the evil that our world is living in.  He won’t bow and he won’t break because of pressures from “Big Brother”  quoting from John Pilger’s article seen here.

The prosecution of Assange also sets another precedent in how future whistleblowers and leakers will be treated by an empire like the United States who intends to crush anyone who stands against it.  Pressure from the U.S. is the very reason that the UK refuses Assange safe passage and Ecuador has relentlessly enforced the silencing of Julian.  The Republic of the U.S. has become too powerful and too big and with the prosecution of Assange, it will become the oligarchy ruled by the elite and not by the people.

In regards to the prosecution of Assange, Hannah Jonasson aka @AssangeLegal posted the following tweets, ( I have taken those quotes and put them all together):

Hannah Jonasson:

Some journalists keenly cite FBI informer Marcy Wheeler’s wild & eager speculations on EDVA’s #Assange indictment. But indications so far in fact point to the indictment relating to @xychelsea‘s case & @WikiLeaks revelations of US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cablegate, GITMO.

First of all, the document indicates that the indictment is in the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA). This is where the WikiLeaks Grand Jury (Ref:10GJ3793) has been empanelled since 2010 in order to indict Assange over the publications that Chelsea Manning was convicted over.

The @WikiLeaks Grand Jury was headed at the time by Neil MacBride (who was also responsible for the prosecution of CIA whistleblower @JohnKiriakou). MacBride is an aggressive proponent of the extraterritorial application of US criminal jurisdiction. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-vas-eastern-district-us-attorneys-reach-transcends-geographic-bounds/2012/12/15/a3f8f992-4625-11e2-9648-a2c323a991d6_story.html …

Working under MacBride was Zachary Terwilliger, at the time MacBride was leading the WikiLeaks Grand Jury relating to @xyschelsea’s case. Terwilliger’s signature is on the court document that revealed the sealed indictment against #Assange on Thursday. https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/attorney-general-appoints-zachary-terwilliger-interim-us-attorney …

 

Furthermore, the language used by Mike Pompeo, while still acting as CIA Director, in relation to WikiLeaks and it’s alleged source @xychelsea in his infamous “non-state hostile intelligence service” CSIS speech was missed or ommitted by many of those whom claim domain expertise.

In February 2012, WikiLeaks published emails from the “shadow CIA” private intelligence company Stratfor. Its vice president Fred Burton (who had previously had a senior US intelligence role) wrote in January 2011: “We have a sealed indictment for Assange” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvpPATXyh5A …

 

 

It is evident from much evidence that the prosecution of Assange is not about emails given to Wikileaks regarding the DNC and Clinton pre-election but is about the Manning leaks and Cablegate.  The fact that Manning has been called to testify with immunity in the secret Grand Jury trial shows that this administration intends to “make the arrest of Assange a priority” as Jeff Sessions stated in Spring of 2017.  Why would they subpoena Chelsea so late in the game if the intent is not to extradite Assange and make an example of him?  Here is her statement:

According to Mint Press News, (article seen here ):

“While reporting on the probe has largely focused on the nature of the still-sealed DOJ case, most reports have largely missed the fact that the marked increase in activity relating to the probe is directly related to the fact that Ecuador has, by all indications, agreed to rescind Assange’s asylum so that he may be extradited to the United States. As a consequence, the U.S. is moving forward with its case against Assange and WikiLeaks — which began nearly a decade ago in 2010 — now that it has received assurances that Assange’s extradition is a matter of when, not if.

Just days into 2019, the former president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, who had originally granted Assange asylum in 2012, shared via Twitter a document showing that Ecuador’s current government, led by Lenín Moreno, was “auditing” Assange’s asylum as well as Assange’s Ecuadorian citizenship, which he had been granted in late 2017.”

Further in the article, it states the following:

“For those who would argue that the U.S. could not set such conditions on a loan offered by an “independent” international financial institution, it is worth pointing out that the U.S. is the IMF’s largest shareholder — owning 17.46 percent of the institution – and also ponies up the largest quota for the institution’s maintenance, paying $164 billion in IMF financial commitments annually. In the past, the U.S. has used its privileged position as the institution’s largest funder to control IMF policy by threatening to withhold its IMF funding if the institution does not abide by Washington’s demands.

Furthermore, a leaked U.S. Army manual on “Unconventional Warfare” published by WikiLeaks in 2008 noted that the IMF was considered by the U.S. government to be a “financial weapon” to be used in “unconventional warfare” scenarios. As MintPress News recently noted, the manual states that the U.S.’ “persuasive influence” over the IMF can be used by the U.S. military to create “financial incentives or disincentives to persuade adversaries, allies and surrogates to modify their behavior at the theater strategic, operational, and tactical levels,” with such unconventional warfare campaigns highly coordinated with the State Department and the intelligence community.

It is also worth pointing out that Ecuador has been threatened with the financial might of the United States for much more minor issues than Assange’s status, despite its return to Washington’s “good graces” under Moreno’s leadership.”

The fact that several of Trump’s administration has spoken with Ecuador leaders about the Assange situation only shows that the intent to destroy Assange has escalated.  As more and more people board the train to support Julian and Wikileaks, it seems the more the U.S. government ups its ante.  To see how the administration has silenced Assange see my article Proof Trump’s Administration is Guilty of Silencing Assange.

Will we, the human race, continue to allow our rights and liberties to be destroyed?  Will we stand and watch them “shoot the messenger”?  Or will we stand together and fight the tragedy being played out before us as though it were just a movie plot?  I ask you this and plead with you to stand up for this man who stood for truth and justice and since has been tortured and illegally detained.

I also ask Trump supporters to contact him and question why he has done nothing for this man while he has taken the oath to protect and uphold the U.S. Constitution which protects freedom of speech and press.

Please don’t delay your letters and calls to elected officials as this man’s health is deteriorating before our very eyes.  Don’t be passive! Don’t let your own comfort put his blood on your hands.

 

 

Keep Fighting for Assange

In recent days, I have seen hatred and bitterness and have been brought to my knees by it.  I have seen those who say they stand for truth and justice wallow in their own judgement and deceit.  I have looked to those I called friend and have had them spit in my face in jealousy.  I have wanted to scream “You don’t know me!” and wanted to cry out all their offenses and yet I have stayed silent as a lamb goes to slaughter.

I have learned how people truly are and their jealousies and their sole desire to be part of the crowd.  I have seen those who want to be in the limelight bad enough to destroy anyone in the way.  I have seen lies and deceit and fake messages and those who call themselves the good guys be more evil than the bad.  I have had those who are guilty project their guilt on me and yet I have remained silent and called for unity.

My character has been torn apart by slander and libel and yes, even articles to try and ruin my name.  Yet, I will not back down and I will not stop.  There are things more important than popularity.  I stand by my principles and though you may tear who I am apart, I will stand for Assange until the bitter end.

I have made mistakes and said things out of pain that I shouldn’t. I have erred in my ways and have fallen many times but I will get back up and fight again. I apologize to those who feel I have wronged them.  I am sorry for any hurt I have caused but I will not bend and I will not break in supporting the truth.