The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested after the Ecuadorian president, Lenin Moreno, withdrew Assange’s asylum, in a move that runs counter to international asylum law.
Charged With Conspiracy to Hack
Government Computer; Not Espionage
WikiLeaks tweeted that Ecuador allowed British police into the London embassy to arrest Assange at around 10:30 am British time, 5:30 am in Washington.
The U.S. charged Assange with conspiracy to hack a computer government computer related to the 2010 release of classified information, according to the criminal complaint unsealed hours after his arrest. The indictment does not charge Assange with espionage.
URGENT
Julian Assange did not "walk out of the embassy". The Ecuadorian ambassador invited British police into the embassy and he was immediately arrested.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 11, 2019
This is the moment when Assange was dragged out by police. He was heard to say, “The UK must resist this….the UK must resist.”
BREAK: Full @Ruptly video of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s arrest by British police this morning pic.twitter.com/tdBw1Kbpxn
— Barnaby Nerberka (@barnabynerberka) April 11, 2019
Assange was taken with an arrest warrant for skipping bail when he entered the Ecuadorian embassy in June 2012, fearing extradition to the United States, where there is a sealed indictment with his name on it. Assange lawyer Jennifer Robinson tweeted that he has been arrested for breach of bail conditions and also because of a request for extradition from the U.S.
Just confirmed: #Assange has been arrested not just for breach of bail conditions but also in relation to a US extradition request. @wikileaks @khrafnsson
— Jen Robinson (@suigenerisjen) April 11, 2019
From #Assange: The US warrant was issued in December 2017 and is for conspiracy with Chelsea Manning @xychelsea in early 2010.
— Jen Robinson (@suigenerisjen) April 11, 2019
Assange was taken to a police station and will later be brought to Magistrate’s court, according to a tweet from Christine Assange, Julian’s mother.
I have just spoken to one of Julians lawyers.
Julian is likely to appear before a UK Magistrate within 24 hrs re (old defunct) "bail warrant"
UK likely to seek max prison term of 12 months in higher court.
Our focus is as always to STOP a U.S. Extradition!
Let's get to it!
— Mrs. Christine Assange (@AssangeMrs) April 11, 2019
Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correrá reacted by calling Moreno the “greatest traitor in Ecuadorian and Latin American history.”
Full translation: “The greatest traitor in Ecuadorian and Latin American history, Lenin Moreno, allowed the British police to enter our embassy in London to arrest Assange. Moreno is a corrupt, but what he has done is a crime that humanity will never forget.”
El traidor más grande de la historia ecuatoriana y latinoamericana, Lenín Moreno, permitió que la policía británica entre a nuestra embajada en Londres para arrestar a Assange.
Moreno es un corrupto, pero lo que ha hecho es un crimen que la humanidad jamás olvidará. https://t.co/GwZ4OLreuo— Rafael Correa (@MashiRafael) April 11, 2019
Moreno made a national television address to announce his decision. While the expulsion of a refugee to a country that could harm him for political reasons, known as refoulement, is against international law, Moreno accused Assange of “repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols.”
Ecuador decidió soberanamente retirar el asilo diplomático a Julian Assange por violar reiteradamente convenciones internacionales y protocolo de convivencia. #EcuadorSoberano pic.twitter.com/V02pvvtPY0
— Lenín Moreno (@Lenin) April 11, 2019
Unity4J will hold an emergency vigil under the hashtag #FreeJulian beginning at noon U.S. Eastern Standard Time that will be webcast live on Consortium News.
NSA whistleblower Ed Snowden reacted on Twitter:
Images of Ecuador's ambassador inviting the UK's secret police into the embassy to drag a publisher of–like it or not–award-winning journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books. Assange's critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom. https://t.co/ys1AIdh2FP
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) April 11, 2019
Journalist and filmmaker John Pilger tweeted:
The action of the British police in literally dragging Julian Assange from the Ecuadorean embassy and the smashing of international law by the Ecuadorean regime in permitting this barbarity are crimes against the most basic natural justice. This is a warning to all journalists.
— John Pilger (@johnpilger) April 11, 2019
This turning the world & Freedom of Speech upside down by arresting Julian Assange who brought the WARCRIMES of Washington into the open. Its amazing that countries like UK & USA claiming to be democracies get away with these violations of prosecuting Julian Assange & arresting him. This is a sad day in history & for constitutional RIGHTS. Times of Hitler, Stalin & Gestapo Goebbels are BACK!
Moreno should take his 30 pieces of silver, paid to him by Satan’s Empire on Earth called America & find the nearest tree & do to himself what Judas Iscariot did? This cowardly, treasonous, traitor masquerading as a Ecuador President is nothing more than a corrupt crook who sold out Assange for financial gain & US loans? Prostate yourself & bow down to your evil Master, the apostate, golden calf Antichrist called America! A special place in Hell is reserved for you Moreno & your mates Pompeo, Bolton, Bush, Chenney & the other demonic bunch of American tyrants with blood on their hands from their War crimes & collateral murder of innocents! Your disgusting & vile treatment of Julian Assange will be avenged one day & I hope you all rot in hell for your crimes!
Jeremy Corbyn (11 April 2019):
“The extradition of Julian Assange to the US for exposing evidence of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan should be opposed by the British government.”
Glenn Greenwald (11 April 2019):
“The @ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] warns the attempt to prosecute Julian Assange in connection with publishing “would be unprecedented and unconstitutional, and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations” & “set an especially dangerous precedent””
Scotland Yard statement:
“Julian Assange, 47, (03.07.71) has today, Thursday 11 April, been further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities, at 10:53hrs after his arrival at a central London police station. This is an extradition warrant under Section 73 of the Extradition Act. He will appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates’ Court as soon as possible.”
Tulsi Gabbard:
“The arrest of #JulianAssange is meant to send a message to all Americans and journalists: be quiet, behave, toe the line. Or you will pay the price.”
https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1116446982342529024
Now that Representative Gabbard has bravely stepped up I wonder if the other brave political candidates will follow. Perhaps too cynical, but only if she gets a positive response.
A very dark day in history.
It is getting hard to say which particular action by this filthy failing remnant of a global empire is the most disgusting, but this one can only be tolerated by a degraded population that fully deserves all the consequences.
Whether those consequences are major world conflict or passive enslavement is a bit beside the point. – I would suggest that BOTH are already under way.
This is just sad
Lenin Moreno -and his government- is one of the biggest traitors the world has known. He will enter history (rather the rubbish bin of History !) as a corrupt vassal of the US equally corrupt gov. Shame on the political class of the UK, conservative gov. but especially the opposition, the Labour and pseudo-left, and the media. Shame on Australia, the US. Shame on the “Vichy journalists” all over the world ! Shame on the false friends of free speech ! Bourgeois democracy is a fake democracy for the majority of the people! I have no respect for these governments that do not respect law ! I have not any faith in the Mainstream Media any more ! Long live Assange, Manning… ! Solidarity from Algeria !
Despite the migraine, sore back, and all the other discomforts, I feel it important to add my voice to all the others in support of Julian Assange and the work of Wikileaks – an organization that would be superfluous if it were not for the corruption and betrayal of the media.
So few (actually none) of my acquaintances realize that there is a war already raging for control of the planet and its resources, a war in which the complicit media plays their part like Joseph Goebbels, while the Nazi regime (Wall Street) loots whatever treasures it can lay its hands on, and the Stasi disappears all critics and truth-tellers.
Yet the people are silent, and can’t be bothered, because their favorite TV show is on tonight. Some voyeuristic piece-of-sh*t reality show in which the contestants act out the worst of human nature for the slim chance of becoming celebrities themselves. Or maybe it’s another murder mystery? There’s a novel idea for entertainment. Some pretty lady was killed… thank God it wasn’t me… better check the locks again and take another hit on the bong. Ahhh, that’s better.
Oh, the rot is deep, my friends, and the TV-bots are fast asleep. This fetid carcass of an empire cannot expire soon enough.
Article of interest at link below.
——————————————-
How Ecuador’s Globalist Regime Received Billions to Sell Out Julian Assange
Lenín Moreno will be remembered as one of the most cowardly and disgraceful leaders in world history.
Published
4 hours ago on Apr 11, 2019
By Shane Trejo
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/how-ecuadors-globalist-regime-received-billions-to-sell-out-julian-assange/
Read the indictment:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/press-release/file/1153481/download
It is is so far fetched that only a DA [and an ex DA appointed to the Federal bench could believe there is anything criminal.
The accusation is that Assange “in an offense begun and committed outside of the jurisdiction of any particular State or district of the United States” [Indictment 15] did “combine, conspire, confederate and agree with other co-conspirators known and unknown” [Indictment 15] including Manning [and Scott Shane and Michael R. Gordon of the New York Times] to TRY to crack a “portion” [Indictment 9] of a password belonging to the US government.
The evidence is “Assange indicated that he had been trying to crack the password by stating that he had “no luck so far.” [Indictment 25]
This is claimed to be an offense under:
18 USC 641 which deals withe embezzlement of public money:
Whoever embezzles, steals, purloins, or knowingly converts to his use or the use of another, or without authority, sells, conveys or disposes of any record, voucher, money, or thing of value of the United States or of any department or agency thereof, or any property made or being made under contract for the United States or any department or agency thereof; or
Whoever receives, conceals, or retains the same with intent to convert it to his use or gain, knowing it to have been embezzled, stolen, purloined or converted-
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; but if the value of such property in the aggregate, combining amounts from all the counts for which the defendant is convicted in a single case, does not exceed the sum of $1,000, he shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
The word “value” means face, par, or market value, or cost price, either wholesale or retail, whichever is greater.
and 18 USC 793(c), and 793(e):
(c) Whoever, for the purpose aforesaid [of obtaining information respecting the national defense with intent or reason to believe that the information is to be used to the injury of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation- 18 USC 793(a)], receives or obtains or agrees or attempts to receive or obtain from any person, or from any source whatever, any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note, of anything connected with the national defense, knowing or having reason to believe, at the time he receives or obtains, or agrees or attempts to receive or obtain it, that it has been or will be obtained, taken, made, or disposed of by any person contrary to the provisions of this chapter; or
(e) Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it;
I have had no luck cracking the password either. Please indict me as a co-conspirator. But please, please indict Assange’s co-conspirator Michael R. Gordon of the New York Times first.
APPLE, who pays $0 in U.S. taxes, has removed Wikileaks APP from its products… just another DEEP STATE conspirator. BOYCOTT APPLE PRODUCTS !!
If it were not for people such as Julian Assange willing to tell us the truth, we’d be stuck in the banal Disneyworld the media projects for us on Plato’s cave wall.
Whether or not I like the information Wikileaks publishes is completely irrelevant. What is relevant is it is true.
The day human beings are not allowed to speak the truth in public is one we should all fear, regardless of one’s petty allegiance to Trump or Clinton or any of the other gangster feudal lords.
Red team & Blue team: a pox on both your houses. None of you are worthy to lead in a reality-based community.
Revolution is coming.
We seem to be at a point in America where our national discourse needs to revolve around important works such as the Bill of Rights and its place in our lives. What is the First Amendment really about. All the stuff our college professors tried get into our thick skulls like the writings of Locke and Rousseau. Maybe some of that needs to reach the airways. We seem lost by ignorance but more importantly by indifference.
As to our presidential wannabe’s, hard to be optimistic. There seems to be a cloning factory that produces candidates that all sound alike while working mightily to appear different.
If there ever was a high risk high reward issue it is Assange and his message.
To myself, I was hoping some our presidential candidates would defend Assange and pleased that it was Tulsi Gabbard who stepped up. I know the risks but the reward it could be the beginning of separation from the rest. Most important, it is consistent with her gutty approach to politics. Syria and Assad, telling the Democrats to stop whining about Russian collusion and to get on with the job they are supposed to be doing, and now this.
It is heartening and it is refreshing. She has yet to be tested by AIPAC but you can be sure she is on their radar. Passing its gamut with your integrity still there is an almost impossible task.
Maybe she has already capitulated, will have to check.
Yes, the candidates sound alike while trying to appear different. Even the 1% who appear progressive are soon bought to gain power, and have neither the courage nor the information base to sustain dissent. Where the tools of democracy (elections, mass media and judiciary) are controlled by an unregulated market economy, there is no hope of candidates or officials who have not sold out to get elected. The rare exceptions are simply overwhelmed by established interests in secret agencies and our corrupt judiciary. No reform is possible without destruction of the US by external forces, which may take a century. That never really happened in the British empire, and the US has even better natural boundaries. Democracy was an historical accident in the US and India, of resistance to a faraway empire of laws that could not defend its distant colonies. That cannot be repeated in any similar manner.
The only successor means of establishing democracy after the corruption of oligarchy, was the internet media, already nearly superseded by internet surveillance and denial technology.
It may be that real democracy can no longer exist without overthrows of oligarchy regimes in developing nations. Whether such cases in Latin America can avoid replays of the corruption of Western democracies is doubtful.
Another scenario is the rise of world government. But without new mechanisms to prevent corruption, its corruption would likely be the final sentence of humanity to primitive tyranny.
je souhaite que soit tenu en compte sa condition de détention, lors de son jugement
Today Assange. Tomorrow ze world!! Will anything short of the end of the world stop RogueNationUSA’s epic global outlawry?? Between the Bush/Cheney cabal, the passive/aggressive Obama maladministration and now the malignant genetic mutant Trump and his depraved and criminally insane posse of Pence, Pimpeo and Bolten (with the frequent assist from our UK bitch-poodle), we are out-Orwelling George and out-Hitlering Adolf. Or are the passive and stupid gen pop already too far gone??
In case the flurry of comments by Clintonista bitches are leaving you feeling somewhat misogynistic:
The two main speakers at the protest demo scheduled for tomorrow in Berlin are the same two women Bundestag MPs from the Left Party who visited Assange not long ago.
As a recovered Evangelical Fundamentalist and summa cum laude and phi beta kappa historian I can tell you this. The world we are now living in is the EXACT world that people like Hal Lindsey was predicting in his NYT’s 1970s bestseller “The Late Great Planet Earth”. I feel like I am watching the replay of his psychopathic—–allegedly biblical—-prophecies—-headed by the likes of Pompeo, Netanyahu, Bolton, Pence, Trump et al. The psychopaths are using his book as one of their playbooks and as a way to manipulate ignorant evangelicals to follow them as they lead us off the cliff to nuclear war with Russia and China. The twist is that the good guys like Manning and Assange are getting the authoritarian treatment that “we true believers” were taught to expect. Russiagate was a distraction to prevent us from keeping our eyes on the real culprits—-Netanyahu and his ilk. We are in for the fight of our life!! Psychopaths will do anything to “win”!
I cannot add to the many good comments here in support of Assange. But I will say that anyone who is cheering or smugly smiling about his arrest is a person who does not care one whit about the truth, about honorable living, about liberty, about right and wrong. These types are either deeply unethical or intellectually lazy, propagandized individuals who cannot think critically. They are shameful excuses for human beings. May Assange walk free again one day.
I expected this. What I did not expect, because I thought I was prepared, was the raw revulsion and anger I felt when I heard, spun into msm claptrap. May the lowest circle in hell be reserved for the US corporate state, and its vile minions in the U.K., Sweden, and,now, Ecuador.
Agreed
Hear! Hear!
I have been avoiding MSM coverage of Assange’s arrest and the vitriol of the little Eichmanns cheering on the persecution of a truth teller. The cowardice and Schadenfreude are disturbing and, frankly, infuriating. The errors of history are being repeated by people who smugly tell each other how wonderful and superior they are to a person with more courage and integrity in one atom than all of them put together. Many of the insufferably self-righteous”journalists” who turned their back on Assange milked WikiLeaks for all they could get before the establishment turned against the organization and the media changed its tune accordingly. Absolutely revolting.
Sad day.
I cannot understand why my two comments to this thread have been deleted. I expressed support for Julian (whom I have also supported monetarily) and gratitude to Consortium News.
This is shocking and sad. What a shame when we turn against one another.
And now my previous comments have reappeared. ?
Moreno has broken not just international law, but the laws of Ecuador.
He allowed a foreign government to enter the Embassy when an Ecuadorian citizen was being incha, Moreno is held in asylum and taken out by force.
Read the INA papers if you have not.
Moreno was corrupt for all the years he was VP for Correa
The US has no more need for Moreno and with huge losses in March elections to pro-Correa Governors and mayors, not to mention various other seats in both Manabi and Pichincha, two of the largest provinces, Moreno is in trouble and the US knows this.
They will throw him under the bus for his work as a bridge to open Ecuador to international finance, debt and austerity has largely worked.
They, the US terrorists,will see a real Pinochet and move elections in Ecuador up a year, thus not allowing the Citizen Party effective organizing. And with Correa not allowed to enter Ecuador due to trumped up criminal charges, this will be a problem.
Moreno will hold much needed money for Manabi, which he has never even visited officially, other than appearing before the Assembly, Moreno will attempt to punish the provinces that voted pro-Correa.
Giving up Assange is the final act for the Moreno charade. He has already weaponized the border, allowed the CIA to return to the country as an ‘Office’, monetized Assange for debt relief and more.
The corporate press works day and night to conceal all they can but the people are using social media effectively, which is why pro-Correa candidates won.
Little has been said regarding Assange’s lawyers here in Ecuador that are fighting for him and his rights as a citizen.
Ecuador and Moreno, along with Moreno’s willingness to fight Chevron’s having to pay damages for the death and contamination of human dnd animal life, is now known for what it is.
Timing? Trump cleared, Venezuela in crosshairs, Bibi getting reelected, Brexit failing, Russia and China won’t bend to USA. Never a mention of Seth Rich, not even by Tucker Carlson. Why would Trump have Bolton and Pompeo in their positions, anyway? Makes no sense unless we got a Trojan horse.
Either that or you swallowed the MAGA Kool Aid….new and updated from the famous Obama Hope and Change flavor.
Trump was always a Trojan Horse , much like Obama before him , someone willing to be a pinata people could hate and be distracted by while the Neo-Con Deep state went about their business in the shadows of the spectacle… though of course Moreno deserves all he receives by way of insults, how could anyone believe he would not eventually bow to the pressure exerted by the US and its superich globalist puppet masters…..
what is unbelievable is that supposed independent news sites like the intercept ,whilst defending Assange on Freedom of the Press grounds are still insisting he somehow colluded with the Trump administration… disgusting , reprehensible , idiotic ..craven !
“As my colleague Peter Maass argued, even many of those who dislike Assange’s subsequent intervention in U.S. politics on behalf of Donald Trump”
https://theintercept.com/2019/04/11/julian-assange-arrested-london-ecuador-withdraws-asylum/
He’s done.
Every “liberal” Democrat who buys into the Russiagate bullshit, who supports the prosecution of whistle blowers, who believes the lies perpetrated by the DNC, Clinton/Obama Machine and their press propagandists at CNN, MSNBC, NYTimes, Washington Post, et al, is complicit in the violation of international law and illegal persecution of Julian Assange. Congratulations: you’re right up there with the likes of Joe McCarthy and every bigoted, warmongering, neoconservative Republican, or Trump supporter, you profess to detest. Your ignorance keeps the empire running and the crimes of the US government hidden from view.
I would like to post this on my FB page with your permission. I cannot make these points more eloquently than you have already done.
Please post them with my blessings.
FB will flag it as fake news and disable relevant accounts. Part of the machine.
@ Cara
Lots of Republicans and Trump supporters are fully on board with this travesty. I do wish people would stop pretending one half of the putrid political establishment that runs this country is morally superior to the other. Anyone who calls themselves a Democrat or Republican is part of the problem,
You completely misunderstand my comment if you think I let Republicans off the hook for this travesty. I expect nothing but the worst behavior from the right wing of this country–and they never disappoint. But anyone who considers herself or himself a liberal should know better and should in fact be supporting Assange. And that makes the hypocrisy, and willful stupidity, of Democrats particularly revolting.
The Real Criminals in positions of power need to be arrested and put on Trial.
“Will The War Criminals Be Brought To Justice in 2019? Or Is Justice Dead and Buried”?
http://graysinfo.blogspot.com/2018/12/will-war-criminals-be-brought-to.html
It’s an interesting contrast between Assange, Snowden, Manning and Kiriaku, vs Poul Thorsen. Thorsen is wanted by the FBI for stealing at least a million – possibly two million – from the CDC, which hired him to do bogus research on thimerosal. Thorsen is “hiding” at his house in Denmark and could easily be brought to justice, but he was on the right side of the law. He told the lies the government wanted us to hear, while Assange, Kiriaku, Snowden and Manning told us truth the government didn’t want told. I’m disappointed that Obama has (as far as I know) been silent about Manning being arrested illegally. I think it was an intentional slap in the face of President Obama, as if to show us who is really in charge. We the people ought to be in charge, and could be if we understood how to use democracy for the purpose it was designed for. Sorry for leaving out other whistleblowers like Dr William Thompson and Reality Winner plus brave journalists who often risk their lives to bring us facts that differ from Pentagon lies resulting in their blacklisting from our media.
Thank you for mentioning Thorsen and Thompson. They have been completely ignored by the media–mainstream as well as alternative–as has the truth about the montrous calamity perpetrated by the pharmaceutical industry in collusion with the CDC, WHO, FDA, etc. called vaccination.
We all must make A LOT of noise for Assange and for a real press.
Obama persecuted Manning and other whistleblowers. His legacy of lies, illegalities, and sheer self-service should leave anyone who ever thought he was “good” well past “disappointment”. To call Manning’s arrest an “intentional slap in the face of” Obama is an insult to manning—Obama never said a word in her defense while presiding over an Administration that should go down in history as one of the most deceitful and treacherous of all time.
The sorry s.o.b. (who doesn’t have a “progressive” bone in his body) thinks he can tell us commoners that what we want, the “mainstream”, is pretty much where he stood—and then go on to reflect that, by 80’s standards, he would have been considered a moderate Republican. Then he tells progressives that they need to stop being “purists” and compromise.
What he didn’t say was that his “compromises” were fixed from the start, and weighted towards Wall Street and the wealthy “owners” he bootlicked for the wealth he now enjoys. He was a key figure in the assault upon our rights, common good sense, and common humanity. Disappointed? I’m livid.
I agree with every thing you said about Obama, and yes it is way more about Manning and discouraging other potential whistle blowers, but I still think it is significant that Manning was pardoned by the President and then essentially arrested and jailed for the same offense. That may not have been the primary motivation for her arrest and imprisonment but I’m sure they enjoyed sticking it to a president whose color they didn’t approve of. Obama or someone ought to make some noise about it, too bad we were cheated out of a real president by the Democratic party’s war against democracy.
It is significant. I appreciate your thoughts and would just add the distinction that Obama commuted Manning’s sentence, something short of a pardon. I think this was an act of political point scoring, an easy way for him to smooth some easily-smoothed feathers on his way out of town. Certainly it can be said that Obama has lost all benefit of doubt with me. I don’t believe ethical considerations are ever at his “forefront”, so to speak (or even on much of a back-burner really). I think he’s deeply compromised to the core. And really enjoying it—so full of himself. I am ashamed I held my nose and voted for him a second time after I had already felt the betrayal.
I think Manning’s sentence was based on convictions related to the Espionage Act (a favorite “tool” of the Obama years). Right now she is being held under charges related to her (in my view proper) contempt for the grand jury process.
There are many connecting threads to this arrest. First, USGinc. is liable under US and international law for the prosecution of war crimes. Wikileaks exposed several US war crimes, to include murder and torture. The US is trying very hard to suppress the information of its war crimes and it must take control of the media to successfully complete that task. This also holds true of the UK govt. Suppression of knowledge about the past and present is necessary so that both govts. may continue to commit multiple war (and other) crimes with impunity. Any “journalist’ who supports this arrest has outed themselves as a tool of empire.
Citizens who support this arrest also have disgraced the rule of law and profound principles of justice. They are siding with powerful lawbreakers against themselves and others. Courtier “journalists” have some protection from this injustice because they serve a function in the system. However, courtiers are ultimately expendable as needed. Citizens who are not courtiers are simply expendable. There has been a complete breakdown of the rule of law in the US and UK. The rule of law is the only thing standing between ordinary people and abuse at the hands of their govt. Thus cheering on the breakdown of the rule of law is simply madness.
It is bizarre to listen to Moreno’s claims that Assange has broken international law. In fact, Moreno has broken international and Ecuadorian law. But everything is upside down now. How can anyone believe in justice coming from a judge who accuses Assange of being a narcissist,etc.? Is this judge a license psychologist? Has he sat down with Assange to complete a psychological assessment? If so, will he make that assessment public? Well, of course none of that happened yet the judge was saying it at a bail jump hearing. That’s a rabid hatred of Assange. That statement alone would require a new hearing if the rule of law existed in the UK.
It will be up to every person who does honor justice to stand up for Assange and all those who suffer at the hands of the powerful. I said this yesterday but will say it again. Gitmo is the endpoint. Assange is the midpoint of what is happening to all of us. There truly will be no one to speak up for us unless we speak up for others right now.
Great comment. However, I don’t think they will end up using Gitmo. He has been indicted by the eastern district Court of Virginia. Short of a miracle, I’m pretty sure Julian will end up in Federal Prison in the USA. That district court judge is a notorious defender of all things “Deep State”.
Skip, Thank you for your kind words. I should clarify my statement. Clearly, as Tulsi Gabbard has said, the unlawful action by USGinc. is not just directed at journalists but at ordinary people who would dissent/expose the crimes of this govt.
As bad as what has been done to Assange (and he has been tortured by Ecuador at the request of the UK/USGinc.) what is done to those in Gitmo is even worse. Right now, Assange faces a civilian court system in the UK where admittedly, he has only a slim chance of success. Those in Gitmo face a rigged military tribunal system where there is no chance, assuming they even get to face a tribunal (something regularly prevented by the USG.)
In the US, the ACLU is aware of at least two people who have been disappeared by USGInc. under the NDAA. And that is actually what I’m trying to point out. The US has long ago passed from being under the rule of law, foreign or domestic. Already two of our citizens have been unlawfully “disappeared”. There will be more.
USGinc. has its ways of dealing with dissent. How they treat Assange is one example. How they treat detainees in Gitmo is another. We can be certain that USGinc. will Gitmo anyone who is enough of a threat to them. Gitmo is both a place and a set of horrific techniques which can be implemented in a supermax just fine.
The only thing which can stop this gross abuse of other human beings is speaking up on their behalf. It is our job to never accept injustice against others. It seems that many Americans don’t understand the necessity of actually resisting the lawlessness of this govt. Still, it is vital to speak up and actually resist.
I am hopeful that Tulsi will continue to speak truth to power and continue to have access to an ever widening audience. It will be an uphill battle for her all the way, and I think staying with the DNC controlled democratic party is a big mistake. In the end, power is never ceded willingly. It will take the very real threat of revolution to bring about real change.
Wait, did anyone read the headline? Just in case, HE IS NOT CHARGED WITH ESPIONAGE
This could be very good news as this does not seem to be the type of crime that you throw someone in a deep dark hole/military/max security prison and not hear from them in years, if ever. Secondly, it could be beatable in court.
“Assange is charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison if convicted. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.”
This could be a Trump / Barr move to give a slap on the wrist and get him off the hook. If this would have happened before the Mueller report, Trump would have been forced to make an example out of him.
The deep state has a lot on the line here, in terms of keeping further info from the public. They need to make hackers and leakers afraid.
It’s possible that Assange will luck out with a lesser charge, but he’s likely going to be charged in a Federal District whose judges and juries rarely treat defendants fairly. I.E. no fair trial.
And, the FBI pulls people in on all sorts of things, gets them to talk, trips them up on innocuous inconsistencies, and then starts charging them, additionally.
And, the charge they initially make doesn’t mean that’s all they intend to charge him with.
The government can add charges at a later date, but for now it’s focused on getting Assange in US custody, and trickery could be involved.
“Ryan Fayhee, a former federal prosecutor in the Justice Department’s National Security Division that is overseeing the Assange case, said that while it is possible the government could file additional charges, the concise seven-page document unsealed Thursday appears to reflect a purposeful strategy by prosecutors.
The single hacking charge, Fayhee said, could ease the otherwise tricky process of extraditing Assange to the United States, in part because the British government also recognizes computer intrusions as crimes.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/04/11/assange-case-separates-journalism-criminality/3435588002/
The people who are most interested in putting Assange’s head on a platter have just been accused of treason by Trump and spying by Barr. It would be a huge, unflattering hand gesture, if Trump covertly arranged for Assange’s release, while handing Trump’s enemies the man who actually helped put Trump in office would be a humiliating public capitulation for Trump.
I appreciate that my thinking is naively optimistic.
God, I sure hope you’re right!
Wait, did anyone read the headline? Just in case, HE IS NOT CHARGED WITH ESPIONAGE
This could be very good news as this does not seem to be the type of crime that you throw someone in a deep dark hole/military or max security prison and not hear from them in years, if ever. Secondly, it could be beatable in court.
“Assange is charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison if convicted. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.”
This could be a Trump / Barr move to give a slap on the wrist and get him off the hook.
Deniz-
The usual scenario is to pile on the charges later. There is nothing in Trump or Barr’s recent history to suggest they have sufficient courage to do anything to challenge the Deep State, and the district court of eastern Virginia is a notorious supporter of the “Intelligence” Community. Trump sure has a funny way of showing his “Love” for Wikileaks.
Unfortunately, that is the more likely scenario.
History has shown that evil tyranny hates and seeks to destroy Truthfull Heroes. I think most knew this day was coming. Now it will have to play out. Will Americans come too Julian’s defense? Will we continue to torture Manning.? What will happen to Snowden?
My profound sympathies to you, Julian, for being betrayed by yet another government put under the thumb of the American dictatorship. Sadly, the UK will not resist or help you in any way. It went over to the Dark Side long ago, which is why you were sequestered in that embassy for over seven years. The UK is simply one of many puppets controlled by Washington, which is trying to extend its totalitarian control across the entire globe. You and Wikileaks were simply trying to enlighten humanity as to the nefarious plans being hatched and carried out by the goons in Washington. You have given your freedom and perhaps your life for the benefit of all mankind. I hope at least a fraction of the species takes note of your sacrifice, but surely you will disappear into the American gulag as completely as have the Skripals. Someone needs to establish the antithetical equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize, which recognises the villain who has done the most to place humanity under the boot heel of totalitarianism during the current year. I would nominate Lenin Moreno for this shameful distinction.
(And now I am off to my physical therapy session in an attempt to get back control of my right hand. Maybe more commentary later. This was just too outrageous to stay silent.)
Good luck with your therapy. Your comments here are missed.
Realist, I hope your hand heals quickly! Miss your intelligent commentary. May you be well and as good as new, soon. Cheers. M.L.
“Technology, it can be used to subjugate, or it can be used to liberate. The choice is up to us.”
~ Henry Wallace
Julian, he is a journalist. .. And, he is also so much more.
And Chelsea, she has been locked up since Friday March 6th, or for the last 36 days for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury that is probing into Wikileaks.
Chelsea objects to the secrecy of the grand jury process and she has said she’s, “already revealed everything she knows during her court-martial.” The judge ordered Chelsea to remain behind bars until she testifies or until the grand jury concludes its work.
“These secret proceedings tend to favor the government,” Chelsea told reporters before her hearing, “I’m always willing to explain things publicly.”
For more info on Chelsea’s principled view of the grand jury, or if you would like to help Chelsea; as well:
https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/chelsea-manning-needs-legal-funds-to-resist-a-grand-jury-subpoena?clear_id=true
Also, Chelsea is currently being held at:
William G. Truesdale – Alexandria Adult Detention Center
2001 Mill Rd, Alexandria, VA 22314
https://www.inmateaid.com/prisons/william-g-truesdale-alexandria-adult-detention-center
We knew this day was coming for Assange and we hope if he ends up here in the U.S., he will not be given the Guantanamo torture
treatment that the power-mongers are hoping for. We certainly intend to follow what happens and give our support to truth and freedom of the press.
The decent people of the world should protest in all British embassies across the world. Moreno is the most right wing fascist person to facilitate this human right violation of Assange and the violation of international law. Moreno the is a traitor and a criminal!
It’s “Famous ” Decision almost like famous Name…Lenin .. Bolshevik after
The October Revolution in Russia…
I wonder how much Money Latin Lenin
Has Got to be President of Ecuador..? But
Ecuador is NOT Famous Anymore !
I think we should do what Julian requested: resist his extradition to the U.S. I don’t know how we will do it but am counting on leadership to show us how. Many Julian supporters, myself included, live far from the U.K.
What can we do now and how should we do it? Please present us with options for action and the best ways to keep the lines of communication open amongst ourselves.
This is our time to act.
Okay, https://unity4j.com/ is a good site to keep up and running 24/7.
And so the same array of Western nations and institutions that daily violate international law with complete impunity under the cover of Orwellian propaganda now claim to be upholding the rule of law by arresting someone who has consistently pointed out with hard evidence how these same Western nations and institutions are in fact in daily violation of international law and therefore corrupt to the core.
The West has ground international law into dust with its crass immoral support for the recent attempted U.S. coup in Venezuela, and now again with the arrest of Julian for the heretical crime of exposing the complete and utter corruption of the West and it’s institutions. No doubt the completely amoral, complicit, well paid jackals of MSM will be dutifully howling and yapping tonight!
Yankee-bootlick, Benedict Arnold Moreno.
Still, since fairly early on in Assange’s embassy life, I have had my doubts about whether staying there for the duration was the best choice. Even now, with the U.S. indictment card finally being played, I think the future is less predeterminedly bleak than it may seem today.
But of course it was always Julian’s choice to make. Not some Quisling’s who slithered into office under Correa’s banner only to betray all the progress toward justice and sovereignty that Ecuador made during his decade in office.
INA Papers show he has been corrupt since 2012, Correa’s second term
So, is it not a crime to conspire to hack into government computers? Or is it not a crime if you are a journalist? If it is a crime, then the charge will have to be proven beyond reasonable doubt in open court and Assange will have the opportunity to defend himself. Extradition rules apply between most countries which observe the rule of law, so why would anyone expect the UK courts not to hear the US government’s extradition application. Yes, Assange did the world a favour, but that doesn’t give him a free pass if he is guilty of computer-hacking. he knew the risks and now has to face the consequences of his actions.
No, the moral issue and the ultimate legal issue is whether the activities revealed were contrary to the laws and Constitution of the US. The activities were never explicitly approved by the People, and their representatives are over 99% corrupted by money power in elections and mass media. Such corruption is tantamount to treason, and any act revealing such corruption is an honest and patriotic act. There is no evidence of any hacking.
“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” George Orwell
More bullshit from the the evil empire and the former evil empire. Amazing how so many police and others can be brainwashed into believing that this is the right thing to do.
Is there a legitimate organization we can send $$ to help Assange??
Wikileaks.
I have just emailed the following to the British Embassies listed on the Popular Resistance website and encourage all to do the same:
Subject: DISGUSTING ARREST OF JULIAN ASSANGE
The U.K. has sunk to a new low, allowing the arrest of a heroic truth-teller, Julian Assange, inside the London Ecuadorian Embassy. Have you no shame??
I will forever boycott all things British and Ecuadorian henceforth.
You are nothing but America’s bitch.
Kim Louth
Campbell, CA
Popular Resistance calls for the immediate release of Julian Assange and is organizing a protest today at 5:00 pm at the British embassy in Washington, DC.
Other rallies:
New York Consulate TODAY at 4:30 to 5:30 pm
845 Third Avenue New York, NY 10022
If you cannot attend, protest at a British embassy near you or email or call them. Here is a list of British embassies in the U.S.:
Washington, DC
3100 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20008
Phone: +1-202-5886500 +1-202-588-7800
Email: [email protected]
Atlanta, GA
Georgia Pacific Center, Suite 3400, 133 Peachtree Street NE Atlanta, GA 30303
Phone: +1-404-9547700
Fax: +1-404-9547702
Email: [email protected]
Boston, MA
One Memorial Drive, 15th Floor Suite 1500 Boston, MA 02142
Phone: +1-617-2454500
Fax: +1-617-6210220
Chicago, IL
625 N Michigan Avenue, Suite 2200 Chicago, IL 60611
Phone:+1-312-970-3800
Fax:+1-312-9703852
Denver, CO
World Trade Centre Tower 1625 Broadway, Suite 720 Denver, CO 80202
Phone: +1-303-5925200
Fax: +1-303-5925209
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Houston, TX
Suite 1900, Wells Fargo Plaza, 1000 Louisiana Suite 1900 Houston, TX 77002
Phone: +1-713-6596270
Fax: +1-713-6597094
Email: [email protected]
Los Angeles, CA
2029 Century Park East, Suite 1350 Los Angeles, CA 90067
Phone: +1-310-4810031
Fax: +1-310-4812960
Email: [email protected]
Miami, FL
1001 Brickell Bay Drive Miami, FL 33131
Phone: +1-305-4006400
New York, NY
845 Third Avenue New York, NY 10022
Phone: +1-212-7450200
Fax: +1-212-759-0359
Email: [email protected]
San Francisco, CA
1 Sansome Street, Suite 850 San Francisco, CA 94104
Phone: +1-415-6171300
Fax: +1-415-4342018
Email: [email protected]
Seattle, WA
900 Fourth Ave., Suite 3100 Seattle, WA 98164
Phone: 206-622-9255
Fax: 206-622-4728
Assange in handcuffs in police wagon as he is being taken away from the embassy.
We urge people in the UK, US, Australia and around the world to protest the extradition and prosecution of Julian Assange at every step of legal proceedings. In court today it was disclosed that the US is seeking extradition of Assange over an alleged conspiracy with Chelsea Manning “to break a password to a classified US government computer,” according to the US Department of Justice.
Popular Resistance will be doing all it can to build a broad movement for freedom for Julian Assange so he can continue his important work as a publisher and journalist. Assange has committed no crime and has had his political asylum, which has been recognized by the UN, taken away from him for no legitimate reason.
I didn’t think the Brits would do this now. It is shameful and tragic. It will hurt Moreno but not enough. I guess May has the Brexit extension and no future so it doesn’t really hurt her. Trump Administration is acting up everywhere. There was , no doubt, direct behind the scenes pressure from the USA making this happen now. Clearly a violation of International Law. The UN has to try and regain some relevance, Assange’s prosecution will be a circus in the USA. I would suggest that he may not be convicted in court but certainly our own Constitutional Protections are under assault. Our Press in the USA needs to play a strong role here for their own sake but I doubt they will. A Dark Day for certain.
The USA has been gunning for Assange since, in Australia as a teenager he exposed USA nuclear bases.
Collateral Murder was not only murder, it was a planned assassination of the journalist whose mission had been to document a series of USA war crimes. The Journalist was meeting with witnesses to a previous USA war crime committed at the very same the location at which they were all assassinated.
The first Swedish prosecutor interviewed Assange, on the charge that after having sex and sleeping with a woman he did not use a condom the second time in the morning (sexual assualt under Swedish law). The woman’s concern was for possible STD.
The other woman( possible Mossad agent, went to israel)
Assange was cleared and allowed to leave Sweden.
A Karl Rove assisted Prime Minister was newly elected in Sweden and a different persecutor reopened the case.
For the first time in history Interpol served a sexual assault warrant ( never before even for human sex trafficking). Simultaneously Interpol refused to serve the Baby Bush Cabal with war crimes warrants issued by Spanish Judge Garçon, who ended up disbarred, facing prison time and eventually becoming one of Assange’s attorneys.
“Curious eyes never run dry in my experience.”
A quote for eternity!
A quote that should be plastered on every journalist’s wall, every student’s dorm room, every free-thinker’s living room, every truth-seeker’s bedroom.
MSDNC, Clinton Noise Network, Fox Noise, the Washington Pot, and the New York Chimes may be cheering the arrest and prosecution of someone who showed them all up by doing actual journalism (a task these glorified stenographers for the powerful abandoned decades ago), but they have helped ensure that any one or all of them will likely be next in line for imprisonment, torture, and even the death penalty if the subhuman savages in government so desire—for for the non-crime of publishing information that embarrasses the powerful. Does no one think that Caligula Drumpf is now emboldened by the Mueller report to target the WP, NYT, and talking heads at the networks for prosecution?
In the same manner that the Nobel Committee defied the German government and awarded journalist/whistleblower Carl von Ossietzsky the peace prize for 1935, I would like to join those who nominate Julian Assange for the Nobel Peace Prize for speaking truth to power and upholding the moral imperative for freedom of the press.
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-controversial-nobel-peace-prize.html
I AM SO ASHAMED. I DON’T WANT TO LIVE IN THIS COUNTRY ANYMORE.
Told you I did. Reckless is he. Now matters are worse.
Assange is in serious trouble.
The US is going after him for complicity with Chelsea Manning.
State secrets and all give them leverage.
Manning was almost driven to suicide in solitary confinement.
And only got out through pardon.
His trial, involving secrets, then will definitely not be public.
What he has to say about anything will be no threat.
We will learn nothing.
M$M/The machinery of systematic murderers. This is a Judas vs The Christ scenario played out all over again. “How long shall kill our prophets while we stand aside and look?” The words of the great Bob Marley. He too a prophet of our times that was systematically murdered by the cabal who seek to control, enslave all of humanity at all cost.
Boycott travel to the US or the UK. Don’t spend holiday or leisure dollars in neo-fascist police states. Support Assange.
I agree. I live in the US but I am boycotting travel to Great Britain.
Especially with PM May, who will be salivating at the idea of being able to give Julian up to the USA.
After the way President Trump was treated by chuckles. When they disrespected my president, they disrespected the voters of the US. I have every reason to never spend any time and money in England.
Great Britain and the United States have defeated freedom today – but they cannot defeat freedom forever.
Oh please.
They’ve been successful for years at it.
Britain has been deeply involved in America’s Neocon Wars, as in Syria and Yemen, and their governments have done nothing but lie to their own people about what they are doing.
And they get away with it.
We live in dark times, and I think they are going to become even darker.
The jackboots have been put away. The 1984 methods are obsolete.
The US just does what it wants now, anywhere.
Then lies about it incessantly, leaving nothing but confusion in its path.
And it is supported every step of the way by a compliant and always-supporting press.
And in the end, no one in power actually cares what Joe Average thinks about any of it anyway.
The ordinary American citizen really counts for nothing in the workings of the imperial machine.
And, the truth be told, my observations are that ordinary Americans couldn’t care less what is done abroad.
Just not interested.
So, the government really doesn’t have to be too concerned.
And it’s not.
That is the reality of America and its establishment, and its loyal helpers like Britain wouldn’t dream of changing things.
Apart from everything else, who wants to call a Venezuela-style attack down on their heads?
It’s just before 1600 GMT – five hours after the arrest – and Jeremy Corbyn has made no statement.
Such fickle “friends.”
“Jeremy Corbyn, has publicly opposed UK’s possible extradition of WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange to the US, saying he exposed evidence of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan.” https://www.rt.com/uk/456286-corbyn-opposes-assange-extradition/
Shouldn’t our US Government honor Assange & Manning for them exposing war crimes committed under our proud and noble name? As a matter of fact wasn’t the invasion of Iraq illegal in the first place considering the invasion in 2003 was based upon trumped up faulty intelligence and there was no WMD to be discovered?
When it comes to Wikileaks exposing Hillary’s emails it would now appear that there was a reason for Mueller not finding Russian collusion because then the DNC would be completely left in the open for all to see their efforts at sabotage and influence peddling. I expect the prosecutors of Assange will stay far and away from even mentioning Hillary’s emails… so sorry Russia haters you won’t get your due if ever there were a due to be received.
It maybe too much for me to wish for but I hope the Seth Rich part in all of this attack upon free speech comes to light, if even the Rich murder gets any attention at all.
Now is the time for citizens and journalist to come to the aid of Assange and Manning.
Persecutors, Joe. Please get this right.
Jeff I hear you. These Prosecutors who represent the crimes of our NWO Establishment have certainly inverted our society’s sense of morals and our having a grasp on fairness and good. History is littered with crimes committed by our nobility and as Napoleon was exiled I wish our Prosecutors would soon one day turn their investigations and trials inward for there is where the real crimes may be found.
Also for our fellow Americans who are excited that Assange will suffer for his colluding with Russia dream on you dimwits this isn’t about that plus collusion was never found or done at the hands of Putin for that matter. Your alleged theory may possibly be covering up the greatest crime of this whole Russiagate event and, that’s someone who had a clear conscience who leaked the DNC files may have been murdered. (Out of respect for the victim’s family I won’t continue) but certainly it’s daff to cheer on a fascist police state who only means to control your every thought and word by projecting your attention onto the wrong person or persons as it be. (Manning is in this for the long haul) So enough with this Russia did it nonsense…. and for crying out loud sober up Hillary loss by her own admission and crimes to be hidden by attacking the honest messenger and believing she was a sure thing.
@ ” … wasn’t the invasion of Iraq illegal in the first place considering the invasion in 2003 was based upon trumped up faulty intelligence and there was no WMD to be discovered?”
It would still have been an unlawful war of aggression — the “supreme” war crime — even if Saddam did have nukes. Nations may only use force in self-defense or if authorized the the U.N. Security Council. “Self-defense” only applies in the event a nation is attacked, although there is an argument — that has not yet achieved the status of customary international law — that a nation may attack first if it has undeniable proof that another nation is eminently about to attack it.
The whole Iraqi ‘WMD” thing was a mere propaganda line without any basis in international law.
Thanks Paul for your input is most valuable indeed. What Assange & Manning did was show the further illegality of an already illegal war. So if I catch on a video a bank CEO embezzling bank securities am I as guilty for exposing the crooked CEO as he is for committing the thief? Also shouldn’t the bank CEO be charged with the crime of embezzlement since I will be fighting my own battles for bringing his crime to light? Okay possibly a poor metaphorical example but still shouldn’t Assange & Manning be celebrated for exposing the helicopter crews deadly evil ugliness of an already dastardly contrived ugly perpetuated war of choice? Joe
I was reading the NY Times comments. They are talking about Julian Assange holding Roger Stone’s Book as he’s being forcibly carried into the police wagon.
It seems just so odd, and unlikely.
I have read that Assange was holding Gore Vidal’s “History of the Nationsl Security State” when dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
Photos have now confirmed that the book was Gore Vidal’s “History of the National Security State”.
The book he was holding was Gore Vidal’s History Of The National Security State, not any Roger Stone garbage.
To make the Captain Obvious point to every CN reader on the planet:
He will be smeared unmercifully (or the true point behind the entire Assange story will be distorted) by 90% of the corporate media talking heads, scribes, ed writers, journalists and pundits. The godsend Assange shamed them for failing to do their jobs and they will savagely wage an all out assault on him.
This is a chance for Trump to have a show trial right before he wins the next election
This is a disgrace perpetrated against international law, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The criminals he exposed in his publications walk free while Assange is tormented and treated as a threat to civil society.
Assange given political asylum, for its a political crime. See the US charges:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/press-release/file/1153481/download
Read paragraph 9: “Manning did not have administrative-level privileges, and used special software, namely a Linux operating system …”
I’ve been using that “special software” for 15 years. *ing idiots. lol.
Truth is treason in the empire of lies
Absolutely appalling. But horrific though it is to say it, to think it, realize it, this action against Assange is unsurprising given the government, sorry the British ruling elites, imperialists all while forever embracing its former colony, the USA.
As for the Beeb – state media par excellence (not it ever, ever denotes itself as such, noo, state media – they’re Soviet, er sorry, Russian, Chinese, Iranian aren’t they), at about 3.00 a.m. AZ time they reported on this travesty of justice, with, guess who giving the down and dirty: Jonathan Marcus, their little Integrity Initiative friend and reporter. According to him – and puke-worthy as his lies are – the Ecuadorans said Assange was “aggressive” and communicating with people (how exactly? no internet service since Moreno took over; perhaps they meant speaking with his doctor and lawyer? Apparently verboten…). And Marcus revived and gave full gravity to the already many times thoroughly discredited garbage (though not on or in the MSM, who have barely mentioned Assange’s name over the past few years) that Wikileaks (and Assange particularly) worked with Russia to get Trump elected…..
Personally I do not expect the Demrat/Killary brokenhearted losers, so-called Progressives (from my admittedly jaundiced perspective all members of the groupthinking, university educated [disclaimer, so am I but not until my 50s] bourgeoisie [not a member of those societal, economic echelons]) to be in the least perturbed by Assange’s arrest and almost certain extradition to the US (assuming that his life will not be taken from him beforehand). The bourgeoisie are, or appear to be, completely unperturbed by what the FUKUSIS is doing and has been doing for a long time in the MENA and in Latin America. Their “concerns” seem to revolve entirely around “metoo,” the next shopping spree, the latest cruise – oh and the windmill cancer shit.
This is a further and most serious descent into the destruction of truth-telling in the media. May Assange survive it all to tell his truths to the world.
I am horrified but not surprised. This has been looming for a long time.
Also noted that RUPTLY is the source of the damning and horrifying footage.
Assange: Incredibly courageous and indomitable. Bravo for resisting the arrest and resisting vocally.
I hope there will be gigantic protests in London.
First off, the UK must provide Assange with needed medical care.
Doctors have taken the hippocratic oath. If any harm comes to Assange they will bear full responsibility.
“I am horrified but not surprised. This has been looming for a long time.”
Yes, this feels like the other shoe dropping. Yet I feel so afraid for our friend, Julian! Again, Thank you Ray McGovern and the entire Consortium staff for your vigilance!
Medical care may be a death sentence.
Remember the British government condemned to death the children because they were refused travel to other countries for treatment.
What about protests in Ecuador? Sadly, what is lost is that most Ecuadorians do not even know who Assange is.
If I remember correctly, tomorrow was supposed to be the day that a couple UN representatives were scheduled to visit Julian at the embassy. I can’t help but think that the timing of this capture of Julian was for the purpose of preempting those meetings. We will see what true progressives are made of in the coming days. It is time to fill the streets. Here’s Caitlin’s latest:
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/assange-has-been-arrested-for-us-extradition-the-time-to-act-is-now-aad3578ee82d
The timing had and has more to do with Moreno’s scandals. Both Moreno and Trump need to deflect and Moreno did it with this, Trump will do it with the corporate news covered show trial
Narrative control is always an important factor in these decisions. I believe they also feared what Nils Melzer, U.N. special rapporteur on torture, would have to say after meeting with Assange. He was scheduled to go to the embassy on the 25th. Now all the news will be about the legal proceedings with Assange, and both Moreno’s crimes and Julian’s torture will be flushed down the memory hole.
Another thuggish and boneheaded move by an unaccountable, violent government and its compliant poodle nations. Were I in a position to say “No!” As it is now the British governments choice, I would. Life without courage is life without nobility or even purpose.
There’s a time coming when the internet will be so controlled, that even this site will be silenced. The giant corporations who own the data pipes and communications infrastructure have no obligation to allow platforms for those who dissent.
it’s already here
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/online-harms-white-paper
If it were not for people such as Julian Assange willing to tell us the truth, we’d be stuck in the banal Disneyworld the media projects for us on Plato’s cave wall.
Whether or not I like the information Wikileaks publishes is completely irrelevant. What is relevant is it is true.
The day human beings are not allowed to speak the truth in public is one we should all fear, regardless of one’s petty allegiance to Trump or Clinton or any of the other gangster feudal lords.
Red team & Blue team: a pox on both your houses. None of you are worthy to lead in a reality-based community.
Revolution is coming.
How privileged are we to be at the very forefront of the public disassembly of the basis of Constitutional Law? It is totally fitting that this should be happening in previously great Britain
the very country that gave us the concept of the Magna Carta. A legal basic, now made publicly absurd by the same country that proudly advanced the concept of individual justice. So here at this tiny website we are confronted with the task of keeping Liberty itself alive for the future.
The picture of a weak and helpless Julian Assange, surrounded by Power will certainly become significant and fundamentally historic.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta
Given British history it seems necessary to correct the impression that you and others may have about such stellar pieces of documentation as the Magna Carta.
It was not intended to apply to the villeins – the lower orders, the hoi polloi, the workers. Only to the aristocrats and gentry (though I doubt they were called “gentry” in the 13th century). The property (real estate) holders.
Individual justice? A long time coming in England and Wales, let alone in their colonies particularly those colonies whose populations were not genocidally ethnically cleansed (not that the Brits held their hand back from slaughtering tens of thousands nor from deliberately letting millions die in famines). Here I mean India (the whole sub continent) especially, but the English/British ruling elites viewed the populations of all their southern hemisphere colonies as lesser peoples, uncivilized, expendable.
Moreover, such attitudes are hardly far distant. The Windrush Generation and the Chagos Islanders – about which little to nothing is to be heard on either the BBC World Service or NPR – are actions and injustices (against human rights) perpetrated by British Governments beginning with the Chagos Islanders in the later 1970s and under a Labour government! And only the other week the May government stuck two fingers up at the ICJ and its ruling on the right of return to their home islands of the Chagossians (the ICJ is only supposed to consider rulers/leaders of African, Yugoslavian and such nations, not western ones). And this very same May bot was the person who, as Home Secretary, in the Cameron government ordered destroyed the very papers (held by the home office) which proved that the British Caribbean peoples, who had been encouraged to migrate to the UK in the 1950s, had every right to live in Britain. This was preparatory to deporting them and their families…
So much for the concept of individual – or any other – justice as parroted, but deliberately ignored when convenient to the global ruling elites, of the British state.
Thank you AnneR, I have learned to respect your opinion so I’ll read more deeply about it…
I agree with everything you wrote, but:
> (the ICJ is only supposed to consider rulers/leaders of African, Yugoslavian
> and such nations, not western ones).
— You are confusing the International Court of Justice with the International Criminal Court here.
What does it say?
“The whole document is written in Latin, and the original Magna Carta had 63 clauses. Today, only three of these remain on the statute books; one defends the liberties and rights of the English Church, another confirms the liberties and customs of London and other towns, and the third gives all English subjects the right to justice and a fair trial. The third says:
“No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land.”
“To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/magna-carta-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-still-important-today-10017258.html
The Magna Carta wasn’t a document giving legal protection to the masses. It was written by, presented by and meant to serve the nobles against the power of the kings. It served the clergy too, who like in Spain during the Spanish Civil War there was a symbiotic relationship between the English nobility and the Catholic Church whose powers helped to protect the other.
It was the foundation upon which later laws were based over the following centuries but in its original form the rights of commoners were nowhere considered. They were Orwell’s first unpeople.
This looks and feels extremely surreal. Im not sure anymore in what time and what part of the world I live. I thought we won against the Nazis and Soviets?
In the US, it has been this way for a long time.The “Reagan Revolution” in the ’80s was simply a turning point when fascism in the US became more open, slowly becoming an accepted norm. The treatment of Mr. Assange is a clear statement, and a powerful warning, about the lawless power of this fascism. It is a message intended for anyone who might consider “stepping out of line.”
No, Allan Dulles and his brother brought thousands and thousands of Nazis to America and the leading industrialists of the day supported Hitler and Mussolini even after the war supposedly ended.
Take a look at the comments on the article on the New York Times’ website. They are all practically identical, mimic each other’s language and they all have liked each other. Assange is supposedly a Russian propaganda tool who helped Trump steal the election. He also endangered America and is an “enemy combatant”. Glad to see US tax dollars at work.
Assange’s crime was so awful that the NYT journalist cannot even describe it and as the NYT only publishes news that is fit to print simply says that it “embarrassed the party and Hillary Clinton’s campaign”.
No mention at all of how Wikileaks revealed that party officials and Hillary Clinton stole primary from Bernie Sanders.
And no mention at all of Collateral Murder, the real reason they want him. He exposed the criminality of our wars, and is now therefore a criminal. I think if Orwell were alive, he’d be telling us ‘1984’ wasn’t supposed to be a blueprint.
In a sane world that upheld the rule of law, those responsible in the “collateral murder” video, and all the torturers outed during desert storm would be on the dock for violating the Geneva Conventions, which per Article VI of our Constitution is the “Supreme Law of the Land”. Instead each succeeding president is indoctrinated to become the new War Criminal in Chief.
Chelsea and Julian should be given the Medal of Freedom, and the REAL criminals should be prosecuted.
I notice the charge is conspiracy with Chelsea Manning, while as far as I know, all info to wikileaks is accepted but the source is not disclosed, and Julian did not know who it was until later disclosures, and did not meet Manning, let alone conspire.
of course the ny times is comprised of pseudo journalists. all mainstream pseudo journalists are a disgraceful lot!
Thank you for this report, M Le Docteur Ralph. I’m so angry at present that I cannot bring myself to watch or read the MSM and its expected falsification of everything about Julian. We can be sure that the entire corporate media will march in lockstep on today’s events.
Falsehood and propaganda are their primary tools. Julian is their primary target for presenting truth.
This is the moment when the Deep State drops the mask.
Why do you read corporate presstitute media? I boycott them ALL and have been doing so since 2003.
Wikileaks had no impact on the 2016 election. Even before the candidates were chosen, people were pointing out why, if Clinton were selected, a Republican would be election. Strong Dem-voter opposition to the Clinton right wing goes back to the 1990s. Democrats had split apart their own voting base, middle class vs. poor. Our liberal bourgeoisie simply assumed this was of no consequence. During the Obama administration, Hillary Clinton built her public record as a hard-line “New Democrat.” I assume they will exploit the arrest of Assange for their 2020 campaigns.
Good Joe, for getting a well linked report on the current situation. Here’s the thing that stinks; it is RUPTLY (Russian State Broadcaster) that has provided the crucial images, audio and video of all stages of this (and Cassandra Fairbanks, bless her soul).
Nothing original from BBC and this is happening IN THEIR CITY. A searing indictment against the establishment media.
The BBC has been an English Government mouthpiece for ages now. I’m surprised that you’re surprised.
Ruptley or RT has been one of the few genuine platforms for true Journalism since at least 2014.
RT may be Russian but presently Russia is telling a lot of truth!
Not joke. Why do people assume that Russia is lying because they know their own media are? The Russian ambassador to the UK has put up with a lot during the past year (Skripal), and the Charlie Rowley visit to ask about Russia’s opinion of the whole saga was immediately sabotaged by the UK Press. Rowley actually wanted a pov not sullied by MSM lies, and the ambassador explained that no info had been provided through all the months of accusations and assumptions of guilt by media and May’s government.
> Here’s the thing that stinks; it is RUPTLY (Russian State Broadcaster)
Well, no: RUPTLY is not RT itself (which isn’t a state broadcaster either, but a government-funded NGO), but a “citizen journalist”, anyone-with-a-smartphone-can-join-in, service provided by them.
I guess we shall now see how those who call themselves “Progressive”, politician and “voter” alike, will respond when a genuine travesty, a severe threat to the public’s fundamental right to know what is done in their name, as well as to the right of speech itself, is perpetrated.
Surely the lap-dog Brits will turn Assange over to the tender mercies of the US.
Will Bernie Sanders or Tulsi Gabbard say anything?
Will Hillary cackle while her minions cheer?
Will all the “Prigressives” who Obama warned, just the other day, not to engage in “circular firing squads”, rush in to express their outrage, or will smug pleasure prevail?
This certainly will uplift Maddow and television ratings, as dancing on a presumed grave will quicken the lively steps of Russia did it! crew.
Let the crowing commence!
Will the US public give a damn?
Or, have the majority been sufficiently indoctrinated to believe Assange a Russian stooge, a serial rapist, or a CIA prop?
Who will dare speak up for Assange beyond the relatively small group who are capable of consistent critical thought and analysis beyond the superficial fluff pumped out by the corporate media and the silence of a docile, kept academia which has studiously ignored, for years, both what Wikileaks has revealed AND what has befallen Julian Assange?
My appreciation to all who understand and dare stand alongside Assange.
No one in the US ruling circles will ever stand up for Assange
Well, Maricata, Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard, and all those claiming to care, including Alexandria Occasio-Cortez, now have a stellar opportunity to speak to the truth of things.
Let us hear their voices as the espouse the principles that they believe matter in a just, humane, and decent society.
Silence will shout louder and longer than any words at certain crux points, and certainly this is a moment fraught with significance and genuine meaning.
Myths and pretence are the stuff of empire and domination.
Silence roars assent.
There is no “neutral” position, no refuge of prevarication.
Will Corbyn speak up or out?
This moment is a measure for each of us, but especially for those who profess their desire for a better, more humane and sane society on the political hustings.
Those who would lead now have the opportunity of doing so.
That the moment is full of consequence offers those of true conscience the chance to distinguish themselves as truly being in the service of truth and of justice.
Silence or capacity?
A rare moment for clarity, for actually daring to do what the time really requires. Real leadership is daring to step forward, first, especially if it is dangerous to do so, especially if it might be costly to do so.
Those who hesitate and calculate, they are not worth our trust or our time.
This is a test.
In life, the test comes first, the lesson afterward.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/11/politics/tulsi-gabbard-julian-assange-cnntv/index.html
Citizens of the united states have land grabbed, overthrown democracies, murdered 21 million completely innocent people world-wide since the end of ww2 and goaded pollute of Earth.
Arrest and torture of Julian Assange will be a delicious side show to divert the masses between shopping sprees.
Citizens of the US don’t do anything collectively. We’ve always been a profoundly divided people, and our media have always served as propaganda vehicles used to effectively keep the “unruly masses” well-behaved. People march into war when they are given no choice. The polluting hyper-consumers, obviously, have been our middle class, only a portion of the population. Today’s Americans are as powerless as the citizens of any other dictatorship.
My respect for the government and the people of the UK will end if Assange is extradited to the US. Their people include no one with the guts and initiative to simply walk Mr. Assange to the embassy of Denmark three minutes away. Their government has a nuclear defense, and clearly does not believe that it needs US military defense. They have a government as corrupted by criminal cashflows as that of the US. Their potential and traditions have been squandered.
We see the total corruption of mass media and formerly democratic institutions in the West. Their governments and mass media consist entirely of morally corrupt opportunists. There is no excuse to protect those governments in any way: their downfall is the only path to reform, and will waste the lives of five generations.
Thirty pieces of silver for Moreno.
This is very serious
Assange’s arrest, leaves us with one less important voice which informed us of the machinations of governments around the globe.
Will the British government hand him over to the US? I think they most certainly will. Is there no depths the British state won’t plummet to?
The Marquis de Ximenes was right all along.
Moreno can only come up with a cheap claim of “repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols.” This is beyond flimsy and doesn’t even make a good smear. What a cheap, shoddy “leader.”
He is not a leader, he is a pawn of the US. But not for long. They will dump him and find another thug, worse
Does he mean the cat litter?
or the use of linux when he had use of computer ?
One of the bravest men of our time. He along with Chelsea Manning offer the very definition of courage and honor.
I don’t even want to believe this has happened, that he will end up in the hands of the vicious people running Washington, the people we see treating Venezuela with state terror, who daily kill in Syria, in Yemen, in Afghanistan, and a dozen other places.
Our world is literally turned upside down with genuine evil prevailing almost everywhere.
I wonder in just what form the President of Ecuador will receive his thirty pieces of silver from Pompeo and Bolton?
Deposits in a Swiss bank account or a disguised special new aid package for the country?
I believe Ecuador just received $500 million from the U.S. (GS) for their complicity .
2 headlines side by side in today’s Financial Times of London:
Ecuador
IMF agrees to $4.2bn fund for Ecuador
Julian Assange
Assange faces extradition to US after London arrest
YOU CAN RESIST!!! Je suis Julian Assange
Jennifer Ortiz
The Western world is lost. Avarice has caused long held international rules of conduct framed by them at their mercy today as their nad faith is stripped of all pretense. This makes Assange’s freedom paramount to preserving our civilisatiom. FREE ASSANGE! HOLD MORENO ACCOUNTABLE!!!