Exclusive: Faced with extradition from London to Sweden to face sex-abuse allegations, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange fled to the Ecuadorian embassy and asked for asylum, what ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern considers an artful dodge to avoid possible U.S. persecution.
By Ray McGovern
Barring a CIA drone strike on the Ecuadorian embassy in London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s sudden appeal for asylum there may spare him a prison stay in Sweden or possibly the United States. Assange’s freedom now depends largely on Ecuadorian President Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado, a new breed of independent-minded leader like Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
Correa has been a harsh critic of U.S. behavior toward Ecuador and its Latin American neighbors as well as an outspoken fan of WikiLeaks. Atypically for the region, Ecuador is not a major recipient of U.S. economic or military aid, so Washington’s leverage is limited. This suggests that the Ecuadorian government may decide to defy Washington, accept Assange’s request for asylum, and have him flown to Ecuador pronto.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. (Photo credit: Espen Moe)
In which case, most British “justice” officials will probably say good riddance and breathe a sigh of relief, literally. They have been holding their noses for weeks against the odor of their obeisance to U.S. diktat, after the British High Court rejected Assange’s argument that he should not be extradited to Sweden.
Although Swedish “justice” officials have not charged Assange with any crime, they insist that he be extradited to face questions resulting from allegations by two women of sexual assault. This is widely, and in my view correctly, perceived as a subterfuge to deliver Assange into Swedish hands to facilitate his eventual extradition to the U.S. to face even more serious charges for publishing classified information highly embarrassing to Washington.
There have been persistent reports that Assange has been the target of a secret grand jury investigating disclosures of classified U.S. documents allegedly slipped to WikiLeaks by Army Pvt. Bradley Manning. A leaked 2011 e-mail from Fred Burton, a vice president of the private intelligence firm Stratfor, informed colleagues that “we have a sealed indictment on Assange,” but that claim has not been confirmed. Manning, however, is facing a court martial for allegedly leaking U.S. documents to WikiLeaks.
Giving the Brits the Slip
Interesting, is it not, that Assange, just days before he was to be extradited to Sweden, was able to (I guess) slip out of his ankle monitor, sneak through the cordon of Bobbies on watch at the estate where he was under house arrest, dodge other Bobbies and security chaps, and hit pay dirt inside the Ecuadorian embassy.
There is no denying that Assange is a clever chap. But unless you think him some kind of Houdini, there has to be some more likely explanation as to how he slipped through the various police checkpoints and walked into the embassy, which is located behind the popular Harrods department store in London.
Were the British security forces all out for tea? Or were they just as happy to have the Assange case and all the pressure from Washington focused elsewhere?
Certainly, the British had enough clues that, in extremis, Assange might attempt to make it to the Ecuadorian embassy. In late November 2010, Ecuadorian Deputy Foreign Minister Kintoo Lucas publicly offered Julian Assange residency in Ecuador, saying that Ecuador was “very concerned” by information revealed by WikiLeaks linking U.S. diplomats with spying on friendly governments.
“We are open to giving him residency in Ecuador, without any problem and without any conditions,” Mr. Lucas said.
President Correa promptly backtracked, saying that Kintto Lucas’s remarks were unauthorized and that no formal invitation had been extended to Assange, and noting that residency for him would require legal review in the event he requested it. (This came just one week before Assange was arrested, imprisoned, and then put under house arrest.)
Now I’m Requesting It
Ecuador’s embassy in London, announcing Assange’s arrival Tuesday afternoon, said he was seeking asylum, and added:
“As a signatory to the United Nations Universal Declaration for Human Rights, with an obligation to review all applications for asylum, we have immediately passed his application on to the relevant department in Quito,” Ecuador’s capital. “While the department assesses Mr. Assange’s application, Mr. Assange will remain at the embassy, under the protection of the Ecuadorian government.”
The embassy added that the bid for asylum “should in no way be interpreted as the government of Ecuador interfering in the judicial processes of either the United Kingdom or Sweden.”
Temporizing diplomatic phrasing of this kind seems de rigueur, as President Correa and his associates take time to choose how to react to the fait accompli of Julian Assange in Ecuador’s custody. In Quito, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told reporters that his country “is studying and analyzing the request [for asylum].”
Like Mother, Like Son
Assange’s mother not only applauded her son’s decision to seek asylum, but summed up the situation concisely, telling the press:
“I hope Ecuador will grant him asylum, and if not, another third-world country. I hope the third world can stand up for what’s morally right when the first world can’t and won’t because they’ve got their snouts in the trough, rolling over for U.S. greed and big business.
“Julian is a political prisoner, a journalist, a publisher of the truth about corruption, war crimes, kidnapping, blackmail, and manipulation. He remains uncharged and unquestioned on a crime which, if you explore it, has absolutely no basis. Of course he would seek asylum.”
She added that her son was a victim of decisions by the United States, Britain, Sweden and Australia to abandon proper legal process.
How 20th Century!
Abandoning proper legal process? Such thinking seems so, to borrow words from the eminent legal scholar Alberto Gonzales, so “quaint,” so “obsolete,” so pre-9/11! Abandoning proper legal process post-9/11 has become the “new paradigm” adopted not only by the Bush, but also by the Obama administration.
Not only is Julian Assange within his rights to seek asylum, he is also in his right mind. Consider this: he was about to be sent to faux-neutral Sweden, which has a recent history of bowing to U.S. demands in dealing with those that Washington says are some kind of threat to U.S. security. Glenn Greenwald on Tuesday provided an example:
“In December 2001, Sweden handed over two asylum seekers to the CIA, which then rendered them to be tortured in Egypt. A ruling from the U.N. Human Rights Committee found Sweden in violation of the global ban on torture for its role in that rendition (the two individuals later received a substantial settlement from the Swedish government).”
For those of you thinking, Oh, but that was under the Bush administration and that kind of thing is over, think again. In 2010 and 2011, the hysteria surrounding WikiLeaks’ disclosures of U.S. misconduct and crimes around the world brought cries from prominent American political figures seeking Assange’s designation as a terrorist, his prosecution as a spy and even his assassination.
Rep. Peter King, R-New York, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has called for WikiLeaks to be declared a terrorist organization and Assange to be prosecuted under the Espionage Act of 1917, a position shared by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed:
“The release of these documents damages our national interests and puts innocent lives at risk. He should be vigorously prosecuted for espionage.”
Others have gone even further, demanding that Assange be put to death, either by judicial or extrajudicial means. For instance, a former Canadian official Tom Flanagan has urged Assange’s assassination.
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin denounced Assange as an “anti-American operative with blood on his hands” and said he should be treated no differently than an al-Qaeda terrorist.
In a Facebook posting, Palin said Assange was no more a journalist than “the ‘editor’ of al-Qaida’s new English-language magazine Inspire is a ‘journalist.'” She added: “His past posting of classified documents revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the Taliban. Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaida and Taliban leaders?”
So, put yourself in Julian Assange’s place. If the New York Times accurately described President Barack Obama as saying it was an “easy” decision to authorize the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen alleged to have participated in terrorist operations against U.S. targets, how confident would you be that the onetime constitutional scholar would resist the political pressure to get rid of you?
A drone strike over London can be ruled out. But Assange understandably could fear a covert operation by Britain’s FBI and CIA counterparts, MI-5 and MI-6, to eliminate him “with extreme prejudice,” in old CIA parlance.
As melodramatic as that might sound, it should be remembered that nine years have gone by since British Ministry of Defense biologist and U.N. weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly’s “suicide.” Yet there remains considerable circumstantial evidence that his “suicide” was not self-inflicted.
Kelly was found “guilty” of disclosing accurate information regarding the bogus nature of the “evidence” of Iraqi WMD and, conveniently, was removed from the scene, supposedly by his own hand. Ecuadorian embassy dwellers may wish to hire beefeaters to taste the foie gras, truffles, or cakes ordered from nearby Harrods.
Correa on TV With Assange
Four weeks before Assange sought asylum, he interviewed Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa for Episode 6 of The World Tomorrow (Assange’s program Tuesdays on RT). Assange asked Correa why he has advocated that WikiLeaks release all its cables. Correa responded:
“First, you don’t owe anything, have nothing to fear. We have nothing to hide. Your WikiLeaks have made us stronger” with the damaging revelations showing the attitude of the U.S. embassy toward the sovereignty of the Ecuadorian government.
Correa continued: “On the other hand, WikiLeaks wrote a lot about the goals that the national media pursue, about the power groups who seek help and report to foreign embassies. Let them publish everything they have about the Ecuadorian government. You will see how many things about those who oppose the civil revolution in Ecuador will come to light. Things to do with opportunism, betrayal, and being self serving.”
Correa made the point that when WikiLeaks cables became available to the national media in Ecuador, they chose not to publish them, partly because the documents aired so much “dirty linen” about the media themselves. He added that when he took office in January 2007, five out of seven privately owned TV channels in Ecuador were run by bankers. The bankers were using the guise of journalism to interfere in politics and to destabilize governments, for fear of losing power.
Ecuador and the United States
Correa, 49, educated in Belgium at the Université Catholique de Louvain and at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign (for four years, where he earned both a masters and a PhD), said he “admires the American people a great deal.” But the U.S. government can be a different matter.
Assange and Correa discussed Correa’s decision to send the U.S. ambassador, Heather Hodges, packing as a result of the disclosures in the WikiLeaks cables, as well as her “arrogance,” and the Ecuadorian president’s unilateral closure of the U.S. military base at Manta.
Still, Correa seems to have had high hopes that things would improve under the Obama administration. The Ecuadorian president once commented that Hugo Chávez’s description of George W. Bush as Satan was unfair to the Devil and that the previous administration had made Latin America “invisible.”
Regarding Ecuador’s general relationship with the U.S., Correa underscored on Assange’s program that it must be “a framework of mutual respect and sovereignty.” That wished-for mutual respect and especially Washington’s regard for Ecuadorian sovereignty are likely to be put to the test in the coming weeks.
Hillary Clinton may be having second thoughts about the energy she expended earlier this month on her first visit to Sweden as Secretary of State. If Assange succeeds in skirting Sweden and makes it to Ecuador, she may now have to put Quito back on her travel schedule.
A Clinton visit to Ecuador two years ago was marred by protests, but she found President Correa a gracious host. But that was before WikiLeaks disclosed Ambassador Hodges’s pejorative comments on Correa et al. and Correa decided to expel her from the country for “arrogance.”
Correa does seem to have developed an allergy to arrogance, so Clinton may wish to consider sending someone in her stead to try to persuade Ecuador to surrender Assange to the tender mercies of American “justice.”
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. An Army officer and intelligence analyst for 30 years, he now serves on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). Full disclosure: he also served on the nominating group of Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence that selected Julian Assange for SAAII’s annual award in 2010.
Well said re: the rabidity of julian’s americo-israeili neo-libs/cons.
Maybe we will keep witnessing the 3rd world as the new land of the free.
Sad, America’s decline.
What a joke. This guy was about to do a tv show financed by Russia and now he is going to a country with the worst press freedom in the Americas after Cuba. What a shameless hypocrite this freak is. As for no leverage, dig this from the Washington Post:
Mr. Assange probably has little to gain from this maneuver. Whether or not he is granted asylum, he will be subject to arrest whenever he leaves the embassy building in London. Mr. Correa, on the other hand, could make himself a hero with the global anti-American left by embracing Mr. Assange’s cause. The WikiLeaks man claims, after all, that he is resisting extradition to Sweden because he believes he will be subsequently turned over to the United States and exposed to the death penalty. That no U.S. charges or extradition case are open against him is irrelevant to this fantasy.
Mr. Assange is also indifferent to, if not supportive of, Mr. Correa’s own record on free speech. Since the beginning of this year, the Ecuadoran government has shut down 14 radio and television stations, including eight since the beginning of June. Mr. Correa’s personal lawsuits against one of the country’s leading newspapers and several investigative journalists have been condemned by every major human rights group and international press freedom monitor. In response, Mr. Correa has launched a campaign in the Organization of American States to hamstring regional press protections.
There is one potential check on Mr. Correa’s ambitions. The U.S. “empire†he professes to despise happens to grant Ecuador (which uses the dollar as its currency) special trade preferences that allow it to export many goods duty-free. A full third of Ecuadoran foreign sales ($10 billion in 2011) go to the United States, supporting some 400,000 jobs in a country of 14 million people. Those preferences come up for renewal by Congress early next year. If Mr. Correa seeks to appoint himself America’s chief Latin American enemy and Julian Assange’s protector between now and then, it’s not hard to imagine the outcome.
charlie trew is a idiot! The U.S. is the most devous country on the planet.
This government is as corrupt as they come and all should be terminated . All the problems we’ve all faced over the last few years has all been by design . It won’t be long now when the world economy collapses and 90% of the population will suffer to exstinction . The bush’s and a few other super rich families around the world are who controll the planet , and caused all this caos. The elections in this country are a joke and the powerful know the outcome already , just ask al gore , who won the race but was taken to court by the bush’s so their loser of a son could be president . Just think , Bush sr. when with the c.i.a. , would fix elections in 3rd world countries to get leaders in that would benifit the U.S. Thats the same way is son got the job ! Why do they go after Julian Assange for telling the truth ? It only puts at risk the corrupt u.s. government thats why .. I really feel sorry for the u.s. troops who put themselves in harms way for no reason at all . Their just over there fighting for the fun of the rich ppl’s games and amusment .
exactly. as an evermore disturbed american. what ellsburg exposed was situational, vietnam. JA has dared far, far more.
The US will wait until Assange is in the hands of a country they know will turn him over to them, before they announce their “secret” indictment…bet on it.The fact that there seems to be no charges against him at the moment is irrelevant.
Pardon me for tossing facts around. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Assange has already done several episodes of the show to world acclaim. What Correa did with media in Ecuador was break up privately owned propaganda machines owned and scripted by banks and corporations in favor of two private, two public and two state owned media outlets. In other words, what could be reasonably compared to America’s defunct “Fairness Doctrineâ€, which was dismantled by the right wing supporters of Murdoch’s Fox News in order to bring you a steady diet of misinformation. In USA, almost all media is owned by six private corporations which are the laughing stock of media bias everywhere else in the world. Assange broadcasts on RT. According to Wikipedia:
“RT shows round-the-clock news bulletins, documentaries, talk shows, and debates, as well as sports news and cultural programs on Russia. The service is aimed at the overseas news market and broadcast through 22 satellite and 230 cable operators throughout the world. In addition to its English-language broadcast, it also runs Rusiya Al-Yaum, an Arabic language channel, and Spanish-language channels. It also runs a documentary channel. RT has 21 bureaus in 16 countries, with “presences” in Washington, D.C., New York, London, Paris, Delhi, Cairo, Baghdad, Kiev and other cities. It employs over 2,000 media professionals worldwide. It broadcasts to 430 million people in over 100 countries. RT America is available to 50 million people in the United States. RT is the second most-watched foreign news channel in the United States, after BBC News. The network’s YouTube channel has gained over 700 million views.â€
Now that Venezuela has been determined to have more oil than Saudi Arabia, USA is probably stinging from the coup d’etat they botched up trying to overthrow Chavez a few years ago. And Brazil has negotiated with Russia, China, India and South Africa to dump the dollar as the world reserve currency. We’ll probably think twice before doing anything else to piss off South America, but given that our state department seems to get its strategy from the same people that run Fox News, you can never be too sure.
Keep watchin’ Fox—everybody can tell why you’re confused.
Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Julian Assange for successfully entering the Ecuador’s Embassy and kudos to Ray McGovern (again!) for his brilliant informative article!
I hope to goodness Ecuador approves asylum for Julian. Daniel Ellsberg (exposed the Pentagon Papers) praised
Julian Assange for his courage to expose the truth! I do too!
As former patriotic Americans, born to proud WW II veterans fathers, my husband and I chose to become CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS to the US’ corrupt fascist government (aka Military Industrial Complex shadow government), US’ foreign and domestic policies, and the huge millions of Americans who supported the never-ending illegal and wholly unnecessary wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (and now Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, etc.) and EMIGRATED out of our native country in 2006. Each day, our political decision to boycott and leave the US is validated.
We studied the Project for a New American Century )(PNAC: http://www.newamericancentury.org/), a neo-cons think tank who wrote the blueprint for the US’ Imperialistic rule over the world. PNAC was boldly published before 9-11 and during Clinton’s rule. Read it thoroughly. Pay close attention to the signatories.
Only then will you, too, understand how all of what is occurring world wide is by design, on purpose! I wasn’t fooled by the official decision of the 9-11 commission, nor was I fooled by the White House propaganda leading up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Keep in mind the rich, rich resources these countries hold.
Also, knowing the corruption of the US government, we distrusted every word of confidence that bush’s and Greenspan’s uttered about the US housing bubble (they denied!) and the US’ economy (they lied!) was BS. Fortunately, we were able to take measures which ultimately protected all of our assets because we cashed out of everything and moved them to another country. Had we not? We would have been up the creek without a paddle financially and UNABLE to retire like far too many millions and millions of elderly Americans.
Just one quibble with Ray McGovern’s usual comprehensive discourse and that is ‘facing possible US persecution’ – I think ‘facing certain US persecution’ is more appropriate.
From the comments, Bonniebell has the right idea. You Americans need a new national party which removes your government from under the thrall of Israel. You are slaves, totally subservient to Israel and so- called Americans who are, in truth, Zionists. Together they have the power to choose your President, control both republican and democrat policy, the White House, your Reserve bank, and the media. They are responsible for the mess that you and much of the World finds itself in. Wake up and stop the abuse of power and the blatant corruption.
Amen!
Documentary evidence. Kryptonite. No known antidote. It fueled the fears of Joseph Stalin when he pulled every string to keep the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact out of the Nuremberg trials. The Katyn Forest Massacre was successfully blamed on the Nazis. (False flags are not new.) In an unspoken but nevertheless monumental tribute to hypocrisy and for the sake of political convenience, our side went along. Both cases would have validated the cynical but powerful ‘tu quoque’ defense. But the truth eventually came out.
The accumulated pile of documentary evidence for war crimes, malfeasance, conspiracy and even treason keeps growing taller. There are thousands upon thousands of legal scholars, historians, political scientists, military officers, literary figures, economists and serious journalists who all know, deep down where we have seen this go before. It is by far the more patriotic thing to halt the downfall ourselves than to wait, perhaps it may be decades, for the documentary evidence to be introduced in courts other than our own. Those who fear Assange have nothing to hide but their own guilt.
Some of those scholars, especially the “Constitutional†variety, might consider speaking up about the legislative remedies to these excesses before another election cycle codifies forever the precedents being set now. This may be the last chance. Not to drone on it, or anything…just sayin’.
Thanks, Ray, for keepin’ the faith.
I have some misgivings about Assange as a person and of his motives. Flawed people can still do good things, this appears to be the case here. The results of his disclosures have drawn back the curtain obscuring so many events in the world that we do owe him gratitude for their revelations.
I find it difficult to accept that extradition would be allowed unless there were criminal charges. These should be supported by some credible evidence making a trial necessary. I always understood that to be a requirement in our western countries.What happened here? So far neither Sweden nor the US have actually charged Assange.
To Assange’s discredit, he left a number of his loyal supporters on the hook by forfeiting his considerable bail.I feel sorry for those that put their faith in him. I wonder who the real Assange is?
Thanks for this analysis, Mr McGovern. A small correction: Assange’s house arrest was “only” a curfew between 10pm and 8am – the rest of the day he was free to move as he pleased.
Julian will go down in history as clarion voice of truth about how America treated the world. The war games that are played out there are but from a few men and women with no better moral standards than those of the ‘lower’ class. And it’s up to a few clever men and women out there like Julian, on the fringes of society, to uncover their violence and barbarism and hang it out to dry.
IV’E SEEN THE CHEM TRAILS. I’VE SEEN DOCUMENTIES WHERE THE SUBCONTRACTED PRIVATED AIRLILNE WAS LOADING A SEPARATE CANASTER FOR THE CHEM TRAILS IN BETWEEN THE DUEL EXAUSTS AND THEY ADMITTED TO DOING SO FOR GOVERNMENTS UNDER THE AUSPICES OF PREVENTING GLOBAL WARMING. THEIR A STRAIGHT LINE IN THE SKY A MILE LONG9SOMETIMES SHORTER) AND TAKE HOURS TO DISAPPEAR. THEY SHOWED FOOTAGE OF THE PLANE FLYING AND YOU COULD SEE THE SMOKE FROM THE 2 EXAUSTS AND THE CHEMTRAIL IN THE CENTER BLOWING OUT A TRAIL FROM THE CANISTER. IV’E SEEN THE MANY MANY TIMES THEIR UNMISTAKABLE WHATEVER THEY ARE.
Please take of the caps—we hear you just fine in print.
DONT START RIOTS THATS WHAT THEIR HOPING FOR TO JUSTIFY MARTIAL LAW. LOOK UP ALL THE NEW EXECUTIVE ORDERS TO YIELD OUR SOVERIEGNTY TO THE UN. DID ANYONE HEAR SOROS BOUGHT OUR US ELECTION MACHINES THROUGH SPAIN TO BE BEYOND THE REACH OF THE LAW FOR THE 2012 ELECTIONS. IT’S TIME TO STOP BEING REP OR DEM. BE AMERICAN. WE ALL AGREE WE WILL BE STRIPPED BARE. REMEMBER ALL THE COUNTRIES IN THE PAST 60 YRS THAT HAVE BEEN DESTROYED. THE PEOPLE CLEANSED, UGENICS, PLEASE GET RID OF HATE THAT’S WHAT MARTIN LUTHER TAUGHT. HATE IS POWERFUL TO TAKE DOWN A COUNTRY LOOK AROUND THE WORLD THAT’S WHAT THEIR DOING. A FEW INCITED TO GET A MILLION TO KILL EACH OTHER IN ONE MONTH. 200,000,000+ THIS CENTURY. LOOK UP YOUTUBE MORGAN FREEMAN AND FRIENDS RECITING DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. IT WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND WHY WE BEGGED TO BE FREE UNITED UNDER ONE COUNTRY. MANY PEOPLE FREE. ONE
THEY PIT RICH AGAINST POOR, BLACK AGAINST WHITE, AND WHO KNOWS WITH THE ZIMMERMANVS TRAVON, IF THE CONTROVERSY WAS NOT TO PITT MEXICAN AGAINST BLACK, REPLUBLICAN AGAINST DEMOCRAT. YOUR HEADS IN THE SAND IF YOU THINK THIS WILL END WELL. THE US SOVIET EDUCATION AGREEMENT WAS TO STRIP THE US OF ALL PRO US HISTORY AND REPLACE IT WITH PRO MARXISM, LENINISM. tO COMPLETELY DEMORALIZE US AS A NATION. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT. BUT THE COMMUNISTS HAVE KILLED 100S OF MILLIONS. THOSE THAT WANT THE US TAKEN DOWN ARN’T COMMUNISTS OR OF REPUBLIC MENTALITY. THEIR ELITISTS. THEY WANT 6 BILLION OF US OFF THEIR PLANE THEIR PLANET THROUGH POPULATION CONTROL, ENVIORNMENTAL CONTROL, WAR AND MAYHAM ETC. YOU THINK THEIR POLORIZED POLITICALLY, BUT WAKE UP THEIR ON THE SAME TEAM. LISTEN TO JFK AND THE FEDERAL RESERVE SPEECH ON YOUTUBE. OH,I LIKE THE WAY THE COWARDS SAY NOTHING THAT WILL PREJUDICE THEM. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, YOU 2 LINERS!
I fear the United States government too! I wish Julian would investigate and reveal the truth about chemical weapons being used primarily by the US and Britain on their own citizens namely: “Chemtrails”. This aerial spraying is done by military tankers at 30 to 40,000 feet altitude for slow methodical de-population of the weak and elderly who are an economic burden. I travel widely and see the contrails, filled with chemicals, being released in the US and former Brithish colonies. They cause airway irritation, confusion, agitation, heart attacks and slow organ damage. This is the ultimate Orwellian nightmare too strange to believe, but well documented by persons all over the world. Just Google or search YOUTUBE for “Chemtrails” and you will be shocked, outraged and appalled. Help us Julian! With God’s speed.
Good for Assange one of the last “real” reporters left in the world.
Too bad he won’t be doing his show on tv that was going to be financed by Russia, that great beacon of press freedom. Now he’s trying to go to Ecuador, another country with a sickening record of authoritarian assault on the press. What a big laugh and joke.
Let me clue all the dolts in on this forum — your rapist buddy isn’t going anywhere. Unless the Ecuadorians can stuff him in a suitcase, he’s stuck inside that embassy. The second he tries to leave he gets arrested. Can you you dig it? LOL! What a joke!
An absolutely riveting account of the current situation faced by Assange. I think I can be confident in saying that Mr. McGovern’s writing is improving with age.
hey, hey, careful! what a lefthanded compliment! :)))
I love – love, love, LOVE the line about “allergy to arrogance”! Don’t forget how Hil treated Honduras; when she starts to run for President again, remember how she treated attempted to triangulate Syria; bear in mind how her entire Department is INFECTED with Blackwater.
Remember when freedom fighters and truth telling journalists applied for political asylum IN the United States?
It would be hilarious if it were not so tragic to imagine an Australian journalist under house arrest in Britain,fleeing trumped up charges in Sweden,requesting asylum from a former banana republic,Ecuador,all to flee the impirial overreach of the greatest totalitarian tyranny of the 21st century-the United States of America.The country formerly known as the beacon of truth hope and freedom…you just can’t make this Orwellian shit up-no one would believe it!
Real freedom fighters still do come to the United States, ace. You are such a rabid anti American fanatic that you probably haven’t even heard of Chen from China?
Political fanatics and mental midgets like yourself are really good for a laugh. It reaffirms the supremacy of the United States when it’s critics like you are revealed as nothing more than low grade, cheap political hack incompetents.
Actually, we took in more Nazi scientists and doctors to enhance our covert ops than “freedom fighters”.
WELL SAID!!!
(earlier comment in response to unfangus)
A great deal of gratitude goes to Ray McGovern for this fantastic story on the plight of Julian Assange. He has been hounded since the exposure of the U.S. government as petty and undermining of so many governments we are supposed to be working with as allies and partners. I hope Mr. Assange is able to avoid the certain torture he is bound to experience at the hands of the U.S. CIA and military if he isn’t granted the asylum he so deserves. I just signed a petition to President Correa urging him to grant asylum to this man of truth, justice and freedom and I urge all readers of this post to sign on and urge President Correa to do the right thing. Here is the link to the petition.
http://www.rootsaction.org/home
Why don’t you sign a petition concerning Correa’s assault on press freedom in Ecuador, ace?
Thank you Ray for a great analysis, as usual. I could not help myself but to shake my head and grin when I read the portion about Palin. Sadly, she is the voice of “reason” for FOXnews.
WE’RE A’LL UNDER SURVEILANCE. NOW OBAMA TAKES THE 5TH, WHILE HE FEARS ASSANGE MAY ALREADY HAVE THE GOODS(? other whistle blowers)about leadership gun running to Mexico. And why are we gun running to gangs in Mexico?. And since when is it a crime in America to be a whistleblower. Unfortunetely his point is lost in the controvery. The point “when did America loose it’s integrety in it’s dealings. When did America start using so many alternatives to transparent government that so many around the world are counting on. Will we ever again have a balance of honest leaders to balance the criminals in government. Or is the American story over. Are we run by the Military now. I’m I going to die for saying this? Is anyone who speaks up now a terorrist. Will they take me to Egypt. Will they torture me.