Julian Assange to regain internet access at embassy base

[ichingcarpenter]

Ecuador has partly restored Julian Assange’s communications with the outside world from its London embassy where the WikiLeaks founder has been living for over six years, according to reports.

The Ecuadorian government suspended access in March because it said Assange had breached “a written commitment made to the government at the end of 2017 not to issue messages that might interfere with other states”.

On Sunday, the Press Association reported that Ecuador had partly restored Assange’s access to the internet, mobile phones and visits at the embassy, which had been restricted to members of his legal team.

The WikiLeaks founder has lived in the Ecuadorian embassy since June 2012 when he took refuge there to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of sex crimes, which he denies, and was granted political asylum.

Sweden dropped the case against Assange last year but he remains subject to arrest in the UK for jumping bail. He has said he fears he could be extradited to the US for questioning about the activities of WikiLeaks if he leaves the building.

WikiLeaks said in a statement: “Ecuador has told WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange that it will remove the isolation regime imposed on him following meetings between two senior UN officials and Ecuador’s president, Lenin Moreno, on Friday.”

Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, added: “It is positive that through UN intervention Ecuador has partly ended the isolation of Mr Assange although it is of grave concern that his freedom to express his opinions is still limited.

“The UN has already declared Mr Assange a victim of arbitrary detention. This unacceptable situation must end. The UK government must abide by the UN’s ruling and guarantee that he can leave the Ecuadorian embassy without the threat of extradition to the United States.”


more

https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...e_iOSApp_Other

[Innocent Warrior]

From itv's article, Julian Assange’s communications partly restored by Ecuadorian government (14 Oct.).

WikiLeaks said Mr Assange has not entered into any form of agreement with Ecuador to restrict his speech or other rights.

His lawyers are considering his legal options and will make a statement in due course.

The WikiLeaks statement said the meetings were held in Ecuador between the president and the UN high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi and UN special rapporteur for freedom of expression David Kaye.

It said: “Concern over Mr Assange’s situation has also been raised by other UN bodies, as well as Human Rights Watch (who was refused access to him), Amnesty International, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, Ecuador’s Permanent Human Rights Commission, and public protests

“Mr Assange was informed of Ecuador’s decision hours after Mr Grandi and Mr Kaye met with President Moreno.”

President Moreno ordered Mr Assange’s “isolation” on March 28 in retaliation for giving “opinions on the politics of friendly nations like Spain or the United States”.

The statement continued: “Mr Assange had critically reported on the Trump administration’s involvement in Yemen and Spanish police brutality. High level representations were made by the Trump administration and the Spanish government over Mr Assange, who was given political refugee status by Ecuador in 2012 over US attempts to prosecute him.

“The Trump administrations stepped up efforts to prosecute Mr Assange after WikiLeaks published the largest leak in the history of the CIA last year.

“The US has announced that it now considers Ecuador a ‘strategic ally’ and helped it secure a billion dollars in previously withheld loans.

“For almost seven months, Ecuador has kept Mr Assange in a regime that has been likened to solitary confinement by Human Rights Watch. Ecuador has prevented Mr Assange from receiving visitors other than his lawyers. It installed three sets of signal jammers in the embassy, to prevent Mr Assange from communicating using mobile phones or internet.

“The extrajudicial seven-month isolation of Mr Assange has interfered with his fundamental rights and the rights of his family. It has also prevented Mr Assange from working and giving public talks.

“Ecuador has also prevented all journalists from speaking to him during this time. Ecuador’s President until last year, Rafael Correa, has denounced Mr Assange’s treatment as ‘torture’ stating ‘the government is basically attacking Julian’s mental health’.

“Ecuador has informed Mr Assange that the government intends to continue Moreno’s policy of restricting him from expressing his opinions under threat of expulsion.”

*****

Counter Punch - Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno’s Assault on Human Rights and Judicial Independence (12 Oct.).

Oswaldo Ruiz-Chiriboga, is an Ecuadorian legal scholar who teaches human rights and constitutional law at the Central European University in Hungary. He talked to Joe Emersberger about Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno’s assault on human rights and judicial independence. Most of Moreno’s attacks abuses stem from a referendum of February, 2018 that was called by decree and without approval by the Constitution Court as required by the constitution. One of the seven referendum questions allowed Moreno to create a handpicked body – a so called “transitory CPCCS” – that has been empowered to make sweeping changes to the judiciary and other authorities. Among other acts, the “transitory CPCCS” recently fired all the members of the Constitutional Court. The relevance of this to the persecution of former President Rafael Correa is explained. The impunity with which Moreno has trampled the rights of Julian Assange is also discussed.

MORE.

*****

Tweeted by Rafael Correa HERE (11 Oct.) -

Ecuadorians: Let us not allow a traitor [new president] to make our country a traitor. Ecuador was the country of the hand outstretched to Assange. Today it is the country of the hand with a dagger.

[Innocent Warrior]

Update: tweeted by WikiLeaks five minutes ago HERE -

Although Ecuador has stated that Mr. Assange's isolation will be partly lifted today (after UN Special Rapportuers for Freedom of Expression & Refugees visited the country on Friday) it has yet to do so. A 2pm appointment today, with a legal advisor, was not let into the embassy.

[Innocent Warrior]

The isolation still hasn't been lifted.

The list of demands Ecuador gave Assange in order to end his isolation has been leaked. It has been published in the Gateway Pundit's article, LEAKED: Here Are the Demands Ecuador Has Given Julian Assange in Order to End His Isolation (15 Oct.).

It only contains a photocopy of the full document and it's in Spanish, direct link HERE.

English translation, text version: SPECIAL PROTOCOL OF VISITS, COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDICAL ATTENTION TO MR. JULIAN PAUL ASSANGE.

Credit and thanks to Bill for creating the English version.

[spade]

is he even alive?

[Innocent Warrior]

Posted by spade (here)
is he even alive?

If you’re not sure, it’s best to assume he’s alive, since it would be incredibly damaging to WikiLeaks if enough people incorrectly assumed otherwise.

Are you familiar with John Pilger, spade? Assange trusts him and a couple of others to keep us accurately informed about Assange (so do I).

Here’s a video of a speech he delivered in Sydney this year.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=CfcSqn2XSjI

Unless Pilger states otherwise, Assange is alive, as far as I’m concerned.

[Innocent Warrior]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=a01QQZyl-_I

He still doesn’t have internet access anyway, tweeted 11 hours ago by WikiLeaks HERE -

Although Ecuador stated, hours after UN Special Rapporteurs on Press & Refugees met with its president on Friday, that @JulianAssange's isolation would be lifted Monday, he remains isolated. A 2pm appointment on Tuesday, with a legal advisor, was not let into the embassy.

According to Correa, Ecuador has already agreed to hand over Assange after a meeting with Mike Pence, but they want to break him mentally as the political cost of expelling him from their Embassy is too high.

Source.

[Bill Ryan]

This short article was interesting (and concerning) to read. Of course, there may be a great deal of exaggeration, or even invention, to further Assange being discredited.

• https://cuencahighlife.com/cat-in-th...sange-intrigue

‘Cat in the embassy’ and personal hygiene are part of latest Julian Assange intrigue
Oct 17, 2018



Included in the conditions for restoring Julian Assange’s internet access at Ecuador’s London embassy is that he take care of his cat, clean his bathroom and take baths.

Last week, Ecuador’s foreign ministry released other conditions for the restoration of Assange’s internet access, including a prohibition on attacking other governments on social media and new restrictions on his visitation rights. The conditions relating to cat care and personal tidiness came to light when The Guardian and BBC obtained a full copy of the 10-page document describing the conditions that Assange must agree to.

The document says that the cat, a gift from Assange’s son, will be turned over to an animal shelter if he does not feed and care for it. According to BBC sources, Assange has never fed or watered the cat or changed its litter box. Those chores has fallen to embassy secretaries and, on occasion, the ambassador.

In addition, the document refers to the “abominable care” of his bathroom, which is also used by embassy staff. Under the new requirements, Assange and his guests are required to keep the bathroom “clean and in a satisfactory hygienic condition for all staff and visitors to the embassy.”

Among the other conditions listed in the document is that Assange take showers. A former embassy employee, quoted by the Guardian in 2017, said the WikiLeaks founder never takes baths. “You could smell the man two rooms away and you dreaded the possibility that he might come and stand directly in front of your desk,” she said.

In a February Twitter post, shortly before his internet access was suspended, Assange wrote: “Save water, don’t shower.”

[Flash]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
This short article was interesting (and concerning) to read. Of course, there may be a great deal of exaggeration, or even invention, to further Assange being discredited.

• https://cuencahighlife.com/cat-in-th...sange-intrigue

‘Cat in the embassy’ and personal hygiene are part of latest Julian Assange intrigue
Oct 17, 2018



Included in the conditions for restoring Julian Assange’s internet access at Ecuador’s London embassy is that he take care of his cat, clean his bathroom and take baths.

Last week, Ecuador’s foreign ministry released other conditions for the restoration of Assange’s internet access, including a prohibition on attacking other governments on social media and new restrictions on his visitation rights. The conditions relating to cat care and personal tidiness came to light when The Guardian and BBC obtained a full copy of the 10-page document describing the conditions that Assange must agree to.

The document says that the cat, a gift from Assange’s son, will be turned over to an animal shelter if he does not feed and care for it. According to BBC sources, Assange has never fed or watered the cat or changed its litter box. Those chores has fallen to embassy secretaries and, on occasion, the ambassador.

In addition, the document refers to the “abominable care” of his bathroom, which is also used by embassy staff. Under the new requirements, Assange and his guests are required to keep the bathroom “clean and in a satisfactory hygienic condition for all staff and visitors to the embassy.”

Among the other conditions listed in the document is that Assange take showers. A former embassy employee, quoted by the Guardian in 2017, said the WikiLeaks founder never takes baths. “You could smell the man two rooms away and you dreaded the possibility that he might come and stand directly in front of your desk,” she said.

In a February Twitter post, shortly before his internet access was suspended, Assange wrote: “Save water, don’t shower.”

He must be truly very depressed, those are all symptoms of depression

[Gemma13]

Could also be a “soft version” of a political protest as Assange is more valuable alive.

Wiki: A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not solid food.

[Innocent Warrior]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
This short article was interesting (and concerning) to read. Of course, there may be a great deal of exaggeration, or even invention, to further Assange being discredited.

• https://cuencahighlife.com/cat-in-th...sange-intrigue

It's rubbish of course, the BBC and the Guardian are full of it. The tweet they quoted wasn't even from Assange's account, it was a spoof account. They added a correction to their article for that at least, convenient for them that Twitter won't give Assange's account and official tick. I don't believe for a second they're that stupid, the WikiLeaks account often 'mentions' Assange's account (meaning publishes tweets that contain Assange's real handle).

The BBC publish yet more blatant Assange lies - Draconian rules imposed upon his conduct (duration - 15:82)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=UyKJn1tRBS8

***********

From the eldiario.es article, Julian Assange: between censorship and blackmail (17 Oct., link to Google translation) -

(emphasis mine)

It is clear that the government of Lenin Moreno seeks to surrender to Julian, but, however coarse the regime now imposed on the embassy is envisaged, Julian will bear it. In reality, there has always been a "protocol", although not even so draconian (and, truth be told, with a notable improvement since 2015, with the arrival of the current ambassador). It is, after all, the most embattled embassy in the world. The previous protocol was in charge of SENAIN (the former intelligence services of Ecuador). Julian, at a good hour, is not the favorite person of any intelligence service in the world. Former President Correa, who had the wisdom and courage to grant him asylum, tried to replace the intelligence services of old Ecuador, co-opted and dependent on the US, by a new structure, more sovereign and reliable. Like any "intelligence" agency, SENAIN resulted in an animal without god, or law, over which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or the ambassadors in London, never had control. The SENAIN was not among the many successes of the government of former President Correa, to the point that, in my opinion, excesses and clumsiness of that entity are today cause that Correa himself is the victim of a fierce political persecution.

The SENAIN always spied on Julian, his visitors and everyone inside the embassy. A Spanish security company, which to justify their presence requires creating false insecurity, produced with SENAIN "malicious" reports, forged between paranoia and fantasy, about the daily occurrence inside the embassy. World-class personalities, among the thousands who have visited Julian, such as the writer Arundathi Roy, the famous Daniel Elsberg, the actor John Cusack, the Baroness Helena Kennedy, or the artist Vivianne Westwood, who as first jumpers memory, they could give painful testimony of the hostility of the "guards" and their "protocols".

In any case, home-made hors d'oeuvres of what has been Julian's refuge these six years are his minor problem. The bottom line is the fierce persecution of the US, intensified in the Trump administration, where a federal grand jury continues a criminal investigation of WikiLeaks and its staff. The bottom line is that the government of Rafael Correa did protect Julián firmly, as befits a country that grants asylum, and that the government of Lenin Moreno, clearly incapable of resisting US pressure, instead, has opted for the strategy of coercion and threat.

That is the explanation for the "protocol" imposed by Lenin Moreno in London. Tighten three good turns to the nut with the one you want to surround Julian. As if that were not enough, the siege is also tightened in Quito, with the right allied of the Ecuadorian government that, by demanding the declassification of sensitive information about a political asylee, nothing less than the most cornered in the world, seeks to strip him of Ecuadorian nationality, that by right was given to him. This as the first and necessary step for a final surrender, given that as an Ecuadorian, Julian has the additional protection of the Constitution, which prohibits his extradition.

Those who believe that threats, censorship and blackmail are going to break Julián are wrong. The question that really matters is: How long before Lenin Moreno breaks?

***********

Statement: Julian Assange launches case over his continued gagging, threat

Fri Oct 19 14:55:41 UTC 2018

Julian Assange today launched a case accusing the government of Ecuador of violating his fundamental rights and freedoms. WikiLeaks general counsel Baltasar Garzon arrived in Ecuador yesterday to launch the case against the government. The move comes almost seven months after Ecuador threatened to remove his protection and summarily cut off his access to the outside world, including by refusing to allow journalists and human rights organisations to see him, and installing three signal jammers in the embassy to prevent his phone calls and internet access.

Ecuador refused to let Human Rights Watch General Counsel Dinah PoKempner, who likened Ecuador's isolation to "solitary confinement" [https://twitter.com/RockinTrump/stat...6495934803968] see him as well several meetings with his lawyers. Ecuador's measures against Julian Assange have been widely condemned by the human rights community.

Assange's lawyers are also challenging the legality of the government's "Special Protocol" reported in the news this week. The protocol makes Assange's political asylum contingent on censoring his freedom of opinion, speech and association. The protocol also requires journalists, his lawyers and anyone else seeking to see Julian Assange to disclose private or political details such as their social media usernames, the serial numbers and IMEI codes of their phones and tablets with Ecuador--which the Protocol says the government may "share with other agencies". The Protocol claims the Embassy may seize the property of Mr. Assange or his visitors, and, without a warrant, hand it over to UK authorities.

The United States says that under President Moreno, Ecuador has become a "strategic ally" and the country has re-established security and intelligence cooperation. Earlier this week, US congressmen wrote an open letter to President Moreno stated that in order to advance "crucial matters ... from economic cooperation to counternarcotics assistance to the possible return of a USAID mission to Ecuador, we must first resolve a significant challenge created by your predecessor, Rafael Correa – the status of Julian Assange”. [https://democrats-foreignaffairs.hou...f-ecuador.pdf]

Pressure has mounted on Ecuador to hand Assange over to the UK, especially since Mike Pence's visit in June in which Moreno and Pence "agreed to remain in close coordination" in relation to Mr. Assange, according to the White House [https://twitter.com/TimJohnson4/stat...5586254852096]. The US case against Julian Assange dates back to the Obama administration 2010, but has been expanded under Trump to include the biggest leak in CIA history, Vault 7.

In July 2018, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights issued a ruling imposing obligations on Ecuador to protect Julian Assange from US extradition. The UN in 2016 found Assange was arbitrarily detained at the embassy by the UK, describing his situation as "inhuman and degrading treatment". Assange's legal action comes one week after the UN chiefs for Freedom of Expression and Refugees met with President Lenin Moreno in Ecuador.

Last week, Ecuador's former President Rafael Correa, under whose administration Assange obtained political asylum, said that the current administration is "trying to break him psychologically" and that a deal had been struck during Pence's visit to Ecuador earlier this year.
https://ecupunto.com/2018/10/03/rafa...-animicamente/

Source.