Closed Thread
Page 5 of 10 FirstFirst 1 5 10 LastLast
Results 81 to 100 of 193

Thread: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

  1. Link to Post #81
    Avalon Member Kryztian's Avatar
    Join Date
    16th September 2012
    Posts
    3,487
    Thanks
    23,705
    Thanked 29,414 times in 3,425 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    A speech John Pilger gave at a rally for Julian Assange in Sydney on 3 March.

    March 4, 2019
    The Prisoner Says No to Big Brother
    by John Pilger

    Quote
    The persecution of Julian Assange is the conquest of us all: of our independence, our self respect, our intellect, our compassion, our politics, our culture.

    So stop scrolling. Organise. Occupy. Insist. Persist. Make a noise. Take direct action. Be brave and stay brave. Defy the thought police.

    War is not peace, freedom is not slavery, ignorance is not strength. If Julian can stand up, so can you: so can all of us.

    Whenever I visit Julian Assange, we meet in a room he knows too well. There is a bare table and pictures of Ecuador on the walls. There is a bookcase where the books never change. The curtains are always drawn and there is no natural light. The air is still and fetid.

    This is Room 101.

    Before I enter Room 101, I must surrender my passport and phone. My pockets and possessions are examined. The food I bring is inspected.

    The man who guards Room 101 sits in what looks like an old-fashioned telephone box. He watches a screen, watching Julian. There are others unseen, agents of the state, watching and listening.

    Cameras are everywhere in Room 101. To avoid them, Julian manoeuvres us both into a corner, side by side, flat up against the wall. This is how we catch up: whispering and writing to each other on a notepad, which he shields from the cameras. Sometimes we laugh.

    I have my designated time slot. When that expires, the door in Room 101 bursts open and the guard says, “Time is up!” On New Year’s Eve, I was allowed an extra 30 minutes and the man in the phone box wished me a happy new year, but not Julian.

    Of course, Room 101 is the room in George Orwell’s prophetic novel, 1984, where the thought police watched and tormented their prisoners, and worse, until people surrendered their humanity and principles and obeyed Big Brother.

    Julian Assange will never obey Big Brother. His resilience and courage are astonishing, even though his physical health struggles to keep up.

    Julian is a distinguished Australian, who has changed the way many people think about duplicitous governments. For this, he is a political refugee subjected to what the United Nations calls “arbitrary detention”.

    The UN says he has the right of free passage to freedom, but this is denied. He has the right to medical treatment without fear of arrest, but this is denied. He has the right to compensation, but this is denied.

    As founder and editor of WikiLeaks, his crime has been to make sense of dark times. WikiLeaks has an impeccable record of accuracy and authenticity which no newspaper, no TV channel, no radio station, no BBC, no New York Times, no Washington Post, no Guardian can equal. Indeed, it shames them.

    That explains why he is being punished.

    For example:

    Last week, the International Court of Justice ruled that the British Government had no legal powers over the Chagos Islanders, who in the 1960s and 70s, were expelled in secret from their homeland on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and sent into exile and poverty. Countless children died, many of them, from sadness. It was an epic crime few knew about.

    For almost 50 years, the British have denied the islanders’ the right to return to their homeland, which they had given to the Americans for a major military base.

    In 2009, the British Foreign Office concocted a “marine reserve” around the Chagos archipelago.

    This touching concern for the environment was exposed as a fraud when WikiLeaks published a secret cable from the British Government reassuring the Americans that “the former inhabitants would find it difficult, if not possible, to pursue their claim for resettlement on the islands if the entire Chagos Archipelago were a marine reserve.”

    The truth of the conspiracy clearly influenced the momentous decision of the International Court of Justice.

    WikiLeaks has also revealed how the United States spies on its allies; how the CIA can watch you through your I-phone; how Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took vast sums of money from Wall Street for secret speeches that reassured the bankers that if she was elected, she would be their friend.

    In 2016, WikiLeaks revealed a direct connection between Clinton and organised jihadism in the Middle East: terrorists, in other words. One email disclosed that when Clinton was US Secretary of State, she knew that Saudi Arabia and Qatar were funding Islamic State, yet she accepted huge donations for her foundation from both governments.

    She then approved the world’s biggest ever arms sale to her Saudi benefactors: arms that are currently being used against the stricken people of Yemen.

    That explains why he is being punished.

    WikiLeaks has also published more than 800,000 secret files from Russia, including the Kremlin, telling us more about the machinations of power in that country than the specious hysterics of the Russiagate pantomime in Washington.

    This is real journalism — journalism of a kind now considered exotic: the antithesis of Vichy journalism, which speaks for the enemy of the people and takes its sobriquet from the Vichy government that occupied France on behalf of the Nazis.

    Vichy journalism is censorship by omission, such as the untold scandal of the collusion between Australian governments and the United States to deny Julian Assange his rights as an Australian citizen and to silence him.

    In 2010, Prime Minister Julia Gillard went as far as ordering the Australian Federal Police to investigate and hopefully prosecute Assange and WikiLeaks — until she was informed by the AFP that no crime had been committed.

    Last weekend, the Sydney Morning Herald published a lavish supplement promoting a celebration of “Me Too” at the Sydney Opera House on 10 March. Among the leading participants is the recently retired Minister of Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop.

    Bishop has been on show in the local media lately, lauded as a loss to politics: an “icon”, someone called her, to be admired.

    The elevation to celebrity feminism of one so politically primitive as Bishop tells us how much so-called identity politics have subverted an essential, objective truth: that what matters, above all, is not your gender but the class you serve.

    Before she entered politics, Julie Bishop was a lawyer who served the notorious asbestos miner James Hardie which fought claims by men and their families dying horribly with asbestosis disease.

    Lawyer Peter Gordon recalls Bishop “rhetorically asking the court why workers should be entitled to jump court queues just because they were dying.”

    Bishop says she “acted on instructions … professionally and ethically”.

    Perhaps she was merely “acting on instructions” when she flew to London and Washington last year with her ministerial chief of staff, who had indicated that the Australian Foreign Minister would raise Julian’s case and hopefully begin the diplomatic process of bringing him home.

    Julian’s father had written a moving letter to the then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, asking the government to intervene diplomatically to free his son. He told Turnbull that he was worried Julian might not leave the embassy alive.

    Julie Bishop had every opportunity in the UK and the US to present a diplomatic solution that would bring Julian home. But this required the courage of one proud to represent a sovereign, independent state, not a vassal.

    Instead, she made no attempt to contradict the British Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, when he said outrageously that Julian “faced serious charges”. What charges? There were no charges.

    Australia’s Foreign Minister abandoned her duty to speak up for an Australian citizen, prosecuted with nothing, charged with nothing, guilty of nothing.

    Will those feminists who fawn over this false icon at the Opera House next Sunday be reminded of her role in colluding with foreign forces to punish an Australian journalist, one whose work has revealed that rapacious militarism has smashed the lives of millions of ordinary women in many countries: in Iraq alone, the US-led invasion of that country, in which Australia participated, left 700,000 widows.

    So what can be done? An Australian government that was prepared to act in response to a public campaign to rescue the refugee football player, Hakeem al-Araibi, from torture and persecution in Bahrain, is capable of bringing Julian Assange home.

    The refusal by the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra to honour the United Nations’ declaration that Julian is the victim of “arbitrary detention” and has a fundamental right to his freedom, is a shameful breach of the letter and spirit of international law.

    Why has the Australian government made no serious attempt to free Assange? Why did Julie Bishop bow to the wishes of two foreign powers? Why is this democracy traduced by its servile relationships, and integrated with lawless foreign power?

    The persecution of Julian Assange is the conquest of us all: of our independence, our self respect, our intellect, our compassion, our politics, our culture.

    So stop scrolling. Organise. Occupy. Insist. Persist. Make a noise. Take direct action. Be brave and stay brave. Defy the thought police.

    War is not peace, freedom is not slavery, ignorance is not strength. If Julian can stand up, so can you: so can all of us.

  2. The Following 28 Users Say Thank You to Kryztian For This Post:

    angelfire (13th April 2019), Arcturian108 (14th April 2019), Ba-ba-Ra (13th April 2019), Baby Steps (13th April 2019), Bill Ryan (13th April 2019), BMJ (14th April 2019), bojancan (13th April 2019), Constance (13th April 2019), Craig (14th April 2019), Debra (14th April 2019), Denise/Dizi (13th April 2019), Deux Corbeaux (13th April 2019), Franny (13th April 2019), HaveBlue (14th April 2019), Hervé (13th April 2019), ichingcarpenter (13th April 2019), jebrenham (14th April 2019), KiwiElf (13th April 2019), onawah (13th April 2019), Pam (14th April 2019), Philippe (13th April 2019), Rosemarie (14th April 2019), Satori (14th April 2019), seko (14th April 2019), Sierra (15th April 2019), ThePythonicCow (13th April 2019), waree (14th April 2019), Zanshin (16th April 2019)

  3. Link to Post #82
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th March 2010
    Language
    English
    Posts
    22,209
    Thanks
    47,682
    Thanked 116,102 times in 20,640 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    DARK JOURNALIST: WIKILEAKS JULIAN ASSANGE & DEEP STATE CENSORSHIP WAR
    Streamed live 4 hours ago
    SPECIAL LIVESTREAM FRIDAY APRIL 12th, 8PM
    NATIONAL SECURITY STATE CENSORSHIP

    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

  4. The Following 13 Users Say Thank You to onawah For This Post:

    angelfire (13th April 2019), avid (13th April 2019), Ba-ba-Ra (13th April 2019), Bill Ryan (13th April 2019), Billy (13th April 2019), BMJ (14th April 2019), Constance (13th April 2019), Debra (14th April 2019), Denise/Dizi (13th April 2019), Franny (13th April 2019), Pam (14th April 2019), Sierra (15th April 2019), Zanshin (16th April 2019)

  5. Link to Post #83
    Avalon Member Kryztian's Avatar
    Join Date
    16th September 2012
    Posts
    3,487
    Thanks
    23,705
    Thanked 29,414 times in 3,425 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    Russia Today - https://on.rt.com/9s5e
    If we lose WikiLeaks, we lose a whole stratum of freedom — Pilger
    Published time: 13 Apr, 2019 11:04

    Supporters of Julian Assange protest against his arrest, near the British embassy in Berlin, Germany April 12, 2019.

    The US attempt to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a spiteful assault on civil freedoms conducted by an ailing superpower that is struggling to preserve its dominance, UK-based journalist John Pilger told RT.

    One should not mistake what is happening to Assange for anything but the persecution of a man, who embarrassed the US by exposing to the public Washington’s brutality in the Middle East, award-winning British journalist John Pilger told RT’s Going Underground program.

    “The United States has aroused the ire because what we are in the midst of is the world’s greatest superpower struggling to maintain its dominance. Its information dominance, its technological dominance, its cultural dominance. And WikiLeaks has presented an extreme hurdle to this,” he argued.[/I]

    Quote If we lose the Assanges – and there aren’t many of them, a handful maybe and certainly no one like him – if we lose the WikiLeaks, then we lose a whole stratum of freedom. We stop questioning
    Assange was arrested by the British authorities on Thursday after Ecuador revoked his political asylum and allowed the police to drag him out of the embassy in London. The US accuses the publisher of conspiring with WikiLeaks source Chelsea Manning in her leaking of classified materials related to US military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Watch Video interview of Pilger: https://www.rt.com/news/456408-pilger-assange-going-underground/video/5cb1ba39dda4c820558b4648

    WikiLeaks publications based on the Manning leak, especially the so-called “collateral murder” video, dealt a massive blow to US attempts to cover up the “homicidal nature of its colonial wars,” Pilger said.

    Anybody watching that video really has to read very little else of the WikiLeaks revelations about the nature of the American wars, because there it is. There is some kind of consensual belief – I’m trying to figure for a polite term for ‘brainwashing,’ frankly – that we don’t do these kinds of things, we perpetually benign,” he explained.

    Quote On ‘our’ side, these things simply do not happen… They are only done by totalitarian states, the rogue states. In fact clearly the biggest rogue state of all is the United States.
    ilger says the attack on WikiLeaks is emblematic for the current state or journalism in the West, which has betrayed its mandate to be the public’s watchdog for the actions of their governments.

    We’ve handed a whole world of abandonment of basic democracy, which is based on dissent, on challenging, on holding power to account, on revelation, on the embarrassment of power. Not trivial embarrassment, the embarrassment of odd celebrity, but real embarrassment. And WikiLeaks provided that public service of journalism,” he said.

  6. The Following 19 Users Say Thank You to Kryztian For This Post:

    Ba-ba-Ra (13th April 2019), Bill Ryan (13th April 2019), Billy (13th April 2019), BMJ (14th April 2019), Caliban (13th April 2019), Debra (14th April 2019), DeDukshyn (13th April 2019), Deux Corbeaux (13th April 2019), Franny (13th April 2019), ichingcarpenter (14th April 2019), jebrenham (14th April 2019), onawah (14th April 2019), Pam (14th April 2019), Philippe (13th April 2019), Satori (14th April 2019), seko (14th April 2019), ThePythonicCow (13th April 2019), Valerie Villars (13th April 2019), Zanshin (16th April 2019)

  7. Link to Post #84
    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
    Join Date
    7th February 2010
    Location
    Ecuador
    Posts
    34,274
    Thanks
    209,041
    Thanked 457,576 times in 32,794 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    From https://businessinsider.com/assange-...-button-2019-4, 5 hours ago:

    Assange's arrest was designed to make sure he didn't press a mysterious panic button he said would bring dire consequences for Ecuador
    • WikiLeaks' founder, Julian Assange, was dramatically arrested and carried out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on Thursday.
    • British and Ecuadorian authorities engineered the timing and nature of the raid to stop Assange from accessing a panic button he mentioned in the past, Ecuador's foreign minister said.
    • Specifics on the button — or what it might do — are sparse, but the foreign minister said Assange had said it could bring dire consequences for Ecuador.
    • Ecuadorian officials have accused Assange of accessing the government's security files, playing music loudly, and having no regard for personal hygiene during his stay at the embassy.
    Julian Assange's arrest at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London was carried out in a specific way to prevent him from pressing a mysterious panic button he said could bring dire consequences for Ecuador, its foreign minister said.

    The WikiLeaks founder was carried out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London's Kensington district on Thursday morning by a group of British police officers. Ecuador had earlier revoked his political asylum, alleging repeated bad behavior during his almost seven-year stay.

    During this stay, Assange is accused of threatening Jaime Merchan, the Ecuadorian ambassador to the UK, with activating some kind of panic button that would bring down the embassy if he were arrested or felt in danger.

    The claim was made by Ecuador's foreign minister, José Valencia, in a speech Thursday to the country's National Assembly, according to the Associated Press and Reuters.

    Assange had said the button would bring "devastating consequences," the AP reported, in a summary of Valencia's remarks.

    It is not clear exactly what form the "panic button" took: whether it was a physical device or a metaphor for some other easily activated insurance measure. It is also unclear what leverage Assange thought he had over Ecuador.

    Assange's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on the nature of the button and whether it existed. According to Valencia, though, it was serious enough for Ecuador to warn British authorities and carry out the raid in such a way that Assange was not able to get back into his room after learning of his imminent arrest.

    Ecuador granted Assange asylum in June 2012, when he was trying to evade warrants for his arrest in Sweden and the UK.

    He had failed to appear in court to face charges of sexual assault in Sweden, which he denies. He was also wanted in the UK for breaching prior bail conditions.

    A police van outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London after Assange's arrest.

    'We've ended the asylum of this spoiled brat'

    Ecuador's president announced the removal of Assange's asylum in a Thursday video statement, saying Ecuador's patience had "reached its limit on the behavior of Mr Assange."

    "We've ended the asylum of this spoiled brat," he said in a separate speech hours after Assange's arrest, according to the AP.

    President Lenín Moreno said Assange breached the conditions of his stay by installing prohibited electronic equipment in the embassy. Moreno said Assange also mistreated security guards and accessed the embassy's security files during his stay.

    The Ecuadorian government also told Assange in a memo that he deliberately pointed a studio lamp at a security camera in a room where he received guests, according to government memos released by the WikiLeaks founder's supporters in February.

    Assange greeting supporters at the Ecuadorian Embassy in May 2017.

    Ecuador's troubles with Assange went beyond security concerns.

    Officials have accused Assange of being unhygienic and said his skateboarding ruined their floors. Last year it issued a nine-page memo telling him to clean up after his cat.

    María Paula Romo, Ecuador's interior minister, said Thursday that Assange had been "allowed to do things like put feces on the walls of the embassy and other behaviors of that nature," according to Reuters.

    Ecuadorian authorities deemed this behavior, which they said happened at least once, an act of defiance and disrespect to his hosts, the AP reported. Assange's lawyer attributed it to "stomach problems," Reuters reported.



    A graphic showing Assange's living area at the embassy. GraphicNews In a separate memo, Merchan, the ambassador, also sent Assange complaints that he was playing the radio loudly while meeting visitors — which "disturbed the work being carried out by the embassy."

    The government said it spent $6.2 million on his upkeep and security from 2012 to 2018.

    Ecuador's expulsion of Assange also comes amid a protracted political dispute within the Latin American country.

    His ouster comes after years of international and domestic political wrangling between Moreno and his predecessor, Rafael Correa, who granted Assange asylum in 2012.

    Moreno has also accused WikiLeaks of being behind an anonymous website that said Moreno's brother created offshore companies to fund his family's luxurious lifestyles in Europe while Moreno was working there for the UN, Reuters reported.

    Read more: This simmering political clash may have led to Julian Assange's ouster from Ecuador's embassy

    The US on Thursday requested Assange's extradition, charging him with conspiracy to hack classified US government computers, in a document naming the US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

    He was also convicted of breaching bail conditions in the UK.

    Click here for Business Insider's full coverage of Assange's arrest.

    SEE ALSO: Plans to break Julian Assange out of the Ecuadorian embassy included costumes, diplomatic bags, and secret flights to Switzerland

  8. The Following 25 Users Say Thank You to Bill Ryan For This Post:

    A Voice from the Mountains (13th April 2019), Agape (13th April 2019), avid (13th April 2019), Billy (13th April 2019), BMJ (14th April 2019), bojancan (13th April 2019), Debra (14th April 2019), DeDukshyn (13th April 2019), Denise/Dizi (14th April 2019), Franny (13th April 2019), Hervé (13th April 2019), ichingcarpenter (14th April 2019), Ioneo (13th April 2019), Ivy23 (14th April 2019), jebrenham (14th April 2019), Kryztian (13th April 2019), onawah (14th April 2019), Philippe (13th April 2019), Rosemarie (14th April 2019), Satori (14th April 2019), seko (14th April 2019), Sierra (15th April 2019), Valerie Villars (13th April 2019), Yoda (13th April 2019), Zanshin (16th April 2019)

  9. Link to Post #85
    Avalon Member Kryztian's Avatar
    Join Date
    16th September 2012
    Posts
    3,487
    Thanks
    23,705
    Thanked 29,414 times in 3,425 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    Quote Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
    Assange's arrest was designed to make sure he didn't press a mysterious panic button he said would bring dire consequences for Ecuador
    Bill, do you have much contact with many Ecuadorians? Any comments about their more conventional opinions there on Correa and Moreno on these issues? Do they have many thoughts about Assange, the expense to keep him in the embassy, the 9-page government edict on kitty litter hygene or the loans Moreno just got from the World Bank?

  10. The Following 7 Users Say Thank You to Kryztian For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (13th April 2019), Billy (13th April 2019), BMJ (14th April 2019), Debra (14th April 2019), Denise/Dizi (14th April 2019), Sierra (15th April 2019), Valerie Villars (13th April 2019)

  11. Link to Post #86
    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
    Join Date
    7th February 2010
    Location
    Ecuador
    Posts
    34,274
    Thanks
    209,041
    Thanked 457,576 times in 32,794 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    Quote Posted by Kryztian (here)
    Quote Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
    Assange's arrest was designed to make sure he didn't press a mysterious panic button he said would bring dire consequences for Ecuador
    Bill, do you have much contact with many Ecuadorians? Any comments about their more conventional opinions there on Correa and Moreno on these issues? Do they have many thoughts about Assange, the expense to keep him in the embassy, the 9-page government edict on kitty litter hygene or the loans Moreno just got from the World Bank?
    No, I'm really unconnected here. But I do get this newsletter. Here's what was published yesterday (12 April, 2019):
    Ecuador explains decision to expel Assange, alleges that WikiLeaks hackers work in Ecuador

    Speaking before Ecuador’s National Assembly Thursday afternoon, Foreign Minister José Valencia justified the government’s decision to revoke the asylum of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and turn him over to British authorities.

    Among the reasons Valencia gave were “countless acts of interference in the internal politics of other countries,” personal attacks on embassy personnel and visitors, including diplomatic officials from other countries, threats against the government of Ecuador, Assange’s deteriorating mental and physical health and his refusal to obey embassy rules, which were first imposed in 2015 and updated last year.

    Valencia added that Assange’s personal behavior and lack of hygiene were also factors in the decision. “We were unable to tolerate the disrespect he showed those who worked in the embassy as well as his general lack of cleanliness,” he said.

    “Above all, we were alarmed by the decline of Mr. Assange’s health and were unable to provide the services we believe he desperately needs,” he said.

    According to Valencia, the British government agreed that it would not extradite Assange to a nation where he would face the death penalty for his alleged crimes, referring to the U.S. “This was one of our conditions for ending the asylum and we have the agreement in writing from British officials,” he said.

    Earlier on Thursday, Valencia and Interior Minister María Paula Romo charged that WikiLeaks was working with two Russian hackers stationed in Ecuador for the purpose of “destabilizing” the government. They provided few details for the charge but said that former interior minister Ricardo Patina may have had a connection to the hackers.

    Romo said she was turning over information about the hacking operation to federal prosecutors.

  12. The Following 19 Users Say Thank You to Bill Ryan For This Post:

    A Voice from the Mountains (13th April 2019), Agape (13th April 2019), avid (14th April 2019), Billy (13th April 2019), BMJ (14th April 2019), Debra (14th April 2019), Denise/Dizi (14th April 2019), Franny (13th April 2019), Hervé (13th April 2019), jebrenham (14th April 2019), Kryztian (13th April 2019), onawah (14th April 2019), Philippe (13th April 2019), Rosemarie (14th April 2019), Satori (14th April 2019), seko (14th April 2019), Sierra (15th April 2019), Valerie Villars (13th April 2019), Yoda (13th April 2019)

  13. Link to Post #87
    Aaland Avalon Member Agape's Avatar
    Join Date
    26th March 2010
    Posts
    5,563
    Thanks
    14,037
    Thanked 25,244 times in 4,597 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    I would insert really brief observation on the theme of “Panic Button” here.

    Taken the complexity of Julian’s situation that lasts more than 7 years of confinement to the narrow space of Ecuadorian embassy, with constant threat of imprisonment from several self important agencies, with no chance of escape even a casual prisoner would be in better mental situation, perhaps better physical shape too no matter how bad our prisoner systems are, respectively,
    I’ve seen but few people in sort-of-parallel situations and all suffered symptoms of acute trauma or PTSD and yes, such individuals threaten to press the panic button frequently.
    They also usually exhibit symptoms of mild to severe paranoia at that point and slightly dystopic outlook on reality.

    In such state people do sometimes constantly fear threat of their life.

    Julian’s behaviour and constant fighting back against the authority is partially symptom of extreme stress disorder.


    In my best opinion he should be taken to hospital now, examined and helped to recover his senses and ability to defend himself.

    It seems that the medical community would be of similar opinion:

    Medical professional once did examine Julian Assange and said his confienement was dangerous physically and mentally


    🙏🕊🙏
    Last edited by Agape; 13th April 2019 at 17:39.

  14. The Following 15 Users Say Thank You to Agape For This Post:

    A Voice from the Mountains (13th April 2019), betoobig (14th April 2019), Billy (13th April 2019), BMJ (14th April 2019), bojancan (13th April 2019), Debra (14th April 2019), Denise/Dizi (14th April 2019), Franny (13th April 2019), jebrenham (14th April 2019), Kryztian (13th April 2019), onawah (13th April 2019), Pam (14th April 2019), Philippe (13th April 2019), Rosemarie (14th April 2019), Valerie Villars (14th April 2019)

  15. Link to Post #88
    United States Unsubscribed
    Join Date
    24th September 2014
    Location
    Appalachia
    Posts
    2,551
    Thanks
    9,947
    Thanked 13,078 times in 2,355 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    Quote Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
    Earlier on Thursday, Valencia and Interior Minister María Paula Romo charged that WikiLeaks was working with two Russian hackers stationed in Ecuador for the purpose of “destabilizing” the government.
    Bingo.

    And that's what's going to tie him into the Mueller investigation as well: allegations that he worked with Russian hackers to interfere in the 2016 US election.

    From November:

    Quote Has Robert Mueller Just Revealed His Next Target?

    The secret indictment of Julian Assange could be bad news for Roger Stone.

    After stepping out of the headlines and into the courtroom as part of a pre-midterms cease-fire, Robert Mueller appears poised to make his dramatic return to national politics with a new set of indictments centered around WikiLeaks and Roger Stone. According to multiple reports, the special counsel has been zeroing in on whether Stone or other Donald Trump associates had advance knowledge of Russia’s hacking of Clinton e-mails, which WikiLeaks later published. (Stone denies this.) A peripheral figure in the Stone saga is, of course, Julian Assange, who founded WikiLeaks in 2006, but has spent the last six years holed up in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, evading authorities in both Sweden and the United States. If Mueller were to make his next move against Stone, he might also be expected to take action against Assange. So it is perhaps unsurprising that Assange’s name also surfaced this week, thanks to a slipup by the Department of Justice.
    https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018...er-roger-stone

    MOABs incoming.

  16. Link to Post #89
    United States Avalon Member WhiteFeather's Avatar
    Join Date
    6th July 2011
    Location
    Grounded With Gaia
    Posts
    6,060
    Thanks
    39,262
    Thanked 36,971 times in 5,651 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    Quote Posted by AriG (here)
    https://www.rt.com/usa/456270-trump-on-assanges-
    arrest/


    WTAF! Trump has proven that he is a sock puppet president!
    Aren't all our Selected presidents, sock puppets. I use the terminolgy, bathroom cologne clerks. It works for me.
    "Although I Live On This World, I Choose Not To Live In It"
    <:~W.F.~:>

    "The answer to every question can be found in nature, if one knows how to look and listen”
    Gwilda Wiyaka

    "Everything on the Earth has a purpose, Every disease a herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence".
    Mourning Dove Salish


  17. The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to WhiteFeather For This Post:

    AriG (15th April 2019), Ba-ba-Ra (14th April 2019), Denise/Dizi (14th April 2019), Pam (14th April 2019)

  18. Link to Post #90
    Croatia Administrator Franny's Avatar
    Join Date
    3rd January 2011
    Location
    Island Time
    Posts
    3,133
    Thanks
    53,112
    Thanked 14,316 times in 2,099 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    I rather enjoyed this one by Jimmy Dore on Tucker Carlson's defending Assange


  19. The Following 11 Users Say Thank You to Franny For This Post:

    A Voice from the Mountains (14th April 2019), angelfire (14th April 2019), Ba-ba-Ra (14th April 2019), Bill Ryan (14th April 2019), BMJ (14th April 2019), Debra (14th April 2019), Denise/Dizi (14th April 2019), Innocent Warrior (16th April 2019), Pam (14th April 2019), Philippe (14th April 2019), Valerie Villars (14th April 2019)

  20. Link to Post #91
    Croatia Administrator Franny's Avatar
    Join Date
    3rd January 2011
    Location
    Island Time
    Posts
    3,133
    Thanks
    53,112
    Thanked 14,316 times in 2,099 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    And here is Tulsi Gabbard saying, quite explicitly that it's revenge and a message that the US can go after persons for saying things they don't want them to say.


  21. The Following 11 Users Say Thank You to Franny For This Post:

    A Voice from the Mountains (14th April 2019), Arcturian108 (14th April 2019), Ba-ba-Ra (14th April 2019), Bill Ryan (14th April 2019), Debra (14th April 2019), Denise/Dizi (14th April 2019), ichingcarpenter (14th April 2019), Innocent Warrior (16th April 2019), meeradas (31st May 2019), Sierra (15th April 2019), Valerie Villars (14th April 2019)

  22. Link to Post #92
    Croatia Administrator Franny's Avatar
    Join Date
    3rd January 2011
    Location
    Island Time
    Posts
    3,133
    Thanks
    53,112
    Thanked 14,316 times in 2,099 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    Richard Dolan is not amused, he has on his serious face and voice.


  23. The Following 10 Users Say Thank You to Franny For This Post:

    A Voice from the Mountains (14th April 2019), Ba-ba-Ra (14th April 2019), Bill Ryan (14th April 2019), Debra (14th April 2019), Iancorgi (14th April 2019), ichingcarpenter (14th April 2019), Innocent Warrior (16th April 2019), Rosemarie (15th April 2019), Valerie Villars (14th April 2019), Zanshin (16th April 2019)

  24. Link to Post #93
    United States Unsubscribed
    Join Date
    24th September 2014
    Location
    Appalachia
    Posts
    2,551
    Thanks
    9,947
    Thanked 13,078 times in 2,355 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    Quote Posted by latte (here)
    I rather enjoyed this one by Jimmy Dore on Tucker Carlson's defending Assange
    I'm no more a fan of Dore's policies than he is of Carlson, but I enjoyed that video too, and I agree that it does go to show who is bought out and who isn't. Even if I believe that Dore is severely misguided, I also believe that he actually believes what he says and wants what he thinks is best for people.

    Quote Posted by latte (here)
    And here is Tulsi Gabbard saying, quite explicitly that it's revenge and a message that the US can go after persons for saying things they don't want them to say.
    If Mueller and the Washington establishment go hard after Assange like it's looking like they will, from Lindsey Graham to Mark Warner, then you're going to see a couple of interesting things.

    First of all, you're going to see a populist/establishment split just like you did in 2015/2016 when people were pointing out the demographic similarities in the bases of Trump and Sanders, even though their actual policies are diametrically opposed. Second of all, you're going to see a lot of people on the left suddenly see the Mueller investigation in a whole new light, and not necessarily a good one. They may start taking a much harder look at what they have been cheerleading these past two years.

    This whole episode of Mueller vs. Assange the "Russian spy" is going to be a political bombshell in that it's going to shake up the established political divisions again, reignite the populist/establishment divisions within both parties that we already saw in 2015/2016, and politically set the deep state back over two years to exactly where the divisions were at that time. And that, in turn, is going to prepare the stage for the final assault and destruction of the old guard in both parties, and all of their dirt getting a public airing. But for all of that to come to pass, Assange must testify.

  25. Link to Post #94
    Scotland Avalon Member angelfire's Avatar
    Join Date
    3rd May 2014
    Posts
    256
    Thanks
    5,681
    Thanked 2,270 times in 241 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    I've been wondering if this was about to happen: New Wikileaks release

    https://nationandstate.com/2019/04/1...G4IAgpZGsgx0do

  26. The Following 14 Users Say Thank You to angelfire For This Post:

    Agape (14th April 2019), Arcturian108 (14th April 2019), Ascension (16th April 2019), Ba-ba-Ra (14th April 2019), betoobig (14th April 2019), Bill Ryan (14th April 2019), Billy (14th April 2019), Debra (14th April 2019), Franny (14th April 2019), Kryztian (14th April 2019), Praxis (14th April 2019), Satori (14th April 2019), Sierra (15th April 2019), Zanshin (16th April 2019)

  27. Link to Post #95
    Unsubscribed
    Join Date
    21st July 2010
    Age
    38
    Posts
    715
    Thanks
    326
    Thanked 3,312 times in 617 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    Quote Posted by angelfire (here)
    I've been wondering if this was about to happen: New Wikileaks release

    https://nationandstate.com/2019/04/1...G4IAgpZGsgx0do
    Yall need to follow that link and start exploring.

    Just one of them is a Congressional Research Service archive. Now most of yall will find these documents incredible dull, but for those special nerds that like to read government information: https://file.wikileaks.org/file/crs/

    Or maybe Clinton emails interest: https://file.wikileaks.org/file/clinton-emails/

  28. Link to Post #96
    United States Avalon Member Arcturian108's Avatar
    Join Date
    9th August 2015
    Location
    Blue Ridge Mountains
    Language
    English
    Posts
    943
    Thanks
    9,912
    Thanked 8,330 times in 930 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    Can't remember how to transfer screen shots to the Avalon forum, but check out this link from the Wikileaks dump:

    https://file.wikileaks.org/file/russ...unding-req.doc

    Last edited by Bill Ryan; 14th April 2019 at 21:47. Reason: embedded the screenshot

  29. The Following 11 Users Say Thank You to Arcturian108 For This Post:

    Ba-ba-Ra (14th April 2019), Bill Ryan (14th April 2019), Billy (14th April 2019), Franny (14th April 2019), Innocent Warrior (16th April 2019), KiwiElf (14th April 2019), Kryztian (15th April 2019), onawah (14th April 2019), Sierra (15th April 2019), Valerie Villars (14th April 2019), waree (14th April 2019)

  30. Link to Post #97
    Avalon Member
    Join Date
    26th May 2010
    Location
    Albuquerque, NM, USA
    Age
    73
    Posts
    2,450
    Thanks
    11,327
    Thanked 22,062 times in 2,419 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    Quote Posted by angelfire (here)
    I've been wondering if this was about to happen: New Wikileaks release

    https://nationandstate.com/2019/04/1...G4IAgpZGsgx0do
    This is huge. The die is cast. Notice the dates on all posts. 1/1/1984.

    Edit: there are exceptions to the dates, but many if not most are 1/1/1984, with the time at 01:01. I wonder more about the exceptions. Is that to call our attention to those posts?
    Last edited by Satori; 14th April 2019 at 23:05.

  31. The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to Satori For This Post:

    Ba-ba-Ra (14th April 2019), Bill Ryan (14th April 2019), KiwiElf (14th April 2019), Sierra (15th April 2019)

  32. Link to Post #98
    United States Avalon Member Valerie Villars's Avatar
    Join Date
    16th November 2017
    Age
    62
    Posts
    2,885
    Thanks
    32,001
    Thanked 20,435 times in 2,846 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    Satori, I was going to ask about that. Thanks.
    "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone when we are uncool." From the movie "Almost Famous""l "Let yourself stand cool and composed before a million universes." Walt Whitman

  33. The Following User Says Thank You to Valerie Villars For This Post:

    Satori (14th April 2019)

  34. Link to Post #99
    Croatia Administrator Franny's Avatar
    Join Date
    3rd January 2011
    Location
    Island Time
    Posts
    3,133
    Thanks
    53,112
    Thanked 14,316 times in 2,099 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    A nod to Dennis and of course Caitlin Johnstone for this timely article from yesterday Apr 13 2019.


    https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/04...-d-chess-talk/

    Trump Supporters Are Hurting Assange With Their 4-D Chess Talk



    At a time when everyone should be out in the streets shaking the earth and protesting the Trump administration’s prosecution of Julian Assange for exposing US war crimes, those who continue to support this president have one message and one message only when it comes to the WikiLeaks founder: Don’t do anything. Relax, wait and see, trust Trump, and don’t do anything. Trump is about to save Assange, and save us all. Do nothing.

    Who do you guys think this strategy benefits, exactly?

    These are all people who say they support Assange and WikiLeaks, who say they support free speech and oppose the deep state, and yet what they are doing today hurts Assange and helps the unelected power establishment known as the deep state just as much as the hysterical Russiavape dupes who are overtly smearing Assange today.

    To be clear, not everyone who voted for Trump is doing this; many are aggressively opposing this administration’s prosecution of Assange and vocally withdrawing all support for him. But the ones who are engaged in the behavior I’m describing are all helping to kill the loud and aggressive opposition to Assange’s imprisonment which is so desperately needed right now, and they’re helping everyone they claim to oppose. The pussyhat-wearing Assange haters and the MAGA hat-wearing Assange lovers are on the same side on this issue, mindlessly working toward the exact same agenda: the permanent imprisonment of a truth-telling journalist.



    Every time President Trump advances a longstanding evil agenda of America’s permanent government, I see my social media notifications swarmed with Trump supporters telling me that it is actually a good thing, because it’s secretly a brilliant strategic chess move that the 45th president is taking against the deep state.

    When I say that this happens every time, I’m not being hyperbolic to make a point. I mean it happens every single time, without a single, solitary exception, always. It happens with such clockwork reliability that I preemptively addressed it in the article I wrote when Julian Assange was arrested, saying, “I am going to have a zero tolerance policy for QAnon cultists who try to tell me that this is actually 5-D chess by Trump to overthrow the Deep State. Stay out of my comments, stay out of my social media notifications, stay the hell away from me, and please rethink your worldview.”

    I said this because I knew it was coming, and indeed it did. All sorts of theories have been concocted since Assange’s arrest which people cite as proof that Trump is actually protecting Assange with his administration’s indictment and extradition request, instead of working to imprison a journalist for exposing US war crimes, which is actually what’s happening.

    They tell me that Trump is bringing Assange to America for trial because he can only pardon him after he’s been convicted. This is false. A US president can pardon anyone at any time of any crime against the United States, without their having been convicted and without their even having been charged. After leaving office Richard Nixon was issued a full presidential pardon by Gerald Ford for “all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9,1974.” Nixon had never been charged with anything. If Trump were going to pardon Assange he could have done it at any time since taking office, instead of issuing a warrant for his arrest in December 2017 and executing it on Thursday after a series of international legal manipulations. A pardon is not in the plans.

    Another common belief I keep encountering is that Trump is bringing Assange to America to get him to testify about his source for the 2016 Democratic Party emails in exchange for a pardon, thereby revealing the truth about Russiagate’s origins and bringing down Clinton and Obama. This is false. Everyone who knows anything about Assange (including the Trump administration) knows that he will never, ever reveal a source under any circumstances whatsoever. It would be a cardinal journalistic sin, a violation of every promise WikiLeaks has ever made, and a betrayal of his entire life’s work. More importantly, imprisoning a journalist and threatening him with a heavy sentence to coerce him into giving up information against his will is evil. If you believe your president is doing that, the last thing you should be doing is cheering for him.

    But that isn’t what Trump is doing. Trump is pursuing the imprisonment of a journalist for exposing US war crimes, so that he can scare off future leak publishers and set a legal precedent for their prosecution.



    I’ve been engaging people in debates on this subject online so I can understand their arguments well enough to address them, and what I’ve learned is that they don’t really have any. Those who believe Trump is actually secretly helping Assange and helping the American people by prosecuting a journalist have no basis for their belief other than pure faith that Trump is good, therefore anything he does must be good. It’s the exact mirror image of Russiagate hysterics, and it benefits the exact same corrupt establishment.

    The mental contortions that people are doing to avoid the cognitive dissonance between their support for Assange and their support for Trump is truly something to behold. For the last 24 hours QAnon adherents have been telling me that Assange holding a Gore Vidal book when arrested is an undeniable signal that he’s in coordination with the Trump campaign to bring down the Deep State, and that I’m crazy for being unable to see that. Turns out it was actually a book that Assange wanted to read while he was waiting to be processed at the courthouse, which makes sense since Vidal’s “History of the National Security State” covers a subject that Assange has devoted his entire life to.

    QAnon is such a brilliant propaganda construct. With some cryptic posts on an anonymous message board, whoever is behind that PSYOP has succeeded in manipulating a vocal and impassioned sector of Trump’s base into applauding every single step he’s taken in advancing the dystopian agendas of his predecessors as a brilliant 4-D chess move against the establishment. I’ve been told that his bombing of Syria actually took out an Iranian nuclear base, that he’s helping to free the Venezuelan people without harming anyone, that he’s fighting the deep state in Iran, that his dangerous escalations against Russia are just a show because he and Putin are working together (a comical overlap with the Russiagate crowd), and last year they were telling me that Assange isn’t in the embassy at all because Trump had already covertly rescued and pardoned him. There are people who honestly believe that there is a revolution against the establishment underway which is being led by a plucky alliance between the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of Israel, and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. It’s that bad.



    QAnon followers make up a minority of Trump’s base, but the insanity of the QAnon psyop bleeds into the greater MAGA crowd and helps normalize the kind of thinking which leads people to conclude that a blatant prosecution of a journalist for telling the truth about the US political construct is actually a strategic maneuver against the establishment. The enthusiastic promotion of this narrative has an undeniable and pernicious chilling effect on opposition to Assange’s wrongful imprisonment, which should be an issue upon which the right and the true left agree.

    I’ve never pushed away Trump supporters because I believe isolating into ideological echo chambers makes the left impotent and stupid, and many of them have followed me since I started this gig because they agree with some of what I’ve got to say. I don’t know how many MAGA people I still have in my readership after all the stuff I’ve been writing about their president, but those of you who are still out there, please, for the love of God help get this idea out there. This is a time where everyone who supports WikiLeaks should be flooring the gas pedal, and all the “Don’t do anything, trust the plan, wait and see” rhetoric is keeping one foot on the brakes.

    Assange should have been pardoned already, long ago, if not by Obama then by Trump. There is no excuse whatsoever for this not to have happened already, let alone for Assange to be behind bars at the behest of this administration. Stop saying “wait and see”. We’ve already seen. The time to protest is now. Get your foot off the brakes, and aggressively demand that your president cease doing what he is doing. Make this an election issue. Trump can’t afford to lose his base, but if you keep saying “wait and see” the narrative manipulators will keep moving back the line you’d sworn you’ll never let him cross until before you know it you’ve got another four years of another Bushbama while Assange remains locked in a cage.

    Don’t let them do this to you. Use your power now.

  35. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Franny For This Post:

    Arcturian108 (17th April 2019), Zanshin (16th April 2019)

  36. Link to Post #100
    United States Unsubscribed
    Join Date
    24th September 2014
    Location
    Appalachia
    Posts
    2,551
    Thanks
    9,947
    Thanked 13,078 times in 2,355 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    Quote Posted by latte (here)
    At a time when everyone should be out in the streets shaking the earth and protesting
    For what? Assange has been releasing data dumps for over a decade already. What's it actually changed so far, aside from people getting arrested and murdered for it?

    It's not a conspiracy theory that his testimony is wanted in regards to things he's divulged through Wikileaks. What is so freaking terrifying about the idea of him testifying under oath about what he knows? Is that what must be avoided at all costs? Whose interests does that serve? He's already been offered immunity by a highly influential Republican senator from the Freedom Caucus.

    Apparently people think he's more useful pissing in the wind like usual.

    He's also not our boyfriend. He wants to expose corruption and so does everyone else. If that's the ultimate goal, then running from the justice system doesn't help that. There are plenty of people on both sides of the aisle willing to help him here, and for Trump to persecute him would cause him serious political damage even within his own party. If I was in his position, I would love to spill my guts to Congress in a public hearing.


    One more question: Who killed Seth Rich?
    Last edited by A Voice from the Mountains; 15th April 2019 at 06:26.

Closed Thread
Page 5 of 10 FirstFirst 1 5 10 LastLast

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts