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Thread: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

  1. Link to Post #21
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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    One would think "diplomatic immunity" laws would apply. UK dishonoring diplomatic immunity certainly reeks .

    Quote Diplomatic immunity is a form of legal immunity that ensures diplomats are given safe passage and are considered not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host country's laws, but they can still be expelled.
    Quote Posted by Baby Steps (here)
    Quote Posted by Bob (here)
    BBC - (breaking?)

    Julian Assange becomes Ecuadorean citizen

    The Ecuadorean government has confirmed that Julian Assange was granted Ecuadorean citizenship on 12 December.

    Ecuador subsequently asked the UK to recognise Mr Assange as a diplomatic agent - a move that could have given him immunity.

    The UK has refused, saying Mr Assange - who has been at the embassy since 2012 - should now leave and "face justice".

    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42648171
    Apologies, but I am disgusted with the UK on this issue.( why - there are sooo many.... still....)
    Last edited by Bob; 11th January 2018 at 19:15.

  2. Link to Post #22
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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Ecuador grants citizenship to Assange – FM



    Published on 11 Jan 2018
    Ecuador has granted citizenship to Wikileaks chief Julian Assange, who's
    been holed up in the country's embassy in London for more than 5 years
    now. READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/8wov
    Last edited by Cidersomerset; 11th January 2018 at 21:06.

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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    The WH would not comment on the situation...

    Limbo on Earth: Assange's fate still unclear despite taking out Ecuadorian citizenship



    Published on 12 Jan 2018
    Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been granted citizenship by Ecuador
    whose London embassy he's been living in since 2012, after he sought
    political asylum. Although there is still widespread suspicion that the US
    wants to extradite him, Washington officials would not be drawn on the
    speculation. READ MORE: https://on.rt.com/8wov

    ================================================
    ================================================

    Alex a little more optimistic that Trump is trying to pave the way for the US to
    drop interest in arresting Julian...

    Ecuador Issues Julian Assange A Passport As He Plans To Leave London Safely

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jneTe4mQnZQ

    Published on 11 Jan 2018...Info wars
    The Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirmed both that Ecuador naturalized
    Julian Assange in granting him citizenship, and that Ecuador had extended to
    Assange diplomatic status.
    Last edited by Cidersomerset; 12th January 2018 at 16:24.

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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Dr.Corsi speculates Julian may have already left the embassy and is in Switzerland ?

    There is nothing on any other media about this that I have seen ......


    Corsi: Assange’s Diplomatic Immunity From Ecuador



    Published on 12 Jan 2018
    Where in the world is Julian Assange? Jerome Corsi
    on movements by Ecuador & Trump to free Julian Assange.

    Follow David Knight On Twitter: https://twitter.com/libertytarian

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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Julian Assange posted this to Twitter one hour ago.

    It's kinda reminiscent of a Q-Drop, isn't it?

    I've never played chess a day of my life, so what's he trying to tell us Chess Masters?

    Harley

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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    ‘There is no press freedom in the United States’ – radio host



    Published on 12 Jan 2018
    WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has reportedly been issued an Ecuadorian ID
    in a bid to end his five-year confinement within Quito’s embassy in London.Randy
    Credico, a close friend of Assange, joins RT America's Anya Parampil to share his
    insights. The radio host also discusses the Russia investigation and its growing
    interest in him, which Credico says “proves how farcical the entire Russiagate inquiry is.”

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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Quote Posted by Harley (here)
    Julian Assange posted this to Twitter one hour ago.

    It's kinda reminiscent of a Q-Drop, isn't it?

    I've never played chess a day of my life, so what's he trying to tell us Chess Masters?
    This image shows which chess pieces are which, labeled, similar graphical/icon style, with opening position shown:

    My quite dormant website: pauljackson.us

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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Quote Posted by Harley (here)
    Julian Assange posted this to Twitter one hour ago.

    It's kinda reminiscent of a Q-Drop, isn't it?

    I've never played chess a day of my life, so what's he trying to tell us Chess Masters?


    OK, Here it is:

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    from Jerome twitter
    Jerome Corsi
    @jerome_corsi
    1h1 hour ago

    Quote Black King DONE - @JulianAssange has DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT w immunity to travel - probably already in Switzerland - DOJ FRIDAY NIGHT drops first NEW indictment in URANIUM ONE CASE (was a. Mueller coverup) NO COINCIDENCES as Trump COUNTERATTACK begins #QAnon #Qanon8chan
    More

    Quote My interview today with David Knight on http://INFOWARS.com - we discussed @JulianAssange before he posted the chess puzzle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKRuroJpqVs … #QAnon #Qanon8chan HOW ABOUT A NICE GAME OF CHESS?
    Harley

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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Thought I had it figured out, but the B Rook (lost track of it in the small window) threatens the space.

    Hmmm ...

    I'm only sure that the main threat is when the W Knight (!) leaps out to A3, putting the B King into check. This could be blocked by either the W Bishop or the aforementioned B Rook, either of which could be taken by the W Rook. Not sure what would happen next.

    B.
    Last edited by Fellow Aspirant; 13th January 2018 at 16:46.
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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Apparently this is the classic game that those chessboard moves came from:


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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Good Lord! That is way more complicated than I expected! These players are thinking twenty moves ahead, in what I thought was an imminent checkmate.

    Very impressive. So I take from this that, although Assange is assured of a positive outcome for himself, it won't be anytime soon.

    Thanks, Callista!

    B.
    A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.

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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Julian Assange keeps warning of AI censorship, and it's time we started listening

    Caitlin Johnstone Medium
    Wed, 17 Jan 2018 17:43 UTC



    Throughout the near entirety of human history, a population's understanding of what's going on in the world has been controlled by those in power. The men in charge controlled what the people were told about rival populations, the history of their tribe and its leadership, etc. When the written word was invented, men in charge dictated what books were permitted to be written and circulated, what ideas were allowed, what narratives the public would be granted access to.

    This continued straight on into modern times. Where power is not overtly totalitarian, wealthy elites have bought up all media, first in print, then radio, then television, and used it to advance narratives that are favorable to their interests. Not until humanity gained widespread access to the internet has our species had the ability to freely and easily share ideas and information on a large scale without regulation by the iron-fisted grip of power. This newfound ability arguably had a direct impact on the election for the most powerful elected office in the most powerful government in the world in 2016, as a leak publishing outlet combined with alternative and social media enabled ordinary Americans to tell one another their own stories about what they thought was going on in their country.

    This newly democratized narrative-generating power of the masses gave those in power an immense fright, and they've been working to restore the old order of power controlling information ever since. And the editor-in-chief of the aforementioned leak publishing outlet, WikiLeaks, has been repeatedly trying to warn us about this coming development.

    In a statement that was recently read during the "Organising Resistance to Internet Censorship" webinar, sponsored by the World Socialist Web Site, Assange warned of how "digital super states" like Facebook and Google have been working to "re-establish discourse control", giving authority over how ideas and information are shared back to those in power.

    Quote
    Julian Assange‏ @JulianAssange

    5:24 PM - 16 Jan 2018
    521 replies 5,859 retweets 9,350 likes
    Assange went on to say that the manipulative attempts of world power structures to regain control of discourse in the information age has been "operating at a scale, speed, and increasingly at a subtlety, that appears likely to eclipse human counter-measures."

    What this means is that using increasingly more advanced forms of artificial intelligence, power structures are becoming more and more capable of controlling the ideas and information that people are able to access and share with one another, hide information which goes against the interests of those power structures and elevate narratives which support those interests, all of course while maintaining the illusion of freedom and lively debate.

    This is not the first time that Assange has cautioned about these developments. In an appearance via video link at musician and activist M.I.A.'s Meltdown Festival last June, the WikiLeaks editor-in-chief expounded in far more detail about his thoughts on the potential for artificial intelligence to be used for controlling online information and discourse in a way human intelligence can't hope to keep up with.

    Pointing out how AI can already outmaneuver even the greatest chess players in the world, he describes how programs which can operate with exponentially more tactical intelligence than the human intellect can manipulate the field of available information so effectively and subtly that people won't even know they are being manipulated. People will be living in a world that they think they understand and know about, but they'll unknowingly be viewing only establishment-approved information.

    To be clear, this is already happening. Due to a recent shift in Google's "evaluation methods", traffic to left-leaning and anti-establishment websites has plummeted, with sites like WikiLeaks, Alternet, Counterpunch, Global Research, Consortium News, Truthout, and WSWS losing up to 70 percent of the views they were getting prior to the changes. Powerful billionaire oligarchs Pierre Omidyar and George Soros are openly financing the development of "an automated fact-checking system" (AI) to hide "fake news" from the public.

    Whenever they are accused of censoring anti-establishment narratives, these "digital super states" have been consistently denying participating in censorship themselves and instead blaming the algorithm for the information's disappearance from public view. But what does that mean, exactly?

    It means "It wasn't me censoring you! It was the AI!" Which is the exact threat that Assange is pointing to here.

    To make matters even worse, there's no way to know the exact extent to which this is going on, because we know that we can absolutely count on the digital super states in question to lie about it. In the lead-up to the 2016 election, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was asked point-blank if Twitter was obstructing the #DNCLeaks from trending, a hashtag people were using to build awareness of the DNC emails which had just been published by WikiLeaks, and Dorsey flatly denied it. More than a year later, we learned from a prepared testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism by Twitter's acting general counsel Sean J. Edgett that this was completely false and Twitter had indeed been doing exactly that to protect the interests of US political structures by sheltering the public from information allegedly gathered by Russian hackers.

    "With respect to #DNCLeak, approximately 23,000 users posted around 140,000 unique Tweets with that hashtag in the relevant period," Edgett said. "Of those Tweets, roughly 2% were from Russian-linked accounts. As noted above, our automated systems at the time detected, labeled, and hid just under half (48%) of all the original Tweets with #DNCLeak."

    So this is happening already. There's no way to know exactly to what extent at this point because these powerful corporations are hiding behind so much dishonesty and opacity, but it is happening without question.

    Imagine going back to a world like the Middle Ages where you only knew the things your king wanted you to know, except you could still watch innocuous kitten videos on Youtube. That appears to be where we may be headed, and if that happens the possibility of any populist movement arising to hold power to account may be effectively locked out from the realm of possibility forever.

    To claim that these powerful new media corporations are just private companies practicing their freedom to determine what happens on their property is to bury your head in the sand and ignore the extent to which these digital super states are already inextricably interwoven with existing power structures. In a corporatist system of government, which America unquestionably has, corporate censorship is government censorship, of an even more pernicious strain than if Jeff Sessions were touring the country burning books. The more advanced artificial intelligence becomes, the more adept these power structures will become at manipulating us. Time to start paying very close attention to this.
    Last edited by Hervé; 18th January 2018 at 21:10.
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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Julian Assange via Pastebin:

    Quote ---------- Forwarded message ----------
    From: WikiLeaks / Sunshine Press
    Date: Sat, Dec 1, 2017
    Subject: WikiLeaks/Assange response to strange FPF "ultimatum"
    To: [Freedom of Press Foundation board]

    It is ironic that the organization John Perry Barlow and I conceived
    in 2011 to protect WikiLeaks and its donors from politically induced
    financial censorship is now apparently considering doing just that.

    Shockingly, I received an email (via my lawyer Jennifer Robinson)
    from the Freedom of the Press Foundation giving WikiLeaks a previously
    undiscussed unilateral 10-day ultimatum.

    The pressure against WikiLeaks, its staff and its allies has increased
    as a result of our CIA and Democratic party publications. The
    financial censorship of WikiLeaks is ongoing in various ways as is
    our litigation in response.

    WikiLeaks is in the middle of publishing the largest CIA leaks in
    history (Vault7 and Vault8). December 7 marks the eighth year of
    my arbitrary detention which continues in violation of two UN
    rulings. The U.S. grand jury against WikiLeaks has been expanded
    to include our CIA publications. Randy Credico, a free speech
    activist, comedian, and political commentator has just been subpoenaed
    by the House Intelligence Committee to appear on December 15. He
    will likely go to jail for refusing to testify in the witch hunt
    against WikiLeaks. Trump's CIA chief Mike Pompeo takes every
    opportunity he can to attack WikiLeaks, vows to "take down" WikiLeaks
    and states that WikiLeaks has no 1st Amendment protections.

    US donors are the majority of our donor base. FPF's anonymizing
    structure and tax-deductibility have been very important in reassuring
    donors that it is safe for them to support WikiLeaks. We don't
    advertise the banking blockade because we found that doing so creates
    anxiety in donors as to the legality of donating to WikiLeaks.

    Our litigation in the US, and at the EU Commission have reached
    impasses. The case in Iceland, which follows a contractual chain
    to VISA International in California has proceeded to the damages
    phase at the Icelandic Supreme Court. WikiLeaks does not engage
    with any of the financial services companies directly due to blockades
    and the elevated risk of blockades, of which the FPF ultimatum is
    somehow a bizarre reflection. Wau Holland is not WikiLeaks. It
    performs a similar proxy role as FPF for Europe.

    The FPF originated in a meeting between John Perry Barlow and me
    at the Frontline Club in London in 2011 and subsequent phone calls.
    This is not to diminish extraordinary work of numerous others who
    subsequently became involved. The financial blockade was one of
    several fronts we faced, along with a US grand jury, a Pentagon
    "war room" (their term, not mine), and an intense propaganda offensive
    by the US military, the political class and virtually all establishment
    media.

    Barlow and I decided it was critical to set up a First Amendment
    organization in the US to improve WikiLeaks prospects for survival
    since the majority of its donors are in the United States.

    Free speech organizations are typically captured because they rely
    on foundations and indirect government grants to survive. Some are
    cold war relics, others are tools of current US foreign policy or
    have become service organizations to the establishment press. None
    were brave or resilient enough to take press freedoms seriously.

    John, who had co-founded EFF in 1990, brought them in. On their
    legal advice, WikiLeaks would conceal its role in initiating FPF
    to discourage financial intermediaries from extending their blockade
    to FPF and to strengthen its litigation opportunities. But in
    reality, WikiLeaks and its lawyers (including Michael Ratner and
    Jennifer Robinson) were directly involved in not only the idea to
    create FPF, but in its establishment. Its mission statement derives
    from my draft and I and secured most of FPF's seed funding. I
    nominated Glenn Greenwald, Daniel Ellsberg, John Cusack, Laura
    Poitras to the board to join John Perry Barlow.

    In an email from August 23rd, 2013, Timm refers to FPF's mission
    statement as "the mission statement WikiLeaks wrote when we first
    started FPF last year".

    The WikiLeaks and EFF sides synced with a conference call between
    me, JPB, Rainey, Timm, Marcia Hoffman, Michael Ratner, Shane Kadidal,
    Baher Azmy, Renata Avila, Cindy Kohn and Jennifer Robinson in early
    March 2012. By mid April, Timm (who was then at EFF and whose Twitter
    account was "@WikiLeaksLegal") informed us that Rainey was trying
    to find a web developer, and that he was working on incorporation
    and finalising the board: "I am waiting to hear back from Barlow
    and Michael Ratner about a couple other possible board members. So
    I am going to finalize the board, and then when we are officially
    incorporated and have the website, we can all schedule a call again
    to talk about roll out." By 23 May, we were informed that a developer
    had been newly hired and "Barlow is working on raising our start-up
    costs". By August 1, 2012, the web developer had created 80% of the
    website, and papers had been submitted for incorporation. Timm wrote
    "a sincere apology for not getting this all up sooner, as we wanted.
    Our day jobs seem to have gotten in the way! But we are super excited
    to finally launch." Start-up costs were estimated at USD 15,000.

    We secured two-thirds of the initial USD 15,000 seed funding which
    was sent from the Bertha Foundation.

    But beyond the process itself, it is important to recall why FPF
    was set up.

    John and I felt strongly that donating to WikiLeaks was an act of
    free speech and free association. The fundamental motivation of the
    FPF was not only to protect WikiLeaks' directly but also to protect
    its US readers' speech and associational rights in their act of
    donating to WikiLeaks. FPF was also designed to litigate on behalf
    of WikiLeaks and its donors. Its name was chosen for the impression
    that it would convey on a docket.

    The structure of FPF is the way it is because it was customized to
    counter political and legal pressure against WikiLeaks, its donors,
    and upstream financial intermediaries. FPF was set up to anonymize
    WikiLeaks donors by also collecting for other organizations so that
    financial records could not be used to determine which organization
    received funds from which donor.

    The FPF faces criticism for receiving donations on our behalf, but
    that is its function. If it bows to political pressure it becomes
    part of the problem it was designed to solve and yet another spurious
    free speech organization--of which there are plenty. WikiLeaks
    cannot be 'cycled off' as political pressure increases or as FPF
    seeks to embrace establishment foundations such Ford, whose historical
    relationship with the CIA is well documented. To do so is a betrayal
    of the FPF's founding purpose.

    Even before FPF's letter, I had sought and obtained legal advice
    from my DC-based defense attorney, Barry Pollack, in relation to
    the possibility of setting up a 501c3 that could receive WikiLeaks
    contributions in the US. I was not confident that all FPF board
    members would able to stand the political pressure over our
    publications. WikiLeaks will never forego asserting its rights,
    even in the face of such potential conflicts. Barry advised against
    setting up a 501c3 in the United States as it would increase the
    DoJ's ability to assert jurisdiction and hence make it easier to
    prosecute our staff.

    Through a Daily Beast article by "Kevin Poulsen", who interviewed
    former FPF board member Xeni Jardin, I learned that the board's
    weakening resolve is due to a Micah Lee initiative asking his fellow
    board members to "cut ties" with WikiLeaks.

    Poulsen is a key actor in the imprisonment of Chelsea Manning, and
    a confidant of Adrian Lamo. Poulsen and Lee have both been developers
    of SecureDrop. Poulsen manipulated the alleged Manning-Assange chat
    logs in an attempt to frame WikiLeaks (see for example Glenn
    Greenwald's article "The worsening journalistic disgrace at Wired"
    for more background. As the article puts it: "At the heart of the
    WikiLeaks/Manning saga lies the efforts of a self-proclaimed
    journalist [Poulsen] to conceal the truth"). This is the person
    Jardin used to publicize the move to cut WikiLeaks off from its
    donor base on Lee's initiative.

    When I learned that Jardin had been put on the board in December
    2012, I sent a message to Timm: "I've no recollection of ever meeting
    Xeni and have definitely never worked with her yet she goes around
    saying [I] have.. penning dozens of snide, unhelpful articles in
    BoingBoing about us. We've seen her as an opponent for a long time
    based on those articles. Perhaps she's shifted her politics given
    the new opportunity... I don't know, but her politics are not
    anti-censorship. Not anti-war. Not anti-empire. I don't think she
    has any politics. She's an exhibitionist and a networker--what's
    to stop her swapping sides when she gets a better offer? Be careful."

    Although I have never met or communicated with Lee and know little
    of him. But research shows that starting in early 2016 he has engaged
    in an online vilification campaign against WikiLeaks (and me). Some
    examples:

    "..Julian [is] a rapist, liar, & ally to fascists";
    "I wonder, now that Obama has commuted @xychelsea's sentence, will
    Julian Assange turn himself in for US extradition";
    "Julian Assange is not a co-founder of @freedomofPress. This is
    another lie. I know, I'm a co-founder";
    "We can't trust them [WikiLeaks]";
    "Assange's fall to bigotry";
    "WikiLeaks/Julian also champion far-right conspiracy theories";
    "Assange makes up a narcissistic, self-serving, offensive conspiracy
    theiry (sic) to make @xychelsea's story more about him";
    "This is just Julian defending a Nazi" in response to my tweet
    ["US 'liberals' today celebrate the censorship of right-wing UK
    provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos over teen sex quote."]

    Like Jardin, this is not a person who takes his legal and ethical
    responsibilities as an FPF board member or director seriously. FPF's
    founding purpose was to defend WikiLeaks and its donors from
    persecution not to contribute to it.

    The Lee initiative to cut WikiLeaks off from its US donors is a sad
    business.

    Should FPF decide to "cut off" WikiLeaks, the timing, transfer, and
    auditing of funds, the notification sent to all past and current
    WikiLeaks donors, and how to deal with monthly donors, should be
    agreed between FPF and WL.

    Julian Assange
    https://pastebin.com/raw/qnB5gMam

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    How Comey Intervened to Kill Wikileaks Immunity Deal

    6/25/2018
    The Hill

    http://thehill.com/opinion/white-hou...-immunity-deal

    Comey
    Sen. Mark Warner
    DOJ Bruce Ohr

    Julian Assange

    Atty. Adam Waldman
    David Laufman, prosecutor
    ****************

    Email outline of the deal...
    http://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/394...deal-to-julian

    MM
    Last edited by Michelle Marie; 26th June 2018 at 05:23.
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    Ecuador's President Names Condition For Assange to Leave London Embassy


    Sputnik Latin America
    10:52 08.08.2018
    (updated 10:54 08.08.2018)


    © AP Photo / Matt Dunham

    More than six years after Julian Assange moved into the confines of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, the WikiLeaks founder may finally end his self-imposed isolation.

    Julian Assange is free to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London any time, but only if Britain guarantees his safety, Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno has said.

    According to Moreno, Ecuadorian authorities are currently in talks with Assange’s lawyers to work out an agreement that would ensure the security of the WikiLeaks’ founder “‘in line with the norms of international law.”

    “If we come to an agreement, we’ll be happy to ask Mr. Assange to leave the embassy and surrender himself to legal investigation,” Lenin Moreno said in an interview with the national TV channel NTN24.

    Late last month Moreno said that Julian Assange should leave the premises of the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

    Shortly afterwards, media reports said that the Australian journalist planned to walk out of the Ecuadorian mission due to health problems related to his long-time isolation.

    Julian Assange, who has been holed up in the Knightsbridge residence since 2012, fears he will be extradited to the United States to face prosecution over WikiLeaks’ publication of leaked US military and diplomatic documents.

    Sweden dropped its investigation into Assange over allegations of sexual offenses in May 2017.
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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    I feel Britain won't 'guarantee' his safety at all. They'll get him. Assange has been made an example of, right from the start, in order to deter anyone else with a penchant for Whistleblowing. Like Ed Snowden.
    I just hate it when ordinary people, with no axe to grind, criticise JA & call for his 'arrest'. Bloody idiots. Do they not realise that they are policing the very 'police state' that they would otherwise complain & whinge about & actually contribute to the mess we're in?
    No, too busy 'virtue signalling'. Grrrrr!

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    'Free speech': Trump campaign defends WikiLeaks' release of leaked DNC emails

    Sputnik
    Thu, 11 Oct 2018 15:25 UTC


    © CC BY 2.0 / Wikileaks Mobile Information Collection Unit / Wikileaks Truck

    A lawsuit filed in September by two donors and an ex-employee from the Democratic Party alleged that President Donald Trump's team had purportedly conspired with Russia to release emails ostensibly stolen from the servers of the Democratic National Committee.

    In a motion to dismiss a new lawsuit, the Trump campaign, represented by lawyers from the firm Jones Day, turned to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to state that WikiLeaks couldn't be held "liable" for publishing Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails because the whistleblowing website served as an "intermediary" for other parties' information.

    "A website that provides a forum where 'third parties can post information' is not liable for the third party's posted information. Since WikiLeaks provided a forum for a third party (the unnamed "Russian actors") to publish content developed by that third party (the hacked emails), it cannot be held liable for the publication," the motion read.

    Presenting the 32-page legal filing, the lawyers also maintained that any alleged agreement between the website and the Trump campaign to leak those emails couldn't be considered a "conspiracy" due to the fact that WikiLeaks' posting of the messages was not a crime, while a "conspiracy is an agreement to commit an unlawful act," the lawyers claimed.

    They further added that the campaign couldn't be held legally responsible for the publication of the DNC emails on WikiLeaks.

    The lawyers appealed to the First Amendment, which protects the right to "disclose information - even stolen information - so long as (1) the speaker did not participate in the theft and (2) the information deals with matters of public concern."
    "At a minimum, privacy cannot justify suppressing true speech during a political campaign. The First Amendment 'has its fullest and most urgent application to speech uttered during a campaign for political office'. It leaves voters 'free to obtain information from diverse sources in order to determine how to cast their votes,'" the filing read.
    The motion was submitted in response to a civil lawsuit brought against the Trump campaign by one ex-employee from the Democratic Party and two donors, who alleged that the leaked emails had revealed "identifying information."

    While the Trump campaign's lawyers leapt to the defense of the website in their brief, the current administration has previously blasted WikiLeaks for releasing classified documents, with then-CIA director Mike Pompeo - now the secretary of state - dismissing the platform as a "hostile non-state intelligence service" in 2017.

    In July 2018, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation into the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election, announced indictments against 12 Russian nationals, claiming that they were posing as Guccifer 2.0, the entity that took credit for the hack of the DNC.

    According to the indictment, they used a website run by an organization, "that had previously posted documents stolen from US persons, entities, and the US government," in an apparent allusion to WikiLeaks.

    WikiLeaks, which was accused by Trump's Democratic rival in the election, Hillary Clinton, of acting as a "fully owned subsidiary of Russian intelligence" after publishing emails leaked from the DNC servers during the campaign, has denied any efforts to meddle in the 2016 election in the United States, as well as conspiring with Russia.

    Both Washington and Moscow have repeatedly dismissed claims of collusion to influence the outcome of the vote.
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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Wikileaks founder Assange sues Ecuador for 'violating fundamental rights & freedoms' over new set of 'censure' rules

    RT
    Fri, 19 Oct 2018 17:24 UTC


    Julian Assange is pictured at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, UK. © Reuters / Peter Nicholls

    Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is suing Ecuador, accusing it of violating his "fundamental rights and freedoms." It comes after the nation issued a new set of rules for Assange, who has lived in its London embassy for years.

    The whistleblowing website says Assange's access to the outside world has been "summarily cut off," and that Quito has threatened to remove the protection granted to him since being given political asylum.

    It also claims that Ecuador's government has refused to allow Assange to be visited by Human Rights Watch general counsel Dinah PoKempner and has blocked several meetings between him and his lawyers.

    In a statement, Wikileaks questioned the legality of the "Special Protocol" laid out to Assange by Ecuador, which was reported earlier this week and "makes Assange's political asylum contingent on censoring his freedom of opinion, speech, and association."

    It goes on to state that the protocol requires journalists, lawyers, and anyone else seeking to see 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, according to Wikileaks, also states that the Ecuadorian Embassy can seize the property of Assange and his visitors and hand it over to British authorities without a warrant.

    The case, which is being launched in Ecuador by Wikileaks lawyer Baltasar Garzon, is expected to be heard in a domestic court next week.


    Quote
    WikiLeaks‏Verified account @wikileaks

    WikiLeaks' lawyer Judge Baltasar Garzón arrives in Ecuador to file case today over @JulianAssange's isolation and gagging. Hearing next week. Background: https://justice4assange.com



    7:45 AM - 19 Oct 2018
    30 replies 281 retweets 432 likes
    Ecuador cut off Assange's communications in March, after he discussed topics on social media which could have allegedly damaged the country's diplomatic relations. Those topics included tensions between London and Moscow and Catalonian separatism.

    His internet and mobile phone access were partially restored on Sunday, according to both Wikileaks and Assange's legal adviser Greg Barns.

    But along with the partial restoration of internet came the protocol, in a nine-page memo which also included telling him that he must refrain from making political statements and clean the bathroom in the embassy.

    It also threatened to confiscate Assange's cat if he didn't take better care of its "well-being, food, and hygiene."

    Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June 2012 in an effort to avoid being extradited to the US over the publication of thousands of classified US diplomatic cables. He fled to the embassy after skipping bail in the UK.

    Assange previously faced charges of sexual assault in Sweden, though those were later dropped. He always insisted he was willing to go to Sweden to answer the charges, but refused to do so - fearing that Sweden would extradite him to the US.


    Related:
    Ecuador gets UN praise for 'freedom of expression' as Assange remains gagged in embassy limbo
    Last edited by Hervé; 19th October 2018 at 18:35.
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    Pressenza - Julian Assange warns that Ecuador is moving to end his political asylum (30th Oct.)

    By Mike Head

    Before being abruptly cut off by an Ecuadorian government lawyer during a court hearing on Monday, WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange accused that government of seeking to end his asylum in its London embassy and hand him over to the United States.

    Assange spoke from the tiny embassy via teleconference to a hearing in Quito of a lawsuit in which he is challenging a draconian protocol that President Lenín Moreno’s government has sought to impose on him.

    Assange said the new rules were a sign Ecuador was trying to push him out, and that Moreno had already decided to end his asylum but had not yet officially given the order. Before Assange could say any more, Ecuador’s top government lawyer, Inigo Salvador, interrupted him and warned him not to make political statements during the proceedings.

    It was the first time the WikiLeaks publisher has been able to speak to the world since March, when Moreno’s government cut off all his communications after he criticised the detention of Catalan politicians.

    For more than seven months, Assange has been subjected to a regime of confinement worse than that inflicted on convicted criminals in maximum-security prisons, preventing him from communicating even with his own children and parents.

    In line with this silencing of Assange, court officials told journalists they could not record any of the statements made during the hearing. Nevertheless, reports of Assange’s warning of the move against him were broadcast internationally. This is an indication of the widespread global support for the courageous journalist and for WikiLeaks, which continues to publish leaks exposing the crimes of the US and other governments, along with the corporate giants that work closely with them.

    Assange launched the legal challenge this month, accusing the Moreno government of violating his “fundamental rights and freedoms” with its new stipulations. The protocol forbids him from engaging in activities that “could be considered political or interfering with the internal affairs of other states” and declares that his asylum will be “terminated” unless he “scrupulously” adheres to all its terms.

    Ecuadorian judge Karina Martinez swiftly rejected the lawsuit, saying the country’s foreign ministry was in charge of determining Assange’s living conditions. Assange’s legal team immediately appealed the ruling. “The Ecuadorian state has an international responsibility to protect Assange,” attorney Carlos Poveda said.

    Significantly, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Jose Valencia, who has supervised the preparation of the new protocol, declined to comment on Assange’s assertion that Ecuador sought to hand him over to the United States.

    The protocol—contemptuously depicted by many corporate media outlets as being about trivial issues such as Assange’s cat and personal hygiene—is a clear violation of the right to political asylum. It not only prohibits the WikiLeaks founder from making any political comments deemed detrimental to Ecuador or its “good relations” with “any other state.” It also makes clear that he and his communications, as well as anyone who visits him, will be subjected to surveillance, with the results shared with US and British spy agencies.

    The protocol further stipulates that Assange undergo a medical examination every three months, at his own expense, and states that doctors can recommend he be evacuated from the embassy if they conclude that he requires urgent treatment. Exploiting Assange’s deteriorating health after more than six years of confinement in a tiny space, these requirements are obviously designed to force him to quit the embassy or provide a pretext to evict him.

    The WikiLeaks founder was forced to seek refuge in the embassy in 2012 after trumped-up Swedish government allegations of sexual misconduct were brought forward as a pretext for his imprisonment in Britain. This would have been followed by extradition to the US to face concocted espionage charges that could see him jailed for life or even executed.

    Assange, an Australian citizen, was compelled to turn to Ecuador because the Labor Party-led government in Australia fully lined up with the Obama administration and denied Assange his right to assistance and protection against persecution—a stand continued to this day by the present Liberal-National government.

    The groundless Swedish allegations—no charges were ever laid—were finally dropped last year, but the British courts refused to lift their charges that Assange had skipped bail on a European arrest warrant. The British government has repeatedly refused to guarantee that Assange will not be extradited to the US.

    The pressure from Washington for Assange’s removal from the embassy has increased in recent weeks. In a departure from Ecuador’s previous practice of maintaining dialogue with British authorities over Assange’s situation, Valencia told Reuters last week that the government would no longer intervene on his behalf.

    That was after two leading members of the US House Foreign Relations Committee sent a threatening letter to Moreno insisting that he “hand over” Assange to the “proper authorities” as a precondition for improving relations with the United States. The bipartisan letter branded the prize-winning journalist and publisher a “dangerous criminal and a threat to global security.”

    US federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia, have maintained a long-running grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks, which began when the site published thousands of secret US files exposing war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, and US regime-change operations and mass surveillance around the world. According to one source cited by Reuters, the investigation now includes a probe into leaks of CIA documents that revealed its computer hacking and cyber warfare capacities.

    In recent months, WikiLeaks has also published material exposing how Amazon cloud data centres serve the US intelligence agencies, the repressive operations of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and French arms deals to Gulf state dictatorships.

    Ongoing attempts are being made by US Democrats to drag Assange into a supposed Russian conspiracy to manipulate the 2016 US presidential election. Based on amalgams, distortions and outright lies, these allegations stem from WikiLeaks’ publication of emails exposing the Democratic National Committee’s efforts to rig the party’s 2016 presidential primaries in favour of Hillary Clinton, and transcripts of Clinton’s speeches to bankers documenting her role as a stooge of Wall Street and a warmonger.

    The intensifying moves against Assange and WikiLeaks are directly bound up with the drive by the US government and the major technology corporations to impose a regime of censorship on the internet, restricting access to anti-war, anti-government and socialist views.

    More broadly, in preparation for major wars abroad and repression at home, the capitalist establishment wants to lock away Assange for good in order to intimidate all those who are fighting against militarism, social inequality and the assault on democratic rights.

    That is why the mounting threats against Assange must be answered by the broadest possible mobilisation of the international working class to demand his immediate and unconditional freedom, as part of a broader struggle to overturn the capitalist system and its wars, inequality and censorship.

    Originally published in WSWS.org


    Source.
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    Steven Terner Mnuchin: current US Secretary of the Treasury and investment banker, was a Goldman Sachs partner (left in 2002).
    Gary Cohn: served as the Director of the National Economic Council, was the Chief Economic Adviser to Trump (2017-2018) and the former President and Chief Operating Officer for Goldman Sachs (2006-2017).
    Steve Bannon: former investment banker, media exec, served as White House Chief Strategist (first seven months of Trump’s term) and left Goldman Sachs as Vice President.
    Jay Clayton: US attorney, Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and represented Goldman Sachs.
    Dina Powell: financial exec and political advisor, US Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy (2017-2018), Goldman Sachs partner and President of Goldman Sachs Foundation.

    Guess who Lenín Moreno sold Assange out to...

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