Tag Archives: Julian Assange

Civil Liberties, Featured, Government Corruption, Hot, Podcast

The Government’s War on Wikileaks, Assange, Manning and Hammond

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In episode 7 of Truth In Media with Ben Swann, we explain the secret grand jury targeting Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, and Jeremy Hammond, and discuss the government’s lasting damage on the lives of whistleblowers in an interview with John Kiriakou.

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Featured, Foreign Policy, Government Accountability, International, Politics, US

Congressman Says Assange Has “Physical Proof” Russia Did Not Hack DNC

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Washington, D.C. — In a recent interview with Breitbart Radio, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), who reportedly visited the Ecuadorian embassy in London in August 2017 and met with WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, said that Assange has physical evidence to prove that Russia did not provide WikiLeaks with Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails during the 2016 US presidential campaign.

“By now, everybody knows that this idea that Trump was colluding with the Russians in order to get them to do things like steal the DNC emails and then release them through WikiLeaks, the public knows that’s just total baloney,” Rohrabacher said. “I knew the one man who could prove that it was all baloney was Assange. So I went to see him in London, and he confirmed for me that the Russians did not give him the DNC emails. He had physical proof of that, and he was going to let me see that and have that, but only once, I found an agreement so he wouldn’t get arrested when he leaves the Ecuadorian embassy in London.”

Rohrabacher added:

Unfortunately, this was in the middle of having a special prosecutor, [and] any discussion with Trump and myself that mentions Russia will be used as an excuse by that special prosecutor to just quadruple all the areas of investigation into me and into Trump. So it is standing there. I’ve been waiting because I know that we’re not going to give this special prosecutor any more ammunition than he needs to try to destroy this president.

Rohrabacher claimed that Assange had evidence and was willing to provide it in exchange for US/UK authorities agreeing not to arrest him upon leaving the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where the WikiLeaks co-founder has been “arbitrarily detained” under threat of arrest since 2012.

[Read more: UK Judge Refuses to Revoke Assange Arrest Warrant]

Assange first sought political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy after the UK sought to arrest him on a Swedish warrant that has since been lifted. British authorities, thought to operating covertly at the behest of the US— due to a purported secret federal grand jury indictment in the US for Assange— insist they will arrest him if he attempts to leave the embassy for violating the terms of his bail. It is believed that once arrested for the bail violation in the UK, Assange would likely be extradited to the US under the sealed indictment.

Following his meeting with Assange, Rohrabacher was denied access to President Trump by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly due to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump-Russia collusion during the 2016 US presidential election. In February, Rohrabacher “said he was told by Kelly that meeting with Trump could put the president in unnecessary legal jeopardy,” according to a report from The Intercept. Rohrabacher also claimed that Assange “did not want to release the evidence publicly” because he wanted to avoid exposing “his sources and methods.”

The DNC and Hillary Clinton have continually accused WikiLeaks as acting as a “Russian cutout” during the 2016 election, after the transparency organization published private emails from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta as well as internal DNC emails. Assange says WikiLeaks never releases sources, but has emphatically denied that the organization was supplied the emails by Russia.

Craig Murray— former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan and “close associate” of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange— publicly stated in a December 2016 interview with The Daily Mail that the Democratic National Committee’s emails were obtained by WikiLeaks from a “disgusted” DNC operative who had legal access to them, not Russia.

“Neither of [the leaks] came from the Russians,” Murray said. “The source had legal access to the information. The documents came from inside leaks, not hacks.”

Murray said the leakers were motivated by “disgust at the corruption of the Clinton Foundation and the tilting of the primary election playing field against Bernie Sanders.”

The Daily Mail reported that Murray said he “retrieved the package from a source during a clandestine meeting in a wooded area near American University, in northwest D.C. He said the individual he met with was not the original person who obtained the information, but an intermediary.”

An investigation into the alleged hack performed last year by Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) claimed that the “data was leaked (not hacked) by a person with physical access to DNC computers.” VIPS findings were presented to CIA Director Mike Pompeo last November, reportedly at the direction of President Trump.

Assange has been unable to publicly comment on Rohrabacher’s statements, as the Ecuadorian government has barred him from receiving visitor and suspended his internet access for the past month.

Civil Liberties, Featured, Government Accountability, International, US

Julian Assange’s Internet Cut By Ecuadorian Government

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London, UK – In a statement released on Wednesday, the Ecuadorian government confirmed it had cut Assange’s internet communications with the outside world at their London embassy, claiming that his posts on social media put the country’s international relations “at risk.” In addition to Assange’s internet connection being severed, he is also being denied any visitors.

According to NPR, a statement released by Ecuador claimed that “Assange violated a written contract with its government in late 2017, ‘for which he’s obligated not to issue messages that would interfere with relationships with other nations.'” Assange has been living in Ecuador’s embassy for more than five years, in what a UN panel describes as “arbitrary detention,” after seeking asylum from persecution.

A report by the Associated Press explained:

Ecuador granted Assange asylum in the South American nation’s London embassy in 2012, where he has remained cooped up ever since. Ecuador has repeatedly tried to find a solution that would allow Assange to leave without the threat of arrest, but with no success. He remains subject to arrest in Britain for jumping bail and also fears a possible U.S. extradition request based on his leaking of classified State Department documents.

“The government of Ecuador warns that Assange’s behavior, through his messages on social networks, put at risk the country’s good relations with the United Kingdom, the other states of the European Union, and other nations,” the statement read.

On the evening of March 28 Wikileaks offered additional information about the incident and Assange’s current situation, noting that Assange had been ordered by Ecuador to remove a specific tweet that weighed in on the arrest of Carles Puigdemont by German police.

The tweet from Assange reportedly ordered to be removed stated the following:

This is not the first time Ecuador has suspended his internet access. In 2016, he had his internet connection “temporarily restricted” by the Ecuadorian government after WikiLeaks published emails stolen from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, during her presidential campaign which gave the world a candid view inside of the campaign. Former president Rafael Correa gave Assange asylum after he sought refuge in the embassy and reportedly appreciated his work, but current head of state Lenín Moreno advised Assange to avoid involvement in politics and described him as a hacker, according to the AP.

Assange’s friend, Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, is holding an online vigil being broadcast to You Tube and Facebook Live to “to restore Julian Assange’s human right to freedom of communication,” according to a press release.

Supporters of Julian Assange are currently gathering outside of the Ecuadorian embassy to protest the decision to undermine his human right of communication with the outside world.

The #ReconnectJulian online vigil for Julian Assange is below:

 

Government Accountability, Politics, US

Kim Dotcom: DNC Hack Was Leak From an “Insider With a Memory Stick”

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Washington, D.C.— Following a tweet by President Trump on February 18th, Kim Dotcom responded by adding further details to previous statements which implied that the DNC hack during the 2016 US presidential election was actually a leak, and specifically claimed that the information was leaked by an “insider with a memory stick.”

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/965202556204003328

“Let me assure you, the DNC hack wasn’t even a hack. It was an insider with a memory stick. I know this because I know who did it and why,” Dotcom tweeted, alleging that “Special Counsel Mueller is not interested in my evidence. My lawyers wrote to him twice. He never replied. 360 pounds!” The 360 pounds is clearly a retort to Trump’s “400 pound genius” comment.

Dotcom’s claims of attempting to provide evidence to Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, who has allegedly failed to respond to Dotcom’s lawyers, may raise questions about the impartiality and veracity of the Mueller investigation.

[RELATED: Kim Dotcom Lawyers Appealing Extradition Decision]

The assertion that the DNC data was not hacked, but leaked from an insider with a memory stick, is reportedly supported by an analysis from a researcher going by the alias of the Forensicator, who determined that the 22.6 MB/s copy speed of the DNC files was “virtually impossible” to attain from overseas, but a typical speed for a transfer to a thumb drive. These results were supported in a July 2017 memo to President Trump from a group of intelligence veterans that includes former NSA intelligence official William Binney.

The local transfer theory, if proven, would lend credibility to the notion that the DNC data was not hacked, but instead, was leaked. Dotcom’s claims could also explain why the DNC refused to allow the FBI to inspect its servers, and instead, relied on the analysis of a private company, CrowdStrike.

Crowdstrike’s CTO and co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a think tank with openly anti-Russian sentiments that is funded by Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk, who happened to donate at least $10 million to the Clinton Foundation. Furthermore, in 2013, the Atlantic Council awarded Hillary Clinton their Distinguished International Leadership Award, and in 2014, the Atlantic Council hosted an event with former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who took over after pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in early 2014.

On May 18, 2017, Dotcom tweeted that if the case of Seth Rich would be included in the Congressional probe of Russian collusion/election meddling, he would provide written testimony to Congress, including evidence that Seth Rich was WikiLeaks’ source of the DNC emails.

Then, two days later, Dotcom tweeted, “I knew Seth Rich. I know he was WikiLeaks’ source. I was involved.”

A few days later, Dotcom released a statement, saying “I KNOW THAT SETH RICH WAS INVOLVED IN THE DNC LEAK,” adding:

I have consulted with my lawyers. I accept that my full statement should be provided to the authorities and I am prepared to do that so that there can be a full investigation. My lawyers will speak with the authorities regarding the proper process.

If my evidence is required to be given in the United States I would be prepared to do so if appropriate arrangements are made. I would need a guarantee from Special Counsel Mueller, on behalf of the United States, of safe passage from New Zealand to the United States and back. In the coming days we will be communicating with the appropriate authorities to make the necessary arrangements. In the meantime, I will make no further comment.

Activism, Featured, International, Politics, US

UK Judge Refuses to Revoke Assange Arrest Warrant

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London, United Kingdom— Despite a United Nations panel finding that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is “arbitrarily being detained” and Swedish prosecutors dropping their criminal investigation and request for extradition, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will continue to face arrest if he attempts to leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London, after a UK judge upheld a warrant for breaching his formal bail conditions in the UK. Assange maintains that he was forced to seek political asylum in the embassy to avoid political persecution.

A report by The Guardian noted that Senior district judge Emma Arbuthnot was not swayed by the legal argument put forth by Assange’s legal team that his prosecution was not in the public interest to arrest him for bail jumping. It is worth noting that if there is a secret indictment in the U.S., the pretense of arresting Assange for bail jumping could be used to extradite him to the U.S. to face charges.

“I find arrest is a proportionate response even though Mr. Assange has restricted his own freedom for a number of years,” Arbuthnot stated. “Defendants on bail up and down the country, and requested persons facing extradition, come to court to face the consequences of their own choices. He should have the courage to do the same. It is certainly not against the public interest to proceed.”

The warrant upheld by the judge was due to Assange’s seeking of political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012, to avoid Sweden’s attempts to extradite him over the investigation into allegations of sexual assault; the allegations were steadfastly denied by Assange and the investigation of the allegations was dropped in May 2017.

It has been suggested in earlier reports that there is a sealed secret grand jury indictment for Assange in the U.S., indicating the posibility that the attempted extradition to Sweden over rape charges, which he had steadfastly denied, were a strategic means of extraditing him to the U.S. by proxy.

Before Tuesday’s hearing, Jennifer Robinson, Assange’s lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, said that U.S. government had clear intentions of prosecuting WikiLeaks.

“The UK FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office] refuses to confirm or deny whether there is an extradition request for Mr Assange,” she said. “In our recent FoI challenge against the CPS […] the CPS refused to disclose certain material because it would ‘tip off’ Mr Assange about a possible US extradition request. It is time to acknowledge what the real issue is and has always been in this case: the risk of extradition to the US.”

[RELATED: Julian Assange Calls on British and Swedish Governments to Drop Investigations]

Further revealing the deeply politicized nature of Assange’s detainment, just last month, after being granted citizenship by the Ecuadorian government, Ecuador applied for diplomatic status for the WikiLeaks founder. If awarded diplomat status, Assange could claim diplomatic immunity— which would theoretically grant him legal immunity— thus allowing him to leave the embassy without being arrested. The British Foreign Office turned down the request by Ecuador.

Assange’s lawyers had argued that the warrant should be withdrawn for numerous reasons, including the fact that Sweden was no longer seeking extradition and that arresting him would not be in the public interest or proportionate— noting his six years in the embassy were “adequate, if note severe” enough punishment— citing the UN panel ruling that his detention was “arbitrary.”

The Guardian reports that Assange attorney Mark Summers QC noted attempts by the UK government to maintain Assange’s detention— despite evidence that Sweden requested a withdrawal of the European arrest warrant for Assange— referring specifically to the fact that Sweden in October of 2013 advised Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) lawyers that it was necessary to withdraw the Swedish arrest warrant on grounds of proportionality. It wasn’t until 2017, four years later, that CPS chose to do abide by the request.

Additionally, Summers argued that Assange was justified in seeking refuge in the embassy, as he had a valid fear that US authorities were seeking to arrest him for WikiLeaks’ publication of secret documents.

Featured, International

Julian Assange Calls on British and Swedish Governments to Drop Investigations

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Speaking from a balcony at the Ecuadorian embassy in London on Friday, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called on Britain and Sweden to stop pursuing him. Assange is asking the two nations to recognize a recent ruling by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention which stated that Assange was being arbitrarily detained and therefore should be released and awarded compensation.

“How sweet it is. This this a victory that cannot be denied,” said Assange according to Reuters. “What right does this government, or the U.S. government, or the Swedish government have to deny my children their father?”

Julian Assange is an Australian computer hacker and the founder of the organization Wikileaks, a radical journalist organization that publishes leaked documents. Wikileaks came to prominence in 2010 after Private Chelsea Manning leaked thousands of documents, including the “Collateral Murder” video of Iraqi journalists being shot and killed by an American Apache helicopter in Iraq. Wikileaks also released hundreds of thousands of documents related to the War in Afghanistan and Iraq known as the Afghan War Diary and the Iraq War Logs.

The work of Wikileaks, and Julian Assange’s role as founder and face of the operation, has made him a target for the U.S. and British governments. Assange was also previously accused of rape allegations in Sweden. He believes these charges are trumped up to force extradition and force him to face charges for the leaks. Since the summer of 2012, Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. If he leaves the building he will be arrested and charged.

Reuters reports that British officials say that Assange voluntarily entered the embassy and is not being forced to stay. Assange has said that his rights are being infringed because he is incapable of pursuing asylum in Ecuador.

“Julian Assange is a fugitive from justice. He is hiding from justice in the Ecuadorian embassy,” British foreign minister Philip Hammond told Reuters. “This is frankly a ridiculous finding by the working group and we reject it.”

It will be difficult for Assange to go free if the U.S. and British governments refuse to acknowledge the ruling. Still, Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, called on the two nations to let Assange go free. “What more do they want to be accused of before they start to rectify their error?” Patino reportedly said to South American broadcaster Telesur regarding Britain and Sweden.

Seong-Phil Hong, the head of the U.N. panel said “the arbitrary detention of Mr. Assange should be brought to an end, that his physical integrity and freedom of movement be respected, and that he should be entitled to an enforceable right to compensation.”

Following the panel’s decision, Sweden’s prosecution authority announced that chief prosecutor Marianne Ny is applying to interview Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy regarding the rape allegations.

“In relation to the report which was released last week, I can state that it does not change my earlier assessment in the preliminary investigation,” Ny said.