Assange Is Going To Be Turned Over To The UK (Updated)

Ecuador to hand over Assange to UK ‘in coming weeks or days,’ own sources tell RT's editor-in chief

Ecuador is ready to hand over the WikiLeaks founder to the UK in “coming weeks or even days,” RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said citing her own sources, as prospects of his eviction from the embassy are back in the media.

“My sources tell [Julian] Assange will be handed over to Britain in the coming weeks or even days,” Simonyan wrote in a recent tweet which was reposted by WikiLeaks. “Like never before, I wish my sources were wrong,” she continued.

Wikileaks is confirming this news:

Simonyan's message comes, as speculations Ecuador is in talks with the UK over the future of Assange are back again in British press. Earlier this week, the Times reported Britain is locked in top-tier discussions with the Ecuadorians in a bid to remove Assange from their London embassy.

Sir Alan Duncan, the Foreign Office minister, is said to be spearheading the diplomatic effort. Sources close to Assange said he himself was not aware of the talks but believed that America was putting “significant pressure” on Ecuador, including threatening to block a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if he continues to stay at the embassy.

Damn this country for its arrogance!

Update 7/21 24:00

Ecuadorian president arrives in Britain as Julian Assange’s fate hangs in the balance

Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno arrives in London today, with his administration seeking to force WikiLeaks editor and Australian citizen Julian Assange out of the Ecuadorian embassy there, where he sought and was granted political asylum in 2012.

If Assange leaves the embassy he will be imprisoned by Britain for breaching bail and almost certainly face an application to extradite him to the United States to stand trial on manufactured charges of espionage.
....
Ahead of Moreno’s visit to London, his national secretary of political management, Paul Granda, asserted on July 19 that “there is no specific meeting planned on Assange.” The same day, acting Ecuadorian foreign minister, Andres Teran, claimed that Moreno’s government is “not in talks with the United States” over the WikiLeaks editor.

These statements have no credibility. All evidence points to the opposite conclusion: A conspiracy is well advanced, involving the US, British, Ecuadorian and Australian governments, to have Assange hauled before a show trial in the US.

The American intelligence agencies are determined to prosecute Assange as a “spy.” The campaign to arrest him was escalated to a “priority” in April 2017, after WikiLeaks began publishing the “Vault 7” leaks that revealed how the CIA had developed malware to hack phones, PCs, servers, smart televisions and vehicle computer systems in every part of the world.

Moreno’s government has betrayed Assange as part of its venal attempts, on behalf of the Ecuadorian business elite, to restore economic and political relations with Washington. The London embassy cut off Assange’s communications just one day after top-level meetings in Ecuador with representatives of US Southern Command on re-establishing military cooperation.

Underscoring Moreno’s complicity in the persecution of Assange, his aides announced he has no intention of visiting the embassy whilst in London to even check on the well-being of a persecuted journalist his government is nominally providing political asylum.
....
The allegation that Assange is a “Russian agent” is crucial to both the assault on freedom of speech and democratic rights, and to the preparations for war.

A media organisation cannot be prosecuted for publishing leaks. So, in November 2010, Vice President Joe Biden labelled Assange a “high-tech terrorist.” In April 2017, CIA director Mike Pompeo, now secretary of state, branded WikiLeaks a “non-state hostile intelligence agency.”

If Assange were charged as a Russian spy, it would establish a far-reaching precedent. International media organisations and journalists that publish leaked information could be pursued and prosecuted without recourse to any constitutional and legal protections of freedom of speech.

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about Wikileaks at Consortium News today by Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi:

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/07/19/inside-wikileaks-working-with-the-...

Inside WikiLeaks: Working with the Publisher that Changed the World
July 19, 2018

Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi has worked with WikiLeaks for nine years on the Podesta emails and other revelations. Here’s an insider’s view of the publisher, which has incensed rulers around the world, desperate to hide their corruption.

By Stefania Maurizi
Special to Consortium News

… Thanks to WikiLeaks, it has been possible to reveal the true face of the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq (Afghan War Logs, Iraq War Logs Filesand Collateral Murder), the identities of Guantanamo detainees (Gitmo Files), the scandals and embarrassing diplomatic deals contained in 251,287 U.S. diplomacy cables, such as pressure from the U.S. to neutralize Italian prosecutors investigating the extraordinary rendition of the Milan cleric, Abu Omar (Cablegate).

It has been possible to reveal the inner workings of the U.S. private intelligence firm Stratfor (GIFiles) and the National Security Agency intercepts on German, French, Italian and Japanese leaders, including intercepts of the controversial, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (NSA World Spying Files). WikiLeaks also revealed EU operations to stop migrants and refugees (EU Military Ops Against Refugee Flow Files), and the CIA cyber weapons (Vault 7 Files). Its Tunisia Files contributed to the uprising there that set off the so-called Arab Spring. WikiLeaks has also released a cache of Spy Files from Russia.

All this valuable information has been made available to the world by WikiLeaks completely free of charge, so that once in the public domain, journalists, activists, scholars and citizens can access it directly worldwide, without needing media organizations or journalists to access the original files and make informed choices.

… As WikiLeaks sees it, publishing information in the public interest is an act that involves journalism, but also goes beyond journalism. That is why after partnering with media organizations, WikiLeaks makes the files publicly available so that everyone can access and use them...

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k9disc's picture

Super fucked up!

He's got to go, though, as this list of good deeds debunks almost all of our Oligarch's current false claims. Like laid bare.

"Who do you trust, Wikileaks or the CIA?" ought to be a rallying cry.

@Linda Wood

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

snoopydawg's picture

@k9disc

the CIA did not want that released, but Comey and Adam Smith the top democrat on the senate intelligence committee wanted to protect Russia Gate more than the CIA's hacking tools.

I have heard that Wikileaks does have a deadman's switch if he was ever turned over to the US. I hope it's a doozy and exposes how every rotten thing this country has done.

I was so angry when I was writing this that I was shaking. And filled with dread for Julian. But arresting him won't silence Wikileaks one bit.

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lotlizard's picture

@snoopydawg

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snoopydawg's picture

@lotlizard

Thank you, lizzy for providing his name.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@k9disc If I were him, I would have set up more than one thing. But it doesn't seem like the PTB care right now.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Alligator Ed's picture

if Corbyn wins the next election. Teresa May's botched Brexit "compromise" which was defeated due to Tory defections in the recent Parliamentary vote on modifications of her most recent modification of proposed EU tariff measures, might lead to a vote of no confidence which May might lose. If Corbyn wins, then extradition to the U.S. will not happen. Yes, that's a theorem requiring several steps to be fulfilled, but at least it allows, for now, some degree of hope for Mr. Assange's freedom and hopefully safety.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

@Alligator Ed
I hope he has the courage of his convictions to keep his word. We’ve all witnessed it - they get elected and suddenly their positions change. If he is courageous, I’ll become a believer. Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

lotlizard's picture

@Raggedy Ann  
https://www.taz.de/Antisemitismus-in-der-Labour-Partei/!5518335/

They’re promoting the narrative that Corbyn and Labour are anti-Semitic.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@lotlizard That's been the standard attack on Corbyn for a while now. I wonder how much the British people buy it?

Their elections seem a bit less manipulated than ours. I'm not sure why.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

dance you monster's picture

@Alligator Ed

. . . is to do this before there could be a vote of confidence to give Corbyn the chance to protect Assange. That's just a coincidence, of course.

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gulfgal98's picture

@Alligator Ed We the people of the world desperately need hope. It is my personal hope that Assange will be safe. And yes, it may be hope against hope, but that is all I have left right now.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Lookout's picture

...but thanks for telling me.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

wendy davis's picture

and that linda wood linked to stepahnia maurizi's excellent compedium at consortium news, as did Wikileaks in several tweets.

i'd thought too bring a diary featuring a cypherpunk's explanation of Vault 7 which we all need to know well, as the exploits are almost unbelievable.

oh, my, lenin moreno became a neoliberal putz in a milwaukee minute, didn't he? and a worthy client of the western hegemon. rafael correa's head must be spinning in circles. and remember that moreno signed a military memo of understanding with amerika as well; ain't that handy? oh, sure it's about human trafficking.

as far as corbyn, it was my understanding that he hadn't uttered a word in defense of assange for months; do some of you know differently? if so, i'll avoid saying that perhaps that seeks to his convictions. oopsie.

we'd talked on another thread about a fable deadman's switch, and it was interesting to hear murtazia was in contact w/ someone who'd talked to julian recently. but it's hard to see how triggering a switch might work as long as he's incommunicado, wouldn't you think? and remember also that some months ago WikiLeaks had released a long string of code that some actually was that sort of trigger, and the assange world went a bit crazy? it turned out that it wasn't, but...

just went hunting. as of may 9 (wsws):

"Since he was elected leader in September 2015, Jeremy Corbyn has made no public statement in Assange’s defence. Corbyn has refused to condemn the May government’s preparations to arrest Assange should he leave the embassy and has offered no guarantee that a Labour government will block his extradition to the US.

As a backbencher, Corbyn was relatively free to criticise policy issues without any danger this would become party policy. Even so, and despite his role as chairman of the Stop the War Coalition, his statements on Assange were few and far between.

On December 8, 2010, Corbyn tweeted: “USA and others don’t like any scrutiny via wikileaks and they are leaning on everybody to pillory Assange. What happened to free speech?”

One year later, on December 5, 2011, Corbyn spoke out in the House of Commons, criticising the potential use of a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) to extradite Assange to Sweden where he faced trumped-up sexual assault allegations, without any charges having been laid: “It is not our business to protect criminals, but it is our business to ensure that people get a fair trial and that there is absolutely the presumption of innocence before any conviction is made.”

This would prove to be the high point—and pretty much the final word—in Corbyn’s efforts to protect the besieged journalist. Assange’s barbaric confinement has continued for six long years, yet Corbyn has done nothing over this time to publicly challenge Assange’s oppressors."

ah, well, there's more, including Labour's position and a few more weasel words from corbyn and whatnot.

goddammit. but at least it sounds as though he's still alive, so there's that.

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magiamma's picture

This is extremely disturbing. May there be a vote of confidence for Corbyn soon. Very soon. ...yes, very angry.

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wendy davis's picture

and gizmodo said:

"Much as these tweets provide great fodder for conspiracy speculation, the secret to their meaning is hidden in plain sight. “Pre-commitment” in this case is a references to a cryptographic scheme to prevent unreleased information from being tampered with. Essentially those unique codes are proof to anyone reading the documents in the future that their contents remain unchanged: alteration to the leaks will likewise alter those 64-character codes."

but the author hadn't speculated on how such a switch would actually be triggered. i did find some speculation, but nothing worthy of bringing. maybe some of you know where to look?

in this dark tweet the link is bad; did they disappear it already? i got a couple other hits on the story, like the courier, but they all went to that error message.

i sure did like this un underneath it:

"

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wendy davis's picture

@wendy davis

he hasn't any link, but clearly he'd found access to the 'sorry, page not found' story at news.co.au:

"The immense danger Assange faces was underscored yesterday by comments made during a media conference held by UK Foreign Affairs Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who is in Britain at the same time as Moreno.

Hunt gloated: “Serious charges have been laid against him [Assange] and we want him to face justice for those charges but we are a country of due process. At any time he wants to, he is free to walk out on to the streets of Knightsbridge and the British police will have a warm welcome for him.”

Bishop exuded the utter contempt of successive Australian governments for the rights of an Australian citizen and journalist being persecuted by the US. She indifferently responded to Hunt’s threats, effectively washing her government’s hands of Assange’s fate. She told the media: “We understand there are still matters where Mr Assange is subject to British legal proceedings so therefore that would be a matter of British law enforcement authorities and agencies.”

and fuck you, david corn. (and i say that in the most polite was possible, of course...)

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Citizen Of Earth's picture

@wendy davis
He's always been a shill for the Dems (ie 'left' wing of the Neoliberal-Fascist Party).

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

wendy davis's picture

in the original UK-ecuador 'high level talks' fukkery that:

"Sir Alan Duncan, the Foreign Office minister, is understood to be involved in the diplomatic effort, which comes weeks before a visit to the UK by Lenin Moreno, the new Ecuadorean president, who has called Assange a “hacker”, an “inherited problem” and a “stone in the shoe”. and that was from thetimes.co.uk July 16, so this new news makes the timing seem about right: 'within weeks or even days'.

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snoopydawg's picture

Vault 7: CIA Hacking Tools Revealed

Press Release

Today, Tuesday 7 March 2017, WikiLeaks begins its new series of leaks on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Code-named "Vault 7" by WikiLeaks, it is the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency.

The first full part of the series, "Year Zero", comprises 8,761 documents and files from an isolated, high-security network situated inside the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Virgina. It follows an introductory disclosure last month of CIA targeting French political parties and candidates in the lead up to the 2012 presidential election.

Recently, the CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized "zero day" exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation. This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA. The archive appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.

"Year Zero" introduces the scope and direction of the CIA's global covert hacking program, its malware arsenal and dozens of "zero day" weaponized exploits against a wide range of U.S. and European company products, include Apple's iPhone, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones.

Since 2001 the CIA has gained political and budgetary preeminence over the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). The CIA found itself building not just its now infamous drone fleet, but a very different type of covert, globe-spanning force — its own substantial fleet of hackers. The agency's hacking division freed it from having to disclose its often controversial operations to the NSA (its primary bureaucratic rival) in order to draw on the NSA's hacking capacities.
....
Analysis

The increasing sophistication of surveillance techniques has drawn comparisons with George Orwell's 1984, but "Weeping Angel", developed by the CIA's Embedded Devices Branch (EDB), which infests smart TVs, transforming them into covert microphones, is surely its most emblematic realization.

The attack against Samsung smart TVs was developed in cooperation with the United Kingdom's MI5/BTSS. After infestation, Weeping Angel places the target TV in a 'Fake-Off' mode, so that the owner falsely believes the TV is off when it is on. In 'Fake-Off' mode the TV operates as a bug, recording conversations in the room and sending them over the Internet to a covert CIA server.

As of October 2014 the CIA was also looking at infecting the vehicle control systems used by modern cars and trucks. The purpose of such control is not specified, but it would permit the CIA to engage in nearly undetectable assassinations.

Remember the rumors about Michael Hastings' death from a car accident? Here's what Wikileaks had to say about that.

Was Michael Hastings Targeted By The CIA? Wikileaks Reveals Agency’s Covert Carjacking Ability

The untimely and violent death of award-winning journalist Michael Hastings sparked rumors for years that the CIA was somehow involved in the car crash that claimed his life. Now, Wikileaks’ “Vault 7” revelations have shown that the CIA has long had the ability to remotely hijack vehicles in order to conduct “undetectable assassinations.

MINNEAPOLIS– A little more than four years ago, award-winning journalist Michael Hastings – a vocal critic of the Obama administration – died in a fiery high-speed automobile crash in west Los Angeles. Hastings’ death – at the time – generated suspicion among journalists due to the dubious circumstances surrounding his dramatic death.

Many of the theories surrounding his’ death focused on stories that he was set to publish in the coming months. Hastings gained infamy for his 2010 profile on General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, an award-winning piece that ultimately led to McChrystal being relieved of his command.

Immediately prior to his death, Hastings had published a strong critique of the Obama administration titled “Why Democrats Love to Spy on Americans,” which exposed the party’s hypocrisy regarding some of the civil liberty overreaches they had criticized under Bush but embraced under Obama. San Diego 6 News reported that Hastings had been investigating CIA Director John Brennan for an upcoming exposé prior to the crash.

Hastings’ behavior at the time also aroused suspicion. About 12 hours before his death, Hastings had sent an email to his colleagues that the FBI had been interviewing his “close friends and associates” and told his co-workers ““[It] may be wise to immediately request legal counsel before any conversations or interviews about our news-gathering practices or related journalism issues.”

He added, “I’m onto a big story, and need to go off the radar [sic] for a bit.” Hastings’ neighbor had also told the L.A. Times that he had been acting erratically, adding that “he was scared and he wanted to leave town.” Michael Hastings had also contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him.
....

In addition, some of the other revelations found in “Vault 7” are rumored to be related to the very story Hastings was working on at the time of his death

. According to a WhoWhatWhy story published in 2013 – long before “Vault 7” was made public – Hastings, through his connections to imprisoned journalist Barrett Brown, was said to have been working on exposing the CIA’s use of weaponized malware, as well as the agency’s ability to hack smartphones to access the communications of private citizens. Was Hastings killed for investigating the very revelations that Wikileaks has now made public

?

( apologies for not the inluding the links in this excerpt, but I recommend reading them and the rest of the article)

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lotlizard's picture

@snoopydawg  
I would think there are as many, if not more, reasons to fear the rule of this sort of person, who oversees killing and torture in the shadows, as to fear a Donald Trump.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/us/politics/cia-director-brennan-tort...

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snoopydawg's picture

@lotlizard

In the Wikileaks' article about Vault 7 it shows how powerful it has become and it works so far outside the rule of law that congress has no power over it. I doubt that anyone in the government does. This means that a rogue agency has stripped us of any rights that we have left. It has created its own drone program, and has its own army and can rendition anyone anywhere anytime it wants to. The constitution has become null and void because very few of the people who swore an oath to uphold and protect the it do.

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The Aspie Corner's picture

@snoopydawg Privileges granted so long as no one/nothing threatens the capitalist system in any way, shape, form or fashion. If this country actually wants rights, let alone a government of the people rather than the capitalist pigs to actually defend them, then they're going to have to fight for it. Really fight for it. Whether it's mass work stoppages, nation wide protest or any other form of revolt that actually grabs the pigs by the balls, something's gotta give.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

snoopydawg's picture

@lotlizard

of being taken seriously. Exactly what did Trump do that rises to the charge of treason? Other presidents have met with other leaders alone and they were never charged with being treasonous.

Brennan's butt should be sitting in a prison cell for not only lying to congress under oath, but all the other things he did during his long career as a government goon.

Of course John McCain had to be heard from too.

... “No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant. Not only did President Trump fail to speak the truth about an adversary; but speaking for America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us who we are—a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad. ..

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@snoopydawg

and his friends, Al Baghdadi, head of ISIS, and Tyahnybok, Ukrainian Nazi leader.

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wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

a great overview.

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snoopydawg's picture

I'm posting this for those who read the recent comments list on the sidebar. The WSWS has been providing excellent coverage the Assange saga since it started.

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For me it kind of begs the question, why just one wikileaks? Why not one for every country? And maybe a online Wiki News Radio for dumb asses like me. We're challenged to do something, this seems to hurt the PTB where it hurts. I have no idea how wikileaks....works? but if it could be duplicated that would be something.

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wendy davis's picture

below the video on youtube:

‘International media are reporting that WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief may imminently be handed by Ecuador to UK authorities. (Ref: https://disobedientmedia.com/2018/07/... over-of-julian-assange-to-the-uk-may-be-imminent/) If such an event occurs, it presents an immediate threat to Assange’s human rights, asylum rights, liberty and to press freedoms. It would also be in direct contravention to the rulings of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Inter-American Court of human rights, both of which have found in his favour. The #Unity4J movement in support of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks is holding an emergency public meeting to unveil a plan for mass non-violent action to demand freedom for the journalist and publisher. High profile supporters of Julian Assange will be in attendance and unveil the new strategy’

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