WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador withdraws asylum
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police Thursday moments after Ecuador announced it withdrew his asylum for “repeatedly violating international conventions and protocol.”
Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Jose Valencia told Teleamazonas this week that living in the embassy indefinitely is bad for Assange’s "state of mind, his health,” but that Assange has a right to a fair trial and right to a defense.
London's Metropolitan Police vowed earlier this month to arrest Assange if he were freed. Assange, who has lived in the embassy for more than six years, faces possible extradition to the U.S. for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic cables through WikiLeaks.
Assange, 47, has been in the embassy since 2012 when British courts ordered him extradited to Sweden to face questioning in a sexual assault case. That matter has since been dropped, but Wikileaks is facing a federal grand jury investigation over its publication of American diplomatic and military secrets during the Iraq War.
Assange, an Australian native, was arrested on a Westminster Magistrates’ Court warrant which was issued on June 29, 2012, for failing to surrender to court, Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
“The MPS had a duty to execute the warrant, on behalf of Westminster Magistrates' Court, and was invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorian government's withdrawal of asylum,” the statement said.
UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt thanked the Ecuadorean government for their cooperation with the Assange arrest.
"Julian Assange is no hero and no one is above the law. He has hidden from the truth for years," Hunt tweeted. "Thank you Ecuador and President @Lenin Moreno for your cooperation with @foreignoffice to ensure Assange faces justice."
“This man is a son, a father, a brother. He has won dozens of journalism awards. He's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year since 2010. Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to dehumanise, delegitimize and imprison him,” WikiLeaks tweeted.
In the “Hannity” interview, Assange argued that the Obama administration was pushing the narrative of Russia meddling in the U.S. election to delegitimize then-President-elect Donald Trump .
He also claimed he wasn’t the source for the hacked emails he released from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
Last year, it appeared Assange had struck up a romantic connection with the former Playboy centerfold and “Baywatch” star. She told Harvey Levin on Fox News’ “OBJECTified” that they had a “closeness.”
“I have a real personal relationship with him,” Anderson said.
Noting their initial meeting, she told Fox News: “I brought him some vegan food, and now it’s a tradition that I bring him vegan food every time I see him, and I see him a lot.”
Assange was granted asylum at the Ecuadorean Embassy in August 2012.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
Article is LOCKED by author/seeder
There are reports of an extradition order to the US.
Is he a hero as the left once held Daniel Ellsberg? Or did he lose that status with the left during the 2016 election?
About damn time!
Why?? Chelsea Manning is free and had an all expense paid sex change on taxpayer's dollars - and he/she/it STOLE THE CLASSIFIED DATA.
Don't even get me started on that treasonous piece of scum.
Our Government should be careful about setting a bad precedence. Our Media offends foreign governments all the time, they print Leaked and Stolen Information about foreign governments from many sources including confidential informants in the Pentagon and CIA. Our Government doesn't care most times as long as it makes the "Bad Guy's" look bad. If we prosecute Assange we're creating a slippery slope that could lead to American Journalist's being criminally charged by Foreign Nations. Sure they can do that now but at least the US government can say we don't allow that and we protect their rights as Journalist's. If We prosecute Assange we lose the high ground, kind of like we did with Torture.
And the hacking?
Assange was never a hero to me. He was and is , very dangerous. Assange is essentially an anarchist and is certainly anti-American.
To Democrats, he was a hero until he exposed their corruption. Then, and only then, was he declared a criminal.
We come back to anarchist's affection for Donald Trump. Assange wanted Trump to win, so he released illegally obtained information about Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. He acted like a king or a king maker.
Anarchists support Trump because he is seen, as a useful idiot, as forwarding their 'agenda'. We even see that on this forum.
Trump creates chaos within the society and the government, which anarchists like to see.
You do know that this happened SEVEN years ago - before Trump.
You won't quit, will you?
He and many like him have been doing that since they lost a "sure thing" election in 2016. It seems to be all they know anymore.
'Anarchists support Trump because he is seen, as a useful idiot, as forwarding their 'agenda'. We even see that on this forum.'
True 'dat!
Democrats ?
I thought they hated Trump.
Weird !
the new spin is we are now anarchists and the left are patriots.
the left always accuses others of that which they do while saying they are that which they are not.
this tactic is nothing new and is pathetically childish.
but, if they see following the rule of law as anarchy?
they should buckle up because all hell is breaking loose... LOL
The hammer just hit the nail head …… Dead On ….. on that comment.
The over abundance of "Pussyfier" production helped though.
The manufacturer must be a bazillionaire right now. Bernie ? "Pocahontas? Booker ? Harris ?
reading a chit chat between you and 8 ball is mind numbing.
Not all conservatives or right wingers are libertarians or right wing anarchists, but there are obviously some on the fringe. A couple months ago I posted an article from a anachro-capitalist website in which the editor exhorted his (anarchist) readers to support Donald Trump because the "left" must be opposed and destroyed.
Then don't read it !
SAVE YOURSELF !
Tell me about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
you never miss a single word I type and you know it.
Ol' Scumbag must be soiling his depends with this news. Assange knows all the shit about the Russia-Scumbag connection in 2016 and will be more than happy to offer that up to save his ass.
Trump is now lying his ass off - as usual - and saying he knows nothing about WikiLeaks. It's not his thing. Despite being recorded many times bleating about how much he loves WikiLeaks.
The man would lie about where his own father was born, despite clear proof to the contrary. Oh, wait ...
The Obama administration wouldn't prosecute Assange, yet it's the Trump administration that is doing just that! So, Trump isn't soiling, he's doing his job!
His political asylum was just revoked ... kind of hard for anyone to do anything, until that happened.
The U.S. indictment of Assange charges him for computer-hacking crimes for allegedly coaching Manning how to cover his tracks as he stole classified information.
That's to update you.
In fact, the indictment reads:
Quite a bit different than "coaching" (whatever that means). Manning gave information to Assange who then worked on cracking the password. So Assange was an active participant in the crime not at arm's length simply giving advice.
The conditions under which the British attorney general agrees to extradite Assange are still being worked out. It's possible the he may not be willing to do so under serious charges of espionage but the much lesser charge of hacking. In that event it will be interesting to find out whether he also gets charged for receiving illegally hacked Democratic party data given to him by Guccifer2.0 (i.e., the Russian GRU). Even if Barr decides (which wouldn't surprise anyone) to give him a pass on that it may be possible to bring Assange before Congress to be questioned about that.
yeah, it is a shame that Obama saw fit to commute the sentence for a piece of shit like Manning.
Why would that be. It took the Trump administration to get Assange out of the Embassy. Just another thing Obama failed at.
So do the left love Assange again or do they hate him? I know they are stuck on stupid with their collusion thing because they can't accept that the Hag Hillaryious Hillary lost.
The warrant for his arrest was issued during the Obama administration. Jeez, do you lot ever know anything?
Apparently, he knows that the TRUMP Admin. got Assange out of the Ecuadorian embassy.
What did Obama Admin. do to serve the warrant they issued?
Arrested clutching a copy of Roger Stones book... Too stupid to make it up.
Nope:
"He appeared to be carrying a copy of Gore Vidal’s book History of The National Security State ."
He's your "hero," vic. Not ours.
Really?
Not ours.
Does ours include Richard Blumenthal?
That's certainly an interesting way to try to dodge the topic. Bizarre but interesting. Ever since Assange helped Manning reveal bad shit the military was doing in Afghanistan he's been a real bug bear for the right and most everyone except acolytes of Glenn Greenwald. Actually pretty much the entire political establishment attacked Manning and Assange in 2010 except extreme whistle-blower proponents like Greenwald. But it is true that the rightwing has been particularly unhappy with the whole idea of protecting whistle-blowers and I (as a liberal) have mixed feelings about revealing government secrets when those secrets really don't represent any threat to security but are simply embarrassing to the government (covering up the bombing civilians in war zones) or are actual evidence of illegal government condoned or encouraged activity (torture).
But when it came to Assange's illegal use of stolen data on Clinton and the Democrats, the right suddenly (but certainly not inexplicably) became a champion of Assange....indeed, Scumbag himself slobbered all over himself about how much he loves Wikileaks (164 times until just last week, interestingly).
Anyway, pretending that Assange is and always has been the darling of the left is just that standard Republican attempt to project all of their sins on to someone else. It's a predictable as the earth's rotation. Never, ever accept responsibility for anything by making sure to shift it somewhere, anywhere, else.
From what I gather they wanted him out. He was going insane, paranoid, abusive and wiped shit on the walls.
7 years of not leaving the building, I'm not surprised
"His dramatic expulsion from the embassy follows a year of ratcheting tension between Assange and his Ecuadorian hosts, culminating in WikiLeaks publicizing a leak of hundreds of thousands of hacked emails mysteriously stolen from the inboxes of Ecuador’s president and first lady."
This was a big selling point for trump.
Oh, and much more:
The case against Assange:
"That is why prosecutors have chosen to charge him with a different crime: conspiracy to help Manning break into a government computer to steal classified material. Such a crime, if proven beyond a reasonable doubt, would have a far weaker claim to constitutional protection. The courts have ruled that journalists may not break the law in an effort to obtain material whose disclosure would be protected by the First Amendment.
The problem with the current effort is that, while it might be legally strong, it seems on the face of the indictment to be factually weak. It alleges that “Assange encouraged Manning to provide information and records” from government agencies. It alleges that “Manning provided Assange with part of a password” and that “Assange requested more information.” But it goes on to say that although Assange had “been trying to crack the password,” he had “no luck so far.” Not the strongest set of facts!
The first question is whether a legal theory based on such inchoate facts will be sufficient for an extradition request to be granted. Even if it is, a grant of extradition could be appealed through several layers of courts, which would take a long time. The second question is what would happen to Assange while these appeals proceeded. If he were locked up, he might well waive extradition in the hope of winning his case in the United States. The third question is whether American prosecutors might amend the indictment to make it legally and factually stronger and, if they did, whether they would do so before or after he was extradited."........Alan Dershowitz
So, does that mean Dershowitz is now out of favor this wake in the trumpikins world. You know that more than just the Manning case is going to come out of Assange, right. He was in the thick of the Scumbag campaigns collusion with Russia, Guccifer2.0 and, who else......oh, yeah: Roger (sinkin' like a) Stone.
It means that you are as partisan as always. You like Dershowitz when he defends Ellsbergs rights, but are against him when he does the same with Assange. You like Dershowitz when he consistently defends civil liberties except when it comes to Trump, whom you feel has none. In this case Dershowitz is simply explaining the fine line the government is trying to tread. Is it possible you can let go of your partisan impulses for about 2 seconds and try to understand it?
Oh, vic, right backatcha in spades. You like Dersh when he's giving head to Scumbag but dismiss him on gun control. When are you going to stop using that projection card?
Haven't you read my position on gun control. I guess you missed that one too! I have never dismissed his stand on gun control. I'm with him on that.
So he failed again? Ya, he just can't seem to lay a glove on me. It's almost unfair...
"You" as in your side, vic. And, yes, you are known by the company you keep.
Don't be bitter. You'll live to argue another day.
As long as you stick around, I'll have plenty to do. BTW, I've never seen anything from you on your gun control record. What is it, exactly? Now that I reread your comment above it strikes me as extreme mush. You haven't "dismissed" Dershowitz's stance is a long way from supporting it. I think you think you're being cute and getting away with it. Try again.
Every punch-drunk palooka says that just before he hits the canvas, vic.
You should know
assange knows exactly who hacked the dnc and can prove it.
this is likely to get very interesting before it is over.
that might very well be his get out of jail free card.
Oh, yes. it will be. And not in a good way for trumpikins.
you are so freeking clueless... I just love it.
with this as well as other things... time is your worst enemy.
cheers
Making a fool of yourself? Yeah, tell us something we didn't already know.
nothing you have ever said will happen, has happened.
so, if I'm the fool? exactly who the fuk are you?
but before you go tell me the bedtime story about how trump will never be elected again? just one more time? pretty please? I know that story is a couple of yrs old and did not age well at all... but I love that one regardless.
I love watching you people keeping score in a game which you're the only one playing.