The agenda of the United States government to extradite WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange is kind of like Israel’s nuclear arsenal: everyone knows it exists, but government officials refuse to openly confirm it. US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has admitted that Assange’s arrest is a priority, President Trump has said he’d support Sessions in taking that action, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has labeled WikiLeaks a “hostile non-state intelligence service,” and the ranking Democrat in the US House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff has stated that he plans on questioning Assange “when he is in US custody.” But so far none have come right out and admitted that there is an extradition request for Assange or what the legal basis for it might be.

Unlike Israel’s nukes, however, you’ll still see empire loyalists pretending that they don’t believe there’s an agenda to extradite Assange. You’ll often see social media accounts patrolling all posts about Julian Assange any time he’s in the news, stating in remarkably uniform language that Assange is free to leave the embassy whenever he wants because there is no extradition agenda. To be clear, these people do not believe what they are saying; nobody actually believes that Assange is choosing to remain in effective solitary confinement because it’s his idea of a fun time. But there are individuals with a vested interest in reinforcing the narrative that the US isn’t the sort of government that would try to imprison a journalist for telling the truth.

It is this false narrative manipulation which makes it essential to document such events as ten Democratic Senators writing a letter to Vice President Mike Pence demanding that he confront Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno about continuing to give political asylum to Assange.

Three full paragraphs of the letter (which was provided as an exclusive to a Spanish-language news publication to really shove the propaganda out into center stage) were dedicated to taking down Assange and WikiLeaks, emphasizing the unproven and plot hole-riddled claim that the GRU used WikiLeaks to release hacked information in order to influence the 2016 US presidential election. Those three paragraphs read as follows:

Despite these advances, we remain extremely concerned about Ecuador providing asylum to WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange since June 2012. As you are aware, in its declassified January 2017 report, the U.S. Intelligence Community assessed that Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) used WikiLeaks to release hacked information in order to influence from the 2016 U.S. presidential election. We are also deeply troubled by WikiLeaks interventions in the 2017 French presidential election and the 2017 Spanish referendum on Catalan independence.

 

During his tenure as Director of Central Intelligence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo characterized WikiLeaks as, “a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.” For these reasons, we were alarmed that the readout of your June 4, 2018 phone call with President Moreno made no mention of efforts by Julian Assange and WikiLeaks to interfere in the 2016 U.S. electoral process or the elections of some of our closest allies.

 

As the United States is still seeking clarity about the full extent of Russian intervention in our elections and Russian interference in elections across the world, it is imperative that you raise U.S. concerns with President Moreno about Ecuador’s continued support for Mr. Assange at a time when WikiLeaks continues its efforts to undermine democratic processes globally.

Why would US Senators care that Assange is receiving political asylum if his belief that the US government is trying to extradite him was a paranoid fantasy? The only known existing charge that Assange could be arrested for if he leaves the embassy is a bogus bail violation he was charged with a full 12 days after he applied for political asylum; nobody actually believes ensuring that Assange is prosecuted for that nonsensical charge is an urgent matter, let alone one so urgent it necessitates the full attention of ten sitting US Senators and the Vice President of the United States. Continuing to pretend that we don’t all know that the same government which tortured Chelsea Manning is trying to extradite Assange is a farce, and the correct response to anyone denying it is to laugh in their face.

And according to a statement from a White House official, Vice President Pence marched right along to the fascistic drum beat of Democratic Senators Feinstein, Warner, Menendez, Durbin, Blumenthal, Markey, Bennet, Coons, Manchin, and Shaheen.

“The vice president raised the issue of Mr. Assange,” the statement reads. “It was a constructive conversation. They agreed to remain in close coordination on potential next steps going forward.”

Why would the government granting political asylum to Assange be “in close coordination” about Assange with a government that isn’t interested in Assange? It’s stupid to have to keep pointing this out, but the fact that political discourse about the plight of the WikiLeaks editor-in-chief is so constantly and aggressively inundated with gibberish about his not being truly detained means this needs to be pointed out. He is being detained on threat of extradition and torture. The US-centralized power establishment really is that corrupt and depraved.

The next time you run into an empire loyalist on an online forum who tries to claim that Julian Assange isn’t being detained and can “leave whenever he wants”, show them this article. They really don’t have an argument at this point.

Any sincere thinking person already knows that Assange is most definitely being detained. And, as a UN panel has already stated unequivocally, he should be allowed to walk free of that detention and seek compensation for the wrong that has been done to him. As long as he remains held at gunpoint by the torture machine of the US-centralized empire, the US government is tacitly admitting its true nature. And all those who support it are tacitly admitting theirs.

_________________________

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33 responses to “White House: US, Ecuador Coordinating About Future Of Assange Asylum”

  1. https://www.reddit.com/r/greatawakening/comments/8z7a72/julian_assange_times_ecuador_in_secret_talks_to/

    Note that Butch Ored on 14th July proposes that Trump take Assange “back to the US” and then “pardon him” when he gets “home”.

    What a disgrace for the Australian government that the nationality of this historic Australian is so little known.

  2. Tristan I spoke on Saturday night at a local meeting of the Greek Communist Party in Aegina on the Julian Assange Day idea. Why don’t you e-mail me, or contact Bob Briton, or both.

    1. Great! My email is all lowercase Tristan _ Sykes @ yahoo .com .au
      That way I will have your email too and I will respond as soon as I get it so we know we are in contact

  3. AriusArmenian Avatar
    AriusArmenian

    “The US-centralized power establishment really is that corrupt and depraved.”

    The US acts out of depraved inner nature – not out of its persona of high principles.

  4. and uhm oh Tristan can you ask the australian greens .. those exemplary grassroots democrats who have finally ousted nearly everyone who opposes neo-liberal Gangster capitalism.
    Yes… ousted ..Lee Rhianon (one of our saner politicians) and many others hounded out and abused even Bob Brown who never liked her called for her to step down repeatedly.. why ?
    the flimsy excuse that she let immigration activists use her office photocopier….
    Most of the australian greens are professionals and technocrats who believe that working with big business and corporations is going to save the planet… also the Greens voted in Parliament to support Nato’s destruction of Libya to name just one example of where they have traded off principle for a few morcels of compromised concessions…
    they are utterly corrupted by what we all revile or ought to.. Abandon the Faux left liberal greens they dont deserve our support ….. they no longer have the courage of their convictions …. by actively persecuting Rhiannon and others like her they ALSO have fucking sold us out, or at the very least forfeit mine and many others support, though they have no doubt gained corporate members and donors.
    The australian greens can go fuck themselves and Im not alone in that disillusionment.

    1. Don’t clean the toilet. It’s dirty.

    2. I share your anger Marl. Lots of people have abandoned the Greens because of the purge of the left. The Lee shenanigans was vile.
      Yeah. Lots of questions need to be asked. Why are they not raising the issue of Julian’s illegal detention?
      That’s the question I want answered right now. As for Wilkie? I’ll be interested to see how he justifies his silence.

  5. We will be very lucky indeed if Assange escapes this situation with his life …..
    One of the reasons the MSM media is so incessantly smearing him, I fear is exactly so people have zero sympathy not just for his cause or plight but for his Person , his very life.

    They are softening their audiences up whether deliberately or not to accept his assassination, or complete political neutralization by any means necessary… whether its stripping him of dignity by keeping him caged up in a room with the representatives of a government he can no longer trust………….. or actually killing him the effect is the same in the long term…
    It is barbarous , our western so called civilization has become callous in the extreme.. life becomes very cheap (especially those of the poor and Assange is that too), in the hollow thin atmosphere of a cruel and superficial , ,spiritually barren culture which thrives on facile illusions…where only an echo chamber of alternative sites.. (those the media stooges deem the Far Right and the Far Left often not even correctly)
    But seriously liking people on face book or re tweeting articles isnt going to change any of it George Carlin …said it most memorably to my taste any way ….” Its an exclusive club and we aint in it.”. and if we try to fuck with their shit … power and profit they will retaliate cruelly viciously, manipulatively .. and do the utmost to maintain their privilege… all things they already do….
    They ,by which I mean ruling elites have nothing but contempt , and fear for WE the silent suffering majority….. they couldn’t care less whether We or Assange live or die sick poor and destitute…
    Tomorrow on the other hand if 100,000 people gathered in London ,put their bodies on the line and refused to budge for a few months.. pitching tents in the manner of an Occupy encampment they would have to start taking notice,certainly Assange would be relieved and delighted by such an eventuality … nothing of this magnitude works overnight and people glued to their tablets downloading files at hi speeds ,taking selfies unfortunately have short attention spans … besides which it could be very dangerous to ones physiology what with police batons raining down on fragile skulls.

    Real life is not a typical Hollywood film or hb-oh, tv soap with fast action sequences and non stop dramatic jump cuts , real life unfurls in real time , more time than technology and media brainwashed drones and lab rats are willing to invest.
    We need a mass resurgence of conscious ludditism …. so when do we start??… it had better be soon if we want to avoid becoming an annihilated, narcissistic vapid ignorant superficial culture which lays waste to all other life forms in its death throes .

  6. I really hope they are stupid enough to make him a martyr…

  7. Tristan if you are going to have a chat with Australian Greens and help to move the defence of Assange our of the margins of the margins, why not take up an issue they are already concerned with, namely changing the date of the national day, Australia Day, 26th January. If the date is to be moved to a more appropriate date than commemorating the establishment of a British prison in Sydney in 1788, but if 26th January is to remain a public holiday, why not tell the Greens, and anyone else willing to listen, to recommend calling it Julian Assange Day, until such times as Julian is free again, and then call it something else, for example Europe Day.

    1. I was part of the Occupy Hobart team that suggested the Australia Day date be shifted from Invasion Day. It took 5 minutes to convince a very diverse political group to lobby all political parties to change the date to one more inclusive and less alienating and a resolution to do so was passed unanimously.
      Sadly, we are a long way from “Assange Day” but right now we are fighting to keep him from being illegally detained and censored, under threat of extradition to the USA but yes, you should definitely tell him about your Assange Day idea in the letter you write to him addressed to -Julian Assange c/o Ecuadorian Embassy, London, Flat 3H, Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge, London, UK.

        1. Awesome Peter! He will appreciate it I’m sure. ❤️

          1. Tristan I posted the letter today to Julian Assange. This is the text:

            Dear Mr. Assange,
            I would like to share with you an idea on how to deal with your years-long confinement to the Ecuadorian Embassy and what might be done to induce the Australian government to face up to its own responsibilities to you as an Australian citizen.

            This idea cannot substitute for direct pressure for the implementation and enforcement of law but it can be added as a way of persuading the Australian government and other involved governments that they cannot rely on media censorship to erode public opposition to the way you have been treated for so many years.

            Attached please find the record of discussion at Caitlin Johnstone’s blog and at the freeDiEM25 facebook group.

            Even opponents of keeping January 26 as Australia’s national day acknowledge that it will continue to be a public holiday, with Australia Day moved somewhere else, for example to May, anniversary of the referendum that acknowledged citizenship rights of aboriginal Australians.

            The point is to find another identity for January 26. We are already canvassing this idea of calling January 26 Assange Day, until such times as you are free, and then calling it Europe Day, or some other such name.
            Any ideas you may have to help this campaign will be welcome. In the meantime let us hope that legality will prevail before next January.

            Best wishes,

            Wayne Hall
            Aegina, Greece

            1. Nice one Wayne!

        2. Tristan send me an e-mail at halva1 at otenet dot gr

      1. Tristan, I have sent an e-mail to Bob Briton about this matter. Do you know him?

        1. Good one mate. May have met him ages ago. Not sure. I did send you a test email but it failed.

          1. Don’t know why. You can also contact me through enouranois at gmail dot com. And you can contact Bob Briton and all the other people on the CPA contact list through their site: https://www.cpa.org.au/contact-us/index.html I have e-mailed all of them and am talking to their Greek counterparts. This is what they wrote about Assange in April: https://www.cpa.org.au/guardian/2018/1819/06-cut-off.html

          2. Don’t know why. Try enouranois at gmail dot com.

            1. I have a reply from him. He and his party are interested.

              1. Good stuff mate
                Well done.

        2. I spoke on Saturday night about the Julian Assange Day idea at a local meeting of the Greek Communist Party in Aegina. Tristan why don’t you e-mail me, or contact Bob Briton, or both?

  8. Well said Cobber. We may well expect this bipartisan bastardry from the “radical centrists” however it must also be noted that neither the Australian Greens nor Andrew Wilkie (Oz token left) are raising the issue. I might have to have a chat with them about it…

  9. Thank you Caitlan for your no holds barred description of what is going on in the US in general and particularly the farce of Assange’s incarceration and importance to the US of his destruction by any means. Keep up the good work.

  10. Note among the scumbag treacherous democrats (but I repeat myself!) the name of ED MARKEY, supposedly a solid “progressive liberal” from Mass. Guys like Markey remind us all that you can never and you should never trust an establishment liberal. In moments like these is where you see a guy’s true colors.

  11. Thanks for pointing out (again) the absurdity of the US government’s attitude & behaviour towards Assange & Wikileaks. I wanted to mention another aspect to this ridiculous situation – that is, why hasn’t the US government targeted other members of Wikileaks? After all, Assange does have other individuals that work with Wikileaks.

    Yet we hear no mention of these other individuals, no denunciations by the Western powers – nothing. This leads me to thinking that it isn’t really about Wikileaks per se, but has become personal. David and Goliath stuff, and Goliath hates being humiliated by David, and is determined to get him one way or another.

    1. Maybe Assange protects them? They might essentially be like Hackers Anon in that they could be ANYBODY, whereas someone had to be identified for it to be valid so to speak, I mean i haven’t heard of anyone else being involved with him except Seth Rich, so its likely that he absorbs all the identification since they already know who he is anyway.

      Just the fact that they know where he is and he STILL manages to hack information goes to show that he KNOWS how to at least RECEIVE information from people who can’t otherwise be found.

      1. Assange is a journalist, editor and publisher, not a “hacker”
        The software which allows for whistleblowers to leak information to Wikileaks was, to my knowledge, largely developed by three people, two of whom are now dead.

  12. Carolyn Zaremba Avatar
    Carolyn Zaremba

    These war hawks are murderers who want Assange’s head for telling the truth about them and their filthy, bloody hands. We must defend Julian Assange!!!

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