By JACK CROWE, NATIONAL REVIEW
Update 9:31a.m.: Hours after he was arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, U.S. authorities announced they have charged Julian Assange with one count of conspiracy to hack a government computer. The charge stems from Assange’s role in hacking a confidential computer in 2010 in an effort to release classified documents.
Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder who has made enemies of governments around the world by releasing confidential, and often embarrassing, intelligence documents to the public, was arrested Thursday at the Ecuadorian embassy in London by the British police.
The British metropolitan police explained in a statement released Thursday that Assange was arrested partly in connection with an extradition warrant filed by the U.S., which suggests he may be sent to the U.S. to stand trial.
The Department of Justice has charged Assange in connection with his publication of thousands of classified government documents, a fact they accidentally revealed in an unrelated court filing in February.
Assange was expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy, where he has lived for four years, after “his repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols” led Ecuadorian president Lenin Moreno to rescind his country’s protection.
Wikileaks announced last Friday that Ecuador “already has an agreement with the UK for his arrest.”
A video of Assange’s arrest shows him being carried down the steps of the embassy while shouting “the U.K. must resist.”
Assange arrest video:
“The UK must resist this attempt by the Trump administration”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stTMt1tLT4g …
President Moreno, citing a recent Wikileaks expose on the Vatican, explained in a video statement that Assange was being expelled from the embassy for failing to uphold his pledge to stop meddling in the affairs of foreign nations. Assange first moved into the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was facing sexual assault charges.
Wikileaks rose to prominence in 2010 by releasing a cache of classified U.S. intelligence documents and diplomatic cables pertaining to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Chelsea Manning, a transgender woman formerly known as Bradley, was arrested for leaking those documents and was sentenced to 35 years in prison but was released after serving just seven.
Assange, 47, is also suspected of aiding Russia in their efforts to disrupt the 2016 election by publishing confidential and damaging Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign documents. He has explicitly stated his desire to damage Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign but has long denied receiving the hacked documents from Russian agents, as American intelligence agencies allege.
Julian Assange put many people’s lives at risk by his stealing of secret documents and disseminating the information. He should receive a fair trial for this. If convicted he should be harshly punished.
This one of the few things the GOP and DEM establishment probably agree upon.
TRUMP HAS PROVED TO BE A TRAITOR TO HIS PREVIOUS PRINCIPLES
(ASSANGE ISSUE HAS JUST DECIDED RESULT OF 2020 ELECTION)
The war against Iraq in 2003 was launched on the basis of lies.
The main “crime” that Assange committed was to expose all of the lies surrounding the launch of that illegal 2003 war and all of the butchery that that war caused, including the rise of ISIS.
The road from these wars to the rise of ISIS and all of that ISIS butchery which we all know so well is direct.
The forces of US, Britain, France, NATO and UN removed the very bulwark against ISIS. They removed Mubarak, Saddam, Gadhafi and others. You could say that they removed the barrier to the rise of ISIS
Trump once hailed Wikileaks as a force for good. Hannity changed his previous neocon position towards Wikileaks and admitted it was a force for good. But Trump has now done a 180 degree turn on this.
So this tells us more about Trump than Assange.
Trump was supported by a section of the American public because he was seen as being against the Establishment. What was this Establishment? It was above all the Establishment which made rich on Imperialist wars in Yugoslavia, in Iraq, Libya and in Africa. But Trump has now done a full 180 degree turn and joins this Establishment.
Trump is expressed today more and more by his VP Mike Pence. It was Pence who stuck a knife into the anti Islamist General of the US Army, much decorated, Michael Flynn. Now Pence has done the same to Assange and Wikileaks. Pence has been plotting for many months behind the scene with the corrupt new Government in Equador. But on Assange Trump has went willingly along with Pence. This has great significance.
This cave in to Pence and essentially to the Clinton wing of the Democrats by Trump really does bring in a new phase. The Breitbart, Infowars and their followers who rightly defended Trump agaisnt the Democratic Fascists seeking a coup agaisnt Trump, are now left high and dry, because they were uncritical in their defence of Trump. They had and have no alternative. What alternative do they present to the American people when their leader does a 180 degree turn.
I expect that Trump will now lose the 2020 election and it will be on this very issue. Why would any American now support Trump when he has proved on the Assange issue to be no other than George Bush?
I urge Jews in Israel, who I support, to now totally go it alone and to have nothing to do with any plan or plans brought forward by Trump. Trump IS Pence and the Trump/Pence road is a very dangerous road to be following.