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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 5/19/18

Ecuador Hints It May Hand Over Assange

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From Down With Tyranny

Part of the "Collateral Murder" video that Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning gave to WikiLeaks. It's worth watching to the very end. Two staff members from Reuters news were among those murdered on the street, along with others from a van shot up while trying to collect the wounded. Visible in the van were two children, who were also wounded. "Well, it's their fault for bringing their kids to a battle," says one of the Americans doing the shooting. The Americans were the only ones shooting.

Ecuador may hand over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the British, and thus, to the American government after all. He's currently in political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, but that may be about to change.

"Ecuador hints it may hand over Julian Assange to Britain and the US

"... Remarks made this week by Ecuador's foreign minister suggest that her government may be preparing to renege on the political asylum it granted to the WikiLeaks editor in 2012 and hand him over to British and then American authorities.

"On March 28, under immense pressure from the governments in the US, Britain and other powers, Ecuador imposed a complete ban on Assange having any Internet or phone contact with the outside world, and blocked his friends and supporters from physically visiting him. For 45 days, he has not been heard from.

"Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa stated in a Spanish-language interview on Wednesday that her government and Britain 'have the intention and the interest that this be resolved.' Moves were underway, she said, to reach a 'definite agreement' on Assange."

When you think of Julian Assange, don't think just of his role in the last election, though that's important to look at. Think also of WikiLeaks' many CIA releases, as well as Chelsea Manning's "bombshell revelation (video above, Guardian reporting here), which earned her years of torture.

And then there's this:

"If Assange falls into the hands of the British state, he faces being turned over to the US. Last year, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions stated that putting Assange on trial for espionage was a 'priority.' CIA director Mike Pompeo, now secretary of state, asserted that WikiLeaks was a 'non-state hostile intelligence service.'

"In 2010, WikiLeaks courageously published information leaked by then Private Bradley [now Chelsea] Manning that exposed war crimes committed by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. WikiLeaks also published, in partnership with some of the world's major newspapers, tens of thousands of secret diplomatic cables, exposing the daily anti-democratic intrigues of US imperialism and numerous other governments."

I think if the American state acquires Assange, it may torture and kill him. It certainly wishes to. Chelsea Manning was tortured for exposing a whole lot less, and Manning's crime included revelations about torture and murder.

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A writer who contributes to a number of publications, including digby's Hullabaloo, Down With Tyranny, Naked Capitalism, Truthout and Alternet.

On Twitter — @Gaius_Publius

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