Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s nearly seven year stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London has finally come to a disastrous end. After Wikileaks warned last week that Ecuador was preparing in revoke Assange’s asylum based on the claim that he violated its terms, Assange was ousted on Thursday morning, and is now in the custody of British police.
Press reports suggested that Assange was arrested at around 10 am London Time (5 am New York) in what appeared to be a “planned operation.” Though his first battle will be with the British legal system over charges of skipping bail when he sought asylum in 2012, analysts expect that he will eventually face extradition to the US, after a sealed indictment against him were accidentally revealed last year. Wikileaks accused Ecuador of illegally terminating Assange’s asylum, adding that the Ecuadorian ambassador invited police inside the embassy to take Assange into custody.
URGENT: Ecuador has illegally terminated Assange political asylum in violation of international law. He was arrested by the British police inside the Ecuadorian embassy minutes ago.https://t.co/6Ukjh2rMKD
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 11, 2019
Former and much loved Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa accused Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno of suspending the asylum of cyber-activist Julian Assange in order to obtain a $4.2 Bln loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Correa said that there is evidence of the agreement and that Moreno, who Correa selected as his successor, promised to “hand over” Assange in a 2017 meeting with Paul Manafort, former US campaign chief to Donald Trump. Former President Correa, who broke with Moreno, also commented on visits to Ecuador by US Vice President Mike Pence.
At these times, Moreno would have promised to “help isolate Venezuela, leave the Chevron oil corporation, a company that destroyed half of the Amazon rainforest, unpunished, and to deliver Assange.” In March 2019, the IMF announced approval of a $4.2 billion loan to Ecuador. The first installment, of $652 million, has already been paid. Correa suspects that the Ecuadorian president made the decision to withdraw Assange’s asylum after WikiLeaks published documents about Moreno’s alleged relationship with a failing company, INA Papers.
In a tweet, Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno said that Assange’s “discourteous and aggressive” behavior, as well as “hostile” acts committed by Wikileaks, pushed Ecuador to revoke his asylum. Moreno cited Wikileaks’ publication of sensitive Vatican documents earlier this year as the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. Members of the organization purportedly visited Assange in the embassy after the leak, apparently substantiating suspicions that Assange was still in charge of the organization.
Furthermore, Moreno declared his asylum “unsustainable and no longer viable” because Assange had repeatedly violated “clear cut provisions of the conventions of on diplomatic asylum.”
In a sovereign decision Ecuador withdrew the asylum status to Julian Assange after his repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols. #EcuadorSoberano pic.twitter.com/pZsDsYNI0B
— Lenín Moreno (@Lenin) April 11, 2019
Following reports the previous week that the termination of Assange’s asylum was imminent, a UN envoy on torture warned Ecuador that revoking Assange’s protection would be a violation, since he could face “torture” and mistreatment should he be extradited to the US. Assange’s relationship with his host had become increasingly strained over the previous year. Ecuador had briefly revoked some of Assange’s “privileges”, including access to the Internet, over his ‘poor hygiene habits’, the #INAPapers about offshore money laundering, implicating the Ecuadorian president in a corruption scandal.
Edward Snowden reminded journalists of the UN’s finding in a tweet following Assange’s arrest.
Important background for journalists covering the arrest of Julian #Assange by Ecuador: the United Nations formally ruled his detention to be arbitrary, a violation of human rights. They have repeatedly issued statements calling for him to walk free–including very recently. pic.twitter.com/fr12rYdWUF
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) April 11, 2019
The expulsion came just a day after Wikileaks held a press conference accusing Ecuador of carrying out an “extensive spying operation” on Assange and handing intel over to the British and American authorities. RT published video of a bearded, disheveled-looking Assange shouting at police as he was dragged out of the embassy and loaded into a van.
BREAK: Full @Ruptly video of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s arrest by British police this morning pic.twitter.com/tdBw1Kbpxn
— Barnaby Nerberka (@barnabynerberka) April 11, 2019
Assange was in handcuffs when he was brought out and as he was being dragged from the embassy, he managed to grab the book, Gore Vidal: History of the National Security State. As he was shoved into the van, Assange held the book facing forward so that it could be seen by the camera. Gore Vidal was an American author who has studied the actual history of the United States—not the propagandistic chest pumping horse manure taught in schools—but the very real, violent and corrupt history of the United States government.
Vidal was born inside the US system, educated in expensive private schools in Washington DC and grew up, quite literally, surrounded by the elite. His father was a high ranking official in the Franklin Roosevelt administration and his grandfather was US senator Thomas Pryor Gore (D-Oklahoma). He was incredibly smart and would eventually become a best-selling author. In his 30s, after writing a series of mainstream novels, Vidal decided to try his hand at historical fiction. This decision would set him on a path to waking up to the atrocities carried out by the United States dating back to Abraham Lincoln.
Vidal was one of the first public figures to question the motives and wisdom of Lincoln—and he was lambasted for it. Despite bipartisan attacks on all fronts for his critical skepticism of the United States, Vidal’s six-volume “American Chronicle” series of historical novels about the United States became best sellers. As the years went on, Vidal became outspoken about the rise of the military industrial complex and predicted the very situation we find ourselves in today.
Sadly, not many people heeded Vidal’s words and we are witnessing a full scale attack on true independent journalism as we know it, and we are seemingly powerless to stop it. This is likely the reason Julian Assange grabbed that book and made sure we saw it as he yelled out through dozens of cops that we “must resist.” Though Vidal had become somewhat cynical in his final years, his wisdom can help to free us from our self-imposed slavery of worshiping corruption and statism.
Julian Assange is a hero. His actions helped to expose horrifying crimes carried out by the US government, including mowing down innocent journalists with a .50 cal. His persecution by the UK and the US is retaliation and punishment for exposing these crimes and their actions, as Assange said, must be resisted. If this established behemoth of media, government and tech giants are allowed to persist and snub out the independent press—as they are currently doing—we may soon realize George Orwell’s prediction of a boot stomping on a human face—forever.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid thanked Ecuador for its cooperation, suggesting that pressure from the British government was also a factor in Ecuador’s decision to revoke asylum. While Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt thanked Ecuador and said Assange was “no hero” and that “no one is above the law.” Foreign office minister Alan Duncan issued a statement, calling the arrest “absolutely right” and adding that the UK courts will “decide what happens next.”
Moments after the arrest, the Department of Justice released a statement charging Assange with computer hacking “conspiracy” for allegedly working with US Army soldier at the time, Chelsea Manning.After the charges were levied, Donald Trump took to personally denouncing anything to do with WikiLeaks, claiming “I know nothing about WikiLeaks.”
Trump’s comments highlight a trend among all those in power and their two-faced relationships with this media outlet. When WikiLeaks is exposing their political rivals, they are the darling organization who deserves protection for journalism. However, when WikiLeaks—who toes no party line—exposes corruption within their party, calls for Assange’s assassination fill the news cycle.
During the 2016 elections, Trump frequently praised WikiLeaks for exposing his political rival, even declaring “I love WikiLeaks!” However, once he became part of the establishment, WikiLeaks was now his enemy and therefore he must distance himself. When asked about Julian Assange’s arrest, Trump said at the White House, “It’s not my thing. I know there is something having to do with Julian Assange. I’ve been seeing what’s happened with Assange and that will be a determination, I would imagine, mostly by the attorney general, who’s doing an excellent job. So, he’ll be making a determination. I know nothing really about him.”
Despite Trump decrying “Fake News” on a regular basis, his administration is prosecuting the only major outlet in the world who has never had to issue a retraction—because they’ve been 100% correct. This is a hypocrisy which WikiLeaks themselves took to calling out recently. “The only media outlet with a 100% verification record is the one your administration is prosecuting,” wrote WikiLeaks.
Despite never breaking the law, Julian Assange finds himself a political prisoner, holed up in a cage as this article is being written. As Caitlin Johnstone points out, Assange’s bogus “charge is premised on a fraudulent and manipulative distortion of reality, and you may be one hundred percent certain of it.”
You can be absolutely certain that this charge is bogus because it isn’t based on any new information. The facts of the case have not changed, the information hasn’t changed, only the narrative has changed. In 2010 the United States opened a secret grand jury in Virginia to investigate whether Assange and WikiLeaks could be prosecuted for the publication of the Manning leaks, and then-Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Obama administration was conducting “an active, ongoing criminal investigation’’ into the matter. The Trump administration has not turned up any new evidence that the Obama administration was unable to find in this active, ongoing criminal investigation (US government surveillance has surely acquired some new tricks since 2010, but time travel isn’t one of them), and indeed it does not claim to have turned up any new evidence.
There’s a huge myth being misreported about today’s indictment of Assange. The claim that Assange tried to help Manning circumvent a password to cover her tracks isn’t new. The Obama DOJ knew about it since 2011, but chose not to prosecute him. Story on this soon.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 11, 2019
What this move by the United States and the United Kingdom actually represents is a threat to those who dare to challenge the status quo and expose the corruption of the system. Even congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard sees this and was unafraid of calling it out on several national television outlets. “This is a threat to journalists,” Gabbard told blowhard Chris Matthews on MSNBC, “but it’s also something that threatens every American, because the message that we are getting, that the American people are getting is: Be quiet, toe the line, otherwise there will be consequences.”\
Like Vidal, Assange wanted people to know true history as this is the path to peace. “If wars can be started by lies,” Assange so eloquently noted, “they can be stopped with the truth.” We must resist.
“You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul.” — Gandhi #FreeJulian pic.twitter.com/KuxjsUwcq8
— Matt Agorist (@MattAgorist) April 11, 2019
Tortured
On Feb 17, 2020, Doctors for Assange demanded an end to the torture and medical neglect of Julian Assange. Yet no responsible authority has acted. Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and two medical experts visited Mr Assange in prison in May, 2019, concluding that his treatment constituted psychological torture, a form of torture aimed at destroying the personality of an individual. The situation has deteriorated since then, with continued abuses of Mr Assange’s fundamental rights and the medical risks posed by COVID-19.
Since February, 2020, there has been a string of hearings in the context of Mr Assange’s US extradition trial. A timeline is provided in the appendix. His treatment throughout has been described as “shocking and excessive” by the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI). He has been held in a bulletproof enclosure unable to fully hear proceedings and denied meetings with his lawyers. He was strip-searched, handcuffed 11 times, moved to five different holding cells, and had privileged client–lawyer communications seized.
Mr Assange attended, by videolink due to ill health, only one hearing, missing the four following hearings because of COVID-19-related restrictions and medical risks. Prison lockdowns in the UK have prevented meetings with his lawyers to prepare for future hearings. These irregularities and excesses cause helplessness, arbitrariness, threat, and isolation, all key components of psychological torture.
Mr Assange is at grave risk from contracting COVID-19. As he is non-violent, being held on remand, and arbitrarily detained according to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, he meets internationally recommended criteria for prisoner release during COVID-19. A bail application with a plan for monitored home detention was refused, however, and Mr Assange is held in solitary confinement for 23 h each day.
Isolation and under-stimulation are key psychological torture tactics, capable of inducing severe despair, disorientation, destabilisation, and disintegration of crucial mental functions. Given recent attacks against journalists, the psychological torture of a publisher and journalist sets a precedent of international concern. Human rights organisations and others have called for Mr Assange’s release and condemned the extradition proceedings. Amnesty International has advocated for Mr Assange’s release on bail. The Council of Europe considers Mr Assange’s treatment to be among “the most severe threats to media freedom”.
216 signatories of doctors, representing 33 countries, demand to end the torture and medical neglect of Julian Assange. IBAHRI states that, in view of Mr Assange being a victim of psychological torture, his extradition to the USA would be illegal under international human rights law. The World Psychiatric Association emphasises that withholding appropriate medical treatment can itself amount to torture, and under the Convention Against Torture, those acting in official capacities can be held complicit and accountable not only for perpetration of torture, but for their silent acquiescence and consent.
As physicians, we have a professional and ethical duty to speak out against, report, and stop torture. Silence on Mr Assange’s torture might well facilitate his death.
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