In this file photo taken on May 19, 2017, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of the Embassy of Ecuador in London. - A heroic campaigner for openness, or an enemy of the U.S. state trying to avoid justice: after a decade in the limelight, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange remains an evasive and polarizing figure. ((Photo: Justin Tallis, AFP/Getty Images)

Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno has accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of repeatedly violating the conditions of his seven years of asylum in Ecuador's embassy in Britain.

In a speech to the Ecuadorian Broadcasting Association on Tuesday, Moreno accused the whistleblowing organizationof intercepting phone calls and private conversations and also complained about photos of my bedroom, what I eat, and how my wife and daughters and friends dance.

Mr. Assange has violated the agreement we reached with him and his legal counsel too many times, Moreno said.It is not that he cannot speak and express himself freely, but he cannot lie, nor much less hack private accounts or phones.

This handout photo released by the Ecuadorean Presidency press office shows Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno speaking during an interview with local radio journalists on Wikileaks founder Julien Assange in Guayaquil, Ecuador on April 2, 2019.(Photo: Andres Reinoso, Ecuadorian presidency, AFP/Getty Images)

While Moreno did not explicitly blame Assange for the hacked calls and provided no evidence, his remarksreflected ongoing tension between Assange and Ecuadoran officials.

The Ecuadorean government, however, has said it believes the WikiLeaksorganization shared the photos that depict a lavish lifestyle anddate back several years, to when Moreno and his family lived in Geneva,The Guardian reports.

WikiLeaks, in a statement, called Morenos charges completely bogus, saying it reported onaccusations of corruption against the president only after Ecuadors legislature investigated the issue.

If President Moreno wants to illegally terminate a refugee publishers asylum to cover up an offshore corruption scandal, history will not be kind, WikiLeaks said in a statement.

Assange, 47,took refuge in the embassy in London 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning aboutrape allegations. Although the Swedishinvestigation was dropped last year,Assange still faces charges in Britain for jumping bail.

Assange, an Australian national, chose to remain in the embassy out of fear that the United States would immediately seek his arrest and extradition over the leaking of classified documents to WikiLeaks by then-U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning.

Assange told The Telegraph in 2013 that he lives in a small office room converted into living quarters, equipped with a bed, telephone, sun lamp, computer, shower, treadmill and a small kitchenette.

The Ecuadoran authorities last year, for the second time, cut off Assange's access to the internet because of concerns that he was damaging the country'sties toBritain and other European nations, purportedly by criticizingSpain's handling of its separatist movement.

It alsorequiredAssangeto pay his medical bills and clean up after his pet cat.

Assange, who was granted Ecuadorian citizenship last year inan apparent effort to designate him a diplomat and allow him to go to Russia, sued Ecuador for violatinghis rights as an Ecuadorian.

He pressed his case in local andinternational tribunals on human-rights ground, but both ruled against him.

The leftist Ecuadorian government that offered asylum to Assange had been embroiled in a diplomatic row with the U.S. involving a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable.

U.S. ambassador to Ecuador Heather Hodges was expelled after WikiLeaks leaked the document that allegedwidespread corruption within the Ecuadorian police force, the BBC reported.

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Ecuador says Julian Assange violated asylum terms in London ...

Ecuadors President Lenin Moreno has accused Julian Assange of violating the terms of his asylum and leaking private photos of Morenos family and friends online in the latest dust-up between the WikiLeaks founder and his increasingly frustrated hosts.

Speaking to the Ecuadorean Radio Broadcasters Association yesterday, Moreno suggested that Assange had been intercepting the presidents private messages and had even leaked photos of my bedroom, what I eat, and how my wife and daughters and friends dance, according to the Associated Press. Moreno reportedly provided no evidence of the hacking.

Assange has been holed up in Ecuadors embassy in London since he jumped bail on sexual assault-related charges from Sweden in 2012. Those charges have since been dropped over a technicality, but Assange still considers himself a prisoner in the embassy despite the fact that hes free to leave at any time. Assange has maintained for some time that he fears hell be extradited to the United States where prosecutors have filed unknown criminal charges against him.

The white-haired shit-stirrer also claims that hes being silenced because his internet access in the embassy was abruptly cut off a year ago. Officials from Ecuador accused Assange of meddling in international politics before his internet access was taken away.

Mr. Assange has violated the agreement we reached with him and his legal counsel too many times, Moreno said, according to an English translation by Reuters. It is not that he cannot speak and express himself freely, but he cannot lie, nor much less hack private accounts or phones.

Back in January of 2018, Moreno called Assange a nuisance and an inherited problem. Ecuadors previous president, Rafael Correa, was the one to originally grant Assange asylum and Moreno has seemed far less tolerant of Assanges provocative behavior. WikiLeaks has suggested that Morenos real problem is that Ecuadors alleged corruption has been exposed through the so-called INA Papers. Moreno is facing a corruption investigation brought by a rival lawmaker who suggests he took money from a Chinese company for a hydroelectric dam project. The money was allegedly laundered through a shell company in Panama, according to Venezuelan state media.

If President Moreno wants to illegally terminate a refugee publishers asylum to cover up an offshore corruption scandal, history will not be kind, WikiLeaks said in a statement to the Associated Press.

Assange, an Australian national, was given Ecuadorian citizenship in January of 2018 during an attempt to give him diplomatic immunity. Ecuador hoped that the move would allow Assange to leave the London embassy and find refuge in another country, but that plan failed.

Assange previously said that he would leave the embassy in London if whistleblower Chelsea Manning was released from prison. President Barack Obama commuted Mannings sentence shortly before leaving office in 2017, but Assange went back on his promise and said that President Obama only did it to make Assange look like a liar. Last month, Manning was placed back in solitary confinement, a punishment considered to be torture by prisoner advocacy organizations, for refusing to answer grand jury questions about WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks often tweets far-right talking points these days, and Assange has proved to be an unlikely ally of authoritarian-minded leaders around the world, like President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Assange has reportedly turned down dirt on the government of Russia, and the WikiLeaks Twitter account exchanged DMs with President Trumps son Don Jr. in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election. That communication continued after the election as well, when WikiLeaks suggested that President Trump himself should appoint Assange to a position as an Australian government official.

It would be real easy and helpful for your dad to suggest that Australia appoint Assange ambassador to DC, the WikiLeaks account told Donald Trump Jr. via Twitter DM roughly a month after Trump won.

Assanges worldview, already strange by any normal human standards, has led his behavior to become more and more bizarre the longer he stays in the embassy. As just one example, the WikiLeaks team released a statement this past January with a confidential list of things that journalists were forbidden from saying about Julian Assange. The list reads like the rantings of someone whos truly unhinged.

Some things that journalists arent supposed to say about Assange, according to the list released by WikiLeaks:

It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange stinks.

It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange has ever tortured a cat or dog.

It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange does not use cutlery or does not wash his hands.

It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange lives, or has ever lived, in a basement, cupboard or under the stairs.

It is false and defamatory to suggest that Julian Assange has ever played soccer or used a skateboard during week days or office hours at the embassy.

It is false and defamatory to suggest that WikiLeaks or Julian Assange is tied to, or is close to, the Kremlin.

Assange will have been in the embassy for a full seven years this coming June. And its clearly taking a toll on him physically and mentally, as it would anybody. But Ecuador might be the only real friend he has left. And given the constant squabbling, that friendship looks like its about to break for good.

[Associated Press]

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Julian Assange Accused of Leaking President of Ecuador's ...

The cofounder of the California separatist group Yes California said in an interview Monday that the group welcomes "the vocal support" of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who recently began tweeting about the California independence campaign known as "Calexit."

"Ultimately the Calexit vote and its preceding debate will be up to Californians to decide but we welcome the vocal support of Julian Assange, as we would for any individual with the courage to stand up against and defy the powers that be in order to affect positive change in this world," said Louis Marinelli, the cofounder. "That's what our campaign is all about."

Marinelli, a 31-year-old activist, announced in a 1,600-word statement on Monday that he would return to California after spending just over a year in Russia's fourth-largest city, Yekaterinburg, with his wife Anastasia.

Marinelli spearheaded the Calexit campaign for nearly two years before deciding to settle in Russia permanently in April. He withdrew his petition for a referendum at that point in favor of the "new happiness" he'd found in Yekaterinburg.

The organization relaunched in August, this time as "a movement" rather than a political action committee, Marinelli said Monday. It also has a new president: cofounder Marcus Ruiz Evans, who previously served as the organization's vice president.

Evans closed the Moscow "embassy" Marinelli had established in December, calling it "a distraction, a point of contention, and a source of division among supporters of California independence."

Louis MarinelliScreenshot/YouTube

In his statement on Monday, Marinelli claimed it was never really an embassy at all.

"I hyped it up, printed a vinyl banner, and called it an embassy - that was a mistake," he wrote.

Marinelli characterized the initiative differently back in December, telling Business Insider that the "Embassy of the Independent Republic of California" was part of the group's outreach to countries that were likely to recognize and support California's independence.

He described Russia's Anti-Globalization Movement far-right Russian nationalists who enjoy Kremlin support while promoting secessionist movements in Europe and the United States as a "partner," and said Yes California aimed to "rock the boat and ruffle feathers."

Now, Marinelli says he "never sought to have Russia as a partner in the Calexit campaign in the first place."

"Pursuing their recognition of our independence after the fact is not endorsing our Calexit campaign," he said.

The link among Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, and Russia has always been murky. The US intelligence community believes the three worked together to undermine Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election, while Assange has staunchly denied that Russia was its source for hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

But as journalist and Russia researcher Casey Michel has written, the Kremlin has not exactly been an unbiased observer of Western independence movements. Marinelli's former "partner," the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, issued a statement last month supporting Catalonia's secession push.

Assange turned his attention to Spain around the same time, becoming the de-facto international spokesman for Catalan separatism.

He taught young Catalans how to use encrypted chat apps and evade detection from federal police ahead of the October 1 independence referendum, and he used his Twitter account to relentlessly pump out a pro-separatist narrative aimed at villainizing the Spanish central government and celebrating Catalan nationalism.

Asked whether he would support a similar independence referendum for Texas or California, Assange said: "Yes. There will likely be a plebiscite in 2018 for California, see #CalExit."

Screenshot/YouTubeIt's not clear whether the government would recognize such a plebiscite as legitimate. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after President Donald Trump won the election found that 32% of Californians said they would support independence (another 15.5% said they "don't know").

Asked if he'd "welcome" it if Assange took similarly aggressive measures in support of the Calexit campaign, Marinelli said: "While I stand by my previous statement about Julian Assange and his vocal support for California Independence, the spokesperson for this campaign should be a Californian."

He added, however, that if Assange "has constructive criticism then we should be welcoming constructive criticism and feedback and suggestions on how to run a better campaign."

He also said he was "appreciative" of anyone willing to expose what he perceives as corruption within the national Democratic and Republican parties, which he called "criminal" organizations.

The group's current president, meanwhile, said he is "not a super big fan of Julian Assange."

"I will never coordinate with Assange on CalExit ever," Marcus Ruiz Evans said in an interview on Monday. But he said he's "cool with anybody who's not a racist saying that members of a democracy should have the right to discuss and vote on issues" that affect them.

"There are four separate CalExit groups," Evans said. "I'm part of the oldest and largest one, as is Louis [Marinelli]. The other three don't have Louis on their team and kind of reject him. But because the movement is an idea, no one really has control. If supporters of CalExit love what Assange is saying, I cant control that."

PA Images

Marinelli said on Monday that he wants to "make peace between each of the separatist California Independence groups out there" and "build a big umbrella" that could more effectively campaign for a CalExit.

But it's not clear whether those groups, like the California National Party and the California Freedom Coalition, want anything to do with either Marinelli or Assange.

California National Party secretary Timothy Irvine told Business Insider in a statement that CNP "has no interest in receiving support from foreign groups, foreign nationals, criminals, or generally incompetent and unsavory individuals."

Irvine added that the CNP is "democratically and transparently run by, paid for, and dedicated to serving Californians," and had been "productive" since Marinelli departed California, at which point he was banned from the CNP.

"CNP will not work with, and will refuse support from or association with, individuals who have a track record of political incompetence, of alienating Californians, or of putting their own private interests above the public good of Californians," Irvine said.

The CFC declined to comment.

Originally posted here:
California exit, secession leader welcomes Julian Assange ...

By Oscar Grenfell 3 April 2019

In a clear threat to expel Julian Assange from Ecuadors London embassy, the countrys president, Lenn Moreno, declared in an interview yesterday that the WikiLeaks founder had repeatedly violated the conditions of his asylum. Moreno stated that his government would take a decision... in the short term on Assanges circumstances.

The comments are the latest public indication of an advanced conspiracy to force Assange out of the embassy, where he sought political asylum in 2012, and into the clutches of the British and US authorities.

If he leaves the building, or is expelled from it, Assange will be arrested by British authorities on trumped-up bail charges. Assange would likely face extradition to the US over concocted espionage or conspiracy charges, carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment or the death penalty, for his role in WikiLeaks exposure of war crimes, illegal diplomatic intrigues and mass surveillance.

In the interview with the Ecuadorian Radio Broadcasters Association, Moreno made unsubstantiated and slanderous claims that Assange had been hacking... private accounts and phones. He blamed the WikiLeaks founder for a corruption scandal currently engulfing his government.

Morenos allegation that Assange had violated the conditions of his asylum was a reference to a draconian protocol imposed on the WikiLeaks founder by the Ecuadorian government last October, following the shut-off of his internet access and the severe curtailing of his right to receive visitors in March, 2018.

The Ecuadorian president restated the terms of the protocol, forbidding Assange from making any political comments, including about his own plight. Underscoring that Moreno is closely collaborating with the major powers, Al Jazeera reported that he made statements to the effect that Assange cannot intervene in the politics of other countries, especially those with friendly relations with Ecuador.

The Ecuadorian protocol is a flagrant violation of international law. Assanges status as a political refugee has been upheld by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and other international rights organisations. There is no basis in international legislation for the political asylum of a journalist and publisher to be made conditional on his or her silencing.

Through much of the interview, Moreno sought to attribute the deepening crisis of his government to the activities of WikiLeaks and Assange. Last month, the contents of Morenos mobile phone and gmail account were sent to an opposition lawmaker and subsequently published online. The leaks and related documents, dubbed the INA papers, allegedly implicate Moreno and his closest associates, including his brother, in corruption, perjury and money laundering.

Senior officials in the Ecuadorian government began blaming Assange for the leaks last week. Moreno continued the theme, absurdly declaring: In WikiLeaks we have seen evidence of spying, intervention in private conversations on phones, including photos of my bedroom, of what I eat, of how my wife and daughters and friends dance.

Today, the Ecuadorian government filed a complaint with the UN Special Rapporteur on Privacy, denouncing WikiLeaks over the corruption scandal. It did so the day before the Rapporteur was due to visit Assange to investigate his claim that Ecuadorian authorities are illegally spying on his communications.

Moreno and the government have not offered any proof for their allegations. They are well aware that Assange does not have internet access, because the government terminated it in March last year. The only evidence of WikiLeaks ties to the INA papers, provided by Morenos supporters, is that the organisations Twitter account, which is not controlled by Assange, tweeted reports and media articles about the revelations.

While Moreno is undoubtedly seeking to scapegoat Assange for his governments crisis, he is also using the publication of the INS papers as the pretext for escalating long-standing plans to evict the WikiLeaks founder from the London embassy. In the interview, Moreno restated his governments position that it would be willing to see Assange exit the building provided only that his life is not endangered.

Since coming to office in May, 2017, the Moreno regime has moved to renege on the previous Ecuadorian governments decision to grant Assange asylum. At the same time, it has rapidly expanded relations with the US.

Fidel Narvez, who was Ecuadors consul to London until 2018, bluntly warned that the interview demonstrated the government seeks a false pretext to end the asylum and protection of Julian Assange. Narvez wrote that Moreno was using the INS scandal to yield to US pressure on Assange.

Morenos comments coincide with a stepped-up US pursuit of the WikiLeaks founder. On March 8, Chelsea Manning was arrested and jailed indefinitely for refusing to testify at a closed-door grand jury hearing aimed at concocting charges against Assange.

Manning, who in 2010 courageously leaked US army war logs and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, was imprisoned for seven years under the Obama administration. Now she has been held in solitary confinement by the Trump administration for more than three weeks.

At the same time, the claims of the Democrats, much of the corporate media, and the US intelligence agencies that WikiLeaks collaborated with Donald Trump and Russia in 2016 to deprive Hillary Clinton of the US presidency have been discredited. The Mueller investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government concluded last month without any criminal indictments.

This underscores the fact that the campaign over Russian interference was always a fraudulent pretext for the imposition of sweeping online censorship measures and political repression.

The discrediting of the Democratic Party allegations, however, will not result in any let-up in the campaign against Assange and WikiLeaks. Rather, the Trump administration and its nominal Democratic opponents are increasingly converging in their persecution of dissident publishers and whistleblowers, such as Assange and Manning, and a broader assault on civil liberties.

This is demonstrated by the fact that no figure from the US political establishment has raised a word of protest over the attacks against Assange. The corporate press and all of the official political parties in Britain and Australia have similarly signalled their support for the jailing of Manning and the US-led vendetta targeting Assange.

Representing a tiny corporate and financial elite, all of them see the suppression of free speech and democratic rights as critical to preventing the emergence of a mass political movement of the working class under conditions of a resurgence of the class struggle and widespread hostility to war, austerity and authoritarianism.

Morenos statements underscore the urgency of stepping up the fight for Assanges freedom and for the immediate release of Manning. The Socialist Equality parties in Australia and the US held powerful demonstrations last month to rally workers, students and young people to this crucial fight. We urge all readers of the WSWS who want to take up the struggle to free Assange and Manning to contact us.

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Ecuadorian president threatens to evict Julian Assange from ...

QUITO (Reuters) - President Lenin Moreno of Ecuador told radio stations on Tuesday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has repeatedly violated the terms of his asylum in the Andean nations London embassy, where he has lived for nearly seven years.

FILE PHOTO: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seen on the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Britain, May 19, 2017. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

Moreno, interviewed by the Ecuadorean Radio Broadcasters Association, said Assange does not have the right to hack private accounts or phones and cannot intervene in the politics of other countries, especially those that have friendly relations with Ecuador.

Attorneys for Assange did not respond to requests for comment.

Moreno made the comments on Assange after private photographs of him and his family at a time years ago when they were living in Europe circulated on social media. Although Moreno stopped short of explicitly blaming Assange for the leak, the government said it believed the photos were shared by WikiLeaks.

Mr. Assange has violated the agreement we reached with him and his legal counsel too many times, Moreno said in the interview in the city of Guayaquil. It is not that he cannot speak and express himself freely, but he cannot lie, nor much less hack private accounts or phones.

Moreno did not say whether or not the government would take steps to remove Assange from the embassy.

WikiLeaks said in an emailed statement that Morenos remarks were in retribution for WikiLeaks having reported on corruption accusations against Moreno, who denies wrongdoing.

If President Moreno wants to illegally terminate a refugee publishers asylum to cover up an offshore corruption scandal, history will not be kind, WikiLeaks said.

Assange took refuge in Ecuadors London embassy in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation.

That probe was later dropped, but Assange fears he could be extradited to face charges in the United States, where federal prosecutors are investigating WikiLeaks.

Ecuador last year established new rules for Assanges behavior while in the embassy, which required him to pay his medical bills and clean up after his pet cat. He challenged the rules in local and international tribunals, arguing they violated his human rights. Both courts ruled against him.

Last month, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is linked to the Organization of American States, rejected Assanges request that Ecuador ease the conditions it has imposed on his residence in the London embassy.

Assange says Ecuador is seeking to end his asylum and is putting pressure on him by isolating him from visitors and spying on him. Ecuador has said its treatment of Assange was in line with international law, but that his situation cannot be extended indefinitely.

Reporting by Alexandra Valencia, Brian Ellsworth and Luc Cohen; Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; editing by Grant McCool

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Ecuador's president says Assange breached terms of London ...