There was one piece of happy news on a doleful Easter day in Britain: Julian Assange had managed to father two children whilst locked up in the Ecuadorian embassy. This proves that love will find a way, even if your self-isolation is being enforced by the British police and the CIA.

It drew attention to the plight of this Australian publisher, who faces charges in America carrying a maximum of 175 years' imprisonment, all for revealing, back in 2010, truthful facts of considerable public interest.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with Gabriel, the first of the two children that he was said to have fathered while in the embassy.Credit:Stella Morris

He now languishes, probably for several years, in Belmarsh, Britains toughest (and mainly for terrorist suspects) prison while he fights the US attempt to extradite him for trial in Maryland. If convicted there, on essentially the same espionage act charges which brought his source, Chelsea Manning, a 35-year sentence, he can expect a somewhat heavier term 50 years, perhaps time enough for him to die in an American Supermax jail. Manning was pardoned by US president Barack Obama, but there is little prospect that Assange would receive clemency from a second-term President Trump.

His defence is, principally, that the extradition proceedings are brought for political purposes, to deter other publishers from revealing what US forces do, even illegally and what US diplomats know (but the media does not) about human rights abuses. This argument will be developed later in the year at Westminster Magistrates Court.

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Babies now on board in Julian Assange's mammoth US extradition tussle - The Age

The spying that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was subjected to during the seven years that he lived at the Ecuadorian embassy in London extended to his most intimate relations.

The Spanish security firm Undercover Global SL, which had been tasked with protecting the embassy, monitored every visit that Assange received, and even investigated whether he might have fathered a child during this period.

A few days ago, a 37-year-old lawyer named Stella Morris, who is a member of Assanges legal team, told The Mail on Sunday that Assange, 48, is the father of her two children, aged one and two. Morris said they were conceived while the WikiLeaks founder was staying at the embassy to avoid extradition to the United States on charges of leaking thousands of classified intelligence documents.

There was an attempt to take the babys pacifier

David Morales, a former military official who owns the security firm Undercover Global SL, is under investigation by Spains High Court, the Audiencia Nacional, for spying on Assanges meetings with his lawyers and allegedly handing information to the CIA.

Morales suspected that a baby who was repeatedly brought into the embassy by Stephen Hoo, an actor friend of Assanges who paid him regular visits, might really be the cyberactivists own child, and these visits were recorded.

Morales even issued orders to steal the babys diapers to analyze the contents for DNA, although the task was never carried out. Reports were drawn up about Stella Morris and about Stephen Hoo, according to video and documentary material to which EL PAS has had access.

It was an employee of the Spanish security firm who alerted Assanges partner about the plans: They wanted to prove that it was his child in a bid to harm him. There were talks with three Madrid labs to see how the parental connection could be proved. One of them said that DNA cannot be extracted from feces. There was an attempt to take the babys pacifier, said a former employee of Undercover Gobal SL.

A company report dated October 27, 2017 details Hoos visits to the Ecuadorian embassy and sheds light on Morales obsession with getting to the bottom of Assanges best-kept secret during his life as a recluse.

The report noted that Hoo always showed up for his visits in the company of a minor that he tells the security team is his own child. The author of the report also wrote that attempts at seeing identification for the child were fruitless, and that Stella Morris always arrives a few minutes before Stephen Hoo, and departs a few minutes after the latter leaves, although normally she stays for entire days with the host [codename for Assange] and even spends entire nights with him.

After the unnamed employee alerted Morris, the babys visits to the embassy ended.

They wanted to prove that it was his child in a bid to harm him

Stella Morris arrives at the Hotel [the embassy] at 1.49pm and leaves at 4.11pm while Stephen Hoo arrives at 2.06pm and leaves at 3.56pm on November 25, reads the report, which includes two photographs of Hoo walking into the embassys entrance hall and carrying one of Assanges children in a baby carrier.

The report provides details about the actor obtained from the British press, and speculates that Hoo might not really be the babys father. Based on information regarding the possibility that the host [Assange] may have fathered a child during his confinement at the embassy, and given the recent visits by this baby, always in the company of Stella Morris, we posit that, due to the ties of affection between the latter and the host, it cannot be ruled out that the baby could have some kind of relationship between both. The data obtained so far does not allow us to make this assertion, and we continue to work on collecting evidence that might lead to a more accurate result.

Morris, who said she and Assange are planning to get married, made her revelations to The Mail on Sunday after first telling a judge in the hopes that the cyberactivist will be granted bail. Assange has been in Belmarsh Prison ever since he was forcibly evicted from the embassy a year ago. If he were extradited to the US, he would be facing up to 178 years in prison.

Morales was arrested in October and released while the courts investigate him for alleged violations of privacy and client-attorney privilege, besides misappropriation, bribery and money laundering. The criminal investigation was launched a few weeks after EL PAS revealed video, audio and documentary material showing that the Spanish company had spied on Assanges meetings with his lawyers and aides.

English version by Susana Urra.

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Spanish firm that spied on Julian Assange tried to find out if he fathered a child at Ecuadorian embassy - EL PAS in English

By Oscar Grenfell 18 April 2020

Spanish daily ElPasand the Italian newspaper Fatto Quotidiano this week revealed new details of the intensive surveillance and dirty tricks operations targeting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange while he was a political refugee in Ecuadors London embassy.

Both articles indicated that a particular focus of the spying, which was allegedly orchestrated by the US Central Intelligence Agency, was identifying Assanges immediate family members. It raises the ominous possibility that plans were afoot to harm Assanges relatives, including his infant child.

The reports are the latest exposures of the spying, which was conducted by UC Global, a private Spanish firm contracted by the Ecuadorian authorities to provide security to the embassy building.

The companys director David Morales, a former Spanish military officer, is accused of having met with US authorities in early 2015 and agreed to secretly furnish the CIA with material gathered within the embassy in an operation that escalated over the ensuing three years.

Morales was arrested last year and charged with a raft of offenses, including over the surveillance. Assange has taken out a criminal complaint against the mercenary over the activities, which allegedly breached the legally-enshrined right to attorney-client privilege, along with the privacy of Assange and dozens of others.

Last week, Stella Morris, a 37-year-old lawyer, revealed that she has been in a personal relationship with Assange since 2015 and that the couple have two young children together.

The ElPasreport indicates that the older child, Gabriel, born in 2017 while Assange was still in the embassy, was a particular focus of UC Globals surveillance.

The Spanish-daily stated that detailed reports were prepared on Morris visits to and from the embassy. Stephen Hoo, a friend of Assange, often brought Gabriel to the building and was also subjected to surveillance. Hoos relationship status and even his sexual orientation were scrutinised.

ElPas wrote: Moraless suspicion was that a minor who entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in London hanging on a baby carrier carried by actor Stephen Hoo could be the son of the cyber-activist (48 years old) and Morris (37 years old).

UC Global was prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to identify the paternity of the baby. An anonymous ex-employee of the company confirmed that UC Global had considered stealing one of the infants used diapers or a pacifier to test for DNA.

The former employee stated: They wanted to prove that it was his son to try to harm him. One got to speak with three laboratories in Madrid to see how the parental issue could be accredited. One of the labs told us that DNA could not be obtained from the stool. Then they tried to get his pacifier.

It is not clear whether the witness meant that UC Global intended to harm Assange, the baby or both. However given the sordid history of the CIA, nothing can be excluded. Morris stopped bringing Gabriel to the embassy after being alerted by an employee of the operation and has since stated that she feared for his safety.

Writing in Fatto Quotidiano, longtime WikiLeaks collaborator Stefania Maurizi revealed that the targeting of Morris and her young family extended far beyond the walls of the embassy. Maurizi cited an email by Morales to his staff, ordering them to pay special attention to Morris. It noted that the company believed that Morris was not using her original name. The lawyer had, in fact, legally changed her name to avoid the operations of the intelligence agencies.

Morales wrote: If necessary I want a person fully dedicated to this activity, so if you have to hire someone to do it, tell me. All this has to be considered top secret so that the diffusion is limited.

In other words, UC Global was apparently planning to assign a full-time investigator to follow Morris. Morales also stated that the company had identified a relative of her mother in Catalonia, in an indication that the company was seeking to track down Morris family members around the world.

There have been previous indications that UC Global, acting on behalf of the CIA, was not only seeking to monitor every aspect of Assanges life, but also plotting physical attacks against him.

In the most detailed public overview of the embassy spying, Andy Mller-Maguhn, a German computer expert and close collaborator of Assange, explained that the UC Global operation dramatically escalated in 2017.

In December that year, Morales ordered that staff conduct a survey of the building, aimed in part at finding new areas where hidden cameras and microphones could be placed, in a bid to overcome measures Assange had taken to stymie the spying.

Most ominously, Morales also passed on to his staff a request from his American friends for a list of potential physical access points to the embassy. According to Mller-Maguhn, Morales asked his employees about the possibility of leaving the door of the diplomatic mission open, arguing that it was an accidental mistake, to allow the entry and kidnapping of the asylum-seeker.

The timing of these CIA operations is significant. They followed WikiLeaks publication, beginning in March 2017, of Vault 7, a vast trove of CIA documents exposing the global spying and hacking operations of the agency.

Then CIA director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo immediately responded by branding WikiLeaks a hostile non-state intelligence agency. At the same time, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation put together a counter-espionage squad to investigate WikiLeaks. Its work would culminate in the issuing of 18 charges against Assange, including 17 under the Espionage Act.

FBI special agent Megan Brown, who played a leading role in the taskforce, filed an affidavit against Assange, laying the basis for at least some of the charges against him, in December 2017.

In other words, at the same time that the CIA and its proxies were violating the privacy of Assanges family and considering illegally kidnapping the WikiLeaks founder, the FBI and the Justice Department were finalising a legal case against him.

Morales appears to have played a central role in both. ElPas previously reported that metadata from Morales emails placed him in Alexandria, Virginia, on March 1 and 2, 2017. This was just weeks after the establishment of the FBI squad. Alexandria is home to the largest concentration of intelligence employees in the US and was, at the time, the site of a secret grand jury impaneled to help concoct charges against Assange.

The close connection between illegal activities targeting Assange and his infant child, and the preparations for a US indictment of the WikiLeaks founder, further underscores the fact that he is the subject of what can only be termed an attempted extraordinary rendition. The charges and the formal extradition process are only a figleaf for a CIA operation aimed at destroying Assange because of his exposure of US government crimes.

As he awaits a show trial for his extradition to the US, scheduled to resume on May 18, Assange faces the imminent danger of being infected by the coronavirus pandemic as it sweeps through Britains prison system.

Earlier this month, Magistrate Vanessa Baraitser rejected an application for Assange to be released from Belmarsh Prison on bail, despite the fact that he has not been convicted of a crime and suffers from a raft of medical issues, rendering him vulnerable to COVID-19.

Maurizi published portions of Morris previously unreleased statement to the bail hearing. Morris stated: I have feared with strong reason for a long time that I will lose Julian to suicide if there is no way in which he can stop his extradition to the USA. I now fear I may lose him for different reasons and sooner to the virus. I know very well that his health is extremely poor and can detail the different aspects of that poor health.

Morris outlined the dire impact that long stretches of effective solitary confinement in Belmarsh had on Assange. When in the Healthcare unit he was taken from a ward into a single cell for many months in a form of isolation save for a very few hours each day I noticed how he, as I described at the time was visibly very diminished like a withering flower.

Baraitser was unmoved, decreeing not only that Assange must remain behind bars, but also that it would be in the public interest for Morris and her young children to be named in the media, denying their right to anonymity.

The author also recommends:

Julian Assanges partner Stella Morris speaks out: His life is on the brink[13 April 2020]

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Intensive CIA spying on Assange targeted his infant child - World Socialist Web Site

This week, like usual, we, VICE UK, hosted a Netflix Party for the fifth edition of our weekly Corona Film Club series. For those who havent been involved, we screen a film every Wednesday, chat along with the readers and post the responses in a follow-up blog the next day. Anyway: this time we were hacked.

Halfway through our viewing of Shrek the Third, the film disappeared and was replaced by a looping one and a half minute Dailymotion video that implored viewers to write to their local MP to appeal against the UK-US extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Shrek never returned. The video which began with 2010 Wikileaks footage showing a US air crew shooting down Iraqi civilians and ended with a 2019 news clip of Assange being dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy played again and again. There's a screenshot above.

It was very bizarre. But this isnt the only time Netflix Party has been targeted with the same video. UK indie band Glass Animals encountered a similar video when they hosted a Netflix Party on 5th April. I don't know exactly what happened, but we were watching Spirited Away for our weekly cinema club, got five minutes in, then the whole website glitched and went to a Dailymotion site just playing some of Julian Assange's WikiLeaks videos. On repeat, Glass Animals singer Dave Bayley told us.

Twitter user @chachisays also seems to have come across the same video at their Netflix Party on March 21. They tweeted: 15 minutes in and I got redirected to an ad telling me to contact my MP to stop extradition on Julian Assange

The Wikileaks video we encountered in VICEs viewing party of US troops shooting Iraqi civilians was released in full-length form on 5th April, 2010 exactly ten years before Glass Animals hosted their viewing party. VICE has reached out to Wikileaks for comment.

Like video apps Houseparty and Zoom, Netflix Party has been touted by publications like the New York Times and the Guardian as a communication lifeline for those in lockdown during the pandemic. But the widespread adoption of new platforms rarely goes as planned: random users can pop up uninvited on Zoom chats a practice known as Zoombombing and the same goes for Houseparty.

VICE has seen several reports from Netflix Party users who say their private viewing sessions were interrupted by strangers who proceeded to send threatening messages using the apps chat function. Asli Ali, 18, was watching You Get Me a 2017 thriller film starring Bella Thorne as an emotionally disturbed stalker when toward the end of the film an unknown user who hadnt joined the party previously began typing.

Netflix Party usually alerts everyone when someone new joins the group, but this time it didn't. The user sent a message to the group that said the next victim. They then alluded to the film's plot and referred to themselves as Bella Thornes character.

Everyone else was in the party already, so they couldn't have been pranking us, says Asli, who explains their Netflix Party link was private and hadnt been shared with anyone beyond those already in the virtual room, and that "the next victim" message just popped up. It doesn't add up and it left me and my friends on a call for hours trying to figure out who it was.

Georgia Weidman, a cybersecurity expert and author of A Hands-on Introduction to Hacking, told VICE that were seeing more of these hacks because the numbers of users on these platforms have increased exponentially. There were always attackers attacking online meetings, mobile devices, etc. but now thats where the most users and the most sensitive data can be found.

Combine the amount of growth these apps are getting and the state of the economy and how much security budgets are being slashed right now, and I find it impressive that Zoom has been able to respond as well as they have to the security issues that have been raised. It seems its now Netflix Partys turn to beef up their security and privacy program.

When VICE reached out to Netflix Party, they said they were taking steps to repair the situation. A spokesperson told us that they have identified the issue and have posted a fix in the most recent update (V.1.7.9) to Netflix Party: It may take a few days for Google to review the extension, but the new version should automatically update and roll out in a few days.

@ryanbassil & @IamHelenThomas

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Netflix Party Got Hacked With Threats and Mysterious Pro-WikiLeaks Videos - VICE UK

From gun-toting rappers to sleazy politicians, criminals all over the world are using the coronavirus pandemic as way to weasel out of prison time.

Celebrity jailbirds from New York City to England including Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, disgraced comic Bill Cosby and accused document-leaking spy Julian Assange are demanding to be sprung due to the deadly bug.

Here are their crimes, their excuses for release and what judges have to say about it.

Rap sheet: President Trumps disgraced former lawyer and fixer pleaded guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance violations in 2018. He was sentenced to three years behind bars and is serving time at Otisville Federal prison upstate.Why I should be free:Cohen argues that he should be released because the federal prison system is demonstrably incapable of safeguarding and treating B.O.P. inmates who are obliged to live in close quarters and are at an enhanced risk of catching the virus.Result:His request was first rejected but a judge later ruled that he will be allowed to finish his sentence in home confinement.

Rap sheet: The 53-year-old I Believe I Can Fly singer is accused of sexual exploitation of a minor and child pornography and is awaiting trial at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago.Why I should be free: Kelly argues that the fact he recently underwent surgery for a hernia along with his age put him at risk of contracting the virus. He also says some of his fellow inmates have been quarantined with with flu-like symptoms.Result: Rejected.

Rap sheet: The big mouthed 49-year-old lawyer, known for representing porn actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuits against President Trump, tried to extort millions of dollars from the athletic wear company Nike. He was awaiting sentencing at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.Why I should be free: Avenatti says hes at high risk of contracting coronavirus because he had a recent bout with pneumonia, and his cellmate was removed due to flu-like symptoms.Result: Approved. A judge allowed him to be temporarily freed in order to ride out the pandemic at a friends house in Los Angeles.

E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool, File

Steven Hirsch

Damaso Garcia, a two-time All-Star and former Yankees second baseman,...

Rap sheet: Madoff ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history, scamming 4,800 clients out of $64.8 billion. He was sentenced to 150 years behind bars and is doing the time at the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, N.C.Why I should be free: The disgraced 81-year-old Ponzi king says he has terminal kidney disease, which puts him at risk of contracting the virus, and the federal prison system has consistently shown an inability to respond to major crises.Result: Pending.

Rap sheet: The Brooklyn-born hip-hop star pleaded guilty to gang-related racketeering, assault, firearms offenses and drug trafficking. He was sentenced to two years behind bars and was serving time at a private prison in Queens.Why I should be free: The 23-year-old rainbow-haired rapper says his asthma puts him at risk of death if he contracts the virus behind bars.Result: Approved. A Manhattan federal court judge ordered him released immediately into home confinement, citing extraordinary and compelling medical reasons.

Rap sheet: The 82-year-old former comic great drugged and sexually assaulted Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his home in 2004. He was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison, and is behind bars at the State Correctional Institution Phoenix prison in Skippack Township, Penn.Why I should be free: Cosby, once considered Americas TV dad, says at least one prison officer has tested positive for COVID-19 at the Pennsylvania jail where hes incarcerated. His spokesman says he is elderly and blind and has close contact with prison workers who take him to his medical appointments.Result: Pending.

What he did: The notorious Pharma Bro jacked up the price of the AIDS drug Daraprim nearly 5,000 percent in 2015. He was convicted of fraud and is serving a seven-year prison sentence at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn for scamming investors in hedge funds he ran.Why I should be free: Shkreli, 37, always known as an online troll, claims he wants to help research a treatment for the coronavirus, saying that authorities should let him out for three months so he can do laboratory work under strict supervision.Result: Pending.

AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File

Damaso Garcia, a two-time All-Star and former Yankees second baseman,...

What he did: The disgraced New York state senator used his powerful position to get his son Adam cash and jobs. He was convicted, sentenced to five years behind bars and is doing time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn.Why I should be free: He asked to finish his sentence in home confinement because the virus has spread through federal prisons.Result: Released. The 72-year-old former Albany powerbroker was allowed to go into home custody Wednesday after testing positive for the coronavirus.

What he did:The WikiLeaks founder is awaiting trial at the Belmarsh prison in London for allegedly violating espionage laws when he published a series of leaks given to him by US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.Why I should be free: Assange, 48, applied for bail, saying the virus caused him to fear for his life at the Belmarsh prison in London.Result: Pending.

Rap sheet: The Gambino mob soldier conspired to whack a government witness at a Staten Island strip club in 1998. He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to 20 years and is serving time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn.Why I should be free: He says hes sick as dog and suffering from COVID-19. He seeks immediate release into home confinement.Result: Pending.

Rap sheet: The ex-FIFA soccer honcho accepted tens of millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for TV marketing rights and was convicted of racketeering conspiracy, money laundering and other charges. He was convicted, sentenced to nine years and doing time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Miami.Why I should be free: Napout, 61, says he filed a request for compassionate release because of the coronavirus pandemic.Result: Denied. A judge rejected him, saying the court does not find that defendants particular circumstances, as they relate to the COVID-19 pandemic, justify his release. He added that Napout is a flight risk.

Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images

REUTEREUTERS/Brendan McDermidRS

REUTERS

Damaso Garcia, a two-time All-Star and former Yankees second baseman,...

Rap sheet: Mexicos former top cop is awaiting trial at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn for allegedly taking millions of dollars in bribes stuffed inside suitcases from Joaquin El Chapo Guzmans notorious Sinaloa cartel.Why I should be free: The 51-year-old says he faces a high risk of contracting COVID-19 if he stays behind bars in Brooklyn, where inmates have tested positive for the coronavirus.Result: Denied. A judge says hes a flight risk.

Rap sheet: The Born to Kill gang kingpin was responsible for murdering a states witness, committing robberies engaging in an extortion scheme in Chinatown. He was convicted, sentenced to life and is being held at a federal medical facility in Massachusetts.Why I should be free: Thai says his ailing health puts him in danger of serious illness if he contracts COVID-19. If released, he plans to hole up with his sister and brother-in-law in Texas.Result: Pending

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Celebrity inmates who are citing coronavirus to try to get released - New York Post