Category Archives: Julian Assange

Assange says he will stay under Ecuador’s protection

Posted on by

The famous guest at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Julian Assange, and Ecuadors foreign minister, Ricardo Patio, held a joint press conference on Thursday to note that two years have elapsed since the WikiLeaks founder sought diplomatic asylum.

In a video linkup from London and Quito, Assange revealed that he would not renounce Ecuadors protection and would continue to stay at the embassy, which he entered to avoid facing allegations of sexual misconduct in Sweden, and a possible extradition to the United States.

Patio confirmed that Ecuador would maintain its protection. We are going to protect Julian Assange as long as necessary and as long as he wants.

Assange said WikiLeaks would remain operative despite the financial strangulation

Talks between Ecuador and Britain to extend a safe-conduct so Assange may leave the embassy and travel to the Andean country are stalled. Patio said his governments proposal to create a mixed committee of jurists to analyze the case a year ago has come to nothing.

We have done what it was up to us to do; now we feel it is up to the United Nations agencies to establish a case, said Patio. Let us hope that civil society and the worlds journalists will stop keeping quiet on the issue of defending a reporters freedom of expression.

The Australian hacker revealed that his defense team included 30 people working in several countries, often without charging for their services. Assange stressed the emotional difficulties of being kept away from his children, and talked about the pressure on his family.

If they cant get me, perhaps they will assassinate them, or my children, he said. Some of my relatives, such as my mother, have had to change their names because of the threats.

Assange also criticized the cost of his round-the-clock surveillance for the US and Britain. The latter has already spent around six million pounds on watching him, while the cost to US coffers is not known.

Patio would not reveal any figures either, but said that Ecuador had simply reinforced security at the London embassy.

Originally posted here:
Assange says he will stay under Ecuador’s protection

Watch What will happen if Assange leaves Ecuador’s Embassy… – Video

Posted on by


Watch What will happen if Assange leaves Ecuador #39;s Embassy...
It #39;s been two years since Julian Assange #39;s gained asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. During the time of his refuge there he #39;s grown a beard, given a couple of balcony speeches, and...

By: IN THE NOW

Continue reading here:
Watch What will happen if Assange leaves Ecuador's Embassy... - Video

Assange cheers on Ecuador in World Cup

Posted on by

There's only one team WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is supporting in the World Cup and it's not Australia.

Thursday marks the second anniversary of Assange entering the Ecuadorean embassy in London to seek political asylum which was granted in mid-August 2012.

It's perhaps understandable then that the Queensland-born whistleblower is backing the South American country he hopes to one day call home.

"I have been watching the World Cup although the reception in this building is quite difficult," Assange told reporters during a phone conference on Wednesday.

"Of course Ecuador undoubtedly deserves to win the World Cup (and) it also has a pretty decent team."

But with so much prestige on the line for the host nation Assange is predicting Brazil is "the most likely victor".

This time last year, Assange launched a blistering attack on the Gillard government for abandoning him.

He said Labor "bent over more than any other country in the world" to appease the US.

Twelve months on he says the election of the conservative Abbott government in September 2013 "produced no change in the situation".

"Sadly it is the state of the Australian government ... that both sides of politics have been extremely close to the United States," he said.

Read this article:
Assange cheers on Ecuador in World Cup

WikiLeaks-Gründer Julian Assange im ARD Interview , Frank Jahn, ARD London – Video

Posted on by


WikiLeaks-Grnder Julian Assange im ARD Interview , Frank Jahn, ARD London
WikiLeaks-Grnder Julian Assange im Interview 19.06.2014, Frank Jahn, ARD London Lesen Sie dazu auch "WikiLeaks-Grnder Assange im ARD-Interview "Wir sind er...

By: Helmut Zermin

Read more from the original source:
WikiLeaks-Gründer Julian Assange im ARD Interview , Frank Jahn, ARD London - Video

Assange to release new leaks despite self-imposed incarceration 6/19/14 A MUST WATCH – Video

Posted on by


Assange to release new leaks despite self-imposed incarceration 6/19/14 A MUST WATCH
PROVIDED BY http://CNNNEXT.COM Wikileaks chief Julian Assange is marking his second anniversary holed up inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Despite his self-imposed incarceration.

By: giovanni betances

Read more here:
Assange to release new leaks despite self-imposed incarceration 6/19/14 A MUST WATCH - Video

2 Years After Seeking Refuge In Embassy, Julian Assange …

Posted on by

On the two-year anniversary of Julian Assanges stay in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, he spoke out about his complicated diplomatic and legal saga. | ANDREW COWIE via Getty Images

With British police still surrounding the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he is holed up, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange joined an international conference call Wednesday to speak out about his complicated and seemingly intractable diplomatic and legal saga.

The call came one day ahead of the two-year anniversary of Assange taking refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning in an investigation about alleged sexual offenses. Assange argued his embassy stay is also necessary to avoid extradition to the U.S. for publishing files leaked to him by former U.S. Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning.

Although the call addressed his relationship with former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Assange refused to reveal whether the two have been in any direct contact.

"The security situation in relation to myself here at the embassy, where the British government admits to spending more than $10 million so far on police encircling the embassy, and Edward Snowden's situation in Russia and in relation to the National Security Agency, means that I cannot discuss what types of communication we use or do not use," said Assange.

Assange and WikiLeaks lawyers engineered temporary asylum in Russia for Snowden, who fled to Hong Kong last year before revealing he was the source of leaked NSA reports. The organization's most high-profile success in the last year was getting Snowden the proper travel document for his flight from Hong Kong to Russia.

Assange has also signed up as a trustee for the Courage Foundation, which is raising money for Snowden's legal defense. But beyond his role in that group, it's not clear to what extent -- if any -- the WikiLeaks leader has an ongoing relationship with the NSA leaker.

Assange declined to answer a question about whether he has any access to Snowden's files. But after a media organization with access to Snowden's files recently published an article on NSA surveillance in two countries, WikiLeaks claimed to identify one country whose name had been redacted. WikiLeaks was vague about its sourcing.

"In relation to an issue revolving around sourcing, as a matter of longstanding policy to protect our sources, we cannot comment," he said.

Beyond the daring Snowden caper, WikiLeaks has made few of the global splashes it did when relying on the files of Manning, who is now serving the beginning of a 35-year sentence for leaking to the organization. But Assange pointed to files WikiLeaks published in January detailing negotiations for the Trans-Pacifc Partnership, a planned global trade agreement, as one success.

Read the original:
2 Years After Seeking Refuge In Embassy, Julian Assange ...

Wikileaks’ Julian Assange: I’m still here – CNET

Posted on by

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange appeared via Skype at the SXSW Interactive festival earlier this year. Daniel Terdiman/CNET

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange marked the second year to the day on Thursday as an occupant of the Ecuadorian embassy at 3 Hans Crescent in Knightsbridge, London.

Assange, whose Wikileaks site has published more than 8 million anonymously leaked documents since 2006, took the opportunity with his US- and UK-based lawyers to speak to the press on a conference call from the embassy about his legal struggles with the US, UK, and Swedish governments.

The 42-year-old Australian native railed against the four-year-long US criminal investigation of Wikileaks, claiming that it's the largest Department of Justice investigation of a publisher since the passage of the Espionage Act of 1917.

"It is against the stated principles of the United States and the values supported by its people to have a four-year pre-law investigation against a publisher," Assange said. "It is not correct for [US Attorney General] Eric Holder and the DOJ to use weasel words for stating that they will not prosecute a reporter for reporting."

Assange said that by investigating Wikileaks, the US government wants to create a schism between national security reporters and "those reporters who report the details of a press conference."

"I call on Eric Holder today to immediately drop the national security investigation against Wikileaks," he said.

The Justice Department did not immediately return a request for comment. Despite allegations, Assange has not been charged with a crime by authorities in the US or UK related to espionage, or by the Swedish authorities seeking his extradition over rape allegations.

Assange entered the Ecuadorian embassy on June 19, 2012, seeking political asylum from a British court order to extradite him to Sweden over allegations that he sexually assaulted two women there. Assange's attorneys stressed that since then they have been willing to have Assange interviewed over the phone or by video conference, but that Swedish officials refuse to meet with him except on Swedish soil.

"If he goes to Sweden it will likely be a one-way ticket to the United States," said Michael Ratner, the US-based attorney for Assange and Wikileaks. Assange receives support from and is a trustee of the Courage Foundation, which also provides legal and financial support to Edward Snowden, the NSA whistle-blower. Assange says he assisted Snowden when communicating from Hong Kong.

Original post:
Wikileaks' Julian Assange: I'm still here - CNET