EDWARD SNOWDEN: ASSANGE ARREST “DARK MOMENT FOR PRESS FREEDOM” – ONE FOR “THE HISTORY BOOKS”

April 11, 2019 in News by RBN

Published: April 11, 2019
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SOURCE: ZEROHEDGE

“Assange’s critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom,” NSA whistleblower and leaker Edward Snowden wrote on Twitter in reaction to seeing WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange dragged by UK police from his seven year asylum captivity at the Ecuadorian embassy in London on Thursday.

Via Ruptly/Reuters

A bearded, disheveled-looking Assange was filmed being roughly escorted out of the embassy by British police and loaded into a police van. Assange can be seen shouting:

“The UK must resist this attempt by the Trump administration.”

The arrest came, as WikiLeaks predicted, a mere days after the organization was tipped off that Ecuador was preparing to swiftly end Assange’s asylum and hand him over the UK authorities, after which it’s further believed the WikiLeaks founder will be extradited to the United States.

As we reported Assange’s lawyer has confirmed that he was arrested not solely on charges stemming from skipping bail in the UK, but in connection with an extradition request from the US.

Snowden tweeted that the dramatic images of UK authorities dragging Assange out of the embasy were a “dark moment for press freedom.”

He further commented that a publisher of “award-winning journalism” being arrested and thrown into a security van would “end up in the history books.”

Notably Snowden pointed to the presence of UK “secret police” as part of the operation, some of which had been filmed staking out near the front door of the embassy in the days leading up to the arrest.

Snowden referenced a video of a journalist approaching what was believed to be a pair UK plain clothed secret police, who staged themselves as disinterested civilians casually smoking on a street corner.

Here is the video Snowden referenced as proof of the beefed up secret police presence near the embassy in the days before Assange’s arrest:

Snowden also pointed out that “the United Nations formally ruled his detention to be arbitrary, a violation of human right” and followed in the wake of the arrest with: “Regardless of what you think of the man as a person, if you believe in human rights law, this matters.”

Hours after Assange was loaded into the police van, WikiLeaks confirmed he’d been taken to Westminster Magistrates court, noting “He has been arrested under a US extradition warrant for conspiracy with @xychelsea for publishing classified information revealing war crimes in 2010.”

 

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Ecuador has withdrawn an asylum it granted to Julian Assange, the country’s president declared as the WikiLeaks founder was being evicted from Ecuadorian embassy where he was hiding for the last six years. The Ecuadorian government has decided “to withdraw the diplomatic asylum of Julian Assange for a repeated violation of international conventions and a protocol of coexistence,” president Lenin Moreno has said in a televised speech on Thursday.

WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson has alleged that an extensive spying operation was conducted against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during his time in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. During an explosive press conference, which is still underway, Hrafnsson alleges that the operation was designed to get Assange extradited. WikiLeaks claims that it was told that Assange’s extradition was imminent.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange still resides inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London (for now, at least), where he is safe from arrest and likely extradition to the US. But in a Wednesday press conference, Wikileaks revealed that it has obtained evidence that Assange has been the subject of an “extensive spying operation” carried out by the Ecuadorian government, as the feud between Assange and Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno continues to escalate.

As dozens of supporters massed outside its London embassy, Ecuadorian officials late Friday denied reports that they had been planning to unilaterally revoke the asylum first granted to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in 2012, expelling the controversial journalist from their London embassy and handing him over to British police for arrest on charges that he skipped out on his bail – which would have likely set in motion a chain of events ending with Assange’s extradition to the US.