CIAs purported plans to abduct kill Assange shows lengths US will go to attack press freedom WikiLeaks editor-in-chief to RT
WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson told RT the revelations about alleged CIA plans to kidnap and kill Julian Assange show how far US agencies are willing to go to âcrack downâ on journalists exposing its âdark secretsâ.
Speaking to RTâs Afshin Rattanshi on his show Going Underground, Hrafnsson said the CIAâs effort to âcraft a new definitionâ for WikiLeaks had meant that the group would be considered âhostile agentsâ â" which, he added, was âbasically a licence to killâ.
According to a bombshell Yahoo News report on Sunday, the CIA had sought to define Assange and other journalists as âinformation brokersâ â" a process that culminated in former Director Mike Pompeo infamously designating WikiLeaks a ânon-state hostile intelligence serviceâ so as to allow the agency to conduct âoffensive counterintelligenceâ activities on the group.
At the height of its preparations for hostilities in 2017, the agency was reportedly expecting Russian agents to help Assange flee the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. In such a contingency, the Americans and the British had drawn up plans for potential street shoot-outs, ramming Russian diplomatic vehicles, or shooting out the tires of a Russian plane to prevent it from lifting off.
Also on rt.com CIA was ready to wage gun battle in London streets against Russian operatives to kill or snatch Assange, bombshell report claimsDescribing the report as a âchilling read for every journalist and individual who cares about press freedomâ, Hrafnsson told RT that the thinking behind the agencyâs legal maneuvering and planning was âvery much in line with previous attempts to use the legal structure and redefine outrageous activity and call it something else.â
We all know that torture wasnât called torture. It was OK if it was called âenhanced interrogation techniquesâ. Things of that nature. This is part of that mindset.
Noting that he assumes the core WikiLeaks members were under âextensive surveillance in all aspectsâ at the time, Hrafnsson claimed the area around the embassy was the âmost surveilled part of the worldâ with âspies [and cameras] in every buildingâ and added that the group suspected âsomething fishy was going onâ.
They had also âgotten windâ of some of the revelations from criminal proceedings in Spain against UC Global SL, the security firm that was contracted to safeguard the embassy but were allegedly âbribed by the CIA to spyâ on Assange and planted cameras and other devices to watch him.
âWe knew there was a dotted line to the CIA. Now we have the confirmation,â Hrafnsson told RT, adding that the âoutrageousâ plans to kidnap or assassinate Assange and others in the WikiLeaks circle seemed to have been aborted due to âlegal considerationsâ.
Also on rt.com British taxpayers footed £300,000 bill SO FAR for court costs in Julian Assangeâs extradition saga â" reportsâThey were looking for ways to make it legal, not to stop it per se,â he said, adding that this had a âstrong implication... for the extradition hearingâ that Assange is currently fighting in court. Next month, an appeal by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to extradite him is expected to reach the High Court in London.
The DOJ has charged the Australian journalist under the US Espionage Act, accusing Assange of having leaked classified information in 2010 that detailed alleged war crimes perpetrated by the US military. If extradited and found guilty, Assange faces up to 175 years behind bars at a federal super-max penitentiary.
READ MORE: https://www.rt.com/uk/535450-british-taxpayers-julian-assange-extradition-bill/
Terming the charges against Assange âpolitical persecutionâ, Hrafnsson told RT that he was being subjected to âpunishment by due processâ and likened his incarceration at maximum security Belmarsh prison â" which houses violent offenders â" to âtortureâ.
If Julian is extradited to the US, he will be in the hands of the CIA to decide whether he will be put under SAM (Special Administrative Measures) â" which is another word for torture and isolation in horrible prison conditions. His fate would be in the hands of those who were planning to kidnap and kill him.
âThat should be reason enough [not to extradite him],â Hrafnsson said.
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