Ecuador is handing over Julian Assange's documents and computer hardware to the U.S. In an interview with Ecuador's ECTV, Foreign Minister Jose Valencia said the prosecutor's office in Quito would choose what "should or should not be shared".
"It will be the Prosecutor's office that decides what goods should or should not be shared with the United States authorities and which are personal effects that must be returned to its owner."
Source AFP/Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS
These are all items that were owned by Assange during his 7 year stay at the embassy in London. This includes computers, mobile phones, memory sticks and other electronic devices. All of his belongings will be seized in a search of his former room next week. The electronics will be sent to the U.S. in cooperation with the DoJ investigation into Assange.
This is postulated as being "in full compliance with the law", says Ecuador. But Assange's legal team objects, and has filed a petition seeking to block the handover and requesting Assange to be present at the search of the room.
WikiLeaks tweeted about this move, calling it a "violation of international law" and mentioning how the government of Ecuador was already sending the U.S. information about Assange for months, as we found out in April with the trove of surveillance data being sold as in an attempted blackmail on WikiLeaks.
Ecuador has been sequestering Assange’s belongings since his arrest. Now we know why: To hand them over to the US in violation of international law. Ecuador’s vile behaviour is not new as they have been sending information on Assange to the US for months.
Assange's lawyer Baltasar Garzon is also quoted on the recent violations of the "rights of the asylee":
Source
Representative Tulsi Gabbard seems to be one of the only mainstream politicians who have a clue and know the wrongs being imposed on Assange. She will be running as a presidential candidate in the 2020 elections for the Democratic party, and says she would drop all charges against Assange and pardon Edward Snowden.
Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience, she said they should not be prosecuted for disclosing information when asked "What would you do about Julian Assange, what would you do about Edward Snowden?”
"We have got to address why [Snowden] did things the way that he did them. You hear the same thing from Chelsea Manning, how there is not an actual channel for whistleblowers like them to bring forward information that exposes egregious abuses of our constitutional rights and liberties, period. There was not a channel for that to happen in a real way, and that’s why they ended up taking the path that they did, and suffering the consequences."
Snowden was pursued like Manning. In 2013, Snowden handed over a bundle of NSA documents that detailed the engulfing surveillance state in the U.S. and the world. He fleed to Hong Kong shortly after, but an arrest warrant followed him. That's when he left for Russia and has been their since after gaining asylum. Unlike with Assange and Ecuador, Russia has no plans to revoke the Asylum on Snowden.
Gabbard defended the actions of Snowden, as he provided a public service to disclose the massive spying going on, which the NSA would never have told anyone about:
"That was something that Snowden uncovered and released, something that I don't know that even as members of Congress we would have been aware of. So now that we are aware of it, we can take action to close those loopholes, to change those policies, to protect our civil liberties… Was the NSA going to disclose that information voluntarily? Absolutely not."
Speaking about Assange, Gabbard said his arrest "poses a great threat to our freedom of the press and to our freedom of speech":
"What happened with his arrest and all this stuff that just went down I think poses a great threat to our freedom of the press and to our freedom of speech."
"The fact that the Trump administration has chosen to ignore how important it is that we uphold our freedoms…and go after him, it has a very chilling effect on both journalists and publishers…and also on every one of us as Americans. It was a warning call…saying 'look what happened to this guy.' It could happen to you. It could happen to any one of us."
Gababrd seems to be a level headed politician, which is rare. She has supported Syrians and been protrayed as a terrorist supporter by the mainstream media. Even the mainstream Democrats on TV don't liek her. She is trailing behind the front-runners like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg, and especially the former Vice President Joe Biden who is expected to win the Democratic nomination.
I don't play the two-part political game, or any for that matter, but at least she would be a fresh dose of sanity in the madhouse of politics that other candidates represent.
References:
- Ecuador defends handover of Assange documents to US
- Tulsi Gabbard Says She Would Drop Julian Assange Charges and Pardon Edward Snowden
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Posted from KURE