Julian Assange was dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London by British police today, after Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno revoked his political asylum. The Wikileaks co-founder spent almost seven years trapped in the embassy, seeking asylum from political persecution.
UK law enforcement arrested Assange on behalf of the US government, following a request for his extradition. Assange originally sought asylum in the embassy to avoid being extradited to Sweden and eventually the US, fears now to be confirmed.
Wikileaks predicted on April 4th “that Julian Assange will be expelled within “hours to days” using the #INAPapers offshore scandal as a pretext–and that it already has an agreement with the UK for his arrest.”
Wikileaks tweeted about the PR strategy that would be rolled out against Assange,
“1. UK lead
2. Ecuador will say Assange has broken many of its invented “asylum terms”
3. UK will say won’t let US kill Assange, due process. Ecuador will pretend that this is a concession and that asylum was for death penalty.”
The PR strategy is already being acted out on mainstream media, with an abundance of examples. MSNBC’s resident CIA asset and propaganda man, Ken Dilanian, said that Assange “had outlived his welcome” in the embassy because “his cat had been making a mess and that he was skateboarding in the halls and stealing WiFi.”
The real reason Assange is being persecuted is because of his role in exposing war crimes. As WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson said, “This pertains to publishing work nine years ago.” The following video, Collateral Murder, is a part of what WikiLeaks exposed about US war crimes against civilians in Iraq.
***WARNING: Graphic Content***
Assange’s lawyer made a press statement on the significance of his arrest related to the security of journalism, “This precedent means that any journalist can be extradited for prosecution in the United States for having published truthful information about the United States.”
As Kristinn Hrafnsson said at the press conference, “this is a dark day for journalism.”
Image adapted from: “Julian Assange, by Mahn Kloix” by Jeanne Menjoulet is licensed under CC BY 2.0
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