Assange arrest

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested after a seven-year diplomatic standoff at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. In recent weeks it became clear that Ecuador was ready to give up Assange to British authorities. As British police were allowed to bundle him out of the embassy, the truth of why Assange was being pursued so vigorously became clear. He was arrested on US orders, despite British authorities claiming that the holdup was over rape allegations in Sweden and a court conviction in the UK for skipping bail. A secret indictment in the US had been shared with British authorities over Assange’s role in the release of secret military and diplomatic files provided by Chelsea Manning about US abuses in the Iraq war. Manning herself was jailed once again for refusing to give evidence to a secret grand jury. Wikileaks became the most important source for revealing what goes on behind the scenes in international diplomacy. The material was published by major international newspapers, including the Guardian, New York Times etc. Wikileaks opened up a new era in whistle-blowing – a cherished practice at the heart of press freedom.Whistle-blowing is an essential part of revealing the secret machinations of the powerful. In many cases, the public is told a different story to what is really going on behind the scenes – not because it is a state secret, but because what is really going on serves the interests of a small group of people or involves gross financial or human rights violations. US President Donald Trump declared his love for WikiLeaks when it published emails about his political rival, Hilary Clinton, and the Democratic Party. But WikiLeaks subsequently released information on the CIA’s hacking operations. This led CIA Director Mike Pompeo to declare Wikileaks a ‘hostile intelligence service’, and to an escalation of pressure on Ecuador’s new government to let Assange be arrested.US authorities claim that the arrest is for ‘hacking,’ rather than publishing. But it is hard to forget that newspapers that published the Wikileaks material were also raided by government authorities in the UK and elsewhere. It is clear that there is a request for extraditing Assange pending. The UK shadow home minister has called for the British PM to step in to deny the request. For now, Assange will be put in a British prison for skipping bail, but the real battle will be the diplomatic one over whether he will be extradited or not. Assange is being punished for exposing evidence of US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan and unregulated surveillance on ordinary citizens. This should be opposed regardless of any personal reservations over his person.

from The News International - Editorial http://bit.ly/2v7V4yV