A little background on this international farce seems warranted. Accordingly, here is what I wrote nearly eight years ago in “Ecuador Grants Wikileaker Julian Assange Asylum … in London,” August 20, 2012:
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Such is the nature of groupthink among Western commentators that you’d be hard-pressed to find any who oppose, as I do, Ecuador’s decision to grant Julian Assange asylum. The nature of his alleged sexual offenses [against two Swedish women] warrants prosecution. …
To be fair, Assange maintains that he does not fear criminal prosecution in Sweden. He fears that, if extradited, Sweden will promptly extradite him to the United States to face the death penalty for publishing a treasure trove of classified government documents on his infamous site, WikiLeaks.
But I hasten to clarify that, if extradited, tried, and convicted under the Espionage Act, Assange would be sentenced to prison, not death. After all, the United States stopped executing people for espionage decades ago. It’s also instructive that prosecutors have already declared they will not be seeking the death penalty against Bradley Manning, the US soldier who stole those classified documents for Assange.
This is why the only issue here is whether Ecuador – in the person of its wannabe-Chávez president, Rafael Correa – can be allowed to frustrate Britain’s obligation under international law to extradite Assange to Sweden to face charges for crimes he allegedly committed there. I say no. …
I am stupefied that so many Western commentators are standing in solidarity with Assange. Not least because they are doing so at the expense of his alleged victims who have been waiting for years for this narcissistic, self-righteous crusader to be brought to justice. …
In the meantime, the world is being treated to a Mexican standoff. There’s no way Ecuador can sneak him out of the embassy, let alone the country; therefore, Assange could be inside for a very long time. …
That said, if Assange were exposing government corruption or activities that betray the public trust, I would be his most ardent supporter. But he’s leading a foolhardy and untenable crusade for ‘complete transparency’ in diplomatic relations. Instead of winning converts, this will only ensure that diplomats will be even more secretive in their dealings to avoid even the remotest possibility of being ‘exposed.’…
But it’s truly mind-boggling that his supporters do not even seem concerned that Assange’s cult-like mission has ruined the careers and endangered the lives of scores of innocent diplomats.
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Incidentally, here is how Sweden rationalized the shameless triumph of Assange’s defiance over the rule of law in this case:
Swedish prosecutors have dropped their preliminary investigation into an allegation of rape against the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, bringing an end to a seven-year legal standoff.
‘In order to proceed with the case, Julian Assange would have to be formally notified of the criminal suspicions against him. We cannot expect to receive assistance from Ecuador regarding this.’
(The Guardian, May 19, 2017)
What’s more, from the day Assange absconded, the media covered him more like a celebrated political dissident than the disgraced fugitive rapist he is. I duly vented my disgust in commentaries like “Hey Media, Wikileaker Assange Is Still a Self-Promoting, Bail-Jumping Rape Suspect,” August 29, 2016.
That said, I find this very encouraging:
Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno traveled to London on Friday for the ostensible purpose of speaking at the 2018 Global Disability Summit. … The concealed actual purpose of the president’s trip is to meet with British officials to finalize an agreement under which Ecuador will withdraw its asylum protection of Julian Assange, in place since 2012; eject him from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London; and then hand over the WikiLeaks founder to British authorities.
[A]s former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa told The Intercept in an interview in May, Moreno’s government has returned Ecuador to a highly ‘subservient’ and ‘submissive’ posture toward Western governments.
(The Intercept, July 21, 2018)
But elections have consequences! Donald Trump demonstrates this every day – even to the dismay and regret of an increasing number of his supporters.
Yet nobody could have imagined Lenín would play Ecuador’s international trump card, which Assange personifies, so differently. After all, he not only shared Correa’s leftist bona fides, but was hailed as Correa’s protégé.
This is why Lenín’s shift to the right is causing as much dismay and regret at home as surprise and delight abroad. Nothing is more alarming with respect to this shift at home than his decision to investigate all of his former comrades, including Correa himself, for corruption.
More to the point, though, nothing is more alarming with respect to this shift abroad than his decision to allow British police to do this:
WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has been arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London [They literally dragged him out in handcuffs kicking and screaming]. …
Ecuador’s president said it withdrew his asylum after repeated violations of international conventions. But WikiLeaks tweeted that Ecuador had acted illegally in terminating Mr Assange’s political asylum ‘in violation of international law’.
(BBC, April 11, 2019)
No doubt this self-entitled SOB acted over the past seven years as if he were doing embassy staff a coveted favor by allowing them to provide refuge for him.
Far more interesting, though, is Lenín’s shift. Because this is like Mike Pence succeeding Donald Trump and proceeding not only to order criminal investigations into Trump’s misdeeds, but also to revoke every executive order Trump signed to roll back President Obama’s orders – on everything from healthcare to immigration.
That said, I know enough about the extradition process to know that it could be years before the US gets hold of Assange. For example, the infamous case of Islamists al-Fawwaz and Adel Abdul Bary took 14 years.
Apropos of which, when he was CIA director, now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made clear that the United States sees little difference between Assange and these Islamists.
‘It’s time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is — a nonstate, hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia,’ CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Thursday.
Pompeo went as far as to lambast WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as a ‘darling’ of terrorist groups, saying a member of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) recently thanked Assange on social media for ‘providing a means to fight America in a way that AQAP had not previously envisioned.’
(Voice of America, April 13, 2017)
Mind you, this terrorist designation holds notwithstanding the open and notorious collusion Trump had with WikiLeaks during his presidential campaign. Indeed, unlike Sweden, the United States seems prepared to wait until Hell freezes over to get Assange.
Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia unsealed a conspiracy charge against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. …
The case accuses Assange of conspiring to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified U.S. government computer when working with former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning, who released hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables and war logs in 2010.
(The Washington Post, April 11, 2019)
In any event, Assange seems fated to spend the rest of his life in prison. And, to that I say, good riddance!
Related commentaries:
Ecuador grants asylum…
Hey media…
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