Rafael Correa

The President of Ecuador, on flimsy pretext, has thrown Julian Assange to the wolves. Today Ruptly footage shows Assange being manhandled by several police from the embassy into a police vehicle. Julian had long hair and a long beard and was shouting, "The UK must resist," and something about "the Trump administration." From somewhere else, the Ecuadorian President delivered a prepared speech to cameras from his wheelchair, stating, among other things, that the UK Government has agreed in writing that Julian would not be sent anywhere he might be tortured or face the death penalty. Wikileaks has said, however, that Assange has been arrested for 'extradition to the United States for publishing'.

Ironically, U.K. Foreign Minister, Jeremy Hunt, has said on Twitter, “Julian Assange is no hero and no one is above the law. He has hidden from the truth for years.” In fact, it is power elites, like Jeremy Hunt, who have hidden from the truth and who have put themselves above the law.

Julian Assange and Wikileaks have drawn the curtain to reveal the business as usual world of international criminal elites. Depraved men and women, like Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, Donald Trump, Obama, and Hillary and Bill Clinton, to name a few in an almost endless line of powerful and very wealthy American administrators. These are people who benefit from and encourage war, who tell lies to start wars, and who protect torturers. They hold secret courts and execute their fellow citizens. They assassinate foreign rulers they don't find useful any more, and they overthrow elected governments. And they expect to control the media - and the narrative.

The US is currently attempting to overthrow the Venezuelan Government. It has bought and paid for the Columbian Government. It has been trying for many decades to overthrow Cuba. It seems to have been able to do a deal with Lenin Moreno, the current Ecuadorian President, who succeeded Rafael Correa, the previous president of Ecuador who courageously gave Julian Assange asylum. Moreno invited the police to arrest Julian Assange. This was the quintessential uncivilised act.

Jeremy Corbyn, the UK Opposition leader, has so far failed to take the opportunity to distinguish himself from Jeremy Hunt, reportedly a close associate, by standing up for decent treatment for Assange.

The corporatisation of mainstream media has meant that national and commercial media outlets have used all the stories that Assange broke, without any threats to themselves of arrest, whilst utterly failing to defend their source. What a bunch of cowards promote the narratives that cover the depraved vested interests of criminal governments of the world. If so-called professional journalists had ever stood up for him, the world would be so much more advanced. Instead, Julian's arrest threatens to take us further down into the black pit of ignorance and censorship.

We at https://candobetter.net support Assange and thank him for his heroic exposure of the criminal forces which have taken over most governments. His determination not to be taken by the 'authorities' was a reflection of his knowledge of the truly awful corruption in the merciless US and UK judicial systems

Dear Prime Minister Scott Morrison, I write to ask you to act to bring to an end circumstances faced by Julian Assange which certainly have already harmed his health and may well end his life if those circumstances are not rectified soon.

An investigation by the Australian Federal Police into Julian Assange ordered by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2010, found that he had committed no crime.

In spite of that, he was threatened with extradition to the United States to face, in its rigged court system - as attested to by former CIA officer John Kiriakou, amongst others - charges that the United States is not even prepared to reveal to the public. Julian Assange, who is not even a United States' citizen, could face many years of imprisonment - or worse - for merely having made known, through Wikileaks, information that the public should know about world events of recent years.

To prevent this, he sought asylum inside the London Ecuadorian Embassy in October 2012. Asylum was granted to him by former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa as required by International Law.

Unfortunately, Assange's asylum inside the Ecuadorian embassy has been turned by the British government into an illegal detention. This has been found twice - on 5 February 2016 and on 30 November 2016 by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. This illegal detention has now lasted six and a half years and has had terrible consequences for Julian Assange's mental and physical health. In all this time, he has seen no sunlight, had little exercise and has been refused medical attention - clearly a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of international law.

President Lenin Moreno, who succeeded President Rafael Correa in 2017, has made Julian Assange's already dire living situation worse - putting him under constant surveillance, denying him access to the Internet or even reading material and restricting visitors.

On top of this, there are rumours that the Ecuadorian government may soon expel Julian Assange from the Embassy. Should he be expelled he faces what he has endured so much up until now to avoid - extradition to the United States.

Surely, neither the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States, nor his continued confinement under the degrading conditions he has been made to endure for so long, are alternatives that should be acceptable to an Australian government showing a basic duty of care to each and every one of its citizens.

I therefore urgently request that you act now to end the illegal detention of Julian Assange. You could despatch today a contingent of Federal Police to fly to London, go to the Ecuadorian embassy and escort Julian Assange back to Heathrow Airport and thence back to Tullamarine Airport. I doubt if any British government authority would dare obstruct a contingent of Federal Police clearly acting to uphold the law and to end such a cruel denial of basic human rights.

Should your efforts to free Julian Assange somehow fail, you could try to ensure that he receives fair judicial process in the United States. He should be given an attorney of his choice funded by the Australian government and the United States be asked to conduct the trial in public. Certainly any charges arising from what is already been revealed to the public through Wikileaks should be tried in public.

Only then, if found guilty by a fair-minded and impartial jury, could any of what Julian Assange has endured since 2010 be seen to have been deserved. However, I believe that he would almost certainly be found not guilty if such a trial were to occur and he would then be able to walk free.

So, I appeal to you, even at this late stage, to use the powers vested in you to end Julian Assange's ordeal and to ensure that justice and the rule of law ultimately prevail in this instance.

Yours faithfully,

James Sinnamon

#EDF5FA">The following article by Paul Craig Roberts, reprinted with the author's kind permission, has been previously published (23/7/18) on Russia Insider with the same title and on both The Unz Review (4/7/18) and the author's own web-site PaulCraigRoberts.org (4/7/18) as "Washington Moves Against Rafael Correa".

As President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa (pictured above) was a Godsend for the Ecuadorian people, for Latin American independence and for WikiLeaks' Julian Assange. By serving justice and truth instead of Washington, Correa earned Washington's hatred and determination to destroy him.

Correa was succeeded as president by Lenin Moreno, who Correa mistakenly believed to be an ally, but who has every appearance of being a Washington asset. The first thing that Moreno did was to make a deal with Washington, block Correa from being able to again stand for the presidency and turn on Julian Assange. Moreno wants to revoke the asylum granted to Assange and has prevented Assange from continuing his journalistic activity from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. In other words, Moreno has conspired with Washington and the UK to effectively imprison Assange in the embassy.

Now Moreno has taken another step that highlights his character as a blackguard. Correa, realizing that he and his family were in danger, moved to Belgium. An Ecuadorian court has now ordered the Belgians to detain Correa and extradite him to Ecuador on a fabricated kidnapping charge.

Correa thinks that Belgium will not comply with an absurd charge for which no evidence is presented and that the charge is intended to smear his name. If I were Correa, I would not be so sure. Look at the ease with which Washington was able to use its vassals—Sweden and the UK—to effectively nullify the political asylum that Ecuador gave Assange. Belgium is also Washington's vassal and will experience threats and bribes—whatever it takes—to deliver Correa into Moreno's hands, which is to say into Washington's hands. If I were Correa, I would get myself over to the Russian embassy and request asylum from Putin.

Here is a news report from RT: https://www.rt.com/news/431653-correa-ecuador-arrest-order/