Diabolical plot to extradite Assange to US

Ecuador granted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange political asylum at its London embassy in August 2012.

According to an Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling, its irrevocable under international law. Nations are obliged to uphold asylum rights, including the right of safe passage to the country granting it.

Rule of law principles never stand in the way of Washington’s imperial agenda—nor co-conspiratorial nations like Britain, partnering in its high crimes.

Assange’s asylum is gravely threatened. In May, Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Fernanda Espinosa said talks between her government and Britain were ongoing to decide his fate, adding:

“There is a dialogue. There is a will and an interest to move forward in the solution of that matter.”

Illegally revoking his asylum ahead of arresting and extraditing him to America appears imminent.

A sealed indictment awaits him, allegedly accusing him of spying under the long ago outdated 1917 Espionage Act, enacted shortly after America’s entry into WW I—used to prosecute, frame, convict and imprison Chelsea Manning.

AG Jeff Sessions earlier said arresting, prosecuting and imprisoning Assange “is a priority,” turning truth on its head claiming he’s “engaged in terrorism”—a US speciality, not his.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo disgracefully said he caused “great harm to our nation’s national security”—a bald-faced lie.

He lied calling WikiLeaks “a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia,” adding, “We have to recognize that we can no longer allow Assange and his colleagues the latitude to use free speech values against us”—a flagrant constitutional violation against anyone if enforced.

WikiLeaks is involved in whistleblowing investigative journalism, publishing material supplied by sources, unidentified for their protection.

It’s not an intelligence operation. Nor it it connected to Russia or any other country.

Assange earlier explained that WikiLeaks has the right “to publish newsworthy content. Consistent with the US Constitution, we publish material that we can confirm to be true . . .”

If he’s arrested, extradited to America, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned, it’ll be another body blow to already eroding US and Western media freedom.

According to RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan days earlier, her “sources (indicate) Assange will be handed over to Britain in the coming weeks or even days,” adding: “Like never before, I wish my sources were wrong.”

On July 15, the London Sunday Times reported UK and Ecuadorian ministers at the highest levels are conspiring to revoke Assange’s asylum and evict him from the country’s embassy.

President Lenin Moreno lied calling him a “hacker.” He’s targeted by Washington and Britain for publishing hard truths their regimes want suppressed.

According to RT, UK minister of state for Europe and the Americas Alan Duncan is “spearheading the diplomatic effort” to expel Assange from Ecuador’s London embassy, complicit with the Trump regime wanting him extradited to Washington.

The Intercept said revoking Assange’s asylum and expelling him from Ecuador’s London embassy is “imminent.”

Moreno is in London, meeting with UK officials “to finalize an agreement under which Ecuador will withdraw its asylum protection of Julian Assange . . . eject him from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and then hand (him) over to British authorities,” the Intercept reported.

An announcement could come any time. Ecuador’s president since May 2017, Moreno shamefully transformed his country into a US vassal state, reversing Rafael Correa’s agenda.

If reports by London’s Sunday Times, RT and the Intercept are right, Assange’s fate may be sealed.

He’ll likely lose asylum protection, be extradited to Washington to be prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned for the “crime” of truth-telling.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.