Imperialist gangsterism and the CIA plot to kill Julian Assange

0


[ad_1]

The revelations that the CIA discussed the assassination of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange confirm the staggering criminality of the American and British ruling class. As of right, they should see the US extradition case against Assange still pending before the UK High Court dismissed, and the investigation and prosecution of the conspirators up to the highest level of the US and UK governments and of their intelligence agencies.

Julian Assange dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, April 2019

According to a survey by Yahoo News Published Sunday, President Donald Trump’s CIA Director Mike Pompeo dubbed WikiLeaks a “non-state hostile intelligence service” in 2017 to make its employees and associates a legitimate target for the “offensive counterintelligence” activities of the CIA.

Pompeo then demanded that plans be made for Assange’s kidnapping or assassination. The report is based on information from more than 30 US sources. Pompeo and the CIA declined to comment.

These sources, former senior US officials, explain that the US manhunt for Assange escalated significantly after the publication of the “Vault 7” leaks in March 2017, exposing intimate details of espionage operations of the CIA. Three sources said that plans had been discussed to kill the founder of WikiLeaks, Trump had reportedly asked the agency for “options” on how this could be done. CIA chiefs have apparently requested and received “sketches” of assassination plans and discussions have taken place on “whether killing Assange was possible and whether it was legal,” according to a source.

Plans for Assange’s kidnapping, in the event of a Russian-backed escape from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where Assange had sought asylum, included the ramming of a Russian diplomatic vehicle, shootings with Russian agents on the streets of London and, lastly, a seaside resort, pulling the tires of any Russian aircraft attempting to transport Assange out of the country. A senior official said Yahoo that Britain agreed “to fire if gunshots were necessary.”

YahooEcuador’s investigation confirms and significantly expands allegations, which are the subject of an ongoing legal case in Spain, that the company UC Global, which provided security for the Ecuadorian embassy in London, has worked with the CIA to spy on Assange and discussed his kidnapping and assassination.

There is nothing less surprising in the existence of plans for Assange’s murder. American imperialism has sent its professional assassins all over the world to protect its interests for decades. Assange’s plot is reminiscent of the 1976 murder of Chilean dissident Orlando Letelier, whose car blew up in Washington DC, just one mile from the White House. Organized by Augusto Pinochet’s secret police, the murder was facilitated by US intelligence as part of Operation Condor, although this has always been denied.

What is new today is the less and less guarded nature of the violence and repression of the ruling class. Plots once organized by accomplices, kept secret and fiercely denied, are now carried out in an increasingly open manner.

The acknowledged murder and dismemberment of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, at the Saudi consulate in Turkey in 2018 by agents of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has elicited only the most symbolic “condemnation” from the American and British governments.

A little over a week ago, the New York Times glorified in the US-Israeli assassination of Iranian physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Assange’s own murder was widely discussed shortly after the Iraq and Afghanistan war diaries and American diplomatic cables leaked. In 2012, WikiLeaks produced a video, titled “Assassinating Assange,” collating death threats made against him by prominent figures over the previous two years.

Fox News commentators called on the then Obama administration to “illegally shoot the son of ab ****,” “get the CIA out of him,” and say, “If we catch you, we are going to hang you “. Former Republican House President Newt Gingrich said Assange had “engaged in terrorism” and “should be treated as an enemy combatant.” He agreed with then-vice president Joe Biden, who called Assange a “high-tech terrorist.” Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is said to have asked privately, “Can’t we just drone this guy?” “

There is no doubt that high-level discussions regarding the possible assassination of Assange took place under Obama. Sunday’s revelations demonstrate that the Trump administration, in response to continued WikiLeaks publications causing serious damage to US imperialism and an explosion of domestic class tensions, has increasingly recklessly sought to achieve this goal. Moreover, their leak from so many sources must be linked to the escalation of factional warfare in ruling circles over Trump’s January 6 coup plot.

The British state’s close involvement in these plans highlights District Judge Vanessa Baraitser’s surprise Jan. 4 ruling that Assange should not be extradited to the United States because of the “substantial risk” of his death. suicide. The ruling was challenged by the United States, which in August obtained expanded grounds to appeal the ruling at a High Court hearing scheduled for October 27-28.

Clearly, the type of “suicide” Baraitser had in mind was a state-orchestrated murder. Assange’s pseudo-legal pursuit was an incidental operation to the mission to kill or capture discussed by the CIA. Once Assange is in the hands of the US prison system, he could face a fate similar to that of Jeffrey Epstein, who allegedly hanged himself in his cell in August 2019 before being called to testify in a sex trafficking case involving dozens of the most powerful. personalities of American society.

Aware of this plot, the British ruling class evidently felt they had not denied enough in January for such a blatant murder of a journalist whose imprisonment they oversaw for the past decade. However, all the measures taken by the British justice since the initial refusal of extradition have been in favor of the American government. By pursuing the case, the British state is knowingly complicit in an ongoing plot to assassinate or silence Assange forever.

The world’s media are also complicit, especially the “liberals” Guardian in the UK and New York Times in the USA. At the time of writing, neither had even reported the Yahoo News revelations.

Although they belatedly feel compelled to express their opposition to Assange’s extradition, these newspapers continue to do everything in their power to mask all the implications of a case which reveals the total and unreformable criminality of the American, British and world imperialism. They described the extradition process as a case of misguided excess on the part of embarrassed governments, which should be dismissed by a smarter justice system.

These latest exhibitions destroy this fraud. The only conclusion to be drawn is that Assange’s extradition must be dropped immediately. The United States does not even have the formal right to request his extradition – under British law no one can be extradited to a country where he faces the death penalty – and the United Kingdom does not have the right to extradite him. right to hear his case. Both governments are complicit in kidnapping and assassination plots against him.

These facts alone offer no guarantee for Assange’s safety. In his decision against the extradition, Baraitser said of the defense evidence on UC Global and CIA surveillance that “there is no reason to assume that this relates to these proceedings” and that “the fruits of any surveillance would not be perceived by the prosecutors assigned to the case. ”

Baraitser’s statement proves that there is no purely judicial path to Assange’s freedom. What is needed is the building of a mass international movement, rooted in the working class.

Building such a movement requires a complete rejection of calls made by those like the official Don’t Extradite Assange campaign to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President Joe Biden and even, when he was President, to Trump. All of these characters, along with their intelligence chiefs and deputies, are involved in a plot to kill the founder of WikiLeaks. The struggle to free Assange is linked to the struggle to put these imperialist gangsters in the dock in his place.

[ad_2]

Share.

Leave A Reply