Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, is no longer a free man.
After holing up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years, the U.S. Justice Department has finally managed to get Julian Assange into custody…
They finally did it. After 7 years, Ecuador has expelled Julian Assange from its embassy and he is now in the custody of British police. This does not reflect well on Western society and the sacrosanct principles of classical liberalism. #freespeech #wikileaks #freeassange pic.twitter.com/tDweyiXUKq
— H.M. So (@AuthorHMSO) April 11, 2019
The Charges
The Justice Department has been after Assange for almost a decade.
Assange allegedly helped Chelsea Manning crack the password of a classified U.S. government computer in 2010.
According to the U.S. Justice Department, Assange conspired with Manning to break into a U.S. Defense Department computer that was connected to a government network.
Manning then transferred a treasure trove of documents to Wikileaks.
Assange then posted the documents online via the website.
The Justice Department stated, “During the conspiracy, Manning and Assange engaged in real-time discussions regarding Manning’s transmission of classified records to Assange.
“The discussions also reflect Assange actively encouraging Manning to provide more information.
“During an exchange, Manning told Assange that ‘after this upload, that’s all I really have left.’ To which Assange replied, ‘curious eyes never run dry in my experience.’”
Ecuador President Lenin Moreno also released a statement trying to explain the reasoning behind turning Assange over to authorities:
“Today, I announce that the discourteous and aggressive behavior of Mr. Julian Assange, the hostile and threatening declarations of its allied organization, against Ecuador, and especially the transgression of international treaties, have led the situation to a point where the asylum of Mr. Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable.”
Translation: Assange said some bad things about us, so we turned him over the police.
International Reaction
The look for both the United States and Ecuador at this point is not very good internationally.
Here are just a few of the tweets that were sent out as Assange’s arrest was made public:
BREAKING NEWS
Julian Assange has just been arrested by UK Police inside the Ecuadorian embassy. They removed him from the embassy into a police van.
Our fight for his freedom kicks into high gear. We must protect truth-tellers or we may never learn the truth again. #FreeAssange
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) April 11, 2019
BREAKING NEWS
Julian Assange has just been arrested by UK Police inside the Ecuadorian embassy. They removed him from the embassy into a police van.
Our fight for his freedom kicks into high gear. We must protect truth-tellers or we may never learn the truth again. #FreeAssange
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) April 11, 2019
NBC News made the decision to hire a team of former military & intelligence officials to “report” & “analyze” the news – starting with the highly compromised ex-CIA DIrector now on its payroll – and as a result the have full-on fascists & authoritarians saying things like this: pic.twitter.com/d3jm10ut4a
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 11, 2019
While there was outrage, there were also those that broke it down from a pure legal aspect…
Julian Assange is no hero and no one is above the law. He has hidden from the truth for years. Thank you Ecuador and President @Lenin Moreno for your cooperation with @foreignoffice to ensure Assange faces justice
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) April 11, 2019
The mixed feelings over this arrest will no doubt permeate the country.
After all, Wikileaks was responsible for exposing Hillary Clinton.
However, Assange also clearly broke the law in working with Manning by hacking into Defense Department computers.
Is Assange a journalist protected by the freedom of the press or is he just a glorified hacker?
I guess we will all find out very soon as this plays out in both the legal court system and the court of public opinion.
Read the full report on Fox News.
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