Ecuador: We have 'temporarily restricted' Assange's internet

[Independent voter]

Well that solves that. They put Assange on a nanny filter.

But evidence of mutual suspicion with his hosts surfaced after BuzzFeed News drew on leaked documents to detail tensions between Assange and Ecuadorean embassy staff.

In targeting Clinton, Assange may have run afoul of Correa's own preference for the Democratic candidate





http://bigstory.ap.org/article/6f997...ed-state-actor

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador's government acknowledged on Tuesday that it cut off WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's internet access at its embassy in London after the whistleblowing site published a trove of damaging emails from Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

The foreign ministry said that while it stands by its 2012 decision to grant Assange asylum based on legitimate concerns he faces political persecution, it respects other nations' sovereignty and doesn't interfere or support any candidate in foreign elections.

"The decision to make this information public is the exclusive responsibility of the WikiLeaks organization," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The recognition of the reprimand comes less than 24 hours after WikiLeaks tweeted that Ecuador had cut off Assange's access to the Internet on Saturday after the publication of Clinton's speeches to Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs.


In follow-up messages posted Tuesday, the group claimed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had personally intervened to ask Ecuador to stop Assange from publishing documents about Clinton. Citing "multiple US sources," WikiLeaks said the request was made on the sidelines of a visit by Kerry and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa last month to Colombia to show their support for a peace deal with leftist rebels.

The State Department denied the allegation and Correa's leftist government said it was acting on its own and not ceding to foreign pressures. The foreign ministry didn't specify the extent of the "temporary restrictions" on Assange, saying only that they wouldn't affect WikiLeaks' ability to carry out its journalistic activities.

"While our concerns about Wikileaks are longstanding, any suggestion that Secretary Kerry or the State Department were involved in shutting down Wikileaks is false," U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said in an email. Speaking to reporters later, deputy spokesman Mark Toner said Kerry never even raised the issue or met with Correa during his visit to Colombia.

"There just was no meeting," he said. "They didn't discuss any of this stuff."

Assange has been holed up at the modest embassy suite at No. 3 Hans Crescent for more than four years after skipping bail to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex crimes allegations, a position which — until now — hasn't prevented him from continuing to play a pivotal role in exposing state secrets and backroom trade deals.

WikiLeaks said unspecified "contingency plans" were in place and the site and its Twitter feed appeared to be working as usual. On Tuesday it released another tranche of emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, suggesting that the group's ability to publish has yet to be compromised.

The disclosure was the 11th installation in a series of leaks that have captured the workings of Clinton's inner circle. Those leaks themselves are part of a wider cascade that have embarrassed the Democratic Party and which the American intelligence community has recently described as an attempt by the Russian government to interfere in the U.S. election.

Staff at WikiLeaks and the embassy either declined comment or didn't return messages.

Assange fled to the Ecuadorean Embassy on June 19, 2012, after a drawn-out and ultimately unsuccessful legal battle to being sent to Sweden, where he remains wanted over an allegation of rape. Ecuador granted him asylum, but British authorities have made clear they would arrest him if he tried to leave. London's Metropolitan Police used to maintain a visible presence outside the building, although officers were nowhere in sight when an AP journalist visited on Tuesday.

Assange has carved out a life at Hans Crescent, dining on delivered food, welcoming famous well-wishers and even occasionally addressing the media from the embassy's balcony. On Saturday, former television star Pamela Anderson paid a visit.

But evidence of mutual suspicion with his hosts surfaced after BuzzFeed News drew on leaked documents to detail tensions between Assange and Ecuadorean embassy staff.

In targeting Clinton, Assange may have run afoul of Correa's own preference for the Democratic candidate and a renewed effort to repair strained relations with Washington. The president recently said that while a Trump victory would energize Latin Americans to reject overhanded U.S. policies in the world much in the way George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq did he personally would like to see Clinton prevail.

"For the good of the United States and the world, and for my personal appreciation of her, I'd like to see Hillary win," he told the Moscow-backed RT broadcaster last month.

Assange isn't likely to submit to the internet ban quietly. Over the weekend WikiLeaks released three lines of code it described as "pre-commitments," labeling them "John Kerry," ''Ecuador," and "FCO" — an apparent reference to Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Pre-commitments are cryptographic functions that can be used to verify the integrity of material released subsequently.

Thomas White, a U.K.-based security researcher and transparency activist, saw the posts as a warning to the named parties that WikiLeaks had ammunition in reserve if Ecuadorean authorities "do not continue to offer him political asylum."

___

Joshua Goodman in Bogota, Colombia, Matt Lee in Washington and Alastair Grant in London contributed to this report. Satter reported from Paris.

[TrumpIsPresident]

Anddddd this is why the world needs Blockstack.

[The Penguin]

Ecuador: We were told by Obama and Kerry to fall into line for Hillary or we would be crushed.

Meanwhile Wikileaks will simply keep dropping Leaks regardless of what they want.

[Deleted]

Ecuador: We were told by Obama and Kerry to fall into line for Hillary or we would be crushed.

Meanwhile Wikileaks will simply keep dropping Leaks regardless of what they want.

Not really, the reasoning is solid. If he starting to be what is considered hostile towards another nation on their soil it's expected to solve it if you want to have any form of relations.
Seeing as US is probably their biggest import/export market one mans crusade means little when we are talking billions upon billions of $

[Vorkreist]

Not really, the reasoning is solid. If he starting to be what is considered hostile towards another nation

Hes not hostile towards another nation. Hes just exposing what a total criminal Hillary is. I'd say its a great service to US.

[TrumpIsPresident]

Not really, the reasoning is solid. If he starting to be what is considered hostile towards another nation on their soil it's expected to solve it if you want to have any form of relations.
Seeing as US is probably their biggest import/export market one mans crusade means little when we are talking billions upon billions of $

$100 says that eventually there will be a FOIA report showing US involvement in this decision in the form of pressure to silence Assange.

Now it's not like there's going to be anything plainly stating "hey we need to shut this guy up because the facts are hurting Hillary", but its pretty obvious that's the motivation here.

[Deleted]

Hes not hostile towards another nation. Hes just exposing what a total criminal Hillary is. I'd say its a great service to US.

He is hostile by meddling with the election. I'm very certain Edcuador as a nation doesn't want Trump to win seeing his policies.

[Blade Wolf]

He is hostile by meddling with the election. I'm very certain Edcuador as a nation doesn't want Trump to win seeing his policies.

How is he meddling with the election? Wikileaks are showing what Hillary really thinks and what her actual stance on things are and that is something people should know.

[Vorkreist]

He is hostile by meddling with the election. I'm very certain Edcuador as a nation doesn't want Trump to win seeing his policies.

So people shouldn't know that Hillary is a criminal. Got it.

[Deleted]

How is he meddling with the election? Wikileaks are showing what Hillary really thinks and what her actual stance on things are and that is something people should know.

Doesn not change the fact that he is meddling by releasing hacked/classified information.

And he's already considered a criminal by the US so of course they will pressure Ecuador. This is politics 101.

- - - Updated - - -

So people shouldn't know that Hillary is a criminal. Got it.

I don''t care about Hillary and i don't give a shit about Trump but it doesnt change the fact that this is basic politics.

Do you honestly think Ecudador would risk around 10 billion $ in trade just for a mans right to have internet access ? He's still safe there, they've broken no rules.

It's a pretty poor nation with alot of their trade going to the US.
Why wouldnt the US pressure them ?

[Cerilis]

How is he meddling with the election? Wikileaks are showing what Hillary really thinks and what her actual stance on things are and that is something people should know.

Do they also show Trump's emails and what he really thinks? ^^"

Also, is it just me seeing the hypocrisy between whistleblowing the spying on emails, and spying and publishing emails themselves?

[DarkAmbient]

If the information Assange is leaking is 'interfering' with the election, then surely by trying to prevent the spread of that information they too are guilty of interfering with the election?

[The Penguin]

Do they also show Trump's emails and what he really thinks? ^^

Are we crying foul about the illegality of viewing the emails that are being leaked? Pot meet Kettle. Hi Kettle.

[caervek]

Not really, the reasoning is solid. If he starting to be what is considered hostile towards another nation on their soil it's expected to solve it if you want to have any form of relations.

Indeed, there's a difference between seeking sanctuary in their embassy and using it as a base to attack nations they are friends with.

[Machismo]

How is he meddling with the election? Wikileaks are showing what Hillary really thinks and what her actual stance on things are and that is something people should know.

He has set the timeline for release specifically based off of the American election cycle.

[Cerilis]

Are we crying foul about the illegality of viewing the emails that are being leaked? Pot meet Kettle. Hi Kettle.

What? All I was saying, illegality aside, if they want to do the american public a favour by showing "the truth" (whatever that means) behind one candidate, they should do the same for the other. And release their own private emails, too, while we are at it, to show their pure intentions.

And that's not even considering the insolence thinking they are the official medium to do that, and the possibility to alter the results fitting their bias.

[Blade Wolf]

Do they also show Trump's emails and what he really thinks? ^^"

Also, is it just me seeing the hypocrisy between whistleblowing the spying on emails, and spying and publishing emails themselves?

People are free to leak trumps emails if they had any value to begin with, all they seem to care about is what he says about vaginas.

[Aggrophobic]

So people shouldn't know that Hillary is a criminal. Got it.

She's not though.

[May90]

Ecuador: We were told by Obama and Kerry to fall into line for Hillary or we would be crushed.

Is there some upper limit to the implausibility of a conspiracy theory for you guys? I suppose the answer is no. Even when people are being tortured in North Korea, you conspiracy folks will always find a way to connect Obama and Kerry to that!

[caervek]

She's not though.

A criminal is defined as a person who has committed a crime, she committed crimes as the FBI attested too, she just isn't being prosecuted for them.