Will the U.S. Try to Arrest Julian Assange?

Throughout 2016, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks heroically provided conservatives with much ammunition to use in the epic battle against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

First, there were leaks of emails between staffers at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) that showed instances of “pay-for-play” and unethical connections with Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Then came the damning emails from Clinton’s campaign itself, such as those showing the difference between Clinton when she spoke in private to big banks and when when she gave televised speeches.

For a while, it seemed as if WikiLeaks was reporting juicy headlines undermining the globalist agenda every other week. It was one of the high points of comedy during Hillary Clinton’s long and ultimately unsuccessful bid for the White House.

But today, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may not be laughing as current CIA Director Mike Pompeo has labeled his operation “a non-state hostile intelligence service.” Pompeo has indicated he may seek the arrest and/or extradition of Assange to the United States. The WikiLeaks founder is already wanted for questioning in regards to alleged sex crimes in Sweden, but many observers say these charges are falsified allegation to turn the tide against Assange.

As it stands, Assange has been living in refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in London for the past five years, protected by that nation’s government while he’s worked with global associates to release hundreds of thousands of documents that have been damaging to many Western governments and intelligence agencies.

Most recently, WikiLeaks released “Vault 7,” which detailed hacking tools and computer exploits in use by the CIA. This followed revelations that the CIA has spied on everyday Americans — not just terror suspects — using computers, cellphones and even smart televisions and cars.

Based on WikiLeaks’ information, it would appear that average Americans have only a shred of true privacy left in their lives, especially if they make use of smartphones, fitness trackers, smart car technology and other mobile devices.

While many Americans would say that WikiLeaks’ exposure of diplomatic secrets may have overstepped the bounds of investigative propriety, it’s hard to find a U.S. citizen who thinks it’s not a bad idea to know more his or her government’s domestic surveillance.

According to the CIA, this valuable information came from an “insider” within its ranks, rather than from Russian sources, as previous hacking information has been suspected to have originated with. Still, Director Pompeo believes WikiLeaks has strong connections to Vladimir Putin’s regime.

“It’s time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is: a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia,” claimed Pompeo in a speech at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Assange tweeted that it was amusing WikiLeaks was “called a ‘non-state intelligence service’ today by the ‘state non-intelligence agency’ [the CIA] which produced al-Qaeda, ISIS, Iraq, Iran and [Chilean dictator Augusto] Pinochet.”

To his credit, Assange has a strong case to make that the agency has covertly funded both ISIS and al-Qaeda, and was responsible for the creation of many treacherous dictatorships around the world, including those of Pinochet, the Shah of Iran, Guatemalan strongman Castillo Armas and long-ruling Indonesian general Suharto.

In the Washington Post, Assange further defended his organization’s actions, claiming his group was no different from news agencies such as the Post or The New York Times.

“Quite simply, our motive is identical to that claimed by the New York Times and the Washington Post — to publish newsworthy content. Consistent with the U.S. Constitution, we publish material that we can confirm to be true, irrespective of whether sources came by that truth legally or have the right to release it to the media,” Assange wrote.

During Barack Obama’s presidency, Justice Department officials such as Attorney General Eric Holder believed it would be difficult to charge Assange with crimes because other news sources such as the Times also published the same material that WikiLeaks released.

This included documents stolen by Army Specialist Chelsea Manning, who was jailed for much of the tenure of the Obama administration. DOJ officials investigated Assange, but any potential charges were put aside.

But now, CNN has reported that current Attorney General Jeff Sessions may be moving forward with the case.

Sessions recently spoke out about investigating and charging those responsible for leaks Trump administration and its predecessors.

“We’ve already begun to step up our efforts, and whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail,” Sessions said. “We have professionals that have been in the security business of the United States for many years that are shocked by the number of leaks, and some of them are quite serious.”

Of course, all of this is ironic, given that as recently as 2016, both Director Pompeo and President Trump himself had praise for WikiLeaks, with then-candidate Trump saying “I love WikiLeaks” in a speech in October of last year.

Whether the government will press ahead with this matter in the coming weeks or months isn’t certain. But for Assange, such charges may only be symbolic, as his status at the Ecuadorian embassy seems secure — for now.

However, that isn’t to say the U.S. government isn’t capable of applying pressure to the Ecuadorians.

The issue may come down to how high a priority the case is for the Trump administration — and whether there would be an outcry from American citizens, who might feel that an organization like WikiLeaks may be one of the only things standing in the way between themselves and a totalitarian government.

~ American Liberty Report


Most Popular

These content links are provided by Content.ad. Both Content.ad and the web site upon which the links are displayed may receive compensation when readers click on these links. Some of the content you are redirected to may be sponsored content. View our privacy policy here.

To learn how you can use Content.ad to drive visitors to your content or add this service to your site, please contact us at [email protected].

Family-Friendly Content

Website owners select the type of content that appears in our units. However, if you would like to ensure that Content.ad always displays family-friendly content on this device, regardless of what site you are on, check the option below. Learn More



Most Popular
Sponsored Content

These content links are provided by Content.ad. Both Content.ad and the web site upon which the links are displayed may receive compensation when readers click on these links. Some of the content you are redirected to may be sponsored content. View our privacy policy here.

To learn how you can use Content.ad to drive visitors to your content or add this service to your site, please contact us at [email protected].

Family-Friendly Content

Website owners select the type of content that appears in our units. However, if you would like to ensure that Content.ad always displays family-friendly content on this device, regardless of what site you are on, check the option below. Learn More