London – The U.S. Justice Department has charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with conspiring with Chelsea Manning to break into a classified government computer.
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The charge was announced Thursday after Assange was taken into custody in London in connection with a U.S. extradition request, as well as for breaching U.K. bail conditions in 2012.
His lawyer has previously said that Assange planned to fight any U.S. charges against him.
The indictment accuses Assange of assisting Manning, a former U.S. intelligence analyst, in cracking a password that helped Manning infiltrate Pentagon computers.
Ecuador’s government says that as part of its decision to expel Julian Assange from its embassy in London, it has withdrawn the Ecuadorian citizenship he was granted last year in a failed attempt to end the activist’s tumultuous stay at its diplomatic mission.
Ecuador also accused supporters of WikiLeaks and two Russian hackers of attempting to destabilize their country.
Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo said in Quito a close collaborator of WikiLeaks had traveled with former Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino this year to several countries, including Peru, Spain and Venezuela, in an attempt to undermine the government. She did not identify the individual but said their name, as well as two Russian hackers working in Ecuador, would be turned over to judicial authorities in the coming hours.
I suspect this fellow will never worry about what to have for breakfast ever again.
I agree with Paulin Saudi; this time, there won’t be any Obama around to commute this thief’s sentence (as was the case with Chelsea Manning). Whereas Assange may have beaten the rape charges against him, he is not going to beat this charge. The UK will extradite him to the USA. If he ever gets out of jail, which is unlikely, Ecuador will be waiting for him, to charge him. As Ronald Reagan once stated “you may run, but you can’t hide”.
Whether you view him as a scoundrel or hero, I think all agree that he not stupid. I’m betting he’s squirreled away some juicy , embarrassing or even illegal dirt on lots of high ranking officials in different country’s as an insurance policy