sexual harassment
Never Forget | “Journalists, lawyers claim CIA spied on them during Assange visit” | The Hill
Four journalists and attorneys who visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in asylum filed a lawsuit against the CIA and its then-director Mike Pompeo on Monday for allegedly partnering with a private security firm that illegally recorded them and copied their data during the visits.
The lawsuit — which also names the private security firm, UC Global, and its founder, David Morales, as defendants — alleges the surveillance program violated their Fourth Amendment protections against illegal searches and seizures when they visited Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
British authorities later arrested Assange and have ordered his extradition to the U.S., where he faces 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse for helping steal and later publishing classified military documents. Assange appealed the extradition ruling last month.
For years, Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy to avoid trial and met with a number of visitors.
The suit states the two lawyers and two journalists named as plaintiffs were required to leave their devices with a security guard at the reception desk as a condition for visiting Assange, and that UC Global, which the embassy contracted to provide security for the facility and Assange, copied the data and later gave it to the CIA.
“While the named Plaintiffs initiate this action, the practices complained of violate the rights of well over 100 American citizens who visited Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, England,” the suit states, adding that the stolen data included confidential information from lawyers, journalists and doctors.
The suit alleges Pompeo personally approved the program, which also included hidden microphones inside the embassy. Pompeo later went on to serve as secretary of state in the Trump administration and is rumored to be considering a run for president in 2024.
Pompeo had called WikiLeaks a “non-state hostile intelligence service” in his first major public appearance as CIA director and described Assange as a “fraud” and “coward.” The agency under Pompeo also reportedly considered kidnapping or assassinating Assange.
The Hill has reached out to the CIA and Pompeo’s political action committee for comment.
“The conduct by the government was outrageous and inappropriate, which violated the most profound privacy rights of the plaintiffs and others who visited Assange in the embassy,” Richard Roth, the plaintiffs’ attorney, told The Hill.
“To make matters worse, many of the conversations were absolutely privileged and confidential in nature, in that the plaintiffs are journalists and attorneys who went there to visit their clients,” he said.
Many of the allegations were published in 2019 by El País. The newspaper reported Spain’s High Court was investigating UC Global, a Spanish company, and Morales after Assange himself filed a criminal complaint in the country alleging bribery and violations of client-attorney privilege and Assange’s privacy.
The lawsuit filed Monday alleges UC Global was connected with the CIA when it was providing security to the embassy after Morales attended a convention in Las Vegas, Nev.
Security personnel employed by Las Vegas Sands, which at the time owned the Venetian, the Palazzo and the nearby Sands Expo, recruited Morales to conduct surveillance on behalf of the CIA in early 2017, according to the lawsuit.
Court documents allege Las Vegas Sands, which was founded by GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, had previously cooperated with the CIA on “similar matters.”
Las Vegas Sands declined to comment.
Journalists, lawyers claim CIA spied on them during Assange visit | The Hill
Never Forget | “Julian Assange supporters demanding his release will hold vigils across London today” | Daily Mail
Julian Assange supporters demanding his release will hold vigils across London today to mark two years since WikiLeaks founder was imprisoned after being dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy
- Assange, 49, was dragged out of Ecuadorian embassy in London two years ago
- Supporters demanding his release will join events on Sunday outside embassy
- Assange lived there for seven years before being removed on April 11, 2019
Assange, 49, was dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London after seeking refuge there for seven years
Vigils are set to be held this weekend to mark the second anniversary of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange being detained in prison.
Assange, 49, was dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London after seeking refuge there for seven years.
Supporters demanding his release will join events on Sunday outside the embassy, at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, and at Belmarsh prison in London where he is being held.
Assange lived inside the embassy for several years before being forcibly removed and arrested by police on April 11, 2019.
Julian Assange supporters demanding his release will hold vigils across London today | Daily Mail
Julian Assange | “WikiLeaks founder’s family brings campaign to Mexico” | The New York Post
Assange’s family hopes the Mexican government can put in a word to the United States to cancel the upcoming extradition of the WikiLeaks founder.
AP
MEXICO CITY (AP) — This week the objective was to insert mention of Julian Assange into a meeting between Mexico’s president and the United States’ top diplomat. Next week, it will be to have Australia’s prime minister bring it up with the U.S. president at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.
The efforts are part of the campaign by John Shipton, father of the WikiLeaks founder, to find allies and convince the U.S. to drop espionage charges against Assange, who remains in a British prison awaiting extradition to the U.S.
The journey by the septuagenarian Australian architect together with another son, Gabriel, brought them this week to Mexico. The country has become the family’s main ally in Latin America since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador offered Assange political asylum and called for the U.S. to allow him to seek refuge there.
“We call President López Obrador an ice-breaker,” because afterward the leaders of Chile, Colombia and Bolivia called for his release too, Gabriel Shipton said during the visit to Mexico. Among a packed scheduled of events, John Shipton received the key to the capital Wednesday on behalf of Assange, a ceremonial honor the city bestows on distinguished guests. The day before, he addressed Mexico’s Senate.
WikiLeaks founder’s family brings campaign to Mexico | The New York Post
Never Forget | “Graham Phillips: British Reporter Is Exiled and Has His Banking Accounts Frozen for Telling the Truth” | Niall McCrae
Guest post by Niall McCrae
An unremarkable Turkish café-takeaway in London, with its slowly turning rolls of doner lamb and chicken, was a strange setting for the meeting. Graham Phillips, a YouTube journalist, had organised a fund-raising event at a hall in Islington, seeking contributions for a drone and other equipment. He had briefly returned from the Donbas region of Ukraine, where the government was using military force to suppress an alleged separatist movement. This was an untold story in Western mainstream media, and Phillips wanted to do more than basic recordings with his mobile phone. He also wanted to encourage others to come out to Donetsk, where he was based, to see and share the reality.
However, Ukrainian nationalists heard about this, and the hall owner cancelled the booking. A sign on the door redirected people to a nearby pub, where Phillips was intending to use the function room. This too was stopped when the landlord received threats. And so those who remained gathered in the kebab shop. It was a mixed crowd: Eurosceptics, Stop the War activists, Russian emigrants – and possibly MI6. Phillips began his address, showing photographs of dead or injured civilians, but was heckled by a smartly-dressed man shouting: ‘those people are terrorists’. Phillips demanded that he leave, and the two adversaries almost came to fisticuffs until they were separated by my friend and others.
This was back in 2015, when Phillips was already a thorn in the side to the Russophobic establishment. He has spent years with the Donetsk people’s militia, men (and some women) who took up arms against their oppressors, having military experience from conscription in their youth, or defectors from the Ukrainian army.
Phillips earned respect from his hosts for his bravery in reportage, accompanying fighters as bullets whizzed past. He was on the frontline of the Battle of Debaltseve, a vital road and rail junction where government troops were forced to retreat after three weeks of street fighting, with heavy losses on both sides.
When the Kiev government broke the Minsk accords in 2014 and 2015, the West did nothing. It was not until this year that Putin’s patience finally ran out. By then, about fourteen thousand had died in the uneven conflict. Aware of a coming offensive by the heavily armed Ukrainian forces, the Russians moved into the Donbas, supported by the resistance in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.
Phillips, like his American counterpart Patrick Lancaster, filmed the scenes and interviewed citizens which Western media failed to cover. If you took the BBC for the truth, you wouldn’t know that Russian soldiers are treated as saviours by residents of cities such as Mariupol and Sevierodonetsk, Showing the trail of destruction after its retreat, Phillips accused the Ukrainian army of war crimes: civilians who tried to evacuate were beaten by the Azov Battalion who blocked all exit roads with destroyed cars (this video was deleted by YouTube).
Here is video of Graham Phillips in Ukraine discussing his persecution in the UK.
When British mercenary Aiden Aslin was captured and prosecuted by the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, British media cried foul. When Phillips interviewed the prisoner (with his consent) Tory ministers accused him of a war crime. The Geneva Convention, as they should know, does not apply to mercenaries, who are fair game for captors. In July the UK government included Phillips in its sanctions against Russia and perceived accomplices.
By contrast to other enemies of the state, Phillips has had it easy. Unlike Julian Assange and Tommy Robinson, also persecuted for speaking truth to power, he was abroad and untouchable. Instead, Liz Truss’ would-be war office at Westminster froze his assets and blocked his bank account. This is a radical and dangerous development in our political and social history, although it was given limited attention on mainstream media, apart from outspoken Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens.
‘Freedom for all means freedom for nasty people’ was the title of the article, although this would not have been of Hitchens’ choosing. Giving credit where it’s due, Hitchens explained the implications of being deprived of access to a bank account. Phillips cannot pay bills, utility supply to his London home will be cut, bailiffs will be buzzing around, and any damage to his property cannot be repaired. His insurance will be annulled. Phillips, if he wanted to challenge his plight in court, could not pay for the air fare – although that’s probably for the best. If he returned he would surely be arrested at Heathrow and thrown into prison without trial.
On YouTube, Phillips remarked on his extra-judicial punishment, and the bypassing of a system of justice built over centuries on the foundations of Magna Carta, as ‘Kafkaesque’.
As Hitchens noted, Phillips has committed no crime. The government’s justification was that he is ‘a video blogger who has produced and promoted content that supports and promotes actions and policies which destabilise Ukraine and undermine or throttle the territorial integrity, sovereignty, or independence of Ukraine.’ The last three years have woken many of us up to the sobering realisation that the law is an instrument of the state to use against inconvenient people. And if the law doesn’t work, another tool may be found, in this case sanctions against a foreign power. Expect more people to be denied access to their savings, because this is a slippery slope.
The post Graham Phillips: British Reporter Is Exiled and Has His Banking Accounts Frozen for Telling the Truth appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Never Forget | “Goldman Sachs Teams Up with Google’s ‘Director of Regime Change’ to Influence Global Politics” | Breitbart
Goldman Sachs has hired Jared Cohen, a former Google executive nicknamed the “director of regime change” by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, for a new project that will use technology to advance the notoriously powerful investment bank’s policy goals around the world. Cohen was also a senior official in Hillary Clinton’s state department who will now manage “shifts in the geopolitical landscape” for the financial giant.
Never Forget | “FBI Raids DC Home of Oleg Deripaska, Chris Steele’s Former Employer and Central Player in Corrupt FBI Operation Against Donald Trump | Conservative Treehouse
irst things first. I feel the need to apologize to Mr. Deripaska. It is an unfortunate situation to see Oleg Deripaska receiving the Julian Assange treatment. Yes, that is exactly what is happening today as the institutionally corrupt FBI and DOJ attempt to throw a bag over Deripaska, in order to cover up their previous operations.
That said, Oleg Deripaska is not stupid, he knows these players and knows exactly what game the corrupt U.S. officials are playing. It was transparently obvious over the past few days that something was happening in the background. The Fourth Branch of Government, intelligence apparatus, Dept of Justice, FBI, and media enablers -writ large- began conducting an information warfare operation.
It is not coincidental: (1) the collective media apparatus brought Chris Steele out of hiding for an ABC interview with George Stephanopoulos, and a rehabilitation of his Dossier effort; then (2) the intelligence apparatus began scrubbing the Dossier from public downloads; then (3) the FBI apparatus notifies the media in advance and shows up to raid the home of a central participant in the Dossier story line. There are no coincidences of this connective scale.
This is a full-blown propaganda operation carried out by the DC-based Fourth Branch of Government. These moves indicate a likelihood that John Durham is almost finished with the spray paint operation. Remember, Lisa Monaco is Deputy AG, and John Carlin is back in the DOJ-NSD position. Both of them participated in the illegal weaponization and political surveillance operations against candidate Trump (that involved Deripaska), and both are now central to the ongoing clean-up and cover-up operation.
DC is a horrible and abusive vehicle; rusted to the core with metastatic corruption. Bill Barr was the bondo application and John Durham is the spray paint. The clear objective is to cover-up the corruption from public view and giving Oleg Deripaska the Julian Assange treatment is one part of that process. The FBI is to Washington DC what the FSB represents to Moscow.
Today, FBI agents from DC’s main office as well as Washington Field Office (WFO) raided the home of Russian Billionaire Oleg Deripaska. This move comes just 36 hours after CTH outlined the risk that Deripaska represents to all of the corrupt DC officials who participated in the Trump-Russia attack scheme. {Go Deep}
VIA NBC – FBI agents on Tuesday swarmed the home of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in Washington, D.C., an agency spokesperson confirmed to NBC News.
The reason for their presence wasn’t immediately clear. The spokesperson said the agency is conducting “law enforcement activity at the home,” but wouldn’t elaborate.
The investigation is being led by federal investigators in New York City, according to two officials briefed on the matter. (read more)
The FBI told news outlets what they were doing in advance so the cameras could be present as part of the operation (similar to the Roger Stone raid). Unfortunately, most news consumers cannot see the script and performance that underpins the corrupt motive.
Never Forget | “Mitch McConnell Promises To Defend Biden Against Impeachment” | National File
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell yesterday promised to shield Joe Biden from a push for impeachment, telling reporters that the wildly unpopular Biden regime is here to stay despite a disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal that saw 13 American soldiers killed and the Taliban armed with billions of dollars in United States military equipment.
“Well, look, the president is not going to be removed from office,” said McConnell, who was asked if he would support a push for impeachment over the Afghanistan withdrawal. “There isn’t going to be an impeachment,” he added. McConnell then suggested Biden’s performance would result in establishment Republicans making big gains in the 2022 midterm elections, and described the soaring unpopularity of Biden as “buyer’s remorse.”
Despite being friendly with Democrats by advancing Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill that would see drivers taxed per mile, supporting anti-gun, pro-Antifa Attorney General Merrick Garland when he was appointed by Biden. and publicly accusing President Donald Trump of inciting violence on January 6 and suggesting a criminal investigation – even though he voted to acquit him – McConnell has gained few friends on the left.
As National File previously reported, some on the left believe McConnell stole his 2020 Senate reelection using the same type of fraud that many say resulted in Joe Biden winning the presidential election. McConnell also remains a bogeyman to leftists on Twitter, who blame him for the Supreme Court refusing to stop a Texas law that bans abortions after six weeks.
At the same time, McConnell has soured his relationship with the Republican base. As President Trump highlighted earlier this year, McConnell has extensive family ties to China that enriched him heavily. His wife, Elaine Chao, is the daughter of shipping magnets James and Ruth Chao, and the sister of businesswoman Angela Chao, who was appointed to a position on the Bank of China’s board of directors in 2016. He inherited $30 million after the death of Ruth, who owned a shipping titan that, while nominally based in the United States, worked almost exclusively with China and never flew the United States flag while sailing.
Following a lengthy public feud with President Donald Trump that began in the days following the 2020 election, with McConnell at one point allegedly blackmailing the 45th President, using the threat of impeachment to influence his pardons, McConnell was not invited to CPAC in 2021. President Trump has bashed McConnell repeatedly, blaming him for the narrow loss of the Senate in 2021, and referring to him as a “dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack” who does not deserve the respect he receives in Washington, D.C. McConnell became so unpopular after betraying President Trump that one county in Kentucky demanded his resignation.
At one point this year, the relationship became so sour that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went to Florida to visit with President Trump and urge him to end his feud with the establishment Republican leader. Graham is widely seen as McConnell’s logical replacement by the establishment, and McConnell is reportedly working on an exit strategy with the Kentucky Republican Party that would allow him to retire before the end of his term.
Mitch McConnell Promises To Defend Biden Against Impeachment | National File
Never Forget | “How Journalists Helped Promote the Steele Dossier” | Truth Over News
One of the primary promoters of the Steele dossier recently came out with yet another Trump–Russia collusion story. This time, Luke Harding claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered a secret operation to support a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Harding has a long history of promoting baseless Russia collusion theories. Harding broke the story that Trump’s National Security Adviser Gen. Michael Flynn had had an affair with a Russian spy. He also claimed that Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort had visited Julian Assange multiple times. And Harding alleged that the Kremlin had a Russian intelligence officer at the heart of Trump’s campaign. Welcome to Truth over News with Jeff Carlson and Hans Mahncke. . . .
How Journalists Helped Promote the Steele Dossier | Truth Over News
Bannon’s War Room | Episode 2228 | Evening Edition | Recorded October 14, 2022 | Video: 48 Minutes 58 Seconds
Episode 2228: The Attack On Children: From The Medical Board To The School Board.
Nightly News Rebroadcast | October 14, 2022 | Video: 28 Minutes 53 Seconds
The Justice Department on Oct. 14 officially appealed the appointment of the special master who is overseeing the review of documents seized at Mar-a-Lago. Parents at a crowded school board meeting in Michigan voiced their opinion on whether sexually explicit books should be available to children in school libraries and classrooms.