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Former diplomat challenges 'fake' Guardian claims about Julian Assange meeting Paul Manafort
The Canary previously reported on criticisms from WikiLeaks and others which stressed that Guardian claims about [former Trump campaign manager Paul] Manafort meeting Assange in 2013, 2015 and March 2016 were false.
WikiLeaks said it was preparing to sue the Guardian on the matter. And Manafort is also considering legal action, saying this story is "totally false and deliberately libellous".
Narváez was initially consul and then first secretary at the Ecuadorian Embassy from 2010 to July 2018. He has now told The Canary that, to his knowledge, Manafort made no visits at any time during that period. He insisted:
"It is impossible for any visitor to enter the embassy without going through very strict protocols and leaving a clear record: obtaining written approval from the ambassador, registering with security personnel, and leaving a copy of ID. The embassy is the most surveilled on Earth; not only are there cameras positioned on neighbouring buildings recording every visitor, but inside the building every movement is recorded with CCTV cameras, 24/7. In fact, security personnel have always spied on Julian and his visitors. It is simply not possible that Manafort visited the embassy."
takyon: Paul Manafort did, however, speak to the Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno about the potential removal of Julian Assange from the embassy in London:
The President of Ecuador spoke with Paul Manafort about his desire to remove Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, a Manafort spokesperson confirmed Monday. "When Mr. Manafort met with President Moreno of Ecuador to discuss the China Development Fund, the president raised with Mr. Manafort his desire to remove Julian Assange from Ecuador's embassy," Jason Maloni, a Manafort spokesman, told CNN in a statement. "Mr. Manafort listened but made no promises as this was ancillary to the purpose of the meeting," Maloni's statement added. "There was no mention of Russia at the meeting."
The New York Times was first to report that President Lenin Moreno and his aides had expressed their desire to have Assange leave the embassy in at least two meetings with Manafort in exchange for concessions from the US like debt relief, citing three people familiar with the talks. Assange has been holed up at the Ecuadorian embassy, since 2012.
See also: Manafort denies ever meeting with Assange
Did Someone Plant a Story Tying Paul Manafort to Julian Assange?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @06:07PM (9 children)
Put him in a diplomatic bag. Unless the UK is willing to show the world that it does not respect diplomatic bags, that'll do the job.
If desired, it could be tested first. Send a bunch of people back and forth.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @06:13PM (2 children)
The Saudis can tell you where to get diplomatic bags that are large enough.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday December 06 2018, @06:41PM
I'm quite sure you can get them from the morgue. Pretty sure he wouldn't want to be taken out like that, though. Though, at this point, if he could get out to a non-extraditing country, I'm sure he would be happy with that. It's one thing to be a permanent guest in a country, it's an entirely different thing for them to have to help house you indefinitely.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Friday December 07 2018, @03:30PM
on a really sad point, there was a UK spook who was found "dead in a bag" and they ruled he zipped himself up and dumped himself as well.
In short, the powers that be will not let truth escape and we live in a time of ultimate cognitive dissonance.
Essentially we have a multivariate media truth distribution where the probability of something being true is 1
The median is what you see on all the headlines all the time. Consider 3 days of news (and a day of postal work time), bled into the world for the natural death of a president.
Sad yes. Worth 3 days of new cycles when the current world is as precarious as it currently is? No.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @07:39PM (1 child)
The US should back off from pursuing Assange. He has caused far less damage than the Chinese stealing all the IP they can lay hands on and more, the Indians stealing all the jobs off to 4Rp/hr outsource centers in India, or the CN/RU hacking on Americans and the rest of the "free" world. Far less damage, let the man live his life. Spanish Inquisition for speaking up about what is going on? Are we out of the 1500's yet?
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Thursday December 06 2018, @09:56PM
It isn't speaking his mind. It is providing assistance to someone hacking.
Not saying it wouldn't be a marginal prosecution for several reasons anyway, but it does look like he committed a real crime in there.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @07:50PM (2 children)
If Austria was willing to violate diplomatic protections on Bolivia's plane, you can bet your balls that Britain will do it with an Ecuadorian embassy car.
They all cower in fear of America, a failed state internally, but with a military that can flush torrents of terrorists into their countries.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @01:19AM (1 child)
The answer to that one is "mayday, fuel emergency, must proceed directly to avoid running out before Bolivia" and just go. What are they going to do, shoot the plane down?
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Friday December 07 2018, @05:29PM
Well.. I don't think the USA likes Evo Morales much either..
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday December 07 2018, @01:52AM
Allegedly it is how soviets were transporting the embassy encryption man. He would be shipped inside diplomatic mail and he would not know for sure where he actually works. Yes, he could guess the country by contents of the messages, but this could have been continuation of his training right in Moscow.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.