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CIA Developed Plans to Kidnap or Kill Julian Assange, Per Report

posted by martyb on Tuesday September 28 2021, @08:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the They-wouldn't-do-THAT...-would-they? dept.

takyon writes:

CIA developed plans to kidnap Julian Assange, per report

The Trump administration's CIA actively developed plans to kidnap or assassinate Wikileaks founder Julian Assange during his seclusion in London's Ecuadorian embassy, according to a detailed new report from Yahoo News. Scenarios included abducting Assange from the embassy, intercepting a Russian effort to extract him, or an outright assassination attempt. While none of the operations were ever approved, they paint an alarming portrait of intelligence agencies' ongoing obsession with Wikileaks and its controversial founder.

As sources, Yahoo cites conversations with more than 30 former US officials. Among those, eight provided details on plans to kidnap Assange.

The report mostly details operations developed during the Trump administration, which placed fewer restraints on the CIA and was less troubled by the implications of launching direct operations against a figure many saw as a journalist. The issue became particularly heated in March of 2017, when Wikileaks published a catalog of hacking tools developed by the CIA. After that, "WikiLeaks was a complete obsession of Pompeo's," a source told Yahoo.

Also at The Guardian and The Hill.

Previously: Wikileaks and CIA Hacking Tools -- Security Firms Assess Impact as Tech Companies Offered Access

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Tork on Tuesday September 28 2021, @10:21PM

    by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 28 2021, @10:21PM (#1182467)

    Of course, Snopes and all the rest of the Dem-aligned "fact checkers" deny it ever happened.

    https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/julian-assange-drone-strike/ [snopes.com].

    Snopes doesn't deny it, just says says "unproven" with some specifics of the context and how they arrived there. In short there is an email exchange that's about the topic at hand but is missing the 'drone' quip. In other words, she didn't say it on the record... which we already knew because there's not a damn thing preventing evidence of that from being posted ANYWHERE on the internet. However...

    On 4 October 2016 Clinton answered a question about whether the rumor was accurate, responding that she didn’t “recall any joke … [reference to targeting Assange with a drone] would have been a joke”

    That's a wimpy ass "denial" on both Snopes' AND Clinton's part if you ask me. Hell I did a better job supporting your point WITH Snopes than you did by automatically ignoring it. Heh.

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