SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the They-wouldn't-do-THAT...-would-they? dept.
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
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:26AM (3 children)
and many people accept that the US wants to lock him up, or worse, that he should be locked up..
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 29 2021, @11:08AM (2 children)
The whole "treason: punishable by death" thing should be long outmoded, especially when it is such a grey area deciding who is the treasonous party and who is the hero champion of the national laws and spirit.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 29 2021, @01:59PM
There can be no treason in Assange's case. He is not American. He owes America no loyalty.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @02:03PM
You can see that the framers of the constitution were already concerned by an abuse of the term "treason".