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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: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 29 2021, @01:57PM (2 children)
Yes, and this is the kind of thing that has gotten many talking about the "Deep State," that which transcends and controls both political parties in the US. It's the military industrial complex that wants to kill Assange, and the politicians are just along for the ride.
People across the political spectrum see the same force at work. They have different names for it, and have even been conditioned tribally to be triggered by the names the other tribe uses, but they're all talking about the same force. It's a bit like Christians scoffing at the term "Allah" while the Muslims scoff at "God," even though they're all talking about the same deity.
I hope that one day, after the Deep State (or whatever term you prefer) has been smashed, we can build a monument somewhere with Assange, Snowden, and possibly Binney on it to remind future generations. They are heroes of our age.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 30 2021, @06:37PM (1 child)
There's definitely a Deep State and its reach is not just the USA. To me this was one of the incidents that can help give others an inkling of how deep and wide at minimum it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident [wikipedia.org]
This was a really big incident. They forced a president's plane down and for what? They certainly don't bother doing such stuff for the many murderers and child rapists around.
So why did they go that far?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 30 2021, @06:40PM
Compare and contrast with: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/airlines-shun-belarus-opposition-leader-says-journalist-tortured-2021-05-25/ [reuters.com]