Is Ecuador America's new enemy number one? President Correa could come under attack
The Unites States relationships with Latin American countries have been largely bittersweet, especially since the Cold War created a national enemy out of Cubas Fidel Castro. Since retiring from that post, Hugo Chavez has succeeded Castro by fulfilling the position of the United States Latin American scapegoat. Now battling cancer, Chavez may soon find another Latin American president becoming Americas arch enemy. In the last few years, President Rafael Correa has come to fruition as a Latin American leader that is not only encouraging change in his country of Ecuador, but is being subjected to increased scrutiny from the US by his refusal to side with American agendas.
As Assange awaits Ecuadors response to his request for asylum, the future of the famed WikiLeaks leader isnt the only question left unknown. Pending Ecuadors answer, the United States might very well use it as an excuse to go after Correa.
I love and admire the American people a great deal. Believe me, the last thing Id be is anti-American. However, i will always call a spade a spade, Correa told Assange during a recent episode of the his television program on RT. And if there are international US policies that are detrimental to our country, or even to that of Latin America, I will denounce them strongly. And I will never, ever allow my countrys sovereignty to be affected by them.
Relating to the US, ours is always been a relationship based on affection and friendship, says Correa. The bond between the two nations, however, is once that must rely on mutual respect and sovereignty, he adds.
Although the United States and Ecuador were allies during the early days of the Correa administration, the two countries have been at odds in recent years over Americas insistence on pushing policy south of their own border. In response, Correa has insisted on abolishing funding the US embassy provided to Ecuadorian law enforcement and led a campaign to successfully close Americas military base in the city of Manta, one of the largest air fields operated by the United States outside of the continental US.
Its not a problem to set up a US base in Ecuador, Correa tells Assange. We can give the go ahead as long as we are granted permission to set up an Ecuadorian military base in Miami. If its not an issue, they should agree.
Relations between the countries have only worsened in the last year after a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks revealed that the United States ambassador to Ecuador was critical of the Correa administration, prompting the president to remove her from the role.
She was a woman totally against our government, Correa tells Assange. A woman of extreme right wing views that still lived in the Cold War of the 1960s. According to the cables released by WikiLeaks, Correa says the former ambassador wrote that her own Ecuadorian contacts told her that the chief of the national police was corrupt and that surely I had given him that post knowing he was corrupt so that I could control him.
According to Correa, reform is necessary in Latin America, especially in Ecuador where he believes that money is influencing politics to a degree that isnt being brought to attention outside of the countrys borders. His agitation with oil companies has irritated the US in the past, but now his campaign against the banking giants that own the Ecuadorian media is causing a stir as well. Correa has praised WikiLeaks for letting the world know the true intentions of secret governments, and says that he salutes them because he has nothing to lose through another leak.
Those that dont owe anything have nothing to fear, says the president. We have nothing to hide. Your WikiLeaks has made us stronger.
That same stance, however, has been the impetus behind Americas attack on Assange and WikiLeaks. Correa says that Ecuadors media was and probably is greater than the political power, and that WikiLeaks is instrumental in informing the rest of the world that, as he puts it, the big voters, the powerful legislators, the mighty judges, that have set the media agenda; this way they have subdued government, presidents and courts.
As America continues to find a way to fly Assange to the states to prosecute him for his role in leaking classified documents, the behind-the-scenes war between the US and Ecuador may soon heat up. And as Correa is expected to come to power as the most important name in Latin American politics, it wouldnt be unlikely that the US will be looking for reasons to rally against Ecuador.
Originally published: http://rt.com/usa/news/correa-assange-us-latin-318/
TheWraith
(24,331 posts)Including an imaginary intent by the US to prosecute Assange when--guess what--the US isn't trying to extradite him or press charges of any kind.
clang1
(884 posts)Why don't you people quit your lies? Or do you live in some other reality than the rest of us?
Leaked Stratfor Email Suggests Secret U.S. Indictment of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange
democracynow.org The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has published an internal email from the private intelligence firm Stratfor that suggests the U.S. Justice Department has obtained a sealed indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The email is one of around five million obtained from Stratfor's servers by the hacker group, Anonymous. "Somehow you have a private intelligence company, Stratfor, 'shadow CIA' as people have called it, having information about this sealed indictment, secret again, that Julian Assange does not have, that Wikileaks does not have, that his lawyers do not have," says Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who is a legal advisor to both Assange and to WikiLeaks. "What you see is secrecy, secrecy, secrecy." News of the indictment comes less than a week after Army Private Bradley Manning was arraigned for allegedly leaking classified U.S. military and State Department documents to WikiLeaks.
To watch the complete daily, independent news hour, read the transcript, download the podcast, and for additional Democracy Now! reports on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, please visit http://www.democracynow.org/topics/wikileaks
clang1
(884 posts)It's alllll just CONspiracies huh.
geefloyd46
(1,939 posts)In 135 different countries would want anything but peaceful attention. What the US wants is for everyone to have ice cream and puppies for everyone. Before the Iraq war the US nearly had the Iraq surrounded with military bases in other countries and some kooks who believe in CONspiracies actually believed we were going to war with Iraq but we all knew what nonsense that was. In fact Cheney's energy task force had already divided up the oil fields but we all know that that was just a wonderful parlor game the vice president was paying with his oily friends. We know differently. In that I include Bradly Manning who disappeared off the face of the earth but I think he did that just to fool us.
clang1
(884 posts)It's all ice cream and puppies. Who gave the Manning torture orders? It wasn't that jackoff running the brig in VA. I would like to know where the orders came from for the dehumanization regime they put Manning through.
clang1
(884 posts)WikiLeaks began exposing more than 5 million emails apparently obtained in a hack of Stratfor. The emails, dated between July 2004 and late December 2011, give a glimpse into how Stratfor gathers confidential information from paid insiders, including senior state officials, and provides it to large corporations and US government agencies.
Whats inside the indictment?
It is unclear if Stratfor really possesses the indictment against Assange, as the company refuses to give any detailed comments on the recent leak of its email database, only saying the leak was a deplorable, unfortunate and illegal breach of privacy.
The US Department of Justice is also refusing to comment on whether anyone has been charged in the sealed indictment, journalists from rawstory.com reported after contacting DOJ officials.
Currently, the US wants Assange to testify against Manning, a former US soldier who is charged with espionage and aiding the enemy. But it is quite possible that Assange would face the same charges should he come face to face with American justice.On February 27, WikiLeaks began exposing more than 5 million emails apparently obtained in a hack of Stratfor. The emails, dated between July 2004 and late December 2011, give a glimpse into how Stratfor gathers confidential information from paid insiders, including senior state officials, and provides it to large corporations and US government agencies.
Assange is appealing his extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning in relation to sexual assault allegations. Sweden, however, has a bilateral agreement with the US on extradition procedures if sent to Sweden, Assange could swiftly end up in a US court.
US prosecutors insist they can prove Mannings connection to Assange and WikiLeaks, but so far all the evidence seems to be inferential. The investigation refers to the soldiers chat logs in which Manning discussed WikiLeaks and called himself an informant.
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We all know what this means:
Currently, the US wants Assange to testify against Manning, a former US soldier who is charged with espionage and aiding the enemy. But it is quite possible that Assange would face the same charges should he come face to face with American justice.
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http://www.rt.com/news/assange-fbi-julian-us-991/
Assange guests grilled: Is FBI collecting evidence for indictment?
Just RANDOM SHIT follows, nothing to see, move along....
The Cypherpunks episode of The Julian Assange Show has not even premiered on RT, but a pot of trouble is already boiling and Jeremy Zimmerman, a co-founder of cyber freedoms group La Quadrature du Net, has got a taste of it.
Jeremy Zimmerman was detained on his way from the US to France after filming the episode of Assanges show, during which he was interviewed with two other Cypherpunks movement activists.
Zimmerman was grabbed by self-identified FBI agents, reports the WikiLeaks whistleblowing website. After that he spent several hours in quite another sort of the interview. The officers asked him about various details regarding Julian Assange. When he asked about his rights, the cyber activist was threatened with arrest and imprisonment.
We have confirmed US authorities have this week detained and interrogated multiple Europeans about Assange, reads the WikiLeaks Tweet.
Smari McCarthy, a co-founder and board member of the Icelandic Digital Freedoms Society, has also been stopped while entering the US, the source adds. McCarthy was approached by three US officials in Washington DC, and asked to become an informer.
At the moment McCarthys whereabouts are unknown, though he maintains communication with the Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir.
In earlier incidents, Nabeel Rajab, a Bahraini human rights activist, was beaten up at Bahrains international airport on his return from Lebanon in April. Then he was detained for half a day.
The Bahraini authorities have not commented on the reasons behind the arrest, but it took place directly after Rajab appeared on Episode 4 of The Julian Assange Show. In the episode, Rajab said that on the same day he announced on his Twitter account that he was going to appear on RT his house was surrounded by almost 100 policemen armed with machine guns but luckily he was not there at the time.
Fears are high these are not random incidents, but that evidence against Julian Assange is already being collected in the US. American senators and top officials have repeatedly accused the scandal-stirring whistleblower of espionage and terrorism, some even saying he should be tried by a court martial and sentenced to death.
Following the UK Supreme Court ruling last week that Assange should be extradited to Sweden, where he is to be interviewed about sex crime allegations, the concern is that the Scandinavian country will not be his final destination and that he will then be extradited to the US, where he might well face indictment before a grand jury.
I mean even down to this: When he asked about his rights, the cyber activist was threatened with arrest and imprisonment.
Good God how can it all not be more obvious.
geefloyd46
(1,939 posts)That renditions people to other country who then tortures them. Who picks people up in other countries to take them there. Sets up their own private prison system in other countries. Demands the right to start wars in the name of defense. Conducts drone attacks inside other countries legal boundaries. Who would think that country would want to close a spigot of information that has actively been working at passing along its secrets?