As Ecuador funded a multi-million dollar effort to protect Wikileaks founder Julian Assange during his stay in the country’s London embassy, Assange returned the favor by hacking into the embassy’s communications system, the Guardian reported Tuesday.
According to a new Guardian report outlining the details of the spy operation designed to protect Assange, the Wikileaks founder’s hack allowed him to intercept professional and personal communications of the embassy staff and set up his own satellite internet. The Ecuadorian embassy was warned of Assange’s behavior in 2014 by a surveillance company that was hired to film Assange’s interaction with visitors.
Assange has been living at the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012 to avoid extradition by the Swedish government, where he was wanted for sexual assault. Those charges were dropped in May 2017, according to the Guardian. Assange is still living at the embassy because he is wanted for jumping bail in the United Kingdom, but longtime loyalist Rafael Correa, who was Ecuadorian president from 2007 to 2017, recently said Assange’s days of protection are “numbered.”
Assange is also hiding out to avoid the U.S. government extraditing and charging him with crimes related to his 2010 Wikileaks case, when he published a series of leaks of classified military information provided by Chelsea Manning.
Read the Guardian’s full report here.
Uh, makes sense. Assuming his most altruistic motives, he’s either for the utmost open government or a borderline anarchist working against large governments. So assuming the best, this action makes utter sense. Assuming the worst, this action still makes utter sense.
Ecuador IT, on the other hand, needs some work.
When is this m-fer’s 15 minutes of fame over?
Ecuador needs to boot his ass out. There’s no argument here for government openness. He was simply spying on the people who have been beyond gracious to him, who’ve done back flips to protect him. He’s an asshole, and he needs to face the music like everyone else.
Hey, how come the #metwo berniebrats aren’t telling assange to go away?
If the right people knew about this and let him keep playing so they could watch, this could turn out just fine.