Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy where he continues to seek asylum following an extradition request from Sweden in 2012, on February 5, 2016 in London, England. (Getty)
The government of Ecuador has admitted to severing the internet connection of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange to prevent him from interfering in the presidential election, and WikiLeaks is blaming John Kerry.
In a statement, the Ecuadorian government, which has granted asylum to Assange in its London embassy for years, says “The Government of Ecuador respects the principle of non-intervention in the affairs of other countries, it does not interfere in electoral processes in progress or support a candidate in particular.”
The government said its foreign policy “responds only to sovereign decisions and not yield to pressure from other states.”
Read the statement in full here:
WikiLeaks has blamed U.S. Secretary of State Kerry, saying “the request was made on the sidelines of a visit by Kerry and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa last month to Colombia to show their support for a peace deal with leftist rebels,” The Associated Press says.
The State Department denies that allegation and “Correa’s leftist government said it was acting on its own and not ceding to foreign pressures,” said AP.
The AP quoted State Department Spokesman John Kirby as saying: “While our concerns about Wikileaks are longstanding, any suggestion that Secretary Kerry or the State Department were involved in shutting down Wikileaks is false.”
BREAKING: Multiple US sources tell us John Kerry asked Ecuador to stop Assange from publishing Clinton docs during FARC peace negotiations.
The John Kerry private meeting with Ecuador was made on the sidelines of the negotiations which took place pricipally on Sep 26 in Colombia.
WikiLeaks had sparked a flurry on the internet when it announced early Monday morning on Twitter that Julian Assange’s internet connection was “intentionally severed.”
(Getty)
The dramatic claim increased rumors that had already sparked due to strange encrypted tweets WikiLeaks posted earlier in the day. The organization had not identified the party that severed the internet connection of Assange.
The decision by Ecuador comes as WikiLeaks continues to release batches of damaging information about Hillary Clinton from the hacked emails of her campaign’s chairman, John Podesta. The Clinton campaign has labeled the hacking akin to a modern “Watergate,” and has blamed the Russians, which WikiLeaks denies.
The Hill reported that WikiLeaks and Assange were poised to unleash even more hacked documents into the U.S. election, writing: “Between now and Election Day on November 8, WikiLeaks is expected to release more than 40,000 more emails about Clinton,” perhaps in batches released almost every day.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. (Getty)
WikiLeaks had tweeted previously that it had activated contingency plans.
Julian Assange’s internet link has been intentionally severed by a state party. We have activated the appropriate contingency plans.
WikiLeaks did not elaborate, although the tweet sparked an immediate flurry of conspiracy theories on the internet.
Earlier in the day, WikiLeaks posted a series of strange tweets that appeared to be in encrypted code. That led some to speculate that Assange is dead, said Gizmodo, but there was no evidence of that, although the internet was awash with people theorizing the “pre-commitment” codes were a “deadman’s switch.” Gizmodo said it appeared the codes were designed to prove the hacked documents were not altered before they were posted.
The Daily Caller says the odd tweets reference Ecuador, US Secretary of State John Kerry and the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Here are the encrypted tweets:
pre-commitment 3: UK FCO f33a6de5c627e3270ed3e02f62cd0c857467a780cf6123d2172d80d02a072f74
pre-commitment 2: Ecuador
eae5c9b064ed649ba468f0800abf8b56ae5cfe355b93b1ce90a1b92a48a9ab72
pre-commitment 1: John Kerry 4bb96075acadc3d80b5ac872874c3037a386f4f595fe99e687439aabd0219809
WikiLeaks has also not explained those tweets further.
For the last few days, the organization has been posting a slew of emails and documents hacked from the account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
The Clinton campaign has not confirmed or denied the authenticity of the documents, which have contained a string of revelations, including the full transcripts of several of Clinton’s Goldman Sachs speeches.
Here are some of WikiLeaks’ recent postings:
New WikiLeaks emails show influence of Univision chairman in Clinton campaign t.co/pCfvwcMVTP
CNN falsely states that it unlawful for the public–but not for CNN–to search WikiLeaks #PodestaEmails
The WikiLeaks site has been posting damaging hacked information about Clinton and Democrats for months.
