The Guardian Kept Silence on Espionage against Assange
4 Min Read
The Guardian, Uk based newspaper, kept milking the company that was supposed to protect Assange for information without notifying the victim.
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Outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, supporters of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange hold banners during a protest (Source: Reuters)
In a report published by Mint Press News, The Guardian newspaper is accused of being aware of alleged surveillance on Julian Assange by a CIA-connected security business, namely UC global.
The incident happened long before it became public knowledge and instead of publishing the espionage, the newspaper pumped the company for information, in what the report called a "serious journalistic malpractice in its coverage of Julian Assange."
UC global is currently on trial in Spain for its alleged role in spying on Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on behalf of the CIA.
The report asks questions about Guardian correspondent Stephanie Kirchgaessner's knowledge of the ongoing relationship between UC Global, Sheldon Adelson, and the Ecuadorian Embassy security operation in 2018 since it was not mentioned in the newspapers reporting at that time.
According to Mintpress, a Guardian journalist asked a source at UC Global for a transcript of a conversation between Assange and Rommy Vallejo, the then-head of Ecuador's National Intelligence Secretariat, commonly known as Senain, in November 2018.
"They even created a Dropbox link to send it – they took the data, cut the conversation, and sent it to Morales,” said Aitor Martinez, a lawyer who oversaw Ecuador’s effort to grant Assange diplomatic protection referring to UC global's CEO David Morales.
Three years on from the explosive Julian Assange/Paul Manafort story, we question whether the Guardian has honored its stated commitment to the truth.
— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) November 27, 2021
by @jmcevoy_2 & @pablonav1 https://t.co/Bp8N7sX4R2
In December 2017, Vallejo paid a visit to the embassy to discuss the practicalities of Assange's probable relocation to a third nation with him. Aitor Martinez, who managed Ecuador's attempt to transport Assange out of the embassy under diplomatic protection, validated the story to Mintpress. It said Martinez listed countries that Ecuador should approach: China, Serbia, Greece, Bolivia, Venezuela or Cuba."
The lawyer stated that the Assange team did not consider Russia to be an appropriate destination because of the apparent Russiagate repercussions. When Ecuador's Foreign Ministry tried to nominate Assange as a diplomat to Russian, his lawyers rejected, calling the plan "crazy."
According to Mintpress, Kirchgaessner, the Guardian journalist, knew UC Global was spying on Assange and recording his most private discussions since she requested a transcript. Rather than informing the public about this, the publication advanced a false narrative that Assange's staff was working with Russia to illicitly exit the embassy, while a plan for a legitimate get-out plan was already undergoing according to the investigation.
Mintpress asked The Guardian a series of questions about their coverage of Assange, including if it relied on shaky sources to push the Russiagate story while ignoring counter-evidence. According to the report, the newspaper did not comment on the article before it was published.
Author with concealed identity
Mintpress claims that only two authors are listed on the web version of the Guardian's Manafort story: Luke Harding and Dan Collyns.
However, WikiLeaks reported in early December 2018 that the Guardian had "mysteriously" hidden the identity of the third author of the fabricated front-page story, Ecuadorian political activist and writer Fernando Villavicencio.
The Ecuadorian government blamed Villavicencio in 2014 for reportedly feeding The Guardian fake documents linked to a $1 billion "deal with a Chinese bank to drill for oil under the Yasuni national park in the Amazon."
Mintpress then proceeds to ask a question about why Fernando Villavicencio, still not listed on the Guardian's website to this day, and about the reason to which he was chosen to cover Assange as a reputable journalist in the first place.
