Fmr CIA Director Summoned by Judge Over Claims US Plotted ‘At Highest Level’ to Execute Julian Assange
Last year, media reported that US officials had allegedly discussed the possibility of assassinating Julian Assange during his stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2017. The alleged plot presupposed kidnapping the WikiLeaks founder from the diplomatic mission or capturing him if he tried to escape.
Mike Pompeo, the former US secretary of state, has been summoned by a Spanish court to testify over claims the US had plotted “at the highest level” to assassinate WikiLeaks whistleblower Julian Assange, reported The Telegraph.
Judge Pedraz had sent a request to US authorities to call Pompeo as a witness, a spokesman for Spain’s National Court was cited by The Telegraph as saying, adding that, “There has been no reply as yet.”
Judge Santiago Pedraz, of Spain’s National Court, is leading a probe into whether Spanish security firm UC Global spied on Assange while providing security for the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
The Australian citizen had sought refuge at the embassy in 2012 in order to avoid extradition to Sweden on rape charges, which he denies. The whistleblower remained there until April 2019, when Ecuador’s new government revoked his asylum.
Lawyers representing Assange in Spain, including the former judge Baltasar Garzón, have accused Washington of “orchestrating” the espionage effort targeting the whistleblower. The claim that UC Global placed microphones and cameras in the embassy to spy on Assange’s private conversations and meetings.
The legal moves involving Mike Pompeo come as part of a petition filed by Aitor Martínez, one of the lawyers representing Assange in the proceedings against UC Global. In addition to summoning Pompeo, Judge Pedraz is also seeking to question William Evanina, a former US counterintelligence official who is said to have confessed to viewing security camera footage and audio recordings from inside the Ecuadorian Embassy.
‘Vengeance on Assange’
Last November Yahoo News had claimed that senior CIA and then-president Donald Trump administration officials had discussed at the “highest levels” the possibility of kidnapping or killing Julian Assange, who was then holed up at Ecuador’s embassy in London.
Mike Pompeo, who was the director of the CIA under republican POTUS Donald Trump from 2017 to 2018, “wanted vengeance on Assange”, according to one cited former national security official. The furious reaction was said to have been triggered by the publication by WikiLeaks of documents known as Vault 7. The leak – deplored as “the largest data loss in CIA history” -revealed how the CIA would hack Apple and Android mobile phones in overseas spying operations.
https://thefreethoughtproject.com/fmr-cia-director-summoned-by-judge-over-claims-us-plotted-at-highest-level-to-execute-julian-assange/