UK’s pressure on US over leaked drops to Julian Assange

The British government is putting pressure on the United States to reveal suspects who leaked Democratic material to Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy amid renewed agitation to have Assange leave his London safe haven.

The foreign affairs select committee in Westminster discussed this week what the current Ecuadorean government is planning on doing to end the current diplomatic impasse, listing various means that have already been considered including a rooftop extraction, being smuggled out in an ambassadorial car and Assange being named the Ecuadorean United Nations representative.

The committee heard that a Russian journalist was the main suspect in probably acting on behalf of the Kremlin to bring stolen material from the United States into Britain and passed onto Assange at the embassy to influence the US presidential elections.

Conservative MP Bob Seely said about 80 people were suspects in delivering the information to Assange.

“A courier — a cut-out — was likely used to take the DNC-hacked material from the GRU, Russian military intelligence, and the Guccifer 2.0 account from Moscow to Mr Assange in London, possibly via a diplomatic pouch or a third country,’’ Mr Seely told the committee.

“Two weeks ago, James Clapper, a former director of US national intelligence, said that a suspect had been identified last year, so this is a live issue that very much relates to Russian activity in the United Kingdom and the United States.’’

Mr Seely said a German man, alleged to have worked for Assange in the past, visited the Ecuador embassy in late September, on the same day as the date stamp on the second DNC dump, which included the Podesta emails.

He said after the first dump of Democratic emails ended on May 25, a Russia Today journalist visited the Embassy twice, a four-minute visit and then a 22-minute visit.

“One cannot say much in four minutes, but there are probably other things one can do in that time,’’ Mr Seely said.

Mr Seely said there were propaganda risks to Britain depending on how Assange eventually exits the country and revealed that two Australian consular officials recently visit Mr Assange.

“I am curious as to why,’’ he said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/uks-pressure-on-us-over-leaked-drops-to-julian-assange/news-story/511ec7bd7994e092d7f84aa1ef27a405

>>1969308

Past few weeks clear in SoCal. We've gone through long stretches without any in the past but maybe, just maybe it's over?!

Giuliani, Gingrich Scheduled To Speak Before An Iranian Opposition Group, As Trump Pressures Tehran

President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and informal adviser Newt Gingrich are scheduled to speak before a controversial Iranian opposition group, Politico reports.

Giuliani and Gingrich’s address, at a conference to be held on Saturday, July 30, comes as Trump puts immense pressure on Iran, indicating movement toward outside-induced regime change in the Middle Eastern country. As Middle East Eye noted in May this year, the man running the show is John Bolton, Trump’s National Security Adviser, who has been a part of the powerful, neoconservative section of George W. Bush’s administration; an administration which has waged infamous, expensive, and regime-changing wars of its own.

After abandoning the Iran nuclear deal, the Trump administration has, according to the Wall Street Journal, driven Iranian oil exports down, boosting the fortune of Iran’s adversary and American ally, Saudi Arabia. As the WSJ further noted, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is also planning to increase oil production to a record high of nearly 11 million barrels a day, which is expected to further jeopardize Iran, a country which remains under U.S. sanctions.

Now, as tensions escalate, Trump’s close confidants, Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich, are scheduled to address the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq. Formerly considered a terrorist group, the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq is, according to Politico, the organizer of the “Free Iran” conference, to be held in Paris this weekend.

Described as a terrorist group and a cult, the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq has been, slowly but steadily, cultivating relationships with Western politicians. Their most recent targets, as Politico noted, are Giuliani, Gingrich, and Bolton. Much like other politicians, the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq has lobbied, Gingrich and Giuliani will be paid handsome speaking fees.

Their appearance at the conference, “underscores once more how some of Trump’s top surrogates are advocates of regime change in Iran,” Dartmouth University’s Daniel Benjamin and former Obama administration counter-terrorism official, told Politico.

Furthermore, the group’s efforts appear to have swayed politicians on the other end of the political spectrum. Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a Democrat, is also scheduled to speak at the event.

Former presidents, Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama, have called the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq a terrorist group, accusing it of carrying out a string of bombings, some of which had resulted in deaths of American citizens. The same group has also supported the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, Politico noted.

“Iranians don’t want to replace one regime with another,” an Iran analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Politico, referencing the lack of support for the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq among the Iranian people, even those staunchly against the current regime.

https://www.inquisitr.com/4962669/giuliani-gingrich-scheduled-to-speak-before-an-iranian-opposition-group-as-trump-pressures-tehran

>>1969619

https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/

Glomag