Swedish Programmer With Ties To Wikileaks Arrested In Ecuador

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-12/swedish-programmer-ties-wikileaks-arrested-ecuador

A Swedish programmer with purported ties to Wikileaks has been arrested at a Quito airport while trying to board a flight to Japan, as the government of President Lenin Moreno cracks down on the organization founded by Assange, part of its efforts to discredit the organization that recently exposed Moreno for his involvement in a corruption scandal involving offshore accounts.

According to the Associated Press, the individual has been identified as Ola Blini, who described himself in a blog post as a software developer working in Quito for the Center for Digital Autonomy, a group based in Ecuador and Spain involved advocacy related to digital security and privacy.

Before his arrest, Blini noted on his twitter account that María Paula Romo, the Ecuadorian minister of the interior, had announced that there were Russian hackers living in Ecuador and that the government was planning to apprehend them.

To justify the arrest, Romo alleged that the individual or individuals in question had sought to destabilize the government of President Lenin Moreno and that they would be arrested to disrupt what she called a "blackmail ring."

In a series of tweets published shortly before he was arrested, Blini said Romo's description sounded "like a witch hunt."

Afterward, Romo said the individual believed to be Blini "has been detained simply for investigation purposes," she said, adding that he had taken foreign trips with former Ecuadorean foreign minister Ricardo Patino, who gave political asylum to Assange in 2012.

"We have sufficient evidence that he was collaborating in attempts to destabilize the government," Romo insisted.

Blini had retweeted tweets about the arrest of Assange earlier in the day and had apparently been following the situation. Assange was arrested inside the Ecuadorian embassy where he had been hiding under asylum protection for seven years after Ecuador revoked his asylum and cancelled his citizenship.

Vijay Prashad, who runs a Marxist publishing house based in India and told the AP that he was a "close friend" of Bini, said Bini is "the last person who would ever be involved in an attempt overthrow a government."

Prashad said he saw Bini a few months ago in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and that he didn't know whether Bini was involved with Wikileaks or Assange - though he said he believed Bini's work as a privacy advocate was being unfairly equated with Wikileaks and Assange.

Hillary Clinton shows signature style as she chuckles over Assange’s arrest

Hillary Clinton didn't hold back her glee at the arrest of Julian Assange, mocking both the publisher who she blames for her failed presidential run and the man she lost to in a single "we came, we saw, he died"-level one-liner.

“I do think it's a little ironic that he may be the only foreigner that this administration would welcome to the United States,” Clinton quipped onstage at a speaking event in New York, chuckling at her own wit and basking in the audience's mirth.

The former First Lady and failed presidential candidate was asked about the Wikileaks founder's arrest during the talk – which also included her husband – by moderator (and former Clinton staffer) Paul Begala, who set the stage by quipping that it “couldn't happen to a nicer guy” after reminding Clinton that she “had some familiarity with the work of Mr. Assange” to audience guffaws.

While Clinton had promised her audience before the talk not to mention President Donald Trump by name – a trick she stole from former president Barack Obama – she had no problem making excuses for his government's actions.

“It is clear from the indictment that came out that it's not about punishing journalism, it's about assisting the hacking of the military computer to steal information from the US government,” she admonished. “The bottom line is that he has to answer for what he has done, at least as it's been charged.”

Clinton infamously delivered the line “We came, we saw, he died” in reference to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was brutally murdered during the NATO invasion of Libya that was one of the highlights of her tenure as Obama’s secretary of state.

WikiLeaks published thousands of incriminating and embarrassing private email messages stolen from former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta and the Democratic National Committee in the run-up to the 2016 election, exposing extensive corruption and malfeasance on the part of the Clinton campaign. Many – including Clinton herself – believe the leak cost her the election.

While Assange faces extradition to the US on charges he conspired with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning to hack into a Pentagon computer in 2010 – charges totally unrelated to the 2016 DNC and Podesta leaks – Clinton clearly believes the later leaks are a more serious crime. The DNC – which the leaked emails revealed she controls financially – filed a lawsuit against WikiLeaks last year, accusing the publisher of colluding with Russia and the Trump campaign to "undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency" – but never denying the emails' contents were genuine.

https://www.rt.com/news/456301-hillary-clinton-jokes-assange-arrest/