Slashdot Mirror


WikiLeaks: Ecuador Cut Off Assange's Internet Access (bbc.com)

Following a report from WikiLeaks claiming that its co-founder's internet service was intentionally cut off by a state actor, the anti-secrecy organization released a statement confirming the state actor was Ecuador. WikiLeaks tweeted: "We can confirm Ecuador cut off Assange's internet access Saturday, 5pm GMT, shortly after publication of Clinton's Goldman Sachs speechs." BBC reports: There was no way to immediately verify if he had been knocked offline, and if so, what was Ecuador's motivation. The anti-secrecy organization did not return calls and emails on Monday, though it said in a tweet: "We have activated the appropriate contingency plans." A woman who picked up the phone at the Ecuadorean embassy said: "I cannot disclose any information." The Wikileaks claim follows the latest emails it disclosed from a hack of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's emails. It released three transcripts on Saturday of Mrs Clinton's paid speeches to Goldman Sachs, which her campaign had long refused to release. The scrips reveal her bantering relationship with the investment bank's executives, which is unlikely to allay fears among liberal Democrats that she is too cosy with Wall Street.

17 of 315 comments (clear)

  1. The Goldman talks... by Rei · · Score: 5, Insightful

    are only likely to bother people who only read Assange's carefully-chosen excerpts, rather than those who actually read them as a whole. As a whole she comes across very well in them.

    --
    The internet is not a series of tubes. It's more like a net. Or a network of computers. Or an internet.
    1. Re:The Goldman talks... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yep.

      Not a fan of Hillary, but very little in these talks seems damaging to her. Should be obvious that any good leader and speaker needs to cater speech to the audience. If anything, her intelligent and informed replies to pointed questions at these events is further evidence that she would be a much better president than Trump.

      If this is some of the worst dirt they can come up with on Clinton after her long career in Washington, either she actually is pretty clean by DC standards, or she is a master coverup artist.

    2. Re:The Goldman talks... by jcr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Nobody cares about the content of those talks, least of all anybody at Goldman Sachs. She could have stood at the lectern and read Rod McKuen poems for all they care. The issue is that the money Goldman gave her for those "speeches" are in fact bribes paid on spec, against the contingency of her getting into the white house.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    3. Re:The Goldman talks... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You goddamn shill.

      Who the hell pays anyone hundreds of thousands for a few minute talk unless it's either a) pay to play or b) payment for services already rendered?

    4. Re:The Goldman talks... by MightyMartian · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What criminal history? Every time some crime is laid at her feet, it always ends up being the fantasies of the far right of the Republican Party. You'd think she was a gangster who'd made her bones in the early 90s and now drank blood for breakfast the way people like you talk.,

      Your buying into the nonsense being repeated in your echo chamber. No one else is buying it. You're just another hyperbolic crazy on the Internet foaming at the mouth with yet another tired conspiracy theory. These attacks against the Clintons have been going on for a quarter century, and they were absurd then, now they just seem to represent some pathological psychological condition on the part of those who keep repeating it.

      What are you going to be like on November 9th? Is this your way of coping?

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    5. Re:The Goldman talks... by meglon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      http://fortune.com/2015/06/11/...

      They're speeches, just like everyone elses speeches. The real problem is you've been lied to for so long by the fascist power hungry GOP politicians that you've developed a Pavlovian response to say everything Hillary does is bad. It must suck having your head so far up your ass all the time.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    6. Re:The Goldman talks... by cold+fjord · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So what does defending bragging about sexual assault say about the Trump campaign?

      Good question. I've got a better one: What does actually raping women, silencing them through intimidation, plotting with campaign staff to attack them in the media, and coordinating with members of the media to silence, harass, and discredit those rape victims say about the Clintons and their campaign? (And that was going on for decades.) And what about Bill's many trips to pedophile island?

      As bad as Trump is, the Clintons are worse. Of course the Clintons are "Progressives" so it's all good, right?

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  2. War is coming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ecuador moved at the behest of Hillary, Kerry and pals in the US government. I have no doubt that the pressure on Ecuador is immense.
    The elites are desperate to stop Assange and his leaks. Even at this late hour, the thought that the truth might get out terrifies them enough that all agree on increasingly desperate measures.

    As the web of lies and tattered economy they have left in their wake comes undone, I have no doubt that we will see more and more extreme actions like this from our ruling elite. Today also, RT's bank accounts in the UK were unilaterally closed, again at the behest of the US government. War with Russia is being drummed up at all costs, because only a major war can save the Elites from the banquest of consequences their enraged populations have in store for them.

    Don't be naive enough to swallow the pathetic excuses the shills will render up. The US and western elites have finally moved on Assange, because he committed the most unforgivable sin of all; he made them afraid.

  3. Re:So Assange has overstayed his welcome. by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And Ecuador is not going to allow its relations with the US to be further degraded by the actual "state actor" here, namely Julian Assange.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  4. I used to think Assange was smart by presidenteloco · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But no matter what he thinks Hillary did to him, his recent actions have him in active support of Donald Trump for president of the world's largest superpower, and that's just beyond fathoming level of dumb.

    Sad to say it but I guess being cooped up must really make you neurotic after a while.

    --

    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
  5. Re:Fascinating .... by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    By all accounts, the political situation in Ecuador itself is changing, so it is very likely that the government has decided that it is no longer going to offer Assange blanket protection. That's their right, it is their embassy. In fact, Ecuador is within the rights to evict Assange if they want to. He's there at their sufferance, and if they decide he's becoming an irritant and damaging their international relations, then they have a duty to the Ecuadorian people to limit his ability to create such disturbances.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  6. Doesn't really matter how she comes off by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The real thing is so far, I haven't seen anything I didn't already know. I mean maybe some of the "bombshell" revelations are news to some people, but not to anybody who has followed Clinton for any amount of time. She's cozy with Wall St.? Oh so fucking shit, tell us something we didn't already know :P.

    Perhaps I've just missed it (I haven't gone and read everything, I've been relying on synopses provided by others) but I've seen nothing that would change my opinion, nor would I think anyone else's. Everything "revealed" was already known: She's cozy with big business, favours free trade, had the Democratic establishment behind her, etc. All the reasons why I would much prefer that Sanders was the Democratic candidate.

    However, none of it makes me think any better of Trump. Like Senator Sanders himself, I can be pragmatic about what happened.

  7. Re:So Assange has overstayed his welcome. by cold+fjord · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, Ecuador could do it. It might look something like this:

    Assange: Hello Mr. Ambassador, a pleasure to see you again.
    Amb Ortiz: Hello Julian, let me come straight to the point - you can no longer use the internet connection in the embassy. The Foreign Minister has made this decision under difficult circumstances. We are doing this so that we can continue to provide you asylum from Sweden and Britain.
    Assange: But Mr. Ambassador!
    Amb Ortiz: No buts, Julian. No more use of the embassy internet or we will show you the door, and put you outside.
    Assange: I understand Mr. Ambassador. What if I can make other arrangements?
    Amb Ortiz: That is your affair, as long as it does not make use of the embassy facilities.
    Assange: Thank you, Mr. Ambassador for your continued hospitality.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  8. Funny how everyone who doesn't like liberal by melted · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Funny how everyone who doesn't worship the liberal establishment automatically turns into "literally Hitler", and the same people who previously supported that person have a full body orgasm when they're taken down.

  9. Re:So Assange has overstayed his welcome. by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It was OK for a while, but once Wikileaks got into the pants of the DNC, Obama decided to either play hard ball, or offer them something.

    Fat chance the timing is coincidental.

  10. Re:"hacked"? by _KiTA_ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Has wikileaks ever confirmed they got the emails from a hacker? couldn't they be, lets say, leaked?

    Doesn't matter. The source only is an issue because the people screaming about it don't want to discuss the content of the leaks.

    The DNC is as corrupt as the GOP. That's the takeaway that the people who believe themselves to be the "good" guys are cognitive dissonancing themselves into a tizzy over.

    Remember, Wikileaks were heroes when they were releasing Bush era war documents. Now that they're revealing that Hillary's campaign and the DNC have been illegally taking money from foreigners and using shell companies to circumvent laws about collusion with Super PACs they're the devil working with $szCurrentRival to undermine democracy itself.

  11. Re: as bad as the government he rails against by slashrio · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think you're an idiot. Or a shill.

    --
    "Trump!!", the new Godwin.