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Ecuador Complains Julian Assange Was a Bad Housegust, Neglected His Pet Cat (bbc.com)
The BBC reports that Ecuador's foreign minister Jose Valencia has been sharing complaints about Julian Assange's conduct during his stay in Ecuador's embassy -- for example, that Julian Assange "damaged the facilities by riding his skateboard and playing football, despite being told not to do so."
Cleaning staff, Mr Valencia said, had described "improper hygienic conduct" throughout Assange's stay, an issue that a lawyer had attributed to "stomach problems". One unnamed senior Ecuadorean official told AP news agency that other issues included "weeks without a shower" and a "dental problem born of poor hygiene". Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo then complained that Assange had been allowed to do things like "put faeces on the walls of the embassy and other behaviours of that nature...."
Assange's stay at the embassy cost Ecuador some $6.5m (£5m) from 2012 to 2018, Mr Valencia said.
NPR reports that Julian Assange's cat also "arguably played a small role in Ecuador's decision to end its asylum agreement," citing remarks from Ecuador President Lenin Moreno: Moreno explained that Assange treated his hosts disrespectfully; late last year the embassy implemented a series of rules for Assange, including a requirement to be responsible for the "well-being, food, hygiene and proper care of your pet." If Assange didn't, the embassy threatened to put the cat in a shelter. In other words, it is likely that Assange didn't effectively clean up after his cat's own wiki-leaks...
The New Yorker reported in 2017 that Assange's interest in the cat was less as an animal lover and more as a master of his own brand. "Julian stared at the cat for about half an hour, trying to figure out how it could be useful, and then came up with this: Yeah, let's say it's from my children," the magazine quoted one of Assange's friends as saying. "For a time, he said it didn't have a name because there was a competition in Ecuador, with schoolchildren, on what to name him. Everything is P.R. -- everything."
Journalist James Ball, an early WikiLeaks employee (who left after three months) said Thursday on Twitter that he'd "genuinely offered to adopt" the cat -- but it was "reportedly given to a shelter by the Ecuadorian embassy ages ago."
Assange's legal team, however, tweeted in November that Assange had been outraged by embassy threats to send the cat to the pound, and asked his lawyers "to take his cat to safety. The cat is with Assange's family. They will be reunited in freedom."
Assange's stay at the embassy cost Ecuador some $6.5m (£5m) from 2012 to 2018, Mr Valencia said.
NPR reports that Julian Assange's cat also "arguably played a small role in Ecuador's decision to end its asylum agreement," citing remarks from Ecuador President Lenin Moreno: Moreno explained that Assange treated his hosts disrespectfully; late last year the embassy implemented a series of rules for Assange, including a requirement to be responsible for the "well-being, food, hygiene and proper care of your pet." If Assange didn't, the embassy threatened to put the cat in a shelter. In other words, it is likely that Assange didn't effectively clean up after his cat's own wiki-leaks...
The New Yorker reported in 2017 that Assange's interest in the cat was less as an animal lover and more as a master of his own brand. "Julian stared at the cat for about half an hour, trying to figure out how it could be useful, and then came up with this: Yeah, let's say it's from my children," the magazine quoted one of Assange's friends as saying. "For a time, he said it didn't have a name because there was a competition in Ecuador, with schoolchildren, on what to name him. Everything is P.R. -- everything."
Journalist James Ball, an early WikiLeaks employee (who left after three months) said Thursday on Twitter that he'd "genuinely offered to adopt" the cat -- but it was "reportedly given to a shelter by the Ecuadorian embassy ages ago."
Assange's legal team, however, tweeted in November that Assange had been outraged by embassy threats to send the cat to the pound, and asked his lawyers "to take his cat to safety. The cat is with Assange's family. They will be reunited in freedom."
Can't help but think that a lot of this character assignation is cover so that no one is talking about how he was sold out for a $4.2 billion loan...
If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.
A depressed man stares at his cat? He must be a rogue!
No character assassination going on here, just honest diplomatic concern.
Get out the lube...you're about to be bent over. Ask Sam Clemens and many others. Julian peed in a lotta cornflakes. Funny that not one of the offended parties claims anything he published was fake or a lie. This is pure shoot the messenger to deflect from your own guilt stuff.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
About not taking care of his cat.
About him having terrible hygiene.
About him wiping feces all over the walls
About verbally attacking officials at the embassy
Remember, they started restricting his movements and internet access years before. This is NOTHING new.
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
You know, I was originally behind what he was trying to do, but now I just see the guy as a self-serving asshole. He shits on everybody with no apparent rhyme or reason: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/12/world/europe/ecuador-assange-wikileaks.html. I do think that getting government secrets out in the open is important, but there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. He's done it the wrong way.
I don't respond to AC's.
While the feces on walls thing is new, the not showering thing has been reported for several years.
Not that any of this has to do with whether Assange should be granted asylum or not (probably not, he was running from a rape investigation) or whether he should be being charged by the US as a party to Manning's "crimes" (probably not on that, no.) It suggests he's an asshole (but we already knew that about stuff that's actually important), I'm just saying that at least some of this, about the cat and the lack of personal hygene, is old news.
Also it's not even a wiki.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
This is a opinion piece by a US law professor: How likely is an Assange conviction in the USA.
The thing that Assange will be extradited for, is the password thing with Manning. The professor says this is no different than a journalist setting up a drop point for information.
Never the less, Assange will be convicted, and most likely new charges will magically appear once he is on US soil.
The issue here is not whether Assange has bad personal hygiene, or whether he is a self serving narcissist. The issue is freedom of the press in Western democracies, and the willingness to make an example out of him to deter others.
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After https://slashdot.org/comments.... I finally heard the BBC reporting on the radio this morning that Wikileaks have advised that the cat is ok.
No mention of how Assange is doing, but at least they finally covered the important aspect of the story.