Julian Assange assasination & 'options' considered by CIA under Trump: Report to UK Court

In a dramatic development in WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's extradition case, a report submitted before a UK court stated that the United States' premier intelligence agency, the CIA, under the Trump administration was pondering and discussing 'options' to abduct and even assassinate the Australian activist. suggest that the US was hell-bent and outrightly desperate to end the asylum of Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy. 

According to the report, the US intelligence considered the killing of Assange in 2017 when the WikiLeaks founder was entering the fifth year sheltering at the Ecuador embassy in London. The CIA officials along with the then director, Mike Pompeo, tabled their intentions after being infuriated by WikiLeaks' publication of 'Vault 7', a breach which is considered as the biggest data loss in history. 'Vault 7' is a series of documents detailing the activities and capabilities of the US intelligence agency CIA in relation to cyber warfare. In fact, in March 2017, then US President Donald Trump had said, "the CIA was hacked, and a lot of things taken."

US considered killing Julian Assange: Report

While the CIA has declined to comment on the grave allegations, the report suggested that the plan of action to assassinate Julian Assange had been laid out and the Trump administration went as far as requesting for his 'sketches' or 'options' with 'no boundaries' for killing Assange. The latest on the purported plot to assassinate Assange adds to incidents that surfaced in this regard in 2020 as well. In September 2020, the internet witnessed global outrage after an employee of a Spanish security company, UC Global, had come to the fore and highlighted details of an alleged attempt to spy on Assange.

Purportedly, microphones were concealed to monitor Assange's meetings with his lawyers, and his fingerprints were obtained from a glass. The aforesaid information was read out in the Old Bailey in London on September 30, 2020, by one of Assange's lawyers, who is fighting his extradition to the US on charges relating to leaks of classified documents that exposed the alleged US war crimes and abuses. 

'If reports are true, I am horrified': Dutch MP

The counsel appearing on behalf of Assange in the recent extradition hearing told local media persons, "As an American citizen, I find it absolutely outrageous that our government would be contemplating kidnapping or assassinating somebody without any judicial process simply because Julian Assange had published truthful information."

Pieter Omtzigt, an MP of the Netherlands, while addressing the Parliamentary Assembly expressed grave concern at the US' consideration of ultra-judicial assassination and detention of whistleblowers. 

"If these are reports are true, I am horrified," Omtzigt said. "Reports that high-level US officials may have considered such an option are deeply worrying."

Additionally, the MP pointed out a resolution of the Assembly passed in 2020 which called for Assange's extradition to the US to be barred and urged his prompt release from the asylum in the UK too. 

Julian Assange WikiLeaks case

The 50-year-old Australian editor has been under arrest since April 2019 when he finally left the Ecuadorian embassy he had occupied for years in the capital city of England. He had taken asylum in the Ecuador embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden in a 2010 rape case against him. He was later charged with rape, however the charges were dropped by Swedish prosecutors in 2019.

WikiLeaks hit the limelight after releasing a series of significant and inaccessible documents and caches. From equipment, arms in possession during the Afghanistan war, or the corruption investigation in Kenya to the operating procedures manual at the US-operated prisons in Guantanamo Bay, the non-profit organisation accessed and published reams of classified documents. Soon after the leaks of diplomatic cables began in 2010, the US had begun a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks.