Julian Assange’s arrest was not a sudden development, cultural philosopher Slavoj Zizek told RT. Instead it was well planned and the final step in a long and ugly smear campaign against the WikiLeaks founder.

After sheltering in London’s Ecuadorian embassy for six years, Assange was dragged out of the building by British police on Thursday morning. The arrest comes after Ecuador’s new pro-US president withdrew Assange’s asylum claim, and after WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson claimed that an extensive spying campaign was conducted against Assange, designed to get him out.

“I was not surprised,” Zizek told RT. “The problem for me is how people will simply accept this as the result of the long, systematic, character assassination campaign.”

The first step in the campaign, Zizek said, was to connect WikiLeaks – an independent journalistic outlet known for leaking classified materials, which also prides itself on having never published false information – with Russia and Vladimir Putin. The next step was “character assassination.” Assange, Zizek said, was painted as “arrogant,” “paranoid,” and even a rapist, despite Swedish authorities dropping all charges against him in 2017.

Then the gossip against Assange sank to an “incredibly dirty personal level, that he doesn’t clean his toilet, that he smells bad and so on. Can we imagine anything lower?” WikiLeaks has argued the same, calling Assange the victim of “a sophisticated effort to dehumanize, delegitimize and imprison him.”

Assange’s arrest, Zizek continued, has “nothing to do with vengeance.” Rather, the WikiLeaks head was made an example of in the ongoing fight to clamp down on the free flow of information. Just like the European Union’s new copyright directive threatens to censor almost all free expression online, neutering organizations like Wikileaks is a step towards controlling what information we can and cannot access.

“All our lives today are somehow regulated through digital media,” he said. “So it’s absolutely crucial who controls this digital media. This is the greatest threat to our freedom.”

“We are not even aware of it as we don’t experience it as unfreedom. It’s not like the old days of the police state, where you look over your shoulder and see a man following you. You feel totally free, but your every move is registered and you’re subtly manipulated.”

“Wikileaks embodied resistance to this,” Zizek added.

Assange’s lawyer Jen Robinson confirmed on Thursday that Assange’s arrest was made in relation to a US extradition request. Assange is accused of conspiring with US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning – herself currently behind bars in Virginia for refusing to testify against WikiLeaks – to leak classified footage of US military war crimes in 2010. This footage showed a US Apache helicopter gunship opening fire on and killing 12 people, including two Reuters staff.

“I wouldn’t blame Ecuador too much,” Zizek concluded. “Ecuador was under terrible pressure from the United States. Forget about these B-level countries. This is all about the United States.”

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Assange was taken into custody at a central London police station, and the arrest was made at a US extradition request, the Met Police have confirmed, saying he will appear at London Magistrates’ Court.

Julian Assange has been “further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities after his arrival at a central London police station,” the Metropolitan Police confirmed. The US cited the Extradition Act while filing the request, they informed.

“He will appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates’ Court as soon as possible,” the statement reads. A car apparently carrying Assange has arrived at the court earlier.

Earlier in the day, Jen Robinson, one of Assange’s legal team, alleged that the arrest was linked to a US extradition request. “Just confirmed: Assange has been arrested not just for breach of bail conditions but also in relation to a US extradition request,” she tweeted.

Meanwhile, barrister Geoffrey Robertson, another Assange’s lawyer, said he may face a heavy prison term if extradited to the US. “America is hellbent on putting him in prison for a very long time to deter those who publish material about the behaviour of its armed forces,” he told BBC News.

The charges for Assange carry up to 45 years in prison. While this is “not the death penalty … But it may in effect be the death penalty for someone of Assange’s age and health problems.”

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Ecuador’s Foreign Minister has announced that the country has suspended Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s Ecuadorean citizenship, which he was granted at the end of 2017.

Ecuador has stripped Julian Assange of Ecuadorean citizenship, foreign minister Jose Valencia said on Thursday, after Ecuador withdrew his political asylum in its London embassy.

Assange, an Australia native, held Ecuadorian citizenship since 2017.

Meanwhile, Marise Payne, foreign minister of Assange’s home country, said he will continue to receive “the usual consular support from the Australian Government.” Consular officers will seek to visit Assange at his place of detention.

Separately, the Latin American country’s interior minister accused Assange and WikiLeaks of intervening in Ecuadorean affairs. He said “people close to him, including two Russian hackers,” are living in Ecuador.

The Metropolitan Police forcibly removed the 47-year-old WikiLeaks founder from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and arrested him, after president Lenin Moreno said his country took “a sovereign decision” to withdraw political asylum.

WikiLeaks said the Ecuadorian government’s actions were in violation of international law. In turn, the former president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, called Moreno “the greatest traitor in Ecuadorian and Latin American history.”

The arrest was welcomed by the UK government, despite public criticism. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow hoped that Assange’s rights would not be violated. A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the UK of strangling freedom.

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Julian Assange is a pioneering whistleblower in the digital-age, speaking truth to power like no one before him managed on such a significant scale. As he sits in a London jail cell, here’s why we should be grateful for his work.

By setting up the international non-profit organization WikiLeaks in Iceland in 2006, Assange irrevocably shifted the balance of power in the online era.

From humble beginnings as a master coder and hacker, caught by Australian authorities in 1995 but escaping a prison term, to the foremost publisher of sensitive, embarrassing and potentially dangerous material for the world to see, Assange’s storied career as a publisher and whistleblower has captured headlines, and the global public’s attention for years.

RT takes a look back at the key moments in Assange’s career that remind us why the world owes him such a debt of gratitude.

The early years

In 2007, WikiLeaks published emails exposing the manuals for Camp Delta, a controversial US detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba which was the focal point for the US war on terror and the final destination for those captured as part of its extraordinary rendition campaign.

The following year the whistleblowing site posted emails from vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s private Yahoo email account, again exposing the newfound weakness of the political class in the digital age.

‘Collateral murder’

In a move that would reverberate online and across the world for years, in April 2010 WikiLeaks published footage of US forces summarily executing 18 civilians from an Apache attack helicopter in Iraq. It was an almost unheard of revelation of the brutality of war and the low price of human life in modern conflict.

Diplomatic cables

2010 was a very busy year for Assange as in July WikiLeaks published more than 90,000 classified documents and diplomatic cables relating to the Afghanistan war.

Later, in October 2010, the organization published a raft of classified documents from the Iraq War. The logs were referred to as “the largest leak of classified documents in its history” by the US Department of Defense, according to the BBC. WikiLeaks followed that up in November by publishing diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world.

The Guantánamo Files and Spy Files

In April 2011, WikiLeaks published classified US military documents detailing the behavior and treatment of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. This leak would be followed, once again, by a vast trove (250 million) of US diplomatic cables.

Throughout this sequence of widely-praised leaks, Assange invited a global audience behind the curtain of international diplomacy and warfare to expose the hidden truths of global power dynamics in a way which would forever change the power structure and landscape, affording a platform to analysts like Chelsea Manning to expose potential war crimes and misdeeds by the US military at large.

Assange and WikiLeaks would also help fellow whistleblowers like Edward Snowden to seek refuge from predatory US authorities, providing aid and comfort to those who risked everything in the pursuit of truth, exposing some of the most egregious mass surveillance programs the world has ever known.

DNC leak

As the 2016 US presidential election loomed, WikiLeaks published nearly 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee, which exposed the preferential treatment shown to then-candidate for president Hillary Clinton over her competitor Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary. Assange boldly informed CNN’s Anderson Cooper that the release was indeed timed to coincide with the Democratic National Convention.

In October that same year, WikiLeaks began publishing emails from Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta, which shed light on the inner workings of the Democratic nominee’s political machine.

These included excerpts from Clinton’s speeches to Wall Street, politically-motivated payments made to the Clinton Foundation, her consideration of choosing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates or his wife as a potential running mate, her desire to covertly intervene in Syria, her intention to ring-fence China with missile defense batteries if it did not curtail North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

Legacy

Following his arrest on the morning of April 11, 2019, Assange’s future remains unclear. He likely faces extradition to the US where it was inadvertently revealed that he has been charged under seal in a US federal court. Former Assange collaborator Chelsea Manning has been imprisoned for refusing to cooperate with the court in relation to the case.

Assange’s legal battle is only just beginning, it seems, but the international following he has forged will undoubtedly grant him a place in the pantheon of history’s champions of truth.

He remains a true digital pioneer, paving the way for so many to follow in his footsteps and expose the untold misdeeds of the powerful, be they political figures or entire militaries. Assange has defiantly shown what a powerful tool digital technology can be and how easily the dynamics of power can be shifted in the 21st century by those brave enough. Unfortunately, he also showed the consequences of wielding such power in the face of such overwhelming international and political opposition.

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Ecuador has withdrawn an asylum it granted to Julian Assange, the country’s president declared as the WikiLeaks founder was being evicted from Ecuadorian embassy where he was hiding for the last six years.

The Ecuadorian government has decided “to withdraw the diplomatic asylum of Julian Assange for a repeated violation of international conventions and a protocol of coexistence,” president Lenin Moreno has said in a televised speech on Thursday. 

Assange was arrested by the British police inside the Ecuadorian Embassy around the time that the statement was released. He took refuge in the London embassy seven years ago to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted in connection with sexual assault allegations that were later dropped.

Moreno has accused Assange of “violating the norm of not intervening in internal affairs of other states.” He continued: “The patience of Ecuador has reached its limits on the behavior of Mr Assange.”

The world-renowned whistleblower installed “electronic and distortion equipment” at the embassy, blocked CCTV cameras, and also “confronted and mistreated guards.” Softening his tone, the president added that he had requested the UK to guarantee that Assange will not be extradited to countries where he may face torture or the death penalty.

Blasting the decision by Moreno, Wikileaks tweeted that the arrest was “in violation of international law.”

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he has spent the last seven years. That’s after Ecuador’s president Moreno withdrew asylum.

That’s only a day after WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson claimed that an extensive spying operation was conducted against Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy. During an explosive media conference Hrafnsson alleged that the operation was designed to get Assange extradited. 

Assange’s relationship with Ecuadorian officials appeared increasingly strained since the current president came to power in the Latin American country in 2017. His internet connection was cut off in March of last year, with officials saying the move was to stop Assange from “interfering in the affairs of other sovereign states.”

The whistleblower garnered massive international attention in 2010 when WikiLeaks released classified US military footage, entitled ‘Collateral Murder’, of a US Apache helicopter gunship opening fire on a number of people, killing 12 including two Reuters staff, and injuring two children.

The footage, as well as US war logs from Iraq and Afghanistan and more than 200,000 diplomatic cables, were leaked to the site by US Army soldier Chelsea Manning. She was tried by a US tribunal and sentenced to 35 years in jail for disclosing the materials.

Manning was pardoned by outgoing President Barack Obama in 2017 after spending seven years in US custody. She is currently being held again in a US jail for refusing to testify before a secret grand jury in a case apparently related to WikiLeaks.

Assange’s seven-year stay at the Ecuadorian Embassy was motivated by his concern that he may face similarly harsh and arguably unfair prosecution by the US for his role in publishing troves of classified US documents over the years.

His legal troubles stem from an accusation by two women in Sweden, with both claiming they had a sexual encounter with Assange that was not fully consensual. The whistleblower said the allegations were false. Nevertheless, they yielded to the Swedish authorities who sought his extradition from the UK on “suspicion of rape, three cases of sexual abuse and unlawful compulsion.”

In December 2010, he was arrested in the UK under a European Arrest Warrant and spent time in Wandsworth Prison before being released on bail and put under house arrest.

During that time, Assange hosted a show on RT known as ‘World Tomorrow or The Julian Assange Show’, in which he interviewed several world influencers in controversial and thought-provoking episodes.

His attempt to fight extradition ultimately failed. In 2012, he skipped bail and fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy, which extended him protection from arrest by the British authorities. Quito gave him political asylum and later Ecuadorian citizenship.

Assange spent the following years stranded at the diplomatic compound, only making sporadic appearances at the embassy window and in interviews conducted inside. His health has reportedly deteriorated over the years, while treatment options are limited due to his inability to leave the Knightsbridge building.

In 2016, a UN expert panel ruled that what was happening to Assange amounted to arbitrary detention by the British authorities. London nevertheless refused to revoke his arrest warrant for skipping bail. Sweden dropped the investigation against Assange in 2017, although Swedish prosecutors indicated it may be resumed if Assange “makes himself available.”

READ MORE: Assange Episode 10: Noam Chomsky and Tariq Ali

Assange argued that his avoidance of European law enforcement was necessary to protect him from extradition to the US, where then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that arresting him is a “priority.” WikiLeaks was branded a “non-state hostile intelligence service” by then-CIA head Mike Pompeo in 2017.

The US government has been tight-lipped on whether Assange would face indictment over the dissemination of classified material. In November 2018, the existence of a secret indictment targeting Assange was seemingly unintentionally confirmed in a US court filing for an unrelated case.

Last year, a UK tribunal refused to release key details on communications between British and Swedish authorities that could have revealed any dealings between the UK, Sweden, the US, and Ecuador in the long-running Assange debacle. La Repubblica journalist Stefania Maurizi had her appeal to obtain documents held by the Crown Prosecution Service dismissed on December 12.

READ MORE: Assange Show Final Episode: Anwar Ibrahim – ‘the voice of democracy’ in Malaysia

WikiLeaks is responsible for publishing thousands of documents with sensitive information from many countries. Those include the 2003 Standard Operating Procedures manual for Guantanamo Bay, the controversial detention center in Cuba. The agency has also released documents on Scientology, one tranche referred to as “secret bibles” from the religion founded by L. Ron Hubbard.

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A lawyer for whistleblower Julian Assange has confirmed that he has been arrested partly in relation to a request for extradition from the United States.

Writing on Twitter, Jen Robinson said Assange’s arrest in London was “not just for breach of bail conditions but also in relation to a US extradition request.”

In a further tweet, Robinson said the US warrant “was issued in in December 2017 and is for conspiracy with Chelsea Manning” in early 2010.

WikiLeaks’ official Twitter account also tweeted that Assange has been arrested “for extradition to the United States for publishing.”

It was in 2010 that Assange released the classified US military footage known as ‘Collateral Murder’ of a US Apache helicopter gunship opening fire and killing 12 people, including two Reuters staff. The footage had been provided to WikiLeaks by US Army soldier Chelsea Manning, who was later tried by a US tribunal and sentenced to 35 years in prison.

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