Kidnapping, assassination...Inside the CIA's secret war plans against Wikileaks/Assange

[Brian4Liberty]

Kidnapping, assassination and a London shoot-out: Inside the CIA's secret war plans against WikiLeaks
https://news.yahoo.com/kidnapping-a...t-war-plans-against-wiki-leaks-090057786.html
...

This was both funny and scary...

The intrigue over a potential Assange escape set off a wild scramble among rival spy services in London. American, British and Russian agencies, among others, stationed undercover operatives around the Ecuadorian Embassy. In the Russians’ case, it was to facilitate a breakout. For the U.S. and allied services, it was to block such an escape. “It was beyond comical,” said the former senior official. “It got to the point where every human being in a three-block radius was working for one of the intelligence services — whether they were street sweepers or police officers or security guards.”

 

[Brian4Liberty]

And supposedly Trump was protecting us from the "deep state" by letting Pompeo try to assassinate Assange. God help us!

Just another example what is said to his supporters and the way he actually governed are two entirely different things. How much more obvious did Trump have to be for people to realize this when he populated his entire administration with those opposite of the platform he presented to his supporters.

But the billionaire on the TV told me that Trump was an anti-establishment outsider!

It’s more “anonymous sources”.
And from “former intelligence officials” at that.
Take it with a salt pill, especially the part about Trump.

I read the entire article. It never mentioned Trump being involved himself. It was all about the madness of Pompeo and the CIA.

What it highlighted about Trump more than anything was Trump’s poor selection of people for his administration. Pompeo was a disaster.

At the White House, officials began planning for that scenario. Could the United States launch a cyberattack on a server being used by WikiLeaks to house these documents?

Officials weren’t sure if the Defense Department had the authority to do so at the time, absent the president’s signature. Alternatively, they suggested, perhaps the CIA could carry out the same action under the agency’s offensive counterintelligence powers.

They explicitly were trying to do things without telling Trump.

Yahoo News could not confirm if these proposals made it to the White House. Some officials with knowledge of the rendition proposals said they had heard no discussions about assassinating Assange.

In a statement to Yahoo News, Trump denied that he ever considered having Assange assassinated. “It’s totally false, it never happened,” he said. Trump seemed to express some sympathy for Assange’s plight. “In fact, I think he’s been treated very badly,” he added.

Whatever Trump’s view of the matter at the time, his NSC lawyers were bulwarks against the CIA’s potentially illegal proposals, according to former officials. “While people think the Trump administration didn’t believe in the rule of law, they had good lawyers who were paying attention to it,” said a former senior intelligence official.

Inside the White House, Pompeo’s impassioned arguments on WikiLeaks were making little headway. The director’s most aggressive proposals were “probably taken seriously” in Langley but not within the NSC, a former national security official said.

Even Sessions, Trump’s “very, very anti-Assange” attorney general, was opposed to CIA’s encroachment onto Justice Department territory, and believed that the WikiLeaks founder’s case was best handled through legal channels, said the former official.

The game being played is to use “Pompeo” and “Trump Administration” interchangeably.

 

[jmdrake]

I read the entire article. It never mentioned Trump being involved himself. It was all about the madness of Pompeo and the CIA.

What it highlighted about Trump more than anything was Trump’s poor selection of people for his administration. Pompeo was a disaster.



They explicitly were trying to do things without telling Trump.





The game being played is to use “Pompeo” and “Trump Administration” interchangeably.

Yeah. Trump nominated the very people he claimed to be against. We get it. And it's not a "game." The people you nominate and keep with you until the end are your administration. That's the way this has always worked and always will work. But lastly, Trump had absolute power to pardon Assange, Snowden and Manning and chose not to for his own selfish reasons. Those are just facts.

 

[Sammy]

My only Question did Trump knew about this Plan?

 

[Brian4Liberty]

Yeah. Trump nominated the very people he claimed to be against. We get it. And it's not a "game." The people you nominate and keep with you until the end are your administration.

Of course. But "the game" is the one played by the media, who intentionally spin everything.

But lastly, Trump had absolute power to pardon Assange, Snowden and Manning and chose not to for his own selfish reasons. Those are just facts.

Yeah, Trump should have pardoned them. Another huge failure by Trump.

And if he had pardoned them, would we all be shocked when the Biden Administration simply filed new charges?

 

[acptulsa]

And if he had pardoned them, would we all be shocked when the Biden Administration simply filed new charges?

Very. A pardon expunges nothing, and double jeopardy still applies.

Making excuses for Trump is a fool's errand.

 

[jmdrake]

Of course. But "the game" is the one played by the media, who intentionally spin everything.



Yeah, Trump should have pardoned them. Another huge failure by Trump.

And if he had pardoned them, would we all be shocked when the Biden Administration simply filed new charges?

Not possible. Double jepordy.

Very. A pardon expunges nothing, and double jeopardy still applies.

Making excuses for Trump is a fool's errand.

^This.

 

[kahless]

I read the entire article. It never mentioned Trump being involved himself. It was all about the madness of Pompeo and the CIA.

It is in there.

One of those officials said he was briefed on a spring 2017 meeting in which the president asked whether the CIA could assassinate Assange and provide him “options” for how to do so

 

[TheCount]

The game being played is to use “Pompeo” and “Trump Administration” interchangeably.

That's because they are interchangeable.

The president's cabinet, directly appointed by him, is absolutely part of the president's administration.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

It is in there.

I wouldn’t put it past Trump for a second. It certainly sounds like a question Trump would ask.

But that is referring to an anonymous official who wasn't at the meeting. I wouldn’t put it past the media or officials to make that up either. And it sounding like a Trumpism makes it believable.

The majority of the article is focused on Pompeo though, with a lot more evidence. Pompeo 2024 coming soon.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

That's because they are interchangeable.

The president's cabinet, directly appointed by him, is absolutely part of the president's administration.

Sure, and it’s so effective. If the article was only about Pompeo and the CIA, it wouldn't be half as exciting. This thread would only have like 3 posts.

But we do know for a fact that Trump approved the killing of Soleimani, so we can be outraged over that for now, until we get better evidence that Trump wanted to assassinate Assange.

 

[enhanced_deficit]

And supposedly Trump was protecting us from the "deep state" by letting Pompeo try to assassinate Assange.

To give credit where due, Pompeo was one of the few MAGA cabinet officials not fired and remained close with Trump till the end.
It was a revolving door for so many but very few like Pompeo, Jarvanka remained in good graces till the end.

 

[Occam's Banana]

https://twitter.com/kgosztola/status/1443364303923466240

 

[acptulsa]

https://twitter.com/kgosztola/status/1443364303923466240

If what they said wasn't true, how can you prosecute them for telling the tale? Is telling fiction and saying it's true secret facts a crime now?

 

[Anti-Neocon]

I feel at some point in the history of these forums this thread would be buzzing with activity... makes me kind of sad just because we just got a bigger slice of the truth. Instead a meh response with bickering over whether or not it should make Trump look bad.

As far as Trump, do we need to look further than when he said Snowden was a "spy who needs to be executed"? I guess I just don't see why this should even matter in assessing him because we know what his attitude is already.

Anyway... I regret even typing that much about orange man so onto Pompeo:

I really do love that article and how Pompeo all but admits that the scoop was true by deflecting. What is ultimately important is that we continue to have people in government who want to do terrible shit and then cover it up and expect us to cheer them on, or at least not strongly resist it. The lack of attention this story is making me feel that the resistance really just isn't even there even among libertarians. How to change this?

 

[Sammy]

 

[kahless]

I feel at some point in the history of these forums this thread would be buzzing with activity... makes me kind of sad just because we just got a bigger slice of the truth. Instead a meh response with bickering over whether or not it should make Trump look bad.

As far as Trump, do we need to look further than when he said Snowden was a "spy who needs to be executed"? I guess I just don't see why this should even matter in assessing him because we know what his attitude is already.

Anyway... I regret even typing that much about orange man so onto Pompeo:

I really do love that article and how Pompeo all but admits that the scoop was true by deflecting. What is ultimately important is that we continue to have people in government who want to do terrible shit and then cover it up and expect us to cheer them on, or at least not strongly resist it. The lack of attention this story is making me feel that the resistance really just isn't even there even among libertarians. How to change this?

If the American people really knew the truth about how evil our government is they would burn this government and it's corrupt agencies to the ground for a fresh start.

Instead the elites gave us Trump to put it all to bed including this. I give the elites credit where credit is due. They were brilliant in this plan to keep control of the country by providing the right Trump so they could blow off steam. Every complaint the right had prior to Trump is now shielded behind a psychological firewall in peoples minds as not to admit to themselves or others who their dear leader really is and what he believes.

Now that he is out they needed more and are playing to the culture war which they really don't give a damn about but know the masses do. They have BLM on the other side so people line up accordingly. You could not have a better scenario to keep the fake two party paradigm in place. The early days of this forum people used to see how they played both sides. Not so much anymore here or anywhere else since the advent of Trump and the elites knew that.

 

[Occam's Banana]

If the American people really knew the truth about how evil our government is they would burn this government and it's corrupt agencies to the ground for a fresh start.

History says otherwise. Just ask Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Most people - including most of "the American people" - are inert ballast, and will eat whatever is put on their plates.

Tyranny or Liberty, it doesn't matter either way - many of them may grouse and grumble about it, but they'll eat it.

 

[kahless]

History says otherwise. Just ask Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Most people - including most of "the American people" - are inert ballast, and will eat whatever is put on their plates.

Tyranny or Liberty, it doesn't matter either way - many of them may grouse and grumble about it, but they'll eat it.

Seems like people have been conditioned to look for validation from people they will never get it from, either politicians or news media pundits before doing anything.

Maybe there is some hope. I just ran out to the local deli as I started to write this post and this guy strikes up a conversation with me about government overreach and Covid. He kept saying people don't fight, that they have been conditioned by the elites not to fight and that is why we are in this mess. He then asked me the last time I got into a fight and he said, high school, right? I just nodded my head rather than then tell him I have been in hundreds of fights even up until recently because I whistle blew and it is punishment from this group of elites that kept paying people, police, etc to attack me.

He was like you see that is why, that as adults we stopped fighting. He said, if we fought for our rights then we would not be in this mess. Everyone in line and behind the counter was in agreement with this man and everyone was universally pissed off talking about how many lives-businesses destroyed due to the lock downs because of government. Now this little interchange just happened in the most liberal part of NY State.

btw - I actually met Solzhenitsyn on my trip to Russia a long time back and it was just a few years after I originally whistle blew. My life became so crazy, I could not find peace anywhere without being harassed, physically attacked, arrested, etc, including when escaping the US for western allied countries. So I thought maybe I would be left alone in Russia. Since I have no privacy rights at all when I travel, of course I was attacked and this happened while I was with a small group listening to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn speak in Moscow.

He wanted to know what it was all about so his wife asked if I would meet with him privately. I told him what it was all about, what they were doing and what I went through. He told me he suffered through the same tactics and was like that is what they do. He totally got what I was going through-related on it, how people we knew did not understand and then discussed the methods they used to torture him. Just when you think you are alone in this world for things you are going through.

I try to remember that moment, that there are others that suffered like I have and remember this meeting I had with him. It is not like there is anyone I can talk to that truly understands that would have anything in common with me like this. Since of course this is the US and it is not supposed to be like this here, that I must have done something.

 

[A. Havnes]

To give credit where due, Pompeo was one of the few MAGA cabinet officials not fired and remained close with Trump till the end.
It was a revolving door for so many but very few like Pompeo, Jarvanka remained in good graces till the end.

True point. I wonder if Trump is aligned with Pompeo types or if Pompeo has footage of the Kennedy assassination from a new angle…