14 ms·

Ecuador cuts off Julian Assange's internet access at London embassy

121 points by supercanuck 9y ago

ceejayoz 9y ago
The key bit: > The Ecuadorian government said in statement that it had acted because Assange had breached “a written commitment made to the government at the end of 2017 not to issue messages that might interfere with other states”.
- alacombe 9y ago
  At this point, they can give any plausible reason, it wouldn't make a difference. They're just bending over to the US... It's surprising they lasted that long already :-/
  - olefoo 9y ago
    That is a deeply condescending statement that does nothing but display your own ignorance of the norms and constraints of international diplomacy. Ecuador would at this point in time be fully justified in declaring that Assange was no longer welcome on their territory and expelling him from his hidey-hole. That they are merely cutting off his internet is extremely generous of them given the trouble and expense he has caused them.
    - acct1771 9y ago
      Why would they do that after somewhat recently making him a citizen? What changed their mind? His behavior certainly hasn't changed.
- prolepunk 9y ago
  I imagine if this keeps up, the Ecuadorian government will follow other articles in the written commitment and will take away his cell phone, impose a two week curfew and will not give him any pocket money in foreseeable future.
- enriquto 9y ago
  This is clearly a reference to Spain.
youdontknowtho 9y ago
Ouch. He will be out of there in no time. Hopefully someone can get the guy a 4G modem or something.
- culot 9y ago
  That was something suggested during the blackout of his internet access in 2016-2017, but that would certainly be grounds to rescind the Ecuadorian Welcome Mat.
throwawaymanbot 9y ago
Cutting Internet access always works on bedroom dwelling teenagers. Have to admire Ecuador's simple logic on this.
2close4comfort 9y ago
Took them long enough to change the WiFi password.
gwicks56 9y ago
A pringles can, and somebody sympathetic within a mile, and no problem. Unless they threaten to throw him out for accessing the internet.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- throwaway84742 9y ago
  I would be surprised if a Pringles can can do it. This stuff is symmetrical. If signal can get in and out from one end, it can also get in/out from the other, meaning MI6 would be able to listen in on their diplomatic correspondence. So there’s probably a serious Faraday cage around the place.
  - dingaling 9y ago
    A Faraday cage at building-scale is just that, a cage to attenuate omnidirectional signals. The Pringles antenna for wifi, or a Yagi or parabolic dish, is strongly directional and can pass through the voids in a cage when aligned. It just needs 12.5cm between the cage elements, like a window.
    - throwaway84742 9y ago
      Window can too be a part of the cage, if special glass is used. I guess he could open a window, but I don’t think I’d test fate quite so brazenly if I was in his position.
- fit2rule 9y ago
  It makes me wonder just how much of this is actually going on in the neighborhood around the Ecuadoran embassy .. there surely must be sympathetic folks living in the area that are more than willing to share their Wifi with Assange .. has anyone done any scanning in the area and discovered the open "JoinThisNetWorkJulian"-style wifi SSID's that are bound to be around there? Come to think of it, the nature of the Wifi environment around the embassy must, at the very least, be an interesting subject for a pen-test white-paper ..
FireBeyond 9y ago
> I have already fully served any theoretical (I haven’t been charged) ‘bail violation’ whilst in prison and under house arrest. So why is there a warrant for my arrest?” Not in the least bit arrogant. "Well, I hid out here because I feared extradition. That should basically count as my sentence for violating bail, right?"
- dylan-m 9y ago
  Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/651/ https://xkcd.com/651/. For someone who spends his time distributing leaked government documents, he sure has a … peculiar understanding of how the law works. (At least, how it works 99.9% of the time).
  - avs733 9y ago
    I don't mean this to sound like a cheap shot at Julian because, as many do, I have mixed feelings about him. However, what you are describing is CLASSIC narcissism. That doesn't effect his work, or shouldn't really, but it does explain his personal actions and martyr complex.
    - ddingus 9y ago
      Hard to say. Given his scenario, information he has, he may simply find himself resolved to a very difficult life, willing to work to maximize it's impact.
- zzzcpan 9y ago
  State initiated smear campaign is more arrogant.
  - FireBeyond 9y ago
    Pretty poor is the state that when faced with "smear/assassinate this person's character" comes up with "may have had consensual sex with questionable consent about the use of a condom with a female". That's the best the forces of the US/ UK/ Swedish intelligence communities could come up with?
neo4sure 9y ago
Maybe UKIP leader Nigel Farage could make one more visit and give him a 4g Modem and then forget why he went there in the first place.
drinchev 9y ago
> The move came after Assange tweeted on Monday challenging Britain’s accusation that Russia was responsible for the nerve agent poisoning of a Russian former double agent and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury earlier this month. So it's actually not so wrong to think that Russia is not >proven< guilty after all. I doubt that here, on HN, most of us would go so deep with conspiracy, but rational thinking did not lead me to the conclusion that Putin is responsible this time. Of course we don't know the whole story, but shouldn't people like Assange reveal it? Also, why would the UK-Ecuador relations be in danger of a tweet of a fugitive?
- ascorbic 9y ago
  > why would the UK-Ecuador relations be in danger of a tweet of a fugitive? Because he's a fugitive that they are sheltering. They've taken responsibility for him.
- pnathan 9y ago
  > I doubt that here, on HN, most of us would go so deep with conspiracy, but rational thinking did not lead me to the conclusion that Putin is responsible this time. Putin is given far too much credit. But the Russian wetworks division, under Putin's authority, has its fingerprints all over the Salisbury attack. > shouldn't people like Assange reveal it? Largely Assange has been an anti-liberal democracy apologist for the last 5+ years. A sad turn for someone starting at a radical anarchist position, but it's been pretty obvious. He's also largely destroyed any of Wikileaks rep as a honest broker and reduced it to the reputation of "anti-US intelligence". AFAICT, he's operating as a (probably unwitting) Russian front these days.
  - dleslie 9y ago
    The two books from his earlier self, Cypherpunks and When Google Met Wikileaks, are well worth the read for anyone who comments here on HN, I think. I agree, he changed dramatically sometime around or during the Trump campaign; I hardly recognize him any longer.
    - 9y ago
chx 9y ago
How ... convenient all of Wikileaks were damaging to the government of the USA and somehow never to the government of Russia. And, of course, Mr Assange had his show on RT (Russia Today). No way he is a Russian agent. No way.
- tway923423 9y ago
  >convenient all of Wikileaks were damaging to the government of the USA and somehow never to the government of Russia How about judging the information on its merits, not its source? Why does it matter one wink if you don't like the leakers?
  - atonse 9y ago
    Intent matters. There's a difference between a whistleblower wanting to expose things that violate the constitution because they want those things to stop, and a foreign agent exposing the same actions, but with the intent to destabilize people's trust in their government. The end result might be the same. But to say it doesn't matter where a leak came from, is to also say that whistleblowers are no different from foreign spies. Update to add my bias here: This is why I can respect the actions of Edward Snowden, but find Julian Assange completely untrustworthy.
    - tway923423 9y ago
      >But to say it doesn't matter where a leak came from, is to also say that whistleblowers are no different from foreign spies. Well I guess we have to agree to disagree then. If a "foreign spy" reports that Dow Checmial is dumping pollution in the river, I'm gonna question Dow first, not the spy.
      - Sangermaine 9y ago
        You're being either extremely naive or intentionally obtuse. No one is saying the information is false or should be ignored. To use your example, if there were reason to believe that this spy was revealing this information on behalf of Dow's competitors to influence the market and shield/draw attention away from their own malfeasance, that's a concern. The source and the intent of the source does actually matter.
CNJ7654 9y ago
Here's the plan. We form a large enough mob of people who are dressed to look exactly like Assange (wigs and all), then he can just run into the mob and disperse, make contact with sympathizers, and flee to a less oppressive country.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  I think you'll find it much harder to find enough Assange sympathizers to pull this off than it was a few years ago. He's been working pretty hard to reduce his - and WikiLeaks - image over the last couple of years. Personally I think that by now he should get it over with and walk out, be arrested, do the time for skipping bail and then he can put his extradition theory to the test. The current political leadership in the USA is about as pro Assange as it is ever going to get.
  - culot 9y ago
    > He's been working pretty hard to reduce his His opponents -- ie: the entire western MSM apparatus -- have been working harder at that, and certainly done much more damage to Wikileaks than Assange could ever manage. Though I don't see how he's damaged the image of Wikileaks or himself much in the last couple of years. With Wikileaks' good works around the 2016 US elections you'd think would have won them plenty of goodwiil -- exposing the sham that is the US electoral system directly from the mouths of its brightest and most powerful. That's where the immense, ongoing smear via Western MSM outlets comes in though, I suppose. > walk out, be arrested, do the time Definitely, just do it. It's easy for us to say, but imagine how terrifying that must be for him: who knows whose dungeon he'll end up in, but that he'll be effectively neutralized in his efficacy in regards to Wikileaks permanently is almost certain -- at the very least!
  - zzzcpan 9y ago
    If your enemy is a state actor, playing by its rules can only guarantee the worst possible outcome. You would be lucky if you end up in prison for life. Because "suicide" is also a very real possibility.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
burger_moon 9y ago
Doesn't Assange have a 'dead mans switch' which will trigger when he doesn't have internet access after a given amount of time? There were articles about a false alarm last year maybe along these lines. Curious if this will result in a dump of more content or something else.
- ucaetano 9y ago
  > Curious if this will result in a dump of more content or something else. Given how many times he has promised leaks and not delivered, most likely it won't.
  - Digital-Citizen 9y ago
    Exactly when were each of these promises made and what was promised each time? Please give us the details. So far WikiLeaks' publications are what they claim the publications are, and WikiLeaks has released a number of "insurance" files such as: https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/8823724/WikiLeaks_insurance_20130815_-_A https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/8823724/WikiLeaks_insurance... https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/8823728/WikiLeaks_insurance_20130815_-_B https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/8823728/WikiLeaks_insurance... https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/8823733/WikiLeaks_insurance_20130815_-_C https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/8823733/WikiLeaks_insurance... https://archive.org/details/WikiLeaks_Insurance_File https://archive.org/details/WikiLeaks_Insurance_File which I understand we're all encouraged to share widely in the event the key to decrypt one or more of them is released. I don't know what's in any of the insurance files.
    - fit2rule 9y ago
      At this point, the insurance files must contain something absolutely vile and heinous. I really can't imagine what is in them unless of course its the infamous "Hillary killing and eating a baby" video that is rumored to be among the stash of the cognescenti ..
enriquto 9y ago
Assange's communications have been cut down due to the overwhelming pressure of the Spanish government into Ecuador. This is clearly explained in the official communication of the Ecuador government : https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZY7pY1WkAALgkz.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZY7pY1WkAALgkz.jpg (could not find a better link) The reason is that he was tweeting again in favour of Catalan Republicans, more precisely against the current wave of political prisoners that Spain is taking, including probably the last Catalan elected president, now under custody in Germany. This is confirmed by Assange himself in his last tweet "I have no right to twit about political prisoners." The guy is now a hero to many catalans. He will be an honorary citizen of the forthcoming Catalan Republic, and there are already talks of erecting a statue of him in the center of Barcelona!
- ows_vs_obama 9y ago
  Pretty sad how quickly governments move to silence speech they disagree with. Even sadder is how the most accessible channnels of communication (tv, for instance) have become state and corporate mediums for propaganda.
- lawnchair_larry 9y ago
  Did you read the article? It includes your image, and says that is not the reason this time. The example you quote was when he was given his first/last warning. This time he was cut because he commented on the UK/Russia poisoning thing.
  - enriquto 9y ago
    Well, there may be multiple causes. However I think that the catalan cause is a stronger explanation because 1) the spanish nationalist media is all histerical about this event, thanking Ecuador for its help and solidarity 2) this comes just one day after Assange started re-tweeting again about Catalonia, after several months of radio silence about the subject 3) he has always been commenting about russia, the uk, and many other things. 4) The UK can not effectively cut the connection to Assange, only Ecuador (by threatening to expel him from his embassy).
  - 9y ago
phillipseamore 9y ago
But can Pamela still visit?

121 points by supercanuck 9y ago

The key bit: > The Ecuadorian government said in statement that it had acted because Assange had breached “a written commitment made to the government at the end of 2017 not to issue messages that might interfere with other states”.

alacombe 9y ago
At this point, they can give any plausible reason, it wouldn't make a difference. They're just bending over to the US... It's surprising they lasted that long already :-/
- olefoo 9y ago
  That is a deeply condescending statement that does nothing but display your own ignorance of the norms and constraints of international diplomacy. Ecuador would at this point in time be fully justified in declaring that Assange was no longer welcome on their territory and expelling him from his hidey-hole. That they are merely cutting off his internet is extremely generous of them given the trouble and expense he has caused them.
  - acct1771 9y ago
    Why would they do that after somewhat recently making him a citizen? What changed their mind? His behavior certainly hasn't changed.
prolepunk 9y ago
I imagine if this keeps up, the Ecuadorian government will follow other articles in the written commitment and will take away his cell phone, impose a two week curfew and will not give him any pocket money in foreseeable future.
enriquto 9y ago
This is clearly a reference to Spain.

youdontknowtho 9y ago

Ouch. He will be out of there in no time. Hopefully someone can get the guy a 4G modem or something.

culot 9y ago
That was something suggested during the blackout of his internet access in 2016-2017, but that would certainly be grounds to rescind the Ecuadorian Welcome Mat.

throwawaymanbot 9y ago

Cutting Internet access always works on bedroom dwelling teenagers. Have to admire Ecuador's simple logic on this.

2close4comfort 9y ago

Took them long enough to change the WiFi password.

gwicks56 9y ago

A pringles can, and somebody sympathetic within a mile, and no problem. Unless they threaten to throw him out for accessing the internet.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
throwaway84742 9y ago
I would be surprised if a Pringles can can do it. This stuff is symmetrical. If signal can get in and out from one end, it can also get in/out from the other, meaning MI6 would be able to listen in on their diplomatic correspondence. So there’s probably a serious Faraday cage around the place.
- dingaling 9y ago
  A Faraday cage at building-scale is just that, a cage to attenuate omnidirectional signals. The Pringles antenna for wifi, or a Yagi or parabolic dish, is strongly directional and can pass through the voids in a cage when aligned. It just needs 12.5cm between the cage elements, like a window.
  - throwaway84742 9y ago
    Window can too be a part of the cage, if special glass is used. I guess he could open a window, but I don’t think I’d test fate quite so brazenly if I was in his position.
fit2rule 9y ago
It makes me wonder just how much of this is actually going on in the neighborhood around the Ecuadoran embassy .. there surely must be sympathetic folks living in the area that are more than willing to share their Wifi with Assange .. has anyone done any scanning in the area and discovered the open "JoinThisNetWorkJulian"-style wifi SSID's that are bound to be around there? Come to think of it, the nature of the Wifi environment around the embassy must, at the very least, be an interesting subject for a pen-test white-paper ..

FireBeyond 9y ago

> I have already fully served any theoretical (I haven’t been charged) ‘bail violation’ whilst in prison and under house arrest. So why is there a warrant for my arrest?” Not in the least bit arrogant. "Well, I hid out here because I feared extradition. That should basically count as my sentence for violating bail, right?"

dylan-m 9y ago
Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/651/ https://xkcd.com/651/. For someone who spends his time distributing leaked government documents, he sure has a … peculiar understanding of how the law works. (At least, how it works 99.9% of the time).
- avs733 9y ago
  I don't mean this to sound like a cheap shot at Julian because, as many do, I have mixed feelings about him. However, what you are describing is CLASSIC narcissism. That doesn't effect his work, or shouldn't really, but it does explain his personal actions and martyr complex.
  - ddingus 9y ago
    Hard to say. Given his scenario, information he has, he may simply find himself resolved to a very difficult life, willing to work to maximize it's impact.
zzzcpan 9y ago
State initiated smear campaign is more arrogant.
- FireBeyond 9y ago
  Pretty poor is the state that when faced with "smear/assassinate this person's character" comes up with "may have had consensual sex with questionable consent about the use of a condom with a female". That's the best the forces of the US/ UK/ Swedish intelligence communities could come up with?

neo4sure 9y ago

Maybe UKIP leader Nigel Farage could make one more visit and give him a 4g Modem and then forget why he went there in the first place.

drinchev 9y ago

> The move came after Assange tweeted on Monday challenging Britain’s accusation that Russia was responsible for the nerve agent poisoning of a Russian former double agent and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury earlier this month. So it's actually not so wrong to think that Russia is not >proven< guilty after all. I doubt that here, on HN, most of us would go so deep with conspiracy, but rational thinking did not lead me to the conclusion that Putin is responsible this time. Of course we don't know the whole story, but shouldn't people like Assange reveal it? Also, why would the UK-Ecuador relations be in danger of a tweet of a fugitive?

ascorbic 9y ago
> why would the UK-Ecuador relations be in danger of a tweet of a fugitive? Because he's a fugitive that they are sheltering. They've taken responsibility for him.
pnathan 9y ago
> I doubt that here, on HN, most of us would go so deep with conspiracy, but rational thinking did not lead me to the conclusion that Putin is responsible this time. Putin is given far too much credit. But the Russian wetworks division, under Putin's authority, has its fingerprints all over the Salisbury attack. > shouldn't people like Assange reveal it? Largely Assange has been an anti-liberal democracy apologist for the last 5+ years. A sad turn for someone starting at a radical anarchist position, but it's been pretty obvious. He's also largely destroyed any of Wikileaks rep as a honest broker and reduced it to the reputation of "anti-US intelligence". AFAICT, he's operating as a (probably unwitting) Russian front these days.
- dleslie 9y ago
  The two books from his earlier self, Cypherpunks and When Google Met Wikileaks, are well worth the read for anyone who comments here on HN, I think. I agree, he changed dramatically sometime around or during the Trump campaign; I hardly recognize him any longer.
  - 9y ago

chx 9y ago

How ... convenient all of Wikileaks were damaging to the government of the USA and somehow never to the government of Russia. And, of course, Mr Assange had his show on RT (Russia Today). No way he is a Russian agent. No way.

tway923423 9y ago
>convenient all of Wikileaks were damaging to the government of the USA and somehow never to the government of Russia How about judging the information on its merits, not its source? Why does it matter one wink if you don't like the leakers?
- atonse 9y ago
  Intent matters. There's a difference between a whistleblower wanting to expose things that violate the constitution because they want those things to stop, and a foreign agent exposing the same actions, but with the intent to destabilize people's trust in their government. The end result might be the same. But to say it doesn't matter where a leak came from, is to also say that whistleblowers are no different from foreign spies. Update to add my bias here: This is why I can respect the actions of Edward Snowden, but find Julian Assange completely untrustworthy.
  - tway923423 9y ago
    >But to say it doesn't matter where a leak came from, is to also say that whistleblowers are no different from foreign spies. Well I guess we have to agree to disagree then. If a "foreign spy" reports that Dow Checmial is dumping pollution in the river, I'm gonna question Dow first, not the spy.
    - Sangermaine 9y ago
      You're being either extremely naive or intentionally obtuse. No one is saying the information is false or should be ignored. To use your example, if there were reason to believe that this spy was revealing this information on behalf of Dow's competitors to influence the market and shield/draw attention away from their own malfeasance, that's a concern. The source and the intent of the source does actually matter.

CNJ7654 9y ago

Here's the plan. We form a large enough mob of people who are dressed to look exactly like Assange (wigs and all), then he can just run into the mob and disperse, make contact with sympathizers, and flee to a less oppressive country.

jacquesm 9y ago
I think you'll find it much harder to find enough Assange sympathizers to pull this off than it was a few years ago. He's been working pretty hard to reduce his - and WikiLeaks - image over the last couple of years. Personally I think that by now he should get it over with and walk out, be arrested, do the time for skipping bail and then he can put his extradition theory to the test. The current political leadership in the USA is about as pro Assange as it is ever going to get.
- culot 9y ago
  > He's been working pretty hard to reduce his His opponents -- ie: the entire western MSM apparatus -- have been working harder at that, and certainly done much more damage to Wikileaks than Assange could ever manage. Though I don't see how he's damaged the image of Wikileaks or himself much in the last couple of years. With Wikileaks' good works around the 2016 US elections you'd think would have won them plenty of goodwiil -- exposing the sham that is the US electoral system directly from the mouths of its brightest and most powerful. That's where the immense, ongoing smear via Western MSM outlets comes in though, I suppose. > walk out, be arrested, do the time Definitely, just do it. It's easy for us to say, but imagine how terrifying that must be for him: who knows whose dungeon he'll end up in, but that he'll be effectively neutralized in his efficacy in regards to Wikileaks permanently is almost certain -- at the very least!
- zzzcpan 9y ago
  If your enemy is a state actor, playing by its rules can only guarantee the worst possible outcome. You would be lucky if you end up in prison for life. Because "suicide" is also a very real possibility.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

burger_moon 9y ago

Doesn't Assange have a 'dead mans switch' which will trigger when he doesn't have internet access after a given amount of time? There were articles about a false alarm last year maybe along these lines. Curious if this will result in a dump of more content or something else.

ucaetano 9y ago
> Curious if this will result in a dump of more content or something else. Given how many times he has promised leaks and not delivered, most likely it won't.
- Digital-Citizen 9y ago
  Exactly when were each of these promises made and what was promised each time? Please give us the details. So far WikiLeaks' publications are what they claim the publications are, and WikiLeaks has released a number of "insurance" files such as: https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/8823724/WikiLeaks_insurance_20130815_-_A https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/8823724/WikiLeaks_insurance... https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/8823728/WikiLeaks_insurance_20130815_-_B https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/8823728/WikiLeaks_insurance... https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/8823733/WikiLeaks_insurance_20130815_-_C https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/8823733/WikiLeaks_insurance... https://archive.org/details/WikiLeaks_Insurance_File https://archive.org/details/WikiLeaks_Insurance_File which I understand we're all encouraged to share widely in the event the key to decrypt one or more of them is released. I don't know what's in any of the insurance files.
  - fit2rule 9y ago
    At this point, the insurance files must contain something absolutely vile and heinous. I really can't imagine what is in them unless of course its the infamous "Hillary killing and eating a baby" video that is rumored to be among the stash of the cognescenti ..

enriquto 9y ago

Assange's communications have been cut down due to the overwhelming pressure of the Spanish government into Ecuador. This is clearly explained in the official communication of the Ecuador government : https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZY7pY1WkAALgkz.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZY7pY1WkAALgkz.jpg (could not find a better link) The reason is that he was tweeting again in favour of Catalan Republicans, more precisely against the current wave of political prisoners that Spain is taking, including probably the last Catalan elected president, now under custody in Germany. This is confirmed by Assange himself in his last tweet "I have no right to twit about political prisoners." The guy is now a hero to many catalans. He will be an honorary citizen of the forthcoming Catalan Republic, and there are already talks of erecting a statue of him in the center of Barcelona!

ows_vs_obama 9y ago
Pretty sad how quickly governments move to silence speech they disagree with. Even sadder is how the most accessible channnels of communication (tv, for instance) have become state and corporate mediums for propaganda.
lawnchair_larry 9y ago
Did you read the article? It includes your image, and says that is not the reason this time. The example you quote was when he was given his first/last warning. This time he was cut because he commented on the UK/Russia poisoning thing.
- enriquto 9y ago
  Well, there may be multiple causes. However I think that the catalan cause is a stronger explanation because 1) the spanish nationalist media is all histerical about this event, thanking Ecuador for its help and solidarity 2) this comes just one day after Assange started re-tweeting again about Catalonia, after several months of radio silence about the subject 3) he has always been commenting about russia, the uk, and many other things. 4) The UK can not effectively cut the connection to Assange, only Ecuador (by threatening to expel him from his embassy).
- 9y ago

phillipseamore 9y ago

But can Pamela still visit?