{"id":690360,"date":"2022-06-08T05:14:17","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T05:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/?p=130286"},"modified":"2022-06-08T05:14:17","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T05:14:17","slug":"a-spanish-court-calls-mike-pompeo-we-want-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/06\/08\/a-spanish-court-calls-mike-pompeo-we-want-you\/","title":{"rendered":"A Spanish Court Calls: Mike Pompeo, We Want You"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 3, Judge Santiago Pedraz of Spain\u2019s national court, the Audienca Nacional, issued a summons<\/a> for former CIA director and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to testify in an ongoing investigation into the conduct of private security firm UC Global and its founder, David Morales.<\/p>\n

The security firm is said to have been hired by US intelligence operatives to monitor Julian Assange and his associates during his time in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.\u00a0 In all likelihood, if we are to take the evidence<\/a> of UC Global\u2019s former head of operations, Michel Wallemacq, seriously, Ecuador\u2019s intelligence services were also involved.<\/p>\n

The allegations were given a very dramatic airing in the initial extradition trial of Assange at the Old Bailey in London, when two former UC Global employees were called to testify for the defence.\u00a0 One of the two gave testimony<\/a> on the rather seedy task of pilfering \u201ca nappy of a baby which according to the company\u2019s security personnel deployed at the embassy, regularly visited Mr Assange\u201d.<\/p>\n

The witness also revealed that Assange\u2019s seemingly interminable stay had, by December 2017, caused nerves to fray.\u00a0 The \u201cAmericans \u2026 had even suggested that more extreme measures should be deployed against the \u2018guest\u2019 to put an end to the situation\u201d.\u00a0 This might involve staging an \u201caccident\u201d that \u201cwould allow persons to enter from outside the embassy and kidnap the asylee\u201d.<\/p>\n

The move against Pompeo comes as part of a petition filed by Aitor Mart\u00ednez, one of the lawyers representing Assange in the proceedings against UC Global.\u00a0 In addition to summoning Pompeo, Judge Pedraz is also seeking to question William Evanina, a former US counterintelligence official who is said to have confessed to viewing<\/a> security camera footage and audio recordings from inside the Ecuadorian Embassy.<\/p>\n

Pompeo has had a rather fickle relationship with WikiLeaks, an addling mixture of opportunistic appreciation and loathing.\u00a0 As House Representative from Kansas, he drew much upon the organisation\u2019s published emails as evidence of the DNC\u2019s rigging proclivities in selecting candidates for the 2016 election.\u00a0 \u201cNeed further proof that the fix was from Pres. Obama on down?\u00a0 BUSTED: 19,252 Emails from DNC Leaked by WikiLeaks,\u201d tweeted<\/a> Pompeo in July 2016.<\/p>\n

When questioned about the tweet during his confirmation hearings<\/a> for the post of CIA Director, selective amnesia gripped.\u00a0 Asked by Maine Senator Angus King whether he felt that WikiLeaks was \u201ca reliable source of information\u201d, Pompeo replied in the negative, adding that he had \u201cnever believed\u201d the publishing entity to be \u201ca credible source of information\u201d.\u00a0 He had a \u201cdeep understanding of WikiLeaks\u201d (evidence of that knowledge was not forthcoming) and had never seen it as having credible information \u201cfor the United States or for anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of making an issue of this, Senator King felt less than combative, appreciating the \u201ccandour\u201d shown by Pompeo, with a recommendation that he \u201cspeak truth to the highest level of power in this country\u201d.\u00a0 King merely hoped \u201cthat you will hold onto the commitment that you made today, because it\u2019s not going to be easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

On becoming director, WikiLeaks became an object of mania for Pompeo, suggesting that his views on the outfit\u2019s credibility had been rather short on candour.\u00a0 Their publishing feats, in other words, were simply too<\/em> credible.\u00a0 The disruptive role played by the publishing organisation in the 2016 election through publishing leaked emails from Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign was filed away to gather dust.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is,\u201d he told an audience<\/a> at the Center for Strategic and international Studies (CSIS) on April 13, 2017, \u201ca non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was aided, in no small part, by the release by WikiLeaks of the CIA\u2019s own crown jewels \u2013 or at the very least a good smattering of them.\u00a0 The publication of the Vault 7 files<\/a>, detailing hacking tools developed by the intelligence organisation, unleashed a storm within the organisation.\u00a0 \u201cThis extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code,\u201d WikiLeaks declared in a press release<\/a>, \u201cgives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the report<\/a> from Yahoo!News<\/em> last September, a former Trump national security official claimed that the administration saw \u201cblood\u201d in the aftermath of the release.\u00a0 Ideas and plans were exchanged among various officials to abduct Assange, and even, given the chance, assassinate him.<\/p>\n

Pompeo, again showing himself to be a man of brimming candour, refused to confirm<\/a> the veracity of the details in the report.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t say much about this other than whoever those 30 people who allegedly spoke to one of these [Yahoo News] reporters \u2013 they should all be prosecuted for speaking about classified activity inside the Central Intelligence Agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither Pompeo nor Evanina are at risk of facing any charges in Spain, however richly deserved. Judge Pedraz has made it clear that the Spanish courts have no jurisdiction to try them.\u00a0 At the very least, these summonses have caused a flutter, mocking the politicised process that has characterised the vengeful, Kafkaesque effort against Assange.<\/p>The post A Spanish Court Calls: Mike Pompeo, We Want You<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.\n

This post was originally published on Dissident Voice<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On June 3, Judge Santiago Pedraz of Spain\u2019s national court, the Audienca Nacional, issued a summons for former CIA director and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to testify in an ongoing investigation into the conduct of private security firm UC Global and its founder, David Morales. The security firm is said to have been [\u2026]<\/p>\n

The post A Spanish Court Calls: Mike Pompeo, We Want You<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,117,1279,8115,200,205],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690360"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":690361,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690360\/revisions\/690361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}