Former CIA Analyst Says Trump Admin Wants Assange’s Head on a Platter

Former CIA analyst John Kiriakou stated during an interview on Wednesday that President Donald Trump is following in Barack Obama’s footsteps when it comes to whistleblowers and wants Julian Assange’s “head on a platter.”

During an interview with RT, Kiriakou, who blew the whistle on CIA torture programs, urged Assange to not attempt to exit the Ecuadorian embassy.

“It’s a worst kept secret in Washington that Julian is likely slated to begin working his way through the US judicial process if he ever leaves the embassy. And I think the Americans told the British under no terms should Julian leave the embassy on his own free will,”Kiriakou said.

Kiriakou noted that the reason for the UK denying Assange safe passage, his offense of jumping bail, is very weak and the only reason they have any interest in him is due to pressure from Washington.

“The British are quietly and secretly working with the Americans to make sure Julian is arrested and send to the United States for trial which I think is a travesty,” Kiriakou said.

He added that Trump is now following in the footsteps of Obama when it comes to excessively targeting whistleblowers.

“I think that this is really a continuation of a very dangerous and a wrong-headed policy to target whistleblowers,” Kiriakou stated. “Julian is one of the biggest international whistleblowers and I think that they want his head on a platter.”

Kiriakou urged the publisher to “try to be as patient as possible” and hope for a change in government in either the US or the UK that will allow him to be granted safe passage to Ecuador, where he has been granted a passport after years of political asylum.

A WikiLeaks legal source close to the publisher told the Gateway Pundit on Tuesday morning that the political persecution of Assange by the US government has ramped up substantially in recent weeks.

“The actions of the US State Department, Department of Justice and the CIA against WikiLeaks have substantially increased, not decreased, in recent weeks,” the source told Gateway Pundit.

Many supporters of President Trump have been urging him to grant the publisher a preemptive pardon that would end the years-long investigation. His own lawyers recently made the case for WikiLeaks being protected by the First Amendment in a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against his campaign by a group of former Obama lawyers.

In defense of Trump, the 32-page filing by Michael A. Carvin argues that a defendant may not be held liable for a disclosure of stolen information if the disclosure deals with “a matter of public concern” and provided that the speaker was not “involved” in the theft.

Given that WikiLeaks does not steal or hack the documents that are given to them, this precedent set by the case of Bartnicki v. Vapper should also apply to Assange.

The motion additionally argues that “punishing truthful publication in the name of privacy’ is always an ‘extraordinary measure’ –’ doubly so when the publisher did nothing illegal in obtaining the information.”

 

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