A federal court in New York has ruled that the CIA and UC Global violated the privacy and constitutional rights of four U.S. citizens – two lawyers and two journalists – during their meetings with the whistleblower and founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
The four plaintiffs sued the CIA and former director Mike Pompeo, along with a former Spanish Special Forces soldier, David Morales, who owned a surveillance firm contracted to provide the embassy with security known as UC Global.
The ruling means the lawsuit will advance in federal court after the judge rejected an appeal by the CIA to throw the case out. Judge John G. Koeltl has acknowledged the plaintiffs’ rights were violated when UC Global employees unlawfully photographed the passwords and content of their mobile phones while they visited Assange.
Visitors were routinely required to hand over their phones, passports and other forms of identity on the pretense of security. While they visited Assange, the security employees photographed visitors' documents and opened their phones, taking photos of everything on the devices. This information was allegedly shared with the CIA by the UC Global Security Company.
What information will come to light about the CIA?
The suit is not just a major win for the plaintiffs; it also has the CIA on edge as the plaintiffs are now going to seek full declassification of CIA documents related to the covert operation as part of the legal discovery process in the case.
An investigation by the Spanish newspaper El Pais found numerous video and audio recordings, along with emails and other documents that the plaintiffs presented in court. The judge determined they had “sufficient evidence” supporting their claim that Morales was collaborating or serving as an agent for the CIA under Pompeo.
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The CIA reportedly wanted to spy on Assange’s conversations while his team was preparing to fight against an extradition request for him to face charges in the U.S. related to the revelation of secret information about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, even going so far as to place hidden microphones in the bathrooms used by Assange’s lawyers.
Many observers are expecting big revelations about the CIA in the discovery process. Speaking on The Hill TV’s Rising, Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, said: “I think this will be very, very revealing. A lot should come out in court during these proceedings that will affect Julian’s case as well, but also the American citizens who seem to be, these days, more and more spied on. You know, freedom of speech is being curtailed all over the place, whether it’s social media or the national security-style investigative reporting that Julian was involved in.”
Information about the CIA’s activities in the UK’s Ecuadorian embassy came to light thanks to a Yahoo News investigation in September 2021 citing dozens of former and current intelligence sources in the Trump White House and Pompeo's CIA exposing the clandestine operation.
The four plaintiffs are lawyers for Assange, Deborah Hrbek and Margaret Ratner Kunstler, along with journalists Charles Glass and John Goetz, who specialize in national security matters. However, these four individuals aren't the only ones who were subjected to CIA-ordered surveillance; more than 100 American citizens were victims; even Assange’s meetings with doctors were recorded.
“They had the whole place bugged. Essentially, it was a CIA black site running in the middle of London,” Shipton noted.
He added: “What’s happened to Julian and the people around him and these journalists is just… it’s just growing and growing. It’s becoming this huge, huge scandal. A scandal for the Trump administration but now a scandal for the Biden administration as they continue to pursue Julian with this unprecedented Espionage Act prosecution.”
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