Share this page!

Matt Kennard Profile picture
Twitter logo
28 Apr, 4 tweets, 2 min read
Revealed: The UK government campaign to force Assange out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London

My latest for @declassifiedUK
dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-0…
* Prime minister Theresa May was told in March 2018 to ‘butter up’ Ecuador’s president in order to get Assange out of the embassy.

* Later in that year, May’s government spent £20,000 to bring Ecuadorian officials and defence minister to UK.
dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-0…
* British foreign minister arranged Daily Mail hit piece on Assange days after his eviction from embassy

* Same minister gave Ecuador’s president Lenín Moreno a porcelain plate from Buckingham Palace gift shop to ‘say thank you’ for handing over Assange
dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-0…
* Two weeks before Assange was expelled from embassy, Britain’s then deputy national security adviser for intelligence, Richard Moore, spent £4,469 on a business-class flight to Ecuador. Moore was appointed chief of MI6 just over a year later.
dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-0…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Matt Kennard

Matt Kennard Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @kennardmatt

Matt Kennard Profile picture
28 Apr
Interesting facet of the new revelations about the UK government campaign to get Assange out of embassy was how it chimed with an apparent campaign by the Guardian which ran from May to November 2018, culminating with the now infamous front-page Manafort / Assange story.
In his diaries, Alan Duncan says the Ecuadorian government were concerned in mid-2018 about the "domestic reaction" in Ecuador to rescinding Assange's asylum and that this was delaying them taking the final decision.
In May 2018, the Guardian began an apparent campaign with 10 articles on “Operation Hotel”, Ecuador’s Assange embassy operation. Authored by 3 Guardian - and 2 Ecuadorian - journalists, the main article was based on “documents seen by the Guardian” and anonymous “sources”.
Read 10 tweets
Matt Kennard Profile picture
6 Jan
There's a history of British judiciary using Belmarsh as a means to punish people on behalf of intelligence.

In late 1990s, MI6 whistleblower Richard Tomlinson (no previous criminal record) was remanded in Belmarsh as a Category A prisoner, despite not releasing any secret info.
The punishment was meant to force him into pleading guilty. It worked.

When it was announced his trial would be held in a High Court, meaning he would be held on remand for up to two years, longer than likely sentence, he pleaded guilty to breaking the Official Secrets Act.
At Tomlinson's trial, chief prosecution witness was John Scarlett, later MI6 chief.

In 2016, Scarlett appointed Lord Arbuthnot a director of his consultancy, SC Strategy.

Lord Arbuthnot's wife is Lady Arbuthnot, the chief mag who ruled against Assange in 2018 + Baraitser's boss
Read 5 tweets
Matt Kennard Profile picture
27 Sep 20
.@declassifiedUK has now published 7 investigations into legal irregularities and conflicts of interest in the Assange US extradition case. Thread.

(Number 8 is coming this week)
1. Julian Assange’s judge and her husband’s links to the British military establishment exposed by WikiLeaks
dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-1…
2. The son of Julian Assange’s judge is linked to an anti-data leak company created by the UK intelligence establishment
dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-1…
Read 8 tweets
Matt Kennard Profile picture
17 Sep 20
The draconian Belmarsh supermax regime is a tried and tested program the British national security state has used to break dissidents that threaten their power.
In 1997-98, MI6 whistleblower Richard Tomlinson spent 6 months in Belmarsh for giving the summary outline of a book to an Australian publisher. He writes about it in his book Big Breach. You can read the relevant section from page 173 onwards here:
wikispooks.com/w/images/f/f1/…
Tomlinson says MI6 were adamant he shouldn’t get bail because they wanted to pressure him into a guilty plea. They even got him designated a Category A prisoner at Belmarsh, Tomlinson says. The pressure eventually worked. He pled guilty.
Read 6 tweets
Matt Kennard Profile picture
4 Sep 20
Graeber leaves such a huge hole.

In UK, he was unique in that his academic brilliance had given him some mainstream purchase but he’d never let that world colonise his thinking—he had a totally free mind. His only priorities were truth+justice.

I’ll miss his presence incredibly
I was a reporter with the FT in New York when Occupy Wall Street kicked off. At start, me and my colleague told the news editor that we should be covering it. He said “not our sort of thing”. Over following months we interviewed Graeber a bunch of times.
ft.com/content/8b599c… Image
Despite being a sort of hero down at OWS, he was always unassuming and open—and completely embedded in the movement rather than above it.

So eloquent as well, with a deep understanding of many areas. We interviewed him at length at the time, but FT wouldn't let us profile him.
Read 4 tweets
Matt Kennard Profile picture
24 Jul 20
In February 2000, 200 demonstrators marched to Trafalgar Square in London to protest Russia’s brutal war in Chechnya. Check who was leading it.
Two months later, in April 2000, Corbyn puts down an EDM in parliament demanding Putin support a ceasefire in Chechnya and entry of humanitarian supplies.

edm.parliament.uk/early-day-moti…
In same period, MI6 was interfering in Russian elections to help get Putin elected.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @kennardmatt has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @kennardmatt!

Read all threads by @kennardmatt