WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange How do you contact the outside world after he was cut off from the Internet?
Assange publicly questioned the UK's claims of the poisoning of former Russian agents, the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK cut off Assange's communications.
"Assange failed to comply with the written commitment made to the Ecuadorian government in 2017 and released information on interfering in the internal affairs of other countries." The Ecuadorian government said in a statement.
Therefore, through electronic jammers, restricting servers and other means, Assange's already very narrow 20-square-meter range of activity was cut off. Not only could he not access the Internet, , tweet , but he could not use the phone, nor could he meet guests in the embassy.
Ecuador is afraid of causing trouble
A week ago, Assange posted three tweets in a row, expressing his opinions on the diplomatic storm caused by the poisoning incident of former Russian intelligence official Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England. Among them, he wrote: "Although British Prime Minister Theresa May has reason to regard Russia as the primary suspect, there is currently no direct evidence, and the International Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' independent investigation has not been confirmed. Kremlin thus was able to promote the view that Russia was persecuted at home."
Although Australia-born Assange has now obtained Ecuadorian nationality. But the Ecuadorian Embassy in the UK is just a temporary place for Assange. Once he leaves the embassy, the British police have the right to arrest him immediately, and the United States will extradite him back.
However, the most influential place of Assange was not physical space from the beginning, but the network.
In 2006, Assange founded the WikiLeaks website. In 2010, WikiLeaks exposed a large number of confidential documents of the United States in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, and leaked more than 250,000 telegrams about the contact between the U.S. State Department and the U.S. embassy abroad, of which 115,000 were secret and confidential telegrams, and the U.S. government lost all its face.
Assange was subsequently investigated for alleged rape and was arrested in the UK, but he denied all charges and has sought asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy since 2012. Sweden also announced the termination of his investigation in May last year.
Therefore, the limitations in physical space are not important to Assange. The limitations in cyberspace are the life gate. This is also the method taken by the Ecuadorian government every time it warns Assange. The key is that these warnings did not play much role, and Assange's "comments" on social media were all about sensitive international affairs.
In 2016, WikiLeaks hacked the computer of the Democratic National Committee of the United States and released a large amount of email materials from the then Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, which caused a great crisis. So Ecuador cut off Assange's net for a while.
In November last year, Assange expressed his support for the independence of Spain Catalonia Autonomous Region on Twitter, which in turn caused dissatisfaction with the Spanish government. The Ecuadorian government therefore asked Assange not to interfere in other countries' affairs, but the warning obviously did not work.
The Ecuadorian government's statement said that the reason for cutting Assange's communication network was because his behavior "puts the good relationship maintained between Ecuador and other countries such as the United Kingdom and the European Union at risk."
In the agreement reached with Ecuador, Assange stated that he would comply with Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, that is, "the embassy is reluctant to serve as a purpose that does not conform to the embassy's duties as stipulated in this Convention or other rules of general international law, or special agreements between the contributor and the receiving country."
Who will deliver the letter? How will Assange communicate with the outside world after the internet is disconnected?
According to media reports, German Müller-Maguhn is one of the few contacts Assange with the outside world. He is also a friend of Assange. He usually visits Assange once a month and will give him books, movie discs, clothes and other items. In 2016, Muller also sent Assange a USB flash drive, which stored the personal information to be passed to Assange, so it is not convenient to transmit it by email. This approach has attracted the attention of the European and American intelligence communities.
After Assange was cut off from the Internet, daily visits will be his main way to contact the outside world. Although he cannot meet guests, it does not mean that he cannot accept items brought by visitors.
After Muller sent Assange a USB flash drive, he was targeted by the European and American intelligence circles, especially the three major US intelligence agencies - CIA , the FBI and the National Security Bureau, and became the target of close attention. Now, he uses a passport instead of an ID card with his address when he enters the UK, and turns off his phone as soon as he enters the UK, becoming extremely cautious. Customs personnel will also review Mueller's identity layer by layer and repeatedly ask him about his purpose of entering the UK.
Muller's clues to British customs are always like a businessman, such as "I just returned from a business trip from Brazilian for three days", but in fact, Muller's main business is to do some cybersecurity consultations. For example, he attended a meeting organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense in 2017.
In January this year, when entering the Ecuadorian Embassy to visit Assange, Muller also needed to go through a guard's inspection and asked him to turn off his mobile phone, camera and other electronic equipment, and hand over his watch and car keys. "The last time I went to see him, they looked into the fruits I brought. They were also doing their own things and there was nothing to blame," he said.
