Newspaper reveals how CIA spied on Assange — RT World News
A private contractor has installed microphones inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London where the co-founder of WikiLeaks resided, claims El Pais
The CIA used Spanish private security firm UC Global to covertly install microphones inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London to monitor WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange, El Pais reported on Wednesday, citing communications internal to the company.
UC Global has been contracted to provide security for the Embassy. Assange, who was then granted asylum in Ecuador, resided in the diplomatic compound from 2012 to 2019. The Spanish company’s alleged links to US intelligence agencies were first reported by El Pais in 2019.
UC Global founder and director David Morales first came into contact with the CIA in 2017, according to the newspaper. named “X” a remote access to the server that collected the data from the Embassy of Ecuador in London, called “the hotel”.
“As far as the hotel work is concerned, I want to offer our information gathering and analysis capability to the American customer.” Morales wrote in a September 2017 email. “We have to… try to make it appealing and easy to interpret.”
The information shared reportedly included profiles of Assange’s visitors, including lawyers and diplomats, as well as cellphone data. Morales was quoted as saying in a chat message that “The controlling people are our friends in the United States.”
One of the microphones that Morales’ team secretly planted inside the embassy was hidden in the base of a fire extinguisher in order to listen in despite Assange’s habit of using a white noise machine to prevent surveillance, El Pais said. Stickers were attached to the corners of the windows to prevent vibration and to allow sound recording via laser microphones. “I know it’s in the best interest and the United States wants to do it,” Morales allegedly wrote to his employees.
According to El Pais, UC Global’s work helped Washington foil a plan to smuggle Assange out of the embassy in December 2017. Lenin Moreno, president of Ecuador at the time, reportedly wanted to grant the co -founder of WikiLeaks Ecuadorian citizenship and get him out of Britain. in a diplomatic car.
Morales’ team allegedly recorded a conversation between Assange and Ecuadorian officials and then quickly sent it to the United States. Washington responded by issuing an arrest warrant for Assange to Britain, which apparently prompted the organizers to abandon the plan.
In 2019, Spanish authorities opened an investigation into Morales’ business and briefly detained him. He has since been released on bail.
rt Gt
