Many U. S. and foreign news outlets have picked up the story published by the Spanish daily ABC that Spanish Judge Santiago Pedraza is requesting that U.S. authorities grant him permission to question former CIA Director Mike Pompeo and former U.S. counterintelligence officer William Evanina about an alleged U.S. government plot to kidnap or assassinate Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Details of the plot were revealed last September by Yahoo News, according to which high-level officials of the Trump administration planned either to kidnap or kill Assange after Wikileaks published details about sensitive CIA hacking tools. A former senior counterintelligence official told Yahoo that the discussion took place “at the highest levels” of the Trump administration.
It would come as no surprise to find that the murderous Pompeo had been involved in such a plot. The Spanish court is investigating whether the Spanish security firm UC Global spied on Assange while it was providing security for the Ecuadorian embassy in London, which had granted Assange asylum. Judge Pedraza wants to question Pompeo about the assassination plot and whether he or others ever received intelligence from UC Global.
According to Spain’s EFE news agency, Assange’s legal team is basing its request for the testimony of the two men on the “huge scandal provoked in the U.S. by Evanina’s confession” and Pompeo’s subsequent confirmation that “the United States had access to the cameras of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, to recordings of conversations within the mission and records of visits and travel documents of everyone, having even planned the assassination or kidnapping” of Assange.
Assange’s lawyer told EFE that Spain could not call the two men as suspects, as this would involve a crime committed by foreigners in a foreign country and Spain would have no jurisdiction. Therefore, the request is for them to be allowed to give testimony, virtually, later this month.
