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tv   Going Underground  RT  November 30, 2019 11:00pm-11:31pm EST

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islamic state claims responsibility for friday stabbing attack in london which left 2 people dead. u.s. democrat strategist who worked for barack obama are accused of creating fake local news in a bid to sway the 2020 lection. and the biggest shopping day of the year isn't just a bargain extravaganza as reports emerge of black friday is less attractive aspects from bromance to environmental damage. well those are the headlines and that's it for me for now daniel hawkins will be here next down to take you through all the latest news from around the world here on altie international.
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now imagine or time they were going underground as e.u. chief donald tusk and your good younger pack up and leave as their terms expire after a conference of the european parliament in brussels condemns the trumpet ministration over its pursuit of wiki leaks is julian a songe and demands his freedom from a british prism coming up on the show will there be blood on the hands of the united kingdom with a march of nato nation media continuing to downplay the warnings of 60 doctors and wiki leaks julian assange could die in a u.k. prison we speak to the united nations kneels meltzer who alleges british contempt of international norms of justice and we speak to go along the ecuadorian foreign minister who helped grant asylum just by them it is embassy in london well joining me now is the un special rapporteur on torture and other cruel inhuman or degrading
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treatment or punishment niels melts special rapporteur thanks so much for going on going underground this time in the studio just before we get to julian assange there's a saudi media forum at the riyadh hilton on monday and i understand that you and your fellow special report ters have been talking about the case of new jane newell who is apparently detained arbitrarily another area here prison she's been there for a year what is this case about well she's a human rights activist the women's rights activist actually that has been the detained on spurious claims of smash and security but in fact she has spoken out for women's rights very vocally and she claims also to have been tortured in detention and obviously no investigations have been undertaken by saudi arabia so we are calling on saudi arabia to conduct these investigations which are international obligations under the convention against torture which saudi. arabia
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has actually ratified obviously this idea and government would deny there's been any torture and that indeed she is there for national security reasons we write these idea i've been ambassador on the program let's get now to another case what have you made of 60 doctors claiming julie innocent of wiki leaks may die in a british prison as he awaits extradition to the usa for revealing the war crimes of nato nations all that appeal her roof reflects a reaffirms my own assessment as you may know that and 1st of november i did my own press statement calling on the british authorities to release to the sonship because i was seriously concerned for his life well we covered at the time spoke to you why do you think that there hasn't been more interest in your allegations as un special rapporteur. by the media in this country and indeed in the european union there's been lots of interest in the developing world while to be honest with you i
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think part of it is that people simply can't believe that what's were reporting is true i think believe you in other words yes but i also think that about a year ago i probably wouldn't have believed that this is possible what's going on due to in the us what we see here is a person whose due process rights for 10 years have been violated severely and systematically in all jurisdictions and all legal proceedings against him at every stage of this proceeding and that's something that's very difficult to comprehend that that's possible in democratic states rule of law states at the u.k. sweden in the us and will acquittal you can't rely on any authority to protect your rights and this constant threats to be extradited to a country where you face a secret trial based on secret evidence you know judged by the jury elected in a population who are 85 percent of the population works for cia n.s.a. d.o.d.
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or d.l.'s around alexandra nice to geneva to the infamous espionage court. adjudicated by the same judge as every single other national security defendant in recent years. this is not going to be a fair trial you know that so if you're in this situation this constant threat to be extradited there and then to receive a draconian punishment of 175 years or maybe to reduce it 120 in prison in the supermax prison and we know what the conditions are like there this is this crosses the line of cruel inhuman and degrading treatment that's not just my opinion that's a consistent opinion of myself my mandate my predecessors everybody that's actually seriously deals with that that's the threat scenario he faced 4 years is not being taken seriously he's been ridiculed by the press he's been mobbed by the various
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authorities he's been accused of all kinds of things but not given a fair chance to actually defend himself we have a swedish proceeding that is in a preliminary investigation stage for 9 years well yes the media care in fairness to them said this is nothing to do with the revelations of war crimes people have seen the video that julius and his organization released of the cold blooded killing of journalists is not about that it's about this we didn't. allegations and i understand you claim there are 50 perceive process violations by the swedish authorities in this case yes well i am all eyes meticulously all the documents that were made available to me including the original 1st questioning you know police reports that the the alleged victims the older that the email correspondence that has leaked between the crown prosecution service and the swedish prosecution service internally e-mails to swedish police where they adapted
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witness statements without consulting the witnesses in order to be able to reopen the case once it was 1st closed so i had a lot of questions as. about 50 questions where i said these are factors that in in my view prove that there was to do the due process violations and the swedish authorities had nothing to say to basically answer to no one page letter saying we have no further observations now we're talking about the state responsibility for potential torture and treatment so responsibility means that your response ability you're able to respond to questions that are being asked so if a state cannot respond the refuses to respond to the questions of a un special rapporteur that's been mandated by states to monitor their compliance with the treaties they have signed then i'm seriously concerned about where we're heading where amidst a general election campaign here there broke us in restrictions but you mention
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there the c.p.s. which of course was run at the time by the now shadow bricks and secretary. and when you talk about u.k. authorities responses to your concerns of course the tories are the incumbent what has been the reaction from british authorities to your reports there right now in effect has been psychologically tortured i visited tunis and more than 6 months ago it was a 9th of may 2019 about 4 weeks after his arrest and the 2 medical doctors and this is all been out there i mean it was clear concerns that he showed all the symptoms that are typical for psychological torture that the pressure on him needed to be alleviated quickly and both doctors said otherwise his state of health will enter a downward spiral very quickly and so the u.k. authorities did not respond for 5 months after him at that it and i made an urgent
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appeal for urgent measures to protect the innocent as health and rights and dignity . on the same day i received a tweet then foreign secretary jeremy hunt accusing me of interfering with judicial authorities in the u.k. . and basically claiming you know that the right to interfere with justices but then he invited me to conduct that visit and to report he is my counterpart so he had to expect a report now if it turned out negative and then also obviously claiming that i could have left the embassy at any time to which tonight responded in a tweet which i would not usually do but when a foreign secretary all they can do in 5 months is to send a tweet to my official report or i answered in a tweet that in my view he was about as free to leave the embassy as someone sitting in a rubber boat in a shark well no other people are saying that the world is witnessing the slow motion execution of his i'm going to visit him before his next court hearing will
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be able to well i have to say it it's actually exceptional that a special rapporteur on torture can visit individual prisoners usually with this visit entire countries obviously have to cover $190.00 plus countries so it's difficult for me to to repeat individual visits until it's absolutely indispensable and nano it is up to the authorities according to the convention against torture article 12 they have an unconditional obligation to investigate promptly and impartially as soon as there is so called reasonable grounds to believe that an act of torture could have been committed but that doesn't need to be evidence if the un special rapporteur on porters conclusion is not reasonable grounds i don't know what is all relevant u.k. authorities reject all your allegations there are now being allegations about a judge involved in the case judge or both not that she has links to the u.k. ministry of defense her husband although both not one s.c. strategy a company which are co-director was the former boss of m i 6 john scarlett basically
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people that concern to in the wiki leaks cables are julian as and over some of the release of. what did you make of these connections well i mean here just as in sweden every single step in the judicial proceedings beat the bill violation proceedings or the extradition that prisons have been tainted by violations of his due process rights one of them is that you have or sieved surely no actual violations well i think no absolutely there have been violations of his due process rights and severe violations he has not had access to his legal documents for months how can you ask a defendant in an extradition trial to respond to the u.s. and that meant that he has not been able to read with any excuse the authorities give here saying if you're innocent at a computer in jail you could bring the western world's intelligence agencies down
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that is that just doesn't work lead well i don't think you need a computer to read an indictment how is it denied paper documents as well yes well it seems that now his lawyers have been able to negotiate that but we're now 6 months into his detention he has served his entire sentence for the bail of a vision without access to his legal documents. his swedish lawyer when he visited him a couple of months back from stockholm flying in from stockholm had a 2 hour slot reportedly to see him and unison was brought to him with one hour and 45 minutes to lay so he had 15 minutes to explain to him a swedish legal document of 300 pages but could not leave it with him and no translation that him so. how is that rule of law well of course in court he said it was driven sure what was going on but if your report raised eyebrows europol will have raised eyebrows especially to an extent in the way that you talked about the
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british media scene you appeared to be saying the part of the psychological torture of julian assange has been committed by. newspapers like the guardian of course of newspaper that were getting supplied information to they recently had an editorial in support of julian assad but they said you don't need to like him why do you think that newspapers that received information resides continue to emphasize the fact that you may not have to like his character it's very difficult for me to understand how the mainstream media has such an important role for the integrity of institutions of state institutions as a 4th estate how they can not be interested in this case i can say that i have offered to b.b.c. for example to heart talk with them so i don't have to agree with them you see if you don't agree with me do a heart talk with me ask me all the difficult questions and expose me if i'm wrong
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but if i'm right then you need to report on this i represent a un mandate if i ask official questions according to diplomatic protocol and states refuse to engage with them and that they no longer respond to my questions it's a sweep everything under the carpet well. then what does that mean we have a huge black hole where there is no longer any control over how power is being exercised but what will it mean for britain's standing in the world of indeed due to his size dyes and bell much present as i say look don't fall from here off to the un is warning the british government i think it was an absolute be an absolute tragedy 1st of all for june the sonship self and for the cause he stands for but also for the british society and their system and the credibility of the british state as a rule of law state that we also know that the reasons the us wants to extradite him for is a classic case of a political offense and the u.k.
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law prohibits extradition for political offenses the european convention against you for human rights it would put would prohibit it the convention against torture it would prohibit it the international covenant on civil import the political rights prohibits it there is no discussion that this extradition could lawfully go forward so in my view this whole detention now at present has no legal basis we invite the u.s. investors in london ambassador johnson on the show see if we can refute what you're saying special thank you thank you very much after the break the foreign minister of ecuador graham long who helped grant julian assange just siloam of his embassy in london on the so-called slow motion british execution of the wiki leaks founder as well as evidence of a defacto 2019 british backed military coup in the lithium rich nation of bolivia told us of all coming of the body of going underground.
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we still got. tirade indeed that's rude couldn't sneak. it over. and you. could want to take it out you think about it. can they. get him as all. get to be a good tone goof on the author to get that with. good children tell him with all that you can fire going next time you don't come.
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welcome back 60 doctors have written to the british government warning that wiki leaks is australian founder julian assange could die in a british prison as he awaits extradition to the cia's home state of virginia of a revealing u.s. war crimes in iraq before his imprisonment in britain he was granted political asylum by the south american nation of ecuador he was in the country's embassy in london for nearly 7 years joining me now from washington d.c. is the ecuadorian foreign minister who helped to give him asylum graham long thanks so much when the foreign minister for coming on the show your country gave asylum of course to assad i want to get on do events in your country in your hemisphere but your reaction to 60 doctors warning that the sons may die for
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revealing u.s. war crimes these are tragic news and ongoing injustice for julian assange and i think all this. proves that ecuador was right all along. we're going to sondra was . running a risk of facing what he's facing now ecuador gave him asylum for fear of persecution for his activities as a publisher at the head of we can leaks. i remember actually interacting with british officials and british officials telling me that we were deluded that it had nothing to do with we collect nothing to do with freedom expression nothing to do with publishing it it had everything to do with the swedish case. and now we're seeing that we were right all along it had nothing to do with the swedish case and everything to do with this possibility of an extradition to the united states and i think it. it's an important global cause that we must all defend freedom for julian sun yes nowadays even the new york times and the guardian supporters you can't
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imagine who those british officials were that was saying you were deluded about a grand jury in the united states that was going to maybe imprison a son for 175 years in america generally speaking all our interaction with british diplomats with the british state. that their argument was that there was a near european arrest warrant that he should go and be questioned in sweden we of course argued that he could be questioned by sweden that should be done in in the ecuadorian embassy that ecuador was abiding by the international rules of asylum and there were lots of off the record conversations but every time they wanted to bring it back to the swedish case we were very suspicious of this we felt that there was something behind that and we were proven right it just shows that it was all about we kill leaks from the start sounds condemnation of crimes against humanity and wrongdoings of powerful nations in the world do you know if your
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embassy in london was being bugged when you were the foreign minister of ecuador you've probably read that according to el pais in spain your embassy in london has been bugged by a cia linked companies like to a man called david morales of undercover global. was it bugged when you were foreign minister did this come about when lenin merino was elected president of your country and i have evidence as to whether it was bugged when i was a foreign minister but we were certainly we felt very much that we were how diplomatic personnel was living in or working in an embassy under siege i mean certainly we felt absolutely. we felt it on we felt observed we felt surrounded it was very very hostile working. for ecuador and diplomats of course for miss. the son jim self now we know we have the proof as you just said that the embassy was bugged. when this started exactly i don't have the exact date
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i don't have the exact evidence but certainly we have a lot of hypotheses and suspicions a good julian assange helped edward snowden escape u.s. authorities for blowing the whistle on mass surveillance and amidst all of that the bolivian president of the time evo morales his plane was brought down in europe trying to get a hold of edward snowden evo morales is gone your reaction to the coup d'etat or as british the british government says the proper judicial removal of president even more others of bolivia or you can get much more of a coup than what happened in bolivia you know middle class uprising turning violent a police mutiny and then the army the military's entry saying mr president resign that's pretty much a textbook coup and i think it was prepared i think they was you know they were
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what alice had a lot of enemies you just mentioned some of the intimidation he was a victim of many opportunity came the oas ran i think a. a mission of electoral observers that had a mission and that was to discredit the. but if in elections the think tank the center of economic policy. the economic the center for economic and policy research that i work for has just published a paper that i've coauthored actually showing that there were no evidence was provided by the oas to suggest that there were fraud in elections as i said that narrative completely at odds with obviously the organization of american states but also obviously nature governments like britain like washington who say it was evil moral. as for the on going to do usually do you think one of the one of the context we should understand the coup is that bolivia has the largest sources of lithium
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which is used in the every phone battery every laptop battery in the world i think there are a number of elements certainly the model is government was always nationalist and sovereign to defend its national resources it nationalized its national resources particularly its gas resources. years ago so i mean listen may have been an element. but i think more generally this bolivia. morales government was a part of what was often known as the pink tide of left this governments in latin america during the 1st decade and a half of the 21st century and if you look around in the hemisphere all those governments have been heavily punished by. you know industrial states and that sort of countries from the global north for having dead to question the germany
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that they were subjected to few look around you know brazil with lula's incarceration ecuador with korea has exile. in all sorts of pressures against the left in general in argentina and now the coup in bolivia you'll see that. you know i think the elites and their international allies and some international powers were waiting for the right moment to to to hit back and to make sure that governments that were dosed sile and that were acting you know within the sort of traditional. monro ism of the united states ally and to the national security doctrine of united states and following the call of sort of bilateral foreign policy as opposed to wanting to integrate and having regional integration having more unity in south america in particular those governments. those leaders have been the victim of serious attacks and the latest
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example is the coup in bolivia goes a songes also an ecuadorian citizen he was given a good dorrian citizenship tell me about what you characterize the situation in your country today because when imrie know said you know it was not only as being a problem for ecuador it was your government's refusal to allow the cia base in mentor bay what we've seen over the last 2 and a half years in ecuador is a very sharp u. turn. the government is actually governing now with all the advisers all the people who were on his presidential opponent the contender in the elections in 2017 elections his contender all these advisors all those people are now the people who are in cabinet posts so what in has really done a 180 degree u. turn and governing with the elites with the right with and you know essentially moved away from his electoral promises from his electoral program and
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there are a number of ways it has been expressed through economic policy through the i.m.f. coming back in and also as you mentioned through sort of foreign policy and national security doctrine and the do the job the geopolitical behavior of ecuador so granting an airstrip for. u.s. military and the sacred galapagos islands it's quite shocking after having been the largest military base u.s. military base in the region and banning it actually in the 2008 constitution the ecuadoran constitution bans foreign military presence on our territory if you look at every single issue in the western hemisphere in latin america you know ecuador moving away from a much more sort of nonaligned foreign policy with diversifying its ties with the world to what is happening now essentially just you know to. to be try to be the best pupil in the u.s. in the u.s. both in the class a century trying to be. president trumps best friend that's how i would
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characterize ecuador right now just finally you mentioned the galapagos islands of course the environmental repercussions of that was shocked many people it's known for charles darwin but you mention the i.m.f. just finally you championed chinese investment in your country do you think because then in merino as joe's in the i.m.f. is learned he will end the way that arguably so many developing country leaders have ended. basically having to be on the run because once you take money from the i.m.f. you lose your government there's a limit in those applied a very aggressive new liberal structural adjustment program from not quite from day one but soon after. coming to power. and he's decided to do this with the company mint of the i.m.f. so a $4200000000.00 loan with
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a lot of conditionality the same ones the disastrous. recipes of the 1990 s. that caused so much economic instability and chaos in latin america there be repeated now in latin america by the i.m.f. in ecuador and elsewhere racially and we're seeing people fight back because people have lived through something better you know for 10 years 15 years depending on which country that american ecuador was for 10 years during the presidency of i 5 corridor where we had very healthy growth rates with a lot of redistribution reduction of poverty reduction of inequality without the disaster recipe book of the i.m.f. in fact without the those nearly broadstairs the policies so people have been through some experience something different and now that the i.m.f. has come back with this kind of age old fundamentalism of of you know slashing wages and making people poor and all that the balance the books people are fighting back so we just had a wave of protest. an equitable in the month of october i think the largest protest possibly in ecuador in history certainly in my generation. president having to flee
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the capital city to where you are keen you know and basically being rescued by the military and he. it was very very close call as to whether his government with great survive on very briefly the do you think glimmering will as you say he had to flee the capital he will finish his full term in office well we'll have to see what happens and whether he still stubbornly tries to push these these very aggressive the poor pro-business economic reforms he's just tried to do it again now through parliament but if he does them like he did it like he did the 1st wave by decree he's likely to have people out on the street protesting protesting these measures but certainly people in ecuador and in latin america are seeing it chile we're seeing it we're seeing in argentina through elections fortunately are protesting these nearly broke packages voted by the i.m.f.
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which doesn't seem to have learned the lessons of history and is just repeated the same old repeating the same old mistakes of the 19 eighties and nineties all of our minister thank you thank you very much and that's it for the show will be back on monday when us president donald trump who backs the alleged military coup against evil moronic is welcome to london when arguably brain dead may just some of the building judged by social media and don't forget to subscribe to e.g. john. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest on the world of politics sports business i'm sure. i'll see you then.

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