The secret probe is the
consequence of a criminal complaint filed by
Assange himself, in which he accuses Morales
and the company of the alleged offenses
involving violations of his privacy and the
secrecy of his client-attorney privileges,
as well as misappropriation, bribery and
money laundering. The director of UC Global
S. L. has not responded to calls from this
newspaper in order to confirm his version of
events.
Morales, a former member of the
military who is on leave of absence, stated
both verbally and in writing to a number of
his employees that, despite having been
hired by the government of then-Ecuadorian
President Rafael Correa, he also worked “for
the Americans,” to whom he allegedly sent
documents, videos and audios of the meetings
that the Australian activist held in the
embassy. “We are playing in another league.
This is the first division,” he told his
closest colleagues after attending a
security fair in the US city of Las Vegas in
2015 where he supposedly made his first
American contacts.
Despite the fact that the Spanish firm
– which is headquartered in the southern city of
Jerez de la Frontera – was hired by Senain, the
Ecuadorian intelligence services, Morales called on
his employees several times to keep his relationship
with the US intelligence services a secret.
Are You Tired Of
The Lies And
Non-Stop Propaganda?
The owner of UC Global S.
L. ordered a meeting between the head of
the Ecuadorian secret service, Rommy
Vallejo, and Assange to be spied on, at
a time when they were planning the exit
of Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy
using a diplomatic passport in order to
take him to another country. This
initiative was eventually rejected by
Assange on the basis that he considered
it to be “a defeat,” that would fuel
conspiracy theories, according to
sources close to the company consulted
by this newspaper.
The meeting took place on December 21,
2017 in the meeting room of the diplomatic building
and was recorded both on video and audio by cameras
installed by Morales’ employees. A small number of
people, among whom were the Australian’s lawyers,
were aware of the plan. Hours after the meeting, the
US ambassador informed the Ecuadorian authorities
about the plan, and the next day, December 22, the
US put out an international arrest warrant for
Assange.
“It is absurd to spy on who has hired
you if you are not going to hand that material over
to another country,” said a source close to UC
Global S. L. This newspaper has had access to the
video and the audio of the aforementioned meeting.
Cameras and external
access for the US
After the installation of new video
cameras at the beginning of December 2017, Morales
requested that his technicians install an external
streaming access point in the same area so that all
of the recordings could be accessed instantly by the
United States. To do this, he requested three
channels for access: “one for Ecuador, another for
us and another for X,” according to mails sent at
the time to his colleagues. When one of the
technicians asked to contact “the Americans” to
explain the way that they should access some of the
spying systems installed in the embassy, Morales
would always be evasive with his answers.
Morales ordered his workers to install
microphones in the embassy’s fire extinguishers and
also in the women’s bathroom, where Assange’s
lawyers, including the Spaniard Aitor Martínez and
his closest collaborators, would meet for fear of
being spied on. The cyberactivist’s meetings with
his lawyers, Melynda Taylor, Jennifer Robinson and
Baltasar Garzón, were also monitored.
The UC Global S. L. team was also
ordered by its boss to install stickers that
prevented the windows of the rooms that the
WikiLeaks founder used from vibrating, allegedly to
make it easier for the CIA to record conversations
with their laser microphones. They also took a used
diaper that from a baby that was on occasions taken
to visit the activist in order to determine if the
child was his by a close collaborator.
The former military man also planted
microphones in a number of decorative elements
inside the embassy, which were photographed for
their reproduction in Spain. He also wanted to
install them in the room used by “the guest,” as
Assange was referred to in his reports, but some of
his workers, concerned over the illegality of these
jobs, warned him that they could be discovered. “The
WikiLeaks founder was obsessed with being spied on,”
a former employee of the company said.
The spying on Assange increased after
Lenin Moreno came to power in Ecuador. At that
time, Morales regularly flew to New York and
Washington, this newspaper has managed to confirm.
Among the UC Global S. L. client list is Sheldon
Adelson and his gaming company Las Vegas Sands. For
years the Spanish company has been providing
security for the business magnate’s yacht when it is
in Mediterranean waters. This job is usually carried
out personally by Morales himself.
Adelson has a close friendship with US
President Donald Trump and is one of the main donors
to the Republican Party. Among his security
personnel is a former CIA chief. In 2018 an
investigation by The New York Times
revealed that Julian Assange became a target for CIA
spying under the mandate of former director Mike
Pompeo. Official sources admitted to the US
newspaper that WikiLeaks was being investigated in
search of alleged links between its founder and
Russian intelligence.
Spying
under the mandate of Lenin Moreno
The espionage against WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange increased under the
government of the current Ecuadorian
president, Lenin Moreno, who recently handed
Assange over to the British authorities. The
Ecuadorian government has denied these
accusations and instead accuses Assange of
having created a “spying center” in the
embassy.
Rafael Correa, Moreno’s
predecessor in the role, was the person who
offered the Australian refuge in his
country’s London embassy and granted him
nationality. In July of this year the owner
of UC Global S. L. declined to respond to
this newspaper about the alleged spying on
Julian Assange. “I cannot comment on
anything that we did there, I can’t give any
details,” he said via telephone. “We have
our ethical and moral rules and none of them
were violated.”
David Morales, a former member
of the military, created his company in 2008
inspired by Blackwater, the US private
security multinational that supported the US
army in a number of conflicts including
those in Afghanistan and Iraq. One of the
first contracts that his company secured was
to provide security in Europe for two of
Rafael Correa’s daughters during his time in
office. He later secured the contract for
providing security at the Ecuadorian embassy
in London.
In April, the government of
Lenin Moreno expelled Assange from that
embassy, where he had been living since
2012. After his expulsion and arrest by the
British authorities, the United Kingdom
authorized the judicial process to hand the
WikiLeaks founder over to the US justice
system. The US wants Assange extradited and
is leveling 18 charges, including computer
misuse and the unauthorized disclosure of
national defense information regarding the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The
cyberactivist could be facing a sentence of
up to 175 years in prison.
This article was originally
published by "El
Pais"-
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