Assange claims he was tortured in UK prison - media

[ukrules]

My health was very poor then, and they applied electricity to my shins," Assange was quoted as saying during the joint press conference with Ecuadorian Foreign Affairs Minister Ricardo Patino on Thursday.

Tying people up and sticking electrodes on them just does not happen in UK prisons, unless the are in cardiac arrest.

I was a Prison Officer for 25yrs in the Uk and served in many prisons including all the famous London prisons and this <deleted> is talking a load of <deleted>.

My greatest respect to you, I have visited a number of prisons and can say as someone visiting an inmate I was very pleased to see a very professional and polite, and even helpful attitude by all prison warders I encountered, given the abuse they got not just from inmates but some of the visitors as well your job must have not been pleasant at times.

Ever heard of tasers / stun guns ? Their official use is growing in the UK on a daily basis. I suspect this is what he was talking about.

Of course these are classed as an illegal weapon in the UK for everyone apart from 'the authorities', however the authorities are allowed to use illegal weapons whenever they want to. Just owning one can get you a prison sentence but it's ok for the police to use them to ensure compliance.

I suspect Assange didn't feel very cooperative which is within his rights.

Bull Shit... Unless things have changed in the last few years only police officers approved to carry firearms are allowed to use them, so if there was a instance that the needed to use one in a prison they would have to call in a firearms officer, I am sure the prison service can deal with the worst prisoner without the use of a tasser.

Time will tell on this, I doubt it's the last he has to say on the matter. He was in Wandsworth prison segregation unit for a while based on what I've read.

You're right that things have changed in the UK with regard to tasers, they are routinely issued to non firearms officers these days. Last year they were used over 10,000 times in the UK.

Who would have had access to Assange while he was in prison ? What's the procedure when someone is interviewed in a prison by the police or security services ? Are they ever left alone with the prisoner even if it's a 'national security' issue requiring privacy which it almost certainly would have been ?

There's no suggestion that it was prison staff who did this.

[Credo]

Well if you were in the scubs around 90s, then you would have been one of the over 160 prison officers who were under investigation after one of them turned whistle blower on his colleges & reported it to the Guardian newspaper.

More than 160 prison officers were involved in inflicting and covering up a regime of torture

which saw savage beatings, death threats and sexual assault inflicted on inmates, a secret

report reveals today.The Guardian has learned full details of the Prison Service's reports

on a nine-year reign of terror at Wormwood Scrubs in west London. Many incidents which

the Prison Service had publicly refused to admit are acknowledged in the reports,

which remained confidential until now http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/nov/13/prisonsandprobation.topstories3

You would have to live in La-la Land not to think that brutality did not exist in British prisons--that last exposure from one of the UK leading newspapers is just one of many over the years, however these people tend to pry on the weak & unconnected, I was surprised to read J.Assange claims, because of his high profile connections & because of the time delay.

Thank you for that Sanuk.

At least you haven't been drinking Kool-Aid

in fact, the prison service has settled more than 30 cases out of court and has been forced to pay a total of £1.7 million in compensation. But of even more significance is that in 14 of the cases, the prison service “submitted to judgment.” This amounted to an admission that it had no defence against the claims brought and would not contest numerous allegations of beatings, mock executions, death threats and other abuses by staff.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2004/01/pris-j15.html

You are pretty desperate to start bringing up cases that are getting close to 20 years old.

[Scott]

An off-topic post has been deleted. This is about his alleged treatment in prison. It's not about his case in Sweden, rendition, or a rehash of Wikileaks.

Stay on topic.

[folium]

Is this leaked information?

I doubt very much that the UK is into torture and I doubt he would have waited this long to mention it.

You should read history.

Care to quote some chapter and verse....or would that spoil your story?

[MAJIC]

Is this leaked information?

I doubt very much that the UK is into torture and I doubt he would have waited this long to mention it.

You should read history.

I've read quite a bit of history, but the modern history of the UK do not include frequent doses of torture. The history of Mr. Assange doesn't include him holding back on dropping information.

Thus the conclusion that the one who is not to be believe is Mr. Assange.

So the story of Northern Ireand is a myth or ancient history?

Depends which side you are referring to!

[Thai at Heart]

He's getting more foolish by the day.

[rhodie]

The man is more insane than before his stay in the consulate and getting desperate. He will say anything for attention.

[Credo]

I am waiting for someone to accuse the Brits of bouncing microwaves off the building and disrupting his mental stability.

This guy needs to consult with a PR manager before he starts talking. It's just too late in the game to come up with stories that are not credible and this one is not credible.

[Trentham]

Ever heard of tasers / stun guns ? Their official use is growing in the UK on a daily basis. I suspect this is what he was talking about.

Of course these are classed as an illegal weapon in the UK for everyone apart from 'the authorities', however the authorities are allowed to use illegal weapons whenever they want to. Just owning one can get you a prison sentence but it's ok for the police to use them to ensure compliance.

I suspect Assange didn't feel very cooperative which is within his rights.

Are you on drugs or what?

The UK are hardly going to commit internationally banned procedures against the biggest 'whistle blower' the world has ever seen.

Also, if you have watched the movie about his life and how he put together wikileaks, you will see that he was actually also a well practiced liar and that even his associates all turned their backs on him because they clearly realised the guy was completely insane.

Well the British government have gone to extraordinary lengths to keep watch on him since before he went into the embassy, why should I believe they wouldn't go to extraordinary lengths to extract information from him when they had the chance.

His case is a 'one off' and we all know he wouldn't have been interrogated by the average police officer don't we...

No...

There has been no need to torture him, or even interrogate him.

He isn't a spy... he just set up a system to leak official secrets and info to the public.

For a man who claims that the people should always know the truth... why would you think he has some 'information' that the British would be desperate for???

It does not make any sense. For someone who is obsessed with freedom of information, you are telling us he is actually concealing information so much it requires 'torture'????

You are miles off the mark.... The guy is a compulsive liar, and even deceived his closest wikileaks colleagues to the point they realised he was full of shit and a complete menace to national security.

If anything, he ought to be feeling lucky that he is still alive and not been bumped off by the CIA by now, because people already have been for much less.

Some people have died because of this nut job.... He admits that himself...

Look at all the Brits here trying to protect old Mother England.

Of course they have reason to torture Assange. Rather than flood the world with information on "official" crimes and corruption and lies he was drip feeding it to the world. They were desperate to know what was coming next so governments etc. could prepare their defenses or cover ups.

It is laughable they they try to defend themselves. One poster used a defense of "that was 20 years ago" in reference to the atrocities in Northern Ireland. Well what about the countless rumours since then that Julian may be about to expose the truth of?

Do you really believe that Britain did not use torture during the Second World War??? Britain has a dreadful history of atrocities committed on countless peoples around the world - the Aborigines of Australia where they did not have foxes to hunt so they went out on their horses hunting and shooting Aborigines just for sport. Consider all the African colonies. Consider the arrogance of the Brits in India and all the horrific stories from that era.

And YES, the arrogance - as one Indian man one said, "the British say they discovered India around 1595 but we knew it was here all the time".

[Credo]

Ah, ha, the fallacy of your argument. Have the Brits tortured in the past, yes. Could they torture now, yes. Would they torture now, probably not. Would Assange have kept his mouth shut for this long if he had been tortured....absolutely NOT.

As has been noted, the UK has had some high value prisoners and didn't torture them. Assange wouldn't have been worth a pence worth of electricity to zap him. He wouldn't necessarily know or remember what was going to be released or when. The target of his leaks was the US, not the UK and the UK wouldn't likely adopt torture for the US.

Assange is a complete narcissist. He needs to get back in the news. He's losing his fan base. He's yesterdays news.

Perhaps Putin can open a treatment facility for has beens like Assange and Snowden. He seems to show more compassion and caring for these types than he does for some of his own people.

[Ulysses G.]

Look at all the Brits here trying to protect old Mother England.

It is not just Brits. A lot of us think that Assange is full of crap.

[Johnsy]

It's pretty easy to see who is pro-whistle blowing and who is not in these posts. Maybe some people would change their tunes if they were on the receiving end of the various "Authorities" who will stop at nothing to enforce their tyrannical control and rule(s).

[socksy01]

Physical torture, the lying b****rd...

If this sort of thing happens in UK prisons their would be a lot more saying it happened to them.

not even that scum bag Abu Hamza made such claims.

"I was detained without official charges. I spent five days without charges in a horrible prison in the UK".

A horrible prison in the UK. Dream on sunshine.

[socksy01]

I am waiting for someone to accuse the Brits of bouncing microwaves off the building and disrupting his mental stability.

This guy needs to consult with a PR manager before he starts talking. It's just too late in the game to come up with stories that are not credible and this one is not credible.

Maybe he could hire former PR consultant Max Clifford. Oh I forget he's doing time.

[Credo]

It's pretty easy to see who is pro-whistle blowing and who is not in these posts. Maybe some people would change their tunes if they were on the receiving end of the various "Authorities" who will stop at nothing to enforce their tyrannical control and rule(s).

It's nice if the whistleblower can tell the truth.

[Chris Lawrence]

Why don't they let just go free? He doesn't want to end up in the USA, which I don't think he should. The yanks are just dirty as they got sloppy; the poms are dirty because its a person from the colonies. Australian Govt. should offer to bring him back at his expence to Australia. If he don't want that then he stays at the embassy.

Staying where he is, still needs to keep his 15 minutes of fame going. So what if they tortured him, just that it is a bit late to say it now? It can and does happen and is usually covert in application. Just because you worked in a system doesn't mean things don't happen.

[7by7]

Why has Assange spoken out now?

He's not been in the news for a while and the one thing the creep craves more than anything is media attention. So he makes up a few more lies and get's his name in the papers again.

And the gullible give credence to this mans ever more ludicrous outpourings!

This pathetic (alleged) pervert should return to Sweden and face his accusers in court. Then we can all forget about him.

But the one thing he fears more than being brought to justice for his alleged crimes is being forgotten.

[sustento]

Look at all the Brits here trying to protect old Mother England.

If you think a 'Brit' would walk 10 feet to protect our government then you know nothing at all about us.

[Scott]

An off-topic post has been deleted.

[Scott]

Off-topic post deleted. Again, this is not a rehash of Wikileaks and Assange's claim for Asylum or his legal problems in Sweden. It is about his claim to have been tortured in prison in the UK.

[CMNightRider]

I was a Prison Officer for 25yrs in the Uk and served in many prisons including all the famous London prisons and this <deleted> is talking a load of <deleted>.

Well if you were in the scubs around 90s, then you would have been one of the over 160 prison officers who were under investigation after one of them turned whistle blower on his colleges & reported it to the Guardian newspaper.

More than 160 prison officers were involved in inflicting and covering up a regime of torture

which saw savage beatings, death threats and sexual assault inflicted on inmates, a secret

report reveals today.The Guardian has learned full details of the Prison Service's reports

on a nine-year reign of terror at Wormwood Scrubs in west London. Many incidents which

the Prison Service had publicly refused to admit are acknowledged in the reports,

which remained confidential until now http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/nov/13/prisonsandprobation.topstories3

You would have to live in La-la Land not to think that brutality did not exist in British prisons--that last exposure from one of the UK leading newspapers is just one of many over the years, however these people tend to pry on the weak & unconnected, I was surprised to read J.Assange claims, because of his high profile connections & because of the time delay.

So you think there were 160 prison officers running amok, beating, and sexually assaulting male inmates because a liberal publication like the Guardian, claims a whistle blower told them so. One would have to be very naive and gullible to buy into a story like that. Try to give that story a little thought. I don't think so, lol.

[sgtsabai]

Assange claims he was tortured, why not believe it, it happens everywhere. Even I doubt he was tortured to the degree the governments would like to. The Guardian is not a 'liberal' newspaper, it is one of the few remaining newspapers that dare to print the truth. That doesn't make it liberal. Saying it is certainly doesn't. This thread might as well be closed, there is no way to comment on Assange claiming he was tortured without going to other aspects of his persecution, no way.

[englishoak]

possible it happened yup most definitely

Likelihood id give 50/50

Assange is a compulsive liar but also one who has released tons of truth to a hugely embarrassing amount.

[ClutchClark]

Are you on drugs or what?

The UK are hardly going to commit internationally banned procedures against the biggest 'whistle blower' the world has ever seen.

Also, if you have watched the movie about his life and how he put together wikileaks, you will see that he was actually also a well practiced liar and that even his associates all turned their backs on him because they clearly realised the guy was completely insane.

Well the British government have gone to extraordinary lengths to keep watch on him since before he went into the embassy, why should I believe they wouldn't go to extraordinary lengths to extract information from him when they had the chance.

His case is a 'one off' and we all know he wouldn't have been interrogated by the average police officer don't we...

No...

There has been no need to torture him, or even interrogate him.

He isn't a spy... he just set up a system to leak official secrets and info to the public.

For a man who claims that the people should always know the truth... why would you think he has some 'information' that the British would be desperate for???

It does not make any sense. For someone who is obsessed with freedom of information, you are telling us he is actually concealing information so much it requires 'torture'????

You are miles off the mark.... The guy is a compulsive liar, and even deceived his closest wikileaks colleagues to the point they realised he was full of shit and a complete menace to national security.

If anything, he ought to be feeling lucky that he is still alive and not been bumped off by the CIA by now, because people already have been for much less.

Some people have died because of this nut job.... He admits that himself...

I don't have a position on this except to ask what type of information would be useful to the US and that Assange would attempt to keep quiet?

I imagine there would have been some interest in what else he knew and the sources of his intel.

This would be useful for damage control and to possibly get covert personnel out of harms way.

I admire the posters here from the UK that are so insulted these claims are made against their country.

In the US, we used to take an equal amount of pride in our own anti-torture culture.

Cheers

[Credo]

Assange claims he was tortured, why not believe it, it happens everywhere. Even I doubt he was tortured to the degree the governments would like to. The Guardian is not a 'liberal' newspaper, it is one of the few remaining newspapers that dare to print the truth. That doesn't make it liberal. Saying it is certainly doesn't. This thread might as well be closed, there is no way to comment on Assange claiming he was tortured without going to other aspects of his persecution, no way.

You seem to think that it is the not 'liberal' Guardian that many of us don't believe. It's not. It's Assange who many people don't believe.

Had he been tortured, there is no good reason for him to wait this long to bring it up. It should have been a part of any asylum claim, to begin with.

His credibility is pretty much gone.

[CMNightRider]

Assange claims he was tortured, why not believe it, it happens everywhere. Even I doubt he was tortured to the degree the governments would like to. The Guardian is not a 'liberal' newspaper, it is one of the few remaining newspapers that dare to print the truth. That doesn't make it liberal. Saying it is certainly doesn't. This thread might as well be closed, there is no way to comment on Assange claiming he was tortured without going to other aspects of his persecution, no way.

The Guardian identifies with social liberalism. "In 1995, KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky identified prominent Guardian editor Richard Gott as one of his agents. While Gott denied that he received cash, he confessed taking benefits from the KGB on a visit to the Soviet Union. Gordievsky commented on the newspaper: "The KGB loved The Guardian. It was deemed highly susceptible to penetration."

You stated "why not believe Assange was tortured." The UK is not Russia, China, North Korea, or some other country that tends to treat their prisoners poorly. Then couple that thought with the fact the Guardian says so. That's why most people (liberals excluded) do not believe this fairy tale.

[Scott]

Posts which are critical of the news source have been deleted. Feel free to respond to the content of the article and to cite other sources, however, discussion of the news source itself is off-topic and will be deleted.

[Donnie Brasco]

Most of what Assange gives up (Snowden and Chelsea Manning as well, for that matter, has been part of the public record since the events occurred.

The rest is irrelevant geopolitical gossip.

The infinitely funded US Security/Military/Intelligence industry and Corporatista Amerika reap the benifits of this US controlled Scarification narrative.

Sorry to have bothered all TV's deeply-invested retired CIA types with this little morsel of reality but there ARE no (nor have there been for 50 years) any Kim Philby's in play.

Any physible info is on the Internet.

Intel is ALL about disinfo and smoke and mirrors now.

But, hey. Do enjoy your hatred of poor Assange . . . a kid-hacker who was given a "Hobson's choice" twenty years ago.

You guys just slay me :-))))))

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[thaibeachlovers]

Is this leaked information?

I doubt very much that the UK is into torture and I doubt he would have waited this long to mention it.

<I doubt very much that the UK is into torture>

Seriously? Ask any Irishman detained at her majesty's pleasure in Northern Ireland if they agree with you on that.

And let's not forget what British troops did to those Iraqis.

[thaibeachlovers]

I was a Prison Officer for 25yrs in the Uk and served in many prisons including all the famous London prisons and this <deleted> is talking a load of <deleted>.

Well if you were in the scubs around 90s, then you would have been one of the over 160 prison officers who were under investigation after one of them turned whistle blower on his colleges & reported it to the Guardian newspaper.

More than 160 prison officers were involved in inflicting and covering up a regime of torture

which saw savage beatings, death threats and sexual assault inflicted on inmates, a secret

report reveals today.The Guardian has learned full details of the Prison Service's reports

on a nine-year reign of terror at Wormwood Scrubs in west London. Many incidents which

the Prison Service had publicly refused to admit are acknowledged in the reports,

which remained confidential until now http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/nov/13/prisonsandprobation.topstories3

You would have to live in La-la Land not to think that brutality did not exist in British prisons--that last exposure from one of the UK leading newspapers is just one of many over the years, however these people tend to pry on the weak & unconnected, I was surprised to read J.Assange claims, because of his high profile connections & because of the time delay.

So you think there were 160 prison officers running amok, beating, and sexually assaulting male inmates because a liberal publication like the Guardian, claims a whistle blower told them so. One would have to be very naive and gullible to buy into a story like that. Try to give that story a little thought. I don't think so, lol.

I don't know that I'd believe there were as many as 160 involved, but I certainly belive that some prison guards indulge in a bit of abuse, or at least tolerate/ encourage it from other prisoners.