science

Surveillance of Julian Assange

Surveillance of Julian Assange is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Surveillance of Julian Assange rather than just read about it. In short: After Julian Assange was granted asylum and entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London, new CCTV cameras were installed and security personnel working for UC Global and Promsecurity recorded his daily activities and interactions with staff and visitors, including his legal team. In a 2017 email, the surveillance was explained with suspicions that Assange was "working for the Russian intelligence services." New cameras…

Key takeaways

Surveillance of Julian Assange belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Surveillance of Julian Assange to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Surveillance of Julian Assange from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

After Julian Assange was granted asylum and entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London, new CCTV cameras were installed and security personnel working for UC Global and Promsecurity recorded his daily activities and interactions with staff and visitors, including his legal team. In a 2017 email, the surveillance was explained with suspicions that Assange was "working for the Russian intelligence services." New cameras with microphones were installed in December 2017, and the installation of microphones in fire extinguishers and the women's bathroom was ordered. Other microphones were installed in decorations in the embassy. David Morales, director of UC Global, arranged for the United States to have immediate access to the recordings. According to emails retrieved in 2019, Morales was also a collaborator of National Intelligence Centre (Spain). The embassy staff had removed the toilet in the women's bathroom in June 2012 at Assange's request so he could sleep in the quiet room, which he also used to meet with his lawyers. Then Ecuadorian ambassador to the UK, Juan Falconí Puig, was unaware of the operation until a bill went to the embassy in May 2015 and then Ecuadorian foreign minister Ricardo Patiño had to explain the situation to the ambassador. According to David Morales, the surveillance was also ordered by the former Ecuadorian ambassador in London, Carlos Abad. In April 2019, El País quoted Morales as saying that "The situation Assange is in is not easy because of his emotional state. Throughout the length of his stay, he has gone through different stages in which he was more or less in agreement with the [security and surveillance] procedures, but that is an area that does not correspond to him, but rather the client." On 20 June 2019, El País revealed the existence of surveillance recordings and reports about Assange by UC Global. On 7 August 2019, Spain's High Court opened proceedings inquiring about the surveillance of Assange after he filed a complaint that accused UC Global of violating his privacy and client-attorney privileges as well as committing misappropriation, bribery and money laundering. According to testimony by former employees, the material on Assange was handed over to the CIA by a member of the security service of Sheldon Adelson, the owner of the Las Vegas Sands. According to court papers seen by the Associated Press, it was alleged that Morales had passed the recordings to Zohar Lahav, described by Assange's lawyers as a security officer at Las Vegas Sands. In 2022, four associates of Assange filed a lawsuit against the CIA alleging their civil rights were violated when they were recorded as part of the surveillance of Assange.

Timeline of surveillance In 2010, the NSA added Assange to its Manhunting Timeline. In 2011, the NSA discussed categorising WikiLeaks as a "malicious foreign actor" for surveillance purposes. Over five years Ecuador spent at least $5 million (£3.7m) to protect and surveil Assange, employing a security company and undercover agents to monitor him, his visitors, embassy staff and the British police as part of Operation Guest and Operation Hotel. New CCTV cameras were installed in the embassy soon after Assange moved in, and security personnel recorded his activities and interactions with staff, his legal team and other visitors in minute detail. Assange was questioned about visitors, who were required to leave their passports with security, which was used to create profiles of the visitors with details of the visit. Then Ecuadorian ambassador to the UK, Juan Falconí Puig, was unaware of the operation until a bill went to the embassy in May 2015 and then Ecuadorian foreign minister Ricardo Patiño had to explain the situation to the ambassador. According to David Morales, the surveillance was also ordered by the former Ecuadorian ambassador in London, Carlos Abad. In 2015, Cynthia Viteri and Fernando Villavicencio sent secret documents to WikiLeaks showing that Ecuador was using an Italian company to run a surveillance program that was spying on journalists and political enemies, in addition to spying on Assange in the embassy. The New York Times reported that leaked chat logs from 2015 show that Assange and his inner circle were aware of the documents, which were not published by WikiLeaks. In a 2017 email reported by El País, Morales wrote that Assange's associates were being surveilled because UC Global had "been informed of suspicions that the guest [this is how Assange was alluded to] is working for the Russian intelligence services." Morales ordered his employees to monitor any Americans or Russians who visited Assange. New cameras with microphones were installed in December 2017, and Morales ordered the installation of microphones in fire extinguishers and the women's bathroom. Other microphones were installed in decorations in the embassy. Recordings were made of Assange's meetings with his lawyers. Morales arranged for the United States to have immediate access to the recordings. The embassy staff had removed the toilet in the women's bathroom in June 2012 at Assange's request so he could sleep in the quiet room, which he also used to meet with his lawyers.

Extortion attempt On 10 April 2019, WikiLeaks said it had uncovered an extensive surveillance operation against Assange from within the embassy. WikiLeaks said that "material including video, audio, copies of private legal documents and a medical report" had surfaced in Spain and that unnamed individuals in Madrid had made an extortion attempt and threatened to make the information public unless they were paid €3 million. In May, Spanish police arrested José Martín Santos, a reporter with a past record of fraud, in connection with the extortion attempt. Martín Santos had met with Kristinn Hrafnsson in April and shown him over 100 files containing private correspondence, audio and video recordings from the embassy.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Surveillance of Julian Assange

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Surveillance of Julian Assange claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Surveillance of Julian Assange before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Surveillance of Julian Assange ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Surveillance of Julian Assange

In research: Surveillance of Julian Assange appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Surveillance of Julian Assange in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Surveillance of Julian Assange is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Espionage scandals and incidents, Julian Assange, Scandals in Ecuador, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Surveillance of Julian Assange outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Surveillance of Julian Assange in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Surveillance of Julian Assange means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Surveillance of Julian Assange out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Surveillance of Julian Assange in simple terms?

Why does Surveillance of Julian Assange matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Surveillance of Julian Assange?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Surveillance of Julian Assange.