I Called the Ecuadorian Embassy and This Is What Happened

I came to WikiLeaks late. I remember reading about them, Chelsea Manning, and Julian Assange, and I thought, good on them. But it was far away, and I was busy with local issues. I had been defending the West Memphis Three for eighteen years. You see, I am from Arkansas.

But it just so happens sometimes that local meets national. Local meets national and global for me in the form of the Clintons. I have spent most of my life under the reign of them. When I found out Hillary Clinton was running for president again, I was outraged.

I threw my energy into the Sanders campaign. We had a good shot, I thought. Maybe the people were ready to stand up and demand normalcy and compassion.

Then I watched the entire Bernie movement get eaten by Hillary. The election fraud, voter fraud, voter suppression, media collusion, and social media troll farms were outrageous. I figured if she stole the primary, Hillary would steal the election, too.

Then a miracle happened — Wikileaks drops like pennies from heaven.

You have no idea how valuable that was to a lady in Arkansas who knows too much. I now had proof, and I used it. I fought those Brock trolls like a valkyrie. I told everyone I knew that Hillary was a criminal. I voted for Stein, but I was really voting against Hillary. The corruption I saw in my state under the Clinton reign was unbelievable. I mean really — unbelievable. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

Right after I found out the election results, I got locked out of my Twitter account and slept for two days. Fighting dragons is hard work.

You might hate me and blame me for Trump. I don’t care. I know what I know, and that Clinton woman is a menace. Trump is a clown. I fear him less. That is that.

I will always be grateful to WikiLeaks and everybody who give the public documents they can use to help fight corruption. If you do that, you will have my forever love, unless you have turned.

*

Like I said, I’m new to standing up for Assange. But this is not my first rodeo. I helped get two lifers and one guy on death row out of prison. I usually just have to deal with politicians and bureaucrats. Assange support is a whole new level of bizarreness.

Back in the West Memphis Three days (which are not really over — I am working on solving those murders), it was simple. Either you were against imprisoning them or you were for it. There were no pretenders that I knew about.

This is not the case with all WikiLeaks supporters. WikiLeaks, I just checked, has not tweeted in six days. Assange is in the embassy, and people seem to be under a strange spell of inaction. Or rather, guided to useless action.

The ACLU just came out with a new torture report. Lots of heinous crimes are in there, but I think we should look at how this has affected our society, too. Think of the “terrorists” as test subjects with intelligence agencies practicing on them, scheming how to stifle the populace.

Learned. Helplessness.

The ACLU published right when I was working on this story. I found the descriptions despicable. Part of it sounds like what we know is happening to Julian Assange.

Certain people are discouraging folks from watching the embassy. They say you’ll get surveilled. Whatever. We’re all already being surveilled. That’s a no-brainer. But people are falling for it.

Damien Echols says the thing that kept him from getting killed on death row was the fact that the system knew it was being watched. I think that is very important.

Also, there are fake pictures being passed around by accounts that should know better. I figured this out when some random person on Twitter asked questions about it. Then I looked at the picture with fresh eyes. It was a group of chefs outside the embassy.

You see, I had been under the spell, too. I believed what I was told. I trusted people.

This is not the kind of thing that should be going on with WikiLeaks supporters. We’re supposed to be about truth and transparency, like they are.

That picture could have been taken at any time by anybody. And when I asked questions about it myself, I faced a brick wall. And that, dear readers, is when I knew I was over the target.

They are so sneaky. Few can see it for what it is, an evil fairy tale spell.

*

I’m sure you all know the story of the Fisher King, but I think we need to look at it again.

It’s about a kid who lives out in the boonies in King Arthur times. His father had been a knight, but he died, and his mother lied to him about it because she didn’t want Perceval to suffer the same fate. He didn’t know who he was. He was naive. Sometimes the nicest people can be naive.

Anyway, he comes across a group of knights and wants to be like them. He leaves home, despite his mother’s protests, to do just that. And he’s excellent at it. Part of what he learns from his mother and his fellow knights is not to talk too much or to ask too many questions. That is how to become successful.

The Fisher King is in possession of the Holy Grail, but he and the people of his kingdom are under some kind of evil spell. The king is dying, the country is a wasteland. They need help.

Perceval comes to the rescue but fails. He wants to ask the Fisher King, “What ails you?” because he can see that the he is dying, and he feels badly for him. But he doesn’t ask out of politeness. The next day he finds out what he has done when the castle is empty, and upon leaving, he sees the castle disappear and finds a maiden holding her dead lover. “Why didn’t you ask the question?”

That would have broken the spell. Perceval spends years and jumps obstacles to right his wrong. He finally tracks down the Fisher King again and asks the question. “What ails you?” Just a normal question from a concerned person.

But it broke the spell.

The king and the kingdom returned to health.

*

All this concerning stuff is happening around Julian Assange, WikiLeaks is silent, and I’ve got this funny feeling something might be happening. But I don’t know anything. All I know is what I learned as a West Memphis Three supporter. We had supporters from all over the world. Some of them came to Arkansas, but most of them did something else. They made calls.

Calling a prison to ask the status of a prisoner is normal behavior. I’ve done it many times.

However, certain people don’t want you to call that embassy. They told me to be afraid of surveillance. They told me to not get involved in tricky political situations. They told me to stay out of the drama.

Listen, dear readers, when somebody tells you not to do an action that is normal, something is up. I’m just saying. I knew I was over the target, so I downloaded a VOIP app and bought ten pounds of time. It turns out that I overpaid. Each call is about a penny. That means I have a lot of calls ahead of me.

The first call I made was to the Consulate. The numbers are on the Ecuadorian embassy website, and I chose that one first.

I did not record the calls because I’m not sure of the legality of that. I don’t want to get in trouble. I just want to help. So I took notes.

At the Consulate, I spoke to a friendly man named David. I told him my name was Hope — Esperanza in Spanish — and that I wanted to speak with Julian Assange. He laughed and told me this was the Consulate, and I needed to call the embassy.

The woman who answered the phone at the embassy sounded a bit rushed. I imagine it’s busy working at an embassy. I asked to speak with Julian Assange, please. She told me I’d have to be cleared by them and gave me an email address.

I emailed the address, and this is what I got back:

Two days later, I called again. A friendly person answered the phone. She laughed like David did when I told her who I was (by the way, I entered all my information into the app, so they could see everything — I have nothing to hide from them, and I’m a WikiLeaks supporter, which makes me a supporter of transparency).

I asked to speak to Julian Assange, please. She tried to give me the email address, but I told her I already tried that and got an automated response. She said he chooses who he speaks with. I asked, “Julian chooses who he speaks to?” She said yes. Then I asked her if he was okay. She laughed and said yes.

That was my experience with calling the embassy. No boogeymen. Some people on Twitter have messed with me, but I just block them.

It’s no big deal. Really. You can do it, too. You can also call offices in Ecuador and other offices in the UK. If you can’t be there, you can do the next best thing and call.

We are all Perceval, you know. It’s okay to ask questions. Go for it!

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