Insider reveals likely players behind the Guardian’s ‘fake’ Assange-Manafort story

In an extensive interview, a former Ecuadorian diplomat says he assumes that intelligence contractors were a source of the smear which claimed former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort had visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
This follows an exclusive Canary article in which the same diplomat called the Guardian story “fake”, explaining why visits by Manafort could not have taken place. WikiLeaks, the Intercept‘s Glenn Greenwald, the Courage Foundation, and others outlets all shared or referenced this article.
Intelligence sources
Following the Canary article, the Washington Post admitted that the Guardian‘s report had relied:
on unnamed sources and an “internal document” written by Ecuador’s intelligence agency.
Now, in an interview with The Real News, former Ecuadorian consul and first secretary Fidel Narváez has suggested that the intelligence firm contracted to provide security to the Ecuadorian embassy in London was likely involved in the ‘fake’ story regarding Manafort’s ‘visits’:
Meanwhile, Ecuadorian president Lenín Moreno has made it clear he doesn’t want Assange to remain in the embassy in London much longer.
Read on...
The article’s third author
The Guardian article was written by regulars Luke Harding and Dan Collyns, as well as Ecuadorian journalist and former anti-government activist Fernando Villavicencio. All three names appeared in the print version of the story. But in the online version, Villavicencio’s name mysteriously disappeared:
Video: Guardian mysteriously hid third author of fabricated front page story "Manafort Held Secret Meetings With Assange" — as revealed by direct digital archive library. Compare to the Guardian's online version the world saw. Villavicencio background:.https://t.co/KX80IrScyl pic.twitter.com/k6X4cHM6FB
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) December 3, 2018
And here are the three journalists in Quito, shortly before the publication of the article:
The authors of the bogus Guardian story, Dan Collyns and Luke Harding, were in Ecuador 10 days ago with US-funded Villavicencio, who they have previously bylined with in bogus stories. This picture was taken last week. pic.twitter.com/hK4SFCJgKI
— Hanna Jonasson (@AssangeLegal) November 27, 2018
Villavicencio also boasted of his collaboration shortly after the article’s release:
Una de mis mayores experiencias periodísticas fue trabajar durante meses la investigación sobre Assange con los colegas del diario británico The Guardian, Luke Harding, Dan Collins y con la joven periodista Cristina Solórzano de @somos_lafuente pic.twitter.com/IQbZwAkKNx
— Fernando Villavicencio (@VillaFernando_) December 2, 2018
Repeat offender?
But as Narváez also claimed, Villavicencio was the “major” player in the ‘fake’ Assange-Manafort story.
Villavicencio writes regularly about Assange on his blog. And he’s hardly a newcomer to the Guardian. One Ecuadorian media report previously accused him in 2014 of altering an official document which he supplied to the newspaper. This archived Ecuadorian Embassy web page provides further details of what happened, naming Villavicencio as the fabricator. The document’s metadata apparently showed the wrong date and Villavicencio as the author.
The Guardian has questions to answer
Award-winning independent journalist Glenn Greenwald has since published a series of questions to the Guardian (which also reference the Canary interview with Narváez):
The @washingtonpost quotes me about a long-standing irony I've loathed about news outlets: “It’s so ironic that the institutions that demand disclosure from others are the least willing to be transparent about themselves.” See the questions I've emailed below to @guardian pic.twitter.com/6X1RYfOuN7
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 4, 2018
But so far, there appears to have been no response:
Today's the 1-week anniversary of @guardian's blockbuster Manafort/Assange story:
* No other media outlet has confirmed
* No photos or video evidence has emerged
* The @guardian refuses to answer questions
* Ex-diplomat in Embassy said story is "fake" https://t.co/QdQUDDVZq3— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 4, 2018
The Canary will be interested in the Guardian‘s response to these questions. We have also put to the newspaper further questions about its sources in the Manafort article, and the reliability of the document it refers to. It had not responded by the time of publication.
Featured image via screenshot
We need your help to keep speaking the truth
Every story that you have come to us with; each injustice you have asked us to investigate; every campaign we have fought; each of your unheard voices we amplified; we do this for you. We are making a difference on your behalf.
Our fight is your fight. You’ve supported our collective struggle every time you gave us a like; and every time you shared our work across social media. Now we need you to support us with a monthly donation.
We have published nearly 2,000 articles and over 50 films in 2021. And we want to do this and more in 2022 but we don’t have enough money to go on at this pace. So, if you value our work and want us to continue then please join us and be part of The Canary family.
In return, you get:
* Advert free reading experience
* Quarterly group video call with the Editor-in-Chief
* Behind the scenes monthly e-newsletter
* 20% discount in our shop
Almost all of our spending goes to the people who make The Canary’s content. So your contribution directly supports our writers and enables us to continue to do what we do: speaking truth, powered by you. We have weathered many attempts to shut us down and silence our vital opposition to an increasingly fascist government and right-wing mainstream media.
With your help we can continue:
* Holding political and state power to account
* Advocating for the people the system marginalises
* Being a media outlet that upholds the highest standards
* Campaigning on the issues others won’t
* Putting your lives central to everything we do
We are a drop of truth in an ocean of deceit. But we can’t do this without your support. So please, can you help us continue the fight?
-
Show Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to leave a comment.Join the conversationPlease read our comment moderation policy here.
Fake news? Luke Harding? The Guardian? Well, I never!
Perhaps one day they’ll explain where that ‘convoy of Russian tanks’ they described ‘rolling over the Ukrainian border’ ever went? The photo o a lone tank 1000’s of kilometres away in the Urals, snapped 3 years earlier, barely cuts the mustard, Kath VIner.