Defiant Kirchner before judge in sweeping anti-corruption probe

Yahoo – AFP, Nina NEGRON, August 14, 2018

As a senator, Cristina Kirchner enjoys congressional immunity from imprisonment,
though not from prosecution (AFP Photo/EITAN ABRAMOVICH)

Buenos Aires (AFP) - Former Argentine president Cristina Kirchner appeared before a judge leading a major probe into corruption under her government Monday, hitting out at what she described as "judicial persecutions" to rule her out of next year's elections.

More than a dozen elite businessmen and former government officials were arrested after La Nacion newspaper reported on August 1 that millions in bribes were delivered by a ministerial chauffeur to Kirchner's residences, both during her presidency and that of her late husband Nestor.

The driver's meticulous records of the cash deliveries -- allegedly payments from business leaders in exchange for public works contracts -- form the basis of the investigation.

Dressed in a trouser suit and waving to supporters, a defiant Kirchner pushed her way past journalists into Judge Claudio Bonadio's court in Buenos Aires where she denounced the case as an example of the political persecution she has faced under her right-wing successor Mauricio Macri.

"This is a new regional strategy to outlaw leaders, movements and political forces that expanded rights and allowed millions of people out of poverty during the first decade and a half of the 21st Century," Kirchner wrote Monday on Twitter.

As a senator, Kirchner enjoys congressional immunity from imprisonment, though not prosecution. She is facing trial in several other corruption cases and Bonadio has petitioned the Senate to lift her immunity.

He wants to search Kirchner's properties for evidence in the "corruption notebooks" case, so called because the driver, Oscar Centeno, recorded over a decade of cash drops in a set of notebooks.

Kirchner is facing trial in several other corruption cases (AFP Photo/EITAN

ABRAMOVICH)

According to Centeno's bombshell evidence, the Kirchners' residence in Buenos Aires was the venue for the handover of millions of dollars in cash, with others taking place at the Casa Rosada government headquarters and the Olivos official presidential residence.

Prosecutor Carlos Stornelli has said a total of $160 million in bribes was handed over during a 10-year period from 2005-15.

"There is no doubt that the copybooks describe in detail the way in which the Kirchners raised money illegally for seven years without any alarm going off at any oversight agency," said Nicolas Solari of the consultancy Poliarquia.

So far, eight business leaders have confessed and struck plea-bargain deals.

Angelo Calcaterra, a cousin of Macri, acknowledged having ordered the payment of cash requested as a bribe in order to receive government contracts.

Testifying before the judge, he said he thought this was a mandatory election campaign contribution.

'Persecution'

Bonadio suspects the 65-year-old of being the main beneficiary of a system of corruption funded by the public works sector, via the planning ministry.

Refusing to answer questions, the former president instead hit out angrily at what she said was blatant political persecution engineered by Macri.

"From the moment the engineer Mauricio Macri assumed power I have been subjected to multiple judicial persecutions," Kirchner said in a written statement delivered to the court.

The aim, she said, was her "political elimination" ahead of next year's presidential elections. She has long railed against Bonadio as her tormentor-in-chief.

"Since December 15,2015, six criminal cases have been produced against me, all in Comodoro Py (the Federal Court). Of the six, five have been opened, or being investigated by, Bonadio."

Supporters of the former Argentine president wait outside her apartment in Buenos 

Aires (AFP Photo/EITAN ABRAMOVICH)

For all her battles with the judicial system, Kirchner remains one of Argentina's most popular figures, leader of the opposition to Macri's center-right government.

On Sunday, after confirming she would attend Monday's hearing, she called on her supporters not to demonstrate outside the courthouse.

Monday's court appearance was the fourth time Kirchner has appeared before Bonadio, who is investigating the leftist former president in a slew of other corruption cases. They include alleged foreign exchange manipulation and the signing of a memorandum with Iran that Bonadio argues effectively protected from prosecution Iranian suspects in the deadly 1994 bombing of Argentine Jewish centers.

Big Business

Centeno, who has been questioned by Bonadio and authenticated the notebooks given to La Nacion, worked as a chauffeur for the former deputy planning minister Roberto Barrata, who is also under arrest.

The case involves some of Argentina's biggest business leaders, among them Calcaterra, former directors of the Italo-Argentine company Techint and construction industry leaders.

The notebooks, said Leandro Despouy, a former government auditor general, "implicate a large number of businessmen, not just government officials."

He said the case could end up being as big in Argentina as the ground-shaking "Car Wash" corruption investigation in neighboring Brazil, which has ensnared and sullied many prominent members of the Brazilian political and business elite.

Ecuador grants citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Assange: foreign minister

Yahoo – AFP, January 11, 2018

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has refused to leave the embassy, claiming he
fears being extradited to the United States (AFP Photo/Justin TALLIS)

Quito (AFP) - Ecuador has granted citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been sheltering at its London embassy for five years to avoid arrest, Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa announced Thursday.

Espinosa told a press conference in Quito that Assange, a 46-year-old Australian, became an Ecuadoran citizen on December 12.

As a result, she said Ecuador had asked London to recognize Assange as a diplomat -- which would give him safe passage out of the embassy without fear of arrest -- but Britain had refused.

"The Ecuadoran government is empowered to grant nationality to the protected person and thus facilitate... his inclusion in the host state," Espinosa told reporters.

She said the request to Britain to accept diplomatic status for Assange was made on December 20, and denied a day later.

The foreign minister said Quito would not insist further on the issue because of the "good relations we have with the United Kingdom".

The British foreign ministry said in a statement that Ecuador had "recently requested diplomatic status for Mr Assange here in the UK. The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter."

Ecuador's attempt to obtain diplomatic status for Assange comes as part of the country's broader efforts to resolve the case of their long-term lodger, who moved into the embassy in 2012 to avoid arrest over a Swedish probe into rape allegations.

Sweden dropped their investigation over the 2010 allegations last year, but British police have said they are still seeking to arrest him for failing to surrender to a court after violating bail terms.

"Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice," Britain's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Assange has refused to step outside the embassy and claimed he fears being extradited to the United States, over WikiLeaks' publication of leaked secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010.

Espinosa had said on Tuesday her government was looking at the possibility of a "third country or a personality" stepping in to resolve the stand-off.

"No solution will be achieved without international cooperation and the cooperation of the United Kingdom, which has also shown interest in seeking a way out," she said.

Key dates in the life of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pic.twitter.com/ozYbU6suuI

— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 11, 2018

Assange hails 'victory' from embassy balcony after UN panel ruling

Yahoo – AFP, Jacques Klopp, February 5, 2016

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange addresses the media holding a printed report 

of the judgement of the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on his case

 from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in central London on February 5, 

2016 (AFP Photo/Niklas Halle'n)

London (AFP) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday urged Britain to let him walk free from Ecuador's London embassy after a UN panel found that the anti-secrecy campaigner who faces a rape allegation in Sweden was "arbitrarily detained."

Speaking to a handful of supporters and a media scrum in a rare appearance from the balcony of the embassy where he took refuge nearly four years ago, Assange hailed a "victory of historical importance".

"How sweet it is! This is a victory that cannot be denied," he proclaimed, waving a hard copy of the legal opinion and often seeming emotional.

Assange has refused to go to Sweden for questioning fearing deportation to the US over WikiLeaks' release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A look back at the key dates in the life of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

(AFP Photo/Kun Tian, Thomas Saint-Cricq)

Earlier, the 44-year-old Australian told journalists via video link that it was "now the task of the states of Sweden and the United Kingdom as a whole to implement the verdict".

The UN panel said Assange's detention should end and that he should be able to claim compensation from Britain and Sweden.

But both countries quickly dismissed the non-binding legal opinion, with Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond calling it "ridiculous".

Assange walked into the embassy in June 2012 to avoid the threat of arrest and extradition to Sweden, where he still faces a rape allegation.

He has lived there ever since in a small office room with a bed, computer, sun lamp, treadmill and access to a small balcony decorated with Ecuador's flag.

Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo 

Patino speaks during a press conference

 in Quito on February 5, 2016 (AFP Photo/

Rodrigo Buendia)

In a statement, the panel said it had adopted an opinion that considered Assange "arbitrarily detained by the governments of Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland."

It added: "The working group also considered that the detention should be brought to an end and that Mr Assange should be afforded the right to compensation."

Fears of imprisonment

Britain and Sweden sharply condemned the panel's findings and said they would change nothing.

Hammond called Assange "a fugitive from justice."

"This is frankly a ridiculous finding by the working group and we reject it," the foreign secretary added.

Sweden's foreign ministry said that it "does not agree" with the assessment.

"Mr Assange is free to leave the embassy at any point and Swedish authorities have no control over his decision to stay at the embassy," the ministry added.

Only three of the five members of the UN panel supported the opinion -- one recused herself because she is Australian, like Assange, and another member disagreed.

British designer Vivienne Westwood displays a British passport after arriving to visit

 Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at Ecuador's embassy in central London, on

February 4, 2016 (AFP Photo/Chris Ratcliffe)

Christophe Peschoux, the working group's secretary, said at a briefing in Geneva that Britain and Sweden had two months to submit new information to force a review, and Britain says it will contest the opinion.

Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said it was "time for both governments... to allow Julian Assange his freedom."

Swedish authorities want to speak to Assange about a rape allegation whose statute of limitations does not expire until 2020.

Elizabeth Fritz, the lawyer for the woman who has accused Assange, criticised the panel's comments.

"That a man who is wanted on an arrest warrant for rape should be awarded compensation for intentionally hiding from the judicial system for more than five years is offensive to my client," she said.

Swedish judicial authorities said last month that Ecuador had refused its request to let a Swedish prosecutor question Assange because Quito wanted an Ecuadorean prosecutor to do the questioning.

British Foreign Secretary Philip

Hammond described the UN panels'

decision on Wikileaks founder Julian 

Assange as "ridiculous" as he 

met journalists in London, on 

February 5, 2016 (AFP Photo/

Niklas Halle'n)

'Publicity stunt'

Assange fears that if he went to Sweden for questioning, he could then be sent to the US and face prison. 

WikiLeaks' activities -- including the release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- have infuriated the US.

The main source of the leaks, US Army soldier Chelsea Manning, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for breaches of the Espionage Act.

A hero to supporters and a dangerous egocentric to detractors, the computer programmer and hacker, whose celebrity fans include fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and singer Lady Gaga, founded WikiLeaks in 2006 and has been portrayed in two movies in recent years.

Britain spent over £10 million (12 million euros, $15 million) maintaining a 24-hour guard outside the embassy to immediately arrest Assange if he set foot on British soil, but withdrew it last year.

The Assange case has polarised opinion in Britain and there were many criticisms of his conduct Friday.

The Guardian newspaper, which has in the past worked with WikiLeaks to publish secret documents, used an editorial to condemn the latest developments as "a publicity stunt."

Julian #Assange should be able to walk free and claim compensation, UN panel says: https://t.co/3K7c4d7XKF pic.twitter.com/9WcaQsz7lw

— AFP London (@afplondon) February 5, 2016

Related Article:

Timeline: Julian Assange's story so far

US authorities reveal Chuck Blazer's cooperation deal in FIFA probe

United States prosecutors have released a plea agreement made with former FIFA executive Chuck Blazer. It shows Blazer secretly fed authorities information in a corruption probe for almost two years.

Deutsche Welle, 16 June 2015

The cooperation agreement between Blazer and the US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, New York - which was signed in November 2013 - was made public Monday following a ruling by a federal judge.

It outlined deals between Blazer and US authorities which went back as far as December 2011 - including agreements for the soccer functionary to turn over documents to investigators, participate in undercover activities and testify at trial - in exchange for more leniencies at sentencing.

Media outlets had requested to reveal the document following the May indictment of nine current and former FIFA officials as well as five corporate executives in a US probe into corruption in world soccer's governing body.

Federal prosecutors had opposed making Blazer's agreement public, arguing it would prejudice the investigation and jeopardize the witness' safety. However, that argument was rejected by the judge, Raymond Dearie, who said prosecutors had failed to meet their "high burden" to keep the document sealed.

"The nature of Blazer's cooperation – at least to the extent expressed in his cooperation agreement – should be removed from the shadows," Dearie wrote in a ruling released Monday.

Cooperation and guilty pleas

The agreement included that Blazer would "participate in undercover activities pursuant to the specific instructions of law enforcement agents or this office."

In exchange, authorities said they would not recommend a specific sentence for his crimes and accepted what would amount to a significant reduction in jail time. Blazer secretly pleaded guilty to 10 charges including wire fraud and money laundering in November 2013. The maximum jail sentences for the counts could have added up to 100 years.

Blazer, now aged 70 and reported to be in poor health, had been a member of FIFA's executive committee from 1997 to 2013 and was general secretary of CONCACAF, soccer's governing body in North and Central America and the Caribbean, from 1990 to 2011.

According to US officials, his cooperation helped build a complex corruption case that has led to charges against top FIFA figures and prompted FIFA President Sepp Blatter to announce he would step down – just days after his re-election.

Handshake initiative canned

In another blow to FIFA's prestige, the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo has said it's ending its cooperation with the organization in the "Handshake for Peace" initiative. Blatter had been an enthusiastic supporter of the campaign.

se/jil (AP, Reuters, AFP)

HSBC bank 'helped clients dodge millions in tax'

BBC Panorama, Richard Bilton, 8 Feb 2015

Britain's biggest bank helped wealthy clients cheat the UK out of millions of pounds in tax, the BBC has learned.

Panorama has seen thousands of accounts from HSBC's private bank in Switzerland leaked by a whistleblower in 2007.

They show bankers helped clients evade tax and offered deals to help tax dodgers stay ahead of the law.

HSBC admitted that some individuals took advantage of bank secrecy to hold undeclared accounts. But it said it has now "fundamentally changed".

The documents, stolen in 2007 by a computer expert working for HSBC in Geneva, contain details of more than 100,000 clients from around the world.

Offshore accounts are not illegal, but many people use them to hide cash from the tax authorities. And while tax avoidance is perfectly legal, deliberately hiding money to evade tax is not.

The French authorities assessed the stolen data and concluded in 2013 that 99.8% of their citizens on the list were probably evading tax.

Joint investigation

The thousands of pages of data were obtained by the French newspaper Le Monde. In a joint investigation, the documents have now been passed to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the Guardian newspaper, Panorama and more than 50 media outlets around the world.

The documents include details of almost 7,000 British clients - and many of the accounts were not declared to the taxman.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) was given the leaked data in 2010 and has identified 1,100 people who had not paid their taxes. But almost five years later, only one tax evader has been prosecuted.

HMRC said £135m in tax, interest and penalties have now been paid by those who hid their assets in Switzerland.

But the chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee, Margaret Hodge MP, said: "I just don't think the tax authorities have been strong enough, assertive enough, brave enough, tough enough in securing for the British taxpayer the monies that are due."

HSBC did not just turn a blind eye to tax evaders - in some cases it broke the law by actively helping its clients.

The bank gave one wealthy family a foreign credit card so they could withdraw their undeclared cash at cashpoints overseas.

HSBC also helped its tax-dodging clients stay ahead of the law.

When the European Savings Directive was introduced in 2005, the idea was that Swiss banks would take any tax owed from undeclared accounts and pass it to the taxman.

It was a tax designed to catch tax evaders. But instead of simply collecting the money, HSBC wrote to customers and offered them ways to get round the new tax.

HSBC denies that all these account holders were evading tax.

'Dodge liabilities'

Richard Brooks, a former tax inspector and author of The Great Tax Robbery, said: "I think they were a tax avoidance and tax evasion service. I think that's what they were offering. They knew full well that people come to them to dodge their tax liabilities."

The bank now faces criminal investigations in the US, France, Belgium and Argentina. HSBC said it is "co-operating with relevant authorities". But in the UK, where the bank is based, no such action has been taken.

Stephen Green served as a minister of trade and investment

The man in charge of HSBC at the time, Stephen Green, was made a Conservative peer and appointed to the government.

Lord Green was made a minister eight months after HMRC had been given the leaked documents from his bank. He served as a minister of trade and investment until 2013.

He told Panorama: "As a matter of principle I will not comment on the business of HSBC past or present."

HSBC said it has completely overhauled its private banking business and has reduced the number of Swiss accounts by almost 70% since 2007.

In a statement, the bank said: "HSBC has implemented numerous initiatives designed to prevent its banking services being used to evade taxes or launder money."

The bank said it now puts compliance and tax transparency ahead of profitability.

But Panorama has spoken to a whistleblower who said there were still problems with tax dodging at HSBC private bank when she worked there in 2013.

Sue Shelley was the private bank's head of compliance in Luxembourg. She said HSBC did not keep its promise to change. "I think the verbal messages were great but they weren't put into practice and that disturbed me greatly," she said.

It was her job to make sure HSBC followed the rules, but she said she was sacked after raising concerns. She has since won a tribunal hearing for unfair dismissal.

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HSBC apologised for its lapses, said reforms had been put in place, and

admitted it was 'horrified' by what it found. Photograph: Gary Cameron/Reuters

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Brazil charges 35 over Petrobras kickbacks

Yahoo – AFP, 11 Dec 2014

Brazilian prosecutors charged 35 businessmen in connection with the Petrobras corruption case on Thursday, the first wave of indictments arising from the investigation into the scandal surrounding the state-owned oil giant.

The 35 are accused of being complicit in a scheme which saw dozens of politicians, mostly allies of the government, receive hundreds of millions of dollars in sweeteners from over-charged contracts involving Brazil's biggest company.

The group are the first people to be charged in the scandal, which broke following the arrest nine months ago of Paulo Roberto Costa, formerly a Petrobras director of supplies.

Costa blew the whistle as part of a plea bargain.

The prosecutors' office added further prosecutions were likely to follow after charging former Petrobras officials along with a slew of figures from leading construction and engineering firms who allegedly paid out bribes in return for winning fat contracts.

"The is the start of the investigation, we have a long way still to go," said prosecutor Rodrigo Janot.

"These people stole Brazilians' pride," said Janot, who warned the case was complex while promising a "calm, balanced, but firm and thorough investigation."

Those accused face charges of corruption, money laundering and helping to set up a criminal organization.

Executives charged included ranking officials from constructors such as OAS, Camargo Correa, UTC, Mendes Junior, Engevix and Galvao Engenharia Engineering.

They are accused of forming a "club" to rotate contracts with Petrobras and cream off cash for politicians to look the other way.

"These people not only corrupted Petrobras but other public bodies. They should therefore go to jail," said the prosecutor for southern Parana state, Deltan Dallagnol, who is heading a special unit tasked with investigating the case.

Under the alleged scheme, companies which won contracts including illicit surcharges of between one and six percent of the deal would pass the cash on to intermediaries who would set up front firms who would produce bogus contracts, services and consultancy services, with the money laundered through those firms.

Police estimate that overall the corrupt network managed to launder around $3.8 billion.

Ecuador could still consider Snowden's asylum bid

Google – AFP, 29 October 2013

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Ecuador's President Rafael

Correa during their joint press conference in the Kremlin in Moscow, on October 29,

2013 (AFP, Alexander Nemenov)

Moscow — Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said on Tuesday that his country could still consider an application for political asylum from US fugitive Edward Snowden.

"If Mr. Snowden ends up in the territory of Ecuador at some point, for example, if he comes to a diplomatic mission in some country and asks for asylum, we will accept his application, look at all the legal aspects, and make a decision," the Ecuadoran leader said in a press-conference in Moscow after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, is wanted in the United States for espionage and other charges after leaking details of vast US telephone and internet surveillance programmes.

He was granted asylum by Russia on August 1, after spending over a month holed up in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.

Snowden wrote to a slew of countries seeking asylum while at the airport, although he mostly received swift rejections.

Correa, whose country has been sheltering WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in its embassy in London since 2012, said at the time that Ecuador cannot process Snowden's request until he makes it to its territory, suggesting instead that Russia grants him refuge.

Asked on Tuesday if he discussed the Snowden case with Putin at their meeting in Moscow, Correa said "absolutely not".

Snowden is now in hiding in Russia, although a video was released this month of him meeting with four former US government employees who became whistleblowers and who presented him with an award in an unidentified location.

Snowden was initially thought to be headed for Latin America to seek asylum, but got stuck in Sheremetyevo during a layover after the US authorities revoked his passport.

His Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said in recent interviews that Snowden is now likely to remain in Russia.

NSA scandal journalist Greenwald urges Germany to protect Snowden

Deutsche Welle, 28 October 2013

The journalist who worked with US whistleblower Edward Snowden has urged Germany to offer protection to the former intelligence operative. Meanwhile, Berlin is to debate claims the US spied on Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In an interview with German television on Monday, Brazil-based Glen Greenwald said Germany should offer asylum to former US intelligence operative Edward Snowden, who is currently being granted temporary asylum in Russia.

Through the British newspaper The Guardian, US journalist Greenwald uncovered details of the National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance program early this year based on leaks from Snowden, a former NSA contractor.

In an interview with German public broadcaster ARD, Greenwald said the extent of spying activity of the NSA - including the eavesdropping on Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone - would not be known without information made available by Snowden.

"Germany is precisely one of the countries that has most benefited from these revelations, from the start," said Greenwald.

"Rather than thanking him or being grateful or just doing their duty under the law to protect people who are being politically persecuted, the German government has turned its back on him and allowed its ally the United States to threaten his political rights and persecute him."

"I think it really is up to the German people to ask why that is," said Greenwald, who no longer works for The Guardian.

Special parliamentary session

Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, is set to debate the spying affair on November 18 - signifying something of a change of heart on the part of Merkel's government. Such a debate had been requested by opposition parties weeks ahead of the German general election on September 22, but this was refused.

The formation of a special committee to discuss the NSA affair is also seen as likely, something that would require the approval of a third of Bundestag lawmakers. While the opposition Green and Left parties have only about a fifth of seats in the assembly, the CDU/CSU grouping and its expected coalition partner the SPD have said they would support an "appropriate" motion by the opposition.

Greenwald said that Snowden would be a "logical choice" to answer questions as a witness at the committee, but that he would need a guarantee that his basic rights would be respected. Several German deputies have also called for Snowden to be summoned.

However, the office of Chancellor Merkel said there were no plans to ask Snowden to attend.

The German government on Monday said it has learnt nothing new of about the spying affair since it came to light on Monday. A representative of the chancellor also refused to answer a question about whether Obama had apologized to Merkel.

"I never report on the confidential conversations of the chancellor," said the spokesman.

White House mulls changes

Meanwhile, the White House has said it believed some constraints were needed in light of recent revelations. As well as the spying on the German chancellor, the NSA is accused of tapping millions of phone calls of Spanish citizens the space of just a month. It is also accused of carrying out vast online trawling operations in that country.

"We recognize there needs to be additional constraints on how we gather and use intelligence," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

"We also need to ensure that our intelligence resources are most effectively supporting our foreign policy and national security objectives, that we are more effectively weighing the risks and rewards of our activities," Carney said.

The head of the US Senate Intelligence Committee took a tougher line, calling for a "total review of all intelligence programs."

Senator Dianne Feinstein said her committee had been informed of the NSA's collection of phone records under a secret order. But she said the committee had been kept in the dark as to the extend of the surveillance.

"Unlike NSA's collection of phone records under a court order, it is clear to me that certain surveillance activities have been in effect for more than a decade and that the Senate Intelligence Committee was not satisfactorily informed," she said.

"With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders of US allies - including France, Spain, Mexico and Germany - let me state unequivocally: I am totally opposed."

rc/ph (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters, ARD)

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Greenwald quits Guardian for 'dream' project

Google – AFP, 15 October 2013

The Guardian's Brazil-based reporter Glenn Greenwald, who was among the

 first to reveal Washington's vast electronic surveillance program, testifies before

 the investigative committee of the Senate in Brasilia on October 9, 2013

(AFP/File, Evaristo Sa)

Washington (AFP) - Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian reporter who broke many of the stories about secret US surveillance programs, said Tuesday he is leaving the British daily for an unspecified "dream" project.

Greenwald, an American who lives in Brazil, declined to offer details of his plans, saying they were leaked prematurely.

"My partnership with the Guardian has been extremely fruitful and fulfilling: I have high regard for the editors and journalists with whom I worked and am incredibly proud of what we achieved," Greenwald said in a statement.

"The decision to leave was not an easy one, but I was presented with a once-in-a-career dream journalistic opportunity that no journalist could possibly decline."

Greenwald's plans appeared to have been leaked by the online news site BuzzFeed, which gave no details on the reporter's plans.

But Greenwald told BuzzFeed it would be “a very well-funded… very substantial new media outlet.”

“My role, aside from reporting and writing for it, is to create the entire journalism unit from the ground up by recruiting the journalists and editors who share the same journalistic ethos and shaping the whole thing -- but especially the political journalism part -- in the image of the journalism I respect most,” he was quoted as saying.

BuzzFeed said Greenwald will continue to live in Rio de Janeiro and would bring some staff to Brazil but the new organization's main hubs will be New York, Washington and San Francisco.

In his statement, Greenwald said, "Because this news leaked before we were prepared to announce it, I'm not yet able to provide any details of this momentous new venture, but it will be unveiled very shortly."

Greenwald, a lawyer by training, worked with former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden on a series of reports based on documents revealing a vast electronic surveillance program by the United States, in cooperation with Britain.

The Guardian's Jennifer Lindauer said in a statement accompanying Greenwald's that he "is a remarkable journalist and it has been fantastic working with him."

"Our work together over the last year has demonstrated the crucial role that responsible investigative journalism can play in holding those in power to account," she said.

"We are of course disappointed by Glenn's decision to move on, but can appreciate the attraction of the new role he has been offered. We wish him all the best."

Related Article:

Pierre Omidyar commits $250m to new media venture with Glenn Greenwald