What are the options?

Is Assange "still" alive (as WikiLeaks, perhaps tellingly, asserts), and if so, where is he? There are several possible permutations. Either:

1. Assange is alive and well in the Ecuadorian Embassy in Hans Crescent, London, and simply keeping his head down (possibly in an attempt to create a news story and give more publicity to WikiLeaks).
2. Assange is alive and has miraculously managed to escape from the Embassy without being picked up the UK police or CIA who were monitoring the building, and has reached or is making his way to, a safe haven (eg Russia).
3. Assange is still alive, but now in captivity. This could be inside the Embassy, but far more likely, he has been removed and handed to the US authorities who have him in custody on "US controlled territory" (and where it is quite likely he is being tortured, like the thousands of nameless other "enemy combatants" before him).
4. Assange has been murdered (possibly by poisoning). Either his body is being stored in a freezer at the Embassy building until the "appropriate" time to announce his death, or it may have already been removed.
5. It is also possible that Assange was removed (or left) the Embassy alive, but has since been killed (ie a combination of 3 and 4).
6. An option I did not initially consider is that Assange could have realized his arrest was imminent and taken an extreme, but logical step to ensure that he wasn't captured. When faced with the prospect of torture, suicide would be the rational choice. Of course suicide may yet be presented as the official cause of death, and ironically, many people will not believe it.
7. It has long been argued that Assange (like Snowden) is a government agent, or limited hangout, working for US/UK interests, or even Russia. Alternatively, Assange could be in the process of becoming a limited hangout, perhaps agreeing to redact/restrict the most damaging of the documents in his possession in return for his freedom.

What does the evidence point to?

The best "evidence" we have at the moment is several testimonials which purport that Assange is alive and well, inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, or news stories which are designed to make people infer that this is the case. However, these stories are either inconclusive, suspect or have been proven to be false, in other words they may just be distractions and misdirection. There have been other posts covering this subject now deleted.. weird, but these distraction stories include:

1. the Pamela Anderson vegan sandwich visit on 15 October (somewhat compromised by her cryptic "torture" reference). Pamela Anderson has tweeted this "gift" of two mice for Assange's cat on 25 October
2. the statement by Ecuador that they were cutting off Assange's internet on October 16 (a cover story to obscure the fact Assange was already incapable of communicating?)
3. the Wikileaks employee visit/tweet on 17 October (since disavowed)
4. the Craig Murray whisky visit on October 18.
5. the numerous old Assange videos being re-posted as "news"
6. the idiotic red herring story involving images of Assange's "escape" (which were actually Google StreetView images from two years ago)
7. the 4-month old Michael Moore video being touted as current by WikiLeaks. the Wikileaks promises to provide hard evidence of Assange's situation which have been reneged on.
8. Weird tweets from WikiLeaks generally, including a ridiculous accusation that a major US ddos was the work of WikiLeaks supporters.

Conversely, whilst there is an "absence of positive evidence" that Assange has been harmed or abducted from the Ecuadorian Embassy, there are numerous reasons to suggest this might the case.

1. Final tweet from account known to be controlled by Julian Assange (Embassy Cat) on 15 October.
2. the release of Wikileaks codes on 16 October
3. the cancellation of the October 17 interview by Swedish prosecutors at the Ecuadorian Embassy.
4. Bystander reports of police/swat activity outside the Ecuadorian Embassy on 17 October and a forcible abduction.
5. A cryptic tweet from WikiLeaks confirming armed police outside the Ecuadorian Embassy, corroborating the forcible abduction story
6. this redditor who visited Hans Crescent on 22 October, to find there was no police presence guarding the Embassy. Assange was under siege for over four years, with a permanent police detail outside the Embassy, with orders to arrest him if he tried to leave. Why were they removed?
7. Mark Halperin of Politico attempted to meet with Assange on Friday 21, but was refused by a goon: "Assange too busy"- video .

Bearing in mind the above, and the highly suspicious nature of the so-called "evidence" asserting that he is in good health, I think it is reasonable at this point to suspect that Assange has either been killed and/or is no longer inside the Ecuadorian Embassy, so either options 3 or 4, or probably both (option 5) bearing in mind that the US elite will not want to give Assange a trial where he could reveal any more information.

Finally, if Assange has been subjected to extraordinary rendition and/or killed, we must assume that the UK, the US and the Ecuadorian governments are all complicit. It would mean that Ecuador's President Rafael Correa was somehow turned by the US authorities (be it via money or threats, or both concerning Ecuador's gold reserves being held in the US ) into secretly revoking Assange's asylum. It would also mean that the UK authorities have illegally handed over Assange to the Americans without due legal process, knowing that Assange would be tortured and probably killed.

TLDR: There has been no proof of life of Julian Assange for at least 9 days. Instead we have seen a raft of distraction stories (even from WikiLeaks itself) which are clearly designed to give the impression that Assange is alive and well. Some of these stories have been shown to be old footage or otherwise bogus. So it appears that WikiLeaks is compromised and that probably means Assange is no longer in the safety of the Ecuadorian Embassy. I supect the US authorities probably have the most information about Assange, and his current whereabouts, and we should probably fear the worst.

As mentioned briefly above, Julian Assange was due to be interviewed by Swedish prosecutors last week - on 17th October, at a meeting inside the Embassy. However, this meeting was called off just five days beforehand , on Wednesday 12 October, ostensibly because the lawyers "couldn't make it". This made me wonder whether it was perhaps Assange who was not available - in other words, could Assange have been out of commission earlier than we realised? Unlikely, perhaps.

"That is why silencing and threatening Julian Assange is so important. As the editor of WikiLeaks, Assange knows the truth. And let me assure those who are concerned, he is well, and WikiLeaks is operating on all cylinders."

The article is here: http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/28/inside-the-invisible-government-war-propaganda-clinton-trump/

John Pilger's website is here . Pilger is a journalistic legend and a friend of Julian Assange, and although it goes without saying, this is not a formal proof of life, Pilger's "truth" credentials are pretty much unrivalled. It should be stressed that Pilger and Wikileaks have stressed Assange is "alive" but not his whereabouts.