Assange

[BarakzaiAbdali]

I hear that there is a sealed indictment against whistle blower Assange in Virginia... appears the Ecuador gambit was the right way to go.

[faye]

he still has to get out of the ecuador embassy. apparently the brits want to arrest him for breach of something?. waiting for him outside.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

he still has to get out of the ecuador embassy. apparently the brits want to arrest him for breach of something?. waiting for him outside.

I think the Brits likely want him off their soil ASAP so that they can stop looking like they always kow tow to DC. I hear the Presidency of Ecuador is in the hands of a man who is very independent minded and may take in Assange.

The world has always been this way; men bearing truth either end up dead or hunted, maligned or hated.

[faye]

apparently assange clicked with the ecuador president, whilst doing an interview with him.
the government here is getting a hiding on different programs for not protecting him. embarassing to them that assange had to go to ecuador for protection.
yeah, pity not more whistleblowers in this world.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

apparently assange clicked with the ecuador president, whilst doing an interview with him.
the government here is getting a hiding on different programs for not protecting him. embarassing to them that assange had to go to ecuador for protection.
yeah, pity not more whistleblowers in this world.

Its about Orwell's horse faye. He represented the most powerful force on the farm (the people), but was unaware of what he was being used for. If some are consigned to doing good for the sake of it and not for praise and worldly gain then I think they can enjoy the clean heart of a nonviolent truth teller and persevere. For his sanity, I hope Assange is this brand of man.

Otherwise, what may deter others is what ended up detering both Khushaal Khan Khattak and James Joyce's character Stephen Dedalus. The latter wrote, through his Dedalus: "Ireland is the sow that eats her farrow" in reference to how the Irish abandoned Charles Parnell in his time of need despite his independence stance against the Brits. Both Khattak and the irish leader Joyce was writing about were betrayed by their own people for whom they struggled. Those on the verge of blowing the whistle may think: why ruin myself for a people who are derelect in defending their own freedom and sustenance? To tie it together: why, when the horse is the strongest animal on the farm and so very capable to seizing its freedom should the dove ruin herself simply to be eulogized in song and memory?

[faye]

i am not too taken with assange, as a personality but hey!, those south americans are coming up interesting. giving the finger to 'big brother' further north, lol.

[Talal]

Don't think a decision will be taken right away..They will keep him at the embassy and take their sweet time to deliberate upon his application.

[Breshna]

I think the Brits likely want him off their soil ASAP so that they can stop looking like they always kow tow to DC. I hear the Presidency of Ecuador is in the hands of a man who is very independent minded and may take in Assange.

The world has always been this way; men bearing truth either end up dead or hunted, maligned or hated.

Compulsive liars are preferred in this...day

and..age.

Its new modern Era...full of

lies.

The more lies you tell...the

more promotions you..get.

The more crimes you commit...the

more successful you...become.

The biggest hypocrites...get

promoted to be...Presidents.

The more you murder in...wars,

the more shining medals you...get.

You just, have to look at...U.S.A.

That's what its made...of.

The raw...ingredients.

[khushal]

Why Assange needs Ecuador and Ecuador needs Assange

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/20/world/...html?hpt=wo_c2
(CNN) -- Time was running out for Julian Assange. If the WikiLeaks frontman was going to make a move it would be soon.

Just days before Assange had lost his final bid in Britain's highest court to stop his extradition to Sweden for questioning about sexual assault allegations. The court had set a July 7 deadline.

Though the sexual misconduct case has nothing to do with WikiLeaks, some of his supporters believe that if Assange is sent to Sweden, he would be vulnerable to extradition to the United States. WikiLeaks published a trove of State Department cables and secret documents, some of them classified, about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Assange is not currently facing criminal charges in the U.S.
So where in the world should Assange turn for refuge? He picked Ecuador, which says it will consider his application for asylum.

"It's a very smart move to go there. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa and Assange have mutual interests -- they both support the idea that the U.S. is an imperial power that has to be checked," said Robert Amsterdam, a Canadian international lawyer who's worked high profile cases involving Latin America, Russia and Thailand. He said the information contained in the cables WikiLeaks released has helped in some of his cases.

Correa, a left-leaning economist, has railed against the United States in concert with allies in the region and elsewhere -- Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Bolvia's Evo Morales, Cuba's Fidel Castro and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
As far as angering the Brits, Correa has shown he doesn't mind doing that. In February, Correa called for sanctions against Britain for its long-running dispute with Argentina over who owns the Falkland Islands.
From a Latin perspective, what a glorious thing to get Assange

Robert Amsterdam, an international attorney who has tried cases involving Latin America on Assange's Ecuador asylum bid



"From a Latin perspective, what a glorious thing to get Assange," Amsterdam said. "You don't have to be even anti-American to want to do that. When I'm in Guatemala, they still call the (U.S.) 'the empire.' There really is an almost universal hostility toward American foreign policy. Assange would be welcomed in many countries just for that fact."

Jorge Leon, an Ecuadorian political analyst who lives in Quito, said that with presidential elections in Ecuador scheduled for next February giving Assange asylum in the country could be "useful to Correa to give himself a leftist image."
"A lot of his base is leftist," said Leon. "He has to feed that base."
Correa and Assange






101: WikiLeaks revealed
Ecuadorian president Correa recently appeared on Assange's new television show, "The World Tomorrow," which began broadcasting in April on R-TV, Russia's state-funded English language channel.

Assange introduced his guest by calling Correa "a transformative leader," and pointed out that Correa expelled the U.S. ambassador after reports that a WikiLeaks State Department cable showed that the American ambassador was concerned about an allegedly corrupt high ranking police official. The cable, published by Spanish newspaper El Pais, said Correa was aware of corruption by the police high command.
The website of Assange's TV show described it differently, saying the cable showed the U.S. "embassy exercising influence over members of the Ecuadorian police force."
"Your WikiLeaks has made us stronger!" Correa told Assange.

Assange and Correa seemed to have a rapport, praising each other and at times laughing like old friends who shared inside jokes.
Assange began the interview by asking Correa what he thinks of the United States.
Correa answered by accusing the U.S. of meddling in Ecuador's police force, yet then said the countries have a relationship based on "affection and friendship."
Correa went on to say he lived in the U.S. for four years and got two academic degrees in the U.S.
"I love and admire the American people a great deal," he said. "The last thing I'd be is anti-American, but I will always call a spade a spade."

Later in the interview, Correa laughs about his decision not to renew the U.S. Southern Command's lease of Eloy Alfaro Air Base in Manta, which ended U.S. occupancy of the base in 2009.
Correa sarcastically suggested that he should be able to keep a base in Miami.
"I'm enjoying your jokes a great deal," Assange told the Ecuadorian president.

A press freedom fighter in Ecuador?
"That interview was just Assange asking Correa a bunch of softball questions," said Adam Isacson of the Regional Security Policy Program of human rights group Washington Office on Latin America.
Isacson and other experts point out that Correa loves disclosures when it suits him, but he has one of the worst reputations in Latin America for cracking down on journalists. Correa has filed defamation complaints against journalists who criticized him, forced independent radio and television stations to air lengthy rebuttals of critical reports, pre-empted programming and temporarily shut some stations down, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

In a June 9 radio address, Correa asked government ministers to stop granting interviews to private media because those outlets are "corrupt."
Wouldn't that bother Assange, a self-professed pillar of the free press? Well, experts say, Assange's show is broadcast by a network financed by the Kremlin and Russia isn't known for its press freedoms.
Standing up for freedom of the press may seem less important to Assange than saving himself right now, said Amsterdam.

"If he winds up getting extradited to the U.S. many people believe he'd never see the light of day again," the attorney said.
"Assange is in a very dangerous place," Amsterdam said.
But he said he feels the information disclosed by the WikiLeaks releases has "been incredible. It's so important."

A legal and diplomatic 'mess'
If Assange thought he was in trouble by staying in Britain, he could be in even more trouble if he tries to leave, said international human rights attorney Jared Genser.
Genser is best known for helping to free Burmese Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
"The big challenge would be getting Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to Ecuador. It would be very difficult," Genser said. "He could end up spending years living in the embassy as the Brits aren't likely to look too kindly on this stunt and the Ecuadorians might provide him protection in their mission.

"But it would be much more difficult to get him out and to a private plane to transit to Ecuador."
Assange is subject to arrest by British authorities for violating a bail requirement that he spend every night at the home outside London, police said Wednesday. In a written statement, London Metropolitan police said Wednesday that they were notified Assange may have breached one of the conditions of his bail.

If Assange shows up in Ecuador there could be criminal repercussions and diplomatic repercussions.
"If a fugitive were to show up in Ecuador after escaping from British territory and be protected by the Ecuador authorities, it would be a diplomatic mess," Isacson said.
"If Assange arrives in Ecuador, the first thing the Brits would probably do is remove their ambassador from Ecuador," he said.

It would also mean American officials, experts said, would inevitably have to start talking about Assange again, two years after the WikiLeaker first became a thorn in their side by releasing his first batch of secret U.S. documents.

CNN's Mariano Castillo contributed to this report.

[faye]

they need to do an abbottabad and send in the helicoptor to get him out, to a secret rendezvous point, then swoop him off to ecuador.

[Shah-i-Kot]

they need to do an abbottabad and send in the helicoptor to get him out, to a secret rendezvous point, then swoop him off to ecuador.

Im very curious how they will send him out. My hunch is that he will leave via a diplomatic mission which will bypass security,and we will only find out days later when he is in Ecuador. Im thinking of all the ways one can leave the embassy. The British police can not check Ecuador diplomats leaving and entering the Embassy as the Embassy has their own security personnel, and this breaks diplomatic protocol.

http://www.businessweek.com/printer/...type=bloomberg


Ecuador’s Correa ‘Seriously’ Reviewing Assange Asylum

By Nathan Gill and Randall Woods on June 21, 2012
Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa said he’s considering WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s request for political asylum, highlighting the South American nation’s sovereign right to protect refugees.
Correa, speaking on Venezuela’s Telesur network yesterday, said he hasn’t made a decision and the country is still considering the request.
“We are analyzing very seriously and responsibly the asylum request from Mr. Julian Assange,” Correa said according to a statement posted in his official gazette. “Until the analysis of this request is completed, we can’t comment officially.”
Assange sought asylum in Ecuador’s embassy in London June 19 to avoid what he says are U.S. efforts to punish him for releasing diplomatic secrets through his WikiLeaks website.
Ecuador is in contact with the U.K. government, Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told reporters in a brief statement in Quito. Assange entered the embassy in the Knightsbridge area of London after exhausting options in U.K. courts to avert extradition to Sweden, where he faces trial on two counts of sexual assault.
The request threatens to widen the breach between Ecuador, a member of the Venezuelan-led group of nations known as ALBA, and the U.S. just as Ecuador seeks renewal of trade benefits due to expire next year. Ecuador may grant Assange asylum to spite the U.S., prioritizing political gains over strategic interests, said Christopher Sabatini, senior policy director of the Council of the Americas.
“These governments of the ALBA alliance will do anything to try and humiliate the U.S. to try to score a cheap point,” Sabatini said in a June 19 phone interview from New York.
Breached Bail

Assange, detained in Britain 18 months ago after Sweden issued a European arrest warrant, breached the terms of his bail by staying at the Ecuadorian Embassy and may be arrested again, the Metropolitan Police Service said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.
“It seems to me he’s put Ecuador in quite a difficult situation,” according to Peter Watson, a lawyer with Allen & Overy in London who isn’t involved in the case. “Seeking political asylum following an open public trial and appeal to the highest court in the land is essentially saying the U.K. court system stinks.”
In a statement on June 19 lasting less than six minutes, Patino said Ecuador’s decision will be based on international law and the country’s policy of protecting human rights, calling the issue delicate. He didn’t accept questions.
Home Country

Patino read extracts of a letter from Assange in which he said his home country of Australia had “effectively abandoned” him and is “ignoring the obligation to protect its citizen, who is persecuted politically.”
Assange says Sweden fabricated the arrest warrant to assist the U.S. in paying him back for breaching its security.
Assange is accused of raping one woman and of sexual molestation and unlawful coercion against a second, Claes Borgstrom, the lawyer representing the two women, said in an e- mailed response to questions yesterday.
“I am not surprised that Assange once again is trying to stop the extradition but I could never have guessed his method this time,” Borgstrom wrote. “I am convinced that it will be only a delay, Assange will sooner or later be extradited to Sweden.”
Friends With Chavez

Correa, who is friends with Venezuela’s leader Hugo Chavez, is an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy. His Foreign Ministry offered Assange residency following the 2010 publication of U.S. government cables before rescinding the invitation.
Still, the Andean nation may hesitate to grant Assange asylum to avoid damaging its commercial relationship with the world’s largest economy, Risa Grais-Targow, an analyst at political risk research company Eurasia Group, said.
“It would depend on what they gauge the U.S. response will be and whether it will actually have repercussions,” Grais- Targow said by telephone from Washington. “Ecuador needs the U.S. a lot more than the U.S. needs Ecuador.”
Assange lost his bid this month to have the U.K.’s top court reconsider a decision that would allow him to be extradited to Sweden. The court rejected his argument that the Swedish prosecutor who investigated the sex-assault claims wasn’t authorized to issue a European arrest warrant.
Assange would have to leave the embassy if his asylum request is rejected, Douglas McNabb, senior principal at international criminal defense law firm McNabb Associates PC, said by telephone from Washington. If Ecuador accepts the request, it probably would be able to escort him to the airport for a flight to Quito, he said.
‘Great Move’

“It’s a great move from a legal perspective,” said McNabb, who isn’t representing Assange or the governments in the case. “For him to be on the embassy grounds now, and for the Foreign Ministry to say he’s applied and we’re considering it, there must be something there that leads Assange to believe that it will be granted.”
Assange’s lawyer Dinah Rose wasn’t available to comment when her office was contacted by Bloomberg News June 19. The office of Gareth Peirce, another lawyer for Assange, said it wasn’t offering comments to the press.
Assange, arrested in London in December 2010, may still appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The U.K. Supreme Court stayed extradition proceedings until the end of June to allow him to seek a final appeal at the Strasbourg, France-based tribunal.
“As Mr. Assange is in the Ecuadorean Embassy, he’s on diplomatic territory, and beyond the reach of the police,” the U.K. Foreign Office said in a statement. “We will seek to work with the Ecuadorean authorities to resolve the situation as soon as possible.”
Gillard Comments

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard told reporters in Mexico where she was attending a meeting of the G-20 that Australia had given Assange “consular assistance at every stage” and that it would continue to help him “as we do any Australian abroad facing difficulty.”
Jay Raman, press attache at the U.S. Embassy in Quito, said Assange’s request was an issue for the U.K., Sweden and Ecuador.
The allegations against Assange became public around the same time he posted the leaked cables on the Internet, which raised questions about the Obama administration’s handling of classified information. Former Alaska Governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said the government should have done more to block publication of the cables.
In April, Assange hosted a television show, “The World Tomorrow with Julian Assange,” that included an interview with Ecuador’s 49-year-old president in which they talked about their shared criticism of the press.
Correa, who regularly spars with journalists over critical coverage, has led a crackdown on the nation’s press over what he calls bias in the media.
During the conversation, Correa laughed and told an unshaven Assange, “Cheer up, welcome to the club of the persecuted.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Nathan Gill in Quito at ngill4@bloomberg.net; Randall Woods in Santiago at rwoods13@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net

[Shah-i-Kot]

The Julian Assange Show: Rafael Correa (E6) - YouTube




Assange interview with Ecuador leader shows rapport [Video]

June 20, 2012 | 2:35 pm





As WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange holes up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London seeking political asylum, and facing arrest if he steps outside, a televised interview gives clues as to why the famous freedom-of-information activist turned to Ecuador for help.
Assange has been battling extradition to Sweden over accusations of sexual assault, claiming that he would be shunted to the United States and prosecuted for revealing its secrets. While under house arrest in Britain, Assange interviewed Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa on his show, "The World Tomorrow," on Russia Today.
The videolink interview above reveals the philosophical harmony and rapport between the two men, who traded praise for each other. During the roughly 25-minute show, the leftist Correa denounced the United States as an arrogant, overreaching power and praised WikiLeaks for shedding light on its actions.
Correa argued that leaked diplomatic cables "made us stronger" because the key accusations were "due to our excessive nationalism and defense of the sovereignty of the Ecuadorean government." Last year, Ecuador expelled U.S. Ambassador Heather Hodges after the cables were released by WikiLeaks. The leaked cables included revelations that Hodges suspected Correa of knowing about police corruption.
As Assange grinned and chuckled at his remarks about U.S. power -- at one point he quipped that Latin America was moving from "the Washington consensus" to "the Consensus without Washington" -- Correa asked through an interpreter, "Are you having a lot of fun with the interview, Julian?"
"I am enjoying your jokes a great deal, yes," Assange replied with a smile.

Correa also criticized Ecuadorean media during the interview, saying that reporters had served private interests instead of the people, trying to stop change. International media freedom groups have criticized Correa, complaining that Ecuador has tried to silence critical media under his watch. "These people disguised as journalists are trying to do politics to destabilize our governments so that no change takes place in our region, for fear of losing the power they have always flaunted about," Correa argued passionately.
"President Correa, I agree with your market description of the media," Assange replied. "We have seen this again and again -- that big media organizations that we have worked with … have censored our material against our agreements when they published it for political reasons or to protect oligarchs."
Correa ends the interview by joking: "Cheer up. Welcome to the club of the persecuted."
Assange replied, "Thank you. Take care. Don't get assassinated."
Ecuador has expressed the possibility of welcoming in Assange before: Two years ago, its then-deputy foreign minister said he wanted to grant him residency, to allow him a haven to speak out. At the time, President Correa said he had not approved the offer. The idea quickly disappeared from the headlines.
There are suggestions that the show itself may have spurred the idea: The Associated Press reported that a woman who was present claimed that Assange received an offer of asylum during the May show.
Ecuadorean Ambassador Anna Alban said Wednesday that while weighing his application for asylum, the country would "take into account Ecuador's long and well-established tradition in supporting human rights," while not interfering with British or Swedish government processes.


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/worl...ort-video.html