Posted on 11/29/2010 6:55:32 PM PST by markomalley
If WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange needs a home, Ecuador's deputy foreign minister says this Andean nation is happy to provide one.
The 39-year-old Australian, who has incensed and embarrassed Washington with the release by his online whistle-blowing organization of hundreds of sensitive diplomatic cables, had sought residency and a work permit in Sweden.
But after the release by WikiLeaks beginning in late July of thousands of sensitive documents from the Iraq and Afghan wars, a Swedish court ordered him detained for questioning on sexual assault allegations - claims Assange denies and calls part of a smear campaign.
Assange, who keeps his whereabouts secret and moves around a lot, could also face legal complications at home. Australia's attorney general said Monday that it was studying whether he'd broken any laws there.
In contrast to the potential hostility from U.S. allies, leftist-run Ecuador provided Assange with an invitation Monday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Kintto Lucas said in audio posted online by the EcuadorInmediato news site that "we are open to giving him residence in Ecuador, without any kind of trouble and without any kind of conditions."
"We think it would be important not only to converse with him but to listen to him," Lucas added, saying Ecuador wanted to invite Assange to "freely expound" and see what it's like in "friendly countries."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
back then, (in your Dad’s day) men had chests.... (C.S. lewis)
I hope you all will join me in boycotting Ecuadoran weed (as fine as it is)!
Good info — thanks.
ICE didn't shut down the websites. It compelled the DNS registry operator to redirect their domain names to another location. The servers themselves aren't in the US, but the company operating the *.com registry is a US company and subject to US jurisdiction.
Wikileak's main servers are in Sweden, but there are at least two KNOWN mirror sites. Some of their domain names are in a US-company domain name registry, but not all of them. The US government can't shut down those domain names in registries operated by non-US companies.
Ecuador is a very poor and corrupt nation where police do little. Also, South America was where many Nazis, Communists, and Muslims end up. Argentina helped Nazis flee to Argentina/South America because of Juan and Evita Peron.
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