Julian Assange: Ecuador grants Wikileaks founder asylum

BBC ^ | 16 August 2012 | Staff

[bjorn14]

Ecuador has granted asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange two months after he took refuge in its London embassy while fighting extradition from the UK.

It said his human rights might be violated if he is sent to Sweden to be questioned over sex assault claims.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said the UK would not allow Mr Assange safe passage out of the country and the move was also criticised by Stockholm.

Ecuador said it would seek to negotiate arrangements for Mr Assange to leave.

"We don't think it is reasonable that, after a sovereign government has made the decision of granting political asylum, a citizen is forced to live in an embassy for a long period," Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said.

Mr Assange took refuge at the embassy in June to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces questioning over assault and rape claims, which he denies.

Mr Patino had accused the UK of making an "open threat" to enter its embassy to arrest Mr Assange, an Australian national.

[BlazingArizona]

As a foreigner operating in a foreign country, Assange has also not violated any US law. THe traitor who spilled the secrets was Bradley Manning. Don't forget, people: if the Department of Justice gets the de facto power to arrest anyone in the world, on any pretext, they can target you no matter where you may travel.

[Gay State Conservative]

Were you calling Julian Assange “Julia” and referring to him as a female figuratively, or do you mistakenly think that that scumbag is a woman named Julia?

Nope,I did it intentionally.Schwartenager would call him a "girly man" and so do I.He belongs in a skirt.And heels.The only thing that surprises me is that it's adult females making the accusations against him rather than the parents of several three year old boys.

Little punk coward.

[Gay State Conservative]

If the UK is crazy enough to invade another nation's embassy, quite frankly it makes them no better than the thugs and goons who took over and occupied our embassy in Tehran in 1979.

What a silly position.First,I refer you to post #7.Any thoughts there? Yes,entering the embassy would be problematic but remember...1)today's Britain (and Sweden) doesn't remotely resemble 1979's (or today's) Iran...2)today's Ecuador doesn't remotely resemble the US,Britain *or* Sweden.Perhaps you could do some research on Ecuador's President and find out who his friends are.Get back to us when you're done,OK?

[Patriot Babe]

“And he still has something scandalous about international banking that could bring down the entire Eurosocialist left...”

BINGO!!! I agree he has more information. I believe these “rape” charges are trumped up charges to go after him. We do not know if these charges are true or not simply because the media tells us. Everyone here on Freepers should know better how low these commies will go to destroy their enemy.

“Anytime the leftists in the press and the communists infiltrating the State Department make a big deal out of something, you know something is up.”

Another BINGO!!! Unfortunately many here don’t see that. Many of us now recognize when Commies start screaming and creating a ruckus it is for a reason. Do they fear Assange will reveal more of their dirty secrets? Let the games being =)

Kudos to Ecuador for protecting him. I wonder why Ecuador. Do they feel they can get info out of him to use against their enemy or to help one of their neighbors?

If he has info on the International Bankers it would be nice if he has info on our Federal Reserve.

[mkjessup]

I refer you to post #20 by FReeper Cartan, who clearly understands this situation better than you do.

Get back to us when you begin to comprehend the actual issues.

[Gay State Conservative]

I wonder if Assange didn't find something on Presidente Correa in all the gigabytes of diplomatic cables from the US State Department...

Nah,this is all about Correa's utter contempt for the US,democracy and western civilization.You know,the same type (and level) of contempt that Osama Obama and his mentors had/have toward this country.Having seen some pretty awful things in South America (but not in Ecuador itself) it's not difficult to imagine what a Fourth World cesspool Ecuador (and its government) is.

[Gay State Conservative]

I refer you to post #20 by FReeper Cartan, who clearly understands this situation better than you do.

To compare today's Britain (or Sweden) to the Soviet bloc,or this situation to Soviet dissidents,is delusional.I have no use for delusional thought.

[mkjessup]

As a foreigner operating in a foreign country, Assange has also not violated any US law. The traitor who spilled the secrets was Bradley Manning. Don't forget, people: if the Department of Justice gets the de facto power to arrest anyone in the world, on any pretext, they can target you no matter where you may travel.

Excellent points, it was indeed Bradley Manning who should be in front of a firing squad. As unpleasant as it may be to consider, Assange and Wikileaks have done little more than what (for example) the New York Times has done for decades, which is to spill government secrets, disclose classified information, and I have yet to see any NYT personnel serving time in prison.

Some drama queens point to the incident in which a sniper inside the then-Libyan embassy shot and killed a UK policewoman, as some sort of justification for invading the diplomatic space of Ecuador today.

Perhaps I missed something, but I failed to see Julian Assange poking a rifle with a scope out of a window and shooting anybody.

[mkjessup]

I refer you to post #20 by FReeper Cartan, who clearly understands this situation better than you do.
To compare today's Britain (or Sweden) to the Soviet bloc,or this situation to Soviet dissidents,is delusional. I have no use for delusional thought.

How on Earth do you live with yourself then? LOL :)

[cartan]

[Emperor Palpatine]

In the old days, they’d farm this out top the mob and Julian would end up planted in the desert somewhere outside of Vegas.......

Arrest Assange?

No, termination with extreme prejudice. Much more cost-effective and sends the clearest possible message. I guarantee that if you do that it’ll be a long time before another arrogant Europansy tries anything remotely like publishing secrets.

I agree with Marshall Matt Dillon, “Some folks deserve killin’.”

[Gay State Conservative]

How on Earth do you live with yourself then? LOL :)

OK,cool.You let me know when your wife,daughter and mother take that Swedish vacation they were planning.I'll then go over there,violate all of them in some way,flee to Britain and when Sweden requests extradition I'll make a beeline to the Ecuadorian Embassy claiming that the CIA is out to murder me.No guns,no dead policewomen...just three traumatized women and a criminal living in the lap of luxury thanks to a Commie tinpot dictator who has *almost* as much contempt for the US as does Osama Obama.

You,no doubt,will be cheering Ecuador and cursing Britain *and* Sweden.

[Emperor Palpatine]

No, but how many of our people in the field died because of what he and that faggot Manning did?

Again, these banana republics need to stay out of the business of the first world. TR may have been a “progressive”, but he knew how to deal with uppity Latin countries who wouldn’t do as they’re told.

What’s the use of being the biggest badass on the block if you can’t act like it sometimes?

[mkjessup]

You let me know when your wife, daughter and mother take that Swedish vacation they were planning.I'll then go over there,violate all of them in some way

a.) You're not packing the gear to even try it.

b.) My wife, daughter and mother all pack heat. PLEASE 'try it'.

What you fail to understand is that as despicable as Assange is, if the door is opened to allow ANY nation to violate the diplomatic/embassy facilities of any OTHER nation, the resulting chaos will be far greater than the admittedly pride-shattering effect to the UK of letting Ecuador and Assange play their games. Ecuador and the rest of the third world would probably like nothing better than to have the UK come storming in, arrest Assange, so they could reap the global PR benefits.

And do you think for one minute that many nations will not then proceed to arm their own embassies to the teeth with any and every armament available to them? Picture 'Embassy Row' in Washington, bristling with foreign weapons from nearly every diplomatic compound, able to pick off pedestrians on a whim if they wish, and then unleashing a hail of firepower upon the unlucky law enforcement entities who attempt to enter their embassy to investigate such illegal doings.

Your problem is the problem of many chest thumpers who fail to consider the ultimate ramifications of the Rambo-style reactions they advocate. And let me be the first to say that I'd love to see the UK use a battering ram on Ecuador's puny little upstairs apartment, grab Assange and drag him off to Heathrow to be flown back to Sweden. But the resulting casualties and damage to the international and diplomatic protocols that are generally observed by ALL nations would be far greater than whatever feel-good moment the Brits might have by seizing Assange.

Bottom line? THINK man, THINK!

[cartan]

“Traumatized” women, who have been “violated” by Assange? That is not at all what happened there. Only in a country like Sweden, that is apparently being ruled by feminist, man-hating lesbians, would Assange even be prosecuted. There is no crime, and there are no “traumatized women,” either!

[mkjessup]

See my #34 above.

[Emperor Palpatine]

I could care less about the diplomats.

Diplomacy has never resolved any crisis, at any time in the last few centuries, and/or anywhere in the world. All diplomacy has done is prolong crises.

History is replete with examples of the failure of diplomacy, going back way before Neville getting off that plane waving his piece of paper.

The longer I live, the more I agree with Nietzsche’s oft-expressed belief that might makes right.

[NormsRevenge]

Maybe Ecuador needs more fertilizer.. I hear Assange is full of it.

[JerseyanExile]

I suspect that they don’t care a bit about Assange. It’s just that after Britain threatened to storm the embassy unless they handed him over, they couldn’t back down or else they would have lost face. Someone over at the Foreign Office really screwed up.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Most of the people here on this thread don’t see the bigger picture.