Posted on 08/19/2012 1:18:33 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Ecuador has granted asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange saying the UK and Sweden plan to hand him over to the US for "persecution."
Its foreign ministry in a statement on its website on Thursday (16 August) said it granted his request on grounds that if the UK extradites him to Sweden, then Sweden will hand him over to the US, where he risks "persecution … [and] cruel and degrading treatment" in a military trial which could end in life in jail or the death penalty.
Despite its own track record of silencing government-critical journalists, it added that Assange, who helped leak thousands of classified US diplomatic cables, is "an award-winning communications professional renowned internationally for his struggle for freedom of expression, press freedom and human rights." …
For its part, the EU is trying to steer clear of the affair.
"This is essentially a bilateral issue between the UK and Ecuador … [but] the EU delegation in Quito is following this case closely, in contact with the UK embassy," a spokesman for EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton told AFP. …
(Excerpt) Read more at euobserver.com ...
ecuador is under the thumb of chavez. Their president is a fraud.
It’s weird how many people from Ecuador risk their lives each year escaping from that sewer to come to the U.S. Very weird.
I don’t think this is going to go very far. The little weasel Correa is in increasing trouble in his own country as resistence grows to his corrupt and dictatorial left-wing government.
As for the EU, Assange was spying on these countries, too, so I don’t think they’re very fond of him.
Anyone who pi$$es off the ruling elites like Assange is a hero.
“ecuador is under the thumb of chavez. Their president is a fraud.”
And ours isn’t? Peas in a pod, Obama and Chavez and the president of Ecuador. And he is right, the UK and Sweden are doing this at the behest of the US. I’m actually shocked at how far the UK seems willing to go, if they really do storm the Ecuadorian embassy to get Assange it basically means that no embassy will be safe in the future, especially US and UK embassies. Just remember back to the Iranian embassy take over during the Carter years and imagine that in a dozen places. Not good.
Would you have said the same about Lenin in 1917?
So people like Che and Lenin are also heroes?
That’s what we get for neglecting the Monroe Doctrine and allowing Red China to influence the politics down there.
So all embassies must be inviolable no matter who they harbor?
Julian Assange has been talking with his legal adviser Baltasar Garzon inside the Ecuadorean embassy
Tanks!
He is enraging them by illuminating what they do not want us to see. He is not a politician, but just a guy with a website that exposes the truth.
Obama’s leaks have done more to damage the USA.
A very good point. Ecuador is just another of Hugo Chavez’ puppet states. Others include Nicaragua, Bolivia and Argentina. What Chavez is doing is trying to make up for South America’s lack of importance in world affairs, a kind of “look at me! look at me!” schtick, which is why he’s getting cozy with Mahmoud Dinner-jacket. We should take comfort in the fact that without Hugo, the rest of these morons are like headless turkeys. Just look at how their “Support us on the Falklands and invite Cuba next time” platform at the latest summit collapsed when Chavez had to be air-lifted to a hospital. Correa, Morales, Ortega and Kirchner are laughable, and Asshat Assange is going nowhere. He’ll have to leave eventually and then its a short stop in Sweden before arriving in a US prison. Don’t worry, Julian. We’ll take good care of you...
Both Obama and Assange should share a cell for their leaking.
YES! That has been in treaties since after WWI and if it was not why do you think that armed marines are at all of our embassies? That is considered sovereign ground of the country that owns the embassy, it’s literally part of their country and invading an embassy like that would be considered an act of war.
In 1989 or 1990 during the operation to oust Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, a US infantry unit in Panama City broke ino the Nicaraguan Embassy, believing there were Sandanistan weapons in there. There was hell raised and Ortega declared a bunch of US diplomats, some friends of mine, personae non grata and expelled them in retaliation. It’s a serious infraction of international law.
Britain brought in a law in the 1980s giving the government the power to revoke the sovereignty of embassies if they were being misused for illegal purposes. They brought this in after the Libyan embassy was used to fire at crowds of anti-Gaddafi protesters and killed Yvonne Fletcher, a policewoman on duty that day. Prior to this law being passed, Britain was basically forced to watch the murderers escape justice due to diplomatic immunity and literally watch them walk away, board a plane and fly away scot free...
It hasn’t served any good purpose, has it? All it’s done is shielded tyrants. And led to more wars. Time to scrap it.
And frankly, the actions of the Ecuadorian embassy are an act of war.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.