Ecuador To Grant Assange Political Asylum
NSN A392-99-964-5927 writes with news that Ecaudor will grant Julian Assange's request for political asylum. An Ecuador official told The Guardian that the country's president, who earlier indicated his decision would arrive after the Olympic Games, will approve the request Assange made in June.
"Government sources in Quito confirmed that despite the outstanding legal issues Correa would grant Assange asylum – a move which would annoy Britain, the US and Sweden. They added that the offer was made to Assange several months ago, well before he sought refuge in the embassy, and following confidential negotiations with senior London embassy staff. The official with knowledge of the discussions said the embassy had discussed Assange's asylum request. The British government, however, 'discouraged the idea,' the offical said. The Swedish government was also 'not very collaborative,' the official said. The official added: 'We see Assange's request as a humanitarian issue. The contact between the Ecuadorean government and WikiLeaks goes back to May 2011, when we became the first country to see the leaked US embassy cables completely declassified ... It is clear that when Julian entered the embassy there was already some sort of deal. We see in his work a parallel with our struggle for national sovereignty and the democratisation of international relations.'"
Ya but if I Assange I'd be absurdly paranoid for the rest of my life. Drone strikes are so easy to do and for the USA to deploy a military asset to Ecuador cannot be that difficult.
A Latin American country is providing safe harbor for a journalist who dared to expose top-secret documents on the military. Someone needs to rework the "In Soviet Russia..." meme for juntas.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Assange is a political refugee, he needs a hide out because a large and a very powerful organisation (and more than one) are after him for disseminating information that those powerful organisations want to keep quiet.
If Assange falls in the hands of American government, he is going to be made an example of, and it's going to be worse than Vietnam for him, sort of like what they did to Bradley Manning but maybe times 10.
Isn't it amazing, 60 years ago people wouldn't have believed if somebody told them, that America could become this....
You can't handle the truth.
Yeah. I live in Latin America. I've lived in the US. Have you traveled outside your country? You would be surprised at the non universality of your "freedom".
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
You're right if he was going to get killed by a professional group it would not be something so obvious as a drone strike.
Agreed. They'd probably start by framing the guy in some kind of sex scandal, as is traditional for the US. Oh wait...
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Don't worry. From there he can easily come to Brazil. We have never extradited anyone to US and won't start anytime soon. South America is probably the best place in the world for him to run. Nobody here likes US (and that includes most governments)