One view today on the matter:
Given that Ecuador’s granting J asylum was a given after the ‘threat’: might the ‘threat’ not be deliberate in order to get Cameron et all off the hook with the ‘cousins’ across the Atlantic ?
BTW have u noticed how spectacularly the cousins are failing down in NZ ? http://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-must-be-allowed-to-see-fbi-evidence-against-him-court-rules-120816
The NZ courts are being downright irrational, asking for proof of any crime …
Another view:
Yes, the NZ slo-mo train crash is wonderful to behold. Rather underlines how police forces around the world are becoming ever more po-mo and military wing of the ruling party, and sliding into utter incompetence at the same time.
I doubt that the ‘Man on the Clapham Omnibus ‘ gives a damn whether Assange is extradited or not, but he would really be pissed at the waste of taxpayers money. In international treaty terms the threat to revoke the embassies status is mind-bogglingly idiotic.
And at Techdirt [H/T haiku]:
No matter what you think of Assange (and, personally, I don’t think too highly of his methods or his grandstanding), it’s a massive stretch to think that he should even be subject to an Espionage Act claim. However, as we’ve detailed multiple times, the Obama administration has turned the Espionage Act from a law against spying into a law against whistleblowers who embarrass them.
He rightly says:
Yes, others will claim that the US was never the beacon of human rights it set itself out to be. There are numerous examples of where the US has failed to live up to its own stated standards.
Yes that’s so – you can start with Colonel House, the Fed and MK ultra and work forwards and backwards from there. The people at the top [CFR/TLC - that kind] have always been animals for whom the rules do not apply in their eyes. Abu Ghraib.
Assange is dead meat – he must know that. Those bstds will never stop because once the principle of whistleblowers getting away with it is established, then people might “lose respect” for their betters. That they’d quote some act: the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987 as justification to strongarm into someone’s embassy is not a nice precedent, as many are probably noting today.
Talking about the attack on the British embassy in Tehran William Hague said it was a “grave breach of the Vienna convention which requires the protection of diplomats and diplomatic premises under all circumstances”
See him on video here saying so.
link to bbc.co.uk
All circumstances you would imagine include these ones.
Apparently ‘all’ is not what it seems.
Oh, two completely different things. I know this because Billy tells us so.
My sympathies are with Mr Assange and I hope he manages to come out the otherside of this persecution as a fit and healthy individual. Mr Hague should be ashamed of himself; but then judging by his actions, he’s either a bit thick or a complete coward or both.
Assange and the staff of the Ecuador embassy should become Muslim and don the burka. After the first wrong arrest and the ensuing melee this would cause Assange makes his bid for freedom.
I’ve been thinking helicopter from the roof but would they shoot it down?
Might be a bit facetious here…and I do appreciate how serious a matter this is…but this is hugely entertaining stuff and I look forward to the film version.
I think though his escape is going to depend entirely on how much he is worth to his saviours and just how much money (and other resources) the Ecuadorians actually want to spend on it.
I foresee an “accidental” capture.
Helicopter from the roof – please, please! Make a run for it.
Apparently the embassy is in shared accommodation, and getting to the roof would mean leaving the sanctuary of “diplomatic immunity”.
Hi James – comments were closed at Nourishing Obscurity on this topic so I ventured here.
Something on a blog I read regularly set me wondering what you’d have to say about the question the blogger poses today:
“First Blair, now Cameron. My British friends, aren’t you sick of being led by politicians who continually bow to Washington?
We used to be your colony.”
link to cannonfire.blogspot.com
I wondered what current feelings are on this in relation to the Assange carry on – I’m out of touch, having no contacts over there (in real life).
Yes, Twilight – it was only a signpost at my place to here. You’ll get those current feelings by reading the guys and girls here. Think it’s fair to say that though we’re not enamoured of JA, we’re behind him on this one. Single Acts of Tyranny has something at his place on it. Hang on, I’ll get the link.
link to countingcats.com
I think that’s the main view, with a twist. Re who is whose colony, think the City is still in charge but the UK is subject to the EU on all but foreign policy [in practice] and to the US on foreign policy. There is no independence or sovereignty over here any more.
Not yet.
Thank you James. Very interesting + all comments here and at the link you provide.
“Not yet”….LOL!
Re JA, although I applaud what his Wikileaks tries to do he, personally – at least from what we know of him – I find a wee bit creepy. Not sure exactly why.
I think commenters who say what’s going on currently is mainly “to discourage the others” have hit the nail on the head.
Diplomatic bag?
It is reported that the UK forces laying siege have thermal imaging and other equipment to thwart this.
This reminds me of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. He too was accused of sex crime – in New York – just after he’d announced that the dollar should cease to be the world’s reserve currency.
Vague charges, strange victims, US interests – we’ve been here before. This time Sweden’s embarrassed too, through its participation in extraordinary rendition.
More leaks soon, perhaps? Or will Assange commit “suicide” like fellow motormouth David Kelly?
Right again, Ian.
When you become an high-profile “Enemy of the State”, particularly a state as powerful and vindictive as the USA, your goose is cooked.
Assange will be hunted for the rest of his life.
He knows that if he sets foot in Sweden he will go straight to jail and will be in some sort of custody for decades ever after.
He is being made an example of. They will not give up. The effort is worth it because it discourages the others.
Yep and making him a Martyr in the process.
It all feels a bit surreal. Like history is being made but with a foregone conclusion.
“So where were you when Assange was assassinated ?”
WHat IS blindingly obvious is:
1] The Swedisg=h enquiry (he had NOT been charged) is a sham – go back & read the accounts, it’s a pathetically obvious put-up job ….
AND
2] The US “authorities REALLY want to kill this guy (Assange) because he EMBARRASSED them.
Bastards.
See also your own post …
link to 4liberty.org.uk
and the cartoon!