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Julian Assange
Topic Started: Aug 16 2012, 07:31 AM (312 Views)
madfor4

The British Foreign Office has warned Ecuador that it can enter their embassy to arrest Julian Assange.

Which FO idiot sanctioned such a stupid escalation of the situation. It's very very unlikely that the 1987 act could cover this and 'waving a big stick' over what has always been considered 'foreign soil' leaves our overseas embassies in a much weaker position should countries hostile to the UK decide to respond in kind.
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rumbaba
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Yes, a stupid thing to dredge up and could be used as a weapon against British Embassies abroad in the future.
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Mobson
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Well Ecuador has decided to give Assange ayslum at their embassy in London after he took refuge there two months ago. Announcing Ecuador's decision, foreign minister, Ricardo Patino said the country believed Mr Assange's fears of political persecution were "legitimate". He said the country was being loyal to its "tradition" of protecting those who are vulnerable. Mr Assange says he fears that if extradited to Sweden, he will then be passed on to the American authorities in relation to the matter of sensitive US information on his network, Wikileaks....

<unionjack> The UK government is insisting it changes nothing. They will still seek to arrest him and they will not grant him safe passage. If he steps out, he will be arrested.

Edited by Mobson, Aug 16 2012, 01:10 PM.
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madfor4

One must wonder if 'threatening' Equador made it impossible for them to refuse; after all, had they not granted ayslum they would have looked weak.

Yet another instance of, "Less said, soonest mended".
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Joe K
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Assange hasn't even been charged, the Swedish authorities just want to see him for questioning, and they don't need him in Sweden for that.

That being said, I'm not sure it isn't only the Ecuadorean foreign minister claiming Britain threatened to raid the embassy, to put our government on the back foot diplomatically. Things aren't always as they seem.
Edited by Joe K, Aug 16 2012, 06:16 PM.
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Mobson
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Yes Joe K you're right - Assange hasn't been formally charged or therefore convicted of anything and a Judge on R4 news yesterday lunchtime said that he would rule that unless that had happened, the UK government could not enter the embassy under the Diplomatic & Consular Premises Act 1987!
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rumbaba
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I think he should go to Sweden and answer the charges there. If the US decides to try to extradite him from Sweden then he should deal with that in Sweden. Skulking in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London does him no favours. Maybe he should have legged it to Ecuador, rather than London, in the first place.
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Mobson
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<ninja> he should escape under the cover of darkness! <ninja>
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caissier
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Julian Assange got carried away on his naive idealistic crusade and now he is very much out of his depth. I think it was said today that Ecuador has given him asylum probably because of a diplomatic grudge they hold against us.

The Americans sound desperate to grab him and put him in an orange jump-suit and load him with chains like an escapologist. If the treatment of Bradley Mannings is anything to go by I don't blame him wanting to stay as far away from them as possible.
Edited by caissier, Aug 17 2012, 08:38 PM.
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madfor4

Mobson
Aug 17 2012, 09:02 AM
<ninja> he should escape under the cover of darkness! <ninja>
Judging by the gross incompetence shown by the FO in handling this affair I'm sure a little more won't seem amiss.
Let him go (accidently, of course) to Equador and be THEIR problem. Apologies to Sweden (who'll be equally glad to be rid of him) and let the USA do their own dirty work.
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Mobson
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madfor4
Aug 18 2012, 07:44 AM
Let him go (accidently, of course) to Equador and be THEIR problem. Apologies to Sweden (who'll be equally glad to be rid of him) and let the USA do their own dirty work.
<ok> Mads - problem solved!

But there again, unfortunately knowing our government's tendency to favour pigheadedness there will (already is) be a conglomerate of latin american countries getting together to slag us off and a riot of major diplomatic proportions will ensue!
Edited by Mobson, Aug 18 2012, 09:54 AM.
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Joe K
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rumbaba
Aug 17 2012, 08:48 AM
I think he should go to Sweden and answer the charges there. If the US decides to try to extradite him from Sweden then he should deal with that in Sweden. Skulking in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London does him no favours. Maybe he should have legged it to Ecuador, rather than London, in the first place.

Considering what the alternative is, I think he's doing himself a pretty big favour. It seems like stone-cold certainty, the way this has been set up, and given the refusal to rule it out, that he would be extradited from Sweden to the US. We may ask why he wasn't simply extradited from Britain, cutting out the middle man. We might then conjecture that our government rang the concession from the US that they wouldn't have to do that as long as they made sure Assange went to Sweden. Besides that, though, the CIA seem to have our lot by the short and curlies. What do they have on our masters..?
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Caro

I don't understand this whole business. It seems to me obvious that leaking state secrets would be illegal, and I don't know what Julian Assange thought he was doing in the first place. How could it be legal or even ethical to leak such sensitive documents? Not to say close to treasonous? What have I missed in all this? I can't think of a situation in NZ where someone could leak one state secret without consequences. I don't understand why he wasn't immediately arrested after the first leaks.
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rumbaba
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NZ doesn't have any state secrets :)
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Caro

See! Our secrets are so secret the world doesn't even know we've got any.

(I think wikileaks did leak something about NZ, but I can't remember what. Nothing very important and our government wisely just shut about it, whatever it was.)
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madfor4

Caro
Aug 19 2012, 09:58 PM
I don't understand this whole business. It seems to me obvious that leaking state secrets would be illegal, and I don't know what Julian Assange thought he was doing in the first place. How could it be legal or even ethical to leak such sensitive documents? Not to say close to treasonous? What have I missed in all this? I can't think of a situation in NZ where someone could leak one state secret without consequences. I don't understand why he wasn't immediately arrested after the first leaks.
There are 'State Secrets' and 'State Secrets' (one example was our MPs' expenses scandal).
There may well have been the odd bit of stuff 'useful to an enemy' in the leaks (although, as with most such things, the enemy probably already knew far more than the leaks) but most was just 'dirty washing' that was embarassing to those in power.

The Equador/Julian Assange link goes back to intemperate communications from the US Ambassador about police corruption. The leaked cable resulted in a major diplomatic spat, resulting in the expulsion of U.S. Ambassador from Ecuador and the reciprocal expulsion of Ecuadorian Ambassador from the U.S
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Lurkalot

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/aug/21/george-galloway-rape-comments-respect?newsfeed=true

george galloway decides he wants attention and makes some controversial comments ........ <yikes>

<doh>
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