Thursday, August 16, 2012

Assange Update

Julian Assange has sought been granted asylum in Ecuador's British embassy where he is now trapped. He will be arrested and extradicted to Sweden if he leaves the embassy. (In case you missed it - ! - he is afraid that Sweden will send him to the US where he rightfully imagines he would be tossed in one of our many gulags and never heard from again.)

Britain is now threatening to remove Ecuador's diplomatic standing and storm the embassy! They would, however, give the embassy a week's notice. Hey, I hear we have drones that are so accurate they can literally go through a chosen window.  >:-| Why not try that? We can remove people's classification as citizens without any notice at all.

This could get interesting. It reminds me of a documentary I saw while in Caracas about the temporary overthrow of Hugo Chavez' government back in 2002. (Forgive me if I've told you this already a hundred times.) The coup leaders decided to dismantle the Cuban embassy at the same time and staged a failed attack on it. A conversation between the Cuban representative and the representative of the illegitimate temporary government of Venezuela inside the embassy was taped during which the Cuban said – and my quote will not be precise, but close - “For more than forty years we have successfully resisted the greatest power on the planet. We did not let them in. We will not let you in.”

Take heart, Ecuador.

UPDATE:  Both Assange and the Ecuadoran embassy have stated that Assange would agree to go to Sweden if he had a promise from Sweden that he would not be extradicted from there to the US. Sweden would not agree.  I guess we know what's going on here.  And Ecuador should expect any US financial aid to dry up.  Even sanctions perhaps.  We shall see.

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