Julian Assange – a cofounder of Wikileaks – has found protection at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since July 19th of this year.  The UK recently surrounded the embassy and threatened to raid it but they chose not to follow through on their empty threats; that would be a violation of international law and treaties signed between the two countries.  Now – the UK is threatening to eliminate the embassy status of the Ecuadorian Embassy so they can enter the building and arrest Mr. Assange.

Here are some comments from Julian Assange to the crowd:

“As WikiLeaks stands under threat, so does the freedom of expression and the health of all our societies. We must use this moment to articulate the choice that is before the government of the United States of America.

Will it return to and reaffirm the revolutionary values it was founded on or will it lurch off the precipice, dragging us all into a dangerous and oppressive world in which journalists fall silent under the fear of prosecution and citizens must whisper in the dark?

I say it must turn back. I ask President Obama to do the right thing: the United States must renounce its witch-hunt against WikiLeaks.”

The BBC explains what’s going on HERE:

A document agreed at the Union of South American Nations meeting in Ecuador said it supported the country “in the face of the threat” to its London embassy, where he has taken refuge.

After Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino finished reading the final declaration from the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) summit, he joined hands with his fellow foreign ministers and raised them aloft.

The BBC’s Will Grant said it was a a symbolic but important show of unity in a region which considers the UK government’s approach over Mr Assange to have been colonialist and threatening.

It is an established international convention that local police and security forces are not permitted to enter an embassy, unless they have the express permission of the ambassador.

That principle was backed by the ministers at the Unasur summit. In their final document, they agreed on a series of general principles, including as “the inviolability of local diplomatic missions and consular offices”.

Assange also talked about Bradley Manning:

“On Wednesday, Bradley Manning spent his 815th day of detention without trial.  The legal maximum is 120 days.”

Perhaps the greatest irony here behind this Shakespearean drama is that while Assange is holed up in an embassy trying to evade extradition to Sweden or the U.S. and Bradley Manning is holed up in some prison cell without a trial … there is a stealth campaign with ties to the Republican party paid for by unknown billionaires featuring former Navy Seals and intelligence officers accusing President Obama’s administration of failing to aggressively address the leaking of classified information.  You can see an interview with one of the shills trying to swiftboat the President HERE.  Just sit on that one for a while.

I do not find the timing of the high profile nature of Assange’s protection at the Ecuadorian embassy to be more than coincidental.  Myself – I have never personally thought that Wikileaks was a serious organization; I have always considered them to be a CIA front group.  Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.S. all share intelligence at the highest levels of trust; they collectively are known as the “Five Eyes“.  Wikileaks is no Cryptome and Julian Assange is no John Young.  COINTELPRO works in very confusing and often high profile ways, but the key to it all is smoke and mirrors.  But – that’s an entirely different story altogether.

Regardless of the authenticity of Wikileaks or not … this battle being waged truly does come down to the freedom of the press and freedom of speech and what that means.  If a government is able to determine an “official” or “legitimate” press … then nothing can stop a government from controlling who does and doesn’t have the ability to say whatever the government wants it to.  Wikileaks is covered under “freedom of the press” and anyone who would say otherwise is not a patriot.

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