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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday January 13 2018, @09:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the welcome-to-Ecuador dept.

Ecuador has granted citizenship to Julian Assange as its government attempts to find creative ways of getting Assange out of the Ecuadorean embassy in London:

Ecuador says it has granted citizenship to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, as officials try to find a way for him to leave the Ecuadorean embassy in London without risking legal action.

Assange, who is Australian, first sought refuge at the embassy more than five years ago to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced an investigation over rape allegations. He was granted asylum, and has been holed up in the embassy ever since.

The original case against him has been dropped, but Assange remains inside the embassy. "He is still subject to arrest in Britain for jumping bail," The Associated Press notes. "He also fears a possible U.S. extradition request based on his leaking of classified State Department documents."

"Earlier this week, Ecuador said the situation was unsustainable and requested diplomatic status for Assange in hopes of springing him," NPR's Frank Langfitt reports from London. "A British government spokesman responded: 'Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice.'"

Also at The Guardian.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 14 2018, @01:11AM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 14 2018, @01:11AM (#622030) Journal

    I agree, in essence, but you give Manning more "credit" than he deserves. His actions contributed to all the evil you cite, but you can't really call Manning the "major factor".

    But, your post does point up one of my difficulties with Assange. Julian did edit that gunship video, to make things look worse than reality. Basically, I support Assange, but he has his dishonest streak. I suspect some of that dishonesty stems from ignorance, and some of it stems from antipathy toward our government. But, journalists get away with that kind of shit all the time. Still - freedom of the press, and all of that.

    Manning is a criminal, Assange is a political prisoner. I think we can agree on that.

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @06:18PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @06:18PM (#622222)

    i think one of the main reasons manning is so well known is because it's a psyop. they picked the most minority/disagreeable to the masses person they could find out of their yearly corral of leakers/traitors/fuck ups/whatever and made sure we all learned the name and face. now when the normals think of "leakers" they think "bunch of freaks/subversives/traitors".