Ecuador Cutting Off WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange's Communications Outside London Embassy (suntimes.com) 321
The government of Ecuador said on Wednesday it has cut off internet access in its embassy in London to Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, saying that he was putting the country's international relations at risk. In a statement released on Wednesday, Ecuador said that the step had been taken because Assange had failed to abide by an agreement not to interfere in the South American country's relations with other states. From a report: As part of an agreement between Assange and the Ecuadorean government, he is not permitted to send any messages that could interfere with the South American nation's relations with other countries. Assange has been living in Ecuador's embassy for more than five years.
Now, he is in prison (Score:5, Insightful)
If he has no means to communicate with the outside world or to travel freely...that's the definition of incarceration. Finally.
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If he has no means to communicate with the outside world or to travel freely...that's the definition of incarceration. Finally.
At least if he is incarcerated he will finally have one hour outdoors every day. Every cloud has a silver lining.
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At least if he is incarcerated he will finally have one hour outdoors every day.
He has as much outdoor time as he wants right now, as long as it's on the embassy grounds. I.e. the balcony he's used several times, the rooftop and the small trench between the street fence and the building.
And nobody forces him to stay either.
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Well, the Ecuadorians warned him, if he didn't pick up his room they were going to cut off his internet. I mean, he's been in there for six years now and it must be getting a little ripe.
Assange doesn't strike me as the type that would make personal cleanliness a priority. In fact, I bet there are gym socks on the floor of his room right now.
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Yep, all by design. The US government's entire aim in this ridiculous charade is to keep him locked up, one way or another. They want to show that if you leak their info, you will spend the rest of your life locked in a small room of some sort, and you'll be lucky if it has telecoms.
Re:Now, he is in prison (Score:5, Interesting)
Someone like Assange will go stir-crazy without net access. He'll have to resort to having memory cards smuggled in and out. I wonder how they plan to keep him away from cell phones? Confiscation of guest phones and periodic room sweeps?
Re:Now, he is in prison (Score:5, Insightful)
He is probably too paranoid for cell phones. He will also need to actually trust people for memory card swap.
He is a prisoner of his own device.
Welcome to the Hotel Ecuador UK
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Wasn't he "dating" Pamela Anderson? I'm sure she can find somewhere to secure a USB stick for transport in and out.
Re:Now, he is in prison (Score:4, Funny)
It would require a good antivirus
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"Someone like Assange will go stir-crazy "
Haha, "will go," right.
Re:Now, he is in prison (Score:5, Funny)
This is about the only situation where IP over carrier pigeon [ietf.org] might be reasonably successful.
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If he does walk out the front door it will be straight into the arms of waiting UK police...
I'm sure the Brits will "deal" with him if he does and I'm guessing that will include an all expense paid trip to the USA and any number of federal prisons for the majority of his remaining life.
So, it's the embassy or a "real" prison. Some choice the guy has left himself. He might have been better served by keeping a low internet profile...
Re:Now, he is in prison (Score:4, Informative)
You do know that the US currently does not, nor has ever had an extradition order on him, right?
Re:Now, he is in prison (Score:5, Insightful)
You do know that the US currently does not, nor has ever had an extradition order on him, right?
Nor, AFAIK, on any of the people languishing (if that's the word I'm looking for) in Guantanamo.
So what?
Re:Now, he is in prison (Score:5, Insightful)
Guantanamo is a military prison, so to end up there, you must somehow get detained by our military. This isn't a discussion on if you agree with it or not, simply a statement on how you end up there. Since our military is not currently involved in combat operations within the UK, Assanage would not end up there.
This would be nice if it were true. However, several of the Guantanamo Bay detainees were arrested in countries where the US didn't have military combat operations, and brought to Afghanistan for bounty. Adel Noori is perhaps the most famous case.
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Guantanamo is a military prison, so to end up there, you must somehow get detained by our military. This isn't a discussion on if you agree with it or not, simply a statement on how you end up there. Since our military is not currently involved in combat operations within the UK, Assanage would not end up there.
This would be nice if it were true. However, several of the Guantanamo Bay detainees were arrested in countries where the US didn't have military combat operations, and brought to Afghanistan for bounty. Adel Noori is perhaps the most famous case.
Adel has NOTHING in common with Julian, he was a suspected Al Queda member, and has a complicated history.
d. Detainee acknowledges that if he returns to China he will face execution. He is very fearful that information about him will be passed to the Chinese government. He requests asylum in the United States.
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I was unaware that we were currently involved in armed combat with anyone residing within the UK. If we're involved in active combat currently in the UK, please do provide a link.
Guantanamo is a military prison, so to end up there, you must somehow get detained by our military. This isn't a discussion on if you agree with it or not, simply a statement on how you end up there. Since our military is not currently involved in combat operations within the UK, Assanage would not end up there.
It's really difficult to know where to start rebutting that. More loose ends than the average sheep.
For a start, civilized countries subject to the rule of law do not conduct "armed combat" in other countries unless they are formally at war with them. The US government has not declared war since 1941. Yet it does seem to have had a lot of "armed combat" in a lot of countries.
Incidentally, it is contrary to international law, the Nuremberg Principles, and the UN Charter to invade any country unless that coun
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Do you really assume they have been waiting there for the last 6 years, 24/7? He's really not that much a priority, UK police is way too busy censoring social media .
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Re: Now, he is in prison (Score:3)
The Brits are required by their own laws and Wu laws to transfer him to Sweden. There he will be brought before a judge an dprosecution who will state the full case and the fact the the prosecution wishes to drop the case. The judge will grant the motion and he will be on a street with no money, and no friends inside of an hour.
Swedish law doesn't Look one to have charges pressed against you in absentia. They can't drop the inquiry until he shows up.
Then assange alone on a street will get grabbed by som
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Now, he is in prison (Score:5, Insightful)
He can walk out the front door anytime he wishes...
(sarc)Trading the Gilded cage in the embassy for a British jail cell? Yea, he's "free" to choose. (/sarc)
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I have little sympathy for those who flee from justice and hide out trying to avoid responsibility for their actions.
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Flee from justice after your supporters put up £93,500 for your bail, all of which was forfeit.
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We'll see if you feel that way when Turkey tries to extradite you for breaking one of their laws outside their borders.
And how is that even slightly relevant.
Sweden tried to extradite him for an alleged crime within their borders.
No one else has an extradition claim outstanding.
The UK want to arrest him for skipping bail, a crime committed within their borders.
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Let's see. The situation is that he engaged twice in unprotected sex with girls that were asleep (which is essentially rape), then he ran away when he was accused rather than face these "unfair" accusations, then he hid in the embassy of a publicity-seeking diplomat, and remains there even though the rape charges in Sweden were abandoned because the prosecutor realized he would never appear in court to face the music before going past the statute of limitation.
So at this point the reasons for him to remain
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(sarc)Trading the Gilded cage in the embassy for a British jail cell? Yea, he's "free" to choose. (/sarc)
That is what happens to people who jump bail.
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That is what happens to people who jump bail.
The "concept" of bail does not exist in Europe.
Bail [Re:Now, he is in prison] (Score:3)
That is what happens to people who jump bail.
The "concept" of bail does not exist in Europe.
It does exist in Britain, which is all that's relevant here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bail#History
Re:Now, he is in prison (Score:5, Interesting)
British Judges and several Assange supporters would disagree with you, as his bail backers lost their 300,000 GBP bail sureties (in total) when he skipped bail and took up residence in the embassy...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ne... [telegraph.co.uk]
Re:Now, he is in prison (Score:4, Informative)
(sarc)Trading the Gilded cage in the embassy for a British jail cell? Yea, he's "free" to choose. (/sarc)
That is what happens to people who jump bail.
What confuses me is, the penalty for skipping bail is not particularly extreme [sentencingcouncil.org.uk]. So why not just take his lumps and be done with it?
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Just because it haven't been done before doesn't make it strange.
Because they don't spend the money and effort because Assange is so important or because the crime is so severe.
They do it to signal to the world that while one can abuse the diplomatic rules to avoid punishment for a crime the UK _will_not_be_humiliated_.
Personally I'd think closing down the embassy and ending diplomatic relations with Ecuador would be better. But I'm not that diplomatic.
UK is not BEING humiliated? (Score:2)
Really?
Because from where I am standing, the whole process has been pretty damn humiliating for the UK from the very start.
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Yeah, several million pounds to capture a non-violent bail jumping non-citizen who won't spend a day in a British jail (he'd be deported to his home country for essentially a misdemeanor) while tens of thousands of actual British bail jumping criminals including murderers, rapists, child abusers, thieves, etc. go free and continue break the law because the local police departments don't have the resources to track them down. Yeah, that makes sense.
And there is no abuse of "diplomatic rules". Ecuador granted
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Assange is alleged to have committed rape in Sweden. (The evidence I've got suggests he actually did rape at least one woman, but that's obviously not definitive.) That's not non-violent. Sweden had to make the case that he was wanted for what would be a serious crime under UK law, or the extradition request would have been invalid. The UK courts considered that carefully, and agreed with Sweden.
Hence, Assange is not a non-violent criminal.
Also, this is an abuse of diplomatic rules. Diplomacy is n
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There's actually a tie-in with the immigration debate here. We are so eager to grant amnesty to
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British jail cell? That doesn't sound so bad. But that isn't going to happen. This guy is going straight to gitmo if he ever gets out. Don't think for a second the Brits wont cough him up for the Americans. Even if they don't have anything they need from him I am sure the CIA will waterboard the shit out of him every day just on principle.
The Americans have not asked for him.
So far there's no real reason to believe that the Americans want him, other than the fact that he says that the Americans want him because hey, he's important, it's all about him, nothing but him.
It's not even clear what they could charge him with if they did arrest him.
I'm guessing that the Americans are laughing their asses off over the fact that, basically, he put himself in prison without any action needed on their part.
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They'd charge him with bail jumping, for which he now has an outstanding warrant that has been upheld by the courts at least twice. He'd go to jail, serve some portion of the time (maximum of either six months or one year, depending on circumstances), and then get deported to a nation where he holds citizenship, which would be either Australia (where he was born) or Ecuador (which gave him citizenship recently).
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That's the best-case scenario that would play out in a perfect world. Less rosy scenarios could involve him being extradited to the US or simply whisked away to a black site prison. Or getting his short prison sentence and then being mysteriously shanked to death in prison by some mysterious person who is totally not a CIA agent.
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Bullshit. He isn't important, he isn't dangerous and he doesn't know anything.
If he suddenly vanished the US would be blamed and that would be a greater price to pay than the value of having an unimportant egocentric bitch under control.
Did you remember to look up in the sky for black helicopters before posting?
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Currently there are no active warrants in that case.
Not very welcome (Score:5, Interesting)
The current Ecuadorian government inherited Assange, and it's no secret that they don't agree with his staying at the embassy. It's not the first time they have cut his access, and overall, making it undesirable for him to stay and get him to leave on his own there is likely the overall strategy, avoiding any backlash from actually tossing him out.
Re:Not very welcome (Score:4, Insightful)
He won't quit agitating. He is attacking people using his access and you can't blame Ecuador for getting tired of it.
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You can say anything you like, except when you're entirely dependent on someone else for all support. They might get tired of you causing them problems and ask you to leave. So yes, it's better for him to STFU. Or he could just leave.
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The problem with this narrative is that Ecuador just granted Assange citizenship. Not the kind of thing you'd do if you're just trying to evict someone.
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I am a citizen of the US. That doesn't mean I can just show up at any random US embassy with my pillow and insist I can sleep there.
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Non sequitur. If Ecuador just wanted to show Assange the door, they wouldn't have just granted him citizenship.
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Non sequitur. If Ecuador just wanted to show Assange the door, they wouldn't have just granted him citizenship.
They didn't just do that; they followed it up with a request to the UK to grant their new citizen diplomatic status so he could leave the embassy.
It was denied, but nice try.
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That was probably the reason they give him citizenship. I guess some government official said "Let's give him citizenship and then ask the UK if they would extend diplomatic status on him" without actually thinking that the UK
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The problem with this narrative is that Ecuador just granted Assange citizenship. Not the kind of thing you'd do if you're just trying to evict someone.
Oh, I don't know about that. It could help getting him out of the embassy, and was followed up with a request to the UK to grant Assange diplomatic status as an Ecuadorian citizen (it was denied).
In short, it looks very much like an intent to get Assange out of the embassy.
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His home country, Australia, has cowardly turned their back on him
No. He was told that this was a criminal matter in Sweden, and then the UK. That if, at some point in the future he is charged by the US, that he can apply for a prisoner transfer to Australia.
His narcissistic fantasies aside, he was wanted in relation to a criminal investigation, refused to return to Sweden, tried numerous avenues to avoid having to face the investigation and every court and legal opinion that he has asked to review the situation has responded in the same way.
People facing criminal investi
Distributed internet access (Score:2)
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Kind of like if you went to your friends house and started watching very loud porn on your laptop via his wifi in front of his kids and refusing to stop. If he can't or won't make you leave, he sure as hell can kick you off the wifi to stop you.,
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It's nice to know the US government is getting value for the billions of taxpayers' money it has spent on "correcting perceptions" on the Internet.
"US plans to 'fight the net' revealed"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wor... [bbc.co.uk]
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Grow some balls (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Grow some balls (Score:5, Insightful)
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No more of a chance than when he *voluntarily* came to the UK to escape investigation elsewhere - he didn't suddenly become "under threat of extradition to the US" oddly enough until he lost all his appeals against extradition in the UK. Its no harder to extradite him to the US from the UK than it is from any other country, and yet he chose to come here voluntarily.
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It's far easier to extradite to the US from the UK than just about anywhere else (even factoring in the Lauri Love decision), which made his claims about Sweden really weird.
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Statute of limitations doesn't run out in Sweden until 2020. Assange steps out of embassy, the UK police would be happy to hand him over to Sweden, where he can be interrogated for weeks without a lawyer for Wikileaks activity, because he hasn't been officially charged in the US (as Assange haters keep reminding everyone). Then deported to said US. They've done it before:
https:// [theguardian.com]
Extradite [Re:Grow some balls] (Score:3, Informative)
Statute of limitations doesn't run out in Sweden until 2020. Assange steps out of embassy, the UK police would be happy to hand him over to Sweden, where he can be interrogated for weeks without a lawyer for Wikileaks activity,
He's not wanted in Sweden for Wikileaks activity, or anything to do with Wikileaks. It's doubtful that Sweden cares about Wikileaks one way or the other.
He's wanted to answer questions about a rape investigation. That investigation has been dropped, though, so he's not actually wanted in Sweden at all. (Although they could resume the investigation later, if they chose to, on one of the two rape charges (the other one is past the statute of limitations).)
because he hasn't been officially charged in the US (as Assange haters keep reminding everyone). Then deported to said US.
He can't be deported to the US, since he's not from t
Forest from the trees [Re:Grow some balls] (Score:2, Insightful)
It was all in the link provided.
1) Sweden goes to great trouble to get Pirate Bay founder in custody from Cambodia
2) As soon as he arrives in Sweden, Svartholm is held in effective solitary confinement and interrogated for weeks without a lawyer on completely separate charges for Denmark. People have falsely confessed to murders they didn't commit in far less time.
3) As soon as Svartholm's sentence in Sweden is finished, he was handed over to Danish authorities to be tried in that country for the aforement
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I think he'd welcome his day in court.
Apparently not. He's done everything possible to avoid it.
Huh? Public relations is actually important?? (Score:3)
... he is not permitted to send any messages that could interfere with the South American nation's relations with other countries. ...
Frankly, if this is really what he agreed to upon entry... than it was a surprisingly ignorant stipulation. Anyone who even has a passing familiarity with his work (which could be established with a simple google search and two minutes of research) would readily comprehend that the only way that they could possibly have prevented him from interfering with their relations with other countries would have been to not let him in the front door in the first place. It's as though they had no understanding of what "harboring a fugitive" actually means; you take this action, and the government bodies who want his ass in jail will be upset with you. That's not exactly a hard leap to make.
Assange could easily go free (Score:5, Funny)
There's a simple plan where Assange could easily move outside the embassy.
1) Create a fake Twitter account and post a really mean tweet [businessinsider.com] followed by an announcement you'll be holding a parade just outside London - this will draw the entire London police force and most of the military to strike down the tweeter before he can tweet again, enabling Assange to walk out of the embassy unchallenged.
2) Embed himself in management for an under-age rape gang [independent.co.uk], as they are immune from policing in the UK and presumably he could make a good living there.
Of course, once free if I were him I'd stay away from park benches and BMW's [go.com] given how much he has entered pretty much every government.
He should be free by now. (Score:2)
For all the time he has spent there, he could have tunneled out of the embassy with a spoon by now.
Violation of Assange's human rights (Score:2, Insightful)
But, but, Internet access — fast Internet access — is a human right [cnn.com] in better countries [slashdot.org]...
Why has Julian lost his — with nary a protest?
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He's had a private home inside Equador's government facility for years! The distinction you listed is without difference.
If, as Progressive Humanity claims, Internet access is a human right, no one can be deprived of it without due process.
So, why is Mr. Assange losing his — without the said Progressive Humanity protesting?..
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He's had a private home inside Equador's government facility for years! The distinction you listed is without difference.
I think you are confusing that he's LIVED in a residence inside an Ecuadorian government facility with that he OWNS a private residence inside an Ecuadorian government. Living there means he's a guest. But let's go with your presumption:A citizen of another country can own property inside Ecuador's embassy. That sounds extremely silly to me.
If, as Progressive Humanity claims, Internet access is a human right, no one can be deprived of it without due process.
I forget, is Progressive Humanity in any way associated with the government of Ecuador? No. So your point then is?
So, why is Mr. Assange losing his — without the said Progressive Humanity protesting?..
No Mr. Assange is an asshole who couldn't abide with ag
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The distinction you are trying to make is without difference. Unless you are going to claim, that ownership of one's dwelling is required to exercise that right I cited. Be careful with your answer, because such a requirement would disqualify about 30% of Finns [tradingeconomics.com], for example.
How interesting. Do assholes lose their h
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The worst in Slashdotters (Score:4, Insightful)
It seems that the Assange topic brings out the really ugly in the Slashdot crowd: petty, bitter, cynical, superficial.
Folks, sometimes you're really disgusting.
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OFFLINE FOR A REASON (Score:3)
Q told us this last night.
"OFFLINE FOR A REASON"
4g Wifi Hotspot (Score:2)
Prison (Score:3)
I honest wonder if it wouldn't be better for him to just go serve his time and get it over with. At this point he's basically living in a prison anyways.
He must be fat by now (Score:3)
I mean, seriously.
Re:Wifi (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, I'm sure there's a public wifi just in reach called "NotMI5Honest" that he could use.
Perhaps it's time for Ecuador to start charging him rent.
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Given the amount of Bitcoin in Wikileaks' wallets, this shouldn't be a problem.
Well, for the next week or two, anyway.
Re: Wifi (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, being waterboarded at Gitmo and then executed for "treason" is how people embrace life. Bold words, AC.
Re: Wifi (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, being waterboarded at Gitmo and then executed for "treason" is how people embrace life. Bold words, AC.
This is the most retarded comment I've read today, and yet I just spent the last half hour on 4chan.
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Sounds like a job for an optical link then!
Re:Wifi (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wifi, no need (Score:5, Funny)
I don't think he's getting the hint.
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He has groupies, right? They can set up the optical link and the ISP doesn't have to know who it's for.
Maybe just an optical link to a cell data connection on the balcony? It's expensive, so they'd have to sell some buttcoins.
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Maybe just an optical link to a cell data connection on the balcony? It's expensive, so they'd have to sell some buttcoins.
And again, the government of Ecuador won't mind that he's breaching security of their sovereign territory at all? I don't doubt there are technical solutions to this; I seriously do not think Ecuador will allow any of them.
Re:Wifi (Score:5, Informative)
This is a common myth. An embassy is not treated in law as part of the sending state. Rather, the privileges enjoyed by an embassy and its personnel are only those provided by the receiving state's laws implementing the Vienna Convention; outside of the privileges that the Vienna Convention provides, the receiving state's laws still apply, and the land still remains part of the receiving state's territory.
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This is a common myth. An embassy is not treated in law as part of the sending state. Rather, the privileges enjoyed by an embassy and its personnel are only those provided by the receiving state's laws implementing the Vienna Convention; outside of the privileges that the Vienna Convention provides, the receiving state's laws still apply, and the land still remains part of the receiving state's territory.
Can Julian Assange install a new internet connection inside the embassy for his use? The answer is not without the permission of Ecuador who does not seem agreeable to it.
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For one thing, it's in weak countries' interest to have as much strife as much as possible between superpowers (US, Russia, China) as possible. If the big thugs are arguing amongst each other directly, they're less concerned about proxy wars and imperialism in places like Latin America. Keep 'em occupied and worried.
Plus, it feels good to punch up as the little guy.
Re:Sometimes a paranoid kook is a paranoid kook. (Score:4, Insightful)
For one thing, it's in weak countries' interest to have as much strife as much as possible between superpowers (US, Russia, China) as possible. If the big thugs are arguing amongst each other directly, they're less concerned about proxy wars and imperialism in places like Latin America. Keep 'em occupied and worried.
I tend to disagree. Strife between major powers often results in proxy wars simply because teh big powers have too much to lose so they support other countries and let them fight it out. They like the idea of a little power poking the eye of their enemy, it's less risky then an all out confrontation.
Plus, it feels good to punch up as the little guy.
Until, of course, the big guy punches back.
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He is a guest in someone else's place. He was told what the rules were for a guest and failed to abide. If you were a guest in my home and I said you couldn't use my wifi to download porn, am I curtailing your free speech? The difference is you can leave as you the local authorities are not waiting for you outside to arrest you.
The article is light on details on the specifics but he was warned previously not to do it and he apparently violated it.
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It's not Sweden that really wants him. It's the US. And the British Tories can't afford to really piss Trump off right now. So if Assange leaves the Ecuadorian embassy, it won't be Sweden that tells the Brits to hand him over. It will be the US. And they'll get him, too.