Assange's Ecuador bid sparks wacky escape ideas

Published: 25/06/2012 at 07:48 PM

Online news: Computer

It sounds like a brainteaser: how could WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange get from Ecuador's embassy in London onto a plane to its capital Quito, without setting foot on British territory?

When he walked into the embassy on Tuesday seeking political asylum, the Australian ex-hacker pinned his hopes on Ecuador as his ticket out of extradition to Sweden, where he faces questioning over sex crime allegations.

But legal experts say the dramatic escape bid has lured 40-year-old Assange, who had exhausted his British legal options -- into an apparent dead end.

Britain's Foreign Office says that as long as the anti-secrecy campaigner stays in the embassy, which occupies a flat in London's plush Knightsbridge district, he is beyond the reach of the police.

But if he steps outside, he faces immediate arrest by the police for having breached bail conditions, which include staying at his bail address between 10:00 pm and 8:00 am. And Scotland Yard officers are guarding the exits.

Barrister Carl Gardner summed up the situation as "a headache".

"Merely the fact of giving someone asylum doesn't mean they can travel across another country's territory without being arrested," he said.

"It's not at all obvious how he could get to Ecuador."

Paul Whiteway, London Director of the Independent Diplomat consultancy, said Assange could be arrested even before leaving the embassy's Victorian mansion block, which faces the famous Harrods department store.

"The premises are covered by diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention," he told AFP. "But in this case, the Ecuadorian embassy only occupies part of the building."

He added: "The inviolability of the embassy ought to extend to forms of transport, but even if he were able to get into a car, what would happen at the other end? How would he get into an aeroplane without being arrested?"

The puzzle has already spawned a number of ambitious escape scenarios.

There has been speculation over whether Ecuadorian officials could bundle Assange out of Britain in a large "diplomatic bag" with immunity from search or seizure.

In a notorious case in 1984, the Nigerian government tried to kidnap former minister Umaru Dikko by smuggling him from Britain to Nigeria as diplomatic baggage. The plot was foiled by customs officials.

Gardner dismissed the idea that Assange would be put in a diplomatic bag as the stuff of "spy fiction", but had his own inventive suggestion.

"Possibly the best way Ecuador could help him -- and this sounds mad -- is if they appoint him one of their representatives to the UN," the former government lawyer said.

Legal experts say British authorities could reject any attempts to have Assange accredited as an ordinary diplomat.

But Gardner believes that if Assange was made a representative to the UN, international law could guarantee him safe passage to the UN's New York headquarters and then to his post in Ecuador.
"From his point of view, it would be flying into the jaws of the lion," he admitted, stressing that the plan involved "extreme legal creativity".

Assange has said he fears that if he was extradited to Sweden, Stockholm would eventually hand him over to the United States.

The WikiLeaks website enraged Washington by publishing a flood of secret US information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more than 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, who has often been at odds with Washington, has said he is considering Assange's asylum request and studying the WikiLeaks founder's claim that he could be sentenced to death in the United States.

Correa insists Ecuador will make a decision "without bowing to absolutely any pressure".

But he also said: "We don't want to offend anyone, least of all a country for whom we have deep respect, like the United Kingdom."

Whiteway believes British authorities are determined not to let Assange leave because his success could spark a wave of copycat asylum bids.

"It could open the floodgates to other cases of individuals involved in legal cases who might seek to avoid UK jurisdiction by claiming asylum in a foreign embassy," he said. "That would surely be deeply unwelcome."

Ecuador has pledged to take its time assessing Assange's request.

In extreme cases, asylum-seekers have stayed holed up in embassies for years. In 1956, the United States granted Hungarian cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty refuge in its Budapest embassy. He stayed until 1971.

The Government’s Plan to Steal Your Money

There are consequences to being flat broke. There are consequences to investing any level of confidence in a financial system underpinned by debt and the creation of paper currency. There are consequences for ignoring reality and pretending that everything is normal.

This is one of them: European officials have flat-out admitted that they were discussing rolling out a series of harsh capital controls across the continent, including bank withdrawal limits and closing down Europe’s borderless Schengen area.

Some of these measures have already been implemented sporadically; customers of Italian bank BNI, for example, were all frozen out of their accounts starting May 31st, upon the recommendation and approval of Italy’s bank regulator. No ATM withdrawals, no bill payments, nothing. Just locked out overnight.

In Greece, the government has taken to simply pulling funds directly out of its citizens’ bank accounts; anyone suspected of being a tax cheat (with a very loose interpretation in the sole discretion of the government) is being relieved of their funds without so much as administrative notification. It’s no wonder why, according to the Greek daily paper Kathimerini, over $125 million per day is fleeing the Greek banking system. European political leaders aim to put a tourniquet on this wound in the worst possible way.

So what are capital controls?

Simply, capital controls are policies that restrict the free flow of capital into, out of, through, and within a nation’s borders. They can take a variety of forms, including:

— Setting a fixed amount for bank withdrawals, or suspending them altogether — Forcing citizens or banks to hold government debt — Curtailing or suspending international bank transfers — Curtailing or suspending foreign exchange transactions — Criminalizing the purchase and ownership of precious metals — Fixing an official exchange rate and criminalizing market-based transactions

Establishing capital controls is one of the worst forms of theft that a government can impose. It traps people’s hard-earned savings and their future income within a nation’s borders.

This trapped pool of capital allows the government to transfer wealth from the people to their own coffers through excessive taxation or rampant inflation... both of which soon follow.

The thing about capital controls is that they’re like airline baggage fees; ultimately, all governments want to do it, they’re just waiting on the first guy to impose them so that they can shrug their shoulders, stick it to the people, and blame ‘industry standards’.

Moreover, capital controls were a normal part of the global economic landscape for most of the 20th century, right up to the 1970s. It’s been a long time coming for governments to return to that model.

Since the inception of The Sovereign Man, it has been a constant theme for us to talk about the increasing threat of capital controls. Your money, your savings, your livelihood are all under attack by insolvent governments, and it’s critical to take steps to reduce your exposure.

When European financial leaders all openly admit that they’re making plans to establish continent-wide capital controls, it really begs the question — what additional warning sign does one need?

The dominos have already started falling. Iceland. Ireland. Greece. Spain. Portugal. Italy. Cyprus. Soon even France and the rest of Europe. And it will come to the United States as well. There are over 15 trillion reasons why.

So what are the most critical steps to take now? 1) Buy precious metals and store in a secure jurisdiction.
Holding gold and silver overseas is a great way to (a) ensure your savings is protected against inflation, and (b) ensure that your precious metals cannot be confiscated in the event that gold ownership is criminalized in your home country. I strongly recommend Singapore, Hong Kong, and Abu Dhabi as three potential safe jurisdictions for your gold and silver.

2) Open a foreign bank account.
For funds that need to be maintained within the financial system (as opposed to precious metals), make sure you have a safe home for your money abroad in a safe, well-capitalized bank.

3) Have a place to go overseas.
Economic turmoil brought on by governments stealing people’s savings generally does not bode well for social stability. If things get hairy, you’ll want to have a place to wait it out. And you don’t want to be deciding on the location while you’re packing your bags.

As an example, I’ve picked up an 1,100-acre farm in central Chile that won’t skip a beat when the financial system implodes. The sovereign debt bubble does not affect whether or not my trees will bear fruit or my vegetables will grow.

Regards,

Simon Black
for The Daily Reckoning

Assange wants to move to Ecuador....like 1,000s of other non Ecuadorians

Reuters – 17 hrs ago

CANBERRA (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Friday that he was ready for a life in Ecuador and said the country had been "quite supportive" of his bid for asylum.

Assange is holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London, where he has sought asylum in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning on sexual assault charges, and he faces arrest by British police if he leaves the embassy.

In an telephone interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio from the embassy, Assange said he was concerned about being sent to the United States to face possible charges related to the WikiLeaks website, which published thousands of leaked U.S. diplomatic cables in 2010.

"The Ecuadorean people have been quite supportive. I heard (the) Ecuadorean Ambassador in Australia has been making supportive comments. They are sympathetic over a long period of time," he said.

"We hope the asylum application will be viewed favorably. Now it's is a matter of gathering extensive evidence of what is happening in the U.S. and submitting that with a formal request."

He said he had no indication of when Ecuador would decide on his asylum claim, and said his move was aimed at raising awareness of U.S. moves to prosecute him over the 2010 leaks.

Leftist Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa reiterated on Thursday that his government plans to do a very thorough analysis of Assange's application before making a decision.

"We could not allow that a person who has asked for asylum may have to face the death penalty, especially for political crimes," Correa told reporters.

"We could not accept that there may not have been due process, we could not accept that there may be political prosecution against the ideas expressed by Assange," said Correa, as he listed the reasons why Ecuador may decide to grant asylum to Assange.

Assange fears that if sent to Sweden, he would then be extradited to the United States where he believes he could face criminal charges punishable by death.

He said he was not running away from questioning over sexual assault allegations in Sweden, but said the Swedish prosecutors had refused to visit him in Britain or contact him by phone.

"This issue is about a very serious matter in the United States," he said, adding Swedish authorities said he would be detained on arrival in Sweden.

Assange said his case was currently before a U.S. grand jury, which would decide whether charges could be laid. He said U.S. authorities have been careful not to confirm or deny any grand jury investigation.

"There are subpoenas everywhere. We have received subpoenas, there are subpoenas in my name," he said, adding people have been detained at U.S. airports and been questioned by the FBI and asked to become informers.

Assange also hit out Australia for not taking stronger action to protect him, saying he had no consular contacts since December 2010 apart from telephone text messages.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said Assange has received more consular support than anyone in a similar position, while Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said Australia has regularly made representations about Assange to authorities in the U.S., Sweden and Britain.

"It is an effective declaration of abandonment," Assange said.

(Reporting by James Grubel; Additional reporting by Jose Llangari and Eduardo Garcia in Quito; Editing by Daniel Magnowski and Philip Barbara)