Wiki-Speaks.

Today Julian Assange the founder of the Wikileaks website gave a speech from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London following being granted political refugee status by the Ecuadorian government. This was his first public appearance since entering the Ecuadorian Embassy to seek asylum back in June 2012. I can't say I actually listened to the speech but with Britain still childishly refusing to grant Mr Assange safe passage to Ecuador proper despite the protections of the 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees Mr Assange really only has four options;

1. Wait it out. Britain and Sweden's case against Mr Assange has nothing to do alleged sexual misconduct and very little to do with Wikileaks. Instead it is them attempting to influence the outcome of the 2012 US Presidential Election by making the incumbent President Barack Obama appear weak on national security. If Britain and Sweden's favoured candidate - the Republican's Mitt Romney - wins in November the USA can simply extradite Mr Assange from Ecuador. They're unlikely to do this though because while in an election year the Republicans like to barrack Obama on the issue the first amendment of the US Constitution coupled with the precedent set in the 'Pentagon Papers' case means that it is unclear what if any laws Julian Assange has actually broken. Also the quality of the information that Assange is accused of leaking is of a confidential rather then top secret nature. For example the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs are freely available to all NATO members and Russia through NATO/Russian co-operation.

2. Smuggle him to a friendly Embassy that is better suited to an extraction. Somewhere where Assange could be picked up by a helicopter would be ideal because if he can be transferred to even a ship in international waters the refugee status means that no other nation can return him to Britain or Sweden so if he can get to somewhere like the Republic of Ireland he can fly commercial to Ecuador.

3. Take the case to the International Court of Justice. Combined with my grandmother's case and the Dale Farm eviction which shares Mr Justice Ouseley with the Assange case there is a good chance that it will be ruled that British courts frequently allow political interests to over-ride the rule of law therefore their extradition order is invalid. However rulings by the International Court of Justice are only binding if both parties agree to allow them to be binding so there is a good chance Britain will simply ignore the ruling regardless of the damage to it's reputation that will bring.

4. Ecuador grant Assange citizenship and make him part of their United Nations delegation which gives him super-dooper diplomatic immunity which Britain cannot rescind. Of course the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) could remove that immunity after Assange has appeared before them but this year's UNGA is going to focus heavily on the importance of the rule of law and it's political independence so it seems a very pertinent time to have this argument.

18:40 on 19/8/12.