Julian Assange in Ecuador.

At some point during last night's (19/6/12) Euro2012 games between England and Ukraine and France and Sweden (18:45 - 20:45) Wikileaks founder Julian Assange decided to break his bail conditions and seek political asylum (refugee status) at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, UK for which all legal intents and purposes in Ecuadorian sovereign territory.

You may remember that Wikileaks was made famous by publishing the video "Collateral Murder," the Iraq war logs and the US diplomatic cables. Those documents were provided to Wikileaks by Bradley Manning a US Army intelligence analyst based in Baghdad, Iraq. Despite persistent rumours that Manning was acting with official but undeclared permission when he leaked the files he is currently on trial in the US and if convicted faces either the death penalty or life imprisonment in a very harsh US military prison. For his part Julian Assange is wanted for questioning in Sweden over their rather unique rape laws. He is currently on Court bail with strict conditions in the UK while trying to fight his extradition to Sweden. He was always going to lose his extradition fight because both Britain and Sweden want to give the US to option to seek his extradition to the US in order to force them to clarify what level of official permission Bradley Manning had in leaking the files.

Like many South American countries Ecuador was one of the front lines in the Cold War proxy battles between the USA and the USSR. In 1972 the US backed dictator Guillermo Rodriguez seized power in a military coup. In 1976 Rodriguez himself was overthrown by the Soviet backed dictator Alfredo Poveda. In 1979 the USA overthrew Poveda with a democratic uprising that swept Jaime Roldos Aguilera to power. Aguilera himself died in a plane crash in 1981 which people still suspect was one of those assassinations that were all so common during the School of the Americas days. While he has been fighting extradition to Sweden Julian Assange has begun hosting a talk-show called "The World Tomorrow" on Russian English language broadcaster "Russia Today." This has become a significant issue between Russia and the USA as they clash over Syria (the helicopter gunships). Therefore Assange's decision to seek asylum in Ecuador during the Mexico hosted G20 Summit was meant to look like Russia inflaming most of South America in order to put pressure on the USA with the obvious blow-back on the Russians that would lead to.

Also Ecuador controls the Galapagos Islands. These are where Charles Darwin formulated his theory of evolution which is still not believed by certain sections of the US political right and formed the basis for the pseudo-science of Eugenics which was central to the Nazi holocaust of the second world war. So by seeking asylum in Ecuador Julian Assange was also trying to inflame all these issues. Finally the Galapagos Islands are one of the oldest and most famous conservation areas with very strict rules protecting it's flora and fauna. This type of conservation effort is going to be central to the Rio+20 environment conference that British Prime Minister David Cameron insisted should take place between today (20/6/12) and Friday (22/6/12) but has still refused to attend.

As for why Julian Assange has allowed himself to be used in this way I think that while what he's accused of wouldn't constitute a criminal offence in other country it is almost certain that he will be jailed for rape in Sweden even if he isn't extradited to the US. In fact although it's hard to call I would say that extradition to the US actually represents Assange's best chance of avoiding prison. Therefore what he was trying to do was skip the Sweden step entirely. Mainly though he has allowed himself to be unduly influenced by the British Establishment specifically the people at the Frontline Club.