Is the UK a democratic, civilised and rule-abiding country?

[BrilloPad]

BBC News - Julian Assange: UK 'threat' to arrest Wikileaks founder

At a news conference in Quito on Wednesday, Ecuador's Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patino, said a letter from the UK government had been delivered through a British embassy official.

"Today we received from the United Kingdom an express threat, in writing, that they might storm our embassy in London if we don't hand over Julian Assange," he said.

"Ecuador rejects in the most emphatic terms the explicit threat of the British official communication."

He said such a threat was "improper of a democratic, civilised and rule-abiding country".

Ecuador clearly has alot to learn.

[SupremeSpod]

BBC News - Julian Assange: UK 'threat' to arrest Wikileaks founder

At a news conference in Quito on Wednesday, Ecuador's Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patino, said a letter from the UK government had been delivered through a British embassy official.

"Today we received from the United Kingdom an express threat, in writing, that they might storm our embassy in London if we don't hand over Julian Assange," he said.

"Ecuador rejects in the most emphatic terms the explicit threat of the British official communication."

He said such a threat was "improper of a democratic, civilised and rule-abiding country".

Ecuador clearly has alot to learn.

"Rule-abiding"? Where the **** did that come from? Rulez ain't lawz!

[Lockhouse]

Well that diplomatic approach worked then. If I was Ecuador now, I'd give Assange asylum just because I could.

[chef]

The problem is as fasr as I understand it that even if he is granted asylum then he can't actually leave the embassy he is currently in as that would require entering UK territory and given that the Ecuadorian embassy has a large 24hr uk police presence outside the only entrance/exit to the building then it is going to be a bit difficult.

[Troll]

The problem is as fasr as I understand it that even if he is granted asylum then he can't actually leave the embassy he is currently in as that would require entering UK territory and given that the Ecuadorian embassy has a large 24hr uk police presence outside the only entrance/exit to the building then it is going to be a bit difficult.

Can't they pop him into the diplomatic pouch (which can be any dimension iirc) and get him out that way....worked for the Israelis

[chef]

Even if Maggie did create some law, doesn't Article 22 of the Vienna Convention overrule Maggie's law?

The premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission.

Source: Article 22, Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations

[chef]

Can't they pop him into the diplomatic pouch (which can be any dimension iirc) and get him out that way....worked for the Israelis

Officially it can only contain articles for official use which Im not sure you could classify Mr Assange as.

[sasguru]

Can't make up my mind if this Assange guy is being set up or is a narcisstic geek who's committed a crime or possibly both

[NickFitz]

Read the memo; the story is complete bollocks. The UK Government merely reminded the Ecuadorians of its rights under UK and international law; the Ecuadorians have twisted that into a "threat to storm the embassy", and the moronic acolytes of Assange have taken up the battle cry with their usual combination of fervour and ignorance plus a healthy dose of conspiracy theory.

Here's a proper appraisal of the legal situation by an expert in constitutional and international law. (N.B. the server can be a bit slow to respond at the moment, as it's just his blog and it's getting a lot of traffic right now, presumably from Assangistas trying, and failing, to find any way to argue against the facts.)

[Troll]

In 1964, a Moroccan-born Israeli double agent named Mordechai Ben Masoud Louk (also known as Josef Dahan) was drugged, bound, and placed in a diplomatic bag at the Egyptian Embassy in Rome, but was rescued by the Italians. The crate that he had been placed in appeared to have been used for a similar purpose before, possibly for an Egyptian military official who had defected to Italy several years before but then disappeared without a trace before reappearing under Egyptian custody and facing trial.

During the 1982 Falklands War, the Argentine government used a diplomatic bag to smuggle several Limpet mines to their embassy in Spain, to be used in the covert Operation Algeciras, in which Argentine agents were to blow up a British warship in the Royal Navy Dockyard at Gibraltar. The plot was uncovered and stopped by the Spanish Police before the explosives could be set.

In the 1984 Dikko Affair, a former Nigerian government minister, was kidnapped and placed in a shipping crate, in an attempt to transport him from the United Kingdom back to Nigeria for trial.However, it was not marked as a diplomatic bag, which allowed British customs to open it.

In 1984, the Sterling submachine gun used to shoot dead WPC Yvonne Fletcher from inside the Libyan Embassy in London was smuggled out of the UK in one of 21 diplomatic bags.
In March 2000 Zimbabwe created an international incident when it opened a British diplomatic shipment.

In May 2008, a replacement pump for the toilet on the International Space Station was sent in a diplomatic pouch from Russia to the United States in order to arrive before liftoff of the next shuttle mission.

In 2012, a 16 kg shipment of cocaine was sent to the United Nations in New York in a bag masquerading as a diplomatic pouch.

In January 2012, Italy detected 40 kilograms of cocaine smuggled in a diplomatic pouch from Ecuador, arresting five. Ecuador insisted it had inspected the shipment for drugs at the foreign ministry before it was sent to Milan