Bastion Of Freedom Ecuador Style

Ecuador is a country which is best known for its Galapagos Islands although in pub quizzes the participants frequently give ownership to either Colombia or Peru. Like all South American countries Ecuador's politics are murky and involve coups d'etat from time to time. Its current leader is Rafael Correa who is an ally of the Iranian President Ahmadinejad and intends importing Iranian oil in defiance of the ban on Iranian oil set up by most countries in the western world. Ecuador tried to block  action against Gaddafi and is now trying to block action against Assad. Correa has a history of trying to imprison journalists who try to write things about him he finds offensive yet has decided today to grant Julian Assange asylum. Assange, a darling of the Guardian and the BBC, is the man who thinks he is above any law when it comes to obtaining and publishing secret US documents even though he believes his own secrets, including those relating to financial matters, are sacrosanct. One of the US secret or confidential documents he published was from Heather Hodges, the US Ambassador to Ecuador, in which she stated that Correa had appointed someone the position of police chief knowing that person was corrupt. This inevitably led to Hodges being expelled by Correa from Ecuador. With this history it is not surprising that Correa would grant Assange asylum since Correa clearly enjoys tweaking the tail of the United States and of its main ally the United Kingdom. The latter after all has had the audacity to allow one of its courts through proper legal process to decide to extradite Assange to Sweden to face investigation for alleged sex offences committed there. Furthermore the UK refuses to bow the knee to Correa's socialist friend Mrs Kirchner the leader of Argentina and her demand that the Falkland Islands be transferred to her country. Being of the left the ordinary rules of democracy and of due process do not of course apply to people like Assange and countries like Ecuador and Argentina. If there is a legal way in which we can storm the Ecuadoran embassy and pick up Assange then this should be done but if not we will just have to wait for him to stick his nose outside and arrest him. Fortunately the Ecuadoran embassy has no forecourt that would allow Assange to climb into a diplomatic car whilst on Ecuadoran territory. He has to cross the pavement outside the embassy first! It must not be forgotten that in entering the Ecuadoran embassy Assange broke the terms of his bail. How stupid of those like Ms Kahn to stand bail for a snake like Assange.