h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Things could hot up if the central and south american nations decide to punish the UK for not accepting Ecuadors diplomatic asylum of Asange etc.

Grabbing him before he gets to Ecuador would mean his asylum hadn't taken place though, surely? (though it might not be views that way)

So is Assange wanted for espionage then by the US?

Ecuador is making the claim that Britain is behaving in a threatening manner towards it (over the Assange issue). The president claims Britain "still doesn't realise Latin America is now sovereign and free". The South Americans are going to have a meeting to discuss Britain:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19309183

I'm sure Argentina will set them straight, have no dear

That should probably be fear, preview is my fiend

Argentina offered to shield Assange from the heat, but he samg



Don't fry for me, Argentina.

I suppose he thought it was better than being chile

I sort of feel sorry for him. Not that I'm dissing Ecuador, but it probably isn't going to seem much like home to him. He's lived in Australia, Sweden, and the UK. What does Ecuador have for him?

Coincidentally, I have a friend who is going to retire in Equador for just such reasons. The various altitudes provide different climates, the growing season is year round and for a modest contribution to the economy you get very good health care. It is a modern, well functioning democracy with great weather and stable economics.

Hmmmm.

There's only one option left open to the British: send any intelligence which embarrasses Ecuador to Wikileaks.

Maybe Assange already has it

- which is why he is where he is?

Ecuador does not have a good free press, therefore they struggle to have a good democracy

I think we should leave the conspiracy stuff to his supporters though, here and elsewhere - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/24/nick-cohen-julian-assange-paranoia?intcmp=239

"He wants to renounce his Australian citizenship and become an Ecuadorean because (and you may have to bear with me) the Australian government failed to help him fight an attempt by the British government to extradite to him to Sweden, whose government may, at some undefined point, extradite him to the United States – or maybe not, because there is no extradition request."

The writer also makes the rather good point that the US doesn't need to act to silence Assange, the man is doing a fantastic job of making himself a figure of ridicule.

Silencing him anyway would surely be pointless, an excellant case of shutting the prison door after Assange has bolted - unless he has another set of leaks coming (no comment intended) much better for him to discredit himself

"Meanwhile, the Alba group of leftist Latin American nations - founded by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez - has warned the UK government "it will face grave consequences around the world if it directly breaches the territorial integrity" of the embassy."

dug out from the latest BBC report
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19310335

ps the bigger picture here that Cameron and Co must consider is the cold war between it and Argentina and her allies on the Falklands. As Argentina and allies build up their military capabilities arising from economic expansion (exploiting natural resources), then the threat they pose will increase.

The group is right - there will be worldwide consequences were we to enter the embassy

Argentina does have an increasing military, but with current force level, the frigate that sits around the islands is capable of destroying the Argentian air force in one salvo (designed to deal with 64 modern jets at once it fires 12 missles in each go - i know about it because interestingly its more capable than the American equivalents, a rare bit of tech advantage)
The military threat comes more from a sucessful special forces attack on the Island's runway and the stationed jets

However one part of the area is that certain central and southern american nations have severe grudges against argentina and would severlly encroach upon their area were the jets that are stationed to the North of Argentina move to the East - if we muck up diplomatically that could remove one defence that we currently require

Of course, this is all just hot air from the South Americans. All that has happened is a high profile public figure has sought asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy and the FCO have dropped them a memo pointing out the full legal requirements for their staff to work within British Law - every embassy around the world has to abide by the host nation's laws.

Someone on the Ecuadorian side has went through the fine print and found the change made after WPC Fletcher was murdered and they've seized upon it to make a PR furore. We're hearing all kinds of crap about Britain "invading" Ecuador and riding roughshod over South American ego .... sorry, sovereignty. We've done no such thing and we won't. We haven't even threatened to.

We're being dragged along in a media-hyped storm about nothing.

Whatever the merits of Assange's case this is clearly a strategy by Ecuador and allies (Argentina, Venezuela?), as part of a bigger power play manouevre. It would be interesting to learn what role Brazil will come to play in all this (if any) as one of the nations considered to be a potential major world economic force in the near future.