Equador has just decided to give one Julian Assange political asylum. Assange, famed founder of the highly controversial wikileaks website, has been hiding in the Equadorian embassy in London since June, under threat of being extradited to Sweden to face charges of rape.
Frsnkly, I'm not sure what good this does, unless Assange is willing to live in that embassy for the rest of his life. The moment he steps foot off the property the British government can, and from the looks of it will, seize and extradite him.
Even if he does stay, Britain does have the legal and ethical right to revoke the Embassy's status if pushed too far. After politely reminding Equador of that fact, the latter in turn started screaming about blackmail and explicit threats.
Equador's foreign minister stated that "the country was being loyal to its tradition of protecting those who were vulnerable", a comment that kept me laughing for quite a while considering their history.
They, Assange included, claim the extradition to Sweden is just the opening gambit for the US to get its revenge for the huge quantities of top secret documents released on his website, much of which endangered NATO personnel in the field. Both Sweden and his two accusers deny any political agenda