today on r t we are following a developing story out of africa door and major victory for julian assad president correa has granted the wiki leaks co-founder political asylum and this has the international community buzzing we'll bring you the latest and look at the bigger implications plus. he has provided the public with true swallow exposing corruption and illegality so why exactly do members of america's media banking and political world view julian the son as the enemy details from new york coming up. giving the still receives strong support from several influential leads around the world. do in los angeles the big names standing behind the whistleblower coming up in a live report.

it's thursday august sixteenth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching r t let's get right to today's top story we begin today with the latest twist in the case of wiki leaks whistleblower julian assange we've received word that the that ecuador has granted him asylum assad was arrested in london back in december of two thousand and ten and has been going through a legal battle there ever since he's been held up at the ecuadorian embassy in london for nearly two months awaiting president quote as decision today ecuadorian president rafael correa granted asylum to assad the two men have spoken to each other several times over the past few years including an in-depth interview on giuliana songes show. well he's been fighting extradition to sweden where he faces questioning over alleged sex crimes

a songe offered several times to be interviewed over the phone or at the swedish embassy but officials rejected that offer. has expressed that his ultimate fear is that if he is extradited to sweden that he will be that they will send him to the united states where he believes he will be prosecuted for releasing hundreds of thousands of classified documents on wiki leaks also released the video you see here of a u.s. helicopter firing down on innocent civilians on the ground and iraq while this is a huge victory for us on to the ordeal isn't close to being over this is the u.k. there and to arrest the son and the moment he steps foot outside of the embassy and the u.k. has reportedly threatened to raid the embassy to arrest a son and this is sparked outrage among us on just supporters you can see here protesters outside of the at the dorian embassy in london leading to some arrests r t spoke exclusively today to

a songes mother christine here's what she had to say as you think of the last twenty four hours since the previous government meeting of the u.s. was. three measures in breach international law that wasn't sure how it was good but i knew that the. that we were on of both working in the. secret fix which was proof. that most things. and i was told. by the that were doing government was willing to look into it and they turned the truth does that now for the very latest on this case r.t. correspondent laura smith is on the ground in london. the reaction from us and his supporters here was unequivocal when his asylum was finally granted by ecuador there were cheers there were chance there was a big contingent from the ecuadorian community actually saying hundreds of ecuador that's still behind me still chanting but not everyone was as clean and

a statement from the foreign and commonwealth office they said that they were disappointed and the foreign secretary william hague later made a statement in which he said the ecuador knew the full legal context which affected there by using agreement to extradite afghans to sweden and that the decision to grant him asylum on behalf of ecuador was regrettable he also confirmed it reiterated that they would not be granting julian assange safe passage and that there was no legal basis for them to do so let's just hear a little bit of what he said in his statement it does not change the fundamentals of the case we will not allow mr sands safe passage out of the united kingdom nor is there any legal basis for us to do so he also denied that there had ever been any implication that british police would storm the ecuadorian embassy behind me in order to arrest julian asked on that note what the ecuadorians understood in

a letter that was delivered to quito in fact in response to that lesley which they say was a threat to violate their embassy in london ecuador have issued a very strong statement of their own to the situation here really remains as it was before the asylum request was granted in the julian assange is still in the building behind me he still doesn't know how he's going to get from here to the airport and from there to ecuador because the moment he sets us outside this building he is local to arrest by the british police and it does look like that would happen and what is developing here is in no uncertain terms an ugly diplomatic spats with neither the u.k. or ecuador looking like they're about to back down now is r t correspondent lara smash well. our coverage wouldn't be complete if we didn't show you the full picture you saw some of his supporters there but a songe has created quite a few enemies in various countries many have called for assad is persecution some even calling for his assassination are to correspond

a marina porn i had joins us now live from new york to discuss my marina so he has created many enemies especially in politics and banking why. well here in the u.s. what julian assange has done is he has released a lot of information that is compromise the integrity and credibility of the u.s. government and many corporations because what he's done is he's exposed secrecies exposed the truth that's what he says and much of those documents hundreds of thousands of those documents were classified and not supposed to be seen and read by the public we showed our viewers at the start of the show some video it was shown of a u.s. military taking place in activity in and over in iraq if not for with the leaks maybe the public would have never known that and of course it is shed a very dark light on u.s. foreign policy and also put into question relationships between u.s.

corporations wall street and u.s. politics because so many documents have been released over the course of six years this of course has angered many u.s. politicians and influential leaders in the banking and even media world as you mentioned liz and they do not want to see julian assange get it getting away with embarrassing the u.s. many of them have maybe many u.s. officials of the former and current administration have labeled him major threat to national security some even dealing in the terrorist speaking of that want to take a listen now to some of us songes harshest critics. the reason i'm saying to you foreign terrorist organization is that they are engaged in terrorist activity. what they're doing is clearly aiding and abetting terrorist groups that using information against americans. information warfare is warfare and julian assange is engaged in warfare information terrorism which leads to people getting killed is

terrorism and you loose on using gaves in terrorism i think the man is a terrorist. he's done and so much you know everyone's going to it is an enormous damage to our country and i think he needs to be prosecuted to the full fullest extent of the law and if that becomes a problem i need to change the law one leaking the material is deplorable agree with the pentagon's assessment that the people at wilkie leitz could have blood on their hands it sure looks to me on the facts that mr assad and wiki leaks have violated america's espionage act with great. negative consequences for us. some are you know we just saw him being referred to as a terrorist by multiple people how can he be seen as a terrorist. well it's all in the eye of the beholder most of the people we just heard from are members of u.s. politics and as mentioned to you already the information that has been released by

wiki leaks over the course of six years most recently in the past two has really compromised the credibility of the united states now what we have not heard from our members as directly and with words are members from the the banking industry but they have also taken action against julian a songe in december two thousand and ten visa master card pay pal western union and bank of america in issue did a banking blockade against wiki leaks this means that anybody at that wants to support we could leaks or make a donation to wiki leaks through those avenues those companies would not allow for a donation to go through because of that wiki leaks how to suspend their activity to deal with this bank the so-called banking blockade now many have question why why would these a mastercard bank of america western union pay pal go to this extent why would

apple remove wiki leaks you know application off of the i phone and many come to the conclusion that it is because they are trying to take a stand against wiki leaks and don't want their own secrets revealed many to believe that a lot of us senators influenced these major banking corporations and powerful and for corporations to take the offensive against wiki leaks and julian assange now do you take an offensive against somebody that is that has doesn't have any information that could hurt you clearly this is this is a fight that's being waged against a person who says he created a site he says for transparency and accountability last i checked that was the job of journalists is to hold leaders accountable it's to make sure that the public knows the truth. in this case is being you know targeted by many members of the u.s. government many members of u.s. powerful organizations everyone can make up their own mind to see to decide whether

julian a songes is a hero or a victim but if julia songe does end up in the u.s. it could be subsequently a dark day for journalism because he will be potentially prosecuted for doing the job that many say journalists are supposed to do right marina thanks so much for weighing in and keeping us updated that was our correspondent marina pour in iowa well despite being hated by so many there is another group of high profile and influential elites that are on the songes side and our tea correspondent joins us now live from los angeles for more on this hi ramon so he's hated by some and loved by others why do a sonder supporters see him as a hero. that's right liz no even though we definitely have seen plenty of attacks on julius songes we showed earlier there have been some very influential people who have jumped into the fray same to ecuador should grant him asylum that

has been done one of the most prominent supporters is michael moore and i mean he says that what julian a songes doing is journalism and what he has done is what journalists should have been doing a long long time ago in fact he says that we should be thanking julian a songe and the work of we and we can leaks for the work that they've done in exposing us government secrets if we knew of the secrets that we know now he believes that we may have never even gone into the iraq war so he's one of the huge supporters he even put up downs of dollars worth of bail money and was one of several celebrities which signed a letter back in june asking the president of ecuador rafael correa to grant julian a songe asylum other celebrities who are on that list were bill maher danny glover so definitely some high profile support here claiming that doing a songe only crime is being a journalist and

a and aside from his hollywood supporters which as you just mentioned are many of them he also has the support of some high profile journalists can you talk about who they are. no yeah of course we've seen an outpouring of support or you know definitely defending julian a songe and the case pointing out some irregularities in the media we've heard from people such as noam chomsky chris hedges glenn greenwald and naomi wolf naomi wolf herself put out a defense of julian a songe really breaking down the sexual misconduct allegations in sweden against him and also tying karl rove to some of the prosecutors over there in sweden now she got a lot of flak for that article which really shows the political hot potato that this case is now you know many political leaders will refrain from supporting

joining the sons because they know that it's it could be political suicide and obviously a lot of these journalists are putting themselves at risk simply for defending the acts of weak leaks and julian assange and among his supporters are man can you talk about how julian a songe as a whistleblower what he has come to symbolize today. right well just continuing on the huge amount of support that he's gotten one of the staunchest supporters from the start of this controversy has been daniel ellsberg in general as rick has repeatedly have to have to defend the founder of wiki leaks saying that he is not a terrorist and what we can leaks is doing today is exactly what he was doing years ago with the pentagon papers and exposing the irregularities in the instance an inconsistency of the u.s. government when it comes to what they present to the public and what they are really doing to our tax dollars so many people fear that this is just another blow the government just does not want another pentagon papers weekly's has been

terribly embarrassing and the world has now you know is now privy to a lot of the operational a lot of the things that are happening behind the scenes when it comes to the u.s. government when it comes to foreign policy in the u.s. government from their prosecutions of several whistleblowers here in the government and they're supposed persecution of june a songe a lot of journalists really really fear that this is going to put a halt to investigative journalism and speaking of that ramona could you talk about you know his supporters and particularly in journalism what they say about the way songe has affected journalism today. you know absolutely well we go back to what michael moore was discussing about exposing secrets now in the run up to the iraq war it seems like many of the biggest news organizations in the world were clearly in support of the iraq war not questioning

the united states or the united or the u.k. government regarding their evidence of mass destructions and many of their claims turned out to be false so in this sense it has given many journalists that motivation to look a little bit deeper to really question what the u.s. government is doing and their motivations behind them and this is affecting not just journalists here in the u.s. but journalists throughout the middle east as well and in latin america right around appreciate you staying on top of this story that was our t. correspondent from uncle lindau. well today's break there comes after years of twists and turns of the high profile whistle blowing case artes man iraq takes us on a timeline of the events that led up to where we are today r.t. has been following the story since day one so let's break it down two thousand and ten visits our studio here in washington after wiki leaks exposes the now famous

collateral murder video the video depicts a u.s. helicopter pilot shooting civilians in iraq among the victims a reuters photographer and his driver let's have a look at an interview from julian's visit. that's right we believe in releasing source documents to the world together with analysis to put them in contact with some people to understand them because the source material is what helps keep journalism honest it's independently verifiable independently checkable research and the checkable in the same way as a scientific paper is checkable its source material is released the public. in august of two thousand and ten as wiki leaks continues to release classified documents regarding the war in afghanistan sweden issues a warrant for assad as arrest on rape charges in late november of the same year wiki leaks and builds and builds cable gate revealing thousands of u.s. diplomatic cables spanning the globe a songe partners up with some of the biggest international names in print including

the guardian le monde der spiegel buddies and the new york times in the u.s. however the relationship heads south and the press quickly turns on a son in december of two thousand and ten songe answers his legal troubles turning himself into authorities in london after being released on bail a songe asserts his innocence and calls the allegations politically motivated in february of two thousand and eleven a british court rules to extradite him to sweden and they spends the next year in gauged in appeals later in october a songe announces that wiki leaks will be temporarily shut down due to a ninety five percent drop in funding several credit card companies like master card and visa issued a financial blockade making it almost impossible to contribute to the site so let's fast forward to april two thousand and twelve while under house arrest a songe throws his head into the talk show ring his buzzed about show airs right here on our team he makes it a point to interview very interesting subjects including ecuadorian president rafael correa here's a clip from that episode. why did you want us to release all the cables to

get good murder then we know that those who don't know anything have nothing to fear we have nothing to hide your wiki leaks have made a stronger as the main accusations made by the american embassy. excessive nationalism in defense of the sovereignty of the ecuadorian government by june of this year a songe makes a plea for asylum to the government of ecuador and later walks right into the country's embassy in london julian has since then spent his days in refuge today we know that ecuador has offered julian asylum but what's next remains to be seen in the course of only four years assigned went from a little known online whistleblower to public enemy number one or two has been following the story from the start so for the latest on the signs and everything else you won't see on the mainstream tune in here to. many rob lowe or t. washington d.c. . so i've got our has granted

a songe asylum but as we can see it looks like this is just another beginning to another chapter of the saga so where do we go from here our to correspondent christine for there has been following the story closely and joins us now to weigh and so christine what is next for julian a songe. well it's a really good question and right now what we have are a whole lot of questions and not too many answers i think the thing that's really on a lot of people's mind today of course the president ecuador has granted julian is gone to political asylum in ecuador that means once he gets there he's safe the question how does he get there he's been told repeatedly his lawyers have been told as well by british authorities that if he leaves the premises of the ecuadorian embassy in london that he will be arrested so a whole lot of people wondering about that people want the wondering you know if and when it's gone to arrives in ecuador what he'll do there will he continue to run the web site wiki leaks will he be able to get funding well that's readers government continue to try to extradite him will the u.s.

government pursue him as well now as for julian assange himself he is reportedly scheduled to make a live statement outside of the ecuadorian embassy on sunday not sure exactly what he'll say but he did release a short statement today and i want to read you just the part of that statement he said well today is a historic victory our struggle has just begun the unprecedented u.s. investigation against wiki leaks that must be stopped he also said while today much of the focus will be on the decision of the ecuadorian government it is just as important that we remember bradley manning has been detained without trial for eight hundred days private first class bradley manning of course the one accused of leaking the initial trove of these state department cables to the web site wiki leaks he was arrested more than two years ago it was a very long time before he was charged he spent all of that time behind bars much of it in solitary confinement he is currently at fort meatless christina you had mentioned a lot of questions still

a lot of questions but the things that julian assange has brought to light through these documents that he's revealed has answered a lot of questions what kind of revelations have come out as a result of a songes leaks and his work in journalism. well it's funny liz you had a lot of people have described wiki leaks and what happened as a document dump and it really was thousands of pages really too many pages for even some of the major publications who have been covering it to sort of get through everything but when you look at some of the big things that have come out it's no wonder that a whole lot of people want to join us on joe you know want to get their hands on him so to speak i'll just go through a few things though that are pretty significant one of them of course that saudi arabia the u.s. ally actually has a large distrust for other muslim countries especially pakistan and iran there was also that information the cables showing how secretary of state hillary clinton the

state department actually ordered a spying program for some of the high ranking diplomats in the u.n. to be spied on people permanent members in the security council russia china france and the u.k. there was also a trove of evidence led to kind of showing to what extent of former secretary of defense donald rumsfeld and his you know some of his high commanders actually knowingly lied to time and time again about the situation in iraq we're talking about the sectarian violence there we're talking about the threat of iraq about less when we talk about some of these revelations that have come out perhaps the most significant one really was that video that was released the video is called collateral murder and essentially shows two u.s. military pilots treating war as a video game killing several civilians on the ground including two reuters journalists i think we have a clip of it here but all of. the

right. so again lance i mean it's one thing to have it several pages of documents that you know journalists then comb through page at a time is a whole nother thing entirely to see this video a forty minute video showing you know the attitude of these pilots it's something that perhaps if you know somebody in the military is unspoken but this was made very public not only for the u.s. but for the entire world to see so certainly a major revelation when you talk about what wiki leaks has given us well certainly the pictures in that video just speak for themselves christina's son has expressed that one of his greatest fears is ultimately ending up in the united states if he does end up in the u.s. what fate could await him here. well it's hard to say because remember no formal charges against has gone have have been filed he's

wanted for questioning in sweden and the u.s. is sort of kind of being hands off at least in public we did see you know a reporter asked the president about it and as he was walking away the president looked right at the camera and said he broke the law but we think there's a lot of behind the scenes things as sancia itself has said he fears being tried under the espionage act but it's really interesting was i was at the white house briefing earlier today and not one person asked about this i had my hand up the whole time i wasn't called on but every reporter just about that was called on asked every single different version of the question related to vice president biden and his remarks about wall street keeping people in chains that question was asked time and time again and nothing about wiki leaks so it is really hard to know what the state department thinking what the president is thinking when it comes to what's next for julian assange and that is interesting considering the magnitude and the implications of this case christine thanks so much for keeping us updated that was our chief correspondent christine for is out. well there you have it

a culmination of of them sort of brought us to today no matter how you view us on what can be said for sure is that a song has changed the course of journalism and diplomatic relationships among countries one man has revealed some ugly and embarrassing truths about the true relationships and communications among top world leaders now the u.s. reportedly threatened to storm the ecuadorian embassy in london the president's response in a tweet is this president of qatar a file korea said on his twitter quote no one is going to terrorize us he has been top been on top of this story from the very beginning and we'll continue to bring you the latest developments that's going to wrap it up for now coming up next the capital account with lauren lyster less chicken with learn to use what is on today's agenda laura what you working on today i live today about some data out about housing which is

a great opportunity for us to really dive into it because there has been a lot to headline and some data that have supported or maybe indicated that we are having a housing stabilization in the u.s. or a housing recovery but when you really look at the foundation of what makes the recovery live at best is seems like a creaky foundation maybe more realistically it looks like we're lacking a foundation so we got to talk to the one and only barry ritholtz as a popular blog big picture which i'm sure many people in our audience read and he told us all about why wishful thinking are not going to a recovery get us all right lauren thanks for that update and that is all coming up next on the capital account with lauren lister but that is going to do it for the news for more of the stories we cover check out our you tube channel you tube dot com slash our team america also check out our website our ts dot com last usa and you can also follow me on twitter liz wall we'll be right back here and

a half hour c.n.n. . can you please find. me. going to. get are sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

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