go. request the gold and silver investors god. call today eight hundred two five seven gold. that in our view we are following a developing story out of aqua door in a major victory for julian assange president but i have granted the wiki leaks co-founder a political asylum and as has the international community buzzing with the latest and look at the bigger implications. he has provided the public with truth exposing corruption and illegality so why exactly do members of america's media banking and political world view julian assange as the enemy details from new york coming up. really in a sausage still receiving strong support from several influential elites around the world a remote village do in los angeles the big names standing behind the whistleblower

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

interviewed over the phone or at the swedish embassy but officials rejected that offer. as on has expressed fear that his ultimate fear is to be extradited to sweden that will lead him to being sent 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 now while this is a huge victory for assad the ordeal isn't close to being over this is the u.k. there and to arrest us on the moment he steps foot outside of the embassy and the u.k. has reportedly threatened to raid the embassy to arrest us aand now this is sparking outrage among the songes supporters you can see here protesters outside of the ecuadorian embassy in london leading to some arrests are t.

spoke exclusively today to us on his mother kristie and here's what she had to say you know if you think of the last twenty four hours that the previous government beating of the u.s. but it doesn't bring measures in breach international law it wasn't sure how it was good but i knew that the. that we were honest both working in the. secret specs which was. doing most things. and i was also very happy by the fact that the door in government was willing to look into it and they knew i was done on and on that the truth is done that. 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 that which is that what chance there was a big contingent from the ecuadorian community actually saying hands off ecuador

that's still behind me still chanting but not everyone was as pleased 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 their going to agreement to extradite afghans to sweden and that the decision to grant him asylum on behalf of ecuador was regrettable he also confirmed and 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 are songs that notes would be 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 loveable 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. that was our t.v. correspondent lara smith well our coverage wouldn't be complete if we didn't show you the full picture now you saw some of his supporters but assad has created quite a few enemies in various countries many of called horizontals persecution some even

calling for his assassination or to correspond to marina poor and i joins us now live from new york to discuss hi marie and a so he has created many enemies especially and politics and banking why is that well since two thousand and ten and the big cable gate leak that was spearheaded by julian assange and wiki leaks many u.s. officials and members of the media outlets and even the banking world have commented on julian assange many labeling him as a threat to u.s. national security now they say it's because mr julian assange helped expose lots of classified documents of the u.s. government but these documents at the end of the day compromise the integrity and the credibility of the u.s. government it exposed a lot of secrets that the public was not aware about aware of particularly when it came to u.s. foreign policy the way the u.s. was carrying out its conduct out war and overseas its involvement with other

countries and this is something that many u.s. officials and members of the media said was quite alarming and threatens the security of the u.s. some did not mince their words and i went so far as to call for his assassination and speaking of that want to take a listen now to some of the songes harshest critics. the reason i'm saying to you foreign terrorist organization is that they are engaged in terrorist activity they're. doing is clearly aiding and abetting terrorist groups that uses 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 julian assange is engaged in terrorism i think the man is a high tech terrorist. if he's done in the knowledge. and norma's done it

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 and leaking the material is deplorable l'abri with the pentagon's assessment that the people at wilkie leitz could have blood on their hands it sure looks to me on the fact that mr sons and wiki leaks have violated america's espionage act with great. negative consequences for us. so some strong words there being used by a songes critics calling him a terrorist how can he be seen as a terrorist. well i mean it's all in the eye of the holder liz many people do not think that julian a songes a terrorist by any means they supporters clearly believe that he is serving the public good by providing accountability and transparency and informing the public about what is taking place now we should mention that. members of the banking institution or companies themselves have taken aggressive actions against wiki

leaks very little words have been said but action has been grave and i wanted to specifically point out the financial blockade that was imposed on wiki leaks back in december two thousand and ten what i mean by financial blockade is that master card visa pay pal western union and bank of america all stopped processing any donations that supporters for we can leaks wanted to make to the organization so those companies said that we will not pass through the funding wiki leaks representatives say that this has destroyed ninety five percent of their revenue and has hurt them their ability of going after those powerful players that are carrying out wrongdoing being powerful players bankers members of the media members of pall of governments and countries so this is been a significant blow carried out not by a government not by members of the media but by the financial institutions against

julian a songe and many are questioning why would they do such a thing and you just spoke there about this financial blockade taken by the financial sector and you know a songe responded by making this commercial let's take a look at it. servers and. donations lost due to bank lucky fifteen million. that it cost to the house arrest five hundred thousand. watching the world trade center itself. priceless. now beyond the financial sector many high profile government leaders have spoken out against him saying he's put our national security at risk can you talk marina about that accusation. will many allies of the u.s.

many countries of the west do share that opinion but at the end of the day it's no it is because julian assange whatever whatever you believe about him whether he's the villain or the hero he did has disclosed classified information about the government's information that governments were keeping from their citizens now at the end of the day critics say that he has compromised the national security of countries and even led to the arab spring the overthrow of governments but one may want to ask was it julian a songe to blame for disclosing this information or the governments themselves for carrying out these actions and not disclosing them to their own citizens this is the international to be it debate that is happening right now and those that are supporting julian assange those that include scholars and journalists many in the us believe that it is the job of the journalists to hold big corporations and elected officials accountable and that is something that many julian assange just

supporters believe that he was doing and if he ends up in the u.s. he may be prosecuted for doing exactly what many believe journalists are supposed to do and i thank you so much for staying on top of this story that was our t. correspondent marina poor in iowa. well despite being hated by so many there's a nother group of high profile and influential elites that are honest on his side are the correspondent ramon glinda joins us now live from los angeles for more on this ramon hi so he's hated by some love by others why do us not just supporters see him kind of as a hero. that's right liz well one of the most prominent supporters that we've seen here over the last couple of years of julia songe has been u.s. filmmaker michael moore and in fact over the last several days he's been trying to encourage some of those supporters that we see there outside of the ecuadorian embassy in london to go out there and show their support for julian assange michael moore is so much of

a supporter of julian assange as they put up thousands of dollars to pay for his bail and the reason that he says that he did this was that judas on his crime his only crime was to practice journalism and he feels that he's unfairly being proud persecuted because he did expose government leaks and for these reasons he believes that we should be thanking julian a songe in the work that we can at least does for exposing these secrets he contends that if we can leaks was around in the run up to the iraq war we would have been able to know some of the secret negotiations in the secret planning that were going on and perhaps we would have not gone into that war so he's been definitely one of the most notable and familiar advocates for julian a songe and weaker leaks now he was part of a contingent who wrote a letter to dorian president rafael correa just a couple of months ago asking for the government to grant a songe asylum other celebrities on that letter who signed that letter included

oliver stone and comedian bill maher and we've also seen in the past musician tom morello musician activists sign on to a petition in support of weekly so there's definitely some high profile names who are putting their name on the line for julian the son right so a lot of stars and music and movies putting their support behind him aside from hollywood ramona some high profile journalists come out in support of assad can you talk about that. no that's absolutely right i mean we've seen john pilger we've seen chris hedges who was formerly of the new york times we've seen naomi wolf come out definitely we've seen the organization fairness and accuracy in reporting previously come out and support we keep leaks so there have definitely been crusading journalists who have brought up the point that joy has not committed

a crime. however they believe that he is being politically persecuted because he did reveal very embarrassing secrets about the u.s. government and that other journalists should be following the we should be following the lead of weak leaks when it comes to really challenging world powers and really challenging what they are doing with our tax dollars and in addition to those names you just mentioned salons grand glenn greenwald is among the journalists voicing his support for assad here he is talking about the west ambler . you know. the. this is. the this is. the with. this not just.

for. this for. the whole it was. and that was it glenn greenwald of the guardian ramona how was assigned to prevent to separate and kind of alienate himself from the mass media outlets. oh that's right he is revealing secrets that you know many years ago really there was no sort of organization such as weekly so reporters were just completely reliant on government press releases and what government officials were telling them and this really goes to the point that mr glenn greenwald was making too where over the past several years we've seen reporters get more cozy with their sources

more cozy with people who are in power to gain that access and have really lost an adversarial government watchdog mentality that many around the world really think happens here in the united states no united states is known as an advocate for free speech but a place where you're free to you know vent any sort of opinion and really challenge the government however we've definitely seen over the past couple of decades a reluctance to do that reluctance to really advocate for the little guy in the media and you know a lot of it does really have to do with something that chris hedges talks about is these journalists trying to get ahead now that being said it also has prompted in the pen journalist to be to start to question more about what these governments are doing not just the united states government because we can leaks has exposed a lot of wrongdoings not just in the united states but also governments in latin america and in the middle east of iran and really appreciate you staying on top of

this that was our key correspondent ramon kalinda. ltd of greater comes after years of twists and turns and a high profile whistle blowing case artie's many rapala takes us on a timeline of the events that led up to where we are today. our team has been following the story since day one so let's break it down two thousand and ten a songe 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 people to understand them because the food source material is what helps keep journalism honest it's independently verifiable and independently checkable your assertions are checkable in the same way as a scientific paper is checkable it's

a full source material was released to 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 and the new york times in the u.s. however the relationship heads south and the press quickly turns on a songe in december of two thousand and ten songe answers his legal troubles turning himself into authorities in london after being released on bail assigned asserts as 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 spend the next year in gage an appeals later in october 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. then we know that those who don't know anything and have nothing to fear we have nothing to hide your wiki leaks have made us stronger as the main accusations made by the american embassy. excessive nationalism and 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 for. it's to be seen in the course of only four years songs 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 songs and everything else you won't see on the mainstream tuning here. many rob lowe or t. washington d.c. . are going to take a quick break but stay tuned we've already told you about us as supporters and opponents coming up a look at the bigger picture when it comes to wiki leaks journalistic freedoms and of course the now infamous collateral murder video.

so it's on has granted asylum ecuador excuse me has granted a songe asylum but as we can see it looks like this is just the beginning of another chapter of the assad saga so where do we go from here r.t. correspondent christine for south has been following this story closely and joins

us now live from the white house to weigh in so christine what is next for julian assad and. well as i think we're going to find out a lot more in the future next coming days ahead or right now it's a very good question as laura smith mentioned earlier in the show you know julian is gone it might be safe and welcome to ecuador but the question is how does he get from london to ecuador a whole lot of people wondering that as you mentioned also he has been told time and time again by british authorities that if he sets any foot off the premises that he will be promptly arrested a lot of people wondering today as well what joy he was on will do once he gets to actual will he continue to run wiki leaks will you be able to get funding for it people wondering as well if we didn't will continue to try to extradite him and it's also the u.s. will get involved remember i'm sure to mention it a few times during this hour but julian assange has not been formally charged he is merely wanted for questioning in sweden now we have heard that julian assange plans

to make a statement outside of the embassy on sunday i think we will learn a lot more but he didn't release a very short statement today upon finding out the news and i just want to read you a small part of that he said well today is a historic victory our struggles have just begun the unprecedented u.s. investigation against wiki leaks must be stopped and he also said well 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 over eight hundred days that julian is on there really trying to shift a spotlight to bradley manning remembering that he was arrested more than two years ago accused of you know being the person behind behind leaking all these documents to the whistle blowing web site and yet he still is sort of in pretrial hearing mode right now as we kind of wait and see how both cases play out many revelations have come out there wiki leaks what have the leaks brought to light.

well it's really interesting i would say in a nutshell it's really taught the world a whole lot about geopolitics that we didn't know what we see on t.v. and some of the relationships in the images presented to us in public are not exactly and they seem in private now let me give you an example of supporting two cables revealed by wiki leaks saudi arabia close to us ally actually has a major distrust for two muslim countries at least to pakistan and iran and has even at times really persuaded and tried to convince the us to get even more involved in stopping the nuclear program in iran that was something i think that a whole lot of people were unaware of that was going on when you look closer at the u.s. is felt certainly one of the major controversies revealed by wiki leaks was the secretary of state's office secretary of state hillary clinton actually issued orders to have members of the u.n. security council top officials from china russia the u.k.

to have them buy it on so that was certainly something that a lot of people were unhappy that that information came out and then of course kind of focusing on the wars that this country has been involved in you know is still involved in afghanistan and in iraq of course a lot of information that we were told several years ago by secretary of defense former secretary of defense donald rumsfeld proved not to be true and it turned out that that even the pentagon at the time knew that a lot of this information was untrue but liz i gotta say though the most damning evidence and some of the most memorable things that have come out of wiki leaks have to do with that video that was released collateral murder let me just show you part of that. all right. this video of course showing two apache pilots two members of the u.s.

military sort of treating war like a video game in some cases killing several civilians and it's all documented on camera including two journalists from reuters reuters was told it was a very different situation that had happened so that was really interesting and it's very different to see something like that in front of your face as opposed to sort of scrolling through all these documents and certainly that was one of the most significant revelations that wiki leaks has given to the world certainly video and some of these document documents they were both shocking and embarrassing if he does and up in the united states what fate could possibly await have. well again we should mention no charges have been filed against by the united states a staunch himself and his attorneys worry though if he's extradited to sweden that he will then be extradited to the united states where he could face questioning

face charges having to do with the espionage act a lot of people kind of making the same case for wiki leaks that they're trying to make for bradley manning and really haven't been able to do so. very articulately yet but they're trying to make the case that the release of these documents with the release of this video for example has put the u.s. safety and security in jeopardy that the take of a whole lot of people and that is one reason that a whole lot of countries and a whole lot of officials in this country want to see julian have his day in court christine thanks so much for keeping us updated that was r t correspondent christine. well there you have it a culmination of events that have brought us to today no matter how you view assad what can be said for sure is that assad 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 as the u.k. reportedly threatens to storm the ecuadorian embassy in london the president's

response in a tweet is this president of ecuador rafael correa said on his twitter quote no one is going to terrorize us all r.t. has been on top of this story from the very beginning and will continue to bring the latest developments to you and that's going to do it for this hour but for more on the stories we covered you can check out our you tube channel we post all our interviews there in full you tube dot com slash r.t. america you can also check out our web site that is r t v dot com slash u.s.a. follow me on twitter at liz wall back here and a half hour and what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through it's already been made who can you trust no one who is soon to be you who with the global machinery see where are we heading state controlled capitalism this course.