go. request the gold and silver investors guard. call today eight hundred two five seven go. stay in r t we are following a developing story out of appledore in a major victory for julian assad president quote i asked has granted the wiki leaks founder political asylum and this has the ensor national community buzzing or bring you the latest in look at the bigger implications plus he's provided the public with truth spot exposing corruption and illegality so why exactly do members of america's media banking and political worlds do you julian the sun as the enemy details from new york coming up julian is still receiving strong support from several influential elites around the world. do in los angeles the big names standing behind the whistleblower.

we begin today with the latest twist in the case of wiki leaks whistleblower julian assange on 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 quote he has decision today ok dorian president rafael correa granted asylum to us on the two men have spoken to each other several times over the past few years including an end up interview on julianna saunders show he's been fighting extradition to sweden where he faces 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 assad has express. yes that his ultimate fear is that if he is extradited to

sweden that will lead to him being extradited 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 the u.s. helicopter firing down on innocent civilians on the ground in iraq now while this is a huge victory for assad to the ordeal isn't close to being over this as the u.k. threatens to arrest assad to the moment he steps but outside of the embassy the u.k. has reportedly threatened to raid the embassy to arrest a song that has sparked outrage among the songes supporters you can see here protesters outside of the ecuadorian embassy in london leading to some morass r.t. spoke exclusively today to us on his mother christine here's what she had to say. if you sing in the last twenty four hours that the previous government beating of the u.s.

was 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. the correct facts which would prove. that doing most things. and i was also very happy by the fact that the door in government was willing to look into it and there's not a star not turned on that's the truth it's 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 there were cheers there were chant 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 in 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 by using agreement to extradite i phones 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. 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 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 which 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 those are t. correspondent laura smack. well our coverage wouldn't be complete if we didn't show you the full picture you saw some of his supporters but it has created quite a few enemies in various countries many of called for assad as persecution some even calling for his assassination to discuss this r.t. correspondent marina pour in iowa joined us earlier. 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 of 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. what they're doing is clearly aiding and abetting terrorist groups that using information against american. 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. it was done in the sense it was going 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 that materialist 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 facts that mr assad and we keep it so

violent that america's espionage act with great. negative consequences for us. so some strong words there being used by a scientist 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 did supporters clearly believe that he's 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 wiki 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. people of servers and over. two hundred thousand.

donations lost due to banking blockade fifteen million dollars that it cost you to house arrest five hundred thousand dollars. watching the world change as a result of your work. 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. 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 assad. 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 assange 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 a 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 journalist to hold big corporations and elected officials accountable and that is something that julian assange has 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 correspondent marina poor in iowa well despite being hated by so many of there's

another group of high profile and influential elites that are on a songes side aren't the correspondent ramon go window explains why a sondre supporters see him 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 julian assad has been u.s. filmmaker michael moore and in fact over the last several days he's been trying to encourage some of the 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 julius on just 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 we should be thanking julian assange in the work that we get leaks does for

exposing these secrets he contends that have 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 ecuadorian government to grant 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 signed 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 assange all right so a lot of stars and music and putting their support behind him aside from hollywood

. some high profile journalists. in support of a sign 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 and in reporting previously come out and support weekly leaks so there have definitely been crusading journalists who have brought up the point that join us on she 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 weekly leaks when it comes to really challenging world powers in 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 us on cherry is talking about the west nile blower. to the little. over. one. and that was the glenn greenwald of the guardian ramona how is a silent proven 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 we can leak 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 bent 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 independent journalist to be to start to question more about what these governments are doing not just the united states government because we get leaks has exposed a lot of wrongdoings not just in the united states but also governments in latin america and in the middle east really appreciate you staying on top of that that was our key correspondent. well today as break there comes after years of twists and turns in the high profile whistleblowing case artes man iraq allow takes on a timeline of the events that led us up to where we are today forty 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. but we believe in releasing full source documents to the world together with analysis to put them in contact and help people to understand them because the full source material is what helps keep journalism honest it's independently verifiable independently checkable your assertions are checkable in the same way as a scientific paper is checkable use of full source material is 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 spends 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 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 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 a songe 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 r. t. washington d.c. . we are going to take

a quick break but states here and we've already told you about julian assange and his 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 a lateral murder video. card

is the state run english speaking russian channel it's kind of like. russia today has an extremely conference here. no stance when it comes to us. so i don't have granted asylum just silent but as we can see it looks like this is just another beginning to another chapter of the assad saga so where do we go from

here are the correspondent christine for example has been following the story closely and joins us now to weigh and so christine what is next for julian assad's . 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 atlanta 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 will this reader's government continue to try to extradite him will the u.s. government pursue him as well now as for julian as on 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 while 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 christine 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 live you have 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 live 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 liz i mean it's one thing to have it several pages of documents that you

know journalists then comb through page at a time it's 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 and 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 this 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 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 saunters self has said he fears being tried under the espionage act but it's really interesting when 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 we 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 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 is gone that is interesting considering the magnitude and the implications of this case christine thanks so much for keeping us updated that was our t. correspondent christine for is out well there you have it a culmination of them that brought us to where we are today no matter how you view us on 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 threatened to storm the ecuadorian embassy in london the president's response in a tweet is this the president of ecuador rafael correa said on his twitter quote no one is going to terrorize us dollars he has been on top of this story from the very beginning and we'll continue to bring you the latest developments so that is going to do it for tonight from one of the stories we cover check out our you tube channel it's youtube dot com slash artsy america or check out our website artsy dot com slash usa you can also follow me on twitter liz wall for now have a great night. and the.