today on r t over a week after being granted asylum in ecuador julian assange hundred millions in legal limbo we'll bring you the latest in this case in an exclusive interview with edward dorian president rafael correa you're only going to see here on our t.v. . plus drone strikes in pakistan are becoming a common occurrence and the number of civilian deaths is adding up but despite the latest attack that left eighteen dead the u.s. refuses to slow its campaign so is america above international law. and there is a hurricane brewing in tampa but i'm not talking about isaac the r n c is coming to town while the d.n.c. converge is in north carolina a week later and where there is politics there is protests we'll tell you why some protesters are being deemed an arc as.

it's friday august twenty fourth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching r t. we begin with the latest on wiki leaks whistleblower julian assad right now the organization of american states is discussing his case here in washington d.c. this is the u.k. an aqua door remain in a diplomatic battle ecuadorian president rafael correa has granted a songe asylum but the u.k. won't allow him safe passage to the airport they even threatened to raid the embassy to get a hold of a son she's been holed up in that ecuadorian embassy in london since july nineteenth today is asking the supports of oh us are to get a chance to speak to president carter ai here's a look at that exclusive interview. we just wanted to address the request in a very thorough and responsible way we'll look to the motivations from this the

sons of the soil and it looked into the charges brought against him in sweden reviewed u.k. law as well as international law and of course we went over our own legislation then we made a responsible decision just as we promised the originally after the olympics specifically because they were taking place in london and not because of fear of reprisals which we knew might follow them we will always be guided by principles and values not to fear what consequences might ecuador face after granting asylum to julian assange which normally such a decision shouldn't have any consequences that is if all countries respect international law which clearly says that the state has the right to grant asylum how many times has sweden granted asylum a lot of people requested asylum in sweden and live there now this country is known for its willingness to give asylum what consequences could there be but unfortunately in this particular case we see that some countries are displaying

their colonial and imperial ambitions their efforts interest it turns out that if ecuador grants asylum to someone it's certainly much have consequences what consequences are we talking about if we're exercising our sovereignty in line with international law are you afraid of any sanctions that might follow there is definitely no fear but let's face it there might be reprisals which would be terrible if the u.k. for example acted on these threats and invades our embassy to arrest the sounds can you imagine how big of a precedent this would set when julian assange his mother came to ecuador did you have a chance to talk to her yes of course christine is a wonderful person isn't she we gave her a warm welcome and it was a pleasure to talk to her did her visit to ecuador influence your decision to grant julian assange asylum in any way. no we didn't all decision was made in accordance with international law and was based on ecuador's traditions of humanism as well as

the grounds that mr sanchez presented to support his request for political asylum we met with christine she's a very nice woman but it in no way influenced our decision. mr president it's hard to believe that julian assange had no contact with ecuadorian officials prior to requesting political asylum because he needed to be certain that they were dorian embassy would ensure his safety did you discuss this option with him before hand. no we didn't i didn't talk to mr sands personally but if i'm not mistaken at some point the situation became suit hands that he said he was thinking about seeking asylum in an embassy haps even in ecuador's embassy was sure he would be allowed to stay when he entered the embassy so i think mr sanchez discussed it with the embassy staff since he i believe entered after hours so they must have been expecting him any person seeking asylum in ecuador as embassies will

be safe we will see to the needs but after that we will consider granting them asylum with all due fairness if the person in question is a criminal we will never grant asylum to him but why do you think julian assange strolls ecuador and not another country only mr sands can answer that and the fact he did is the best response to this smear campaign and to the people who maintain we have a new freedom of speech the man whose freedom of speech personally fight requested asylum in ecuador it's the best response to organize how long do you think we'll julian assange should be staying in the embassy in theory indefinitely unless the u.k. goes ahead with its threats to raid our embassy to arrest him as you know the threat is not really formed and the u.k. hasn't revoked it do you think they drill a go as far as that i think it will be pure insanity on the part of the u.k. after doing so any of their embassies could be raided and what will they say then

what kind of repercussions would such development have we would immediately sever our diplomatic ties of course i think it would lead to a backlash in all the latin american countries which i maintain that the u.k. has more to lose after that how would you prevent the same from happening to the u.k. embassies around the world and i assure you the u.k. has more diplomatic missions than ecuador. if the u.k. doesn't give permission for julian assange just safe passage to aqua door how will he get there in a diplomatic they call no which would be impossible if he leaves the embassy he can be arrested by the you can't police i'm not an expert on this but i would think this even if you are in a car with diplomatic license plates you are still at the mercy of the driver and who knows what you will agree to in any case no one is trying to hide his son from the swedish prosecution which we need guarantees that he would not be extradited to a third country why do you think sweden refused ecuador's proposal to question

a sound at the embassy even via skype as has been done before why this is widely accepted legal in practice it has been done many times before and that's why the it would or an embassy proposed this to the swedish prosecution we invited them to come to the embassy and question mr sands in person isn't that what they've been trying to do all along they denied our offer so what are we supposed to think now. so many countries and organizations have supported at windows decision to grant asylum to asuncion including two and most of the alba nations in what way did they express their backing the support we have enjoyed has been primarily due to britain's diplomatic clumsiness i hope you will excuse my language but i just cannot find another word to put it is the british threatened us with storming our embassy to arrest mr son and this is what has united all the nations in south america and other continents in their desire to stand behind ecuador confronted as it was with such a barbaric prospects such threats around acceptable had they been carried out this

would have constituted a violation of one of the fundamental principles of international law. that was just part of our exclusive interview with ecuadorian president rafael correa and to see the interview in its entirety channel youtube dot com slash r t america our slash r t rather so i had our tape to some they are activists flexing their first amendment rights chester anarchists and troublemakers i had a preview of the protests expected at the president's convention and the way these people are being painted by the media.

the republican national convention in florida just days away now the city of tampa is bracing itself for a possible hurricane and protests occupy tampa protesters are descending upon the city they plan to charter and bus loads of people and it looks like the city is taking every possible precaution from clearing hundreds of jail beds to drones patrolling the skies looks like protesters will remain on close watch to talk more

about what occupiers have in store for the r. and c. and d.n.c. jared hamill spokes person for coalition to large on r. and c. joins us now welcome jared so first off want to get your reaction to this very heavy handed security we're seeing over there in tampa. well it looks like the. we have helicopters flying overhead on the day we have the city police department has purchased the bridge that around the city meanwhile we're having on mondays a peaceful permanent march with five thousand protesters and i just saw today reports that for the first time ever a drone well patrol the skies and monitor what's going on on the ground surrounding the convention what you think about that so i think it goes back to what was talking about before basically you know we're we're just raising of the we are we

have demands we're demanding good jobs health care for village cation quality in peace with the city the state police are gearing up for the war they're the ones who are using drone drones are only there for surveillance and the wars of these. and all we're doing is having a group. they know. the words and. they're trying to. you know part of what is instigating this fear is this warning or this this memo out recently from the department of homeland security want to bring up a part of that memo it states quote part of the two thousand a r. and c. an archivist extremist discussed blockading bridges and sky walks in minneapolis minnesota targeting local corporate headquarters taking over

a radio station and identifying delegate lodging locations in the location of police stations and emergency routes f.b.i. and the h.s. assesses with high confidence anarchistic stream as will target similar infrastructure in tampa and charlotte with potentially significant impacts on public safety and transportation and you know jarrett the me the media the mainstream media is reacting to this memo here's a look at the way they're covering it. tampa police and federal authorities are planning for the worst including from around the anarchist groups who may try to disrupt the republican national convention. just issued a poll today especially urging police across the country to watch out for indications that activist mary a white be planning to go to the convention to help them and the bolton is titled quote potential for violence or criminal action by anarchists extremists during the two thousand and twelve national political convention the f.b.i.

and department of homeland security warned state and local law enforcement that anarchists are targeting the democratic national convention in charlotte north carolina too and they could even try to use improvised explosive devices. so jared what do you think could these fears be being below out of proportion and do you think protestors as a whole are being branded or stereotyped as anarchists i think what what is being done here is that protesters are being branded a terrorist or some form of that. in this country people get together people in a mass movement they are heavily repressed by the state and the police and that's exactly what they're doing now all we are demanding are people's agenda we're saying no to the one percent we're saying no to an agenda of poverty warrant and

so they're not only. worsen but they're trying to save. these people are doing. and. they're just like anybody they have real demands. and. you know proponents of this heavy handed security are going to say you know this is a huge a huge convention there's going to be a lot of high profile people there and we need to take every necessary precaution in the name of public safety what do you say to them. if you look at any protests. you look at any mass destruction where is the violence always something. there's always something to believe you look at two thousand and eight the margin. calls innocent people protesters in the media were shot at by police with tear gas and rubber bullets now why.

by by police we're not doing anything but just raising their voice and having a clear command. i think the fact is that the state doesn't doesn't like it when people get together they don't like it when people are unified and they're going to do everything they can they're going to frame it as tears they're going to frame this is whatever. but the fact is. we're getting together on august twenty seventh and we're going to have and. we're going to march in the national convention ok you know with the occupy protesters have in the past been criticized for not having a clear message you say that you have clear demands can you talk about what those clear demands are. voting of people which and we're saying no to the republicans who were saying that the one percent that were demanding jobs health

care affordable education equality. is something that every person in this country probably throughout the world needs and so we unified labor unions antiwar groups immigrants rights groups student groups from all over the country to come down here to tampa to march against the republicans the one percent and when we don't endorse them we don't in. other party because the fact is that most of the groups are actually going to go to charlotte the phone march on the. all right jared so we are just days away now from the big event can you tell us more about the events you have and start. so basically on august twenty seventh people from around the country we. were going to hear from speakers. from. the new america and from there

we're going to march down. here. we're going to go. and we're going to tell the republicans. we don't want the war and then. they're going to go. because. we're tired of the wars of. just about every country. just want to ask you you're there on the ground in tampa right now based on what your observing how do you expect things to play out. we're going to have five thousand protesters in the streets of tampa going to be.

joining the republican rival we have a correspondent making her way over there shortly and she'll keep a close eye on how everything does play out gerri thanks for coming on the show that was jared hamill spokesperson for coalition to march on the r. and seen. well take a look now at the rocky relations between pakistan and the u.s. and it's likely that what happened early today will further strain those ties a series of american drone strikes in pakistan killed at least eighteen people the strikes took place here and the show will valley of north waziristan it shows the u.s. is persistence and carrying out the controversial drone campaign here's a chart that details the number of u.s. drone strikes targeting pakistan thirty three strikes in pakistan this year and nine of those in north waziristan well the drone strikes remain a major hurdle in the two countries meddling mending excuse me their relations as today's developments come as one of the biggest advocates of the drone program

finds himself in hot water here at home one of america's most prominent diplomats ryan crocker was recently charged with drunk driving in a hit and run in his home state of washington crocker recently returned home after serving as u.s. ambassador to afghanistan. across here is one of the leading voices in continuing the drone campaign a campaign that pakistan says violates international law but as crocker faces charges it appears he is not above the law here in the u.s. to talk more about this retired lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer from the center for it vance defense studies anthony welcome thanks for coming here into the studio so pakistan already outraged with the way the drone campaign is going and over there today's developments can't be helping to mend these ties no not at all and let's be very clear here john brennan recently stated in

a little rules and center public for he said we would carry on this fight will uphold the laws of our values the polling our values and let me very be very clear why this is not first off this administration has become almost addicted to this form of warfare it's hands off it's clean you don't see the result and frankly it's . giving this false premise a false perception of progress we're not killing the right people and by the fact we can't get the right people by the fact you're shooting through a soda straw at a target hundreds of miles away you're creating the next generation of enemies because i tell you right now i don't know this for a fact but of those eight hundred folks killed probably two thirds of more innocent civilians just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time now this is the new obama doctrine which a lot of us just don't get those who advocated don't really seem to understand the secondary and tertiary effects so the most direct secondary effect as you pointed out the pakistanis aren't happy about it now i wrote a book talking about how we need to hold pakistan more accountable and operation dark heart with that said i think they'd get that memo and i think they understand

now that there's ways we need to move forward together this area is one of those which i agree with the pakistanis we are not being a good partner with them on and can you talk about how these strikes have fueled ansi american sentiment over the years and frankly a lot of anti pakistani government vitriol against their own government the reason this is been so damaging is because within the context of this conflict there were a handful of bad folks al qaida most of them been eliminated in afghanistan or completely gone in pike pakistan or greatly reduced with that said we have ramped up we have now increased our special operations operations by five hundred percent over the past three years so if you have ramped it up you've got to do something with it so again what happens here is you have this ras of force that we've brought to bear and yet the targets are fewer and fewer and so they continue to pretend that all these mid-level managers these mid-level insurgents are somehow operatives

think for yourself how many number two in al qaeda we killed over the past eighteen months this is insane so we've got to find a way to get things back focused. i'm not saying we should not do drone strikes i'm saying what has happened here is that we've become totally reliant on drone strikes at the expense of everything else you've got to think or hope that there is some kind. and of benefit coming from this program because president obama continues to expand and use this drone program are you saying the u.s. is not making any gains there at the long term gains that we're seeking here is regional stability to bring regional stability you have to seek and obtain a political or diplomatic solution this is not encouraging those who we should be negotiating with to come to the negotiating table second beyond that the very folks who are after are now going against our ally the pakistani government the taliban that the pakistani taliban are now destabilizing the pakistani government these drone strikes are helping encourage that so we are helping to stabilize the very

ally we're looking to have help us again the secondary effects are very clear here that we are destabilizing the region that we're dealing with and the government is trying we're asking to help those there are more constructive ways of moving forward this is one of those areas where i put forward the concept and i think the pakistanis may be willing to accept it at some point the joint us army pakistani army units working together to go after these the real insurgents because again i argue you cannot get these guys from a drone to twenty thousand feet and pakistan has said that this drone program violates international law what do you think about that is the u.s. . you know something on a thin line here absolutely i was in a meeting recently on capitol hill with new pakistani ambassador was for iraq and this this is you came up it's very clear the pakistanis are very concerned about the fact that we say one thing in public about how we we sustain and support our allies in the same time our ally here said enough's enough you're hurting our own internal government and governance and this is where we are or are not paying attention to what's important here and again is

a political year i think this has become a very easy to rule for the current white house to use to quote unquote show progress one of the fact you're going to achieve a fire a victory by the fact that this will continue to do damage to our long term relationship with a pax and not reduce any of the insurgents strength that we were hoping to do now. have a former ambassador ryan crocker yes he is now in hot water here in the u.s. got charged with the deal why apparently blew double the legal amount of the breathalyzer over there accused of being involved in this hit and run they could make any connections here i have i mean they did when you look at his recklessness and his personal life could we draw any connections to the decisions he makes in the political realm it's a good question and i think we need to look at his mistakes from the from the lens of the fact that he actually was fairly successful on his tour in iraq but he liked you know patrice made the mistake of thinking what worked in iraq would work in afghanistan so that's why you've seen the betray us combination show up and and

fail miserably the concepts and capabilities we focused in iraq are not the same that we need for afghanistan so his mistake was believing some of his own press and secondly trying to do the same things that work in iraq and afghanistan and afghanistan is completely different he never understood as far as i'm concerned any of the real root causes for problems in afghanistan. so i mean in terms of his recent recent troubles should we could that affect how we we see. you know his defense policy i think that these things have a tendency to raise their head after a period of time if he's having a problem drinking now the chances are pretty good he probably had a problem sometime in the past look i'm a recovering alcoholic items over twenty years but i know that it took a long time to get to the point where i recognize that i have a problem so this may be his final showing of the fact that there's a pattern here i don't know what blowing three times

a legal limit that's pretty bad sometimes you got to hit rock bottom before you can bring about change. well yeah hopefully he sorts that out but you know going back to the bigger picture here the u.s. if if we continue this drone program program in afghanistan i mean how can we how would you predict the future us pakistan relation or there may not be a pakistan to deal with i mean that's part of the problem here we are actually taking an active hand in destabilizing the government of pakistan this is started going to blame entirely the obama white house the start of the bush white house this whole idea that we needed to do things to go after the insurgents and was there was a stand in the tribal areas with the more we do things unilaterally without the pakistanis the more chance that that we see your actions will destabilize the very government a government which has nuclear weapons to fall we cannot afford to do this so we've got to find a different course of action to get i'm not saying we should never do drone strikes i'm saying we become tied to them as essential like

a junkie is tied to their fix of crack cocaine and again it's not being productive by the fact the very government that we're looking to help us we're going to we have the potential of actually destabilizing the point falls and fails very interesting conversation one to keep it going believe fortunately at a time tony anthony pleasure to have you here that was retired lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer from the center for advanced defense studies. well that's going to wrap it up for this hour but for more on the stories we cover check out our you tube channel you tube dot com slash r t america we post all of our interviews on line in full there where you can check out our web site that is r t don't com slash usa you can also follow me on twitter liz wall back here and half hour.

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