no surfers elixir walks like a hostile intelligence service costs like the costs of colors or am. well for those of you just joining us you're watching r.t. international we're bringing you breaking news that this thursday whistleblower julian a song has been arrested and removed but was simply from the ecuadorian embassy in london julie the sound has been arrested but officers from the metropolitan police at the embassy that we do on a warrant issued by westminster magistrates court on the twenty ninth of june twenty twelve the failing to surrender to the school police been polygraphed in the world in sixty years now wiki leaks says it's gone steve notes walk out of the embassy story about the invited british police inside to arrest him at the

ecuadorian president himself led him around oh confound on thursday that the country had with the drool of the silence status over his violations of international conventions quote i have just spoken to one of judeans lawyers julian is likely to appear before a u.k. magistrate within twenty four hours u.k. is likely to stick a maximum prison term of twelve months in a higher court off because these as always to stop a u.s. extradition well those were the words of christina song. i do believe in those were his words christina song she was the mother of that we can expound wrote on twitter . without borders has also spoken out and floundered songes the rest of the wiki leaks activity calling it a dangerous precedent that the u.s. may pursue you indeed as it was being forcibly removed from the embassy he was shouting that the u.k. must resist and also shouting about the u.s.

president donald trump to. a part of a song his legal team has claimed the arrest was made in relation to a u.s. the extradition request so that links together that sources told the press association that police were invited into the embassy and maybe a rest shortly off to ten am it was a planned up. aeration that this source once again the mother of wiki leaks a whistle blowing web site's founder julius onj said the host sons. sons are what was arrested and is likely to appear before you came magistrates court within twenty four hours adding that the united kingdom not likely to seek a marksman prison term of twelve months i mean in a higher court while our correspondent is outside lately for more information on julian or stones we did bring to you exclusive pictures as a staunch was removed from the embassy early this morning these are what you're seeing on your screen right now exclusive images captured by artie's raptly video

a to see showing julian assange being carried out of the ecuadorian embassy after his arrest so plenty more will be happening there throughout the day we're going to be keeping on top of everything that happens in bringing it to you live on r.t. international our correspondents are in london keeping abreast of situation these are the exclusive images i was talking about earlier well right now to an assignment we believe is having something to eat inside the court in our correspondent is outside waiting for more information on what's happening let's go live to her now polly boy because outside of the court where a song is polly. can you bring us the latest on that the situation please. what we saw julian a son making his way in here in an armored at least truck that been sort of the media circus camped out here ever since we learned of his removal from the

ecuadorian embassy and he's thought to be awaiting his charges now at the met police had arrested him and sort of a warrant just to give me bail back in twenty twelve but we've since learned that it's all been in conjunction with an ex to. dition request over to the u.s. so it's been sort of done with the agreement of your thirty's in washington the home office has also given accommodate in the past been saying that judy and a son just wanted to be over in the u.s. on computer related offenses we saw him removed from the ecuadorian embassy the british police were invited the metropolitan police were invited in. by the ecuadorian also received in what we think was a preplanned three agreed to operation that ecuador had agreed to take and listen to what the president of ecuador lennon miranda had to say about it all.

on announce that the discourteous and aggressive behavior of mr julian are shown to the hostile and threatening decorations of his alloy the organization is filled with a crude oil that is going to specially the transgression of international treaties of us who have led the situation to a point where this is harmful of the situation to a point where the asar on the move mr a song is unsustainable so are no longer horrible all my friends said it was a so for in decision to withdraw or asylum after repeated violations to international conventions and the protocol of daily life now that is an interesting statement which really sums up two issues that have soured relations between julian us on john now his former host the ecuadorian also received do you know saunders accused of meddling in international affairs in the affairs of other countries through his activities as the founder and the editor of wiki leaks and that led to

his internet being cut off and also this kind of it says this daily life protocols that lead to a somewhat bizarre sort of domestic dispute between julian assange and his host last year he was given a list of conditions that he had to add here to if he wanted to stay inside the embassy he need to. to pay for his own food and for his laundry being done he needed just to tidy up the account that we know as embassy counts on twitter that's julian assange just pets cats he needed to clean his own bathrooms and so this kind of view that the relations soured and that it was really difficult inside this tiny space to be at the door in embassy was very cramped as well it was accurate actually by jeremy hunt the foreign secretary when he commented earlier today and said there was a judean a song she was a hostage inside the ecuadorian embassy it was the ecuadorian all florida keys take a listen to what the u.k. foreign secretary had to say. but what we've shown today is that no one is above

the law julian assange is no hero he's hidden from the truthful is but also a very courageous decision by president arroyo in ecuador to resolve the situation and we've got a bit of action taking place today we've got somebody leaving the back of the court just showing you right now us keeping and an eye on it so i'm not sure what that means yet but i will continue telling you about what's been happening in response to this news of julian us on the police custody to resume a says she hopes she hopes to resume a prime minister the u.k. says she hopes that the commons the politicians that. julian someone just the rest now julian assange had spent seven years in the ecuadorian embassy so asylum there in twenty twelve and the charges over which he sought asylum a part of the extradition request have since been dropped but take a look at just how lengthy the julian assange one story house call.

now judas songes lawyer is that have been speaking outside going into the court so we do think that he should be in school in the relatively new suit when standing at the back waiting to see if we'll see him coming out but we'll bring you news from out in a moment as well but do you want

a song to support to really change whether the new president effect which will lead to the red tape to power he took a much tougher stance towards the wiki leaks said it said on the relationship between a songe and ecuador soured so much that late last year julian assange sued his hosts for infringing his own freedoms and his right to asylum the reason this story is so you're big one of the reasons is that julian assange is such a small my character especially here in the u.k. where the metropolitan police are spent at least twelve million pounds police thing the outside of the embassy in case you did try to have much during those seven years opinions very much divided on whether he's a victim or a villain in this story and i think the most shocking aspect head now is the fact that we have seen the ecuadorian authorities really could live with the u.k. authorities of the u.s. authorities and julian assange just asylum to end his political political asylum

within that embassy we've had some recent common around this and she's a big supporter of julian assange says that she sculpts rafael correia the cleavage president of ecuador who gave him the sounds political asylum to begin with he's called lenin maranoa a tray says say. that it's a crime against humanity that's been committed but what happens next even if. we depend on now at least the next step it depends on the decision of a judge inside this building and we're going to be waiting and watching out for. we appreciate that holly i like he was saying us launches lawyers have just held a very short press conference we will be trying to get ahold of some about footage and bring it to of you as soon as possible but for now he's outside of the cold waiting for what happens next. ok well we can now go live to another guest potentially human rights campaign on this tonsil always

a pleasure to have you on the program and what can julian assange expect now do you think and do you think he has any grounds for appeal. well first it's very clear that the ecuadorian authorities have betrayed one of their own citizens during a songe was granted to the ship and with that says and ship comes certain basic enable rights under the ecuadorian constitution for the ecuadorian authorities to hand him over to the british authorities and then looks likely to the u.s. authorities is a clear dereliction of that responsibility to a citizen of its country having said that quite clearly did get bail and he will have a charge to answer and i would hope that the british courts would have taken the view that he spent effectively almost seven years in detention in the ecuadorian embassy so they will see that as a formal quasar imprisonment and therefore conclude that he should suffer only

a very minimal punishment for skipping vale the bigger issues of course is the decision by the british authorities to arrest him in connection with the extradition request by the united states that clearly signals that the plan years for june assigned to be extradited to the united states to face charges we know that a secret grand jury has been convenient for many years could drop charges that convenient totally in secret even journalists and these lawyers don't know what the charges are but those charges whatever they are are fundamentally an attack upon press freedom and freedom of expression and journalists did not leave anything what he did do was publish u.s. classified documents leaked by chelsea manning which among other things exposed u.s. war crimes in iraq and afghanistan so he has the status of a publisher in the same way that the new york times and the guardian in london also

published the leaks of chelsea manning so the question is why is julia saunders being. sued by the top administration and not the new york times and the guardian it smacks of double standards it smacks of a vendetta and i'm certain the reason the u.s. authorities are going after him is not because he caused any damage per se but because he cause huge embarrassment exposing american wrongdoing around the world peter hi this is ego in this studio here with nick and in fact you've been talking about the charges that julian assange could be facing in the united states and what we have we have some breaking news right now because the united states have in fact just announced the charges that they are going to well present against mr a sergeant that is conspiring with chelsea manning in the twenty ten leaking those iraq the trough of those documents of the afghanistan end of probably the iraq

documents these are some new this is some new information and these are some new documents that have just been sort of put out there in the open by the united states keeping in mind that chelsea manning is in fact in jail right now in the united states for refusing to testify in front of the grand jury until she changes her mind do you see the do you see a connection here. well quite clearly if your son is going to be charged with conspiracy with chelsea manning why hasn't chelsea manning herself been charged and moreover why hasn't the new york times and the guardian newspaper been charged with conspiring with julia songe to publish the leaks of chelsea manning it is a complete mess it's inconsistent it shows that the us administration has a vendetta against us and anybody who dares expose wrongdoing and

double standards in the pocket by the united states government. just one of the latest information coming from the u.s. justice department now it said that a son's fate. this is a five years in jail it also says that the arrest is in connection to quote a son she is alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the united states so bold the charges being made against a staunch that doesn't have anything in his back pocket i'm thinking in particular of the press conference that was held last evening yesterday evening by the editor in chief of wiki leaks making claims about the u.s. spying on a stand in the ecuadorian ecuadorian embassy do you think the songs on the wiki leaks team have anything big. can't help out of this hole. but i think the spying allegations are a side issue but quite clearly we're unwarranted intrusion into his privacy because

they were spying on intimate personal details about his life in that room in the embassy the bigger picture is. the u.s. authorities quite clearly want to step in example want to make an example of a song which. he has through published a huge amount of classified u.s. information but so too has the guardian and the new york times so again i ask why is the top administration in the u.s. justice department only going after you in a sign i think it has to do with the fact that he has been a very effective expose of american born doing and i would say as a citizen that. people around the world we ought to be grateful to be fugitives and . expose these crimes by the u.s. having exposed u.s.

double standards where it speaks one thing in public and then in private diplomatic cables says something different. that is a great public service the public have a right to know the u.s. government and military other servants of the american people and the whole world is impacted by u.s. foreign policy so the people of the world have a right to know what the u.s. is doing in their name or at least the name of the american people all that julian assange on he did was tell the truth why should he be punished for simply telling the truth about the bad things the u.s. government and military has been doing it doesn't make sense it contravenes i think you've been right and i think he's got a very strong argument and the u.s. first amendment and. international human rights law regarding freedom of the press and freedom of expression go a very strong case to defend himself the trouble is will he get a fair trial i'm very very scot skeptical even doubt. will clearly a supporter of

a song to know on many a passionate supporters of a song in the u.k. do you expect protests. well i think there's already quite a crowd outside the court and i think word spreads those protests will grow. many people you know do have a very you know dichotomous view about you know you love him or loathe him i think sadly the sexual assault allegations which i've always argued should answer and he's always been willing to answer i think they have clouded the issue and maybe maybe not to the whites on his support but on the issue of exposing human rights abuses and government because of the he has to be supported one hundred percent. of the time so human rights campaigner thank you for sharing your thoughts with us we appreciate it. well as long as gaines knows why is he in two thousand and

ten when wiki leaks released huge troia's of documents about america's wars in iraq and afghanistan as well as hundreds of thousands of u.s. diplomatic cables astonished that the leaks contained evidence of thousands of war crimes since then that we've been a number of high profile whistle blowing cases to discuss the implications of us knowledge of the rest further i'm joined by egos don of in the studio great to have your support in the studio today eagle what do you think is the likely next step for julian assange well the recent development and especially the most recent one and that is the department of justice the use department of justice releasing this information these some details as to what they want to do with the songe next station i should say they did leaves very few questions really because what they're saying that they have revealed they want to songe in connection with a federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and basically

conspiring with chelsea manning and. generally orchestrating this largest military classified military leak in the u.s. history so this this was the largest case of when american. military secrets were compromised and so i just want to give some more detail as to this most recent revelation apparently according to the u.s. department of justice a sergeant in gauged in a conspiracy with chelsea manning and basically assisted manning in transmitting these secret documents to wiki leaks apparently he stayed in touch with manning and held live conversations with chelsea bradley manning who had access to well secret information and they even give this extract from one of their conversations with manning telling a stange that after this upload that's all they really have got left to which allegedly replied curious eyes never run dry in my experience so if this is true if

this sheds light as to how keen his sons was to expose america's military crimes and military wrongdoings now when it comes to the potential consequences of this he he could face up to five years in prison and when it comes to american prisons and whistleblowers and since we have chelsea manning now directly implicated in this in this case against the son we should look really no further than chelsea's own experience with america's judicial system because when she was arrested on one of the military bases and. generally thrown behind bars in the case against her eventually the un the un special rapporteur on torture publicly condemned the u.s. government and accused the u.s. government of cruel inhumane and degrading treatment of chelsea manning of the whistleblowers so really it's no walk in the park of if you're

a whistleblower when it comes when it comes to chelsea's experience and on top of that she gets thirty five years in a maximum security prison at fort leavenworth it's a special prison for. for those who commit military crimes for the military people who commit crimes and yes. it was eventually commuted by barack obama after seven years but again now she is in jail again because the u.s. a u.s. court wanted her to testify in a week in leagues case what a coincidence and she will know she said that she disputes and doesn't agree with the concept of the grand jury with the whole secrecy around the process anyway so she said that she had already revealed everything that she knew in the case during the investigation into her own wrongdoings and your mind and you testify and you tell as you told the grand jury everything again and maybe something new or you stay there until the grand jury does what it has to do

completes work and well and then we'll let you free this is a massive news story there's no doubt about it everybody is covering it headline news all over the world and the what some people might be overlooking is the grounds that well the implication is on the ground scale of things because you know what happens to a sausage right now and in the next twenty four hours weeks months sets a precedent for other similar cases in the future and we've heard from edward snowden who obviously had something to say about the songes arrest calling it a dark moments for press freedom similarly we have john pilger the journalist and filmmaker also a fan of the songs saying this is a warning to all journalists so do you think what we're seeing right now is a watershed moment something like it especially for investigative journalists and it's interesting you mention john pilger because he was the one who interviewed a songe and interviewed a son for c.

and we showed that interview of john pilger with a standard few years ago when that happened so he will he no you know as the man he is sort of a direct connection between john pilger and a son so i'd say. i kind of understand that reaction coming from him coming from john pilger from edward snowden in fact i think we do have a short clip of edward snowden like a full voiced quote as to what he had to say on his twitter feed let's listen to that snowden's tweet images of ecuador's ambassador inviting the secret police into the embassy to drag the publisher of like it or not award winning journalism out of the building we're going to end up in the history books and sanchez critics may cheer but this is a dark moment for press freedom well and going back to because the we can leaks it has a sort of knock this domino effect into place

a should say and kind of kick started that big big we general whistleblower movement which was kind of maybe swept under the rug used to be to be swept under the rug and wasn't that rampant before the we can leaks emergence and resurgence and do all these names of edward snowden of chelsea or chelsea manning all of that . huge amount owing to a well known and indeed i mean. we have the web site has been implicated in the in the case of twenty sixteen elections because that was the web site that published or the cable or the diplomatic cables and some of the e-mails from hillary clinton server so i mean the impact on the global affairs has been massive done by the we can leaks but i just want to focus now on what started this tsunami of leaks and that was in that happened in two thousand and ten with the afghan war document leak and then of course it got to the iraq war document leak i think which came two

years afterwards we prepared a short clip for you very basically like a rundown of things of what we can to reveal in the past few years let's have a look. i. i. i.

does he say any a million of those who are. with your. and so really in the end of that clip you could hear how much further wiki leaks and the sun personally stood up in washington and because all those years that he spent inside the code or an embassy the u.s. have been keen on while they read the minced no words when it came to the song and donald trump built much of his election campaign on the promises of persecuting whistleblowers and now what i think we're seeing is that that thing just basically

being kicked into effect. and that you know that those revelations that has such a massive impact on all of our lives really haven't they so this is a. massive story a big company overlooks in anyway but it goes off thanks for coming in and bringing us more details on that we're going to go to a guest now we're going to go to. sandra fairbanks journalist and wiki leaks supporter i thank you for joining us on the program we do appreciate your time so we understand that you actually witnessed a songes a rescue talk us through what you saw no i didn't witness his arrest i was in london over the weekend i flew there when they tweeted out his arrest is imminent and they confronted some of the undercover cops who were seen arresting him today you spent a lot of time outside of the embassy in the build up to their arrest and you say you saw

a suspicious activity can you elaborate on that yes so i visited him and there is a car went to the good or a the embassy and there was a car that was sitting outside for twenty hours they had shifts of people rotating through every six or so hours and another car. was sitting with their spotlight on the embassy so i had confronted both of them they said they weren't media and then they wouldn't answer whether or not they were law enforcement but they claimed not to do what we even was in they were seeing arrests today i also visited julian in the embassy on march twenty fifth two weeks ago and he got into a big confrontation with the ambassador. the department of justice the u.s. department of justice has just fishley made a connection between june and chelsea manning when it comes to the case against we can leaks what do you make of the timing of julian assange his arrest in the u.k.

given the fact that chelsea manning is right now and u.s. jail. i mean it's all of the asleep court needed i think this has been planned for a long time and the government was just looking and making excuses to put him into the hands of the united states government. where he's definitely not going to get a fair trial. i don't think be a rest of judas phones means the press free to me on the largest scale of things that do you think this is a watershed moment. yes i think that this is. a really really dark day for press freedom. julian assange has done more for for free.