after almost seven years confined to the ecuadorian embassy in london u.k. police dragged wiki leaks julian assange from his one safe haven and placed him under arrest. not above the law is no hero while the british prime minister and officials praise ecuador for ending a saunters asylum whistleblowing community branded a dark day for journalism. precent means that any journalist can be extradited for prosecution in the united states for having published truthful information about the united states. gave. a song now

faces extradition to the united states where the justice department revealed he's wanted for allegedly conspiring to hack a government computer. news center this thursday april the eleventh it's a pm here in moscow just one story dominating our coverage this evening and a dramatic turn of events after nearly seventy is holed up in the ecuadorian embassy and london wiki leaks founder julian assange was arrested on thursday morning the whistleblower is now in police custody and potentially facing extradition to the united states way he's wanted on charges of conspiring to hack a government computer video agency captured the moment the shovelled and distressed look at the songs was dragged out of the diplomatic compound. lenk what was it one hundred

what. following his arrest union assault was taken to westminster magistrates court where he was convicted of breaching by only in twenty twelve with more on the case a report from central london. well julian saunders found guilty by a pretty to be scathing judge inside westminster magistrates court here a little bit earlier on the judge told us saw nj a narcissist to conduct that constitutes a self interest and as i was told he would be sentenced to a later date set up by a video link to the u.k. charges to g. and a saw interest skipping bail back in twenty twelve they carry a month maximum sentence. of twelve months so relatively speaking it's

a pretty small fry compared to the looming threat of potential all the charges that he's facing in the u.s. that some more concerning to his legal team we know that the u.s. justice department has unveiled charges of computer hacking against julian assange and there's an expected to be an extradition hearing in relation to that in may as well now as soon as the court proceedings here what a songes legal team on the wiki leaks were expressing came out take a listen to what they had to say this sets a dangerous precedent for all media organizations and journalists in europe and elsewhere around the world this precint means that any journalist can be extradited for prosecution in the united states for having published truthful information about the united states this is what god gave to journalists in our studios jennifer said he said there's

a good we don't want to this to go forward this has just has to be there to the u.k. government needs to make up for sure that journalists will never be extradited to united states for publishing activities cipa seven years while he's been holed up in the ecuadorian embassy had been saying that he most fear this potential threat of extradition to the u.s. so you've heard the diplomatic cables that he really. as editor of wiki leaks back in two thousand and ten nine years ago today those with a is of a staunch being extradited being wanted in the u.s. based charges they turned into a reality at ten fifteen this morning and he was forcibly removed from the ag the dorrian embassy waiting spent the last seven years the ecuadorian also artie's hides and allowed the metropolitan police i'm going to go inside the embassy where

a party joining us on strike to resist arrest and then he was physically bundled up and put in to a police baton and taken into police custody now very soon afterwards we learned that julian assange just political asylum to citizenship had been revoked by the ecuadorian authorities take a listen to what lenin morello the president of ecuador had to say about it told. us that the discourteous and aggressive behavior of mr julian are shown to give the hostile and freshening decorations of his annoyed organization. and especially the transgression of international treaties have led the situation to a point where the a sort of mr assad regime is unsustainable who are no longer horrible really kind of boils down to two different issues but it sort of came together over the past eighteen months one is that the ecuadorian authorities didn't like the fact that

they said julian assange is interfering in the international affairs in the affairs of other countries through his online activity through his activities as editor of wiki leaks but also there was this kind of domestic dispute bubbling beneath the surface as well last year julian assange was given a list of conditions that he needed to adhered to if he wanted to stay on the good side of his leg for dorian hosts he was told they needed to tidy up offer him self between his policy and pay for his. food to pay for said norton three clean up after his talents which they threaten term leave and subsequently did this will a ship really break down and that's what led to the culmination of this situation at this boiling point this morning when the ecuadorian authorities allowed the met police to walk in and arrest julian assange on british officials are pretty pleased about what's happened take

a listen to you want the prime minister to resign they had to say and the foreign secretary jeremy hunt is well i'm sure that the whole house will welcome the news this morning that the metropolitan police have arrested judy in a song. mr speaker this goes to show that in the united kingdom no one is above the law. but what we've shown today is that no one is above the law julian assange is no hero he's hidden from the truth for years and years but also a very courageous decision by president in ecuador to resolve the situation even though there had been attempts to resolve this issue in the background for many years it all came to a head with sort of the u.k. ecuador and the u.s. playing this card against julian assange together i think today really we witnessed the end at the very least of the embassy chapter of the julian assange stuff saga and to moving on to perhaps or rather the truncated chapter of an illegal

extradition battle. only border outside westminster magistrates court allowed to be spoken to the former president of ecuador who granted a song to sort of them. things the country's current leadership is out for revenge . you know maybe. i think marino deserves the title of the greatest traitor of history there are you could compete with judas the state of ecuador you know what it is with international law regarded by its own national pride it was simply a ploy to protect the person to whom it is granted asylum and instead they simply gave him up no doubt the british police to enter our embassy just imagine for a moment if it was the ecuadorian police entering the us embassy at the head it was a decision made by him or a no no if you want revenge for having been accused of corruption or because wiki leaks released documents proving it not to mention other evidence like correspondence bills etc now online so marina is taking revenge on a sandwich i think the cook the u.k.

will not extradite julian assange to the united states is very unlikely. the united states has confirmed that it's requested the extradition of julian assange she's accused of conspiring to hack a government computer with whistleblower chelsea manning the justice department says he could face up to five years in prison let's go live to new york now our correspondent caleb morphin is there i care less what information has been forthcoming from the u.s. side on julian assange his possible extradition and charges. well at this point we have a public so from the eastern district of virginia of the u.s. attorney general that would be the u.s. department of justice and they said that the united states is seeking the extradition of julian assange on charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion that's the charge and if convicted julian assad would face five years in prison up to five years in prison on such a charge now the indictment against assad over this computer intrusion conspiracy

charge it essentially alleges that he coordinated and worked with chelsea manning and that together they tried to crack the passwords and do so in order to leak and get their hands on classified information from the u.s. state department or the u.s. department of defense and that they they cooperated now it's important to note that chelsea manning is in u.s. custody at this point is in the hands of u.s. officials are being held and that now it appears they are trying to extradite julian assigned in relation to these charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion that's that's the call now what is the information though that was made public as a result of chelsea manning's activities are that wiki leaks was then able to publish well let's review what that information was.

much. illegal does the n.s.a. collects any data and millions of those storms are

live with the leaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile takeover of service. now it's important to know that u.s. intelligence agencies have declared wiki leaks to be a russian asset and this was declared after the wiki leaks published d.n.c. e-mails from the democratic national committee of clinton's aide john podesta now it was accused it was alleged that these e-mails came about as the result of a hacking however wiki leaks has long maintained those e-mails were actually provided to them by a leaker that he leaker actually provided them with this information that was not a hack that provided them with this information from the democratic national committee and the e-mails of the clinton campaign and such now it's also important

to note that we have a number of u.s. officials who have referred to julian assad as an enemy of the united states let's review what they've said. the united states do something to stop mr sausage we're looking into that right now and he should be treated as an enemy combatant which should be closed down permanently and decisively this guy is a traitor a treasonous and he has broken every law the united states the guy ought to be and i'm not for the death penalty so if i'm not for the death penalty want to do it illegally shoot the son of a this is a man of this comb beyond anything i am aware own ignorance or misplaced idealism is no longer an acceptable excuse for lionizing these demons now at this point we have julian assange in the hands of u.k. officials but it remains to be seen whether or not he'll be extradited to the united states now many observers say that if he comes the united states he may be facing a lot more than simply this this conspiracy to commit computer intrusion charge

this possible five year sentence that that there could be a lot more waiting for him in the united states once he's in the hands of u.s. officials so many people around the world are watching britain right now watching to see what happens next julian a songe is now in the hands of u.k. officials and people are wondering will he end up coming to the united states and if so what could happen next. ok for now kind of open in new york thanks very much for that. right well let's get some reaction now from political analyst catherine checkdown who's the london bureau hi there catherine i'm sure you heard what kind it was outlining that the whistleblowing c.v. of julian assange and given what happened in two thousand and ten which a lot of people found absolutely horrific and inexcusable since then mr assad has been linked to activities such as interfering in other states as someone put it or interfering in electoral processes so what may have started by giving him

a lot of political sympathy he made a lot of enemies along the way so how do you think this will now be played. he's going to be a political scapegoat and that's the worry and i think that the problem is that it's shaping up right now people tend to forget this things that you actually did the right way i mean it's part of the job of a journalist or any other person that wants the truth to come out to actually do what he did which is a hold certain powers accountable for what it is that they do in secrecy so he has because because you know many things among others i mean certain u.s. official actually calling for his death and that actually tells you just how much we need people like him to come forward we need to whistleblowers otherwise because actually speak we in any democracy in any type of political setup you need to have come to power is and i think that you and i sort of present that come to power that he's forcing people to be held accountable it's forcing certain secrets to be to come out into into the limelight but the thing is is that there were secrets made

available you know before hand to u.s. officials and they actually chose to ignore him and we tend to forget don so when he's being accused of treason and actually revealing circuits of national security in danger and u.s. officials injuring other people around the world that's simply not true he never did what he did however is actually reveal certain to the public because that would be a lie to them and i mean he continued to do his job because ecuador decided to give him political asylum and i think that they should have his by their word he continued to be. who he was and is and i think that's his call to tell the truth and i think it's important to build and you want a count of all regardless of who they are what are you putting your force on the. door have gone over the past seven years ecuador granted him asylum the guest of the embassy and as far as ecuador was concerned repeatedly flouted rules house rules if you will plus also said that he was interfering in other states affairs i

mean did he push it too far. what he might have but again i think if we agree that someone is granted political asylum i don't think that it should come with strings attached if specially when i think it would do exactly the nature of his job what he was doing what he did the extent of what he did and quite likely way we continue to do so and i mean political asylum you know stuck in the embassy in the u.k. was going to need more like house arrest and anything else so he's offered a great deal of that to you need to take this into account i think he's a little bit resentful of the powers that be rightly so so i think he just wanted to to continue to do what he did best i don't think that he so it is meddling too much i think he was just being true to who he was and again i do think that we need people like him because no one in journalism today actually has the courage to follow this story people are too you know worried about self-censorship we need

people like you know a source to actually break the rules and reveal secrets and needs to be made known to the public otherwise we're going to continue to sleep again behind walls of silence and self-censorship and people will just you know stop i mean we make up new is rather than actually just read them really and we're not going to do anything about anything an official would do whatever it is that they want to do with up being held accountable and i think that accountability for me is the most important thing not a quid or decided to bow down to america let's be clear because they want to buy some political goodwill on the part of the u.s. and i think he's trying to deflect to be quite honest with you our. president is trying to deflect away from certain corruption allegations and what not so it makes sense for him to get rid of genocide but i don't think that it's going to serve the greater good in any way shape or form although the political persecution of a journalist is something that his supporters are going to keep banging the drum of over the coming weeks and months especially as it gets closer to those extradition

hearings. charge is conspiracy to hack a u.s. government computer that's got nothing to do with freedom of speech as if it's more than just grabbing a soldier on a technicality that's still a serious crime. it is and i think that they're going to continue to play this game because of course you do not want to challenge openly. you know his freedom of expression or even his right to. be a journalist because for many people he's just doing that it's more than just a whistleblower so i think that they're going to try to maneuver legalities to to hold to the moral high ground but i think the lawsuits are ready i mean we can't take america seriously when we know that they manipulate everything in their favor whenever it's convenient i think it's political grandstanding and i think that all they're going to try to do is to peel to the people sense of nationalism and try to make them to make them believe that national security was breached actually endanger the american lives which is not true and try to to basically trump up charges and again turn into a scapegoat and it's very likely that in today's trump america it will work because

they play into this very you know base populism and people tend to fall for it but we need to look at fox rather than start to believe the fiction that the weaving around him in my will we hear is that the u.k. will actually again bow down and actually walk all over human rights and the kind of ito's and morals that the u.k. did claim still to hold on to and simply give him up we have to be careful because he could face not just very serious charges he could just be made to disappear completely under the great flag of national security as far as the u.s. is concerned we need to be careful here because it does me to disappear we open the floodgates to the next one and the next one and the next one and we don't even know why it's going to stop. so huge coup in london thanks very much for joining us thanks for sharing your thoughts. we're going to continue getting reaction in the coming hours we can talk now to wiki leaks activist clark stokley clark welcome

to the program people might remember the name you were of course behind the fleet of vehicles raising awareness of wiki leaks work over the past few years i suppose wiki leaks saw this coming given the press releases they've been coming out with over the past few days but has today's event surprise you at all. prize me in the fact that it happened during daylight hours all week long i was expecting it to happen at night. but what is really surprising. is that. the extradition is is being confirmed i always knew that the us government was trying to bring him back. it was confirmed so quickly. and searched for so long we've been saying that this is why he took asylum in the uk but during the see it wasn't to escape anything from sweden it was

always because of the trumped up charges by the department of justice trying to. somehow create this conspiracy between manning and the signage the only thing that was doing was journalism and he wasn't hacker he wasn't blowing the whistle he was just. doing doing his job and so what we have now is tacked on i'm not only the freedom of speech and freedom of journalism but we have an attack on international asylum. treaties and so forth and and. although i'm not surprised by deeply saddened and just and very angered i don't see the next few months or the next year looking good for us on hopefully i'm wrong hopefully somehow he only faces

something to do with the bail in the u.k. and that he's able to successfully fight this extradition request by the united states which is completely bogus let's go back look at the fact that the trying to charge him a non-u.s. the son for the us is absolutely crazy. this comes on the heels of yesterday's. clarke i just wanted to ask you although thursday's events feel like they've got a exponential speed between arrest appearing in magistrates courts the extradition papers being followed i guess that's all been waiting in the wings for quite some time he's been in that embassy for almost seven years now which pieces had to fall into place for this to finally kick off today then do you think. well i find it very interesting that yesterday's press conference by wiki leaks. revealed the fact that there was someone in spain who is trying to extort them for

three million euro those. by handing over this footage from inside the embassy footage from all the security cameras i was in the embassy in january and every room had at least six cameras in it and we're talking every room so every where he went every moment was being recorded now we know that now and now it's in the hands of someone in spain that is very suspicious but we've also known the moreno and trump are getting along quite well. you know ecuador's government has drastically change since when. songe first took asylum there. i think. also is very interesting that this is happened month after chelsea manning was arrested for not agreeing to testify against wiki leaks so

but but the fact of the matter is this grand jury should have never been going on. if anything the u.s. government is trying to tell the people that the truth is the enemy. ok klock stokley in kuwait thanks very much for joining us on our take you. ok to discuss the implications next of us on his arrest with me as correspondent and host of ok what is next for mr assad after today's arrest call in today's arrest i should say has clearly showcased how much of a divisive figure sons has become he's got an army of supporters on one hand he's got an army of hate is on the other one but really whether you like him or not he's won multiple awards for his journalism and that's why so. well the most the most vocal bunch i should say were journalists activists and the whistleblowers who have a stepped forward and voiced his support to julian and one of the loudest voices in this choir was edward snowden

a fellow whistleblower who is was granted asylum and who is still in russia and moscow doesn't seem to be moving him anywhere anytime soon but he has been very vocal along with some other journalists and whistleblowers have a listen. images of those embassador invoicing the case secret police into the embassy to get published or like you don't know it was waiting journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books and sandra's critics may cheer but this is a dark moment for press freedom the u.s. did not waste any time putting in extradition requests for a sunday terrible press than if journalist publisher ends up in u.s. jail for iraq war logs and state department cables we queue leaks is a publisher charges now brought in connection with its material or any attempt to extradite assange to united states for prosecution under the deeply flawed could you know of the espionage act nine hundred seventeen is an attack on all of us the d.-o. g.

sis part of what a science did to just to fight his prosecution beyond allegedly helping manning get the documents is that he encouraged manning to get more documents for him to publish journalists do this with sources constantly is a criminalization of journalism now a few hours ago i spoke with john kiriakou who's a veteran whistleblower and who felt the full impact of the u.s. judicial machine when it comes to treating men like him and what i asked him was why he believes julian assange should be granted a for a fair trial in the states is his answer. judge me at the brink of mob is a former federal prosecutor. on national security cases for herself she hears my case. judge them ask. has ever want to. hear it but i guess it was by several documents that i needed to defend myself she

did not all seventy i suspect relieved is going to get the same treatment you're just not be allowed. but if you think it's just journalists or whistleblowers who have been supporting his son she will know the one of the store interest and most vocal supporters of a songe throughout the years of his asylum and now to what were the united nations back when he was holed up in the asylum they demanded in the condemned the u.k. for not allowing for not granting a son to the freedom of movement he they've been saying that he should definitely be should have definitely been allowed that now they've stepped forward and said that extradition could amount to a human rights violation so if the u.k. was to extradite a son to this could constitute a human rights violation italy and bolivia have already also condemned the handling of the a songe case the sort of the man handling of the of the week a leak of the founder of we can leaks and well maybe on

a more personal note i should say pamela anderson who i should i suppose i should describe as his long distance girlfriend of sorts she also went on a massive twitter round and she did not mince words when it came to her describing a world well what she what she hopes that the faith will bring to everyone responsible for what happened to julian astonished today now these are the just some of the supporters of julian a songe and but of course you have them on the one side of the argument and you have all the bureaucratic you know the government machine or the u.k. of the united states of some other states as well who have cheated who have cheated and. have praised what happened to us today but i guess the day to look out to look forward to is may the second now that's when those extradition hearings start ok all right well whatever happens to mr assad it's going to be in the full days of public scrutiny ok thanks very much for that. back in two thousand and twelve run a series of political interviews and discussions hosted by

a song time coming up next is another episode of the whistleblower show would be for much of his young president. julian assange. it is true for she reeks of expose the world secret these documents belong to states government being attacked by the united states strongly condemn the question . illegally. five hundred days now being detained without charge. that doesn't stop them. today we want to question the revolutionary ideas that can change the world. during the year the middle east has been shaken by real movement. is the country where it all started. today i talked to the first president of the new to near zero .