after almost seven years confined to the ecuadorian embassy in london u.k. police dragged wiki leaks editor julian assange from his safe haven and placed him under arrest. not above the law and no hero while the british prime minister and officials praise ecuador for ending the. whistle blowing community branded a dark day for journalism. it's increasing. the prosecution in the united states for having published truthful information about the united states. faces

extradition to the united states where the justice department's revealed that he is wanted for allegedly conspiring to hack a government computer. in moscow. there's just one story dominating our policy in this thursday evening and a dramatic turn of events after nearly seven years holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london wiki leaks founder julian assange was arrested on thursday morning the whistleblowers now in police custody and potentially facing extradition to the united states where he's wanted on charges of conspiring to hack a government computer video agency captured the moment the distressed look at the songs was dragged out of the diplomatic compound. koch

of. the rocky was the only video agency to film a two minute song being removed from the end to save the number of media outlets that initially claimed the whistleblower left of his own a cold and was arrested outside forced to change their reporting after the images were released now following his arrest and julian assange has taken to westminster magistrates colas way he was convicted of breaching bail in twenty twelve with more on the case reports from central london. paul julian assange just found guilty by a court to the scathing judge inside westminster magistrates court here a little bit earlier on the judge told us saw nj a narcissist to con them constantly to their own self interest and saunders told

they would be sentenced to a later date set up by a video link to the u.k. charges to julian a song for skipping bail back to 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 of housing unveiled charges of computer hacking against julian assange on ship and there's a expected to be an extradition hearing in relation to that in may as well now as soon as the court proceedings hear what astonishes legal team on the wiki leaks to express it 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 preceded 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 to sleep it has to be. the u.k. government needs to make up for sure that journalists will never be extradited to the united states for publishing activities saatchi to 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 today is of a staunch being extradited being wanted in the u.s. based charges they turned into a reality at ten fifteen this morning he was forcibly removed from the dorian

embassy waiting spent the last seven years the ecuadorian also artie's has allowed the metropolitan police to go inside the embassy where a party joining us on tried to resist arrest and then he was physically bundled up put in to a police baton and taken into police custody now very soon afterwards we learned that julianna songes an electrical 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. on ops that the discourteous and aggressive behavior of mr julian are shown to give the whole stalin freshening declarations of his annoyed organization. on especially the transgression of international treaties who have led the situation to a point where the astronomers mr rashawn 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 once was 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 neck for dorrian hosts he was told they needed to tidy up all for him self clean his policy and pay for the. food to pay for said norton three clean up after his talents which they threaten term leave and subsequently did this relationship 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 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 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 missed the end at the very least of the embassy chapter of the julian assange himself and

to moving on to perhaps or rather the truncated chapter of an illegal extradition battle. so i wish mr magistrates' court spoken to the former president of ecuador who granted the songs asylum thinks the country's current leadership is out for revenge. i think marino deserves the title of the greatest traitor of history that he could compete with judas the state of ecuador in accordance with international law and guided by his own national pride was simply applies to protect the person to whom it is granted asylum and instead they simply gave him up and allowed the british police to enter our embassy just imagine for a moment if it was the ecuadorian police entering the us embassy it was a decision by him or a 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 all now online so marina is taking revenge on

a sandwich i think the consequences will be even harder because although i don't want to look ahead the possibility that the u.k. will not extradite julian assange to the united states is very unlikely and julian assange has twenty twelve series he talks a length to rafael career and we'll show you that program for later this hour the united states has confirmed that it has requested the extradition of julian assange he'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. and reports. interestingly we have heard from the u.s. president u.s. president donald trump has been asked about the arrest of julian assange and wiki leaks and he gave an interesting answer and that answer is a little bit different than the answer he gave on the campaign trail let's take a listen i know nothing about wiki leaks it's not my thing and i know there is something having to do with julie who saw as i have been seeing would accept and

with so on that will be a determination i would imagine mostly by the attorney general who's doing an excellent job so he'll be making a determination i know nothing really about him it's not my it's not my deal in life wiki leaks were key leaks wiki leaks put you leaks it's been amazing what's coming out on wiki leaks leaks the wiki leaks should be leaks wiki leaks wiki leaks wiki leaks and wiki leaks documents wiki leaks i love wiki leaks. it's important to note that essentially you know there is an effort to extradite him now from the u.s. department of justice we have a statement from the eastern district of virginia where they are essentially calling for for the extradition of julian assange for on charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion in the indictment alleges that word in order to get the defense department information that was classified which wiki leaks eventually

published chelsea manning is in the hands of the u.s. officials at this time being held and it's important to review what this information that chelsea manning was able to provide to wiki leaks actually contained let's review some of that information. i'm not

a doctor but if you believe. does the n.s.a. collect any data millions of new sort of. wiki leaks walks like a hostile intelligence or talks like a hot or cold turkey. at this point it's important to note that a number of u.s. intelligence officials have declared that wiki leaks is a basically they referring to it as a russian the asset and this comes in response to these accusations came in response to wiki leaks publishing the e-mails from the democratic national

committee and from hillary clinton's aide john podesta those e-mails were published now it was widely alleged in the united states that came from hacking that those e-mails were acquired through computer hacking however wiki leaks has maintained that they were provided these e-mails from a leaker a leaker provide these provided these e-mails they did not hack in order to acquire them now in addition to a being accused of being a russian asset. has been referred to as being an enemy by a number of u.s. officials the united states do something to stop mr sausage we're looking. right now he should be treated as an enemy combatant which he really should be closed down permanently indecisively 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 and want to do it illegally shoot the son of a this is a man of this grown beyond anything i am aware own ignorance or misplaced idealism is no longer an acceptable excuse for lionizing these demons at this point julius

songes not anymore in the ecuadorian embassy in london at this point he has been turned over to you k officials he is in their custody now the question remains will he be extradited to the united states many observers speculate that if you see ited states he could be facing a lot more than simply this conspiracy of computer intrusion charge that charge only holds the potential for five years in prison it remains to be seen whether or not julian assad will be extradited to the united states where many speculate he could face much more serious charges than simply the computer hacking charge. good luck to the u.s. now daniel as a journalist and writer welcome back to you could have you on the program if when mr arrives on u.s. soil if he's extradited there off those hearings in may there is going to be the way to world opinion on this and people are going to be watching whether prosecutors go at this with and attitude of replaces revenge or whether they're going to weigh it with the public interest of some of those things that were

revealed how do you think it will be handled. with rapacious revenge. i mean i think the i think the there is very. anger is running really high in government circles against against wiki leaks and the signage among among both republicans and democrats and they are really out to get them i think is a good possibility that more charges will be filed or least as a reason to fear they will and that. i think will will face really rough treatment at the hands of u.s. prosecutors do you think there will be any public opinion to back us on doggedly you could say that would have been nine years ago when those tapes first came out but equally over those years that public support has notably edged away hasn't it. yes unfortunately you have a united front among both republicans and democrats against assad so the only

people who will be speaking out in support of him are a few dissidents mainly on the left to the left of the democrats their vocal all their influential but their numbers are fairly small. on paper at least the charge that the united states wants mr songs for is for hacking a computer in league with chelsea manning bradley as was then now we heard from a guest last hour who said the ends don't justify the means that if you whistleblowing fine if you're revealing wrongdoing fine but you don't hack sensitive government information that is still a crime and there's still a case to answer how would you see it. well i think that's true i mean he was certainly pushing the awful open no question about it but but it's important keep in mind that first of all he was unsuccessful in hacking the hacking the code and number two that effort came after manning released all the data to wiki leaks so this is really an after the fact. act and it was of little

consequence and i think the think is this is pretty thin it carries a very small penalty and probably a judge would be very lenient on him so it's unlikely likely he would spend very much time in prison if that's all he's charged with well that's the case thing isn't it because his supporters will maintain that that's not going to be the end of it this is just going to be seen as oh this is the technicality in order to be able to get him to serve time for that one crime that once he's on u.s. soil there will be other cases brought forward are there other things waiting in the wings do you think from other agencies of the government departments and those politicians you are talking about who are out for revenge. well i think i think the democrats want to charge him somehow somehow charge him with colluding with russia to interfere in the the two thousand and sixteen election but it's interesting that there have been no he's never been indicted for that there apparently is no

evidence to support that far as we know that's been made public but i think that agencies will go to work and try to chart try to find some way of charging him with that although the democrats have their axe to grind what about in the republican camp senior members of the trumpet ministration haven't exactly spoken kindly about julian assange in recent days. right as we know when trump was i was all for during the campaign but now he's he's done a one hundred eighty degree reversal and he's now very hostile to to to wiki leaks and of course mike pompei o. the his one was top national security advisers actually leg labeled wiki leaks a hostile intelligence source so there's sentiment in the ministration to treat. songes the kind of enemy combatant. julius and his supporters will say this is more

a trial of press freedom than just the man himself is it really as big as that oh i think it very much is i mean i think that if if a someone if assad is prosecuted on these charges than any journalist who works with any whistleblower will have to be very careful and recognize it and realize that the rules are changing and that he could very well wind up being prosecuted if he in any way in any way encourages. the theft of u.s. secrets and in the slightest way like you know like i'll meet you in the parking lot you know to get the to get the data so i think that will have a definite chilling effect on journalism well what happens to you're going to saunders you had to be officially decided but you also have chelsea manning who is in custody for failing to testify to the grand jury you have edward snowden living in russia because he doesn't feel he can go back to the united states is there even

any appetite on any side of the political divide in the united states to do anything to protect whistleblowers when they act in the public interest. there's less and less the climate in the us is turning very hostile to journalism hostile to the whistleblowers and i think the the the openings for such activities are narrowing rapidly what do you make of ecuador's actions in all this having gone from giving him asylum giving him a home for more than seven is and now handing him over to the police well i think ecuador is under intense financial pressure ecuador just received a bailout from the international monetary fund which the us essentially controls so i think there's a quid pro quo i mean ecuador would have to kick out a song in order to get financial support so i think clearly ecuador's now

is now acting for you know in clear monetary for clearly monetary reasons in its own interest it's been good to get your thoughts on this to see things going on in the united states thanks very much. well with proving to be more polarizing than ever i was doing in the studio by correspondent for more on the outpouring of reaction to the case. there is a rest i should say has clearly showcased how much of a divisive figure songe has become he's got an army of supporters on one hand he's got an army of haters on the other one but really whether you like him or not he's won multiple awards for his journalism and that's why some of 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 who

doesn't seem to be well moving him anywhere anytime soon but he has been very vocal along with some other journalists and whistleblowers have a listen images of what those ambassador invoicing the case secret police into the embassy to drag a publisher of like you to know it was waiting journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books it sounds 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 son 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 to deeply flawed could you know of the espionage act nine hundred seventeen is an attack on all of us the d.-o. g. cis 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 as you criminalization of journalism this is what jewel in the sands in wiki leaks like guilty of exposing the murderous outcome of the u.s. military assault on iraq states don't have the right to kill will initially whistleblowers do us all a service we only need to look at child. demanded to see what a way to silence she's indefinitely detained for refusing to expose whistle blower and u.s. officials have already deemed the sons guilty now if you hours ago i spoke with john kiriakou a veteran whistleblower who felt the full impact of the u.s. judicial machine when it comes to treating men like him 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 be on the brink of mob is a former federal prosecutor. on national security or herself she hears

he's. going to the us. has ever wanted. it but i guess i was right so are you documents that i need to defend myself. all. i suspect your leaders say you're just not be allowed. but if you think it's just journalists or whistle blowers who have been supporting his sons will know we 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 about 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'd 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.

wants to extradite the son to this could constitute a human rights violation italy and bolivia have already also condemned the obvious sanch case the sort of the manhandling of the of the world we can 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. what around she did not mince words when it came to describing a world well what she what she hopes that the faith will bring to everyone responsible for what happened to joining in a staunch today now these are the just some of the supporters of julian assange but of course you have them on the one side of the argument and you have all the bureaucratic and you know the government machine or the u.k. of the united states of some other states as well who have children who have children who have praised what happened to us today but i guess the day to look out

to look forward to is may the second now when journalist and wiki leaks reporter cassandra banks told us she believes assumptions of fiction was planned well in advance. i think that this is. a really really dark day for press freedom. julian the sun has done more for sri press and the right to know in sri information than any other journalist in history he's nominated for the nobel peace prize this year and the fact that our administration is extraditing him and charging him for doing journalism is shocking and disgusting it's all obviously court media and i think this has been planned for a long time and went to their good rate 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 that was sitting with their spot lay

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 aligned foresman but they claimed to not knew what we even was and they are seen arresting him today and i could ring government was just looking and making excuses to. so the story dominating the news coverage today wiki leaks founder julian assange was arrested on thursday morning on dragged out of the ecuadorian embassy in london where he'd been taking refuge for many seven years of video agency ruptly captured exclusive video of the moment he emerged from the building. lenk us.

as i mentioned earlier back in two thousand and twelve run a series of political intervenes hosted by a song and next to get another chance to see the edition in which the whistleblower meets the former president of ecuador who granted asylum. i mean julian assange. it is true when he wakes expose the world secrets these jackets belong the united states government been attacked by the powerful united states strongly condemn this quote after quote people illegally shoot five hundred days now i being detained without charge but that doesn't stop them. today on the quest for revolutionary ideas that can change the world tomorrow. with chavez and lula out of the public on a new generation of latin american leaders has

a reason this week i am joined by the president of ecuador. korea korea is a lifting populist who has changed the face of equitable but unlike his predecessors he holds a ph d. in economics according to u.s. embassy cables caray is the most popular president and ecuador's democratic history but in two thousand and ten he was taken hostage in an attempted coup d'etat people aims the coup attempt on corrupt media and has launched a controversial counter offensive correia says the media defines what reforms are possible i want to know you see justified and what he's vision for latin america to see how you know i can hear president carter. really are you in england i mean england under house arrest now for five hundred days five hundred days. are you ready to see

a man who thought i was hated by this young. man is you know ok so let's try to see if we can do that are you ready. what is the ecuadorian perspective on the united states sort of long perspective of u.s. u.s. involvement i'm not asking for a caricature of the united states but what what the ecuadorian people think about the united states and its involvement in latin america and in ecuador. well as every morel a says the only country that can be sure.