Vitchilo wrote..

Ecuador should tell the UK they'll give him Assange when they give Blair to the Iraq courts. And if the US wants him, they can give Hillary, Obama, Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld to Iraq... THEN they can have Assange.

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The Union of South American Nations (Unasur) is due to hold an "extraordinary meeting" in Ecuador on Sunday to discuss the situation at the embassy in London.

A statement released on the website of Peru's foreign ministry, which holds the rotating presidency of the intergovernmental union, said:

"The foreign ministry of Peru [informs the public] that, in concordance with the statutory responsibilities of the temporary presidency of Unasur, at the behest of the Republic of Ecuador and after consulting member states, an extraordinary meeting of the [Council] of Foreign Ministers of the Union has been [scheduled for] Sunday August 19 in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador.

"The meeting has been requested with the intention of considering the situation raised at the embassy of Ecuador in the United Kingdom."

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If he were to leave, he would be arrested and held without bail in Britain, then sent to Sweden and held without bail, then given over to U.S. custody and held without bail indefinitely. Indefinite house arrest with friendlies or indefinite custody with the enemy? Seems like an easy choice.

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Russia issues warning to Britain over Assange

Russia on Friday warned Britain against violating fundamental diplomatic principles after London suggested it could arrest WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange inside Ecuador's embassy.

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The United States says it does not believe in ''diplomatic asylum'' after Ecuador offered to let WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is wanted in Sweden on sexual assault allegations, stay indefinitely in its London embassy.

An emergency meeting of the Organisation of American States has voted 23 to three in favour of a resolution proposed by Ecuador to convene a meeting of OAS foreign ministers this Friday at its Washington headquarters to discuss the standoff with Britain over Assange. The US, Canada, and Trinidad and Tobago voted against the resolution.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said Assange would remain in Quito's embassy as long as Britain refused to give him safe passage out. ''Mr Assange can stay indefinitely in our embassy,'' Mr Correa said. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Sweden would ''wait and see what happens''.

Under a 1954 agreement, the OAS agreed to allow asylum in diplomatic missions for ''persons being sought for political reasons'', although not individuals indicted for ''common offences''. In a statement, the State Department said the US was ''not a party to the 1954 OAS Convention on Diplomatic Asylum and does not recognise the concept of diplomatic asylum as a matter of international law''. ''We believe this is a bilateral issue between Ecuador and the United Kingdom and that the OAS has no role to play in this matter,'' it said.

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The catch for Mr. Assange is that Ecuador’s granting of asylum appears to have left him no closer to any long-term relief from his legal problems, as he remains confined to the Ecuadorean Embassy’s second-story suite of rooms in a central London apartment block. Sanctuary in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, is 5,700 miles away, as reachable for Mr. Assange, in practical terms, as Mars.

Outside the apartment block, covering all possible escape routes front and back, and at strategic points inside, including the lobby, staircase and elevator access areas, a squad of about 50 Scotland Yard police officers stand ready to arrest Mr. Assange if he ventures out of the embassy and its cocoon of diplomatic immunity. More police officers wait in two vans nearby, along with a large armored transporter of the kind used to carry prisoners.

British newspapers, quoting Scotland Yard, say the watch is costing $80,000 a day, at a time when the London police force is under orders to cut 20 percent of its budget as part of the government’s austerity drive. Officials say those expenses are only part of the overall bill incurred in the Assange case, which has included 18 months of court hearings and has cost British taxpayers millions.

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British newspapers, quoting Scotland Yard, say the watch is costing $80,000 a day, at a time when the London police force is under orders to cut 20 percent of its budget as part of the government’s austerity drive

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They likely know full well that they can't back up their bluster. But like the Fed clowns they're good at jawboning and not much else.

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At least one of the lawyers at the Foreign Office (FCO) expressed concern over the warning that Britain could use the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987 to "storm" the embassy building and remove Assange, who faces sex crime allegations in Sweden. A senior Whitehall source said yesterday that staff feared the move could provoke retaliatory attacks against British embassies overseas.

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Under Ecuador's asylum offer, Assange is not permitted to make political statements, restrictions that are standard for anyone granted asylum, said an Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry official.