WIKILEAKS - Assange Denied Internet Access

YES!  Finally this anti-government kook gets somewhat isolated.  Next, he gets thrown out and we burn him at the stake (I'll bring the barbecue sauce).

"What's the motive behind Julian Assange's internet ban?" PBS NewsHour 10/19/2016

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SUMMARY:  Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, has been living in exile in London's Ecuadorian embassy for four years.  Now Ecuador says it's shut off Assange's internet access, months after WikiLeaks began to release documents and emails stolen from the DNC and the Clinton campaign.  Hari Sreenivasan learns more from Raphael Satter of the Associated Press.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  For the last four years, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group, has been staying in self-imposed exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

He's taking refuge from a sexual assault investigation in Sweden that Assange claims is an American plot to have him extradited.  Over the summer, WikiLeaks began divulging thousands of pages of documents and e-mails stolen from the Democratic National Committee, and, most recently, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, all in an effort, said Assange himself, to damage her presidential candidacy.

Now a new twist in this saga.  In a statement issued yesterday, Ecuador said it had cut off Assange's Internet access, saying in part:  “The government of Ecuador respects the principle of nonintervention in the internal affairs of other states.  It doesn't interfere in external electoral processes, nor does it favor any particular candidate.”

For more on this, I'm joined now from London by Raphael Satter of the Associated Press.  He's covered WikiLeaks extensively.

Is there anything more to it than that statement by the Ecuadorian government?

RAPHAEL SATTER, Associated Press:  You know, it's not much more — not much more official.

There is an enormous amount of speculation about what's going on behind the scenes.  WikiLeaks alleges that, despite what the Ecuadorian government has said, they are, in fact, bound to pressure from the U.S. State Department, and, in particular, John Kerry, the secretary of state.  Now, the State Department has denied all this.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  The batches of e-mails have been trickling out for months, Hillary Clinton's e-mails, John Podesta's e-mails for weeks now.  So, why now?  Why intervene now to try to cut off his Internet access?

RAPHAEL SATTER:  It's quite puzzling, actually.

The timing is a bit of a mystery.  And the best people to speak about this are the parties concerned themselves.  But neither WikiLeaks nor the Ecuadorian — nor various Ecuadorian officials that we have tried have returned our calls or even deigned to comment.  They have communicated via Twitter or through their Web sites in a series of terse statements, which leave a lot to the imagination, frankly.

AFTERMATH - The Ecuador Quake (update)

"Ecuador looks to pick up pieces and rebuild after devastating earthquake" PBS NewsHour 5/26/2016

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SUMMARY:  It's been just over a month since a deadly earthquake devastated Ecuador's Pacific coast, destroying thousands of buildings and impacting at least a quarter-million people.  As the government struggles with recovery costs and moves to rebuild, the disaster has also highlighted the need for tougher buildings codes — and enforcement.  Special correspondents Bruno Frederico and Nadja Drost report.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  It's been just over a month since a major earthquake devastated swathes of countryside and towns on Ecuador's Pacific coast; 663 people are officially confirmed dead.

And, as thousands more face the loss of their homes or workplace, videographer Bruno Federico and special correspondent Nadja Drost bring us this report from Manabi province on Ecuador's coast, where people are trying to rebuild their towns and lives.

ALFREDO JAMA, Fisherman (through interpreter):  That night was unforgettable.  I was bringing up the net, when, suddenly, I felt the boat vibrating too much.  It was like the floor burst open.

NADJA DROST (NewsHour):  It's the first time that fisherman Alfredo Jama has dared to return out to sea since an earthquake caught him by surprise on April 16th when he was fishing.

ALFREDO JAMA (through interpreter):  When I looked around, I saw an explosion that left us without light.  Everything was dark.  The sea bellowed from beneath.  It was like there was a beast coming up from under.  When I returned to the house, everything was a disaster.

NADJA DROST:  Jama's wife, Paola Farias, walked us through what used to be the two-story home of their extended family, which she also used for her nail salon.

PAOLA FARIAS, Salon Owner (through interpreter):  When I said, don't worry, it's over, was when the movement started more strongly.  The walls started falling.  We managed to leave the house.  It was terrible, because imagine how one works so hard for one's things, and from one moment to another, nothing.

NADJA DROST:  Farias is one of at least 250,000 Ecuadorians directly affected by an earthquake that knocked down thousands of buildings.  It also set off an outpouring of support from fellow Ecuadorians, like Karla Morales, the director of local human rights group Kahre.

She was at home in the city of Guayaquil, over 150 miles south of the epicenter, the night the quake hit.

KARLA MORALES, Kahre.org:  And in that moment, I just sent a tweet.

NADJA DROST:  “Bring supplies to my house tomorrow,” Karla wrote, and she'd drive them north to the earthquake-affected region the next afternoon.

KARLA MORALES:  And I didn't expect that people were so interested in helping and with so much compassion and solidarity.  There were like 600 or maybe 1,000 people in my house, bringing help and helping with all that donations that we were receiving in that moment.

NADJA DROST:  Karla ended up sending 23 large truckloads of materials that day.  Since then, her team continues to distribute donations, from water filters to mattresses, to rural areas, where help has been slower to reach.

Ecuador hadn't expected an earthquake, but preparing for a different emergency, a volcanic eruption and flooding, helped it respond quickly, says Tim Callaghan of USAID.

MAMMALS - Update on the New Species, Olinguito

"‘Crowd-sourced’ science sheds new light on new mammal, Olinguito" PBS NewsHour 8/19/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  ..... Newly discovered by scientists and newly documented by the crowd.

Jeff is back to explain.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  It was an exceedingly rare discovery; a new species of mammal called the Olinguito, a small, furry, tree-welling member of the raccoon family, living in the forests of Colombia and Ecuador.

In the year since the announcement, the Olinguito has gone from literal unknown to being surprisingly well-documented through photos and videos shot by amateur naturalists, bird watchers, and others, a kind of crowd-sourced science.

Kristofer Helgen, a curator of mammals at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History, was part of the original discovery team, and joins us once again for an update.

ENVIRONMENT - The Threat of Big-Oil in Ecuador

Another example of $big-money profits$ threatening our ecosystem.  More importantly, rain forests are the biggest generators of oxygen in our world.  Oil exploration will also threaten the forest itself.

"Ecuador Exposes Rain Forest and its Inhabitants to Oil Extraction Effort" PBS Newshour 8/16/2013

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SUMMARY:  Thousands of species of plant and wildlife call Ecuador's Yasuni National Park home, but it is believed that beneath the lush floor lies $7.2 billion of oil.  Drilling could threaten the rain forest's biodiversity and indigenous populations.  Some scientists argue a balance could be found.  Hari Sreenivasan reports.

HARI SREENIVASAN (Newshour):  Ecuador's Yasuni National Park is teeming with plant and animal life.  According to scientists, any football-field-sized area of Yasuni has more species of trees than the U.S. and Canada combined.

The park also includes 121 different species of reptiles, 150 species of frogs, 596 species of birds, and 187 species of mammals.

INTERNATIONAL - Ecuador Grants Assange Asylum (Updated)

"Ecuador Grants Asylum to Assange, Defying Britain" by WILLIAM NEUMAN and MAGGY AYALA, New York Times 8/16/2012

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Ecuador announced Thursday that it was granting political asylum to Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who has been holed up for two months in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London awaiting the decision.

“The government of Ecuador, faithful to its tradition of protecting those who seek refuge in its territory or in its diplomatic missions, has decided to grant diplomatic asylum to Julian Assange,” said Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño, reading from a government communiqué at a news conference in the Ecuadorean capital, Quito. He added, “There are indications to presume that there could be political persecution,” and that Mr. Assange would not get a fair trial in the United States and could face the death penalty there.

The move leaves Mr. Assange with protection from British arrest – but only on Ecuadorean territory, leaving him vulnerable if he tries to head to an airport or train. Mr. Patiño said he hoped Britain would permit Mr. Assange to leave the embassy for Ecuador — a request Britain has rejected, saying it has a binding, legal obligation to extradite Mr. Assange to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over accusations that he sexually assaulted two women.

The decision added to the sharp strains between Ecuador and Britain. Just before the announcement of asylum, President Rafael Correa said on his Twitter account: “No one is going to terrorize us!” The night before, Mr. Patiño said that the British authorities had threatened to force their way into the embassy, to which he responded: “We are not a British colony.”

The British Foreign Office said it was disappointed by the Ecuadorean announcement but remained committed to a negotiated outcome to the standoff. Sweden’s foreign minister, Carl Bildt, rejected the suggestion that Sweden would be involved in any kind of persecution. “Our firm legal and constitutional system guarantees the rights of each and everyone,” he wrote on Twitter. “ We firmly reject any accusations to the contrary.

Mr. Patiño’s news conference was broadcast live on British television and Mr. Assange watched the announcement as it happened, British news reports said. He told embassy staff members: “It is a significant victory for myself and my people. Things will probably get more stressful now.”

"U.K. Threatens Ecuador's Diplomatic Status for Protecting Julian Assange"
PBS Newshour 8/16/2012

COMMENT: A win for those of us who believe in freedom of speech and protection against secrecy that may threaten our human rights.