sanctuary

The government of Ecuador, the small South American country in whose London embassy Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been holed up for the past couple of months, has decided to offer him political sanctuary.

Story here.

That's great news, with one catch. Getting him from where he is now to Quito could prove difficult, since the UK government, following the lead of Big Dog USA, is really boiling over this. They say they'll arrest him if he sets foot outside the Ecuadorian embassy, and some are gavoreeting about actually storming said embassy, in order to lay hands on Mr. Assange.

Then, they say, they would extradite him to Sweden for questioning in some kind of sexual assault beef, but the questioning would most likely never occur, as the Swedes are widely thought eager to hand him over to this country, where he would be railroaded on some sort of phony espionage complaint, then tossed in the slammer for most of the rest of his life.

Man, things are really tough for reporters out there these days, except for the ones who delicately kiss the green weenie of the almighty dollar.

With all that in mind, it looks to me like it's time for the old "helicopter off the roof of the embassy" end run, á la Saigon, 1975, except this time it would be the "bad" guys escaping the "good" guys. This time, the helicopter would be bound for Dublin, as the Irish bear the English little affection, and a flight to Ecuador might be arranged there.

And speaking of good guys and bad guys, I thought only those guys, you know, them, were into storming embassies.

Photo: cathedral in Quito