President Correa declared that the safe conduct pass issued by Ecuador's London consul – in collaboration with Assange – was unauthorised. Photograph: EPA

by Lady Michelle-Jennifer Santos, Chief Visionary Founder & Owner

June 28, 2o13 (TSR) – The plan to assist Edward Snowden, the U.S. intelligence agent-turned-whistleblower accused of espionage by Washington, into a safe haven in Latin America is unravelling the warning we have made about the Zionist shill – Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks: President Rafael Correa, who previously has hailed Snowden for exposing US spying, and has earned kudos for defying Washington pressure over the affair, reduced Snowden’s chances of making it to Quito. He halted an effort to help Snowden leave Russia amid concern Assange was usurping the role of the Ecuadoran government, according to leaked diplomatic correspondence published on Friday.

President Correa declared that the safe conduct pass issued by Ecuador's London consul – in collaboration with Assange – was unauthorised. Photograph: EPA
President Correa declared that the safe conduct pass issued by Ecuador’s London consul – in collaboration with Assange – was unauthorised. Photograph: EPA

Amid signs Quito was cooling down on the Snowden’s case and irritated with Assange’s lack of respect for protocol, Correa declared invalid a temporary travel document which could have helped extract Snowden from his reported location in Moscow.

Correa declared at a press conference that the safe conduct pass issued by Ecuador’s London consul – in collaboration with Assange – was unauthorised.

Ecuador also denied reports both on Wednesday and Thursday it had authorized granting safe conduct so that Snowden can travel to the South American country.

At a press conference in Quito, Ecuador’s Political Management Secretary Betty Tola denied the report made Wednesday by U.S. television channel Univision which said that it was given a copy of the document. The document dated June 22 bears the name of Ecuador’s consul in London, Fidel Narvaez, but apparently not his signature.

Assange appears to have had a strong role in obtaining the travel document for Snowden as Fidel Narvaez is his confidante. By mid-week Narvaez was reportedly in Moscow.

The document could have helped Snowden, whose US passport has been revoked, leave the transit lounge of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport where he has reportedly holed up since fleeing Hong Kong last weekend.

“Any document, in this sense, has no validity, and is the sole responsibility of the person who issued it,” said Tola, leading to speculation in the news that officials in the Ecuadorian government disagree on how to handle Snowden’s request for asylum.

“Mr. Edward Snowden’s asylum request has not been able to be processed yet because the applicant is not in Ecuadorian territory, ” Tola said, explaining that according to Ecuadorian law, asylum seekers must be in the country or at one of its embassies before the petition can be followed up.

There were also annoyed Ecuadorean diplomats who privately said the WikiLeaks founder could be perceived as “running the show”.

According to the correspondence, which was obtained by the Spanish-language broadcaster Univision and shared with the Wall Street Journal, divisions over Assange have roiled Ecuador’s government.

Ecuador’s ambassador to the US, Nathalie Cely, told presidential spokesman Fernando Alvarado that Quito’s role in the drama was being overshadowed by the WikiLeaks founder, who has sheltered in Ecuador’s London embassy for the past year to avoid extradition.

“I suggest talking to Assange to better control the communications. From outside, [Assange] appears to be running the show.”

Earlier this week a senior foreign diplomat in Quito told the Guardian that some – though not all – factions in the government were annoyed with what they saw as Assange grandstanding.

In a message attributed to Assange sent to Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, and other top officials, the WikiLeaks founder apologised “if we have unwittingly [caused] Ecuador discomfort in the Snowden matter.” The note continued: “There is a fog of war due to the rapid nature of events. If similar events arise you can be assured that they do not originate in any lack of respect or concern for Ecuador or its government.”

In a TV interview on Friday, Snowden’s father said said he was worried about the involvement of WikiLeaks. “I don’t want to put him in peril, but I am concerned about those who surround him,” Lonnie Snowden told NBC.

“I think WikiLeaks, if you’ve looked at past history … their focus isn’t necessarily the constitution of the United States. It’s simply to release as much information as possible.”

Snowden said he did not believe his son had betrayed his country. “At this point, I don’t feel that he’s committed treason. He has broken US law, in a sense that he has released classified information. And if folks want to classify him as a traitor, in fact he has betrayed his government. But I don’t believe that he’s betrayed the people of the United States.”

Snowden said he had told US attorney general Eric Holder through his lawyer that his son might return home if he would not be detained before trial, could choose the location for his trial and would not be subjected to a gag order. It was not clear that Lonnie Snowden was communicating his son’s views, as he also said they had not spoken since April.

Tola indicated that Ecuador is sympathetic to Snowden’s plight, by noting that seeking asylum is a human right established in article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 22 of the American Convention on Human Rights, as well as article 41 of Ecuador’s Constitution and article 4 of Ecuador’s Alien Status Law.

What’s more, Snowden’s disclosures helped uncover a secret worldwide spying program that is against international law, so charging him with a criminal offense could go against the principles of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which the U.S., sadly, has not ratified, Tola added.

However, President Correa said the government would not consider an asylum request unless Snowden reached Ecuadorean territory, an increasingly remote prospect.

“The situation of Mr Snowden is a complex situation and we don’t know how he will solve it.”

Meanwhile, Correa ramp up his defiance of the United States and its imperialistic bullying by renouncing its preferential trade rights to thwart what officials called Washington “blackmail”. He said he did not want the upcoming renewal of the treaty to be used as ” blackmail” to try and influence Ecuador’s decision on granting asylum to Snowden.

The Ecuadorian government waived the tariff preferences with the United States due to external pressures used to undermine national sovereignty in various explicit and implicit geopolitical issues such as asylum to Julian Assange, the analysis of the application for asylum to Edward Snowden, and the bilateral relations between their country and sovereign nations that have been regarded as “enemy” of the United States like Iran, China, Russia, Venezuela and many others.

The Ecuadorian National Information System released the following statement from the National Communications Secretary Fernando Alvarado:

Faced with the threat, insolence and arrogance of certain political, media groups and American powers have pushed to remove tariff-ATPDEA preferences for its acronym in English-to our country, Ecuador states that:

Ecuador does not accept pressure or threats from anyone, and does not trade with the principles nor subjected to commercial interests, however important they may be.

Ecuador reminds the world that tariff preferences were originally granted as compensation to the Andean countries for its fight against drugs, but soon became a new instrument of blackmail.

Consequently, Ecuador resignation unilaterally and irrevocably to such tariff or ATPDEA preferences.

Moreover, Ecuador offers U.S. economic aid of 23 billion dollars annually-an amount similar to that we received from the tariff preferences, in order to provide training in human rights helps to avoid attacks on the privacy of people, torture, extrajudicial killings, and other acts injurious to mankind.

Citizens of Ecuador and the world:

Ecuador is one of only seven American countries that has ratified all the inter-American human rights instruments, so fraternally requested the U.S. to ratify at least some of them, starting with the American Convention on Human Rights or Pact of San José , base of the Inter American Human Rights System.

We understand that there must be mechanisms to combat terrorism, but we can not admit that in this endeavor, they trample human rights and the sovereignty of peoples.

We express the love, appreciation and respect for the American people who always have excellent relations and we sympathize with him for the massive espionage has also received.

Finally, we would have loved it with the same urgency that is required to deliver to Mr. Snowden when entering Ecuadorian soil, as politely requested to provide POL 081/2013 of the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador, had been delivered to many fugitives Ecuadorian justice refugees in the United States, particularly the corrupt bankers who knowingly broke the country in 1999, whose extradition has been repeatedly denied by the United States.

Analysts said Correa, an economist who specialised in game theory, had so far skilfully extracted political capital from the saga without drawing US retaliation.

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