"He communicated a very courteous request from the United States that we reject the (asylum) request," Correa said during his weekly television broadcast, praising Biden's good manners in contrast to "brats" in Congress who had threatened to cut trade benefits over the Snowden issue.

Biden initiated the phone call, Correa said.

"When he (Snowden) arrives on Ecuadorean soil, if he arrives ... of course the first opinions we will seek are those of the United States," Correa said.

Snowden is reportedly in Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport after flying to Russia from Hong Kong.

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During a January 2009 chat, on a " public Internet Relay Chat" run by the site Ars Technica, which first reported it, the screen name Snowden used, TheTrueHOOHA, was discussing a New York Times article about classified U.S. dealings with Iran with an unidentified user:

< TheTrueHOOHA> HOLY SHIT
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/washington/11iran.html?_r=1&hp
< TheTrueHOOHA> WTF NYTIMES
< TheTrueHOOHA> Are they TRYING to start a war?
Jesus christ
they're like wikileaks
< User19> they're just reporting, dude.
< TheTrueHOOHA> They're reporting classified shit
< User19> shrugs
< TheTrueHOOHA> about an unpopular country surrounded by enemies already engaged in a war
and about our interactions with said country regarding planning sovereignity violations of another country
you don't put that shit in the NEWSPAPER
< User19> meh
< TheTrueHOOHA> moreover, who the fuck are the anonymous sources telling them this?
< TheTrueHOOHA> those people should be shot in the balls.

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The two say they are motivated by a desire to expose human rights and civil liberties violations by the American government, but allying with Correa is like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. Many have cursorily noted that Ecuador has a poor record when it comes to freedom of the press, but a closer inspection is even more troubling.

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The WikiLeaks founder said Snowden is "safe and healthy," but would not reveal his location, saying only that the leaker left Hong Kong on refugee travel documents issued by the Ecuadorian government after the U.S. revoked his passport. WikiLeaks paid for his travel.

Snowden was expected to make the move, but slipped past reporters who expected him on a flight from Moscow to Havana, Cuba, which may have been a ruse intended to evade the media or American intelligence agencies.

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A Sunday statement from WikiLeaks said that Snowden is "bound for the Republic of Ecuador via a safe route for the purposes of asylum," and Ecuador's foreign minister Ricardo Patino tweeted "The Government of Ecuador has received an asylum request from Edward J. #Snowden."

Ecuador is currently sheltering WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange at its London embassy.

According to various reports, after departing Hong Kong for Moscow, Snowden did not leave Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport after his flight touched down. Russian news agency Interfax has reported that he will spend the night in an airport hotel because he does not have a visa to enter the country.

The full statement from WikiLeaks:

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The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), or Scotland Yard, said the estimated cost of surrounding the Ecuadorean Embassy from June 19, 2012, when Assange entered the building, until Jan. 31, 2013, is the equivalent of $4.5 million.

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When your love hands you a gorgeous bouquet of large, red, long-stemmed roses this Valentine’s Day, as any botanist will tell you, you’re getting a bunch of sex organs. Although the roses are more beautiful, fragrant and socially acceptable than other methods that might get the same point across (just ask former Congressman Anthony Weiner), there’s a lot more to those roses than meets the eye.

Unfortunately, the romancing of women in the United States often means the exploitation of women in countries like Colombia and Ecuador.

The preference the U.S. gives Colombian and Ecuadorian flower exports has a lot to do with another export from those nations: cocaine. By 1990, South American imports already accounted for more than 40 percent of roses sold in the United States. Then, in 1991, Congress passed the Andean Trade Preference Act. The idea was simple: maybe if we help cocaine-producing nations sell us other things, like roses, they’ll be less interested in selling us cocaine.

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It was late January 2010 when a non-governmental organization bused Indian chiefs from the Ecuadorean Amazon to a multiplex in the capital. The surprise decampment of the tribal congress triggered a smattering of cheers, but mostly drew stares of apprehension from urban Ecuadoreans who attribute a legendary savagery to their indigenous compatriots, whose violent land disputes in the jungle are as alien as events on "Avatar’s" Pandora.

The chiefs -- who watched the film through plastic 3-D glasses perched beneath feathered headdress -- saw something else in the film: a reflection. The only fantastical touches they noticed in the sci-fi struggle were the blue beanstalk bodies and the Hollywood gringo savior. “As in the film, the government here has closed the dialogue,” a Shuar chief told a reporter after the screening. “Does this mean that we do something similar to the film? We are ready.”

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Unsurprisingly, Assange said the party platform would push for greater government transparency and against creeping intrusions on individual privacy. "Polls inside Australia show that Assange could conceivably stand a chance of winning in either New South Wales or Victoria," the Age noted.

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He is reported to have sent his deputy foreign minister, Faisal al-Miqdad, on a trip to Cuba, Ecuador and Venezuela to sound out their respective leaders about the possibility of asylum.

All three countries have left-wing governments that are, to varying degrees and in different ways, antagonistic toward the US.

The most likely destination for the Syrian despot would appear to be Venezuela. Its President Hugo Chavez recently described Assad as his country’s “legitimate” leader.

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At least 40 people paraded their candidate through the city's streets to the electoral council offices. Mr. Burro even wore a tie. But officials refused to even let them in the door on Thursday even though backers had dummied up a mock voter registration card showing the candidate's photo superimposed on a man wearing a business suit.

Donkey backer Daniel Molina told local television stations the goal was to call voters' attention to the seriousness of the February election, not to insult any party.

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Assange decried the U.S. "assault on WikiLeaks," invoking Pfc. Bradley Manning's detention within the first minute of speaking:

Bradley Manning, science fair all-star, soldier and patriot was degraded, abused and psychologically tortured by his own government. He was charged with a death penalty offense. These things happened to him, as the U.S. government tried to break him, to force him to testify against WikiLeaks and me.

As of today Bradley Manning has been detained without trial for 856 days. The legal maximum in the US military is 120 days.

Assange went on to skewer the U.S.'s role in the 2011 Arab Spring:

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But even some who disagreed with the asylum offer for WikiLeaks’ founder rejected the British government’s suggestion that it would withdraw diplomatic status from the Ecuadorean embassy in order to arrest the Australian.

Nicholas Gaoht, a 21-year-old economy student at Quito’s San Francisco University, defended Ecuador’s right to offer Assange asylum although he was no admirer of the Australian’s work, or Correa’s handling of the affair.

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Not Running From the Law

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The 3,788-word, Spanish-language document says the WikiLeaks founder faces “political persecution” by Washington and includes the suggestion that the United States executes dissidents.

Although parts of the statement appear outlandish, it scores some real points, including the assertion that Assange could face the death penalty. While it remains common in much of the United States, few other democracies use capital punishment.

Regardless of whether US authorities really would attempt to put Assange on trial — or whether he has committed any sexual crimes as Sweden alleges — the notion that the WikiLeaks mastermind could be sent to the electric chair will make many Washington sympathizers recoil.

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Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said Ecuador believed Assange faced a real threat of political persecution — including the prospect of extradition to the United States, where Patino said the head of the secret-spilling website would not get a fair trial.

"It is not impossible that he would be treated in a cruel manner, condemned to life in prison, or even the death penalty," Patino told journalists in Quito, the Ecuadorean capital. "Ecuador is convinced that his procedural rights have been violated."

Britain's Foreign Office said it was disappointed by the decision, but that it still plans to fulfill its legal obligation to extradite Assange to Sweden, where he faces sexual assault allegations.

Assange shot to prominence after WikiLeaks repeatedly released huge troves of U.S. secret documents, moves which have outraged Americans and led to calls from American politicians to have him hunted down like a terrorist.

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