Julian Assange unlikely to slip quietly into obscurity

June 20, 2014, 3 a.m.

Is Julian Assange back in the game? Many media and other observers have written off the WikiLeaks publisher as a diminished, almost comical, figure eking out an existence in Ecuador's London embassy where he has been granted diplomatic asylum.

Is Julian Assange back in the game? Many media and other observers have written off the WikiLeaks publisher as a diminished, almost comical, figure eking out an existence in Ecuador's London embassy where he has been granted diplomatic asylum.

Assange has not seen the sun for two years, and it has appeared to many that his anti-secrecy group might also have had its day.

After all, WikiLeaks' biggest hits - the publication in 2010-11 of the leaked Baghdad helicopter gunship video, the US Army's Afghanistan and Iraq war logs and the massive "cablegate" trove of US diplomatic records - are now three years in the past.

WikiLeaks' most notable source, US Army private Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning has been tried, found guilty and sentenced to a long term of imprisonment for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents.

In a world that craves novelty and where the media cycle turns ever faster, Assange has looked like yesterday's news.

His complex legal circumstances remain unresolved. Sweden still wishes to extradite him to face questioning about sexual assault allegations that were first made in August 2010.

Assange denies the allegations and continues to claim that he is at risk of extradition to the United States to face prosecution arising from Manning's unauthorised disclosure of US government secrets.

Ecuador appears prepared to provide Assange with indefinite asylum. However, neither Britain nor Sweden appear at all inclined to provide any assurances that Assange would not be surrendered to the US at some future date. So Assange will not leave the embassy.

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Julian Assange unlikely to slip quietly into obscurity