WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange remains indoors for the foreseeable future. Picture: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

JULIAN Assange has his supporters. He counts the children who send him elaborate, hand-drawn escape plans among them. But he doesnt include Canberra in that category.

In a revealing interview on Sydney breakfast radio on Wednesday morning from the confines of the Ecuadorean embassy in London, the Wikileaks founder said Australia had abandoned him.

Ive had no contact with the Australian consulate for years and when I do they say, What do you want? Assange said.

Thats not about me. Thats about Australia being famous for abandoning Australians whenever they get into criminal conflict. It seems to be the nature of Canberra that they abandon Australians.

He called Canberra a horrific place.

Assange hasnt spoken to Australian media since May. He may be done with the hard-hitting questions journalists normally fire at him because this time he chose a different path. He spoke instead with Kiis FMs Kyle and Jackie O Show on a morning when Kyle was replaced by stand-in host Matty Acton. He even answered questions from the shows listeners.

Assange, 44, is three years into an open-ended stay at the embassy. The computer hacker is wanted in Australia, the US, Sweden, the UK, Saudi Arabia and Germany for espionage, for leaking sensitive documents including the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs and for alleged sex crimes.

Assange said he doesnt know when hell be allowed to leave and cant even stick his hand out the window.

He rejected the suggestion that he had plotted an escape and spoke of his heartache at what his family has been put through.

Despite it all the lack of sunlight, the unending police presence at his front door Assange said he would do it all again.

If you believe in something then you have to pay a cost to achieve it. Thats all right. I complain about the injustice and the politics but I understand this game, he said.

A cartoon depicts Assange using an Ecuadorean flag as a shield. Artwork by Sturt Krygsman.Source:News Limited

ITS A SERIOUS SITUATION HERE

Inside the embassy, Julian Assange and his supporters use old Nokia mobile phones. Theres no risking the use of smartphones.

All smartphones we have to assume are infected and weve banned them, Assange said. We joke here that the only way to go is to set up a state that has no electronic devices, no mobiles, like a park.

Thats about where the jokes end. The situation, Assange says, is serious. The British government is certainly taking it seriously. Armed guards wait outside the embassy 24 hours a day. Assange estimates there are 100 fulltime police surrounding the building at a cost of $A15million so far.

Their presence and Assanges wanted status takes a toll on the Wikileaks editor-in-chief and on his family.

Im sure they question (my being here), he said.

That is more significant (than me questioning it). When Wikileaks does what it does, they have to pay a cost. My family sure as hell didnt agree to pay those costs. Theyve been harassed (and there have been) calls for their assassinations to get at me.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange peers out the window of the Ecuadorean embassy. Picture: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images

It hasnt dissuaded him from continuing his work. In fact, he says it helps him because he has nothing else to do.

Last week he was drawn into commenting on the rise of Islamic State and defending his organisations role in helping the terror group prosper.

Theres no allegation anything we have published has benefited the Islamic State, but lets go back. Its the failure of the press here to properly cover what has been happening in Syria (that) has led to the rise of the IS. Thats a very, very serious phenomenon.

The intelligence agencies have run amok, military supplies have run amok, Saudi Arabia and Qatar and Turkey have run amok and as a result we now have the Islamic State, where we have incredible refugee flows, a human rights catastrophe.

Julian Assanges journey to the Ecuadorean embassy has been a long one. It started in Sweden in 2010 when he was accused of meeting two women and having sex with them. The women claim they were raped and Assange was never charged.

Benedict Cumberbatch (left) portrays Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate.Source:Supplied

He was arrested that November, two months after leaving Sweden, after Interpol issued a notice for his arrest. He posted bail and, following legal wrangling, Sweden requested he be extradited two years later.

Because he faces charges of espionage in the US, Assange is reluctant to face court in Sweden. He believes that hell be forced to travel to the US to face charges stemming from leaked documents.

On July 19, he applied for asylum at the embassy in Knightbridge and, once inside, was greeted by a large police presence. Three years later, they are still waiting for him to come outside.

During Wednesdays interview, Assange allowed listeners to call in and ask him questions. He answered them all. At the end of the interview, he even apologised. Not for the leaks or for the saga but for something else entirely.

Excuse my ruined Australian accent, he said.

WikiLeaks claims we need greater control of agencies that influence our lives. How real is this threat and what do the experts say?

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Julian Assange on Kyle and Jackie O Show: Canberra is a ...

By Daniel Peters For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 05:49 EST, 7 October 2015 | Updated: 06:13 EST, 7 October 2015

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has accused the Australian Government of abandoning him and other Australians in need in a rare live radio interview.

Speaking on the Kyle and Jackie-O show on Wednesday morning Mr Assange, who is wanted for arrest in six different countries,happily answered an array of listener questions and jokingly apologised for his 'ruined Australian accent'.

He also hit out at the Australian consulate in London. Hehas spent the past three years seeking political asylum inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in the same city.

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Julian Assange accused the Australian Government of 'abandoning' him amidst serious political conflict

The Wikileaks founder spoke on KIIS FM on Wednesday morning, dialing in from the Ecuadorian Embassy

The 44-year-old has spent the past three years seeking political asylum in the London building, wanted for arrest by six countries for crimes of espionage, leaking sensitive documents and alleged sex crimes

'There has been no contact with the Australian consulate for years, and when I do they simply say, "What do you want?",' Mr Assange said.

'That's not about me, that's about Australia being famous for abandoning Australians around the world whenever they get into political conflict,' he continued.

The 44-year-old is wanted by the U.S., U.K., Australia, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Sweden for a list of serious crimes including espionage, leaking sensitive documents and alleged sexual assault.

The minute he steps outside of the building, which he claims has been the site of a U.K. police 'siege' - with the equivalent of 100 full time police guarding the grounds day and night - he will be placed under arrest by English authorities.

In the interview, which covered a vast range of topics, including the use of smart phones inside the embassy and family death threats, the Australian-born former hacker described Canberra as a 'horrific, horrific place.'

Asked on whether he had thought about devising his very own 'Jason Bourne escape plan', Mr Assange laughed, before adding: 'Just about everything has been thought of.'

He explained that his wall was plastered with letters from children outlining 'well-drawn' and 'very well detailed escape plans' of him on a flying fox over to Harrods.

'They show the look of the astounded police man as I zip past overhead,' Assange joked.

It was the first time Assange has spoken to Australian media since May, choosing to be interviewed on commercial radio without shock jock Kyle Sandilands, who was away and replaced by fill-in Matty Acton.

Mr Assange said that every week children sent in letters with detailed escape plans involving flying foxes and zip-lines

It was the first time Mr Assange has spoken to Australian media since May,

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Wikileaks founder Julian Assange jokes he's losing his ...

Julian Assange says US authorities have assigned the same prosecutor for him, Edward Snowden and Kim Dotcom in Virginia in an example of what he describes as lawfare an attempt to universally apply American law in places where the military cant reach.

The US goes about conducting lawfare as much as warfare, Assange said. He believes it is no coincidence that the cases of Edward Snowden, Kim Dotcom and his own are all being tried in Alexandria, Virginia, by the same prosecutor.

The WikiLeaks founder and exiled whistleblower opened up about some connections his case has with that of Edward Snowdens and Kim Dotcoms. The concept of lawfare, he explains, is used academically to denote one acquiring new territory not with the use of military force, but by spreading ones own laws to those territories. This is something he sees as currently being done by the United States by employing a mixture of international institutions and agreements, as well as unquestioning cooperation from key allies who will not challenge it.

Apart from the prevalence of this mechanism in international relations, the WikiLeaks founder believes theres a clear indicator of this in his own case.

Theres a commonality Id like to bring up, which is Edward Snowden, I and Kim Dotcom our cases are all in Alexandria, Virginia, where we have the same prosecutor, he told Radio New Zealand in a phone interview, while holed up in Londons Ecuadorian embassy. Assange believes that if he goes to Sweden for questioning he will be extradited to the US and face WikiLeaks-connected charges there.

Its something quite interesting. Alexandria, Virginia, is picked in all national security cases. Now, Im an Australian. WikiLeaks is not a US-publishing organization so, what the hell is the United States doing trying to bring an espionage case against me? Well, you can ask yourself a similar question about what is it trying to do in relation to extraditing Kim Dotcom from New Zealand and his Hong Kong operation, Assange said.

That jurisdiction is simply picked because it has the highest density of government employees: its 5 kilometers from the center of Washington DC, it has CIA, DHS, the IRS etc. within the area, and the US brags that Alexandria, Virginia, is involved in pushing US law into more than 67 different jurisdictions. This is something in academia called 'lawfare' getting access to territory by pushing your laws into this territory, instead of your military. Its a very modern and sophisticated concept, and thats partly what the TPP is about.

Britains surveillance agency GCHQ, according to the Snowden leaks, has been spying on WikiLeaks for some time, and the NSA has had Assange on a wanted list as long ago as 2009, he claims. According to the exiled whistleblower, Australia will not move into gear where major players are involved a fact that makes him feel abandoned as an Australian citizen.

In his new book, The WikiLeaks File: the World According to the US Empire, Assange talks about countries participation in international agreements that by extension give the US increasing leeway in affairs it otherwise would have a limited or no role to play in. On top of the lucrative TPP and TISA, which are examples of the so-called lawfare, the ICC is one such example.

READ MORE: Western ISIS adventurism, Israel behind Hamas - new Assange revelations

Under Obama, Assange has seen the power of international institutions take on a more American shade, one example being the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has become a sort of lackey for Western interests.

Its more than cultures and regions theres international institutions. Its very interesting to look at the ICC as an example of how the US interfaces with the international situation, Assange said. While the ICCs role in prosecuting war criminals is clear with regard to some, the organization loses its meaning where the US is concerned.

The country was going to most countries in the world, trying to get them to sign secret bilateral agreements called Article 98 agreements to promise that those countries would never extradite someone from the US government to the International Criminal Court.

There was an intense fear under the Bush administration, because of what they were doing in relation to Iraq and the war on terror, more broadly, Assange said.

And under Obama, things shifted a bit. There was an attempt to co-opt the ICC for broader geopolitical purposes, as opposed to the narrow view of trying to protect their own skins.

Among other things, allegations by Sweden against Assange were addressed a case that has been dropped and illegally reopened, he said. The WikiLeaks founder continues to deny his guilt, saying he still faces rape allegations even when "the woman herself says that she was not raped and the police made it up, and that's in the police documentation."

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Caption: Julian Assange with Reverend Jesse Jackson outside the Embassy of Ecuador in London. Yui Mok/PA Wired

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Julian Assange rose to fame as the master of helping whistleblowers safely smuggle documents out of corporations and governments. Smuggling himself, however, hasnt turned out to be so easy.

A new set of leaked documents from the Ecuadorean embassy in London shows that diplomatic officials there have brainstormed methods they could help Assange escape from the embassywhere hes had asylum for more than three yearswithout being arrested by the British police that keep a 24-hour watch on the building.

But its likely that none of these escape routes were ever attempted. At the very least, none worked. Assange, who is wanted for questioning related to accusations of sex crimes in Sweden, has remained trapped in two rooms in the building. The documents show that the unnamed officials have considered everything from putting Assange in a disguise to hiding him in a diplomatic bag intended for documents. (Technically the documents refer to a valija diplomatica, a diplomatic suitcase, but in English such an item is commonly referred to as a diplomatic bag.) But they also catalogue the problems and drawbacks of each plan.

Assange could go out in disguise, attempt to cross the roof to the nearby helipad or get lost among people in [department store] Harrods, reads the Spanish-language document, titled Scenarios for a Possible Exit for Assange.

The document goes on to suggest other schemes: Assange could be given diplomatic immunity by making him an official Ecuadorean representative to the United Nations, though it warns that the General Assembly could revoke that status, leading to his arrest. The document also points out that he could be safely spirited away in a diplomatic car. Diplomats cars are protected in the same way as the diplomatic buildings by the Vienna Convention, the document notes. But it also cautions that UKs Scotland Yard has police posted throughout the building, which the embassy doesnt use exclusively. And those guards could nab Assange before he ever reached a car.

That problem seems to have led the embassy officials to consider putting Assange in a diplomatic bagat least long enough to get him into the car. But they note that the diplomatic protection around such a bag only extends to normal diplomatic documents, presumably not Australian cypherpunk asylum seekers. That means if Assange were discovered in the bag, he could still be arrested. And the document warns that UK police might have the means to detect him inside: The Police are equipped with advanced technology for detecting body heat, preventing this option. (The U.S. State Department actually interprets the Vienna Convention to forbid even electronic scans of properly designated diplomatic bags, but one containing a human might not qualify as properly designated.)

In fact, British law enforcement seems to have expressly considered the bag possibility, as well as the other diplomatic gambits. The Ecuadorean document includes photos of handwritten UK police forms held under the arm of a careless official who allowed them to be photographed from a distance. They seem to show orders for how Assanges possible escape should be managed. Assange to be arrested under all circumstance, the paper reads. He comes out with diplomatic immune, in diplomatic bagin diplomatic vehicle, arrested.

All of that seems to have foiled the Ecuadoreans plans. Assange remains trapped in the embassy, where the leaked documents note that hes had increasing tensions with the local staff. Those run-ins are detailed in this report from Buzzfeed, which first reported the Ecuadorean document leak.

Even if Assange were to escape from the embassy, theres still the question of where hed go from there. The Ecuadorean plans dont detail in these documents what would happen after Assange lost his pursuers in Harrods or drove away in a car. The plan may have been to sneak him onto a private jet to Quito. Or he might have pulled an Edward Snowden and sent his pursuers on a wild goose chase as he went to some other destination. He still could.

Assanges most realistic hope of escape, however, is probably legal, rather than physical: The Swedish government recently dropped three of the potential sex crime charges against him, though the most serious accusation of rape still stands. But even if all the Swedish accusations are dropped, Assange has said he may still remain in the Ecuadorean embassy to avoid extradition to the U.S. for potential charges related to his publication of the millions of military and diplomatic documents leaked by Army private Chelsea Manning. All of that means that Assange may not be seeing the outdoors any time soon.

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Ecuador Considered Smuggling Julian Assange to ... - WIRED

Assange sent reverberations through the international and online community with whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.

Speaking at the Latin American progressive left (ELAP) in Quito, Ecuador, Assange said that although the U.S. and United Kingdom have thrown millions of dollars at the surveillance of the Ecuadorean embassy in London where he has been staying since 2012, he was still able to spread information.

Despite (the police and surveillance), from this embassy, protected by Ecuador, I and WikiLeaks manage to go head to head with the most sophisticated government on earth, of the U.S. agencies, he said.

We are winning. Because secrets breed incompetency.

Assange addressed the conference via satellite link, on a round-table discussion with the theme Globalization and cyberspace, between the security of the state and the rights of citizens.

He continued by explaining that while the propaganda sector of the superstructure of the U.S. government was highly successful, the intelligence agencies were failing.

The propaganda sector within the West is so competent, the mainstream media is very efficient in achieving propaganda victories and controlling the framework of debate and engaging in character assassination and so on, he said, explaining that it was extremely efficient in terms of money spent, because their basic product is itself information and is completely public.

It is almost a perfect market, he added.

The intelligence system on the other hand has a much higher budget but has no information available to it.

Assange sent reverberations through the international and online community with whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, which fed hundreds of thousands of leaked files by former U.S. military employee, Chelsea Manning and revealed some of the U.S.s worst atrocities in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Collateral Murder, a classified U.S. military video depicting 18 civilians killed in airstrikes from a U.S. Apache helicopter in 2007 in New Baghdad, Iraq, was released by the site in 2010, beginning an avalanche of criticism against the war.

Also speaking at conference on the same theme of globalization and cyberspace was Alessandro di Battista, representative in the Italian parliament for the radical left 5 Stelle movement.

Battista explained that he, a politician with no experience, was able to win 25 percent of the vote, with 9 million Italians voting for him, spending only US$180 on his campaign. Instead of spending money, he used social media to spread his message.

(The Internet means that) we can all provide information, and above all it has liberated politics from the chains of money, he said.

The Ecuadorean constitution has taught us that freedom of information is a human right, like eating, housing, clothes, air, and water, he added.

Assange and di Battista were joined at the three-day conference by dozens of other known progressive political actors in the region, such as Colombias Piedad Cordoba and the recently released Cuban Five.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa will speak later today.

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Julian Assange "Winning" Against Intelligence Agencies ...