On the two-year anniversary of Julian Assanges stay in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, he spoke out about his complicated diplomatic and legal saga. | ANDREW COWIE via Getty Images <\/p>\n
With British police still surrounding the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he is holed up, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange joined an international conference call Wednesday to speak out about his complicated and seemingly intractable diplomatic and legal saga. <\/p>\n
The call came one day ahead of the two-year anniversary of Assange taking refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning in an investigation about alleged sexual offenses. Assange argued his embassy stay is also necessary to avoid extradition to the U.S. for publishing files leaked to him by former U.S. Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning. <\/p>\n
Although the call addressed his relationship with former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Assange refused to reveal whether the two have been in any direct contact. <\/p>\n
\"The security situation in relation to myself here at the embassy, where the British government admits to spending more than $10 million so far on police encircling the embassy, and Edward Snowden's situation in Russia and in relation to the National Security Agency, means that I cannot discuss what types of communication we use or do not use,\" said Assange. <\/p>\n
Assange and WikiLeaks lawyers engineered temporary asylum in Russia for Snowden, who fled to Hong Kong last year before revealing he was the source of leaked NSA reports. The organization's most high-profile success in the last year was getting Snowden the proper travel document for his flight from Hong Kong to Russia. <\/p>\n
Assange has also signed up as a trustee for the Courage Foundation, which is raising money for Snowden's legal defense. But beyond his role in that group, it's not clear to what extent -- if any -- the WikiLeaks leader has an ongoing relationship with the NSA leaker. <\/p>\n
Assange declined to answer a question about whether he has any access to Snowden's files. But after a media organization with access to Snowden's files recently published an article on NSA surveillance in two countries, WikiLeaks claimed to identify one country whose name had been redacted. WikiLeaks was vague about its sourcing. <\/p>\n
\"In relation to an issue revolving around sourcing, as a matter of longstanding policy to protect our sources, we cannot comment,\" he said. <\/p>\n
Beyond the daring Snowden caper, WikiLeaks has made few of the global splashes it did when relying on the files of Manning, who is now serving the beginning of a 35-year sentence for leaking to the organization. But Assange pointed to files WikiLeaks published in January detailing negotiations for the Trans-Pacifc Partnership, a planned global trade agreement, as one success. <\/p>\n
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