Julian Assange issued a statement from the Ecuadorian Embassy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
Julian Assange has urged the US to end its "witch-hunt" against Wikileaks, in his first public statement since entering Ecuador's London embassy.
The US State Department said earlier that they do not believe in diplomatic asylum
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/...
Siding with the Brits in their escalating feud with Ecuador about the status of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the State Department declared today that the United States does not believe in the concept of ‘diplomatic asylum' as a matter of international law.
The United States can only formally grant asylum to political figures once they actually are on U.S. soil, as dictated by the Refugee Act of 1980. But the U.S. has a long record of protecting political targets inside U.S. embassy complexes, most recently with Chinese blind dissident Chen Guangcheng last December.
Jozsef Mindszenty was granted political asylum in the US Embassy and lived there for 15 years -
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
When the Soviet Union invaded Hungary on 4 November 1956, to restore the overthrown communist government, Cardinal Mindszenty sought Imre Nagy's advice, and was granted political asylum at the United States embassy in Budapest. Mindszenty lived there for the next 15 years, unable to leave the grounds.
György Aczél, the communist official in charge of all cultural and religious matters in Hungary, felt increasingly uncomfortable about the situation in late 1960s when Mindszenty fell seriously ill and rumor spread about the priest's impending "martyrdom". Yet, Aczél failed to convince János Kádár that freeing Mindszenty would create valuable confusion in the Vatican and allow the state to better control the remaining clergy.