Assange: Obama exploiting Arab Spring

UNITED NATIONS -- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange accused President Barack Obama yesterday of seeking to exploit the Arab uprisings for personal political gain, as he addressed a sideline meeting of the UN General Assembly via videolink from his hideout at a London embassy.

The Australian activist has sheltered inside Ecuador's embassy in London, beyond the reach of British police, since June 19, when he sought refuge after he exhausted all legal routes to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over sex crimes allegations.

Assange and his supporters claim that the Swedish sex case is part of a Washington-orchestrated plot to make him stand trial in the United States over his work with WikiLeaks, which has published thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables and other documents. Both Sweden and the United States reject that claim.

At a sideline meeting organized by Ecuador, the activist attempted to draw parallels between himself and the instigators of the Arab Spring -- claiming that they had all been let down by Obama.

"It must come as a surprise to Tunisians for Barack Obama to say the U.S. supported the forces of change in Tunisia," Assange said, speaking from Ecuador's apartment-sized London mission.

He claimed that uprisings across the Arab world had been inspired, in part, by his organization's disclosures about despotic rulers, including Tunisia's deposed President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Assange claimed that Obama, whose administration he accuses of building a criminal case against WikiLeaks and of harassing its staff, was seeking to exploit the reforms of the Arab Spring during his re-election campaign.

"Mohamed Bouazizi did not set himself on fire so that Barack Obama could get re-elected," Assange told the meeting, referring to the 2011 self-immolation by a Tunisian fruit vendor that sparked the uprising that toppled Ben Ali.

Assange, who made no reference to the Swedish sexual misconduct case as he addressed diplomats, also accused Britain and Sweden of failing to provide guarantees that he would not face extradition to the United States to help preserve close military and intelligence links with Washington.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa has granted Assange asylum, but if he steps outside the embassy he will be arrested by police who surround the building.