Whatever happens, if anything happens by the time this piece appears, the saga of Julian Assange holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to escape the wrath of a United States administration fighting its own shadows, takes away – in an instant – all the justified pride that Britain and Britons the world over felt with the recent staging of a splendid Olympiad in the east end of their capital. From Olympic glory to diplomatic shame in the space of just a few days.

The not so subtle threat by the hapless William Hague to force an entry into a foreign embassy on the perceived pretext that the ex-imperial powers are used to getting their own way, is yet another public demonstration of sheer hypocrisy. While they expect others to completely respect the sanctum of their diplomatic missions everywhere in the world, such as when some Chinese or Iranian dissident seeks refuge there, they are not ready to do the same when the tables are turned.

It seems obvious that whatever the outcome of the Assange affair, the Brits are only doing what they have been told to do by the even more hypocritical Americans – and that is to one way or another get this man out and quickly hand him over to them for prosecution and, possibly, execution. Internet, the great electronic phenomenon that America has donated to the world, is – to them – now a monster haunting them all day and all of the night.

What is truly amazing in this case is that most people do not have a clue of what it is all about. Suffice to say there are no formal charges against the Wikileaks chief from Australia, and the “charges” of a sexual nature against him are alleged to have been cajoled out of the poor women “victims”.

Which is why people are asking why no one, not even the international media run by powerful financiers for powerful politicians, seems to have addressed the Swedish prosecutor’s bizarre behaviour in this case. It is known that the Swedish legal system has allowed many of its representatives to travel abroad to interview suspected criminals, including murderers, but it simply won’t accept going over to London and speak to Assange about some dubiously timed, non-violent rape allegations. Why have they been stonewalling anybody with even an iota of logic who has tried to get some reasonable answers to these questions? No one single, good reason has been given as to why Assange can’t be interviewed in his Ecuadorian refuge in London.

This is political persecution at its mediaeval worst. The internationally recognised integrity of foreign embassies and the protection of their staffs all over the world are, in this incredibly bullying way, being undermined and put at risk simply because America and Americans are not only embarrassed by legitimate whistle-blowing but are intentionally assimilating it with espionage and treason.

Tariq Ali, historian, novelist, journalist, filmmaker, intellectual, political campaigner and activist, was on TV the other day rightly insisting there must be assurances that if Julian Assange is extradited from the UK, he will not be subsequently extradited to the United States, since under human rights legislation, no European Union nation can permit an extradition which might result in that person being executed.

Some American states are known to have executed some of their own citizens who were under the legal age when they committed their crime, had an incredibly low IQ and, in one special cruel case, even a handicapped person. One can imagine what could happen to the world’s top whistle-blower who has shown what American diplomacy is all about – an incredulous shifty game of double-standards. But American soldiers are dying in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places, one might argue, and the Wikileaks revelations only endanger them and their agents even more. Easy answer to that: no American soldiers would die in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places if there were no American soldiers to die there. Wikileaks is merely a welcome piece of 21st century reality, not unlike the pilot-less drones killing civilians at random.

Whistle-blowers are bad boys and girls in every conservative book. We have seen the same furious attitude on the part of the Nationalist government here, even in the case of whistle-blowers who came from a background that had helped, in no small way, the Nationalist cause under Labour administrations. The banking sector is the perfect example. When a whistle-blower from this sector decided to go to then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami and reveal all, he ended up being the sacrificial lamb, shorn and thrown brusquely onto the scrap heap. Even government-appointed guardians, such as ex-Mepa auditor Joseph Falzon, have been bundled out into oblivion.

In his “window” appearance last Sunday, Assange rightly asked the Barack Obama administration to stop persecuting him and his donation-based Wikileaks. I am sure that, like the rest of us liberals and progressives in the world, Assange had been happy watching the first black man getting into the White House four years ago. Obama promised social reforms and more positive attitudes aimed at restoring America’s image in the world. His medicare and insurance proposals were a breath of fresh air after the stench of the George W. Bush administration.

People who seek leadership and example from the world’s only super power have been hugely disappointed. True, Obama has had to contend with a fierce and financially secure conservative Opposition. He also has to face an election soon and, ironically, many still hope he won’t do a “sarkozy” and be forever remembered as a one-term president.

But it is also true that American world diplomacy has not changed in any way since Obama’s election. To hear American diplomats insisting they are ready to ignore majority or vetoed decisions within the United Nations security council, as has been the case recently with the Syrian crisis, and hog it alone, like your typical late-19th and early-20th century imperialist regime, is worrying to no small degree, even to us minnows of the western world that is suddenly questioning the most rooted of democratic practices.

Also contrary to Obama promises, in Guantanamo − that piece of Cuban territory that America has historically made its own by both fair means and foul − the highly distressing mystery goes on of non-American citizens forcibly taken into military custody and humiliated with chains and orange overalls without ever having been charged or provided with legal assistance, their governments having been ignored or told to shut up and play ball.

Can anyone in his right senses really wonder why Julian Assange has done all in his powers to avoid being taken to the US for “prosecution” courtesy of the pathetic governments of Britain and Sweden? And why has the European Union, such a stout defender of human rights when it comes to dissidents from non-Western countries, not offered even a whimper of defence for Assange when it has publicly and rightly censored Russia’s Putin over the feminist, punk rock, teenage Pussy Riot comedy act?

We all know why, of course. And while we’re at it, spare a thought for Bradley Manning, the US Army private accused of leaking classified US information to Wikileaks in 2010. He is facing 22 charges in all, the most serious is “aiding the enemy”, a crime punishable by death.

Remember the fuss when a Chinese dissident was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize but was prevented from receiving it? Remember that long-suffering human rights activist in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, who was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and was finally able to deliver her acceptance speech only last June?

Manning too has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, but can you see the Norwegians ever actually awarding it to him? Hee hee. See how their Scandinavian brothers, the Swedes, have acted with regard to Julian Assange and you have the answer. The Americans simply won’t let them.