Libyan embassy attack linked to Assange- India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Wikileaks has said that the Libyan embassy was attacked because the US has backed Britain's threats to storm the Ecuadorian embassy in London and arrest Julian Assange. The whistle blowing website issued a tweet suggesting that America had given 'tacit approval' to the threats from the UK Foreign Office. Wikileaks made the controversial remark on Twitter in the wake of the death of the US ambassador to Libya in protests this week, the Telegraph reports. The tweet was later deleted, but was reproduced in the New Statesman and retweeted by others. "By the US accepting the UK siege on the Ecuadorian embassy in London it gave tacit approval for attacks on embassies around the world," the tweet said. According to the paper, WikiLeaks replaced the tweet with a different version saying, 'by the US accepting the UK threat to storm the Ecuadorian embassy in London it helped to normalize attacks on embassies.' The website gave an explanation as to why the original tweet had been deleted. "We have deleted and rephrased a previous tweet with the word 'tacit' in it, since the word is rare and was being misinterpreted," it said. According to the paper, the original tweet drew criticism from followers on the social media site. Jemima Khan, one of the high profile figures who have lent their backing to Assange, slammed the tweet as 'absurd and shockingly offensive.' "That last @wikileaks tweet manages to be both absurd and shockingly offensive & I say that as a wikileaks supporter," Khan wrote.

Libyan embassy attack linked to threat to arrest Assange