Patrick Semansky / AP file

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning steps out of a security vehicle as he is escorted into a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., on Nov. 29, 2012, for a pretrial hearing.

FORT MEADE, Md. – A military judge on Thursday accepted guilty pleas by  Army Pfc. Bradley Manning to 10 lesser charges against him, leaving the ex-intelligence analyst to face 12 other counts for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of government documents to the WikiLeaks website. 

The acceptance of the "naked guilty pleas" -- meaning there is no agreement between the government and the defense that would limit the sentence – at a pre-trial hearing means that Manning faces up to 20 years in prison, even if he is ultimately acquitted of the most-serious charges against him. 

Col. Denise Lind, the military judge presiding over the case, also accepted Manning’s “not guilty” pleas to the remaining charges, including "aiding the enemy." His court martial on those charges, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, is scheduled to begin on June 3. 

During the day-long pre-trial hearing, Manning acknowledged that his actions were a discredit to the service and that he knew WikiLeaks was not authorized to have the information he provided. 

At one point when Lind asked him whether he knew what he was doing was wrong, he answered simply, "Yes, your honor."

More than an hour of Thursday's hearing was consumed by Manning's composed reading of a 35-page prepared statement that offered his first public explanation of his motives for leaking the government documents to WikiLeaks. He said he did so to “spark domestic debate” on foreign policy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Manning painted himself as a young man with an "insatiable thirst for geopolitical information" and a desire for the world to know the truth about what was happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he said he became increasingly disillusioned after being sent to Iraq by actions that "didn't seem characteristic" of the U.S., the leader of free world.

Manning said under oath that the first documents he sent to WikiLeaks in early 2012 were the combined information data network exchanges for Iraq and Afghanistan, which he described as the daily journals of the "on-the-ground reality" of the conflicts in Iran and Afghanistan. 

He said he sent the information while on leave and staying at his aunt's house in Potomac, Md., using a public computer at a Barnes & Noble store in Rockville or North Bethesda. He said included a brief note calling the information the most significant documents of our time, and closing with, "Have a good day." 

He said he tried to send the information to the Washington Post and the New York Times before turning to WikiLeaks.  He said he later sent information to WikiLeaks eight other times from his personal laptop at Contingency Base Hammer in Iraq. 

Manning is facing 22 criminal charges that include "aiding the enemy" and could face a life sentence if convicted of the most serious charges. 

Manning said he decided to release the first batch information because he was depressed and frustrated, and felt "a sense of relief" when he returned to Iraq. He said he finally had a "clear conscience" because someone else knew what was happening. 

His most detailed explanation involved the release of aerial weapons team video showing airstrikes that killed some Iraqi civilians and several Reuters journalists.

“It was troubling to me" that the U.S. military in Iraq wouldn't release the video, he said. Also disturbing was the "seemingly delightful blood lust" exhibited when members of the air crew referred to the civilians as "dead bastards" and congratulated one another on their ability to kill large numbers of people. He said he was encouraged by the public response, that others were "as troubled" as he was.

In addition to the charge of aiding the enemy, Manning pleaded not guilty to counts alleging theft of U.S documents or videos -- including allegations that he stole the list of all of the emails and phone numbers of U.S. military and personnel in Iraq at the time -- unauthorized access of that information and downloading unauthorized software onto government computers.

The charges to which he pleaded guilty included intentionally causing intelligence information to be published on the Internet, improper handling of classified information and counts of conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline.

Specifically, Manning acknowledged that he had unauthorized possession of information, that he willfully communicated it, and that he communicated it to an unauthorized person. However, he only acknowledged that for nine specific files or pieces of information, including: 

• Combat engagement video of a helicopter gunship;
• Two Army intelligence agency memos;
• Certain records of the combined information data network exchange Iraq (which tracks all significant acts and patrol reports);
• Combined information data network exchange Afghanistan records;
• Some SOUTHCOM files dealing with Guantanamo Bay;
• An investigation into an incident in a village in Farah, Afghanistan; 
• Some Department of State cables.

Related story: WikiLeaks case: Bradley Manning seeks first public statement on motive

At his court martial, Manning’s defense is expected to argue that he considered himself a "whistleblower" and released the documents with "no malicious intent" or the intent to do "any harm to anyone." The government contends the release of the documents put some lives at risks, including the names of Afghans who were working with the U.S. military and intelligence.

Jim Miklaszewski is NBC News’ Chief Pentagon Correspondent and Courtney Kube is NBC News’ National Security Producer.  

This story was originally published on Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:00 AM EST

Jose Luis Magana / Reuters file

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted in handcuffs as he leaves the courthouse in Fort Meade, Maryland, on June 6.

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning released classified documents to WikiLeaks in an effort to "spark a domestic debate on the role of our military and foreign policy in general," according to a statement he will seek to read in a court hearing Thursday.

The lengthy statement, which Manning has already submitted to the judge presiding over his case at Fort Meade, Md., will be his first public account of his motivations for leaking hundreds of thousands of battlefield reports relating to U.S. operation in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as State Department diplomatic cables.

The statement appears intended to bolster the defense his lawyer plans to use at his court martial now slated for June -- that Manning was acting as a whistleblower intending to expose government misconduct.

Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst, is facing 22 criminal charges that include "aiding the enemy" and could result in a life sentence. He will seek to plead guilty to lesser charges -- such as unauthorized use of his government computer -- at the pre-trial hearing Thursday.

Prosecutors have objected to Manning's partial plea -- it is not the result of a plea bargain -- and made clear that they fully intend to bring him to trial.

See more investigative reports at The Isikoff Files

In reading his statement, Manning also "will speak to larger issues affecting his case" and will expand upon his guilty plea to establish that he acted from a “noble motive,” according to a news release Wednesday by the Bradley Manning Support Network. 

Although the group did not release the text of the statement, it cited an exchange in a hearing earlier his week in which prosecutors objected to Manning being allowed to read some portions of his statement -- including the passage in which he talks about his desire "to spark a domestic debate."

Prosecutors quoted some of the wording in Manning's statement during the hearing, saying the passage -- and another one relating to leaking information about corruption within the Iraqi Federal Police -- should not be allowed because it would be an admission by Manning to "uncharged misconduct." For example, admitting that he intended to provoke a public debate could expose Manning to an additional charge of intending to "discredit" the U.S. military, prosecutors argued. 

Manning's case has been shrouded in secrecy by the military. On Wednesday, the Pentagon released 84 pretrial documents, bowing to public records requests by news organizations, including NBC News. The documents are the first of about 500 that the Pentagon said it will release in response to the requests.

But in the documents released so far, the name of the presiding judge, Col. Denise Lind, has been redacted.  

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Michelle Shephard / Pool via Reuters file

The flag over a war crimes courtroom in Camp Justice at US Naval Base Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on October 17, 2012, day three of pre-trial hearings for the five Guantanamo prisoners accused of orchestrating the 9/11.

The WikiLeaks website began publishing on Thursday what it said were more than 100 U.S. Defense Department files detailing military detention policies in camps in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay in the years after the September 11 attacks on U.S. targets.

In a statement, WikiLeaks criticized regulations it said had led to abuse and impunity and urged human rights activists to use the documents, to be released over the next month, to research what it called "policies of unaccountability."

The statement quoted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as saying: "The 'Detainee Policies' show the anatomy of the beast that is post-9/11 detention, the carving out of a dark space where law and rights do not apply, where persons can be detained without a trace at the convenience of the U.S. Department of Defense."

"It shows the excesses of the early days of war against an unknown 'enemy' and how these policies matured and evolved," it said, and led to "the permanent state of exception that the United States now finds itself in, a decade later."

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in London said it had no immediate comment.

In January, U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said the United States was still flouting international law at Guantanamo Bay by arbitrarily and indefinitely detaining individuals.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed in 2001 when militants from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

Then President George W. Bush set up a detention camp at a U.S. naval base at Guantanamo in Cuba after U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan to expel al-Qaida following the September 11 raids. Of the 779 men held there, 167 remained as of mid-September 2012.

Interrogation
WikiLeaks said a number of documents it was releasing related to interrogation of detainees, and these showed direct physical violence was prohibited.

But it added the documents showed "a formal policy of terrorizing detainees during interrogations, combined with a policy of destroying interrogation recordings, has led to abuse and impunity".

A number of what can only be described as "policies of unaccountability" would also be released, it said.

One such document was a 2005 document "Policy on Assigning Detainee Internment Serial Numbers," it said.

"This document is concerned with discreetly 'disappearing' detainees into the custody of other U.S. government agencies while keeping their names out of U.S. military central records — by systematically holding off from assigning a prisoner record number," the WikiLeaks statement said.

WikiLeaks did not elaborate. But human rights activists say that after the September 11 attacks, the Central Intelligence Agency used "black sites" in friendly countries to interrogate and sometimes torture suspected militants beyond the reach of normal legal protections.

Playing on 'love' and 'fear'
While Bush acknowledged the existence of a CIA program for detaining and questioning militants outside of the United States in speech in September 2006, the government has never publicly confirmed the location of the sites.

Some of the policies applied to other countries' personnel, Wikileaks said, citing what it said was a 13-page interrogation policy document from 2005 for U.S.-led multinational forces in Iraq.

It said the document detailed techniques such as the "Emotional Love Approach: Playing on the love a detained person has for family, homeland or comrades". In contrast, in the "Fear Up (Harsh)" approach, it said "the interrogator behaves in an overpowering manner with a loud and threatening voice in order to convince the source he does indeed have something to fear; that he has no option but to co-operate."

The documents released on Thursday date from 2001 to 2004.

Assange, whose website previously angered the United States by releasing thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables, has been holed up inside Ecuador's embassy in central London since June to avoid extradition to Sweden to face rape and sexual assault allegations. He denies wrongdoing.

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Jacquelyn Martin / AP

Gan Golan, of Los Angeles, dressed as the "Master of Degrees," holds a ball and chain representing his college loan debt.

Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks to the media outside the High Court in London in this December 5, 2011 file photo.

Supporters who put up nearly $320,000 to bail out WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have lost their money, the Guardian of London reported.

Assange’s backers -- who include Jemima Khan, a writer, movie directors Ken Loach and Michael Moore and publisher Felix Dennis – had to forfeit their money because Assange skipped bail in June to avoid being extradited to Sweden where he is wanted on rape charges.

Assange, 41, has repeated that the Swedes would send him to the U.S., where he believes he would face the death penalty for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents through the website WikiLeaks.

Foreign Secretary William Hague has said those claims are “without foundation,” according to the BBC.

Instead, Assange moved into the Ecuadorean embassy, where British officials cannot arrest him, according to the Guardian. President Rafael Correa of Ecuador extended an open invitation to Assange to stay at the embassy, where, according to Reuters, he resides in a small, sequestered room with a vitamin D light and a treadmill to blow off steam.

A district court in Westminster, England, will convene again in October to determine whether nine other backers should also lose their money

Those financial supporters had promised to pay the court $31,732 each, the Guardian reported. Total, the backers stand to lose $539,444. Other backers include Assange’s girlfriend Sarah Harrison, along with a journalism critic and a Nobel Prize winning biologist, according to the Independent.

The conditions of Assange’s bail required that he wear an electronic tag and stay at the home of businesswoman Sarah Saunders. Saunders, who told the BBC in 2010 that Assange was a family friend, also put more than $30,000 toward his bail.

None of Assange’s financial supporters attended court, which frustrated Judge Howard Riddle. The judge said those backers had a month to convince Assange to turn himself in.

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Goodnight with George Galloway

George Galloway talks about the Julian Assange case during one of his regular video podcasts.

LONDON -- As U.S. Congressman Todd Akin fights for his political life over his "legitimate rape" comments, a high-profile British politician has ignited a storm on the other side of the Atlantic over the definition of rape.

George Galloway, a member of the U.K. parliament and former leader of the left-wing Respect Party, waded into the debate around the allegations faced by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

During a 31-minute podcast, Galloway discussed the claims made by two Swedish woman against Assange in graphic detail, claiming that his alleged behavior was at worst "bad manners" but "not rape."

The colorful Galloway -- who has been dubbed "Gorgeous George" by some U.K. tabloids  -- is no stranger to controversy. He grabbed headlines around the world after he shook hands with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1994 and praised him for his "strength, courage and indefatigability." He also appeared as a contestant on "Celebrity Big Brother" -- where he famously pretended to be a cat.

Ina / INA via AP, file

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein receives visiting MP George Galloway on Aug. 8, 2002, in Baghdad.

This week's "Goodnight with George Galloway" video podcast put him back in the spotlight.    

"Some people believe that when you go to bed with somebody, take off your clothes, and have sex with them and then fall asleep, you're already in the sex game with them," Galloway said, gesticulating emphatically. "It might be really bad manners not to have tapped her on the shoulder and said: 'Do you mind if I do it again?' It might be really sordid and bad sexual etiquette, but whatever else it is, it is not rape or you bankrupt the term rape of all meaning."

Cue gasps all around.

His comments provoked a furious response on Twitter and were blasted by women's groups and newspaper columnists.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, British broadcaster and journalist Christina Odone said that Galloway "should be punished at the ballot box" for his views. "When it comes to rape, misogyny is rife in politics," she added.

Assange in balcony appeal to Obama: Release leak suspect Bradley Manning

Scotsman columnist Emma Cowing wrote that Galloway's comments were "about men redefining serious crimes against women to suit a political agenda."

"Rape victims have a history of being ignored and accused of lying," she added. "They have a history of feeling terrified of speaking out in case they are not believed, or are ridiculed, or have to face their attacker and relive the crime. This is why so many rape victims never report their crimes and why so many find it difficult to speak out in court."

Telegraph assistant comment editor Tom Chivers wrote that "the situation Galloway has just described is absolutely, 100 per cent, no-ifs-or-buts definitely rape."

He added: "Listen, George: it is possible to think that WikiLeaks have done some good things without believing that Assange can do no wrong, or that all attempts to make him face trial are some sort of grand conspiracy."

Galloway is not the first British politician to get himself into hot water over the issue of rape.

A year ago, U.K. Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke kicked off a similar controversy when he differentiated date rape from "serious rape."  Calls for his resignation came in fast, but the storm settled after he clarified the comments.

'Both have acted like fools'
It remains to be seen if the same will be true in the U.S. for Rep. Todd Akin. 

An editorial in the left-leaning Guardian newspaper compared Akin and Galloway. "They have three things in common. Both are men. Both encourage rape deniers. And both have acted like fools."

NYT: Akin controversy may endanger GOP chances in the fall

The messages about rape from the highest echelons of political life come just after the 20th anniversary of legislation that made marital rape in the U.K. a crime. 

Victoria Derbyshire, the British radio host who took Clarke to task on his views a year ago made one point that resonates as the debate rages on both sides of the Atlantic this week.

"With respect," she told him in a flat tone, "rape is rape."

On Tuesday, the 58-year-old Galloway sought to clarify his comments and released a statement.

"No never means yes and non-consensual sex is rape. There's no doubt about it and that has always been my position," he said.

"Julian Assange, let's be clear, has always denied the allegations. And this has all the hallmarks of a set-up. I don't believe, from what we know, that the Director of Public Prosecutions would sanction a prosecution in Britain. What occurred is not rape as most people understand it."

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Kerim Okten / EPA

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange addresses the media and supporters while British policemen stand outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Sunday.

Updated at 10:14 a.m. ET: LONDON -- From a second-floor window of his refuge at the Ecuadorean embassy, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Sunday called on President Obama to release Bradley Manning, the United States intelligence analyst accused of leaking masses of confidential information.

In his  first public appearance in two months, the former hacker thanked his supporters gathered outside the London embassy and appealed to the U.S. not to prosecute WikiLeaks staff and supporters.

"I call on President Obama to do the right thing - renounce the witch-hunt against Wikileaks," he said in a provocative address in which he appeared to invoke the support of dozens of Latin American countries.

The U.S. administration’s “war on whistleblowers must end,” he said.

Ecuador on Thursday granted political asylum to the former computer hacker who incensed the United States and its allies by using his WikiLeaks website to leak hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic and military cables in 2010.

Assange paid tribute to Manning, who is the suspected source of those leaks and faces 22 criminal charges which, if he is convicted, could land him in jail for life.

"If Bradley Manning did as he is accused, he is a hero and one of the world's foremost political prisoners," Assange said.

Investigators have determined that Manning allegedly unlawfully downloaded tens of thousands of documents onto his own computer and passed them to an unauthorized person, but have not been able to make a link between those files and Assange.

Assange spoke from a balcony at the embassy because Britain has made it clear it will arrest him the moment he steps out of the property.

The west London embassy is in a building shared with other tenants and has no vehicular access except via the street, meaning Assange could not even appear in the entrance hall without risking immediate arrest.

UK refuses WikiLeaks' Assange safe passage to Ecuador

With a police helicopter hovering overhead and protestors using megaphones, the international legal row over Assange's future has become a spectacle in what is an upscale area of London, just a few meters away from department store, Harrods.

The former hacker is wanted in Sweden for questioning regarding allegations of rape and sexual assault and Britain has said he will not be granted safe passage out of his Ecuadorean embassy refuge, which enjoys diplomatic status.

Baltasar Garzon, a Spanish jurist and prominent human rights investigator who heads Assange's legal team, was also expected to speak in a separate address outside the building ahead of Assange's appearance.

A group of about 20 Assange supporters, many of whom have slept on sheets of cardboard outside the building since Wednesday, have decorated barriers with messages of support for Assange.

Army is pressed on why it kept trusting Manning

Assange's attempt to avoid extradition has provoked a diplomatic tussle between Britain and Ecuador, which said London had threatened to raid its embassy and cast the dispute as an arrogant European power treating a Latin American nation like a colony. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Updated at 6:33 p.m. ET: LONDON -- Britain said it would not allow Julian Assange safe passage to leave the country Thursday, hours after the WikiLeaks founder was granted asylum by Ecuador amid an escalating diplomatic crisis.  

U.K. Foreign Minister William Hague said he was determined to see Assange extradited to Sweden to face sex assault claims but added there were no plans to storm Ecuador's London embassy, meaning the current standoff could last indefinitely.

"We will not allow Mr. Assange safe passage out of the United Kingdom nor is there any legal basis for us to do so," Hague said during a press conference. "The United Kingdom does not accept the principle of diplomatic asylum."

Britain earlier said it might revoke the diplomatic status of the embassy, where the Australian has been holed up since June 19 after he exhausted all appeals after a 17-month legal battle. 

Assange, who incensed American government officials by publishing thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables and Iraq and Afghan war dispatches in 2010, is wanted for questioning in Sweden over assault and rape claims, which he denies.

Ecuador: UK threatened to break WikiLeaks' Assange out of embassy

Hague insisted that the U.K.'s actions had anything to do with Assange's or WikiLeak's work.

Facundo Arrizabalaga / EPA

Police officers arrest a supporter of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday outside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

"It's important to understand that this is not about Mr. Assange's activities at WikiLeaks, or the attitude of the United States of America," he said.  "He is wanted in Sweden to answer allegations of serious sexual offenses."

Ricardo Patino, the Ecuadorean foreign minister, earlier told a news conference in Quito it was upholding international law by granting asylum. He expressed fury at Britain’s earlier threat to arrest Assange, saying it was a direct challenge to the Ecuador’s sovereignty.

Martin Alipaz / EPA file

A composite file photo of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, left, and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, right.

Patino said there was a risk Assange would be taken to the United States where he "would not have a fair trial, he could be judged by special or military courts, and it is not unlikely to believe he would be treated in a cruel and degrading way, that he would receive a life sentence or death penalty, with which his human rights would not be respected."

A version of Patino’s statement was posted online by Ecuador's foreign ministry (in Spanish).

Sweden immediately summoned Ecuador's ambassador in Stockholm. "We want to tell them that it's [unacceptable] that Ecuador is trying to stop the Swedish judicial process," foreign ministry spokesman Anders Jorle said.

Jorle also said Assange was wanted in Sweden to answer allegations of "serious sexual offenses." The extradition had nothing to do with the work of WikiLeaks or with a desire by U.S. authorities to try him for publishing diplomatic secrets, he added.

Assange's recognition as a political refugee by Ecuador's leftist government was a big symbolic victory for the ex-hacker, but it did little to answer the question: 'How will he ever leave the embassy?'

"We're at something of an impasse," extradition lawyer Rebecca Niblock said shortly after the news broke. "The U.K. government will arrest Julian Assange as soon as he sets foot outside theembassy but it's very hard as well to see the Ecuadorean government changing their position."

PhotoBlog: More images from the scene as protesters scuffle with London police

She said there was practically no precedent for the situation, invoking the case of a Hungarian cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, who camped out at the U.S. Embassy in Budapest from 1956 to 1971.  "One can't see Mr. Assange doing the same thing," she told BBC television. "One side will have to back down eventually."

Assange’s friend Vaughan Smith, whose country manor estate Assange stayed at while under house arrest, said Assange feels he is being "crucified."

“He genuinely believes that. I know him well. He's not a rapist. He stayed in my home with my family and none of us felt that there was anything improper about his behavior," Smith said, according to ITN.

Assange will give a statement in front of Ecuador's embassy in London on Sunday, a spokesman said on Thursday, although it was unclear if the WikiLeaks founder would risk arrest by appearing in person outside the building. 

"Julian Assange will give a live statement in front of the Ecuadorian embassy, Sunday, 2 p.m. (9 a.m. EDT)," WikiLeaks said in a message on Twitter. "It will be his first public appearance since March." 

WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson declined to elaborate and would not say if the appearance would be at an embassy window or on the pavement.

Outside the embassy on Thursday, protesters chanting slogans in support of Assange tussled with police.

A Reuters reporter saw at least three protesters being dragged away by police as the crowd shouted: "You are trying to start a war with Ecuador." About 20 officers were outside the embassy trying to push away the crowd of about 15 supporters.

'Colonial times are over'
London had warned Ecuador in writing earlier in the day that a 1987 British law permits it to revoke the diplomatic status of a building if the foreign power occupying it "ceases to use land for the purposes of its mission or exclusively for the purposes of a consular post."

 Quito bristled at the threat.

"We want to be very clear, we're not a British colony. The colonial times are over," Patino said in an angry statement after a meeting with President Rafael Correa.

Ecuador president: I've not yet decided on asylum for Assange

"The move announced in the official British statement, if it happens, would be interpreted by Ecuador as an unfriendly, hostile and intolerable act, as well as an attack on our sovereignty, which would force us to respond in the strongest diplomatic way," he told reporters.

 Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

Ecuador, whose government is part of a left-leaning bloc of nations in South America, called for meetings of regional foreign ministers and the hemispheric Organization of American States to rally support in its complaint against Britain.

British officials have said they will arrest him the moment he steps foot outside the embassy, but until Thursday they had not previously suggested publicly that they might strip the embassy of its diplomatic inviolability.

NBC News partner ITV News's coverage of Assange: 'Not going near a police station soon'

In a statement, WikiLeaks accused Britain of trying to bully Ecuador into denying Assange asylum.

"A threat of this nature is a hostile and extreme act, which is not proportionate to the circumstances, and an unprecedented assault on the rights of asylum seekers worldwide," it said Wednesday.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland refrained from commenting on Ecuador's decision to grant Assange asylum. "This is an issue between the Ecuadorans, the Brits, the Swedes," Nuland said.  She added, "with regard to this particular issue, it is an issue among the countries involved and we're not planning to interject ourselves."

NBC News' staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Martin Alipaz / EPA file

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, left, and Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, right.

Updated at 6:55 p.m ET: Ecuador's president Rafael Correa on Twitter Tuesday denied reports in the British media that he has decided to offer Wikileaks founder Julian Assange asylum.

"Rumors about asylum for Assange are false," Correa tweeted in Spanish hours after the Guardian newspaper reported the president had already made up his mind. He said in the tweet he was awaiting a report from the Foreign Ministry.

Earlier this week, Correa had said he hoped to announce a decision on Wednesday.

An offer may amount to little more than a symbolic gesture since Assange, holed up in Ecuador’s London embassy since June 19, has no guarantee that he could escape United Kingdom arrest and fly to the capital, Quito.

Assange, 41, has been trying to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning on sex-crime allegations.

The former computer hacker, who enraged Washington in 2010 when his WikiLeaks website published thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables, says he fears he could be sent to the United States, where he believes his life would be at risk.

Assange is in breach of his British bail conditions and the British police have said he is liable to arrest if he steps out of the embassy, which is located in London's ritzy Knightsbridge area, miles away from any airport, Reuters reported.

Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com 

It appears unlikely that the British government would give Assange safe passage to an airport as that would mean going against the Swedish arrest warrant and a ruling by Britain's own Supreme Court that the warrant was valid, Reuters reported.

Earlier Tuesday, an official in Quito, who is familiar with the government discussions, told the Guardian, "Ecuador will grant asylum to Julian Assange."

A WikiLeaks spokesperson, Kristinn Hrafnsson, could not confirm the asylum offer, Reuters reported.

"I cannot confirm. I just spoke to him (Assange) and he said he had not been notified either," Hrafnsson said.

Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said that Assange's grounds to request political asylum are that he thinks he is being politically prosecuted and that he Sweden will extradite him to the United States.

Patino, who has led Ecuador's analysis of the case, told Reuters the Andean country was also looking at how the 41-year-old Australian might travel to Ecuador if he is granted asylum.

"Beyond the international treaties, the right to asylum etc, and the autonomy or sovereignty the national government has to take a decision of this nature, we have to look at what will happen next," he said before an event in the highland city of Ambato.

"It's not only about whether to grant the asylum, because for Mr. Assange to leave England he should have a safe pass from the British (government). Will that be possible? That's an issue we have to take into account."

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Correa, a self-declared enemy of "corrupt" media and U.S. "imperialism", said he sympathizes with Assange but also feels respect for the British legalsystem and for international law.

Assangehasnot been charged with any offense in Sweden or in the United States. Swedish prosecutors want to question him about allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two WikiLeaks supporters in 2010. Assangesays he had consensual sex with the women.

This article includes reporting by Reuters.

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LONDON - It was another mega-download moment brought to you by WikiLeaks.

On Thursday, at the progressive journalists hub in London called the Frontline Club, the group of whistleblowers officially announced the release of their latest massive “data set” regarding Syria. 

The new release of some 2.5 million emails focuses entirely on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime as seen through the communications of its top ministries and companies. They date from August 2006 to March of this year, when the current crisis in Syria was building up deadly momentum. 

This release by WikiLeaks is said to be so large that it allegedly surpasses by eight times the size of the group's infamous release of U.S. State Department cables known as “Cablegate."

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“The material is embarrassing to Syria, but it is also embarrassing to Syria’s opponents,” WikiLeaks official Sarah Harrison said in a statement streamed live.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who faces extradition to Sweden for questioning about allegations of rape and molestation, did not appear at the club because he is currently living inside Ecuador’s Embassy seeking political asylum. He fears he risks arrest by British police if he leaves the embassy building.

The so-called Syrian Files, to be released over the next few weeks, reportedly reveal intimate correspondence between top Baath Party officials, as well as records of bank transfers within Syria and abroad, including with Western companies, although Harrison did not go into detail.

Numerous attempts to access the data online by NBC News failed because the WikiLeaks website crashed continuously. But several initial documents we could access refer to the international communications company Selex (based in Genoa, Italy) and the sale of its Tetra technology to Syria this year.  Tetra’s website describes the equipment as a “trunked radio system.” 

WikiLeaks suggested this kind of encrypted communications network could be used, for instance, by the Syrian police to better protect their surveillance of militant activities. Harrison said that Western “training” on the Tetra technology inside Syria continued well after the outbreak of civil war.

Other downloads from the Syria Files that NBC News was able to access allegedly confirm delivery of  ‘3 complete sets of connectors for 3 choppers’ to Damascus.  It was unclear if “choppers” referred to helicopters used by the Syrian regime or jargon for a communications device. These Selex emails were dated Feb. 2, 2012.

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The goal of the latest release of data is to generate a series of in-depth stories about “the inner workings of the Syrian government and economy” and how the West and Western companies “say one thing and do another,” Harrison added.

However, this release is striking in its broader, more neutral approach, without the trenchant ideology or politics associated with previous data sets.  

But on Thursday, Harrison denied reporters’ suggestions that WikiLeaks was going “mainstream.”  She said that the group was facing “a difficult time at the moment.” She was referring to WikiLeaks' growing grand jury investigation in the U.S. and the blocking of its accounts by international credit card companies – not to mention Assange’s diplomatic limbo – but said that the organization would continue to “work through that.” 

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She ended by saying she was not aware of any “rebranding” by the world’s most controversial spiller of international secrets.

Jim Maceda is an NBC News correspondent based in London. 

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Neil Hall / Reuters

A police officer stands guard outside Ecuador's Embassy in London where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has taken refuge on June 22.

LONDON - Julian Assange will not leave his embassy refuge on Friday to enter a British police station as part of his extradition process to be questioned in Sweden about sex-crime allegations, a lawyer for the WikiLeaks founder said.

Assange, 40, has been holed-up in Ecuador's embassy in London since he made a surprise application for political asylum last week.

In a statement in front of the embassy, Assange's lawyer Susan Benn confirmed he would not comply with the police request to surrender himself and would remain in the embassy while evidence for his application for his political asylum is processed.

NBC News partner ITV News's coverage of Assange: 'Not going near a police station soon'

She said there is a "legal process in place which would involve Julian being taken to the U.S." if he is extradited to Sweden to answer rape allegations. It is "only a matter of time" before the U.S. attempts to extradite Mr Assange," Benn added.

Assange risks being arrested the moment he steps outside the red-brick building after breaching bail terms, keeping both his supporters and police puzzled as to what he might do next.

On Thursday, British police summoned Assange to a London police station, demanding he leave the embassy.

But Assange later told BBC television in a telephone interview: "Our advice is that asylum law both internationally and domestically in the UK takes precedence to extradition law, so the answer is almost certainly not."

UK police demand Assange leave Ecuador embassy

Police said they had formally "served a surrender notice upon a 40-year-old man that requires him to attend a police station at date and time of our choosing."

"He remains in breach of his bail conditions, failing to surrender would be a further breach of conditions and he is liable to arrest," the police statement added.

The statement, in line with British policy, did not name the person but media quoted sources identifying him as Assange.

WikiLeaks' Assange says Ecuador 'quite supportive'

The BBC reported the extradition unit delivered a note to Assange and the Ecuadorean embassy. The embassy declined to comment. 

Assange denies any wrongdoing in Sweden and says he fears that if extradited there he could be sent on to the United States, where he could face criminal charges punishable by death.

Assange enraged Washington in 2010 when his WikiLeaks website published secret U.S. diplomatic cables.

Easily recognisable by his white-yellow hair, and known for his unpredictable behaviour, Assange caused a media storm in Britain with his asylum bid. Ecuador's ambassador has in the meantime flown home to discuss whether to grant him asylum but the decision has yet to be made.

By diplomatic convention, police cannot enter the embassy without authorisation from Ecuador. But even if Quito granted him asylum, he has no way of travelling to Ecuador without passing through London and exposing himself to arrest. 

Msnbc.com's F. Brinley Bruton and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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