Outside the Ecuadorian embassy, where Julian Assange may or may not have flushed the toilet (Getty Images)

Poor Julian Assange ... even his bowel movements are being censored.

The WikiLeaks founder was granted asylum in Ecuador today, after two months holed up in the the country's British embassy, where he was avoiding the long arm of Sweden's justice system. (Britain, understandably, is not happy about this.)

Despite the good news for Mr. Assange, a tweet from the official WikiLeaks account took offense at The New York Times’s coverage of the story, which, it claims, "alleges that Mr. Assange neglected to flush a tiolet" [sic] even once the whole time he was in the embassy.

"We're not joking."

They're not? Because search as we might, we couldn't find a single reference to toilets in the entire NYT piece from last night, or in any of its follow-up articles. We were about to chalk it up to a misread (after all ... "tiolet") on WikiLeaks' part, until  a Google News search revealed that the original article did mention Toilet-gate:

Without notice or explanation, the allegations of Mr. Assange's refusal to flush have disappeared from the article of the same headline, and an updated item about Mr. Assange's mental and physical deterioration under house arrest likewise made no scatological references.

Like the saying goes: Just because you are paranoid, it doesn't mean that they aren't out to get you or your shit.

Dr. Adams, left, with Dennis Kucinich.

Patch Adams, MD, the clown doctor portrayed by Robin Williams in the eponymous 1998 film, has joined several dozen prominent figures of the American Left in asking Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa to grant WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange political asylum.

"The 'crime' that he has committed is that of practicing journalism," states the letter, delivered to the Embassy of Ecuador in London yesterday by American advocacy group Just Foreign Policy. 

Dr. Adams and the other letter signers are concerned that if Mr. Assange is extradited to Sweden, he will be imprisoned and re-extradited to the United States, where he's liable receive the same treatment as alleged leaker Private Bradley Manning. That includes "repeated and prolonged solitary confinement, harassment by guards, and humiliating treatment such as being forced to strip naked and stand at attention outside his cell." Many think the U.S. government has an indictment prepared already.

Other letter signers include the directors Michael Moore, Danny Glover and Oliver Stone; writers Naomi Wolf, Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges and Glenn Greenwald; pundit Bill Maher, and other activists, whistleblowers and professors.

Ecuador is a strategic option for Mr. Assange right now because President Correa desperately needs to shore up his free press bona fides. After winning two high profile libel lawsuits earlier this year, President Correa pardoned the journalists under international pressure. He has been interviewed by Mr. Assange and publicly praised WikiLeaks.

The Nation is publishing a series of articles based on United States and United Nations diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks, and it didn’t even have to wrestle egomaniac Julian Assange for them!

The Nation’s cache comes secondhand, from Haitian newspaper Haïti Liberté. According to Nation executive editor Betsy Reed, the series reflects a new approach for Wikileaks, in which the organization targets releases to the countries specifically addressed in the cables. Cables released during this phase have been making news in papers in Honduras, El Salvador, Pakistan and India, but have been mostly ignored by the American media.

“If you look at the content of the Haiti cables, it shows the U.S. Embassy in collusion with all U.S. corporate interests,” Ms. Reed told Off the Record. “That’s going to be a running theme of a lot of the pieces.”

It reportedly infuriated Mr. Assange that New York Times executive editor Bill Keller was able to obtain WikiLeaks materials through a back channel deal with The Guardian, but The Nation doesn’t need to fear Mr. Assange’s retribution.

“WikiLeaks did know about our collaboration with Haïti Liberté and they were and are very supportive of it,” Ms. Reed told The Observer.

kstoeffel@observer.com :: @kstoeffel

The 8,000 word opus went online on Wednesday, will appear in the NYT Magazine on Sunday and, for $5.99, can be read on the Nook as “Open Secret: Wikileaks, War and American Diplomacy.”

The Nook edition is being published using PubIt!, Barnes& Noble’s self-publishing platform. The Nook book, which only became available for pre-order earlier this week, has already reached No. 86 on Barnes & Noble’s Nook top sellers list.

In addition to executive editor Keller’s essay, the Nook edition includes a collection of Wikileaks articles from the paper, detailed analysis of the leaked documents, opinion pieces by Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd, “expanded” profiles of Assange and suspected Army source Bradley Manning, and all the Wikileak documents already posted on the Times website, as well as 27 new ones.

It's an interesting approach that shows The Times gaining savvy as a multi-platform publisher. Time will tell if readers reach for their wallets, or simply spend more time with the search function on the newspaper’s website.

Today, however, NBC reports that investigators have been unable to link Manning with Wikileaks front man Julian Assange. 

The officials say that while investigators have determined that Manning had allegedly unlawfully downloaded tens of thousands of documents onto his own computer and passed them to an unauthorized person, there is apparently no evidence he passed the files directly to Assange, or had any direct contact with the controversial WikiLeaks figure.

Assange says Manning is a political prisoner, but that he never heard of him or considered him a source for information before reading about him in the press. 

bpopper [at] observer.com | @benpopper

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Rudolf Elmer, a former employee of Swiss bank Julius Baer who leaked information to Wikileaks in 2008, called a press conference to discuss his leak. Although Wikileaks founder Julan Assange was also present at the announcement, Mr. Elmer said it was he, and not Mr. Assange, who was responsible for the latest leak.

The last time Mr. Elmer provided documents to Wikileaks, Bank Julius Baer filed a court complaint that resulted in a temporary shutdown of Wikileaks. This leak, coupled with Mr. Assange's promised publication of documents related to a major U.S. financial institution, may suggest that while 2010 was the year Wikileaks took on U.S. foreign policy, 2011 will be the year the site takes on the global financial system.

mtaylor [at] observer.com | @mbrookstaylor

The Julian Assange Coloring Book allows users to stay inside the lines in nine different stencil-like outlines of Assange, and a color palette to go with it. The website used free software called "My Coloring Book" from Kea Software. Color in a picture of Assange-as-Che or Assange with Santa. Assange may bring down Bank of America, but how silly would he look doing it with fushia hair?

Speaking of Assange's hair, 99designs.com recently announced the winner of their contest, Design the next great hair style for Julian Assange. User "dezinerly" won the first place prize of $250 with his depiction of Assange as Napoleon, which is fitting for a man described by his former colleagues as a narcissistic control freak. 

Let other people argue about whether he is an information freedom fighter or diplomatic traitor, a rapist or the victim of a set-up. Isn't it more entertaining to debate whether he looks better with a mohawk or a mullet?

Today, reports Daily Intel's Nitasha Tiku, Assange told British reporters that these files include, "504 US embassy cables on one broadcasting organization and there are cables on Murdoch and News Corp."

It's unclear why Assange is singling out his fellow Aussie, especially given the respect the two have shown each other in the past.

Assange once wrote, "In 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide’s The News, wrote: 'In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win.'"

And as Tiku points out, Assange used an interview in Murdoch's Time's U.K. to strike back at the Guardian for publishing documents related to rape allegations against Assange. 

Assange, who has recently been ramping up efforts to define himself as a journalist, seems to be picking an odd target for his latest round of threats. 

bpopper @ observer dot com - @benpopper

We should remember, of course, that Assange has not yet specified which major U.S. bank would implicated in an upcoming data release. Nevertheless, rumors have swirled that Bank of America is the target.

The article also raises the possibility that Wikileaks' potential document dump could have come from the U.S. government. The authorities deny this theory:

Officials at the S.E.C., the House oversight committee and the New York attorney general’s office insist the information they received had been turned over in the form of papers and discs, never a hard drive, and deny they are the source of the WikiLeaks cache.

It's an interesting hypothetical to consider -- that government officials, who have for the most part regarded Wikileaks as a dangerous threat, would perhaps deploy secrets to Wikileaks in hopes of bringing down one of thier targets.

In any case, this story indicates that Bank of America is concerned enough about Assange's threat that it's basically playing Whack-a-Mole with its own internal documents. Not a good sign for America's biggest bank.

mtaylor [at] observer.com | @mbrookstaylor

For the episode of Rap News entitled "New World Order - War On Journalism," international man of mystery Julian Assange agreed to throw down a guest verse. 

Assange isn't much of a rapper, but according to an interview with the Rap News stars in Agence France Presse, “He was full of creative ideas for how to act and time the entrance, and he really enjoyed lampooning his own image,” Farrant said. “It was fantastic—we’re still pinching ourselves,” added Nanni. “He’s a preternaturally calm person, but with a great sense of humour.”

A rapper with great hair, preternatural calm and a sense of humor. No wonder the ladies love him.