Even if he is granted asylum he wont be allowed to leave the embassy nor will he be allowed to leave the country. He'll effectively be under permanent house arrest because if he sets foot outside the embassy the police will be waiting to take him into custody, he does not have any form of immunity by claiming asylum.

Even if he magically made it to Ecuador his worries are just beginning especially given the fact the US and Colombians have engaged in cross border incursions to kill members of the FARC, I doubt the country will even be able to provide much protection should he be targeted by a CIA snatch squad.

If he is granted political asylum he'll be able to travel under diplomatic immunity to Ecuador.

Incorrect he will not be afforded diplomatic immunity as he is not a diplomat thus not subject to immunity from arrest. If you could simply claim asylum and leave a country under protection everybody would be doing it. If he leaves the embassy regardless of claiming political asylum he will be subject to arrest before he even got into a diplomatic car outside the front door, likewise he'd be stopped at the ports or airports if he tried to leave through any of those. He breached his bail conditions thus he can be subject to arrest the moment he steps outside.

In any case if I was trying to get away from the Americans Ecuador wouldn't be high on my list of choices given that the US has launched cross border raids from Colombia to snatch and kill suspected FARC members. I wouldn't be surprised if they did the same to Assange, night time raid, bundle him into a helicopter or car, take him to an airstrip in Columbia, and then stick him on a CIA rendition flight. Lets not forget that this has happened to people all over the world in recent years, and they were just relatively small fry folks, Assange really pissed of the Americans with the amount of documents his organisation leaked, make no mistakes he is a high priority target for the CIA. Another thing given the political instability in South America and the US's rather sordid history of enacting regime changes on the continent what may be a safe country today probably wont be in a few years time.

His best bet is sitting tight in the embassy. The Americans wont risk storming it in central London, the same cannot be said for a safe house in Ecuador.

I'm not trying to say anything bad about the guy, it takes balls to piss off a superpower as large as the US knowing full well they routinely use assassinations and extraordinary renditions against those they dislike. I certainly wouldn't want to be in his position right now.

You're young if you don't remember cases from the past where somebody spent many years trapped inside an embassy. Ecuador can't simply give him diplomatic status. The host country wouldn't "accredit" the filing. Diplomats serve at the pleasure of the host country. They get to approve or disapprove of whoever is proposed to be a diplomat.

But the US won't "snatch" him. He's not actually in legal trouble here UNLESS he paid Manning (gave Manning ANYTHING considered to have value). We don't have your equivalent of an "Offical Secrets" act so it isn't illegal to RECEIVE secret material (doesn't mean you can keep it).

If he DID pay/give anything to Manning, that a whole other kettle of fish.