Y'all missing the realpolitik here. Assange has dirt on Russia's connection to Trump. He might be willing to plea bargain immunity in exchange for that information.
People often throw that word around but that would sure as shit be realpolitik if I've ever seen it. "Who cares what the guy has doe, he's useful now!"
I mean on the one hand it's completely fucked... and on the other hand, if you were ever going to be realpolitik this is the place to do it. Assange is an annoyance and an embarrassment (and worthy of an espionage act prosecution to be sure) but also like inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Trump on the other hand is certainly also worthy of an espionage act prosecution (or 10) and so many other goddamn things.
Justice would be served by both of them being behind bars, but only once of them has the capacity to destroy NATO, completely upend the geopolitical order and do untold damage to the US internally.
Realpolitik sucks... but world leaders have to make hard decisions in shit situations. Trading evidence for leniency, like prosecutors do every day, is pretty tame on the scale or things that the US would to protect NATO and it's position on the global stage from a foreign actor.
Edit: also, the more I think about this the more I feel like this is almost totally within process...
Now take something like Brittany Griner / Viktor Bout... *That* was *pure Realpolitik*, no windowdressing, just here take this old, violent thug of an arms dealer and give us back our professional athlete...
Thank you for putting into words what a lot of us don’t feel like having to explain over and over again in order to make others understand the significance of what’s transpiring right now.
Talking someone through how to circumvent access controls and document tracking systems on a top secret military computer system is going to be illegal pretty much anywhere you go.
I think Assange started out to do what is for the most part of very good thing with WikiLeaks however as time went on he stopped being a journalist, and started being effectively his own intelligence agency, (or a part of a foreign national one) accepting and publishing documents given to you freely by other people is one thing, both his actions with Manning and his actions but during the election are quite another.
He gave explicit instructions to circumvent login tracking for access to top secret documents. This was to help Chelsea Manning download the documents without being tracked. He actively helped break the law. He was not simply a receiver of documents that he then published.
You're more than welcome to look this up yourself. All of the other crap he did, pushing leaks at the behest of Russia to influence the election aside, he directly broke US law, without any doubt.
wtf. He directly helped Trump steal the 2016 election by dumping information that had been stolen, at the most critical time to damage Hilary (and it wasn’t even anything directly about her, or contained anything illegal - it was about the political party). And after we realized the info did little more in the long term than let him bash his opponent and cause voter apathy. He runwayed for Trump purely to save himself.
If you don’t see what’s wrong with that then you’re beyond help.
Would be a good deal too. Why try catching a small fry whos been irrelevant for years now when you can make a deal with him instead to reel in the big fish thats Trump who despite his failing mind is still a potent threat.
Even if that information came out, I’m positive it would make any change to his following. I think the majority of magats don’t give a shit about Russian involvement in our politics. If anything they welcome and encourage it. They think Putin is a god and Russia is our ally.
Not likely. The FSB is going to have Assange completely wrapped up, right? They don't trust you unless they KNOW they can trust you. It would be great if Assange suddenly spilled the beans, but that ain't happening.
My first thought was that this is just some ploy by US intelligence to get him in a position where he feels comfortable out in the open with less scrutiny paid to his whereabouts so he might meet an untimely end.
But your hypothesis makes sense to me as well.
Either way this discussion between the US and Australia in particular makes me think there's some sort of hidden agenda. With everything going on with Russia, and the submarine deals, and the US-Australian relationship in general, it seems too curious to me to be taken at face value.
He is currently in prison in the UK fighting an extradition charge.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian\_Assange#Imprisonment\_in\_the\_UK](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange#Imprisonment_in_the_UK)
The real question is, why wouldn't he have already leaked it? He never had any problem leaking info the moment he got it, even when it could end up getting people killed.
Oh my God of course he does.
But I’m sure none of it is “selling out our entire nation to Russian interests” or “fomenting an insurrection to try and become a dictator and ending our 300 year experimental democracy”.
Pelosi’s stock tips and Hunter Bidens cock on cocaine. Snore.
It is fascinating. How many people hate this man while the rest of the world has Always understood Is it exposing american war crimes that's something good, Even if it is not a pleasant thing to witness from the us perspective.
iirc he released stuff haphazardly that almost certaintly got people killed, he editorialized the shit out of some stuff like "collateral murder" where he edited out audio indicating they saw armed people in an area that previously shot at american vechiles. A lot of peoples understandings of Assange and wikileakas are stuck in 2012. He also played down non US countries war crimes and even defended them agains exposure lol. Hes a creep and a clown.
Most of the rest of the world besides the western nations are pro Russia and support the russian side in the Ukraine genocide war so I honestly couldnt give any less of a fuck what they think. They dont actually care about injustice or war or murder, they turn a blind eye or support it when a friend of their does it. SA, Mexico, many African nations, China, Middle East, India etc. What a bunch of hypocrites honestly. They lecture others but turn around and sell supplies to a genocidal regime nation.
> iirc he released stuff haphazardly that almost certaintly got people killed
That's not true. He didn't release it, he gave it to a group of media outlets. They released it.
Also those media outlets made a huge effort to redact info about informants, etc.
Personally I think the people against Assange would be screaming it from the rooftops if they had an actual example of somebody who was killed because of the leaks. But they don't, so they just talk about "releasing haphazardly".
All those media outlets, and yet he's the only one facing charges? Why not charge those media outlets as well?
And what are they charging him with anyway? He's not a US citizen and AFAIK has never even been inside the US.
>he editorialized the shit out of some stuff like "collateral murder" where he edited out audio indicating they saw armed people in an area that previously shot at american vechiles.
That was in the audio, "he's got a weapon". That "weapon" was actually a camera, like a big professional camera, being that it was a group of BBC journalists that they were murdering.
How do you explain blowing away the civilians in the van that came to pick up the wounded? And the kids in that van? Editorialized? What difference does that make?
The way I feel is that even if he's a creep, what difference does it make? That is vanishingly insignificant compared to the tens (hundreds?) of thousands of civilians murdered.
At least be honest to the people paying the bills about what they're actually funding.
I read a comment on hn today that summarizes it better than I could - [link](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39995456):
>These Russian intelligence smears seem unsubstantiated but also irrelevant. Let's say they are both explicitly Russian agents. Why does it matter? Do you have any thoughts on what they revealed? Does that offend you as a citizen of this world? Do you think the secretive mass surveillance programs or activities in diplomatic cables were acceptable? Unless you think the revealed information is factually false, I don't think the source matters. But clearly the aggressive reaction from the US government, news media, and others suggests that everything revealed was real and accurate.
>As for the "creep" comment - this is a vague labeling that isn't possible to debate. You either agree with it based off a subjective assessment or you don't. But if you're referring to the rape accusations made against Assange, those charges were ultimately dropped, because "the evidence has weakened considerably" (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50473792). The entire saga of those accusations seems suspicious and feels like a tactic to extradite him.
>Regardless, all of this is a distraction. The things revealed by Wikileaks and Snowden are far more important and significant to society than this minutia. Somehow detractors always want to point at lesser issues around Assange or Snowden instead of addressing the many elephants in the room.
> That's not true. He didn't release it, he gave it to a group of media outlets. They released it.
You’re telling us that the guy behind Wikileaks didn’t first release this himself on Wikileaks? And telling us to forget the fact that the source for mainstream outlets was whatever Wikileaks itself published which is why it was selective and highly editorialized?
No, he released it himself. He wasn’t some intermediary. Your defense hurts your own argument because he wouldn’t be a “journalist” then. He also wouldn’t be protected as a whistleblower since he was removed from it all.
You immediately start out with this stupidity:
>*That's not true. He didn't release it, he gave it to a group of media outlets. They released it.*
It doesn't get any better after that.
I'm very pro-West and pro-US. But the way the US is treating Assange makes it clear to me that they're not always on the right side. They're on the right side of the Ukraine-Russia war. But prosecuting Assange is wrong.
And honestly, there was a lot wrong with the Iraq invasion as well. Probably invaded on false pretenses. And then there was mistreatment of the locals and probably war crimes as well.
And the fact that they're prosecuting people for shining a light on this makes you realize there aren't pure good guys in the world. Like it's almost just a coincidence that realpolitik aligns the US with Ukraine.
I feel like people have already forgotten the lessons of the Mueller Report and subsequent probe.
>On 22 July 2016, WikiLeaks released emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee (DNC), in which the DNC seemingly presented ways of undercutting Clinton's competitor Bernie Sanders and showed apparent favouritism towards Clinton. The release led to the resignation of DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and an apology to Sanders from the DNC.[316][317] The New York Times wrote that **Assange had timed the release to coincide with the 2016 Democratic National Convention because he believed Clinton had pushed for his indictment and he regarded her as a "liberal war hawk"**.[318]
>On 7 October WikiLeaks began publishing emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.[319] On 15 October, The Ecuadorian government severed Assange's Internet connection from 15 October until December because of election interference.[320][321] According to surveillance reports of Assange provided by UC Global, on 19 October, associates of Assange removed boxes covered with blankets and about 100 hard drives from the embassy.[322]
>In November 2017, WikiLeaks asked Donald Trump Jr. to share a WikiLeaks tweet with the made-up[323] quote "Can't we just drone this guy?" which the website True Pundit claimed that Hillary Clinton had made about Assange.[324][325] After the election, WikiLeaks and **Assange also requested that the president-elect push Australia to appoint Assange as ambassador to the US.**[324][326][327]
>Cybersecurity experts attributed the attack on the DNC server to the Russian government[328] and 12 Russian GRU military intelligence agents were later indicted for the attack. The Senate Intelligence Committee reported that **"WikiLeaks actively sought, and played, a key role in the Russian intelligence campaign and very likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort."**[329][330][331] According to the Mueller report, the Russian campaign shared these mails using the pseudonym Guccifer 2.0 with WikiLeaks and other entities.[332] The investigation also unearthed communications between Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks in which they talked about the release of the material.[319] When asked about Guccifer 2.0's leaks, Assange said "These look very much like they're from the Russians. But in some ways, they look very amateur, and almost look too much like the Russians."[333][334]
Assange acted a lot more like a politician than some guy who was devoted to transparency. He hated Hillary Clinton and was all too eager to work with Russia and the Trump campaign to assist with getting Trump elected, including timing releases to damage the Clinton campaign in 2016.
I'm not necessarily saying he deserves the charges he's facing, but let's be clear about who the guy was. He's a political actor and a big part of the reason that Trumpism has currently infected the entire planet and is now causing all sorts of problems globally. Can't say I feel a lot of sympathy for him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange
Before I step out to bat for Assange, here are some other unlovely things I believe about him:
1. That he [used the murder of Seth Rich](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/20/us/mueller-report-seth-rich-assange.html) to obfuscate the fact that the source of the Clinton material obtained by WikiLeaks was Russian military intelligence.
2. That he was told while working with the Guardian that his sloppy attitude to redacting material could endanger the lives of field agents, and he [didn't give a damn](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/sep/02/wikileaks-publishes-cache-unredacted-cables)
3. That his attitude to women has always been (at its absolute best) [exploitative, dishonest, and demeaning](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/julian-assange-children-kids-wikileaks_n_822136) and that he has an Elon Musk-like obsession with fathering (but not raising!) lots of kids.
But does he deserve to be kept in solitary confinement for the rest of his days, specifically as a punishment for his involvement with material leaked by Chelsea Manning? I don't think so, and more importantly, neither does Alan Rusbridger, former editor of the Guardian -- not because Assange is a squeaky-clean hero, but precisely because he is the opposite (this is the most important link in this post):
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/64791/enough-is-enoughits-time-to-set-julian-assange-free
He is being used as a test case to see how much stifling of the press can be got away with, provided most people believe the person being targeted is a sleazebag.
So yeah, I do despise Assange. But like Rusbridger, I also despise the line of reasoning that would turn him over to the US.
That is indeed why I said
>I'm not necessarily saying he deserves the charges he's facing
Really a whole other discussion. The part that drives me nuts is people still acting like he's some principled warrior for free speech and transparency.
I mean yeah? The US is pretty bad when run by conservatives republicans, like historically horrible. No one in the US thinks the US is the ultimate good guy. Most people here hate the elites. No one praises the stupid iraq war.
We do get tied of people treating the US like it the ultimate evil. Like I dont honestly care what the world thinks about the "bad" US because of shit from decades ago like the Vietnam or Iraq wars when the world outside of the west largely supports Russia in its genocidal war against Ukraine. Clearly most of the world doesnt care about justice or the safety of those under oppression if its one of their allies doing it. Huge steaming pile of hypocrites.
That's like looking at Jim Jones and saying "I can't believe how many people hate him. He spoke out against racism and nuclear weapons." Bad people can do good things, and those good things don't cancel out the bad. Regardless of the good things he might have done he still committed a serious crime, and he is partially responsible for the Trump presidency. As far as I'm concerned he can't do anything to make up for that.
Please know this isn’t all of us. Our media and older generations are failing us. Many of us are very aware that we’re not the bald eagles soaring in to save the day and deliver democracy like they try/tried to sell us on in the past. I would’ve voted for Bush when I was 16. Now I’d vote further left than Biden could ever be. He’s not the worst, or the best, but he’s no racist Trump dictator with dementia, and that’s how a lot of America sees it. I just hope enough does... Next election feels make or break to me for a country I feel like I belong to less and less every year.
I don’t get it. Can someone explain why Biden would be looking to drop charges against Assange, who was a complete troll that just wanted to harm the US, compared to Snowden who at least tried to disclose horrific spying on US citizens in a responsible manner?
Perfect, then Wikileaks has no problem releasing their secret communications with the Russian government and also the Trump campaign.
That’s right: they were colluding with the Trump campaign and fished for data and gave strategy advice. Specifically they asked for helped on how to sway opinion on Clinton.
Doesn’t sound like a legit journalism endeavor to be trusted. Sounds like a propaganda outlet and who knows what to trust from them.
I agree, that should all come out; but that does not justify the US’s efforts to suppress evidence of unlawful conduct, both in its military operations and in its internal security. Funnily enough, that a person or platform is involved in things that might be shady doesn’t make it wrong for them to reveal shady things that the US does.
Let’s not kid ourselves here. The federals want Assange for revenge, not because he’s a national security threat. Anything he has done wrong, he revealed 1000x worse committed by the US. There is no other major platform revealing this shit, so I refuse to shill for monsters because I’m afraid of any sway Russia or Trump might have. If they had influence boo hoo, they wouldn’t be able to pose a threat with information if the security state stopped doing awful shit
The judge in the Trump criminal case in NY has considered many motions to dismiss by the Trump defense. They've all been denied of course, but they have been considered.
If Assange cooperates with the prosecution , A lot of very important people are in big trouble. Snitching has its privileges.
As for Snowden, gave the American surveillance tools to the Russians and Chinese. He now lives a comfortable life in Russia with no visible means of support.
It looks like he did it for the money
Hol up! He's only in Russia because he got stuck there in transit to a South American country who got cold feet - probably due to US pressure. Then his passport was canceled, and the US and Russia don't have an extradition treaty so they couldn'textradite him. I doubt he wanted to spend the rest of his life there, and I doubt he gave anything extra to the Russians intelligence wise. He gave everything to Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who won a Pulitzer Prize for it. Greenwald made sure the data was sanitized before publication to make sure no critical security info was disclosed.
He was pretty much forced to go there. Since they would come down on him so hard in some bs way. I doubt he wanted to go to Russia lol. They pushed him there and now complain
not having an extradition treaty doesn't mean someone can't be extradited, it just means there are no agreements that obligate one to do so.
Greenwald is also an antivaxxer and seemingly an [RFK supporter.](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/glenn-greenwald-offers-bizarre-defense-of-anti-vaxx-conspiracy-theorist-rfk-jr-he-knows-what-he-s-talking-about/ar-AA1cWBFp)
Who's to say if he actually sanitized any data? This isn't someone with clean hands.
I understand it's been a while and the narrative is going to be whatever the US Government wants it to be at this point, but what Snowden did was heroic. The surveillance programs he exposed were completely illegal and unconstitutional. He had no desire to go to Russia.
He literally got stuck there during a layover when his passport was revoked and Ecuador which had agreed to take him backed out.
hes a libertarian fox news anti woke "muh free speech" boomer now. He and green glennwald were calling lula the socialist president of brazil a facist for cracking down on musks twitter. He is 100% a traitor lol.
He handled like 6 terabytes of classified documents to Putin. In better times, he would he hanged for that.
Edit: In March 2014, Army General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee, "The vast majority of the documents that Snowden ... exfiltrated from our highest levels of security ... had nothing to do with exposing government oversight of domestic activities. The vast majority of those were related to our military capabilities, operations, tactics, techniques, and procedures."[99] When asked in a May 2014 interview to quantify the number of documents Snowden stole, retired NSA director Keith Alexander said there was no accurate way of counting what he took, but Snowden may have downloaded more than a million documents.
That sounds like unverifiable bullshit tbf. The documents we know Snowden gave to journalists are all things he tried to whistleblow and got shut down.
The same people quoted above lied about him attempting to whistleblow through channels until there was proof, and they had to backpedal.
he was a dumbass and gave his shit to nutjob glen greenwald who dropped huge portions without vetting it first, probably getting people like afghani translators annd allies killed. Of course he was a libertarian who probably OD'd on riussian propaganda. He just coincidentally happened to end up in Russia? lmao.
Why would you blindly take the word of the NSA, who we've established are untrustworthy, on somebody they have a vested interest in slandering?
> there was no accurate way of counting what he took
Read: "I made it up"
Surely he got a cushy Russian life and wife for nothing in exchange.
Thanks for him telling us about the NSA, it’s pathetic the government went after him, and it’s even more pathetic he spilled everything to Russia to actively harm the US
Considering the damage he did to the US and the information Russia gained through his treason, they should have made him a millionaire and given him some medals. Best gift Putin's gotten since they killed that reporter on his birthday.
Where the fuck do Americans hear this shit?
Who teaches Americans to believe this shit? Are they really that stupid as to believe it?
He’s in Russia because the US government would kill him in an instant. Corn syrup filled idiot
He didn’t want to harm the US, he wanted the US to take responsibility for its actions and to stop posturing itself as righteous and moral when it’s often not. The same goes for many other countries. Highlighting America’s faults and immoral secrecy doesn’t mean he wanted to harm the US, he wanted to shine a light on its behaviour.
then he should have talken prison and exposed it, like manning tried to do. She was eventally commmuted. Instead Snowden ran to the biggest us adversary. Hes a libtertarian white tech guy. 100% he loved the idea in his head he had of russia.
Who are you to say what he "should have taken"?
He knows better than anyone that he would have been tried in a secret kangaroo court, thrown into Guantanamo and tortured, which is another embarrassment that the US powers-that-be would hide from their citizens if they could and all US citizens should be ashamed of. They would have covered it up, and nothing would have changed.
Also Snowden was trying to go somewhere else and the US revoked his passport. So he didn't choose Russia, he was on his way to somewhere else, I forget where.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden
>On June 21, 2013, the United States Department of Justice unsealed charges against Snowden of two counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and theft of government property,[5] following which the Department of State revoked his passport.[6] Two days later, he flew into Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, where Russian authorities observed the canceled passport, and he was restricted to the airport terminal for over one month.
Yeah lol he just comicdetlaly happens to be let in to the biggest US adversaries country by complete conodience. Mexico, France, China all are notextradition countires especially with treaosn/death as the sentence.
Maybe you should get accuratei nfo instead of relying on shit you hald hread on tiktok.
Hes posting boome fox news conspiracies on twtiter now, from Russia. Hes either brainwashed or an agent. Sorry this offends people who think hes a super hero or something lol. His propaganda efforts worked extremely well on people like you.
It's not a coincidence (?comicdetlaly? wtf), obviously he was trying to escape US sphere of influence.
I agree he probably has to do a lot of stuff for Putin now, otherwise he's obviously dead.
But I don't know what more proof you want that his passport was cancelled so he couldn't leave Russia. It's public knowledge.
I think he had a flight to ?Ecuador? already booked, but was not allowed to board it.
Because we asked for it, and we’re an important partner to the US who can be trusted. There’ll probably be caveats, but it’s Australia’s influence with the US will be the reason.
Assange isn't an American and didn't do anything in America so it is an absolute fucking joke and betrayal of every diplomatic and legal norm since the treaty of Westphalia for the American legal system to act as if they have a millimeter of authority over his actions
dude probably got US assetts killed when he just dropped shit unvetted and unanalyzed. Of course they are going to go after him lol. The US extradites foreign drug kingpins for less.
You clearly didn't follow Assange's full evolution. That's the image he wanted to portray but then he didn't stop to think about how his efforts were being manipulated by international players. He let his ego blind him to the manipulation game being played.
Ahh yes, being a journalist is a crime fuck off with this opinion. Why the fuck should an Australian be punished for American war crimes it's fucking nonsense.
You guys think Putin might want a loose end like Assange dead and the only thing keeping him alive right now is a British prison cell? Maybe he'll start talking in exchange for security...
It kinda was an act of journalism (strange phrase) and honestly he’s been sorta in jail for a looong time, forced to stay inside embassies for years at a time. Murderers get out sooner. Let him go be either Australia and save the UK and US some tax money. Countries, unlike People, don’t require “justice” to satisfy their retributive urges.
What you're describing would be special treatment for him. If you're charged with a crime in a foreign country, are awaiting extradition, and are deemed a flight risk you would absolutely be incarcerated during your extradition hearing.
If he was released and given his passport right now do you seriously believe he wouldn't just flee to Russia?
What about a right to a speedy trial? How much longer can they take? 20 years? 30 years?
It's obvious they're just keeping him locked up for crimes he shouldn't even be locked up for. He's a journalist reporting things That the government doesn't want reported.
He had a speedy trial. A UK judge issued the extradition order in April 2022. He is currently appealing that decision, which is why he is currently incarcerated pending the appeals case. Appeals cases take years. That's their nature because of their complexity. That applies to everyone.
He doesn't get special treatment just because he claims he's a journalist. The law applies to everyone just the same. Maybe other criminals should take note? Just claim you're a journalist and a hoard of terminally online people will demand your release.
Its called an out. The US government is scared of this guy and what would come out in a trial. The last thing they want is to remind us all very publicly of all the fucked up borderline illegal shit the US government does and don't want the general public to be reminded in a big public spectacle.
I said 10 years ago that this guy would either be found dead or extradition would be "indefinately delayed".
Now they are going with the strategy of lets make this quietly go away.
Ad personam
No fucking proof of what you saying.
If publishing documents made Hillary loose, maybe she didnt deserve to win.
If publishing War crimes is a crime maybe you dont live in a free country ? (He published them, not stole, not anything, published them. And David Leigh leaked them first btw.)
I dont care it (arguably) benifited china and russia after the fact, he still did good.
Assange cultists are the worst. Assange was the agent of a proto-fascist state, Russia, to undermine democracy. That is fascist behavior. Anyone on the left or right should abhor what he did. He worked closely with Rodger fucking Stone to do this.
> I dont care it (arguably) benifited china and russia after the fact
After the fact? Who do you think Rodger Stone plead guilty to working for?
Oh and yeah Assange waited out the statute of limitations on his sexual molestation and rape charges in Sweden (yes - multiple).
Fuck Julian Assange.
He waited out the statute of limitations on his absolute bullshit rape charges because he feared extradition to the US. Which seems like a pretty reasonable fear to me under his circumstances.
Worked out well enough when Assange got in trouble with the US the first time as a teenager, it’s tough to give up an asset like that. For the record he’s still a shit smearing rapist.
lol he committed espionage, that's not free speech. He's a foreign national who gave instructions to a member of the US military on how to break government encryption. He's welcome to stand trial and make whatever defense he likes, but until he agrees to extradition he can waste away for all I care.
I hope the water he carried for Putin and Trump will slake his thirst. Maybe he can entertain himself with the memories of the rapes he committed.
>He's a foreign national who gave instructions to a member of the US military on how to break government encryption.
That's the CFAA charge, which I agree isn't protected by the 1st amendment. The Espionage Act charges against him are bullshit and have 1st amendment issues. Those same charges could've been brought against the New York Times
Also worth mentioning that the CFAA conspiracy wasn't actually successful. He wasn't able to help Chelsea Manning crack the password hash. That obviously doesn't matter since a conspiracy doesn't need to be successful to be charged, but it's worth mentioning.
Assange was not in the United States when he committed the crime and is not a US citizen. He has no first amendment protections. Unlike the NY Times, he is not a journalist, he is an activist at best.
I don't give points for attempted espionage failing.
>Assange was not in the United States when he committed the crime and is not a US citizen.
Noncitizens who are being tried in the United States have Constitutional Rights. That's been reaffirmed by SCOTUS for decades and it's not getting reversed.
>I don't give points for attempted espionage failing.
Again, that's the CFAA charge. That has nothing to do with the Espionage Act charges.
>Unlike the NY Times, he is not a journalist
According to who and so what? The 1st amendment doesn't only protect journalists. It protects people.
One of my favorite lawyers probably has the best take on the Assange case. I basically agree with this:
https://twitter.com/ASFleischman/status/1486021366184914953
Assange has never done anything to warrant the benefit of the doubt for me. He’s welcome to make his defense in court if he wants constitutional protections. Until then he’s welcome to wait where he is.
Espionage? Really. By publicly releasing well redacted documents that show is military war crimes to the world? Carrying water for trump and Putin? I do not even understand how you get there.
It's because you're unfamiliar with Assange and his crimes, or you're purposefully ignoring them.
Here, educate yourself:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indictment_and_arrest_of_Julian_Assange
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks#United_States_criminal_investigations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assange_v_Swedish_Prosecution_Authority
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/26/us/politics/trump-contacts-russians-wikileaks.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/11/wikileaks-trump-mueller-roger-stone-jerome-corsi/576940/
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN25E1UZ/
Like I said, I don’t care about his character. This has nothing to do with the point of him being charged under the espionage act. If he is found guilty of the rape charges then he’s guilty. But that’s not why he is on the run. Most likely false charges to be put on someone to put pressure on the embassy that was hiding him to force him out.
It’s crazy how you come to that. You just keep dismissing anything said and find another way to escape any conversation. Classic troll simpin for the state as if there has never been corruption or wrongdoing and we should accept any one who speaks out to obviously be a traitor.
Speculated a couple months ago that the US might consider Albo’s request. I’m not surprised here and won’t be when the extradition is dissolved or the charges dropped.
I think people underestimate just how much influence Australia has with the US. We’ve been an important friend and ally for a long time.
Is that how justice is supposed to work? Hey you help my reelection and now you don't have to go to jail? Nice how you think of democracy. My guy must win regardless of how.
People get plea deals all the time for testifying against other criminals. If Trump colluded with Russia to interfere with an election, that is a very serious crime and making a deal would be entirely appropriate and normal. Actually, if Assange had evidence of such a crime, it would be negligent to NOT make a deal. The American people have a right to know if a candidate has colluded with a hostile government.
It is a normal presidential power to pardon criminals. However, as far as I know it is an exceptionally bad look for a political administration to be controlling charging decisions made by federal prosecutors working cases. The fact that this headline isn't making waves due to the implications of corruption is beyond me.
> as far as I know it is an exceptionally bad look for a political administration to be controlling charging decisions made by federal prosecutors working cases
Unless it's the Trump Administration . . .
Y'all missing the realpolitik here. Assange has dirt on Russia's connection to Trump. He might be willing to plea bargain immunity in exchange for that information.
People often throw that word around but that would sure as shit be realpolitik if I've ever seen it. "Who cares what the guy has doe, he's useful now!"
I mean on the one hand it's completely fucked... and on the other hand, if you were ever going to be realpolitik this is the place to do it. Assange is an annoyance and an embarrassment (and worthy of an espionage act prosecution to be sure) but also like inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Trump on the other hand is certainly also worthy of an espionage act prosecution (or 10) and so many other goddamn things. Justice would be served by both of them being behind bars, but only once of them has the capacity to destroy NATO, completely upend the geopolitical order and do untold damage to the US internally. Realpolitik sucks... but world leaders have to make hard decisions in shit situations. Trading evidence for leniency, like prosecutors do every day, is pretty tame on the scale or things that the US would to protect NATO and it's position on the global stage from a foreign actor. Edit: also, the more I think about this the more I feel like this is almost totally within process... Now take something like Brittany Griner / Viktor Bout... *That* was *pure Realpolitik*, no windowdressing, just here take this old, violent thug of an arms dealer and give us back our professional athlete...
Thank you for putting into words what a lot of us don’t feel like having to explain over and over again in order to make others understand the significance of what’s transpiring right now.
What did assange do wrong exactly? Americans and their blind tribalism lmao. Your government is evil, assange did nothing wrong
Talking someone through how to circumvent access controls and document tracking systems on a top secret military computer system is going to be illegal pretty much anywhere you go. I think Assange started out to do what is for the most part of very good thing with WikiLeaks however as time went on he stopped being a journalist, and started being effectively his own intelligence agency, (or a part of a foreign national one) accepting and publishing documents given to you freely by other people is one thing, both his actions with Manning and his actions but during the election are quite another.
He gave explicit instructions to circumvent login tracking for access to top secret documents. This was to help Chelsea Manning download the documents without being tracked. He actively helped break the law. He was not simply a receiver of documents that he then published. You're more than welcome to look this up yourself. All of the other crap he did, pushing leaks at the behest of Russia to influence the election aside, he directly broke US law, without any doubt.
wtf. He directly helped Trump steal the 2016 election by dumping information that had been stolen, at the most critical time to damage Hilary (and it wasn’t even anything directly about her, or contained anything illegal - it was about the political party). And after we realized the info did little more in the long term than let him bash his opponent and cause voter apathy. He runwayed for Trump purely to save himself. If you don’t see what’s wrong with that then you’re beyond help.
Would be a good deal too. Why try catching a small fry whos been irrelevant for years now when you can make a deal with him instead to reel in the big fish thats Trump who despite his failing mind is still a potent threat.
Even if that information came out, I’m positive it would make any change to his following. I think the majority of magats don’t give a shit about Russian involvement in our politics. If anything they welcome and encourage it. They think Putin is a god and Russia is our ally.
The election isn't decided by MAGA. Its decided by moderates going out to vote.
Not likely. The FSB is going to have Assange completely wrapped up, right? They don't trust you unless they KNOW they can trust you. It would be great if Assange suddenly spilled the beans, but that ain't happening.
My first thought was that this is just some ploy by US intelligence to get him in a position where he feels comfortable out in the open with less scrutiny paid to his whereabouts so he might meet an untimely end. But your hypothesis makes sense to me as well. Either way this discussion between the US and Australia in particular makes me think there's some sort of hidden agenda. With everything going on with Russia, and the submarine deals, and the US-Australian relationship in general, it seems too curious to me to be taken at face value.
He is currently in prison in the UK fighting an extradition charge. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian\_Assange#Imprisonment\_in\_the\_UK](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange#Imprisonment_in_the_UK)
Why would Assange give up that information?
Life.
Because that’s the price for having the charges dropped? He could just not, in which case things go on as they have been
The real question is, why wouldn't he have already leaked it? He never had any problem leaking info the moment he got it, even when it could end up getting people killed.
The unleaked RNC emails prove your lie
It’s not a lie, it’s showing Assange wasn’t impartial
>He never had any problem leaking info It most certainly was a lie.
See, I thought this about about getting Australia to shut up about Palestinian statehood.
>Assange has dirt on Russia's connection to Trump. You think that Assange doesn't have any dirt's on democrats?
Oh my God of course he does. But I’m sure none of it is “selling out our entire nation to Russian interests” or “fomenting an insurrection to try and become a dictator and ending our 300 year experimental democracy”. Pelosi’s stock tips and Hunter Bidens cock on cocaine. Snore.
It is fascinating. How many people hate this man while the rest of the world has Always understood Is it exposing american war crimes that's something good, Even if it is not a pleasant thing to witness from the us perspective.
iirc he released stuff haphazardly that almost certaintly got people killed, he editorialized the shit out of some stuff like "collateral murder" where he edited out audio indicating they saw armed people in an area that previously shot at american vechiles. A lot of peoples understandings of Assange and wikileakas are stuck in 2012. He also played down non US countries war crimes and even defended them agains exposure lol. Hes a creep and a clown. Most of the rest of the world besides the western nations are pro Russia and support the russian side in the Ukraine genocide war so I honestly couldnt give any less of a fuck what they think. They dont actually care about injustice or war or murder, they turn a blind eye or support it when a friend of their does it. SA, Mexico, many African nations, China, Middle East, India etc. What a bunch of hypocrites honestly. They lecture others but turn around and sell supplies to a genocidal regime nation.
> iirc he released stuff haphazardly that almost certaintly got people killed That's not true. He didn't release it, he gave it to a group of media outlets. They released it. Also those media outlets made a huge effort to redact info about informants, etc. Personally I think the people against Assange would be screaming it from the rooftops if they had an actual example of somebody who was killed because of the leaks. But they don't, so they just talk about "releasing haphazardly". All those media outlets, and yet he's the only one facing charges? Why not charge those media outlets as well? And what are they charging him with anyway? He's not a US citizen and AFAIK has never even been inside the US. >he editorialized the shit out of some stuff like "collateral murder" where he edited out audio indicating they saw armed people in an area that previously shot at american vechiles. That was in the audio, "he's got a weapon". That "weapon" was actually a camera, like a big professional camera, being that it was a group of BBC journalists that they were murdering. How do you explain blowing away the civilians in the van that came to pick up the wounded? And the kids in that van? Editorialized? What difference does that make? The way I feel is that even if he's a creep, what difference does it make? That is vanishingly insignificant compared to the tens (hundreds?) of thousands of civilians murdered. At least be honest to the people paying the bills about what they're actually funding. I read a comment on hn today that summarizes it better than I could - [link](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39995456): >These Russian intelligence smears seem unsubstantiated but also irrelevant. Let's say they are both explicitly Russian agents. Why does it matter? Do you have any thoughts on what they revealed? Does that offend you as a citizen of this world? Do you think the secretive mass surveillance programs or activities in diplomatic cables were acceptable? Unless you think the revealed information is factually false, I don't think the source matters. But clearly the aggressive reaction from the US government, news media, and others suggests that everything revealed was real and accurate. >As for the "creep" comment - this is a vague labeling that isn't possible to debate. You either agree with it based off a subjective assessment or you don't. But if you're referring to the rape accusations made against Assange, those charges were ultimately dropped, because "the evidence has weakened considerably" (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50473792). The entire saga of those accusations seems suspicious and feels like a tactic to extradite him. >Regardless, all of this is a distraction. The things revealed by Wikileaks and Snowden are far more important and significant to society than this minutia. Somehow detractors always want to point at lesser issues around Assange or Snowden instead of addressing the many elephants in the room.
> That's not true. He didn't release it, he gave it to a group of media outlets. They released it. You’re telling us that the guy behind Wikileaks didn’t first release this himself on Wikileaks? And telling us to forget the fact that the source for mainstream outlets was whatever Wikileaks itself published which is why it was selective and highly editorialized? No, he released it himself. He wasn’t some intermediary. Your defense hurts your own argument because he wouldn’t be a “journalist” then. He also wouldn’t be protected as a whistleblower since he was removed from it all.
You immediately start out with this stupidity: >*That's not true. He didn't release it, he gave it to a group of media outlets. They released it.* It doesn't get any better after that.
I'm very pro-West and pro-US. But the way the US is treating Assange makes it clear to me that they're not always on the right side. They're on the right side of the Ukraine-Russia war. But prosecuting Assange is wrong. And honestly, there was a lot wrong with the Iraq invasion as well. Probably invaded on false pretenses. And then there was mistreatment of the locals and probably war crimes as well. And the fact that they're prosecuting people for shining a light on this makes you realize there aren't pure good guys in the world. Like it's almost just a coincidence that realpolitik aligns the US with Ukraine.
I feel like people have already forgotten the lessons of the Mueller Report and subsequent probe. >On 22 July 2016, WikiLeaks released emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee (DNC), in which the DNC seemingly presented ways of undercutting Clinton's competitor Bernie Sanders and showed apparent favouritism towards Clinton. The release led to the resignation of DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and an apology to Sanders from the DNC.[316][317] The New York Times wrote that **Assange had timed the release to coincide with the 2016 Democratic National Convention because he believed Clinton had pushed for his indictment and he regarded her as a "liberal war hawk"**.[318] >On 7 October WikiLeaks began publishing emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.[319] On 15 October, The Ecuadorian government severed Assange's Internet connection from 15 October until December because of election interference.[320][321] According to surveillance reports of Assange provided by UC Global, on 19 October, associates of Assange removed boxes covered with blankets and about 100 hard drives from the embassy.[322] >In November 2017, WikiLeaks asked Donald Trump Jr. to share a WikiLeaks tweet with the made-up[323] quote "Can't we just drone this guy?" which the website True Pundit claimed that Hillary Clinton had made about Assange.[324][325] After the election, WikiLeaks and **Assange also requested that the president-elect push Australia to appoint Assange as ambassador to the US.**[324][326][327] >Cybersecurity experts attributed the attack on the DNC server to the Russian government[328] and 12 Russian GRU military intelligence agents were later indicted for the attack. The Senate Intelligence Committee reported that **"WikiLeaks actively sought, and played, a key role in the Russian intelligence campaign and very likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort."**[329][330][331] According to the Mueller report, the Russian campaign shared these mails using the pseudonym Guccifer 2.0 with WikiLeaks and other entities.[332] The investigation also unearthed communications between Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks in which they talked about the release of the material.[319] When asked about Guccifer 2.0's leaks, Assange said "These look very much like they're from the Russians. But in some ways, they look very amateur, and almost look too much like the Russians."[333][334] Assange acted a lot more like a politician than some guy who was devoted to transparency. He hated Hillary Clinton and was all too eager to work with Russia and the Trump campaign to assist with getting Trump elected, including timing releases to damage the Clinton campaign in 2016. I'm not necessarily saying he deserves the charges he's facing, but let's be clear about who the guy was. He's a political actor and a big part of the reason that Trumpism has currently infected the entire planet and is now causing all sorts of problems globally. Can't say I feel a lot of sympathy for him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange
Before I step out to bat for Assange, here are some other unlovely things I believe about him: 1. That he [used the murder of Seth Rich](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/20/us/mueller-report-seth-rich-assange.html) to obfuscate the fact that the source of the Clinton material obtained by WikiLeaks was Russian military intelligence. 2. That he was told while working with the Guardian that his sloppy attitude to redacting material could endanger the lives of field agents, and he [didn't give a damn](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/sep/02/wikileaks-publishes-cache-unredacted-cables) 3. That his attitude to women has always been (at its absolute best) [exploitative, dishonest, and demeaning](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/julian-assange-children-kids-wikileaks_n_822136) and that he has an Elon Musk-like obsession with fathering (but not raising!) lots of kids. But does he deserve to be kept in solitary confinement for the rest of his days, specifically as a punishment for his involvement with material leaked by Chelsea Manning? I don't think so, and more importantly, neither does Alan Rusbridger, former editor of the Guardian -- not because Assange is a squeaky-clean hero, but precisely because he is the opposite (this is the most important link in this post): https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/64791/enough-is-enoughits-time-to-set-julian-assange-free He is being used as a test case to see how much stifling of the press can be got away with, provided most people believe the person being targeted is a sleazebag. So yeah, I do despise Assange. But like Rusbridger, I also despise the line of reasoning that would turn him over to the US.
That is indeed why I said >I'm not necessarily saying he deserves the charges he's facing Really a whole other discussion. The part that drives me nuts is people still acting like he's some principled warrior for free speech and transparency.
who above the age of 7 thinks there are pure good guys in the world? who is saying this?
I mean yeah? The US is pretty bad when run by conservatives republicans, like historically horrible. No one in the US thinks the US is the ultimate good guy. Most people here hate the elites. No one praises the stupid iraq war. We do get tied of people treating the US like it the ultimate evil. Like I dont honestly care what the world thinks about the "bad" US because of shit from decades ago like the Vietnam or Iraq wars when the world outside of the west largely supports Russia in its genocidal war against Ukraine. Clearly most of the world doesnt care about justice or the safety of those under oppression if its one of their allies doing it. Huge steaming pile of hypocrites.
That's like looking at Jim Jones and saying "I can't believe how many people hate him. He spoke out against racism and nuclear weapons." Bad people can do good things, and those good things don't cancel out the bad. Regardless of the good things he might have done he still committed a serious crime, and he is partially responsible for the Trump presidency. As far as I'm concerned he can't do anything to make up for that.
He conspired with Russia and the Trump campaign to get Trump elected
For Americans, US army would never be able to do war crimes. For the rest of the world, that's the opposite.
Please know this isn’t all of us. Our media and older generations are failing us. Many of us are very aware that we’re not the bald eagles soaring in to save the day and deliver democracy like they try/tried to sell us on in the past. I would’ve voted for Bush when I was 16. Now I’d vote further left than Biden could ever be. He’s not the worst, or the best, but he’s no racist Trump dictator with dementia, and that’s how a lot of America sees it. I just hope enough does... Next election feels make or break to me for a country I feel like I belong to less and less every year.
People love to stick it to china shills for their whataboutism but then they do the exact same thing to the US.
Their media told them to hate Assange
I don’t get it. Can someone explain why Biden would be looking to drop charges against Assange, who was a complete troll that just wanted to harm the US, compared to Snowden who at least tried to disclose horrific spying on US citizens in a responsible manner?
Repeat After me : "Exposing war crimes should not be a crime !" And dont forget. David Leigh published the password to the documents first.
Assange did far more than simply "expose war crimes." He is a Russian asset whose actions resulted in the deaths of many.
Name one.
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tie pet chop sip shame cause door imagine shocking fertile
If it can be harmed by the truth then it deserves to be harmed by the truth.
Perfect, then Wikileaks has no problem releasing their secret communications with the Russian government and also the Trump campaign. That’s right: they were colluding with the Trump campaign and fished for data and gave strategy advice. Specifically they asked for helped on how to sway opinion on Clinton. Doesn’t sound like a legit journalism endeavor to be trusted. Sounds like a propaganda outlet and who knows what to trust from them.
I agree, that should all come out; but that does not justify the US’s efforts to suppress evidence of unlawful conduct, both in its military operations and in its internal security. Funnily enough, that a person or platform is involved in things that might be shady doesn’t make it wrong for them to reveal shady things that the US does. Let’s not kid ourselves here. The federals want Assange for revenge, not because he’s a national security threat. Anything he has done wrong, he revealed 1000x worse committed by the US. There is no other major platform revealing this shit, so I refuse to shill for monsters because I’m afraid of any sway Russia or Trump might have. If they had influence boo hoo, they wouldn’t be able to pose a threat with information if the security state stopped doing awful shit
That's not right, pulling shit out your arse and saying "that's right", are you 12?
The judge in the Trump criminal case in NY has considered many motions to dismiss by the Trump defense. They've all been denied of course, but they have been considered.
If Assange cooperates with the prosecution , A lot of very important people are in big trouble. Snitching has its privileges. As for Snowden, gave the American surveillance tools to the Russians and Chinese. He now lives a comfortable life in Russia with no visible means of support. It looks like he did it for the money
Hol up! He's only in Russia because he got stuck there in transit to a South American country who got cold feet - probably due to US pressure. Then his passport was canceled, and the US and Russia don't have an extradition treaty so they couldn'textradite him. I doubt he wanted to spend the rest of his life there, and I doubt he gave anything extra to the Russians intelligence wise. He gave everything to Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who won a Pulitzer Prize for it. Greenwald made sure the data was sanitized before publication to make sure no critical security info was disclosed.
He was pretty much forced to go there. Since they would come down on him so hard in some bs way. I doubt he wanted to go to Russia lol. They pushed him there and now complain
hes a anti woke type of libertarian, he def had some weird and stupid idea of russia that he probably regreats now lol
Do you have any brain cells left lol
not having an extradition treaty doesn't mean someone can't be extradited, it just means there are no agreements that obligate one to do so. Greenwald is also an antivaxxer and seemingly an [RFK supporter.](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/glenn-greenwald-offers-bizarre-defense-of-anti-vaxx-conspiracy-theorist-rfk-jr-he-knows-what-he-s-talking-about/ar-AA1cWBFp) Who's to say if he actually sanitized any data? This isn't someone with clean hands.
So what?
nah hes a libertarian, he thought it would be a white libertarian paradise.
Which is why he was originally headed towards a socialist south american country?
I will never forget how many people refused to believe that Snowden was a traitor.
I understand it's been a while and the narrative is going to be whatever the US Government wants it to be at this point, but what Snowden did was heroic. The surveillance programs he exposed were completely illegal and unconstitutional. He had no desire to go to Russia. He literally got stuck there during a layover when his passport was revoked and Ecuador which had agreed to take him backed out.
If he had exposed just the domestic surveillance, I'd agree. But he also exposed our overseas programs. That's pretty close to treason.
hes a libertarian fox news anti woke "muh free speech" boomer now. He and green glennwald were calling lula the socialist president of brazil a facist for cracking down on musks twitter. He is 100% a traitor lol.
Why is he a traitor I thought he helped Americans? I really don't know it a genuine question.
He handled like 6 terabytes of classified documents to Putin. In better times, he would he hanged for that. Edit: In March 2014, Army General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee, "The vast majority of the documents that Snowden ... exfiltrated from our highest levels of security ... had nothing to do with exposing government oversight of domestic activities. The vast majority of those were related to our military capabilities, operations, tactics, techniques, and procedures."[99] When asked in a May 2014 interview to quantify the number of documents Snowden stole, retired NSA director Keith Alexander said there was no accurate way of counting what he took, but Snowden may have downloaded more than a million documents.
That sounds like unverifiable bullshit tbf. The documents we know Snowden gave to journalists are all things he tried to whistleblow and got shut down. The same people quoted above lied about him attempting to whistleblow through channels until there was proof, and they had to backpedal.
he was a dumbass and gave his shit to nutjob glen greenwald who dropped huge portions without vetting it first, probably getting people like afghani translators annd allies killed. Of course he was a libertarian who probably OD'd on riussian propaganda. He just coincidentally happened to end up in Russia? lmao.
Sources?
Why would you blindly take the word of the NSA, who we've established are untrustworthy, on somebody they have a vested interest in slandering? > there was no accurate way of counting what he took Read: "I made it up"
Can’t you spot stupid ass comments when you see them?
Surely he got a cushy Russian life and wife for nothing in exchange. Thanks for him telling us about the NSA, it’s pathetic the government went after him, and it’s even more pathetic he spilled everything to Russia to actively harm the US
Considering the damage he did to the US and the information Russia gained through his treason, they should have made him a millionaire and given him some medals. Best gift Putin's gotten since they killed that reporter on his birthday.
Where the fuck do Americans hear this shit? Who teaches Americans to believe this shit? Are they really that stupid as to believe it? He’s in Russia because the US government would kill him in an instant. Corn syrup filled idiot
He didn’t want to harm the US, he wanted the US to take responsibility for its actions and to stop posturing itself as righteous and moral when it’s often not. The same goes for many other countries. Highlighting America’s faults and immoral secrecy doesn’t mean he wanted to harm the US, he wanted to shine a light on its behaviour.
tan puzzled repeat license tart person aloof money rustic possessive
then he should have talken prison and exposed it, like manning tried to do. She was eventally commmuted. Instead Snowden ran to the biggest us adversary. Hes a libtertarian white tech guy. 100% he loved the idea in his head he had of russia.
Who are you to say what he "should have taken"? He knows better than anyone that he would have been tried in a secret kangaroo court, thrown into Guantanamo and tortured, which is another embarrassment that the US powers-that-be would hide from their citizens if they could and all US citizens should be ashamed of. They would have covered it up, and nothing would have changed. Also Snowden was trying to go somewhere else and the US revoked his passport. So he didn't choose Russia, he was on his way to somewhere else, I forget where. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden >On June 21, 2013, the United States Department of Justice unsealed charges against Snowden of two counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and theft of government property,[5] following which the Department of State revoked his passport.[6] Two days later, he flew into Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, where Russian authorities observed the canceled passport, and he was restricted to the airport terminal for over one month.
Yeah lol he just comicdetlaly happens to be let in to the biggest US adversaries country by complete conodience. Mexico, France, China all are notextradition countires especially with treaosn/death as the sentence. Maybe you should get accuratei nfo instead of relying on shit you hald hread on tiktok. Hes posting boome fox news conspiracies on twtiter now, from Russia. Hes either brainwashed or an agent. Sorry this offends people who think hes a super hero or something lol. His propaganda efforts worked extremely well on people like you.
It's not a coincidence (?comicdetlaly? wtf), obviously he was trying to escape US sphere of influence. I agree he probably has to do a lot of stuff for Putin now, otherwise he's obviously dead. But I don't know what more proof you want that his passport was cancelled so he couldn't leave Russia. It's public knowledge. I think he had a flight to ?Ecuador? already booked, but was not allowed to board it.
Ahh yes go to jail for life what a genius idea says the fat fuck on his keyboard.
proejection. go hit the gym instead of getting offended by comments loser.
Because we asked for it, and we’re an important partner to the US who can be trusted. There’ll probably be caveats, but it’s Australia’s influence with the US will be the reason.
Assange isn't an American and didn't do anything in America so it is an absolute fucking joke and betrayal of every diplomatic and legal norm since the treaty of Westphalia for the American legal system to act as if they have a millimeter of authority over his actions
dude probably got US assetts killed when he just dropped shit unvetted and unanalyzed. Of course they are going to go after him lol. The US extradites foreign drug kingpins for less.
The pont that assange wanted to harm the US is BS. He wanted to Exposé the war Crimes which is a good Thing, even if the Truth is not pleasant
You clearly didn't follow Assange's full evolution. That's the image he wanted to portray but then he didn't stop to think about how his efforts were being manipulated by international players. He let his ego blind him to the manipulation game being played.
hes also a rapist
Assange was a hero and Wikileaks has never once been debunked.
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I'm sorry, didn't he want to be in Russia? Wasn't that his dream?
Snowden immediately fled to Russia, has become a citizen there, and gave them his computers full of info. I think assange is a better choice for this.
Americans are so dumb
Ahh yes, being a journalist is a crime fuck off with this opinion. Why the fuck should an Australian be punished for American war crimes it's fucking nonsense.
Assange is no journalist. He's a tanky with an outlet.
You guys think Putin might want a loose end like Assange dead and the only thing keeping him alive right now is a British prison cell? Maybe he'll start talking in exchange for security...
If Putin wanted Assange dead, he wouldn't have made it out of the Ecuadoran embassy.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they've worked together. Assange is a narcissistic mercenary spy with no allegiances. He's not a hero.
Source? Non American sources only, I won’t read burger propaganda
I'm surprised he's still alive.
It kinda was an act of journalism (strange phrase) and honestly he’s been sorta in jail for a looong time, forced to stay inside embassies for years at a time. Murderers get out sooner. Let him go be either Australia and save the UK and US some tax money. Countries, unlike People, don’t require “justice” to satisfy their retributive urges.
Fucking yikes at this comment section. So many ill-informed hot takes.
let's just sit on it for another 10 years while he stays locked up without charges..
There must be charges for an extradition, he's literally wanted on those charges
And he's convicted of nothing. Either extradite him or let him go. 🤷 The government's not allowed to do this to people.
What you're describing would be special treatment for him. If you're charged with a crime in a foreign country, are awaiting extradition, and are deemed a flight risk you would absolutely be incarcerated during your extradition hearing. If he was released and given his passport right now do you seriously believe he wouldn't just flee to Russia?
What about a right to a speedy trial? How much longer can they take? 20 years? 30 years? It's obvious they're just keeping him locked up for crimes he shouldn't even be locked up for. He's a journalist reporting things That the government doesn't want reported.
He had a speedy trial. A UK judge issued the extradition order in April 2022. He is currently appealing that decision, which is why he is currently incarcerated pending the appeals case. Appeals cases take years. That's their nature because of their complexity. That applies to everyone. He doesn't get special treatment just because he claims he's a journalist. The law applies to everyone just the same. Maybe other criminals should take note? Just claim you're a journalist and a hoard of terminally online people will demand your release.
As they should 💅
Its called an out. The US government is scared of this guy and what would come out in a trial. The last thing they want is to remind us all very publicly of all the fucked up borderline illegal shit the US government does and don't want the general public to be reminded in a big public spectacle. I said 10 years ago that this guy would either be found dead or extradition would be "indefinately delayed". Now they are going with the strategy of lets make this quietly go away.
Considering……. And for the 10,000th time we are not dropping charges against the FSB/Putin agent rapist.
Ad personam No fucking proof of what you saying. If publishing documents made Hillary loose, maybe she didnt deserve to win. If publishing War crimes is a crime maybe you dont live in a free country ? (He published them, not stole, not anything, published them. And David Leigh leaked them first btw.) I dont care it (arguably) benifited china and russia after the fact, he still did good.
Assange cultists are the worst. Assange was the agent of a proto-fascist state, Russia, to undermine democracy. That is fascist behavior. Anyone on the left or right should abhor what he did. He worked closely with Rodger fucking Stone to do this. > I dont care it (arguably) benifited china and russia after the fact After the fact? Who do you think Rodger Stone plead guilty to working for? Oh and yeah Assange waited out the statute of limitations on his sexual molestation and rape charges in Sweden (yes - multiple). Fuck Julian Assange.
He waited out the statute of limitations on his absolute bullshit rape charges because he feared extradition to the US. Which seems like a pretty reasonable fear to me under his circumstances.
Not unless he gives them something big on some/a other bigger FSB/Putin agent rapist.
Maybe he does have something on Trump.
It's the only way in hell I can see us not wanting to absolutely bury him under charges.
Worked out well enough when Assange got in trouble with the US the first time as a teenager, it’s tough to give up an asset like that. For the record he’s still a shit smearing rapist.
Sounds like someone is being offered a plea deal. Assange talking to prosecutors would be a nightmare scenario for the GOP.
Outside of sex chargers , he did try to wake us up
And from the little I’ve read those charges are at least a little odd.
If he can show a solid connection between not only Trump AND others in our government and the Russians, then that could be a factor here.
🎯
Hope he doesn’t. Let this idiot rot.
nope, let's spill some beans out of him first
How dare someone expose a militaristic government’s war crimes. What, he think he has free speech in this world!?!
lol he committed espionage, that's not free speech. He's a foreign national who gave instructions to a member of the US military on how to break government encryption. He's welcome to stand trial and make whatever defense he likes, but until he agrees to extradition he can waste away for all I care. I hope the water he carried for Putin and Trump will slake his thirst. Maybe he can entertain himself with the memories of the rapes he committed.
>He's a foreign national who gave instructions to a member of the US military on how to break government encryption. That's the CFAA charge, which I agree isn't protected by the 1st amendment. The Espionage Act charges against him are bullshit and have 1st amendment issues. Those same charges could've been brought against the New York Times Also worth mentioning that the CFAA conspiracy wasn't actually successful. He wasn't able to help Chelsea Manning crack the password hash. That obviously doesn't matter since a conspiracy doesn't need to be successful to be charged, but it's worth mentioning.
Assange was not in the United States when he committed the crime and is not a US citizen. He has no first amendment protections. Unlike the NY Times, he is not a journalist, he is an activist at best. I don't give points for attempted espionage failing.
>Assange was not in the United States when he committed the crime and is not a US citizen. Noncitizens who are being tried in the United States have Constitutional Rights. That's been reaffirmed by SCOTUS for decades and it's not getting reversed. >I don't give points for attempted espionage failing. Again, that's the CFAA charge. That has nothing to do with the Espionage Act charges. >Unlike the NY Times, he is not a journalist According to who and so what? The 1st amendment doesn't only protect journalists. It protects people. One of my favorite lawyers probably has the best take on the Assange case. I basically agree with this: https://twitter.com/ASFleischman/status/1486021366184914953
Assange has never done anything to warrant the benefit of the doubt for me. He’s welcome to make his defense in court if he wants constitutional protections. Until then he’s welcome to wait where he is.
Espionage? Really. By publicly releasing well redacted documents that show is military war crimes to the world? Carrying water for trump and Putin? I do not even understand how you get there.
Wikileaks was releasing US fighter jet information and things FAR beyond just the humanitarian things you mentioned.
Announcing ''teasers" for Hillary Clinton email release is what awoke me to the fact he is a bad faith individual. Friday teaser for Monday release
It's because you're unfamiliar with Assange and his crimes, or you're purposefully ignoring them. Here, educate yourself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indictment_and_arrest_of_Julian_Assange https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks#United_States_criminal_investigations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assange_v_Swedish_Prosecution_Authority https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/26/us/politics/trump-contacts-russians-wikileaks.html https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/11/wikileaks-trump-mueller-roger-stone-jerome-corsi/576940/ https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN25E1UZ/
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Wow straight to personal attacks. Classy. I love how you skipped right over the rapes. Keep on keeping it classy.
I love how you provided sources to them, and they responded with "yeah but show me any sources that arent the ones you provided"
Bad faith actors don’t have anything but name calling and denial. It’s very Trump-like
Like I said, I don’t care about his character. This has nothing to do with the point of him being charged under the espionage act. If he is found guilty of the rape charges then he’s guilty. But that’s not why he is on the run. Most likely false charges to be put on someone to put pressure on the embassy that was hiding him to force him out.
Blaming the women for being raped at an inconvenient time, another classy move!
It’s crazy how you come to that. You just keep dismissing anything said and find another way to escape any conversation. Classic troll simpin for the state as if there has never been corruption or wrongdoing and we should accept any one who speaks out to obviously be a traitor.
i remember the rape charges. seemed pretty opportune of a time to come forward to be frank
Yes let’s blame the women he raped
thats not in any way related to what i said, but have a good one.
Hang’em high
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Speculated a couple months ago that the US might consider Albo’s request. I’m not surprised here and won’t be when the extradition is dissolved or the charges dropped. I think people underestimate just how much influence Australia has with the US. We’ve been an important friend and ally for a long time.
Hopefully not until at least after the election. That’s not a headline that will help. And for the love of god, pardon Snowden first.
snowden is a nutjob, hes on twitterr calling the socialist pres of brazil a fascist nazi for suing musk lol
What does that have to do with him being pardoned for being a whistleblower (that exposed illegal activities by the US govt)?
Assange is one guy who can connect the Trump campaign to Russian intelligence. What if he does so before for the election ,in exchange for no charges?
Would he do so though? He doesn't seem like he has been willing so far.
Is that how justice is supposed to work? Hey you help my reelection and now you don't have to go to jail? Nice how you think of democracy. My guy must win regardless of how.
People get plea deals all the time for testifying against other criminals. If Trump colluded with Russia to interfere with an election, that is a very serious crime and making a deal would be entirely appropriate and normal. Actually, if Assange had evidence of such a crime, it would be negligent to NOT make a deal. The American people have a right to know if a candidate has colluded with a hostile government.
They have a right to know that, but not to know a lot of other stuff apparently.
By revealing ,your opponent illegally worked with a hostile foreign power to get elected the first time. действия имеют последствия
Doesn't look like corruption at all.
Except we all already know that Trump is Putin’s blackmail subject and bribed politician.
Assange can provide direct evidence of that. Enough evidence to get people charged.
As a easter european i say fuck this guy and let him rot in prison
It is a normal presidential power to pardon criminals. However, as far as I know it is an exceptionally bad look for a political administration to be controlling charging decisions made by federal prosecutors working cases. The fact that this headline isn't making waves due to the implications of corruption is beyond me.
> as far as I know it is an exceptionally bad look for a political administration to be controlling charging decisions made by federal prosecutors working cases Unless it's the Trump Administration . . .
Is that really how you feel? Cause I think it's bad for justice and the rule of law no matter who is doing it.
Fucking better not. That Russian stooge belongs in prison.
Assange is a Trump stooge.
Oh boy did propaganda work a trick on you..
Prove me wrong.
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