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Wikileaks: Julian Assange's internet access 'cut'

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Wikileaks: Julian Assange's internet access 'cut'

#51

Post by gragas »

varjag wrote: post #39
lyschoening wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

U.S. intelligence services and the Obama administration have explicitly accused Russia of the leaks and assessed that this must have been orchestrated from high in the Russian government. That's a pretty bold statement in politics. Of course we can point to cases where U.S. administrations have lied, but it still should count as evidence, at least on a probabilistic level. Also, regarding Assange, I believe evgen mea…

Also note that the U.S. government did not implicate any foreign governments in cases of cablegate or NSA leaks, and these were as big as they get. Obama administration does not seem to throw such accusations lightly.

I do agree that the Obama administration doesn't seem to throw such accusations lightly. But Obama and the entire Democratic party didn't necessarily have their ass on the line when the NSA leaks happened.

Re: Wikileaks: Julian Assange's internet access 'cut'

#52

Post by gragas »

DominikR wrote: post #50
gragas wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean "pure coincidence"? How could a state actor cutting off Assange's internet be a coincidence with anything? It was done on purpose by someone for some reason . That is by definition not a coincidence.

I'm trying to be sarcastic, of course it isn't a coincidence.

Ah. I didn't get that. Maybe include /s next time.

Re: Wikileaks: Julian Assange's internet access 'cut'

#53

Post by Solinoid »

mbreedlove wrote: post #42
varjag wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or there's no insurance files and Assange is bluffing. He won't sit on some scoop harming the United States for long, his ego and power trip would force his hand.

The insurance files are public. They just have to release the keys. 3.6GB - http://wlstorage.net/torrent/wlinsurance-20130815-A.aes256.t... 49GB - http://wlstorage.net/torrent/wlinsurance-20130815-B.aes256.t... 349GB - http://wlstorage.net/torrent/wlinsurance-20130815-C.aes256.t... 94GB - https://file.wikileaks.org/torrent/2016-06-03_insurance.aes2... I don't know why they would put out a few hundred gigabytes of fak…

There was a link on HN not too long ago to a quote from Assange, stating that part of the strategy is to sow uncertainty and doubt among the players to increase the secrecy tax. A multigig encrypted dump could have that effect.

That said he can't really play that card too often.

Re: Wikileaks: Julian Assange's internet access 'cut'

#55

Post by BinaryIdiot »

mythz wrote: post #45
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm assuming parent is referring to the sexual assault and rape allegations against him. Depending on which side you're on you may believe they're made up charges to get him locked up or you may think he's a criminal hiding from doing said things to multiple women (2 IIRC). FYI, at the moment the statute of limitations have ended for the sexual assaults and the rape statute ends in 2020.

It's hard to believe the Ecuadorian government is complicit with helping a rapist escape justice. Rape allegations also fall neatly into NSA/GCHQ's playbook for character assassinations. Seems more likely the reasons for taking political asylum in a non-US alliance embassy, is, political.

Yeah honestly I find it hard to find solid information in either direction. As far as I can tell it's not proven either way (he hasn't stood trial) so even if he did it I can't imagine the Ecuadorian government feeling complicit.

Regardless I don't have a dog in this fight; I find both sides pretty polarizing and difficult to get to the facts.

Re: Wikileaks: Julian Assange's internet access 'cut'

#57

Post by codeduck »

AvenueIngres wrote: post #8
Pilfer wrote: post #3

Rodger Stone (who may have back-channel communications with Wikileaks staff [0]) shared two tweets suggesting that this might be US backed action. Note these tweets are still unconfirmed. At time of writing I have not yet seen this information corroborated elsewhere. 1) "John Kerry has threatened the Ecuadorian President with "grave consequences for Equador" if Assange is not silenced @StoneColdTruth" [1] 2) "Reports…

> that this might be US backed action I doubt the USG is involved in this. They have a pretty solid track record of both respecting human rights and due process. Keep in mind the US government is the most ethical government in the world. Assange, on the other hand, is a rapist and a Russian puppet trying to hijack the US election. He probably is a Trump supporter in disguise and a closeted systemd committer. If that…

Bravo.

Re: Wikileaks: Julian Assange's internet access 'cut'

#58

Post by BinaryIdiot »

johansch wrote: post #56

More speculation: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3842846/Rumors-swirl... "Rumors that Pamela Anderson 'fatally poisoned Julian Assange with vegan meal' spread after 'coded' Wikileaks tweets lead to speculation that he triggered 'dead man's switch'"

That was quite an amazing read. So many good conspiracy theories and none of them are as good as this one.

Re: Wikileaks: Julian Assange's internet access 'cut'

#59

Post by Xylakant »

AvenueIngres wrote: post #14
Xylakant wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would make little sense: If they wanted to storm, why cut the Internet ahead of time and give advance warning?

It is not clear whether Assange is tweeting or a third-party is. For all we know, they could have stormed and the only information available to the person maintaining the Wikileaks twitter account is that Assange cannot be reached. The situation is not clear atm.

The Ecuadorian embassy in London stormed without as much as a trace on the internet? Come on - I like a good conspiracy theory, but that's going a little far, isn't it? It would require the Ecuadorian government to hold tight and then storming the embassy wouldn't make sense - they could just have kicked Assange out and called the local police who'd happily pick him up.

Re: Wikileaks: Julian Assange's internet access 'cut'

#60

Post by anondon »

When Assange accesses the internet, I am guessing that state actors would be trying to see what his traffic contains. How would a person in such a situation access the internet and be sure that his traffic cannot be decrypted and/or there is no man in the middle modification of his traffic. For the sake of discussion, assume he has a brand new laptop with Debain/tails or another FOSS OS. The general consensus seems to be to avoid MacOS and Windows in cases where your life is on the line.
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