If true then disgusting and completely unacceptable. The way in which legal systems have been cynically abused to ruin this man's life reflects extremely poorly on the people and institutions concerned. Wikileaks' revelation of the disgusting behavior of the US armed forces in Baghdad was an extremely valuable contribution to society.
The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange
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Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange
#72Wow. Freedom of the press is dead.
The reason we try to uphold freedom of the press isn't to defend people like this or their actions. It always seems pretty clearly bad faith when people make this argument about Assange.
Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange
#73[flagged]
Obesity and celebrity worship are far greater threats to US national security than "Russia"
And yet the United States still sends troops to the middle East again and again and again.
The greatest threat to an American life is a drunk driver. If the United States actually had priorities aligned with statistical reality, the billions poured into the war on {{concept}} would have been redirected to drunk driving decades ago. Also, smoking would be illegal.
Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
The emails were newsworthy, disliking what you consider their ulterior motive doesn't change that.
What emails, specifically, were newsworthy?
The ones where it was revealed the Clinton campaign was running the DNC and Sanders never stood a chance. Whether your support that or not I don't think anyone disputes that this was revealed by Wikileaks
Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange
#75Without any opinion the merits of this case in particular, which seems like a total mess all around and I haven't been following, on the topic more generally I found "Demystifying International Extradition" [1] last year to be an interesting summary of the process. It introduced me to concepts that don't really tend to come up in local law. Amongst other pertinent aspects is that while the US generally wants to avoid…
There's also just straight up extraordinary rendition, ie. showing up, black bagging someone, and flying off, outside the legal process.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_rendition
Ironically, the UK doesn't allow extraordinary rendition, and it was a big deal to even let those planes refuel or use UK airspace, but Sweden historically has allowed it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repatriation_of_Ahmed_Agiza_an...
Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wikileaks believed at the time that Clinton was ready to send a drone to get rid of Assange. Between due process and a drone attack, I take due process any day.
'Believed' is a loose term, you'd have to be deluded to believe something like that.
Would you though?
The State Dept under Clinton played fast and loose with it's own procedures and regulations and I have a friend who died in the Benghazi attack if you want to fight with me on this point.
More than 5% of the Section 702 wiretaps conducted under the last President's administration were performed illegally by their own admission.
False flag operations are part of our history and three-letter agencies have a history of being Wild and Crazy Kids.
Assange gets an extraordinary amount of political attention for even a public figure. It's perhaps an unreasonable conclusion for them to make but it's not _too unreasonable_.
Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange
#77Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange
#78Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Again sarcasm as a way to convey a legitimate point is downvoted on HN so I'll translate: I would be surprised if he was prosecuted harshly given his important role in the election of the current president of the US. (Edit: to be clear, I personally dislike seeing all these jokes about russian agents re: the 2016 election. There was clearly meddling but its beginning to bother me that a vocal strain of vocal American…
> People like Assange aren't pawns of some dark and evil power Citation needed. The rest of the world seems to agree that he was in fact a pawn to a "dark and evil power", as you put it. Here's my citation: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2018/0... "Assange behaved as an instrument of the Kremlin operation which, in an excruciatingly close election, may have made just enough of a difference to s…
That's totally fair and, not to be dismissive, I don't think it's productive to try to have this conversation here. I just want to say I'm not trying to defend or downplay what WikiLeaks got up to under Assange's oversight. I'm simply saying that while his interests may have lined up with Putin/Russian oligarchs he is himself an ideologue and a bad actor who comes from a community of the same and he should be treated as such.
Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
What was illegal about releasing campaign emails that were given to them?
When it was done with the intent of influencing the 2016 election, that tends to fall under conspiracy and espionage ... especially when it comes from a former adversarial government.
That's sounds like a political opinion that you just stated. Why are you trying to meddle in the political process, by engaging in political speech?