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Julian Assange arrested in London

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#461
post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I can't understand how so many people stay loyal to a guy who just wasted seven years of his life in a self-imposed prison with absolutely no upside except delaying whatever awaits him now. Or how many will, when given a choice between: (a) a wild conspiracies theories about a totally-average Swedish woman being paid by the CIA to make up some not even that damning rape charges, then asks him for an $20/5min STD…

You are delusional. You talk about him like he's your creepy neighbor from the street. This guy messed with dangerous people for the sake of truth. He is being prosecuted by the most powerful country in the world with by far the most reach outside its own borders. All his trouble began after he leaked US butchery in Iraq. You think his self-imposed exile is an egotistical act instead of what it really is: Step outsid…

> You are delusional

>...the woman has proven ties with the CIA...

Pot, meet kettle.

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#462

I was writing a long post but I deleted it. I don't know what to say, I don't like the guy, but I have an even stronger dislike for how international politics and intelligence services work.

True, to me he's not exactly an attractor of sympathy. It's neither clear whether he is guilty regarding the - dropped (!) - sexual assault case or not, but mere speculation. On the other hand one must say he acted quite self-less by publishing information on how governments act in a criminal manner. Intelligence services in particular, if they should have any right to exist they must do so in the most ethical manner as there is zero way for the public to see what's going on - them, in an ideal world helping us protect against the most evil parts of society. But if they can't manage to be ethical, it's cynical that people like Assange get locked away.

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know to what you're referring, but the facts of the matter are: 1. He was wanted for questioning for rape and sexual misconduct in Sweden. According to police records, he had sex with a woman who demanded that he wore a condom, which he did at first. Then next morning she wakes up by him penetrating her without consent. She then asks "are you wearing anything", to which he replies "I'm wearing you". The sexua…

> He claimed that his reason to do so was to avoid extradition to the US, [...]. But he had to make himself look like a victim of a conspiracy instead, and his followers eats it up. "Julian Assange, 47, (03.07.71) has today, Thursday 11 April, been further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities" http://news.met.police.uk/news/update-arrest-of-julian-assan... Sounds like Assange wasn't that wrong?

First of all, that's unrelated to the extradition to Sweden. He said that he didn't want to go to Sweden because then he would be more likely to get extradited, but the opposite was true. He fought to stay in the UK, but fled when all legal options to avoid going to Sweden was exhausted.

Second, the US has had seven more years to build a case now, and a new Republican government.

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a lot of appeal to emotion in your post. Can we both agree that war is bad and things are always more complex than they seem? In the grand scheme of things these events rank pretty low on the list of priorities when you are fighting a war.

Not only does my post appeal to emotion, it openly appeals to emotion. On the other hand, your post uses the appeal to middle ground fallacy. If your list of priorities starts with anything other than stopping the routine torture of children, then your grand scheme of things is probably evil.

What if a child torturer is helping you save other lives and end the war sooner thus saving innumerable lives? Do you see how torture is bad but there are other variables?

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#466

It will be interesting to see if the US tries to extradite him. It's actually not 100% clear that he's broken any US laws in any ways that they aren't also routinely broken by newspapers. There's a few avenues: 1) Publishing classified information. Easy to show that he did this but a very difficult path to go down when American newspapers do this all the time. 2) Conspiracy to commit espionage. Probably the most like…

>It will be interesting to see if the US tries to extradite him. Scotland Yard has confirmed that Assange was arrested on behalf of the US after receiving a request for his extradition. https://www.theguardian.com/media/live/2019/apr/11/wikileaks... Edit: Indictment: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/wikileaks-founder-charg...

For those who prefer the original source: http://news.met.police.uk/news/update-arrest-of-julian-assan...

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#467
post #451
post #240

Chelsea Manning, who actually leaked things, is still in prison because of it. Apparently nobody cares.

In a solitary confinement non the less, for contempt of court, for refusing to testify in Assange case. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/23/chelsea-mann... Is this common in US?

I'm not deeply familiar with grand jury process in the US but yeah I think it's unusual to place someone in solitary (which, btw, is torture according to the UN) for refusing to testify to a grand jury.

By the way, she has a defense fund if you want to help her out: https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/chelsea-manning-needs-... (I've donated.)

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#468

> Extradition request from US confirmed > Scotland Yard has confirmed that Assange was arrested on behalf of the US after receiving a request for his extradition. > In a statement it said: > Julian Assange, 47, (03.07.71) has today, Thursday 11 April, been further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities, at 10:53hrs after his arrival at a central London police station. This is an extradition warrant under…

From the same Guardian article: Sweden’s chief Prosecutor Ingrid Isgren, has issued this statement: “This is news to us too, so we have not been able to take a position on the information that is now available. We also do not know why he is under arrest. We are following the developments.” So, yes, he was arrested on behalf of the US and not Sweden.

We already knew Sweden had dropped the warrant, the claim now was that they were trying to arrest him for violating UK law (skipping bail).

Unsurprisingly, there's more than that, although I didn't expect to see confirmation so soon.

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“illegally terminated” That’s not how that works

He's an Ecuadorian citizen. Does the Ecuadorian law allow for the extradition of Ecuadorian citizens? It's quite common for this to be illegal. Of course this wouldn't be your typical extradition as he was already on UK ground, but I think it would not be unreasonable for a court to view this as an extradition.

> He's an Ecuadorian citizen

Your information is a few hours out of date

> Does the Ecuadorian law allow for the extradition of Ecuadorian citizens

Yes, and also specifically to America, for what it's worth

> this wouldn't be your typical extradition

That's because it wouldn't be an extradition. Embassies are not extra-territorial. British police didn't storm the embassy largely out of politeness and convention.

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#470
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It will be interesting to see if the US tries to extradite him. Don't worry no such thing exists, it's all conspiracy theories as they said for years...

> Scotland Yard has confirmed that Assange was arrested on behalf of the US after receiving a request for his extradition. https://www.theguardian.com/media/live/2019/apr/11/wikileaks...

GP was probably sarcastic
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