Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Julian Assange arrested in London

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

831–840 of 1001 posts

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#831

Post by interfixus »

freyir wrote: post #786
collyw wrote: post #748

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a country who's citizens don't think their government is corrupt?

The Nordic countries, New Zealand, Switzerland and Singapore are perceived as least corrupt by experts and in opinion polls. Do the citizens agree?

I'm Danish. Prime minister is a drunken buffoon with no apparent shred of personal integrity, and generally I hold all politicians to be only in it for the perks and the power and the sex, but no, I wouldn't call our government corrupt, just institutionally inept, because politicians are not in the business of reasoning, and the administrative apparatus is Pournelle's iron law run amok.

We simply don't do corrupt to any significant degree. Probably the niftiest social trick the Scandinavian societies ever evolved.

Come to think of it, I was offered a bribe today, just a few hours ago. Turned it down without even thinking.

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#832

Post by notabee »

fixermark wrote: post #755
panarky wrote: post #746

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The actual indictment: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/press-release/file/1153481... Snowden: The weakness of the US charge against Assange is shocking. The allegation he tried (and failed?) to help crack a password during their world-famous reporting has been public for nearly a decade: it is the count Obama's DOJ refused to charge, saying it endangered journalism. https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/11163365508733…

If Assange gets extradited on a charge that the previous administration wouldn't push but the administration his organization assisted in getting elected is willing to (because they don't care about such a paltry thing as "endangering the protections provided to freedom of the press by the US Constitution"), it will be the highest of ironies.

Irony seems to be deprecated these days.

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#833

Post by cparsons3000 »

Looks like Assange was attempting to destabilize Ecuador's govt while in the embassy (at least that's what they claim).

“Ecuador’s Interior Minister María Paula Romo says Julian Assange's asylum was revoked because there was sufficient evidence that he was meddling in Ecuador's internal affairs in an effort to destabilize the government.

Romo also reiterated President Lenin Moreno's remarks that Assange was consistently violating embassy residency rules, and specifically called out how he would put feces on the walls.”

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#834

Post by jsgo »

whamlastxmas wrote: post #751
pdabbadabba wrote: post #651

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We aren't discussing what Wikileaks leaked anymore. We are discussing Julian Assange's cats. See how they shifted our attention? That's the power of a propaganda - eventually, it will work. They just have to keep at it, and they did. This is only true, if at all, today, on this forum. The mainstream press has been talking about Hillary's emails (and how they were obtained, and other fallout) for literally years now…

Look at my comment history for a recent example of a thread talking endlessly about cats and assange being an alleged rude house guest. it's constantly misdirected on reddit too.

Anecdotal, but I hadn't heard mention of cats until today where apparently some cat he had was a mini-celebrity or something to that effect. I have read that he has danced on Ecuador's last nerve for a while, but that's essentially it on the character/personality profile items. Oh, and his friendship with Pamela Anderson.

Prior to that there was the talk of he would turn himself in if Manning were released and then balked when Obama let Manning out shortly before leaving office. The Podesta emails, the exploits that the NSA or some US intelligence group who had in their warchest (and the brief fallout when some of those were exploited right after before a patch was pushed), and things of that nature.

Personally, I like the idea of Assange/Wikileaks more than the execution of it. The current example, both really, carries too much pretentiousness for my liking (the article/interview shortly after the initial leaks where he talks about releasing a massive archive for public downloading that is protected by password and his handlers have said password that they'll release if he is murdered read like a story out of Hollywood). More generally, I guess in some way I just wish those that were responsible for bringing to light the failings of governments and those in power were themselves mostly infallible.

Granted, if the max charge he's susceptible to is 5 years in prison, I'd almost consider his "asylum" in the embassy as time served and save taxpayers' money. His time in the embassy for all intents and purposes has neutered him as a figure.

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#836

Post by MrZongle2 »

This was inevitable as soon as Ecuador started making uncomfortable noises about Assange camping out in the embassy.

He's made too many enemies. If there's any truth to the charges, that just made things easier for the authorities.

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#837

Post by cparsons3000 »

Mvandenbergh wrote: post #91

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 sounds like the US will for sure extradite him.

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#838

Post by frank_nitti »

mc32 wrote: post #780
gcb0 wrote: post #773

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, as the current narrative (on thehill.com, a left-center bias news source no less) is that this is all caused by fears from the Obama administration personnel: https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/394036-How-Comey-int... Though it is also the narrative on russia propaganda sites https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201806271065837436-comey-as...

It’s odd, I just heard Greenwald pinning it on the Trump admin. Not the legacy of of Obama’s DoJ. I guess he’d like to see Trump personally involved to rescind the prev DoJ indictment? Also international left is still on his side defending him, but thd US left want to see him hung out to dry. Interesting split.

The "left" is too broad a stroke to paint with for this situation. The left in the US is quite split on these issues (and an increasing number of other issues).

The so-called "New Democrats" (think Clinton, Biden, Kamala Harris) are surely who you are referring to; they want him crucified. The "progressive" wing of the left (think Ralph Nader) do NOT fit that description. IMHO as a lifelong Southern California resident in Los Angeles, the progressive left has more support among common people, but the Clinton Democrats have more support from the donor class. Hence, the media narrative of the American left is dominated by the corporatist dems.

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#839

Post by tokai »

ShorsHammer wrote: post #753
becauseiam wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is a dual national now, which only complicates any attempt, Australia's connection with Five-eyes and other military and political arrangements aside.

When has that complicated anything? Being a dual citizen is a huge benefit everywhere on Earth. For anyone with enough resources and time I'd encourage collecting citizenships like they were Pokemon.

Be careful about picking up a citizenship in a country with conscription.

Re: Julian Assange arrested in London

#840

Post by [deleted] »

praptak wrote: post #109
mikorym wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found the Swedish rape case fishy. Are there any facts (going both ways) to speak of at all?

Corroborating evidence: https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/797188 - "Sweden’s Serial Negligence in Prosecuting Rape Further Highlights the Politics Behind Julian Assange’s Arrest"

[deleted]
Post reply on HN