Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ecuador has been reeling with weak economic growth and increased debt for a while now. Although there were still other options to finance their problems for the time being, it is likely that Ecuador has requested IMF financing and it has been blocked at the executive level for a few years on the condition that they played ball. Coupled that with the fact that Assange lost almost all his political capital and 'friendl…
Is there any actual evidence for this at all?
Julian Assange arrested in London
951–960 of 1001 posts
Re: Julian Assange arrested in London
#952Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hard to imagine how that would have ended any other way really. No benefit for the Ecuadorians in man-handling him, he wasn’t going to leave of his own accord, and the Brits (proooobably) weren’t going to storm the place. Pity whomever has to fumigate the room.
The Equadorian president Moreno didn't like Wikileaks publishing the INA papers that have lead to accusations of corruption against him. Assange could prbably have forseen that would endanger his asylum but published anyway, kudos to him.
Re: Julian Assange arrested in London
#953Very sad day. Remember this all started with the leak of the "Collateral murder" video. That's when the Interpol notice went out, and he had to seek asylum at the embassy. It was already quite disgusting how powerful entities were able to seemingly fabricate sexual charges as needed. Later on he made very influential enemies by exposing corruption in the democratic political party. Instead of any follow up on that fr…
>> It was already quite disgusting how powerful entities were able to seemingly fabricate sexual charges as needed. The sexual charges really don't look fabricated or to have had any political motive at all. The wikipedia article on the allegations ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange#Swedish_sexual_... ) makes it clear that the charges were dropped after Assange was initially questioned by the police, then…
They are, quite plainly, fabricated, as there are no charges. He has not been charged with a crime. You speak of these nonexistent charges as if they are fact.
You say that the wikipedia article “makes it clear that the charges were dropped” - I just read it and it does no such thing - because it does not say he was charged in the first place - because he was not.
You are propagating a false claim.
Re: Julian Assange arrested in London
#954For anyone interested in understanding Assange, check out this excellent article by Andrew O'Hagan from a few years ago: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n05/andrew-ohagan/ghosting O'Hagan was hired to ghost-write Assange's autobiography and wound up spending some months in his inner circle, and his account is very detailed and balanced.
Re: Julian Assange arrested in London
#955Earlier quoted context omitted.
And his pretext was also that he'd face the death penalty in the US, which is a bit absurd. Chelsea Manning was his co-conspirator and look what she got. She didn't get a death sentence, she got government funded gender reassignment surgery, 35 years which Obama commuted down to 7 years, and contempt of court for refusing a direct court order to appear. Not great, but neither is leaking droves of classified informati…
She was also tortured[1]. So there's that. [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/12/bradley-mannin...
Re: Julian Assange arrested in London
#956Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unsealed: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/wikileaks-founder-charg...
So they pushed manning to get her arrested again and breach her immunity so that they could get to assange. Clever.
If anyone else did the same, they'd get the same result for contempt of court. While I respect her peaceful protest, what did she expect?
Re: Julian Assange arrested in London
#957It 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…
I wish Australia would step up and actually defend one of their citizens.
Re: Julian Assange arrested in London
#958Re: Julian Assange arrested in London
#959Earlier 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…
> 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. That's an argument against the desirability of the charge because of knock on effects (or, rather, because of some other actors past perception…
Re: Julian Assange arrested in London
#960Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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. That's an argument against the desirability of the charge because of knock on effects (or, rather, because of some other actors past perception…
Surely if a previous DOJ refused to prosecute the case it is 'weak' in some sense. Perhaps in the sense that while a crime can be proven, it's not an appropriate use of public resources to prosecute. Or perhaps because there is prima facie evidence of a crime but First Amendment arguments could potentially prevent the government from securing a conviction. I haven't yet found a source for the claim that the DOJ previ…
No, prosecutorial decisions are not, even in theory, made based solely on the strength of cases; while that is a factor, evaluation of importance (including cost/benefit considerationa), which are ultimately policy decisions which different decision-makers (and even the same decision-maker at a different time, particularly if facts pertinent to the prioritization but not the strength the of the case change) are likely to see differently even with the same view of strength of the case, are also a factor.
Plus, available evidence and relevant case law can change over time; even if the case was weak during the previous Administration the same case might not be weak now.
> Surely if a previous DOJ refused to prosecute the case it is 'weak' in some sense
That's not a matter of the case being weak, that's a matter of policy on which actors with different policy preferences will differ even with perfect information and judgement regarding application of those preferences.
> Or perhaps because there is prima facie evidence of a crime but First Amendment arguments could potentially prevent the government from securing a conviction.
That would be weakness, but no one has made a coherent First Amendment argument that would bar prosecution for conspiracy to break into a government computer system manifest in an offer to help break a password and actual attempts at that. A lot of emotional appeals lacking a specific argument have been made in that direction, but that's not the same thing.