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Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

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Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#401
post #347
post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skipping bail on charges he believe were fake is a crime, yes. If we was so sure of the charges being fake then he should have let them judge him.

...except Assange would have been transferred to America to stand trial over Wikileaks before he would even have a chance to stand trial over the rape accusations.

I don't think there was an extradition request from the US, was there? Only one from Sweden. And it's very unlikely that Sweden would extradite him to the US for this. They value the free press, but take rape very seriously.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're going to have to show your work on that assertion.

Or, maybe you can explain to me why the country that has the largest intelligence community by an order of magnitude also has the largest terrorism problem on the continent?

Correlation without causation. The United States has a lot of "the largest" by an order of magnitude. The size of the intelligence community could be causal, but so could the country's national visibility or wealth consolidation.

We're also working with a messy definition of "terrorism." For all its problems, the US doesn't have a destabilized central government; I would imagine one could ask the leadership of countries undergoing active revolutions whether they consider the opposition "terrorists," and if they do, I'd say they have a bigger "terrorism" problem than the US.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> being a dick to women I'll take things that are not crimes being used as proof of a crime for 1000, Alex.

> I'll take things that are not crimes being used as proof of a crime for 1000, Alex. Rape is a crime.

You said 'being a dick to women' and 'is finally paying for it'....

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You quote: > “Mr. Assange has been deliberately exposed, for a period of several years, to progressively severe forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the cumulative effects of which can only be described as psychological torture.“ That quote lacked information on who was exposing him and what that exposure actually was, so I followed your source. That source elaborates as follows: > “In the co…

> "arbitrary confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy, to his oppressive isolation, harassment and surveillance inside the embassy, and from deliberate collective ridicule, insults and humiliation" Not only hyperbole, but it's entirely self-imposed. He wasn't confined to the embassy, he chose to stay there rather than face trial. He chose "deliberate collective ridicule, insults and humiliation" over defending himself a…

I don't know why you don't think a trial doesn't carry seriously negative and scary connotations, but it does and no rational person just subjects themselves to persecution.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two answers to that: technical (legal) and moral. Technical (legal): No, clearly not. There's a reason he's hiding from the US justice system in Russia. He didn't follow the legal process for whistleblowing (and he probably should not have). Moral: The major difference between Manning and Snowden's leaks is that Snowden read the documents he forwarded and only collected and forwarded enough to blow the whis…

Snowden took and gave much more than he could possibly have read. In July 2014, The Washington Post reported on a cache previously provided by Snowden from domestic NSA operations consisting of "roughly 160,000 intercepted e-mail and instant-message conversations, some of them hundreds of pages long, and 7,900 documents taken from more than 11,000 online accounts." He did not read the 160k emails he provided to the W…

I stand corrected; I wouldn't call Snowden a whistleblower either, and his leaks were irresponsible.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#407
post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The charges from Sweden have been dropped and bought several times depending on their usefulness to the Americans it is not a case of the system working as intended. It is a foreign power putting diplomatic pressure on the Swedish government to put pressure on a man who has embarrassed them.

And in this case, William Barr really doesn't want Assange here, in order to protect his client, Donald J. Trump. And that's why we will not see the extradition to the United States while the Justice Department has been essentially neutered by, what would you call it? Deep State?

The current administration, given its stated opposition to a deep state, is perhaps best characterized as The Shallow State.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whistleblowers do not deserve to be in prison. Exposing war crimes is good.

Whistleblowing is a focused revelation of wrongdoing. Scraping the secret-classified documents of the State Department, handing them over to a foreign organization, and saying "You'll make the best use of this, I trust you" isn't whistleblowing. At best, it's irresponsible; at worst, it's irresponsibility that walks right up to the edge of malicious treason. I'm very glad Manning wasn't convicted of treason, because…

>Scraping the secret-classified documents of the State Department, handing them over to a foreign organization, and saying "You'll make the best use of this, I trust you" isn't whistleblowing

So, what better method should she have used? Remember she was on active duty, and already under a lot of stress from personally being aware of the atrocities being hidden.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You quote: > “Mr. Assange has been deliberately exposed, for a period of several years, to progressively severe forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the cumulative effects of which can only be described as psychological torture.“ That quote lacked information on who was exposing him and what that exposure actually was, so I followed your source. That source elaborates as follows: > “In the co…

The charges from Sweden have been dropped and bought several times depending on their usefulness to the Americans it is not a case of the system working as intended. It is a foreign power putting diplomatic pressure on the Swedish government to put pressure on a man who has embarrassed them.

Yup, very convenient that the pseudo-charges (He was never formally charged) were maintained for ten years, but as soon as they complicate extradition to the US they get dropped.

It's not the only thing in the Assange case which is blatantly political persecution. You got to wonder how most of the press can keep pretending it's not.

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