Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I widely agree, if we're fair there's a difference between a Journalist covering leaked stuff and literally releasing the full unredacted documents to the public. Otherwise I agree. His treatment comes down to nothing other than the fact the USA govt want to make it very, very clear that they are willing to totally destroy anyone's lives who dare publish the horrific things they're doing.
> if we're fair there's a difference between a Journalist covering leaked stuff and literally releasing the full unredacted documents to the public. It was actually senior Guardian journalists who compromised the cables by publishing the password Assange had entrusted them with. That's what led to the unredacted copies being made available. Jonathan Cook has written about it here: https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2…
Key witness in Assange case admits to lies in indictment
251–260 of 334 posts
Re: Key witness in Assange case admits to lies in indictment
#252Not really surprising considering the many other blatant lies in the Assange case. For example to this day barely anybody seems aware about the fact how Swedish police changed witness testimonies to create rape accusations that were never even made by the two women, to have these nasty accusations leaked to the press only hours later, in the middle of the night. That's only one of the many findings by the UN rapporte…
Re: Key witness in Assange case admits to lies in indictment
#253What an absolute joke. FBI/CIA recruits a child molester to lie about Assange. https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2015/09/25/siggi_the... Who on earth isn’t asking at this point “Are we (US intel agencies) the baddies?”
I'm quite torn. I feel like a dissonance in theory and practice is at play here. If you ask people about "American values" a lot of times you'll come up with things around freedom, liberty, in general individualism and protection from the "other" of tyrannical government. That's the theory. In practice, those individuals that make up U.S. intelligence agencies justify the dissonance between their tyrannical actions and their ideals by arguments such as "if it were the Russian/Chinese/Other on top things would be worse", etc. All boiling down to "necessary evils".
So, which is better, a tyrannical regime that professes values of liberty or a tyrannical regime that tacitly admits that it's tyrannical?
I feel like I may be betraying a bit too much of my lack of authority and competence on the subject, but there's something that has stuck with me as the central point of one of the sides at the end of the anime "Legends of the Galactic Heroes". SPOILER Paraphrasing: "Democracy may be just as bad for the people as autocracy, but at least in democracy the people deserve their fate".
Re: Key witness in Assange case admits to lies in indictment
#254Is there any way to vote against the current way the FBI/CIA operates? They are straight up coercing witnesses with fake testimonies to get a man prison, whose only crime was sharing the truth about the shameful inner workings of our American government.
Vote for politicians who will pass laws that dictate how they are to operate. Alternatively, if it is an avenue in your state, start a referendum to pass a state law calling for a Constitutional Convention (requires 34 states) to pass an amendment to deal with it.
Re: Key witness in Assange case admits to lies in indictment
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a lot of words but you didn't answer the question. The CIA and FBI are not accountable to Americans. You may be a fan of, or even work for, these institutions. But they are unaccountable and authoritarian and opaque.
Accountability likely peaked with the Church Committee (disclosed MKULTRA, COINTELPRO, etc), some of the results of which are still classified today, almost 50 years later. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee
It was a PSY-OP against the American public. The runup to the Iraq invasion was another. There certainly have been others.
Re: Key witness in Assange case admits to lies in indictment
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, and it is only going to get worse Since the Inception of the FBI they have declared war on the citizenry, they have zero respect for the constitution, seeing it as a hurtle to their power. They have done this under many names "War on crime", "War on Drugs", "War on Terror", and now "War on Domestic Extremism" They are all covers for the same abuse of power. The only way to end it is a complete reversion of decade…
And they only ever pursue the small targets. Their failure to actually prove that justice will catch up with the big fish at the top of the crime, drugs, and terror chains has resulted in the domestic extremism problem. The FBI's continued incompetency laid bare. Possibly by design.
Re: Key witness in Assange case admits to lies in indictment
#257Not really surprising considering the many other blatant lies in the Assange case. For example to this day barely anybody seems aware about the fact how Swedish police changed witness testimonies to create rape accusations that were never even made by the two women, to have these nasty accusations leaked to the press only hours later, in the middle of the night. That's only one of the many findings by the UN rapporte…
Are you saying there was no credible rape accusation?
Re: Key witness in Assange case admits to lies in indictment
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm not sure how it's politically inconvenient for me when I'm a registered Pacific Green. The West being less hostile to and more willing to collaborate with Russia is a frequent position promoted in Pacific Green circles; Russia being tied to active hostile activity against Western regimes is politically inconvenient to that message.
> The West being less hostile to and more willing to collaborate with Russia is a frequent position promoted in Pacific Green circles This should be a frequent position promoted in sane circles. What is the alternative, promoting war between nuclear powers? A permanent campaign of bullying, hoping that the Russians never get into a position to do anything about it? If the US can be close allies with the Saudis and th…
The merits of the idea are irrelevant to whether an American politician corruptly colluding with Russia is politically inconvenient to those holding it.
Re: Key witness in Assange case admits to lies in indictment
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
Vote for the party which is most critical on them. Currently Republicans though it used to be the Democrats. Embedding undercover agitators in radical groups goes on all the time I'm sure. It's valuable but very easily abused, too.
Why do you think the FBI embedded itself in a right-wing group and then cooked up the idea to kidnap Governor Whitmer? You know, the FBI seems to have advanced notice and involvement with a lot of these kinds of plots...including the ones that actually go off. What is it that they're getting done with our tax money anyway?
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/fbi-entrap...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/16/fbi-entrapment...
https://www.hrw.org/report/2014/07/21/illusion-justice/human...
Re: Key witness in Assange case admits to lies in indictment
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
To this day, The Guardian refuses to admit that it released the unredacted cables to the public, and blames WikiLeaks for the release. One of The Guardian's own journalists used the decryption key as a chapter title in his book about WikiLeaks. The Guardian's excuse is that they thought the decryption key was temporary. I don't know if people at The Guardian really are that misinformed about how encryption works, or…
That's because Julian Assange reused the same password on multiple files. At best, it's terrible opsec on his part. At worst, it was deliberate on his part, so he could plausibly claim no responsibility for the fallout. Either way, unless you can prove malicious intent on The Guardian, they have nothing to admit and Julian has some explaining to do.
The Guardian journalist who published the decryption key to the unredacted cables has subsequently acted in bad faith towards WikiLeaks. He's the same guy who wrote the false story about Assange supposedly meeting with Manafort in the Ecuadorian embassy, which The Guardian has still not retracted, despite it being almost certainly false.