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Former U.S. officials describe details of the CIA’s proposals to abduct Assange

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Re: Former U.S. officials describe details of the CIA’s proposals to abduct Assange

#81

Post by bserge »

ben_w wrote: post #49
roenxi wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the government's job is to have a plan to kill every/anyone. Or if there are too many people to kill efficiently, starve them in to compliance (which is the plan with a heavy sanctions regime). They are not nice people, but it isn't illegal.

I’m a long way from understanding international law, but I thought one of the principles of Westphalian sovereignty was that the highest power of a nation was its own government and never a different government? It might not be illegal under US law, but London isn’t in the USA.

Say it's illegal. "What are you gonna do about it?"

Re: Former U.S. officials describe details of the CIA’s proposals to abduct Assange

#82

Post by dehrmann »

> As an American citizen, I find it absolutely outrageous that our government would be contemplating kidnapping or assassinating somebody without any judicial process...

I clipped it at an unfair point, but remember Anwar al-Awlaki? Obama ordered the execution of a US citizen in a foreign country without trial.

Re: Former U.S. officials describe details of the CIA’s proposals to abduct Assange

#83

Post by ch4s3 »

Ekaros wrote: post #74
ch4s3 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a false choice, they can both be awful along different axes. Biden however has a MUCH longer public record of bad policy decisions. Biden's crime bill from 1994 and the Iraq war which he supported caused more human misery than anything Trump had the opportunity to do in 4 years, all prior to the recent election. For all of his faults and criminality, Trump was mostly bluster and didn't actually do very much w…

And let's be entirely honest. It is not like policies vary from one administration to next. Many border policies were already in place before Trump and so was surveillance and so on. In general humanity loses every time.

The foreign policy situation since the end of the Cold Wars has been disappointing to say the least.

Re: Former U.S. officials describe details of the CIA’s proposals to abduct Assange

#84

Post by dehrmann »

CodeGlitch wrote: post #61

Couldn't read the article as Yahoo news is such a cluster-f*k of mess on-screen. Too many distractions, bad layout, autoplaying videos. ...and this is with heavy ad blocking. As it was my first visit to Yahoo news, it gave me the options on which kind of cookies/tracking I want to accept. Obviously I select "none". I shudder to think what would happen if I had selected "accept-all". Sorry for the rant - but I can see…

Looks good in reader mode.

Re: Former U.S. officials describe details of the CIA’s proposals to abduct Assange

#85

Post by marcinzm »

photochemsyn wrote: post #62

The real reason they were so pissed off at Assange seems to be in two parts: 1) The Chelsea Manning State Department cables. The video was all the hype, but just dig through the 'SECRET' cables on Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc. Zero interest in 'human rights and democracy', lots of interests in oilfields, pipelines, military sales contracts, etc. 2) Those Vault7 CIA leaks are incredibly embarrassing, it's like so closet cr…

> That's kind of insanely deceptive and criminal I think.

That just seems like standard for spy agencies along with a pretty mild black propaganda angle. Even books about WW2 propaganda cover the topic.

I think people just underestimate what spy agencies actually do and how dirty it’s always been.

Re: Former U.S. officials describe details of the CIA’s proposals to abduct Assange

#86

Post by pydry »

elpin wrote: post #79
pydry wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>He literally acted as a stooge for the Russian government Based upon the talking points at the time, establishment Democrats very much wanted this to be true. This makes sense since the Russians are a convenient scapegoat. >suppressing damaging information on Republicans. They wanted this to be true but it didnt happen: https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiLeaks/comments/5pmo25/debunked_...

"On July 6, 2016, WikiLeaks again contacted Guccifer 2.0 through Twitter’s private messaging function, writing, “if you have anything hillary related we want it in the next tweo [sic] days prefable [sic] because the DNC is approaching and she will solidify bernie supporters behind her after.” The Guccifer 2.0 persona responded, “ok . . . i see.” WikiLeaks also explained, “we think trump has only a 25% chance of winni…

This suggests they wanted Bernie to win.

In any case, hitting up sources for leaks is, well, journalism.

Re: Former U.S. officials describe details of the CIA’s proposals to abduct Assange

#87

Post by hunterb123 »

sillystuff wrote: post #78
hunterb123 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good lord this is a wall of misinformation. This thread is ripe for America hating propaganda. Most of what you said is either hyperbole or completely inaccurate.

Sorry about the wall of text. I tried not to favor anyone's "side". As for America hating. No. Those who are uncritical of their government are doing no one any favor. E.g., if we had more people speaking up critically against US policies abroad, 911 probably would never have happened. It will be the uncritical patriots who will allow America to be lead to ruin.

I could go through each point, but let's start with Lincoln, you only took half the quote, what he said was:

"If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that."

The rest of your propaganda falls apart just as easily.

You talk like someone from the 50 cent army or a useful idiot who believes the nonsense.

Re: Former U.S. officials describe details of the CIA’s proposals to abduct Assange

#88

Post by dehrmann »

h2odragon wrote: post #2

Wasn't Wikileaks supposed to have been the means by which Russia took the election from Clinton? Why would the Trump administration be so unhappy with them? Were they perhaps continuing the previous administrations' "sweetness and light" approach?

> Russia took the election from Clinton?

Clinton's sense of entitlement and both parties' history of not supporting the working class lost her the election.

Re: Former U.S. officials describe details of the CIA’s proposals to abduct Assange

#89

Post by nyolfen »

slim wrote: post #50

Sowing discord within the group seemed an easier route to success 2017 fits the period in which one hacker of the group was publicly accused of sexual harrassement by a female employee of the Tor project

i went back and checked and it looks like this took place in 2016; appelbaum had two accusers, one of whom later accused a bitcoin core dev of sexual assault and was sued, which i believe settled out of court for an apology. afaict appelbaum has completely dropped off the net in the years since

Re: Former U.S. officials describe details of the CIA’s proposals to abduct Assange

#90

Post by boomboomsubban »

I don't see how anybody could read this and then pretend that Assange has any chance of a fair trial in America. Not only were his communication constantly monitored for years, already a breach of client attorney privilege, the US considered flagrant assassination as a potential way to handle him.

I've heard many people say that Assange committed actual crimes and it's time for him to face the consequences of those actions. While I personally disagree about whether he's done anything illegal, even if he has it impossible for him to get a fair trial and justice to be served. Everything being done to him is an effort to get revenge on the person who embarrassed the military and intelligence communities.

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