21–30 of 68 posts
Assange is an arsehole who's only interest is in publishing documents to damage short-term political interest without interest for morality, the safety of other human beings and the disregard for all things right.
This goes to some lengths to explain why Assange is willing to publish anything, no matter how damaging in the short term it may be to particular interests. He doesn't want to be a curator or a decision maker about what information is or is not available. He is interested in solving the architectural problem of removing the ability to having political interests or personal bias influence control what gets published.…
Nonsense. Assange goes to great lengths to spin his political agenda. For example the "Collateral Murder" video. He did not publish raw source material, he published his narrative: http://www.collateralmurder.com/ He is no Snowden. Snowden was upfront and honest from the start about what he was trying to achieve. I used to admire Assange, now Assange is caught up in his own myth and he seems desperate to keep that my…
Assange is an arsehole who's only interest is in publishing documents to damage short-term political interest without interest for morality, the safety of other human beings and the disregard for all things right.
While I wasn't 100% on board with the cable leaks, I do think disrupting political interests and forcing transparency in government is a good idea.
Assange wants it both ways: he wants to be a media-like outlet, but not have the moral responsibilities. It doesn't work that way.
Worse, by all accounts its mostly because he knows it would be a lot of time and effort to safely disclose the types of things he did/advocates should be. There's a very great personal convenience for him to "believe" he's no responsibility to safely redact documents.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Regards to him hiding out in the embassy, it really irritates me when he refers to this as 'house arrest' or 'detained without charge'. He is there of his own free will. He can leave at any time. He chooses not to as he is a coward.
If he attempts to leave his domicile, won't he immediately be arrested? That is the impression I was under. It's the same scenario as someone under house arrest. When you're under house arrest, typically there is not an armed guard preventing you from leaving (although this is sometimes required by a court). Rather, you have the ability to leave your house, but if you do, then you will be arrested. I can see why he w…
Timeline of the scenario: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11949341
An arrest warrant was issued on August 20, 2010. The next day, Stockholm chief prosecutor Eva Finne reviewed the charges and canceled them. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11049316
> Chief Prosecutor Eva Finne dismissed the 'rape' investigation altogether: “I have discontinued the preliminary investigation of the charge (sic) originally designated as rape. There is no suspicion of any crime whatsoever.”
https://wikileaks.org/IMG/html/Affidavit_of_Julian_Assange.h...
Assange is interviewed by police, released, and allow to leave the country. After he's left the country, on September 1, the decision was overridden by the Swedish Director of Prosecution, who reopens the case against him.
> The woman of whom Mr. Assange is accused of the offence of "lesser rape" (a technical term in Swedish law) sent an SMS to a friend saying that she "did not want to accuse JA [of] anything" and "it was the police who made up the charges". The other woman tweeted in 2013 that she had never been raped. Both women’s testimonies say that they consented to the sex. [S]enior prosecutor [Finne] already dismissed the ’rape’ accusation, saying that there were no grounds for accusing Mr. Assange on this basis. But a third prosecutor, lobbied by a politician who was running for attorney general, took over the investigation and resurrected the accusations against Mr. Assange.
https://justice4assange.com/ [note that this is not a credible news site, but it links to further sources and legal documents such as https://wikileaks.org/IMG/html/Affidavit_of_Julian_Assange.h... ]
That politician is Claes Borgström, a also a lawyer. He allegedly applied pressure to reopen the case and become the women's lawyer, and was interested only in media spotlight:
> One of two women who accused Julian Assange of sex crimes moved to fire her controversial lawyer Claes Borgstrom late last month after she lost faith in his ability to represent her. [She] charged that Borgstrom was more interested in being in the media spotlight than providing her legal counsel, and has often referred her inquiries to his secretary or assistant.
http://rt.com/news/assange-prosecutor-judge-speech-992/
There seem to be a number of unusual or suspicious aspects to the overall case, that give me the impression that its motivations include something beyond the pursuit of justice.
This goes to some lengths to explain why Assange is willing to publish anything, no matter how damaging in the short term it may be to particular interests. He doesn't want to be a curator or a decision maker about what information is or is not available. He is interested in solving the architectural problem of removing the ability to having political interests or personal bias influence control what gets published.…
Nonsense. Assange goes to great lengths to spin his political agenda. For example the "Collateral Murder" video. He did not publish raw source material, he published his narrative: http://www.collateralmurder.com/ He is no Snowden. Snowden was upfront and honest from the start about what he was trying to achieve. I used to admire Assange, now Assange is caught up in his own myth and he seems desperate to keep that my…
Sounds a lot like cryptome? I recall reading a rather level-headed argument from Young (of cryptome) about not joining (or was it leaving) wikileaks -- over among other things the need (or rather lack there of) for the massive donation drives/big budgets of wikileaks. While Yong might not be entirely neutral wrt wikileaks -- all I've read by him on the matter have been rather straight forward and on point. I can't find the exact kibk, but it may have been the pdf-document on "wikileaks finances" -- or (more kikely) an email thread that was intended to set up an interview with comments from Yong on wikileaks - but somewhat amusingly failed to what I can only describe as culture shock/mismatch between the interviewer and the subject:
The parent article links to Assange's comments after meeting with Schmidt "Google is Not What it Seems" [1] which has some interesting discussion of the links between Google's senior level and politicians. Published yesterday, I don't recall seeing it linked. [1] http://www.newsweek.com/assange-google-not-what-it-seems-279...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Regards to him hiding out in the embassy, it really irritates me when he refers to this as 'house arrest' or 'detained without charge'. He is there of his own free will. He can leave at any time. He chooses not to as he is a coward.
> He chooses not to as he is a coward It's pretty clear that the UK would arrest him the second he walked out the door and promptly turn him over to the US. The US has made it quite clear, vis-a-vis Manning, Drake, Binning, etc, that he would have a very bad time ahead of him, and possibly see everything he has attempted to accomplish shuttered and turned against him. In any case, his signal would surely be reduced t…
How is this clear? A warrant for his arrest is for extradition to Sweden. In the case that the US wants to get him, he would then have to get the permission of the UK and of Sweden.
Last I check Assange doesn't have a warrant for an extradition to the US
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nonsense. Assange goes to great lengths to spin his political agenda. For example the "Collateral Murder" video. He did not publish raw source material, he published his narrative: http://www.collateralmurder.com/ He is no Snowden. Snowden was upfront and honest from the start about what he was trying to achieve. I used to admire Assange, now Assange is caught up in his own myth and he seems desperate to keep that my…
There's a wonderful article[1] in London Review of Books in which Andrew O'Hagan, hired to be Assange's ghost writer, gradually becomes convinced - from a position of admiration - that Assange is a confused and vainglorious narcissist who has little interest in spreading information and far more in spreading the cult of Assange. It's long but utterly engrossing. [1] http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n05/andrew-ohagan/ghosting
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nonsense. Assange goes to great lengths to spin his political agenda. For example the "Collateral Murder" video. He did not publish raw source material, he published his narrative: http://www.collateralmurder.com/ He is no Snowden. Snowden was upfront and honest from the start about what he was trying to achieve. I used to admire Assange, now Assange is caught up in his own myth and he seems desperate to keep that my…
There's a wonderful article[1] in London Review of Books in which Andrew O'Hagan, hired to be Assange's ghost writer, gradually becomes convinced - from a position of admiration - that Assange is a confused and vainglorious narcissist who has little interest in spreading information and far more in spreading the cult of Assange. It's long but utterly engrossing. [1] http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n05/andrew-ohagan/ghosting
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pretty much agree - I never agreed with everything Assange was doing, but I at least thought he was doing it for the right reasons and respected him for that, but as time goes on he just seems more deluded and often self-interested. I suppose in his defense it can't be easy being stuck in an embassy for two and a half years.
Regards to him hiding out in the embassy, it really irritates me when he refers to this as 'house arrest' or 'detained without charge'. He is there of his own free will. He can leave at any time. He chooses not to as he is a coward.