Ecuador will hand over Julian Assange to the UK • Hacker News Board

Re: Ecuador will hand over Julian Assange to the UK

#111

Post by resters » Sat, Jul 21, 2018, 6:56 PM UTC

windowshopping wrote: post #100

blhack wrote: post #9

What I've wanted for Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, and Chelsea Manning, and if Obama would have done it before leaving office, it would have earned him infinite respect: Try them, possibly even find them guilty of something, but also award them with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. What these people have done is probably illegal, but it is unquestionably about the most American, patriotic act you could commit. Sp…

Assange is a hero? Last I checked he was working with Russia to support the Trump campaign. Used to respect him a lot, lost all my respect for him and WikiLeaks when he got involved in trying to influence elections. That was not that site's mandate.

It's not really accurate to say he was trying to influence elections. His goal is to publish verifiable documents that bring transparency to important political issues. He did not take sides whatsoever in the 2016 election, and obviously would have loved to publish information about Trump if any had been leaked to WL.

Re: Ecuador will hand over Julian Assange to the UK

#112

Post by nirv » Sat, Jul 21, 2018, 6:59 PM UTC

travmatt wrote: post #55

blhack wrote: post #9

What I've wanted for Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, and Chelsea Manning, and if Obama would have done it before leaving office, it would have earned him infinite respect: Try them, possibly even find them guilty of something, but also award them with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. What these people have done is probably illegal, but it is unquestionably about the most American, patriotic act you could commit. Sp…

I’m never going to understand the praise for Julian Assange. He may have started out with good intentions, but his turns towards Putin and subsequent actions are pretty unforgivable in my estimation. I can’t see how a moral person could stand by his decisions, honestly. I think Pussy Riot summer him up best: "But Julian Assange, he openly works with [Russia]," Nadya Tolokno told The Daily Beast in an interview Thursd…

You quote a political actionist, a member of a punk band, as if she were some kind of expert, investigative journalist or insider. She's not informed on the merits of the matter at all.

Re: Ecuador will hand over Julian Assange to the UK

#113

Post by ddebernardy » Sat, Jul 21, 2018, 6:59 PM UTC

einarfd wrote: post #97

To a lot of people Assange is a hero, and I'll grant that I liked a lot of the early actions of Wikileak under him. But to me, he is first and foremost someone that ran from a sexual assault investigation and has spent the years since that trying to evade justice. I have no regard left for the man after doing that. Some will argue that he would not have gotten a fair hearing in Sweden, and that they would have extrad…

Then again, to his credit, he eventually met his Swedish prosecutors from the safety of the embassy (and released the gory details a month later [1]). And there were genuine concerns from the get go that he'd get booted across the Atlantic had he stepped out of the embassy.

I've honestly no idea how warranted the rape claims in Sweden were - and to be clear, I'd tend to side with the women who filed them - but you can't just dismiss the whole thing on grounds he was escaping those charges.

In a similar situation I can't imagine anyone except the most naive idealist would have risked the wrath of US.gov (whose budget, remember, is on the order of magnitude of Germany's GDP) over miscellanea in Sweden (however important to the victims) that had 'excuse for extradition to the US' written all over it.

[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/07/julian-assange...

Re: Ecuador will hand over Julian Assange to the UK

#114

Post by geofft » Sat, Jul 21, 2018, 6:59 PM UTC

garmaine wrote: post #104

jumelles wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if secret constitutional abuses are happening/begin to happen Have you heard about an organization called ICE that illegally locked children inside office buildings and strip centers?

I don't like it any more than you do. But was that a constitutional abuse?

Yes - people (including children) are being denied their right to have counsel and a speedy trial and to not be deprived of liberty or property without due process of law. Those are human rights which the Constitution protects for all people in the US, not just rights for citizens.

Re: Ecuador will hand over Julian Assange to the UK

#115

Post by Pica_soO » Sat, Jul 21, 2018, 6:59 PM UTC

firasd wrote: post #47

blhack wrote: post #9

What I've wanted for Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, and Chelsea Manning, and if Obama would have done it before leaving office, it would have earned him infinite respect: Try them, possibly even find them guilty of something, but also award them with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. What these people have done is probably illegal, but it is unquestionably about the most American, patriotic act you could commit. Sp…

It makes me profoundly sad how the world (or at least my world, mostly far left, liberal, educated, etc.) has turned so hard against Julian Assange. He's a hero in every sense of the word. If this Assange guy hadn’t gone all-in on supporting Trump, Russia, & co., he would still have a broad base of support among liberal Americans—many of the same people who lobbied for Chelsea Manning’s release. Epic bad strategy on…

Liberal America is a cult now, a church and assagne was found in heresy against its highest law: You shall not rape.

They know very well, to manipulate those who decide what they stand for and upon with their feelings and not on principle.

Re: Ecuador will hand over Julian Assange to the UK

#116

Post by geofft » Sat, Jul 21, 2018, 7:00 PM UTC

exabrial wrote: post #57

[flagged]

That was Chelsea Manning who did that, and the Assange fanclub tends to hate her for some reason.

Re: Ecuador will hand over Julian Assange to the UK

#117

Post by JumpCrisscross » Sat, Jul 21, 2018, 7:02 PM UTC

jstarfish wrote: post #91

donarb wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The warrant was only withdrawn because without being able to interview Assange, the investigators cannot move forward. They have also reserved the right to reopen the case should Assange return to Sweden before the statute of limitations expires in 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/19/swedish-prosec...

Right, because investigation and prosecution of an alleged crime is impossible without the suspect's testimony. It was a trumped-up allegation. The timing and nature of it alone should have raised flags. Whatever truth there is to it does not warrant the diplomatic circus this has become.

> It was a trumped-up allegation

You’re quite callously dismissing two womens’ rape allegations.

Re: Ecuador will hand over Julian Assange to the UK

#118

Post by resters » Sat, Jul 21, 2018, 7:02 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #3

This is less a news story than a coat rack Greenwald uses to hang a bunch of loosely-related political arguments he wants to make: * That Ecuador under Moreno is subservient to western powers, this according in part to Correa, who ran the previous Ecuadorian administration, which was widely considered one of the most corrupt in the western hemisphere (I have no idea if Moreno's was as well). OK? None of us are equipp…

> That the US almost surely plans on prosecuting Assange because, despite the fact that US law makes it pretty difficult to prosecute Assange and despite the fact that it is extremely unlikely the UK or any EU country would extradite him, there are politicians in the US that really don't like him. OK? And?

He's making the point that the rule of law is very weak when it comes to the items in this bullet point.

In my view, Assange is a hero precisely because he's shown not just some classified information that has revealed many of our leaders to be highly corrupt, but because he's driven them to make fools of themselves in their vigor to destroy him.

Mike Pompeo will go down in history as one of the great villains of our age. His comments on Assange will be used to illustrate his abhorrent views. Those views aren't perceived by most people as abhorrent today for the same reason that the actors on cable news channels are widely respected and considered thought leaders. It's just easier that way.

Re: Ecuador will hand over Julian Assange to the UK

#119

Post by bytematic » Sat, Jul 21, 2018, 7:02 PM UTC

His disinformation campaign has done incredible damage to democracies around the world, despite his great ideas and systems.

Re: Ecuador will hand over Julian Assange to the UK

#120

Post by undseg » Sat, Jul 21, 2018, 7:03 PM UTC

shiado wrote: post #50

Hopefully he wasn't bullshitting with those insurance files. I have been waiting for some quality leak drama for a long long time now.

I'd imagine those insurance files being insurance against murder, torture, life imprisonment et al more so than being kicked out of political asylum, but I'm just speculating.