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Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

nbcnews.com

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Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#111

Post by dboreham »

sackfield wrote: post #109

In an ideal world we would get to do a reverse investigation to understand which government officials were complicit in his very obviously politically motivated detention, action would be taken upon those individuals to ensure accountability, and the system itself would be updated so powerful interests can't abuse the law like this. How far are we from this world?

Responsibility has to be pretty defuse, right? You can at least begin with all the presidents in office since he was prosecuted, until N-1 since presumably the Nth just released him.

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#112

Post by lupire »

dralley wrote: post #106
faeriechangling wrote: post #31

He was already effectively a political prisoner. The US made enough of an example of him I guess. Expose US war crimes and this will happen to you.

Much like Snowden, people attach to whatever the highest-profile thing they released was, and act like that's the only thing they released. It's not, it's just what got the most attention. It's maybe 0.5% of the portfolio if you're being generous. Both Snowden and Assange went far beyond "blowing the whistle" in what they leaked and/or solicited.

OK, so Snowden ann Assange deserve punishment.

Where is the punishment for the people commiting the crimes and treason that Snowden and Assange exposed?

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#113

Post by sackfield »

dboreham wrote: post #111
sackfield wrote: post #109

In an ideal world we would get to do a reverse investigation to understand which government officials were complicit in his very obviously politically motivated detention, action would be taken upon those individuals to ensure accountability, and the system itself would be updated so powerful interests can't abuse the law like this. How far are we from this world?

Responsibility has to be pretty defuse, right? You can at least begin with all the presidents in office since he was prosecuted, until N-1 since presumably the Nth just released him.

Diffusion of responsibility is definitely a defense in these cases, but the system should recognize this shortcoming and assign accountability (at least in an ideal world).

Although I'm willing to bet that the true actors here weren't necessarily presidents (even though they would ultimately be accountable like you say). Would be interesting to see who demanded what and when.

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#114

Post by tene »

chaoskitty wrote: post #110

It amazes me that so many people care more about the act of whistleblowing, which informs us, the citizens, about what our governments are doing that's illegal, than about the illegal activities themselves. What does that say about those people? Are they easily led by emotion? They certainly don't care about the rule of law, if breaking the law by others can so easily be ignored. They aren't particularly patriotic, i…

You've got it exactly right, many people in the US care far more about compliance with and respect for authority than they do about rule of law.

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#115

Post by sudosysgen »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #100
femto wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a mood change in Australia, with all sides of politics wanting Assange's case to be closed [1]. Consequently in the last 12 months there has been pressure from Australia, on its "five eyes" US and UK partners, to close the case. [1] https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-expresses-f...

I'm not sure that the US gives too many fucks about Australian public opinion, or what Albanese says. I think it has more to do with US politics and the upcoming election. But whatever, I'm glad he's free and is not being extradited to whatever hellhole the US had planned for him. I hope he's able to get a beer and a swim and put his life back together.

The thing is that if Australia wants to deny extradition, they can, and the US presumably wouldn't want that precedent.

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#116

Post by femto »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #100
femto wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a mood change in Australia, with all sides of politics wanting Assange's case to be closed [1]. Consequently in the last 12 months there has been pressure from Australia, on its "five eyes" US and UK partners, to close the case. [1] https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-expresses-f...

I'm not sure that the US gives too many fucks about Australian public opinion, or what Albanese says. I think it has more to do with US politics and the upcoming election. But whatever, I'm glad he's free and is not being extradited to whatever hellhole the US had planned for him. I hope he's able to get a beer and a swim and put his life back together.

I'm not so pessimistic. Each country will put their own interests first, but they do work together. Pursuing Assange isn't central to the US/UK national interest. Part of the reason Assange languished so long was because the Australian government didn't stick up for him earlier.

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#117

Post by lupire »

rsingel wrote: post #72
9659 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

heard that he has a tax issue that he will be hit with as soon as he returns to the mother country.

Maybe related to the mysterious disappearing $200M+ in bitcoin donations supposed to go to Wikileaks? "WikiLeaks wallets now contain only 3.265 BTC ($168,000) compared to 4,079 BTC total inflows. Overall, it appears Bitcoin users have donated $1.62 million in BTC to WikiLeaks since it opened donations 13 years ago. If held until today, that BTC would be worth $210 million. As for what WikiLeaks does with its crypto d…

You can't count the future investment performance when measuring the value of currency. If the Bitcoin were converted to dollars, they wouldn't have appreciated 100 fold.

Especially considering that a substantial part of the value of BTC is the fact that a lot of it has been accidentally destroyed.

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#118

Post by lokar »

slg wrote: post #99
jjmarr wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Journalists generally avoid asking for classified information. The belief is that (in the US) a journalist that passively receives classified information & publishes it isn't committing a crime due to the First Amendment. The actual crime itself was committed by the person leaking the information. Julian Assange actively solicited leaks of information. That's where the espionage claim comes from. There's not much pre…

>Julian Assange actively solicited leaks of information. This phrasing makes it sound like Assange asked "Do you have this?" when the accusations have always been closer to "Can you get me this? Here is how you could go about doing that." That takes it out of the realm of journalism in at least the legal sense.

When you encourage someone else to commit a crime, and then use the results of that crime in your own work you really should not be surprised that law enforcement comes after you.
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