The modern security state has made an example. Be silent and compliant and they might leave you alone.
'First they came for' definitely applies. The chilling message it sends is hard to mistake by anything other than a warning.
Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, court rules
141–150 of 792 posts
Re: Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, court rules
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
Assuming he gets to trial, and has lawyers that understand how to use the media, I think it may be difficult to convince the entire jury to prosecute. Rehashing US war crimes, which would certainly come up, won't be great for the prosecution either.
Almost 50% of Americans voted for Trump. Almost 50% did it again a second time. It's not that Voting for Trump is in any way related to being against Assange (It's my understanding that Wikileaks is well liked within that community), but I've learned to to speculate on what Americans might do. I've taken to just expecting the worst possible outcome from any decision.
Trump's feelings could get hurt at some perceived slight at any moment, and he could suddenly turn his cult against Assange on a dime, just like he did with Netanyahu. Like if he got the idea in his fat head that Assange didn't do enough to help him overturn the election that he lost due to his own incompetence and corruption.
‘F*ck Him!’ Trump Reportedly Furious With Netanyahu Congratulating Biden, Hasn’t Spoken to Him Since
https://www.mediaite.com/trump/fck-him-trump-reportedly-furi...
>Former President Donald Trump is reportedly livid with Benjamin Netanyahu. At issue? Congratulations that former Israeli Prime Minister expressed to President Joe Biden following the 2020 general election.
>This is according to a new book from Axios writer Barak Ravid who reports:
>>Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu were the closest of political allies during the four years they overlapped in office, at least in public. Not anymore. “I haven’t spoken to him since,” Trump said of the former Israeli prime minister. “F*k him.”
>>What he’s saying: Trump repeatedly criticized Netanyahu during two interviews for my book, “Trump’s Peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East.” The final straw for Trump was when Netanyahu congratulated President-elect Biden for his election victory while Trump was still disputing the result.
>“The first person that congratulated [Biden] was Bibi Netanyahu, the man that I did more for than any other person I dealt with. … Bibi could have stayed quiet,” Trump is quoted by Ravid as saying. “He has made a terrible mistake.”
Re: Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, court rules
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
Assuming he gets to trial, and has lawyers that understand how to use the media, I think it may be difficult to convince the entire jury to prosecute. Rehashing US war crimes, which would certainly come up, won't be great for the prosecution either.
> Rehashing US war crimes, which would certainly come up, won't be great for the prosecution either. Assuming the judge doesn't block that line of argument.
He's charged with espionage for material related to a war crime. It's not a peripheral issue.
Re: Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, court rules
#144The framing of Assange as an innocent “journalist” being persecuted for just doing his job is, in my opinion, disingenuous. I do not necessarily agree with all the actions the US Government has taken with him, or their handling of some of the information that was leaked. However, I do not agree that a “journalist” should be able to enable espionage, let alone encourage/incite it. In case my point is unclear, I consid…
I respect your perspective but wholly disagree with your conclusion. There is not a viable concept such as whether a journalist “enables espionage.” Journalism is necessarily adversarial, not pliant.
I think it's a test of what you think of him - i.e. whether you consider it strictly journalism or activism.
As far as I'm aware his activities regarding the whole guccifer, Seth rich, etc. affair make me think a mere journalist he is not.
Re: Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, court rules
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The US is murdering international journalists. The USA is in 4 ongoing wars crossing 3 different administrations. The USA likes killing international people.
It's seems they have a preference for goatherds though....
Yeah, bully the weak... Never really going against the big boys...
Re: Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, court rules
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would he do any time at all? Because the people who actually should be doing time are the people in power so they are somehow immune? Also, Chelsea could transition to a woman without prison too. The fact that they ended/will end in prison while people who actually committed crimes that these two (and Snowden) exposed speaks volumes about how fundamentally different USA is.
Well "throwaway21", interesting that every time this topic comes up, brand new accounts come out of the woodwork. I'm not going to accuse you of being a political actor, but I would point out that Wikileaks exists as part of a new realm of state-funded and state-coordinated private intelligence services created to retain plausible deniability. When certain state funded operations come up, the comment sections do alwa…
> I'm not going to accuse you of being a political actor,
Then don't bring it up, it doesn't add to the discussion.
> he is charged with a relatively minor criminal offense stemming from his assistance in attempting to crack a password hash to gain unauthorized access to military computers
That was only the first charge he was indicted on.
> Imagine hiding from a 5 year max sentence for 10 years.
Assange currently faces up to 170 years in prison.
He was hiding from a one of the worlds largest perpetrators of targeted assassination, one which we know has debated assassinating him at its highest levels.
> As for Reality, she really could not have transitioned in Russia and China regardless of prison, that was the point you missed.
You seem to be confused. Reality Winner did not change genders and was not working for the military when she leaked documents to the Intercept.
> I do think that the idea of classification and state secrets have merit
Just because there is merit to the idea doesn't mean that everything that gets classified deserves that classification, nor does it mean that the government doesn't use that classification infrastructure to hide things that the American public needs to know about. The prosecution of Assange absolutely represents an unacceptable expansion of the USA'a ability to suppress such information.
Re: Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, court rules
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
Assuming he gets to trial, and has lawyers that understand how to use the media, I think it may be difficult to convince the entire jury to prosecute. Rehashing US war crimes, which would certainly come up, won't be great for the prosecution either.
Almost 50% of Americans voted for Trump. Almost 50% did it again a second time. It's not that Voting for Trump is in any way related to being against Assange (It's my understanding that Wikileaks is well liked within that community), but I've learned to to speculate on what Americans might do. I've taken to just expecting the worst possible outcome from any decision.
Almost 50% of Americans voted for Biden. Almost 50% did it again a second time.
It's not that Voting for Biden is in any way related to being against Assange (It's my understanding that Wikileaks is well liked within that community), but I've learned to to speculate on what Americans might do.
I've taken to just expecting the worst possible outcome from any decision.
Re: Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, court rules
#148"But judges ruled the risk of suicide was removed by assurances from the US." Like Epstein? Let this be a point, there is no press freedom in the United States.
> Like Epstein?
Yes. And like Milosevic. And like Saddam. It's funny how some people choose to commit suicide just before trial.
Re: Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, court rules
#149"But judges ruled the risk of suicide was removed by assurances from the US." Like Epstein? Let this be a point, there is no press freedom in the United States.
Guaranteed he's dead within a year.
Unless he kills himself, not a chance. He's done his damage, unlike Epstein who had whole houses of closets with skeletons in them; nobody wants him dead.
Prison is worse.
Re: Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, court rules
#150The framing of Assange as an innocent “journalist” being persecuted for just doing his job is, in my opinion, disingenuous. I do not necessarily agree with all the actions the US Government has taken with him, or their handling of some of the information that was leaked. However, I do not agree that a “journalist” should be able to enable espionage, let alone encourage/incite it. In case my point is unclear, I consid…
Assange is more of an editor / publisher. This is akin to the Washington Post publishing the Pentagon Papers. As a reminder, this is why the US wants to punish Assange: > Wikileaks reveals video showing US air crew shooting down Iraqi civilians > https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/apr/05/wikileaks-us-a...
Editors/publishers exercise judgement and take responsibility for what they put out into the world. AFAICT, Assange's best argument for his innocence is that he bears no responsibility because... he neither took nor accepts any responsibility.