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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

#191

Post by roenxi »

etchalon wrote: post #160
dboreham wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A lot of Assange supporters are going to feel weird about giving Biden credit for his release, especially since Biden was part of the administration that initially decided to pursue Assange.

In the sense that the US letting up on the poor man is a surprise, yes. But without having polled the pro-Assange crowd it doesn't seem like a special surprise that it was Biden. He's been the name on impressive things before, like ending the Afghanistan war (which at the time had been a political humiliation for the US longer than Assange had).

Supporting transparency and good journalism isn't a partisan issue, and there are going to be good people in any administration. Plus Assange wasn't annoying presidents, he was going after people in the deep state.

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

#192

Post by FireBeyond »

kyleyeats wrote: post #136
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…

Julian's not a whistleblower, he's a journalist. Whistleblowers are people within the organization.

And only sometimes. Other times he was a political campaigner. "Hey Don Jr, let's talk and coordinate the release of a bunch of DNC material when it can most benefit your dad's campaign. And don't worry, I'm sitting on the RNC material, it's safe."

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

#193

Post by kristopolous »

etchalon wrote: post #160
dboreham wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A lot of Assange supporters are going to feel weird about giving Biden credit for his release, especially since Biden was part of the administration that initially decided to pursue Assange.

The Biden administration doesn't have a terrible track record with a bunch of things (bringing back net neutrality for instance) they just have a really bad marketing department.

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

#195

Post by dralley »

gilgoomesh wrote: post #148
hiddencost wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Priorities change. He's not really a threat anymore. They've thoroughly scared people who might copy him.

Assange wasn't really a threat on his own. He was merely an outlet for others (Chelsea Manning, Russian propagandists). The question was whether he encouraged others. Snowden showed that leakers didn't need Wikileaks for Chelsea Manning-like releases and the Russians have just switched to directly releasing on Twitter.

>the Russians have just switched to directly releasing on Twitter.

Or more frequently just making shit up. Enough people will believe it anyway if they're politically inclined to do so, plausible details are not a required element.

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

#196

Post by rootusrootus »

gizmo wrote: post #163
slg wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It amazes me that so many people care more about the act of whistleblowing... This is true in both directions and Assange is the perfect example of that. Someone being a whistleblower is not a get out of jail free card and there are still laws regarding how whistleblowing should be handled and what qualifies. Assange leaked a lot of important stuff that qualifies, but that wasn't all he leaked or did. A shockingly f…

Julian Assange published evidence of war crimes committed by the US Army. Both the leaker/whistleblower (Manning) and Julian Assange got their lives ruined over it. What is the lesson here? That if you value your life you should look the other way when you come across evidence of serious malfeasance? That killing innocent people is not a real crime but embarrassing those in power is the worst crime imaginable? This i…

> What is the lesson here?

At least part of that lesson is that if you engage in partisan politics with your 'journalism' then you instantly become a great deal less sympathetic with about half the population. That includes a bunch of people in positions with enough power to make your life complicated.

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

#198

Post by dralley »

dijit wrote: post #138
jpz wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He worked as a conduit for Russian interests.

Bad faith. He acted in the interests of everyone who doesn't like the US, you could justifiably say the same thing about him acting in China's best interest, or Iran. Absolute codswallop that you can't hold a government to account else you are criticised for aiding their enemies. Does that mean we should just sit down and take it because it makes us look bad? I'm the first in line to criticise my government (UK) but…

I mean, he literally had a show on, and was paid to do so by, the Russian state media. And then later on failed to publish a set of Russian documents that were leaked to him, and also coordinated with (not just received leaks from) someone who turned out to be GRU.

Reasonable minds can differ here, I don't think it's bad faith to suggest he might have been acting specifically towards Russian interests - if not originally, then later on.

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

#199

Post by DSingularity »

usernamed7 wrote: post #124

I never thought they had it in them. Never thought in a million years they'd let this go. It gives me some faith that the US govt. was able to move on from this. When democracy itself is at stake, this wins important favorability. Good on the biden administration. Less persecution of those that benefit society, more persecution of those that seek to undermine it, please.

Good on Biden? It was only Assange good fortunes that his bail hearing coincided with Biden polling so terribly that they were probably forced for release him. I’m sure they believe themselves to be hemorrhaging votes and unable to risk any more negative publicity with the left. So they decided they don’t want to receive him any more.

Is that too cynical of a view? I mean this is an administration that is supplying the most destructive weapons to Israel so they can kill and dismember Palestinian women and children — what’s the freedom of one innocent man to such people?

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

#200

Post by r24y »

cypherpunks01 wrote: post #107
funOtter wrote: post #105

Why is this case located with the United States District Court For The Northern Mariana Islands?

The case is federal, it's not confined in jurisdiction. But the plea deal is being entered there because of "defendant’s opposition to traveling to the continental United States to enter his guilty plea and the proximity of this federal U.S. District Court to the defendant’s country of citizenship, Australia, to which we expect he will return at the conclusion of the proceeding" https://storage.courtlistener.com/reca…

> proximity of this federal U.S. District Court to the defendant’s country of citizenship, Australia

This is a little disingenuous, and made me chuckle. It's faster and cheaper to get to Australia from the US mainland than it is from Saipan. Yes, it's physically closer as stated, but does not confer the claimed benefits.

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