Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

351–360 of 577 posts

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#351

Post by frankharv »

oh_sigh wrote: post #238

Who are these people who are 'familiar with the matter'? Look at the people 'familiar with the matter' regarding the apple/et al spy chip story. How can we, as consumers of news, ever know if there is any kind of truth from these anonymous sources, or if they are just trying to nudge either public perception, or key players(wikileaks, ecuador, etc) in a certain way?

I just bough a Quanta LGA2011 board off ebay. In the BIOS PXE settings were IP's that belong to Amazon.

So I have to wonder if Amazon even used SuperMicro hardware. I know with great certainty that they used Quanta as a board manufacturer.

So who planted this story is my question. Who would stand the most at bringing down SuperMicro. I would rule out the Chinese because they were made to look bad.

So who else in the US manufactures motherboards and would benefit from SuperMicro's demise.

Did the same people also drive SuperMicro stock down to a point of it being delisted?

I hated seeing a "Designed in the USA" motherboard manufacturer dragged through the mud.

I have used their affordable dual CPU motherboards dating back to BX chipset. Ultra-reliable and feature packed.

I even made some negative Supermicro comments at the time. Amazing how easily even intelligent people can be brainwashed.

The problem with the story is that all of the accusations are technically feasible. We know TAO does this from Edward Snowdens wonderful truthfulness.

So we all wanted to have an Ahh-Ha moment. Too bad we were duped.

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#352

Post by pcwalton »

Iamhisalt wrote: post #201
hnmonkey wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good question. I don't. But it's much more unlikely that he'd be an actual Russian intelligence employee since they're usually Russian I think. The more simple answer is that he's just being run by them through money, blackmail, extortion, or some other leverage. Why employ someone when you can just get them to do what you want with simple threats?

Seth Rich was a Russian spy too.

Oh, please. Let this ridiculous conspiracy theory die already. There is absolutely no evidence that Seth Rich was anything more than a mid-level DNC employee who was the tragic victim of a robbery gone wrong.

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#353

Post by akvadrako »

whatshisface wrote: post #147
hnmonkey wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While some of the things that were exposed were certainly illegal and should be handled as such, it's hard to feel any empathy for a guy who is essentially a Russian asset. If you think of him as an extension of Russian military intelligence conducting propaganda wars against its adversaries then it becomes a lot easier to understand why prosecuting him is a genuinely good thing. Russia airing the dirty laundry of ot…

Why would you believe that he was a Russian asset? Is there any indication that he would not publish information critical of Putin if it was sent to him?

Wikileaks has stated explicitly they are not focused on Russia, mostly due to a poorer understanding of the language and culture:

> Most of WikiLeaks’ biggest revelations concern the US military-industrial complex….Why aren’t human rights abuses producing the same effects in regimes like China or Russia, and what can be done to democratise information in those countries?

> In Russia, there are many vibrant publications, online blogs, and Kremlin critics such as [Alexey] Navalny are part of that spectrum…..In Russia there are competitors to WikiLeaks, and no WikiLeaks staff speak Russian….WikiLeaks is a predominantly English-speaking organisation with a website predominantly in English. We have published more than 800,000 documents about or referencing Russia and president Putin, so we do have quite a bit of coverage, but the majority of our publications come from Western sources….The real determinant is how distant that culture is from English.

source: https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/12/no-julian-ass...

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#354

Post by pcwalton »

resters wrote: post #310
nl wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That link is broken - I think you mean this one, posted below: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/julia... If a WP headline from 2013 saying "Julian Assange unlikely to face U.S. charges over publishing classified documents" is the limits of that argument, then I think it's fair to say that is much weaker then any claim that "he is practically free to go". In addition, maybe he was free to go in 2…

Also wapo is pretty much all political propaganda of some sort now. It’s been getting worse by the day since Bezos bought it for some reason.

Nonsense. The Washington Post remains one of the best publications in the US. I certainly trust it more than Russian propaganda outlets such as Wikileaks.

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#355

Post by mrleinad »

armenarmen wrote: post #275
anoncoward111 wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I care a lot about the genocide and illegal wars :( I've written online under my real name and fake names, I've done deep original research, some of it gets fairly decent traction. I think we all actually are legitimately powerless to stop the war machine and the majority of Americans who actually support it... so the rest of us are lost to apathy.

Good on you. I hope it takes. And yeah, I believe that we are legit powerless to do anything about it. No party is a peace/non-intervention party. I don’t think that most Americans support the war aspect of the machine. It’s apathy for some and learned helplessness for others.

Hey, if Assange/Snowden had ever believed they were powerless, we wouldn't be talking about them. Same goes for countless other figures throughout history.

It's up to us who believe something else to convince more people and achieve critical mass, which will make the difference.

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#356

Post by toomanybeersies »

thanosnose wrote: post #277
wallace_f wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the Iraq Warlogs, or DWS scandal. Even leaks like the Stratfor files are certainly in the best interests of the "little guy," if anyone actually gives a shit about them. But if "all a man is, is what others say of him," then by watching the news, Assange is just a Russian agent.

> But if "all a man is, is what others say of him," then by watching the news, Assange is just a Russian agent. One of the most interesting aspect of the assange story is how the news industry celebrated assange in the early part of the 2010s and then started to demonize him in the past few years. It was all so sudden as if someone flipped a switch and everyone got on the same message. It's also interesting how sexua…

Assange and Wikileaks have been demonised because they decided to release information in such a way as to deliberately influence an election.

The DNC/Podesta leaks were timed specifically to cause maximum negative effect to Clinton and the Democrats.

Then there's the lack of curation in some of the leaks. A lot of personal data that shouldn't be public by any means (e.g. medical information, sexual identity) has been leaked by Wikileaks. There is a limit to what information should be open and available to the public.

I also can't help but feel like they've stopped being transparency campaigners and whistleblowers, and now do it for the social media spectacle and publicity. Just look at how they released Vault 7, with their viral cryptic posts before the release. Wikileaks feels more like a media agency than a group of transparency crusaders these days.

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#357

Post by oh-kumudo »

c3534l wrote: post #330
oh-kumudo wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In which way? Libertarians aren't necessarily globalists. They are just indifferent towards the concept. But if the globalists weave in too much influence, it would definitely been seen from an libertrain's perspective, a threat to their liberty.

How does being free trade and open-borders not make you a globalist? Those are like the primary pillars of globalization.

I don't think there are many self-claimed libertarians actually voice for open-borders. It is just an extension of interpretation out of the theorists. Limited government doesn't mean a complete denial of necessary national governance. It can be easily argued that void of such governance isn't in the interests of those libertarian ideals.

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#358

Post by akvadrako »

vel0city wrote: post #217
resters wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> essentially a Russian asset This is a bit of a stretch in my opinion. Obviously a platform like Wikileaks can be "weaponized" by any party against another party. I think it's a question of what is the most relevant aspect of the leak overall, not who leaked it or why. For instance, suppose someone had leaked detailed information about the misconduct of Jerry Sandusky several years before it became widely known. Wou…

Do we know that Wikileaks has always released full documents and data sets, or do we just take their website at face value that he's truly never been selective on what to publish?

They are somewhat selective of course - they have stated it explicitly. They also say they time releases to cause the most impact.

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#359

Post by NhanH »

sigmar wrote: post #324
jMyles wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a silly point on which to turn your concerns about government misconduct, especially when it involves the 1st amendment. > Obama pardoned Chelsea Manning First of all, that never happened. You are drastically exaggerating the relief offered by the government. The government tortured this person for years and then, even after offering this (in the great scheme of things, small) gesture of commuting her sentence,…

>It was too little too late for me, and too little too late for Assange. If the government wanted to take the deal he offered, it had the opportunity to immediately pardon Manning and call Assange out on it. Then we'd know if he was bluffing. This (less than) half measure doesn't cut. What? Assange asked for clemency. "If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutiona…

> Also- you seem to care so much for Manning that you went the extra mile to avoid using her preferred pronouns by using "this person." Amazing.

This is a ridiculous assessment. In the same sentence GP refers to Manning as "her", twice.

Re: The US Is Preparing to Prosecute Julian Assange

#360

Post by akvadrako »

azernik wrote: post #311
cwkoss wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the New York Times gets an anonymous tip from a Russian spy (which is fact checked and found to be true), would you consider the New York Times as a Russian asset? Where is the line? When is transmitting factual information to the public journalism and when is it not?

If they then release it without reporting on context, taking the Russian source's politically-motivated narrative at face value? Absolutely. Same as if they're acting as a politician's assets if they do likewise with an anonymous political source, only with the added twist of international politics.

WL has a much better reputation for authenticity than NYT. So far nothing they have released was found to be fabricated or doctored.
Post reply on HN