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Julian Assange urges US to end Wikileaks 'witch-hunt'

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Julian Assange urges US to end Wikileaks 'witch-hunt'

#41

Post by vidarh »

archangel_one wrote: post #25
vidarh wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's spent more time struggling to avoid jail time than he would spend in jail in Sweden if convicted, in a relatively low security prison likely to have quite decent accommodation and amenities. This isn't like the US where he'd risk years in some horrible shithole. I'd be surprised if he got more than 6 months if convincted - there's been people convicted for violent rapes in substantially worse circumstances that…

Obviously, he is not doing it just to avoid a Swedish prison sentence. He appears to think that if he goes to Sweden, he'll end up going to the US too and once there he'll be "vanished" or worse. I'd say that's not unreasonable given what we've heard from the US already, and the pressure they've been willing to bring to bear on Kim Dotcom (who they're a lot less personally annoyed with than Assange) or the Pirate Bay…

Exactly. So I think it is unfair to assume he isn't prepared to stand in front of a Swedish court. It doesn't even really matter whether this threat is real or not. What matters is that he appears to believe it, and that there are enough oddities to exacerbate his fears and raise questions for other people too.

So that leaves Sweden with two options: Trying to work around that and coming to a compromise that allows them to try him, or face a standoff that could very well last for years.

So far they seem to have gone to a curious amount of effort to avoid trying to make any accommodations at all to move the case forward. Maybe they are just being totally obtuse and irrational. Or maybe there really is more going behind the scenes.

I would like to see him stand trial. If he's guilty, he should serve the sentence. If he's not, we need explanations for why this case has been treated this way.

One would think that the Swedish prosecutors office would like to see him stand trial too, yet they seem to do everything they can to ensure it drags out.

Re: Julian Assange urges US to end Wikileaks 'witch-hunt'

#42

Post by vidarh »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #8
smokeyj wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I highly suspect Assange is actually just trying to avoid jail time, if he's going to these lengths to avoid going to Sweden for questioning on unrelated accusations of sex crime. He offered to be interviewed from the embassy. Isn't it suspicious that Sweden won't accept that, given that this man hasn't been charged with anything?

Oh, I didn't know about that. That could be suspicious, but I'd have to know more.

It isn't the first time. The offer to have him face interviews in the UK have been given regularly ever since they first wanted to talk to him after he'd arrived in the UK. Instead they went ahead with the EAW, and then refused several more offers while sending representatives to London for the extradition hearings instead.

That is, unless Assanges British barristers are lying in ways that'd risk them disbarment.

Re: Julian Assange urges US to end Wikileaks 'witch-hunt'

#43

Post by ajanuary »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #40
zyb09 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No please don't think like that. Assange even said today he would agree to go to Sweden, if they promise to not send him to the U.S. He's terrible afraid of being send to the U.S, and rightly so. The U.S. repeatedly demonstrated, that when it comes to political prisoners they don't care much about human rights, the law, or habeas corpus. Look how Bradley Manning is being treated or may I just remind you of Guantanamo…

A red interpol warrant, no less. Qaddafi got an orange. My views have changed.

It's not a scale. Red isn't worse than orange, they just mean different things. Orange is issued to notice of an immediate threat to life. If anything, orange is more severe.

http://amiobjective.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/assange-case-comm...

[Edit: Added reference]

Re: Julian Assange urges US to end Wikileaks 'witch-hunt'

#44

Post by vibrunazo »

jusben1369 wrote: post #28

I know it's very contrarian to not be 100% pro Assange on this board but all I ever see are the pro Assange interpretation of the facts. Some things to consider: - "Sometime during Wilen's questioning the police announced to Ardin and Wilen that Assange was to be arrested and questioned about possible rape and molestation." This was the initial questioning by local authorities. So unless every police station in every…

> If this is a conspiracy to get Assange then it's a pretty poorly orchestrated one at this stage

Which should be a giant red flag that it is indeed true and not a random made up rumor. You sound like those who claim the Osama raid was fake because it was messy. When the fact that it was messy should give you a smell of reality in it. Real life is messy. The conspiracy to get Kim Dotcom to the USA was just as messy, and real. The fake weapons of mass destruction on Iraq were absurdly messy from day 1. And it was a real conspiracy. You can tell that those "911 was an inside job" conspiracies are made up because 1000's of human beings would need to be perfectly orchestrated for it to work.

Something of the size of trying to get Assange to the US on fake rape charges, would obviously have its own screw ups. Implying there's nothing to see here because it's not perfectly orchestrated like a Hollywood movie, would be rather naive.

Re: Julian Assange urges US to end Wikileaks 'witch-hunt'

#45

Post by ForrestN »

tome wrote: post #30

This is partisan politics, not Hacker News. Flagged.

Julian Assange, love him or hate him, is certainly a hacker, and Wikileaks is potentially, depending on what turns out to be true, one of the most important technology stories this decade. It is a story about the Internet being told on the Internet, and has major implications for the future of the Internet.

The fact that a technology story is also political, also has global ramifications, matters in other realms and daily life, makes it more important as a technology story.

Re: Julian Assange urges US to end Wikileaks 'witch-hunt'

#46

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

ajanuary wrote: post #43
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A red interpol warrant, no less. Qaddafi got an orange. My views have changed.

It's not a scale. Red isn't worse than orange, they just mean different things. Orange is issued to notice of an immediate threat to life. If anything, orange is more severe. http://amiobjective.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/assange-case-comm... [Edit: Added reference]

Ah, the documentary I saw quite poorly framed it, then.

Re: Julian Assange urges US to end Wikileaks 'witch-hunt'

#47

Post by MrScruff »

adgar wrote: post #31
rmc wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people have pointed out in HN that the sex was consensual according to the 2 women, but the issue is about protected or unprotected sex. Rape has a different definition in the Swedish legal code than everywhere else in the world. Lots of people are trying to point out that Assange isn't being accused of rape, but some sort of "not-using-a-condom" silly rape law that is only the law is whacky Sweden, herp de derp…

> Lots of people are trying to point out that Assange isn't being accused of rape, but some sort of "not-using-a-condom" silly rape law that is only the law is whacky Sweden, herp de derp feminists de derp political correctness gone mad. I agree. Telling a woman you're going to use a condom so she'll sleep with you, then taking it off halfway into sex because it feels better and you don't care about the woman's choic…

I think the OP was being sarcastic.

Re: Julian Assange urges US to end Wikileaks 'witch-hunt'

#48

Post by polshaw »

rmc wrote: post #27
gasull wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sweden has given prisoners to the CIA to be tortured in Egypt. Sweden has illegally tried to shut down The Pirate Bay under the pressure of the US. Will Sweden give Assange to the US? It seems very likely. Many people have pointed out in HN that the sex was consensual according to the 2 women, but the issue is about protected or unprotected sex. Rape has a different definition in the Swedish legal code than everywher…

Many people have pointed out in HN that the sex was consensual according to the 2 women, but the issue is about protected or unprotected sex. Rape has a different definition in the Swedish legal code than everywhere else in the world. Lots of people are trying to point out that Assange isn't being accused of rape, but some sort of "not-using-a-condom" silly rape law that is only the law is whacky Sweden, herp de derp…

    >he had to be accused of a crime that would have been illegal in the UK.
The extradition to the US of the guy who ran a site with links to pirated content comes to mind as a counter-example

e: his name was richard o'dwyer. The only related UK law is copyright infringement, links do not constitute that. He appears only as guilty under UK law (and perhaps even US law) as google, and less than Youtube. He complied with DCMA requests.

Re: Julian Assange urges US to end Wikileaks 'witch-hunt'

#49

Post by adgar »

MrScruff wrote: post #47
adgar wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lots of people are trying to point out that Assange isn't being accused of rape, but some sort of "not-using-a-condom" silly rape law that is only the law is whacky Sweden, herp de derp feminists de derp political correctness gone mad. I agree. Telling a woman you're going to use a condom so she'll sleep with you, then taking it off halfway into sex because it feels better and you don't care about the woman's choic…

I think the OP was being sarcastic.

OP is referring to very real, disturbing sentiment that tops many discussions of Julian Assange's charges. Hop over to reddit sometime for real fun.

I did not think OP agreed with that sentiment. But he did brush right past it without addressing it.

Re: Julian Assange urges US to end Wikileaks 'witch-hunt'

#50

Post by option_greek »

hnolable wrote: post #3

I had 4 live feeds of this event going for an hour or two prior to it. I felt Julian's speech itself was rather boring. The preceding speeches in front of the embassy by some of his supporters were a bit more interesting. Here's a chronicle of some of the events: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2012/aug/19/julian-assa... The most interesting thing I took away from the whole spectacle was: The Organisation of Ame…

He looked like a bird with clipped wings. All those days cooped up in one place must have had their effect.
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