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Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

bbc.com

421–430 of 784 posts

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, the old “he was free to leave anytime” argument. No. He wasn’t. Yes, technically, he was free to leave, but arguing that is ignoring the fact that leaving would mean jail. It’s victim blaming. Would you say a victim of Stockholm Syndrome is “free to leave at any time”? No, because that’s a ridiculous argument. Would you say Snowden is “free to leave [Russia] at any time”? No! So why is it an acceptable argument w…

> but arguing that is ignoring the fact that leaving would mean jail. > It’s victim blaming Yeah, but the victim is the woman he raped and that will not see any justice, because he ran...

I can't imagine being an actual rape victim, meaning someone who was screaming in agony while being hit and penetrated by someone she wouldn't even kiss hearing that someone else who went home with a sexual partner that after foreplay tampered with the condom is going through something even remotely similar in psychological and physical damage.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#422
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's now safely in police custody and the US has already revealed its plans to extradite him, so there's no longer any need for the charges in Sweden. That's what's meant by this, imo.

Why is he in police custody? Excuse my ignorance, I don't know a lot about him other than he's a popular whistleblower who was involved in WikiLeaks. Is he in police custody for that?

>Excuse my ignorance

I really, really want to be mean to you, but I'll copy and paste the second and third sentences from the article.

Assange, who denies the accusation, has avoided extradition to Sweden for seven years after seeking refuge at the Ecuadorean embassy in London in 2012.

The 48-year-old Australian was evicted in April and sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for breaching his bail conditions.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'll take things that are not crimes being used as proof of a crime for 1000, Alex. Rape is a crime.

You said 'being a dick to women' and 'is finally paying for it'....

raping women is being a dick with women.

And this wasn't the first time he was accused of rape.

It was at least the fourth time.

So yeah, being that kind of dick to women is a crime in my book.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#424
post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The United Nations has criticized the US for it's treatment of prisoners in the past, the US just ignores them. It is worth noting that the two million incarcerated are serving sentences for crimes they were convicted of, making it marginally less horrible than Assange's situation.

There are plenty of arrested, but not convicted, prisoners in city and county jails in the US. Often for months or longer.

Yes, but not the two million mentioned.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that's stealing a document in anyone's book. It would certainly be stealing if she deleted the documents in the server afterwards, which she did not. Stealing implies that the original is gone in everyday speech. Most people would be very upset if you stole their car, not so much if you copied it. > I'm simply saying that a military court said that. You might want to edit your previous post then. From "technically…

> It would certainly be stealing if she deleted the documents in the server afterwards, which she did not Again, not a lawyer, not trying to counter you personally, but if someone clones my credit card and take money from it, it is stealing, even if the card is still in my pocket. If someone use my bank's password to transfer funds to his account, it is stealing, even if my account is still in my possess. > "The mili…

> but if someone clones my credit card

no

> and take money from it

Now it’s stealing, but not your card, but your money has been stolen.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#426
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the idea of the threat of prosecution in a free country as a form of "torture" a bit questionable. It's something, but i'm not sure I agree with calling that torture.

> I find the idea of the threat of prosecution in a free country as a form of "torture" a bit questionable. Yeah, it's funny how HN typically goes evidence-free where pet politics is concerned. I'll eat my hat if someone on here can name a single precedent of someone being tortured in the U.S. before being tried for a crime similar to what Assange would be accused of. Edit: and citations, please!

Why the qualifier?

What measure of proof do you require?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invincible_ignorance_fallacy

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#427
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the idea of the threat of prosecution in a free country as a form of "torture" a bit questionable. It's something, but i'm not sure I agree with calling that torture.

> I find the idea of the threat of prosecution in a free country as a form of "torture" a bit questionable. Yeah, it's funny how HN typically goes evidence-free where pet politics is concerned. I'll eat my hat if someone on here can name a single precedent of someone being tortured in the U.S. before being tried for a crime similar to what Assange would be accused of. Edit: and citations, please!

Eugene Debs

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#428
post #391
post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how to respond to this. UN experts on human rights have looked into his situation and been quite alarmed by it. I can't think of a group of people more respected in the field of human rights than the experts at the UN. And yet there are commenters here on HN who, I don't know on what basis, write that it's all mostly "hyperbole".

It is mostly self-inflicted, though. He chose that exile over facing justice for these charges. And calling systemic judicial prosecution "torture" is most certainly hyperbole. It's the job of the judicial system to prosecute people who break the law, and it's definitely better if they do so in a systemic rather than arbitrary way. So while it's entirely possible that Assange shows symptoms of torture, the question r…

This talking point had been soundly debunked. Sweden kept up the threat of charges and demand for extradition for nearly ten years, but dropped them like a hot potato when the US charges became public (when Sweden's charges would only get in their way).

Never mind that Assange was ridiculed for most of those ten years for claiming that US would seek his extradition.

His understanding of the world, including the assessment that Sweden is extremely servile to the US in security/foreign policy matters, has been vindicated again and again.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#429
post #74

There were, not long ago, times when Assange was considered a saint of freedom after he exposed the corrupt Bush administration, the liberals everywhere were defending him and his case everywhere, they even made a Hollywood film about him. But he then made the mistake of his life, he exposed the corruption of the Clintons and got implicated in the Russia gate meme because Trump somehow won. Now he is totally on his o…

>I know that this is an ultra liberal community

It isn't. HN is actually very far from even a mildly liberal community in the correct sense of the word.

Unless you use the word in the same way people from rural Kansas do when what they actually mean is a leftist.

Re: Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation

#430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Stallman was saying the exact opposite of what you believe he said. > He was arguing that rape is rape, even if in different states they have different laws. It was while he was defending Minsky and he was actually arguing that sex does not magically become rape depending on the country that you do it. > It is rape, she said no, he forced her, it is rape. He did not force her though. He had consent to have sex with…

> It was while he was defending Minsky and he was actually arguing that sex does not magically become rape depending on the country that you do it. No, he wasn't defending Minsky, please stop saying that! He was arguing that the definition of rape should not change based on the country you're in, or to put it in other words: if you are 16 in Italy, you can give consent to have sex, if you are 17 years and 364 days ol…

> please stop saying that

This is the first time that I said that...

> He was arguing that the definition of rape should not change based on the country you're in, or to put it in other words: if you are 16 in Italy, you can give consent to have sex, if you are 17 years and 364 days old in U.S.A., you can't.

Yes, just because having consensual sex with a 17 and 364 days years old is illegal in some places and the law there calls it rape it does not make it rape in reality. Same thing applies here. Just because the Swedish law calls it rape it does not mean that it really is rape.

> That's not what she says.

This is what Guardian says https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/17/julian-assange... - can you show me your source where she says that he raped her?

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