Earlier quoted context omitted.
Get a gig with a Russian media outlet, again... See if Roger Stone has any work for him to do? See if GRU has any more deliveries it needs him to make? https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-t...
Wikileaks had no "gig" with Russia Today. They produced the series tthemselves and it was picked up by various news channels - just not any mainstream Western ones (what a shock)
Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
441–450 of 1001 posts
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#442[flagged]
Legitimate? The case was a disgrace to the Swedish justice system, as many legal experts have commented.
It's not the first time Sweden is used as the stupid Goat by the US:
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-War-Against-Sweden-Submarine/d...
and probably
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#443This isn't something good though, in fact it's really bad.
He's actually agreed to confess to something which the US should have no legal authority over.
We must remember that the US are torturers who tortured people here in Sweden, right at Bromma airport, even after specifically agreeing not to torture them. It is not a country which should have any influence whatsoever outside its borders; and this is someone who exposed very severe crimes and who had no duty whatsoever to keep any US defence information secret.
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#444All around my neighborhood is the graffiti of "Free Assange, Oz hero". Just this morning I saw a large amount of it in a new place. Was thinking "I really hope one day it happens but I am doubtful". And then I just saw this... wow! I am so glad to be wrong, to see my pessimistic side be completely wrong. Julian is free!
What’s the actual view on him in oz? We’ve got exiled Aussie politicians here in the U.K. saying that he’s universally reviled, and that nobody even sees him as a “real” Australian, and that Australians will never forgive him for violating their privacy (oh, the bleeding irony). No alternate viewpoints, looks like 100% of sampled Australians hate him?
Oz is like most places, there's a large number of people for whom thinking for themselves from an even vaguely informed position presents too much of a logistical challenge (re. literacy, education, breadth of interest, pretense to regular reading, range of sources, adequate life experience to judge bias, ready echo chamber availability, swamp of familiarity, etc.). The minority of people who are educated, do hold broad enough interests and are capable of critical thinking are almost all in support of Wikileaks, IMHO. Some of them have been done in by the smear campaign, unfortunately.
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#445whatever happened to the r--- allegations from Sweden, I understand that Sweden has dropped the charges but.. can we get some closure about that as interested followers of this entire saga? Hope that's not too much to ask..
You can say "rape". It's not a dirty word.
So many people are trained nowadays to self-censor certain words so that "the algorithm" won't shadowban their comment. Thankfully, HN is one of the few websites on the modern internet to not have such censorship algorithm.
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#446Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#447All around my neighborhood is the graffiti of "Free Assange, Oz hero". Just this morning I saw a large amount of it in a new place. Was thinking "I really hope one day it happens but I am doubtful". And then I just saw this... wow! I am so glad to be wrong, to see my pessimistic side be completely wrong. Julian is free!
What’s the actual view on him in oz? We’ve got exiled Aussie politicians here in the U.K. saying that he’s universally reviled, and that nobody even sees him as a “real” Australian, and that Australians will never forgive him for violating their privacy (oh, the bleeding irony). No alternate viewpoints, looks like 100% of sampled Australians hate him?
He is a much beloved gentleman rogue.
Invariably well-informed and well-spoken, even if somewhat self-centered or arrogant at times.
For him and his family, Im glad hes free.
Five years seems a pretty harsh sentence for publishing leaked information about governments behaving badly - isnt that what good journalists are supposed to do ?
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#448Congratulations! I share in the popular jubilation and sense of epoch-making reconciliation, that aligns with the stars, even tho I think Assange acted like an egotistical fool who squandered the great lens of transparency and accountability he had created through misjudged self-importance and vulnerability to manipulation by his sources for their own ends. Hopefully his Second Act brings good fruits without the thor…
Yes, we should whip him for not having a level head when the entire US government is against him. Someone like you and I would have been sure to keep humble and not be egotistical when seeking asylum and fair justice against an entity that has military bases all over the world
I think the person you're replying to is referring to the accusations against WikiLeaks of just dumping raw documents without at least removing information that could lead to identifying (and thus endangering) people who e.g. assisted the US in Afghanistan or who provided documents to WL in the first place.
Yes, there was a point in getting the information out as fast as possible, but I think it's fair to blame Assange for not putting in the redaction work.
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#449All around my neighborhood is the graffiti of "Free Assange, Oz hero". Just this morning I saw a large amount of it in a new place. Was thinking "I really hope one day it happens but I am doubtful". And then I just saw this... wow! I am so glad to be wrong, to see my pessimistic side be completely wrong. Julian is free!
What’s the actual view on him in oz? We’ve got exiled Aussie politicians here in the U.K. saying that he’s universally reviled, and that nobody even sees him as a “real” Australian, and that Australians will never forgive him for violating their privacy (oh, the bleeding irony). No alternate viewpoints, looks like 100% of sampled Australians hate him?
I'd say a fairly large percentage would be disappointed that we let a citizen get treated like that and we did nothing as a country to assist, independent of anything else. Maybe I am out of touch though.
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#450[flagged]
He has served more time in prison than he would if he had gone to Sweden and been convicted of outright rape.
The sentencing guideline for rape in Sweden is 3-6 years in prison, or at most 4 years (I can't find a minimum) for "negligent rape", and even if convicted for everything he was alleged to have done, Swedish practice in rape cases would mean there's no chance he'd have gotten anywhere close to maximum sentences, and might well have had part of the sentence suspended. In practice, it'd have been surprising if he got more than a year of actual prison.
So without going into whether or not that case was legitimate, or whether or not the handling of it was legitimate, he's suffered more, in far worse conditions, than a Swedish court would have imposed.