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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

#461

Post by [deleted] »

SuperNinKenDo wrote: post #437
fblp wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it would be quite the diplomatic travesty for them to switch to arresting him after choosing to trial him in the closest court of Australia and credit him for time in prison already. https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1805385141239660627?ref_src...

What would the actual consequence be? Almost certainly nothing. That said, if the Americans wanted to drag this out further, they'd simply drag it out further, so it seems highly unlikely this is some ploy, however it's not impossible. Assange is more easily "forgotten" if they actually managed to imprison him in The States. But we'll see. I'll only completely believe it once he touches down in Australia.

[deleted]

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

#463

Post by vasco »

mschuster91 wrote: post #448
drekipus wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Assan…

If they removed that, the machinery of the US would come up with another angle to say what he did was very bad. This should be obvious.

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

#464

Post by richrichie »

Not sure how many at HN saw the Apache gunship mowing down civilians and journalists with cannon fire. Assange did a great service to shine light on the barbarians in action under the guise of saving freedom and democracy and paid a heavy price.

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

#467

Post by atoav »

The damage to freedom of speech is already done. Any free society can't afford to not investigate the way the justice system has been abused in multiple democratic nations to achieve a punishment without conviction. The people who carried that out should be held to account.

I get that the US has (had?) an interest to make him pay and that the only thing that really counts in geo-politics is power — but I don't see why my country should be allied with a nation that punishes the people uncovering their war crimes instead of (at least: also?) punishing those who carried them out.

That being said I can't shake the feeling that it would also be to some degree in the self interest of US citizens that their government respects the rule of law. Hard to claim to be the good guy while you are the driving force behind such things or propaganda campaigns against vaccines¹ or all² the³ other¹¹ things¹² the¹³ has¹¹¹ done¹¹²

¹: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covi...

²: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-67582813

³: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor

¹¹: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MKUltra

¹²: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1953_Iran_coup

¹³: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%27%C3%A9...

¹¹¹: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Brazilian_coup_d%27%C3%...

¹¹²: You get the point, also not all superscript numbers seem to be supported on HN

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

#468

Post by Maxious »

madaxe_again wrote: post #434
DaoVeles wrote: post #351

All 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?

> Mr Joyce, a former deputy prime minister, was part of a group of politicians across the political spectrum who had long campaigned for Mr Assange's release and visited the US to lobby legislators there on the matter.

> "There were so many people who were part of this process, and what it showed was people from both sides of politics, for different reasons, arrived at the same place," Mr Joyce said on Tuesday morning.

> "I don't agree with what he did, and I won't, but it wasn't illegal," Mr Joyce said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-25/great-encouragement-j...

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

#469

Post by impossiblefork »

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.

This isn't Biden being decent though.

They're forcing Assange to 'confess' to a crime in the US, where he has never been and which creates enormous problems. It should be remembered how severe what the US was doing at the time. They got some people handed over to them here in Sweden, who they agreed to not torture, and then started already at the airport. They had torture facilities in Poland, where people almost certainly died, etcetera.

What Assange did was legal and what the many activities the US was engaging in to obtain people abroad etc., illegal. He has no duty to the US, because he is not a US citizen or permanent resident.

Consequently even this is not a friendly act from Biden. It ends Assange's imprisonment, but it is a use of threats in order to obtain something from him, namely his 'confession'.

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

#470

Post by atoav »

preisschild wrote: post #462

[flagged]

If the press of the US is unable to tell us about US war crimes that actually happened, that is the only thing to get.

It might be wise to consider that knowing your own government is not that strict about the rule of law when it comes to horrible crimes is also in your interest if you live inside of the US. The US is an absolute behemoth of power and utterly unable to police itself. If it was, Assange wouldn't have had to do anything at all.

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