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

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

#741
post #712

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is not a country which should have any influence whatsoever outside its borders I wholly agree, as an American citizen

Be careful what you ask for. The United Kingdom went from a country with enormously outsized global influence to just another European nation. The downward spiral has been stark. The economy stagnates, more and more people live in poverty, and voters decided to inflict further self-harm by cutting themselves off from economic treaties with neighbors based on an illusion of self-importance. If America ends up in the s…

> If America ends up in the same place, its collapse will be harder and more dangerous.

Seems to be not only inevitable, but currently in progress.

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

#742

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…

Something tangential that I don't think has happened, but that I'd be curious to see the results of: an analysis of the number of people endangered by Wikileaks disclosures versus the number of people endangered by Americans abandoning interpreters and collaborators, or other action expressly consistent with US policy.

With how mad we are about him fcking over our people, surely we haven't fcked them over ourselves at a higher rate.

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

#743

Congratulations! 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…

No one is perfect. But overall his actions were brave and he paid a terrible price. The worst part is probably that what he published ended up making no real difference.

It is difficult to see the difference but very few people are privy to the planning of the programs revealed. Only those who oversaw the entirety of the programs can really grasp the scope due to the compartmented nature of the programs. I think these disclosures helped arrest a rapid decay into a dystopian surveillance state. However the motivations and irrational belief systems behind these programs persist so the fight is not over. Instead the proponents of unchecked surveillance powers are increasingly on the defensive and face more scrutiny than their arguments and results can justify leading to a continued reigning in of their powers that seems likely to continue for the foreseeable future. I’m not satisfied with this state of affairs but I am unsure how to reach a better one with the power systems and officials at hand. If you have any ideas please share.

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

#744
post #731

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trouble is, as part of the deal he is headed to an US territory next to Australia, right? Seems like the perfect place to kidnap him

That would be a great way for Biden to blow the election for no reason.

[flagged]

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

#745

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is not a country which should have any influence whatsoever outside its borders I wholly agree, as an American citizen

A lot of people say something like this but are also fine with sending weapons and money to Ukraine, pushing for the legalization of gay marriage abroad, etc. Usually what these people really mean is "I'm against US influence outside our borders unless it's something that I agree with."

You would have a hard time convincing Israelis of this too. As if you should be left to fend for yourself when surrounded by enemies.

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

#746
post #692

If you care about this news and you are able to do this financially, consider supporting Julian's fee for having have had to take a private plane for this entire process: > Julian Assange has embarked on flight VJ199 to Saipan. If all goes well it will bring him to freedom in Australia. But his travel to freedom comes at a massive cost: he will owe USD 520,000 which he is obligated to pay back to the Australian gover…

How much of that price is real, and how much of it is grift?

That depends how dangerous you want air travel to be. The world is currently spending way too much on air travel security, the number of deaths is too low compared to automobile travel.

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

#747

This 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…

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40784625.

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

#748

This 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…

Sweden is a country that enthusiastically supported the Nazi regime. If we are comparing crimes I think Sweden should also stay within it's own borders. Yet the calls from Swedes for the US to provide more Ukraine aid are deafening at this point. Swedes want the US to intervene when it benefits them, regardless of their chest-beating. Where is the criticism from Swedes when Russia murders its own journalists or China…

How do you mean that we are to have enthusiastically supported the Nazis?

We even warned the Soviet Union of Operation Barbarossa, using information we obtained from cracked Nazi codes. When one of my grandparents fled Norway due to the Nazis they were given asylum. During WWII Sweden was led by a political coalition consisting of the peasant's party and the social democrats, and in Germany, social democrat leadership got put into concentration camps as they were seen as communist-adjacent.

>Yet the calls from Swedes for the US to provide more Ukraine aid are deafening at this point

The Russians have probably threatened us behind the scenes and have probably been saying things that are quite extreme. Otherwise the social democrats wouldn't have flipped and had us join NATO. Furthermore, it's not like the US didn't want Ukraine to join the western block, so why shouldn't they help, now its attempt to do so is being met with an invasion?

I don't hate America. There's much good about it, but the US should rule the US, the Swedes Sweden, and the Ukrainians Ukraine. Just as we help Ukraine, it is reasonable that the Americans do too, since it's near us, and since we're kind of in this together.

>Where is the criticism from Swedes when Russia murders its own journalists or China restricts freedom of speech?

Literally all the time? When has Swedish media stopped caring about people Politovskaya, etc

>Please, if you are so anti-american, impress upon your countrymen to stay away from NATO. You people are clearly not interested in allying with the US.

I am kind of personally opposed to our membership, but I don't hate America, nor am I necessarily anti-American as such. But I don't want US power in Europe, we should rule our lands, and the Americans theirs.

If the Americans have influence here, then that is influence we ourselves do not have. Consequently, it can't be permitted. But this doesn't mean that we can't be friends. It means that the US can't have the keys to our house, or put cameras in it, or hang around the windows with binoculars, or decide what we buy, etcetera.

I understand the US wanting to get at the maniacs after 9/11. 9/11 was much worse than is immediately apparent and there are details that anger me even now, that make me want to reach across the world and dash a whole bunch of people against walls and furniture, so I understand the desire to do something, even the extraordinary rendition stuff, to some degree, but you can't do this kind of thing. You weren't willing to actually go after the Saudis, which you probably should have, instead of the aggression against less relevant countries.

Justice for individuals is important and soverignty is as well and even justified lashing out, when it is at odds with justice for an individual or soverignty of some foreign country, then it's not easy to go along with the lashing out of a country that is justified.

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

#749
post #343

In an ideal world we would get to do a reverse investigation to understand which government officials were complicit in his very obviously politically motivated detention, action would be taken upon those individuals to ensure accountability, and the system itself would be updated so powerful interests can't abuse the law like this. How far are we from this world?

Cheers. what say you to Navalny’s torture, detainment, and death?

Most reasonable people would denounce BOTH. You seem to be pushing toward the idea that "if they do something evil, my evil is no longer evil".

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

#750
post #153

So I have a couple of thoughts on this. For context, I'm a big fan of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. Julian Assange is... more interesting. Imagine you're a journalist and someone hands you a shoebox full of SD cards with classified materials including video evidence of war crimes. Most of us would agree it is the ethical thing to do to publish that and you're definitely a journalist. Now imagine you had a conta…

In the US, the Right to Freedom of the Press has NOTHING to do with "journalists" and everything to do with the freedom for ANYONE to write, publish, and distribute whatever they'd like.

If I as a US citizen didn't sign a contract agreeing not to publish something and if that something isn't libelous, I should be free to publish it.

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