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Abuses show Assange case was never about law

jonathan-cook.net

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Re: Abuses show Assange case was never about law

#91

Post by SamReidHughes »

pjc50 wrote: post #20
jMyles wrote: post #5

> When Assange’s popular recognition fell, and Ecuador’s political incentives changed, the asylum was rescinded. An important side note: this is the why the state always attacks the personality and popularity of activists, and why it's important to defend personalities and people. For example, let me say that, having met Cody Wilson several times and spending several hours with him on a couple of occasions (and moder…

This guy? https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/01/texas-indicts-co... It's absolutely routine for basically anyone accused of sexual assault to find a whole bunch of men reporting that they seemed to be a standup guy. That doesn't mean they remain a standup guy when left alone around women.

Well that's quite a lie you've made here. He didn't sexually assault anybody, it was consensual with a minor.

Re: Abuses show Assange case was never about law

#92

Post by tssva »

YUMad wrote: post #63

The guy ran and seeked asylum because he feared he will 'be made an example of' by USA. He sat in that tiny room for 6 years while US actors were working hard to smear him as a rapist and Russian puppet, while insinuating that everyone who claims USA is targeting Assange, or that there are indictments just waiting for his arrest is a conspiracy theorist. The moment he was removed from the embassy protection (again, a…

Assange has not been charged with any violation which carries the possibility of the death sentence.

Re: Abuses show Assange case was never about law

#93

Post by cryptica »

The system is rigged but our society lacks the idealism necessary to make a change. We have no shared values. The only thing we agree about is who has power... So whoever that is can decide what values should be upheld; unfortunately those people are usually greedy psychopaths whose entire value systems revolve around personal aggrandisement and enrichment.

Our system empowers psychopaths because those people are attracted by power more than any other kind of person. I think the best solution is to abolish democracy and to replace it by a random number generator which elects government officials by random (kind of like jury duty). Randomn selection is the best way to prevent a system from being gamed.

Re: Abuses show Assange case was never about law

#94

Post by wbhart »

Tomte wrote: post #90
wbhart wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you. I believe he even offered to present himself to Sweden if he could be guaranteed that he would not be extradited to the US. A Swedish prison would be a country club in comparison. But I think the concern of the UN here is that the circumstances were prolonged due to the refusal of all states to abide by a more or less binding UN ruling.

> more or less binding UN ruling Less. As in "not at all binding".

"Binding", in that the parties had signed the convention and agreed to "uphold" such rulings. They instead claimed that "Assange was free to leave at any time", i.e. that they were "upholding" the ruling. At the very least, Assange would be entitled to compensation as a means of enforcing the ruling, should the states refuse to comply. Which court would rule about such compensation is not clear to me. Perhaps the European court of Human Rights, but that is speculation on my part.

Re: Abuses show Assange case was never about law

#95

Post by Tomte »

wbhart wrote: post #94
Tomte wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> more or less binding UN ruling Less. As in "not at all binding".

"Binding", in that the parties had signed the convention and agreed to "uphold" such rulings. They instead claimed that "Assange was free to leave at any time", i.e. that they were "upholding" the ruling. At the very least, Assange would be entitled to compensation as a means of enforcing the ruling, should the states refuse to comply. Which court would rule about such compensation is not clear to me. Perhaps the Eur…

You're right, I concede that point.

Re: Abuses show Assange case was never about law

#96

Post by troutwine »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #91
pjc50 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This guy? https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/01/texas-indicts-co... It's absolutely routine for basically anyone accused of sexual assault to find a whole bunch of men reporting that they seemed to be a standup guy. That doesn't mean they remain a standup guy when left alone around women.

Well that's quite a lie you've made here. He didn't sexually assault anybody, it was consensual with a minor.

Consensual sex with a minor isn't by definition. I mean, even the _charges_ say 'sexual assault', so this is not something the GP is inventing out of thin air.

Re: Abuses show Assange case was never about law

#97

Post by newvoiceoldphne »

cheeseomlit wrote: post #83
nutjob2 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing the Russians' bidding by enabling their interference in the US presidential election and openly stating his preference as to the result destroyed any possible credibility as a "journalist" and made him look very much like a Russian puppet. He dug his own grave.

>Doing the Russians' bidding by enabling their interference in the US presidential election How specifically did he do this? Publishing 'Collateral Murder' embarrassed a lot of people in Washington and probably affected elections afterwards, yet I never heard anyone make these accusations back then. And this hysteria about Russia over 40k worth of Facebook ads and some twitter bots is outrageous, Facebook/Twitters po…

He interfered by telling a truth that politicians would rather have remained unknown. He embarrassed the Clinton campaign

Re: Abuses show Assange case was never about law

#98

Post by DiogenesKynikos »

wbhart wrote: post #79
NelsonMinar wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Russian puppet claims only started after Wikileaks started acting like a Russian puppet.

Is there verifiable intelligence to support this? I recall the Roger Stone story which didn't look like it had much depth to me. And I know Assange had a show on RT for a while. But has any evidence surfaced of an actual conspiracy involving Wikileaks and the Russians? I did notice a big uptick in what I thought was right wing, pro-Trump statements on their twitter feed, and especially on Assange's twitter feed, shor…

His show on RT was actually really good. It's worth your while to give the interviews he conducted a look. People often attack him for his show being aired on RT, but I get the impression most of them haven't watched it.

In his interview with Nasrallah, he presses Nasrallah about Hezbollah's support for the Syrian government. It's clear that Assange is critical of Hezbollah's involvement in Syria, which undermines the idea that Assange is a Russian puppet. He also asks Nasrallah about whether God is a tyrant, which elicits an interesting response.

Re: Abuses show Assange case was never about law

#99

Post by dang »

onlydeadheroes wrote: post #44
module0000 wrote: post #2

How could anyone possibly think this was ever about the law? When he first published "Collateral Murder", you knew what it was about, and you knew how it would (eventually) end for him. Does anyone not living under a rock, think what is happening to Assange is even remotely based on law and justice? spoiler alert: it's not!

Damm did this thread get intervened fast! My other comment got 5 downvotes in one minute, and plenty more too! Top comment is a spin-filled bullshit, probably pinned. And these are my fellow humans for whom Assange sacrificed so much. Maybe we do deserve to be cattle for the deep state.

Please don't break the site guidelines like this, regardless of how you feel about a divisive topic. Note that they include: "Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Edit: it looks like you've posted quite a few unsubstantive comments to HN in general, like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19991361. Please stop doing that. We're trying for something a bit better than internet default here.

Edit: I suppose I should also mention that there are no pinned comments in this thread, and the current top comment is one you would probably agree with. Top comments come and go. As for "get intervened", I don't think any moderators saw it before you posted this.

Re: Abuses show Assange case was never about law

#100

Post by gamblor956 »

cheeseomlit wrote: post #76
NelsonMinar wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Russian puppet claims only started after Wikileaks started acting like a Russian puppet.

How's that? Leaking info about corruption in a political party doesn't make them Russian puppets just because you happen to be a member of that party.

No, but knowingly releasing documents that were partially or entirely forged by the Russian intelligence agencies does make one a Russian puppet.

Which is exactly what Wikileaks did, openly, at Assange's direction...despite the misgivings of the rest of the staff that the releases were timed for political effect on the US campaign on not out of some desire for the truth.

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