Earlier quoted context omitted.
Julian Assange, on his leaking of the names of hundreds of Afghan civilian informants into the hands of the Taliban: "Well, they're informants. So, if they get killed, they've got it coming to them. They deserve it." that's rich coming from an informant.
If it has been leaked, then show me the name of one of the hundreds of names of Afghan informants that has been leaked. You can't because no Afghan informant names were leaked.
Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
961–970 of 1001 posts
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#962JULIAN ASSANGE IS FREE Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stanstead airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK. This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organisers, press freedom campaigners, legislators…
> 2x3 metre cell, isolated 23 hours a day Why, though? I didn't even think that was a thing in Britain, at least if you're not some very high risk criminal convicted of violent crimes, which I don't think he is? Regardless of what one think about what Assange did that just seems extremely unnecessarily cruel unless he was a threat to guards or other prisoners...
23 hour bang up isn't uncommon in the UK, mostly just because the prisons are overcrowded and underfunded and it's easier to keep things under control with everyone locked in their cells most of the time.
There are legal minimums for how much time prisoners have to be allowed out of their cells but they're pretty low and not always followed
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#963This isn’t getting front page news on CNN, Fox, or WNYC radio. This is concerning.
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#964Earlier quoted context omitted.
Julian Assange, on his leaking of the names of hundreds of Afghan civilian informants into the hands of the Taliban: "Well, they're informants. So, if they get killed, they've got it coming to them. They deserve it." that's rich coming from an informant.
If it has been leaked, then show me the name of one of the hundreds of names of Afghan informants that has been leaked. You can't because no Afghan informant names were leaked.
The first half of your comment was alright, because a statement was made without proof. But your second then undermines it because you're making a statement without proof. All sources say "afghan informant names were leaked", but you are claiming they weren't - what is your source?
Anyway, Wikileaks was urged to hide / censor the names because it put their lives in danger: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/10/afghanistan-wa.... Some were released, others containing most of the names were witheld by wikileaks and the partnered media outlets: https://www.wired.com/2011/02/wikileaks-book/, https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/701412231. Basically Wikileaks admitted fault and carelessness, and people died as a result: https://www.newsweek.com/taliban-says-it-will-target-names-e...
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#965JULIAN ASSANGE IS FREE Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stanstead airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK. This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organisers, press freedom campaigners, legislators…
Julian Assange, on his leaking of the names of hundreds of Afghan civilian informants into the hands of the Taliban: "Well, they're informants. So, if they get killed, they've got it coming to them. They deserve it." that's rich coming from an informant.
> In his book, co-authored with Luke Harding, WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy, Leigh claimed Assange to have said in relation to whether the names should be redacted, "Well, they're informants. So, if they get killed, they've got it coming to them. They deserve it."[63] In response to the book's publication, WikiLeaks posted on Twitter: "The Guardian book serialization contains malicious libels. We will be taking action."
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#966Amazing to see!
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#967This is almost bringing me to tears today. I am happy he's finally going to be free but I am still in deep sadness because this is not the world we are supposed to living in. With all of our knowledge and technology we are still doing horrible things as a civilization and we have lost control of our leadership. This scares me a lot because it is a growing problem and every day it seems like humanity is losing more an…
I share the general disappointment but to steelman a positive outlook: People in power have always done horrible things and orgs like wikileaks and some from the media counterbalance this. While this was a tragedy, if not for such a strong light being shined on Assange, he surely would've disappeared. At least he is getting freedom now, at least he exposed many important things with his organization and at least he inspired many people to do similar things.
It's true I've never really felt worse about the future. Maybe because I was blissfully ignorant, or maybe because things are actually worse. I try (and struggle) to stay positive because it is so easy to be cynical and detractive and I think that ultimately makes things worse for the world AND my own mental health.
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#968Is anyone else here surprised that the reaction to him being free is so overwhelmingly positive? Assange certainly did great work to reveal government corruption and abuses of power. At the same time, some state secrets are best kept secret for national interests and Assange seemed to show a lack of regard for protecting this type of information. It often seemed that he was working in his own self interest rather tha…
> At the same time, some state secrets are best kept secret
Yes, war crimes committed by USA and its allies are best kept secret and those committed by others are best exposed, right?
He’s not American and America are not “the good guys”. For any given secret, consider if you feel that USA should honor a request by Russia to keep it secret for the best of Russian interacts, if you don’t feel the same then its best exposed.
It’s redicules that so many Americans feel that war crimes committed by it and its allies should be kept secret because “we’re the good guys” then turn around and argue that the reason “we’re the good guys” is because we don’t commit war crimes, or when we do we at least have the decency to try to keep it secret because we know it’s bad, unlike the evil enemy who commit war crimes and try to cover it up!
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#969Is anyone else here surprised that the reaction to him being free is so overwhelmingly positive? Assange certainly did great work to reveal government corruption and abuses of power. At the same time, some state secrets are best kept secret for national interests and Assange seemed to show a lack of regard for protecting this type of information. It often seemed that he was working in his own self interest rather tha…
In a democratic society, laws should exist to protect state secrets. Assange’s imprisonment was widely considered to be caused not by democratically formed laws, but by the whims of politics.
> In a democratic society, laws should exist to protect state secrets.
Should USA really pass a law to protect Russian state secret? No? Why should Australia or England pass laws to protect US state secrets?
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#970Earlier quoted context omitted.
1901 days in prison, after all that time since 2012 holed up in a room in the Ecuadorian embassy first.
He was in isolation in a high security prison without having been convicted of any crimes since 22 September 2019. He was only released after 'admitting' that he was guilty... I think the UK and US should abstain from criticising any countries' courts and justice system after that...
Yes, he would have been treated much better for being involved with the dissemination of classified material in... which country exactly?