[POLITICS] Julian Assange Arrested

Agema

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PsychedelicDiamond said:
His arrest is iffy at best...
There's nothing iffy or complicated about breaking bail and fleeing due court process: it's a crime. There's one hell of a prime facie case against him for that, no matter what other alleged crimes he may or may not have done. One that he willingly brought on himself.

Schadrach said:
Let us also note that Interpol had a "red notice"[footnote]a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action - no actual charges mentioned[/footnote] out for him since at least March 2011, so his claims regarding the whole thing being a pretext to hand him over to the US are quite possibly accurate.
He was already in the UK, so upon receipt of a suitable request and evidence of criminality from the US government, he could have been picked up at any time and the case processed through normal legal channels. There was never any need for a pretext of a sexual assault case, it's a red herring.

And also that one of the women involved in that sexual assault case had ties to the CIA.
Pfah. Sure, and I've got ties to the president of Botswana if you really wanted to fabricate a case through a few degrees of separation and conspiracy theory.

She's a political activist. Of course she's likely to end up with some involvement with political groups and scenes which will include people with sensitive backgrounds. But knowing someone who knows someone who knows someone who was once in the CIA does not make a person a CIA stooge.
 

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skywolfblue said:
PsychedelicDiamond said:
Can't say I like Assange on a personal level and he has long proven that Wikileaks was anything but impartial when it comes to the information it chose to release but nevertheless they did offer insight into a lot of confidential information about human rights violations of Western governments that the public had a right to know about

His arrest is iffy at best, especially now shortly after the equally unjustified arrest of Chelsea Manning. The protection of whistleblowers is important. Even if I will concede that Assange has hardly been a force for good recently.
^That in a nutshell.

The arrest is without merit, boiling down to "We don't like whistleblowers".

Given Trump's hatred of the press, I expect to see Assange spend the rest of his life behind bars in the US. Even though Assange helped Trump's campaign win.

Ah America, you keep using that word "freedom". I don't think it means what you think it means.
Clearly it means take away other people's rights so I can do whatever I want
 

Baffle

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I assume we were just looking for a main export for the post-Brexit US-UK trade deal. They give us chlorinated chickens, we give them Julian Assanges. Obviously we'll probably run out first.
 

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Baffle2 said:
I assume we were just looking for a main export for the post-Brexit US-UK trade deal. They give us chlorinated chickens, we give them Julian Assanges. Obviously we'll probably run out first.
Turn that n upsides down, scramble the letters and you turn Assange into sausages
 

Lil devils x_v1legacy

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According to the newly unsealed indictment made public on Thursday, in early March 2010, Assange agreed to help Manning, an Army intelligence analyst, with cracking an administrative password to the military's classified internet system. Getting access to the password would have made it harder for investigators to track Manning as the source of the information being posted by Wikileaks.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/julian-assange-chelsea-manning-intertwined/story?id=62344376

If true, yes that would definitely be considered " merit" for both Manning and Assange.

Like I stated earlier, theft is theft. Leaking information you have be granted access to = leak, breaking in illegally to something you do not have access to = stealing.


In addition, I see Assange as nothing more than a disgusting poo singling monkey who cannot even be bothered to care for his cat. Seriously what sort of person does things like this?!

Julian Assange ?smeared poo over embassy walls?, says Ecuadorian minister
https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/11/julian-assange-smeared-poo-embassy-walls-says-ecuadorian-minister-9169870/

That list also insisted Assange take charge of the "well-being, food, hygiene and proper care" of his pet tabby cat or risk its being given away to an animal shelter.
He had apparently not been consistent in cleaning up after the poor thing, which was known to sit at the window wearing a natty little necktie.
Assange is now understood to have given "Embassy Cat" away to ensure it has a freer life elsewhere but the pair used to regularly pose together on Instagram.
The memo also demanded the guest clean his own bathroom and do his own laundry, warning that the embassy would cease paying for the cost of his stay as of 1 December 2018.
https://www.indy100.com/article/julian-assange-arrest-wikileaks-ecuador-embassy-hygiene-8865371

and of course he tore the place up while there:

Workers say that the WikiLeaks founder has ruined the embassy floors by skateboarding through the halls, playing soccer on the grounds, and not consistently cleaning up after his cat.
Earlier in October, the embassy posted strict housekeeping rules for Assange, telling him to take better care of his bathroom and potentially lose his cat if he doesn't take better care of it. The embassy also said it would stop paying for his medical bills and would stop paying for costs related to his housing.
https://www.thisisinsider.com/julian-assange-skateboarding-ecuador-embassy-floors-2018-11

No wonder he was kicked out, he seems to not show anyone or anything respect. Sure would be nice to have someone provide you with free room and board for years like that eh? He should be sued for costs.

This guy is an asshole who used stolen property as a weapon picking and choosing what and when to release to fit his agenda. I do not feel sorry for the guy, nothing of value is lost here.
 

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Seanchaidh said:
For those that care: ACLU Comment on Julian Assange Arrest [https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-comment-julian-assange-arrest]

This [https://youtu.be/5rXPrfnU3G0] is why Assange is being extradited:


Avnger said:
Assange himself has stated that they sit on stories if he considers them "not interesting."
As if that's not true of any news organization?
The issue here of course is anyone even remotely surprised by this? Look at what has been unsealed already that the US government and military has done, this is far from being the worst. It does not matter if this is released, people have had a crap ton of information already released and they are willing to turn a blind eye to that as well as anything else that happens and this isn't going to surprise them or change anyone's minds.

The US has been responsible for so many horrific things, what exactly does releasing this specific one change here that none of the others had not? The people who care about this happening are already pissed, the ones who don't are not going to suddenly start caring because of this incident. They didn't care when Carter "riled up some Muslims" (Their words not mine) by arming them, training them and then lying to them and betraying them. The people didn't care when Bill Clinton bombed that aspirin factory and Bin Laden vowed to get revenge for those children's deaths. No they only started to care when he attacked the twin towers but even then, they still refuse to accept that it was US previous actions harming others that lead up to that day. This isn't going to change anything is the issue here. The US government is still going to do horrible things and bury it. We will still have Starship troopers level of patriotism and military worship engulfing the United States, hell if anything it has gotten WORSE since this incident, not better. By electing trump they are moving even far more extreme than they had previously in that direction.

Nothing changed for the better, if anything it is only getting much much worse. So nothing was even accomplished here by realising this in the first place really except those releasing it have their lives ruined.
 

Baffle

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trunkage said:
Turn that n upsides down, scramble the letters and you turn Assange into sausages
That must be that enhanced interrogation I've heard about. Seriously, imagine having to eat sausages.
 

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So, it turned out those "insurance files" data includes a huge amount of unredacted information about ordinary people involved in criminal proceedings or in debt, including the names and personal details of rape victims and people with gay-sex convictions in Saudi Arabia which could be used to identify and locate them. Who was surprised?

I've said it before. Assange is literal human garbage who has never, ever demonstrated any genuine care for the actual human rights or circumstances of people affected by government oppression (or anyone for that matter, given the denial of justice to his own alleged victims).

The desire to expose human rights violations by the US and other western governments is great. But here's the thing. People not knowing isn't the problem. People know that the US government tortures people, and that this torture includes things like sexual assault (and that people have died because of it). It's been exposed enough times that anyone who doesn't know is never going to. People know that the "war on terror" has killed innocent people, including many children. What's needed isn't more useless data, it's someone who can actually make people in Western countries care about what that data implies and create an appetite for actual political change. Julian Assange isn't that person, in large part because he is personally trash, and you have to ignore that to support him at this point.
 

Gethsemani_v1legacy

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Agema said:
She's a political activist. Of course she's likely to end up with some involvement with political groups and scenes which will include people with sensitive backgrounds. But knowing someone who knows someone who knows someone who was once in the CIA does not make a person a CIA stooge.
Considering that she got close enough to Julian Assange to have sex with him, one wonders why the CIA didn't do anything with that golden opportunity to get Assange out of the way but waited a few weeks before (supposedly) drumming up fake rape charges against him. And yes, I realize I just spent more time thinking logically about that then Assange's rabid defenders ever have.

Also, I feel a smug satisfaction with the fact that Assange is now in custody and that he was too much of a trashy coward to face his arrest with dignity. As has already been pointed out by others, it is the worst kind of two-faced that demand that everyone else is publicly accountable, only to hide and refuse to co-operate when accused of wrongdoing yourself.
 

Schadrach

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Agema said:
He was already in the UK, so upon receipt of a suitable request and evidence of criminality from the US government, he could have been picked up at any time and the case processed through normal legal channels. There was never any need for a pretext of a sexual assault case, it's a red herring.
The notice they used didn't specify charges, it was what they call a "red notice" which is basically "arrest them and hold them pending a request for further legal action", there's not proof of criminality or even a list of charges attached to it, it's arrest them and we'll send you why we needed them arrested and what to do with them later.

The fun part is that he's charged with not appearing before a British court regarding a Swedish charge that has since been dropped, and as a result will be shipped off to the US within the year to face the charges this is all really about. Or do you think his case in Sweden would have been reopened and chased across international lines if he were an otherwise uninteresting schmuck? I wonder how many cases of nonviolent sexual assault that's happened to?

Agema said:
She's a political activist. Of course she's likely to end up with some involvement with political groups and scenes which will include people with sensitive backgrounds. But knowing someone who knows someone who knows someone who was once in the CIA does not make a person a CIA stooge.
All I'm suggesting is that it's not beyond the pale to want a good reason to keep someone in custody under local law instead of arresting a famous journalist and holding them pending charges and an extradition order from a foreign power whose angry with him for reporting their secrets. Especially if you're an elected official. Once he's in the system it's less of a public spectacle to extradite him.
 

Agema

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Schadrach said:
The notice they used didn't specify charges, it was what they call a "red notice" which is basically "arrest them and hold them pending a request for further legal action", there's not proof of criminality or even a list of charges attached to it, it's arrest them and we'll send you why we needed them arrested and what to do with them later.
It doesn't matter. He's happily jet-setting around Western countries that have extradition treaties with the USA despite the fact that the USA could theoretically hit him with charges that would see him arrested at any moment - investigations were announced against him in 2010. He's apparently not worried about it all... until suddenly he's asked to answer a sexual assault case.

Never mind that but were he held on behalf of a request from Sweden, the UK would have been obliged to return him to Swedish jurisdiction, so the USA would have to extradite him from Sweden. Hell, had Assange just gone to Sweden for his police interview, he might well have been free and able to jet off to wherever his millions could take him within a few days anyway.

The fun part is that he's charged with not appearing before a British court regarding a Swedish charge that has since been dropped
It doesn't really matter whether the charges against him were dropped in Sweden. If a guy were caught driving 100mph in a 40mph zone suspected of fleeing the scene of a robbery, were he subsequently found innocent of the robbery it wouldn't magically erase his speeding offence as well.

Or do you think his case in Sweden would have been reopened and chased across international lines if he were an otherwise uninteresting schmuck? I wonder how many cases of nonviolent sexual assault that's happened to?
That looks to me like trying to rhetorically make something seem suspicious without putting up real facts to show it is.

All I'm suggesting is that it's not beyond the pale to want a good reason to keep someone in custody under local law instead of arresting a famous journalist and holding them pending charges and an extradition order from a foreign power whose angry with him for reporting their secrets. Especially if you're an elected official. Once he's in the system it's less of a public spectacle to extradite him.
I agree it's not impossible - but it seems a stretch. Firstly, arresting Assange would be front page news under any circumstance. Secondly, there's no need to hold a man in a country when he's regularly popping in and out of countries he could be extradited from anyway (despite knowing a case might be prepared against him). I mean, unless maybe he knew it was safe because he or an associate were spying on the DoJ and knew when they'd be ready - but that would kind of mean he's guilty.
 

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[tweet t="https://twitter.com/LTrotsky21/status/1116329276251484161"]
Lil devils x said:
The issue here of course is anyone even remotely surprised by this? Look at what has been unsealed already that the US government and military has done, this is far from being the worst. It does not matter if this is released, people have had a crap ton of information already released and they are willing to turn a blind eye to that as well as anything else that happens and this isn't going to surprise them or change anyone's minds.

The US has been responsible for so many horrific things, what exactly does releasing this specific one change here that none of the others had not? The people who care about this happening are already pissed, the ones who don't are not going to suddenly start caring because of this incident. They didn't care when Carter "riled up some Muslims" (Their words not mine) by arming them, training them and then lying to them and betraying them. The people didn't care when Bill Clinton bombed that aspirin factory and Bin Laden vowed to get revenge for those children's deaths. No they only started to care when he attacked the twin towers but even then, they still refuse to accept that it was US previous actions harming others that lead up to that day. This isn't going to change anything is the issue here. The US government is still going to do horrible things and bury it. We will still have Starship troopers level of patriotism and military worship engulfing the United States, hell if anything it has gotten WORSE since this incident, not better. By electing trump they are moving even far more extreme than they had previously in that direction.

Nothing changed for the better, if anything it is only getting much much worse. So nothing was even accomplished here by realising this in the first place really except those releasing it have their lives ruined.
That's not really how propaganda works-- and that is what we're dealing with. It's not about constructing a rational argument, wherein someone is hopeless if one exists and it hasn't moved them. If people do not accept a rational argument, it does not indicate that they won't ever care about the issue. In this case, we must work against the ability to excuse the destructive behaviors of the Imperial United States as abnormal or somehow 'in the past'. That means as much information as possible, as much stuff to point to as possible and as current as possible. Like when people today buy hook, line, and sinker the Western establishment media narrative on Honduras or Venezuela even though Western establishment media has a track record of repeating the shameless lies told by the State Dept. and Pentagon about such things. The extradition of Assange threatens the ability to even tell a story other than the lies promoted by our government on behalf of our ruling class, and repeated by the ruling class's media outlets.
 

CM156_v1legacy

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Agema said:
Never mind that but were he held on behalf of a request from Sweden, the UK would have been obliged to return him to Swedish jurisdiction, so the USA would have to extradite him from Sweden. Hell, had Assange just gone to Sweden for his police interview, he might well have been free and able to jet off to wherever his millions could take him within a few days anyway.
That, and it's highly unlikely he would face any major consequences in Sweden. Even if convicted. And it's less likely he would be extradited from them than he would be in the UK. There's a certain irony in all this. Instead he locked himself up in an embassy for nearly 7 years hoping that somehow the British would just let him go. Apparently, Ecuador grew tired of his nonsense [https://www.vox.com/2019/4/12/18307626/julian-assange-wikileaks-ecuador-cat-poop] and decided that it was time for him to go. And I really can't blame them.
 

Marik2

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It's a shame about wikileaks. This could have been a good decentralized, unbiased, and uncorrupted platform that would have served whistle blowers well. But unfortunately, Julian seems he wants to be an edgy teenage anarchist who selectively uses information for his gain.
 

Kwak

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New file dump. Nothing on Trump or Russia, all Obama-era dates.
(nixx)

Edit: Sorry, maybe not, I was going off a facebook post which sourced nationandstate, but it appears that is just the repository of files previously released.

WikiLeaks
‏Verified account @wikileaks
6h6 hours ago

Note: https://file.wikileaks.org/ is not a release, insurance dump, or response to Assange?s arrest. It is the page where published documents are available for bulk download so that people can create mirrors, access publications offline, or use the raw data. It has existed for years.
 

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Seanchaidh said:
[tweet t="https://twitter.com/LTrotsky21/status/1116329276251484161"]
Lil devils x said:
The issue here of course is anyone even remotely surprised by this? Look at what has been unsealed already that the US government and military has done, this is far from being the worst. It does not matter if this is released, people have had a crap ton of information already released and they are willing to turn a blind eye to that as well as anything else that happens and this isn't going to surprise them or change anyone's minds.

The US has been responsible for so many horrific things, what exactly does releasing this specific one change here that none of the others had not? The people who care about this happening are already pissed, the ones who don't are not going to suddenly start caring because of this incident. They didn't care when Carter "riled up some Muslims" (Their words not mine) by arming them, training them and then lying to them and betraying them. The people didn't care when Bill Clinton bombed that aspirin factory and Bin Laden vowed to get revenge for those children's deaths. No they only started to care when he attacked the twin towers but even then, they still refuse to accept that it was US previous actions harming others that lead up to that day. This isn't going to change anything is the issue here. The US government is still going to do horrible things and bury it. We will still have Starship troopers level of patriotism and military worship engulfing the United States, hell if anything it has gotten WORSE since this incident, not better. By electing trump they are moving even far more extreme than they had previously in that direction.

Nothing changed for the better, if anything it is only getting much much worse. So nothing was even accomplished here by realising this in the first place really except those releasing it have their lives ruined.
That's not really how propaganda works-- and that is what we're dealing with. It's not about constructing a rational argument, wherein someone is hopeless if one exists and it hasn't moved them. If people do not accept a rational argument, it does not indicate that they won't ever care about the issue. In this case, we must work against the ability to excuse the destructive behaviors of the Imperial United States as abnormal or somehow 'in the past'. That means as much information as possible, as much stuff to point to as possible and as current as possible. Like when people today buy hook, line, and sinker the Western establishment media narrative on Honduras or Venezuela even though Western establishment media has a track record of repeating the shameless lies told by the State Dept. and Pentagon about such things. The extradition of Assange threatens the ability to even tell a story other than the lies promoted by our government on behalf of our ruling class, and repeated by the ruling class's media outlets.
That is not even remotely true. You do understand Wikileaks promoting Trump was on behalf of the ruling class don't you?
The actual truth is being told all over the damn world, just not by US media. Wiki leaks didn't start that nor were they the only ones letting this be known. I didn't watch Bin Laden's first video on Wikileaks, I watched it on foreign media. Most people in the US STILL did not go to Wikileaks or even care to be aware of what is happening. What was reported on wikileaks was only relevant to whatever the US media was already promoting at the time. People with Foxbrain are not going to suddenly care or pay attention to anything but their narrative due to anything published on wikileaks.

You act as if Wikileaks is the only one showing people "the truth", they are far from it, Wikileaks pushed their own narrative regardless of the truth picking and choosing what and when to reveal. People have been shown the truth from numerous other sources, it is just people still choose to ignore it or create their own narrative to justify it in their own minds. How many people's minds were even remotely changed by this? The people who can actually make a difference simply do not care.

You of all people should understand that Clinton was not who you needed to worry about, it was Trump and his goons who were the ones bribing the politicians to do their bidding against the people in the first place and when the people they bribed chose to side with the people instead of doing their bidding, they cast them aside and took their place so they didn't need to bribe anyone anymore. The ruling class is calling the shots 100% now due to taking out the only obstacles left in their way and Assange, RT, Breitbart, Fox, CNN and others helped make that possible, and the people are paying with their lives for allowing it to happen. Trump keeps trying to boost Military spending when we should be reducing it. The number of people being priced out of their homes is growing every day, the price of food is going up and they are taking food and healthcare away from those most vulnerable. They are removing all options people had for relief, and the only thing that has been slowing them down is the courts, however, as they stack the courts at all levels, you will see they will have less and less obstacles in their way to remove healthcare, food, housing... hell and right now a court ruling that is being appealed is the only thing blocking DeVos attempt to remove all student loan forgiveness and allow more people to be scammed. More people are falling every single day and this is only getting worse. What has Wikileaks done to actually help them here? Oh yea, they didn't help them, Wikileaks only helps this get much much worse for everyone except the elite ruling class instead. Funny how that works isn't it?

Kwak said:
New file dump. Nothing on Trump or Russia, all Obama-era dates.
EDITED OUT LINK
Did anyone expect anything different? They only release what suits their agenda.
 

Kwak

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Lil devils x said:
Kwak said:
New file dump. Nothing on Trump or Russia, all Obama-era dates.
(nixx)
Did anyone expect anything different? They only release what suits their agenda.
No I was wrong sorry, not new.
 

Lil devils x_v1legacy

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Kwak said:
Lil devils x said:
Kwak said:
New file dump. Nothing on Trump or Russia, all Obama-era dates.
EDITED OUT LINK/file/
Did anyone expect anything different? They only release what suits their agenda.
No I was wrong sorry, not new.
You may want to edit out the direct link to wikileaks, I am not sure if we are allowed to post wikileaks links on the forums, I remembered there being an issue on them being posted at one time, however, that was also before the new admin, so may be better to be safe than sorry. Previous mods edited out direct links to other posts at one time I thought.
 

Dreiko_v1legacy

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The fact that Wikileaks has never had to retract a story speaks volumes to me. Yes, he used information for partisan goals. Can one truly claim no other news organization does the same? I doubt it. At least his site was actually using facts and not made up conspiracy theories to excuse Hillary losing to herself.

Also, Assange is someone who Chelsea Manning is risked going back to jail in order to protect, and she's a genuine hero, so he can't be all that bad.