American officials argued that his actions endangered national security and the lives of US personnel working overseas, but press freedom campaigners said the WikiLeaks documents had exposed US government wrongdoing and that he should be released.
That’s an and.
Also Afghans working for the coalition.
I have little sympathy for Assange. I consider him to be a coward and a fraud. He should have manned up and faced his accusers. Like that Chelsey… er chap.
Those that backed him and paid his bail have benn gulled and fleeced. Serves them right.
Intelligence services said (and they wouldn’t lie) that he endangered national security.
They omitted to say ‘And that’s our job!!!’
Otto, until approx March 2020 I would have agreed with you.
But the events since then have convinced me that I was wrong and that Assange is a hero.
Out countries are ruled by liars and psychopaths, and I don’t mean the politicians.
I can’t see how you can call him a coward – he knew they’d almost certainly come after him, and he was prepared to face that terrifying risk.
He was certainly a coward for legging it from Sweden in the face of a rape charge.
Oh come on Interesred no he wasn’t.
It doesn’t need someone like Assange and his dangerous and thoughtless tactics ( even the Guardian journis were horrified by his lack of consideration in releasing names and addresses) to expose the stupidity and mendacity of the Establishment.
5 years in Belmarsh is not Butlins, but he still refused to defend his actions in front of the accusing court.
Now it is no longer politically expedient to pursue him, he can go back to Australia and join the other loathsome and poisonous creaturs that live under rocks there.
Remember
The Process is the Punishment.
@BiW
He was certainly a coward for legging it from Sweden in the face of a rape charge.
If you’re facing invented charges created at the behest of the US government it’s sensible to leave, not cowardly.
@Otto
You can defend the US government and its security apparatus – the same apparatus that gave us Iraq and Afghanistan and all the rest – if you wish, but it’s not for me.
American officials argued that his actions endangered national security and the lives of US personnel working overseas
Good. Spies should be hanged.
How does getting Assange prosecuted in Sweden for a crime committed in Sweden against a Swedish citizen benefit the CIA?
I know we have an appallingly asymmetrical extradition treaty with the US, but is Sweden’s even worse?
BiW – there was no crime.
No, sorry Interested, really I am not defending the USA and its madness. Such things should be exposed, but there is a limit when it needlessly endangers lives of people who are, at the end of the day, are only doing their job. ( yes yes, “I vos only obeying orders.” )
I am condemning Assange. He fled Sweden so as not to face the rape charges and hid in the Ecuadorian embassy, when the statute of limitations ( on rape, really ?) ran out, he then fought tooth and nail to prevent his extradition.
If he thought that he had a case, then he should have stood for his convictions and expose the whole rotten structure in court.
If he thought that he had a case, then he should have stood for his convictions and expose the whole rotten structure in court
Yes, that’s working out well for Donald Trump.
Yes, that’s working out well for Donald Trump.
It is.
Otto, step away from the vodka and mind bending party drugs.
Trump is currently awaiting sentence on completely made up charges, having had his constitutional rights shredded by a corrupt system intent on stealing the next election.
I think he’s a twat, to be honest, but things are not ‘working out well for him’.
As for the people ‘endangered’ by Assange, yes, they were only following orders – orders from scum who committed and are doubtless still committing murderous war crimes.
The US state didn’t go after Assange because he endangered people, they went after him for revealing that it was murdering people.
I don’t know why you keep going on about Sweden – it’s been five years since the Swedes dropped the case. I repeat: when governments engage in corrupt criminal practices against you it is a good idea to leave their jurisdiction.
@BiW
How does getting Assange prosecuted in Sweden for a crime committed in Sweden against a Swedish citizen benefit the CIA?
For a start it lodges in some people’s head that Assange is a rapist, and a subset of that group of people then uses this ‘fact’ to dismiss the revelations he has made.
Secondly, it serves as a warning to others.
Thirdly, as you suggest it would have allowed for the US to seek extradition at a time when perhaps conditions might have been more favourable. As I say, it’s only in recent years that I have done a 180° turn on Assange and the US military-industrial complex; I can’t be alone in this. I’d have extradited him quite happily in 2020 I’d imagine.
The Assange ‘rape’ bullshit explained:
https://celiafarber.substack.com/p/my-2017-expose-of-what-happended-julian-assange?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=email
That report, rather than suggesting malign influence from the US deep state, reads more like a warning about letting feminist crazies into senior positions in the legal “profession”.
So, Assange sticks his dick in mental. Bad move, but I guess we’ve all done that and mostly got away with it. Unfortunately for him though, the local senior police officer (I’m guessing, this is what “police commissioner” is in Sweden) decides that she’s going to try and nail another man to the wall and the rape laws can be used for this one. Later, the public prosecutor tries to drop the case on the grounds of it being bullshit, but another feminist crazy insists on getting her man, whatever it takes.
I still don’t see charges “created at the behest of the US government” unless you think Swedish local police officers are on the CIA’s payroll. I can see they might feel able to take advantage of the situation later, but not that they engineered it.
Given the apparent weakness of the case, I still don’t think it was anything but cowardice for Assange to run, surely he’d be better served clearing his name. And running to the UK given our extradition treaty was a particularly stupid idea too.
This isn’t in any way cheerleading for the US deep state. Assange knew what he was doing when he published the documents, he should be prepared for the consequences in the same way Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden had theirs.
They dropped the case, and then mysteriously re-opened it under a new prosecutor, who pushed a nonsense case extremely hard.
The women involved were not just mad leftists but politically connected mad leftists.
Yes, it could all be a coincidence – I have just stopped believing in those as readily as I once did.
If you ‘stick your dick in crazy’ (I’ve never needed to) and she later claims you raped her then by all means feel free subsequently to stick your future in the hands of a modern western juridical system when you have the opportunity not to do so.
That doesn’t make you brave, it makes you stupid.
I think that Assange-as-classified-document-leaker here is incidental, not coincidental. I would expect that he got the full feminist treatment because of his name recognition and profile, not because of what he did for a living. An international soccer player (for example) in the same situation would most likely get the same.
That’s a fair point, but by running after being charged one shouldn’t be surprised that it gets regarded as an admission of guilt.
I’m sure no one else is still here (even BiW) but I must add that I will not buy this bollocks: it’s ok for simpletons to think that running away = admission of guilt but I expect better standards here.