Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador withdraw asylum

PVNevin

The Enbalmer wrote: »

Nobody cares about these eejits and that attention seeking twat,Assange.

Only the left could champion a suspected rapist who gets his jollies hacking people's emails and sharing them.

He even had the temerity to hack the Equadorian president whilst claiming asylum in their embassy.

I mean if people can't see what a complete arsehole he is they really need a bit of cop on,lefty or not.

The pro-imperialists, the defenders of the system, the lackeys and the weasels.
They always resort to sneers, mockery and foul language.

Regards the Enbalmer:
"…..For your iniquity instructs your mouth,
and you choose the language of the crafty.
Your own mouth condemns you, not mine;
your own lips testify against you. ….."

Billy86

The Enbalmer wrote: »

Only the left could champion a suspected rapist who gets his jollies hacking people's emails and sharing them.

The Enbalmer wrote: »

You speak of shameful yet the man you're bizaarely defending is wanted for rape,has no moral compass and likes to daub walls with his own excreta?

Truly the left has some strange ideas

You heard it here first folks - Donald "I love wikileaks" Trump, Nigel Farage and the Kremlin etc are the new "left"!

The Enbalmer

The Enbalmer wrote:

Only the left could champion a suspected rapist who gets his jollies hacking people's emails and sharing them.

I would imagine people would class me as right leaning (some would incorrectly consider me alt-right) yet I would defend Julian Assange.

And your description of him is so base and so incredibly and frustratingly incorrect, I will ignore it.

peddlelies

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

More importantly how's the cat ?

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1117144943666106368

ohnonotgmail

Deleted User wrote: »

I would imagine people would class me as right leaning (some would incorrectly consider me alt-right) yet I would defend Julian Assange.

And your description of him is so base and so incredibly and frustratingly incorrect, I will ignore it.

Is that because his acting as a proxy for Putin helped get Trump elected?

The Enbalmer

PVNevin wrote:

Regards the Enbalmer: "…..For your iniquity instructs your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty. Your own mouth condemns you, not mine; your own lips testify against you. ….."

" Thou bloated thyself with the gasses of cowardice and eructions thereof do taint my nostrils"

Not in any way. Whistleblowers about governments illegal activities should be lauded.

Plus I don't believe that he acted as a proxy for Putin to help get Trump elected so therefore I have no bias in that respect

hatrickpatrick

Assange's agenda is to destroy the paradigm of Western hegemony in the world, and that is something I cannot applaud enough. No nation should have the power to coerce another nation to behave in a manner which runs contrary to how its people have chosen it to behave.

The Enbalmer

hatrickpatrick wrote:

Assange's agenda is to destroy the paradigm of Western hegemony in the world, and that is something I cannot applaud enough.

Maybe your applause will help him escape from federal supermax because he's going there for 20 years.

Leaks always get plugged..he was a big shot in his own mind now he's going to rot in prison.

The Enbalmer

The Enbalmer wrote:

Leaks always get plugged..he was a big shot in his own mind now he's going to rot in prison.

I doubt he will. I predict that he will be dead within 6 months

The Enbalmer

Deleted User wrote:

I doubt he will. I predict that he will be dead within 6 months

Very possible.

Kidchameleon

The rape allegations are obviously false. Also, he is not currently wanted in connection to them.

Kidchameleon

Ah I see Ecuador has just received a few billion from the IMF, well that explains it so. The feces story is BS.

Zorya

I just woke up from a dream. Julian Assange's cat was in it, and it peed on my travel toiletries bag. Damn cats!

The Enbalmer

Kidchameleon wrote:

Ah I see Ecuador has just received a few billion from the IMF, well that explains it so. The feces story is BS.

So the IMF paid equador BILLIONS to chuck him out of the Embassy and they made the story up to justify it?

Bovine Scatology indeed..

Kidchameleon

The Enbalmer wrote: »

So the IMF paid equador BILLIONS to chuck him out of the Embassy and they made the story up to justify it?

Bovine Scatology indeed..

Eh no I didn't say that.

1641

In the "You couldn't make it up category".

Corbyn and Diane Abbot come out defending Assange saying "Whistleblowers do us all a service".

Almost simultaneously Labour sack an employee for suspected whistleblowing (re cover up of racism) without even holding an investigation or following any procedure. It seems he wasn't even the whistleblower.

Zorya

IMF gives Ecuador 10 billion in loans on strict condition that more severe austerity measures are imposed on the lower and middle classes.

It's a tough call, but Lenin is keeping up his strength in these difficult times...

eagle eye

Amazing that details of torture and war crimes were revealed yet nobody has ever been charged. The whistleblowers are the serious criminals in all this apparently and not the individuals whose crimes were covered up.

Dohnjoe

Zorya wrote: »

IMF gives Ecuador 10 billion in loans on strict condition that more severe austerity measures are imposed on the lower and middle classes.

Great. Finally some fiscal sense and responsibility. Marks a welcome departure from the "make everyone poor" Chavez style populist socialist policies that have been all the rage

Not only that but they have one less mouth to feed. Things looking up for Ecuador

Zorya

The amount of little Hitlers on this thread. :rolleyes: Yet I presume the exact same people are obnoxiously progressive left when it comes to identity politics issues.

Well, I reckon those gagging for Assange's torture in some hole in Guantanamo will be the ones who find themselves on the wrong side of history. All the notable commentators and organisations with any credibility are coming out against this attempted rendition.

biko

It's quite a wakeup call to read the thread and see how many there are not wishing Assange well.

Seems they are siding with West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin who said on CNN that Assange is now "our property"
One would think a Democratic senator from the south would avoid allusions to slavery.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/11/politics/joe-manchin-wikileaks-julian-assange-cnntv/index.html

Dohnjoe

Zorya wrote: »

little Hitlers on this thread

those gagging for Assange's torture

lol that didn't take long!

The Enbalmer

Zorya wrote:

The amount of little Hitlers on this thread. Yet I presume the exact same people are obnoxiously progressive left when it comes to identity politics issues.

Hitler was a socialist..no time for them.

1641

Wikileaks in its early days did a lot of good work. But that doesn't put Assange beyond criticism. He has been widely criticised by many who worked with him back then, and parted due to his arrogance and refusal to accept responsibility for the consequences of his actions. His current situation is due to his refusal to accept that he had to legally face rape charges (whether guilty or not, that is up to the court). He and his acolytes put out the spurious defence that the charges were just a cover. If Sweden now re-submits extradition requests he will face months, and possibly years, in custody fighting this when he could have defended himself in court 7 years ago.

Is it not also ironic that the great defender of whistleblowing insisted on Wiki staff signing a non-disclosure agreement with a a £12 million penalty clause. Here are details from James Ball who worked with Wiki back then :
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/may/12/wikileaks-confidentiality-agreement-julian-assange

Ball also prediced over a year ago that Assange's stay in the Embassy would end badly due to his own on-going behaviour. So enough with the conspiracy theories :
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/29/ecuador-julian-assange-wikileaks-embassy

Criticising Assange is not siding with Joe Manchin. What next ? Criticising Stalin is siding with Hitler?

biko

1641 wrote: »

Criticising Stalin is siding with Hitler?

I don't know. No-one here ever does criticises Stalin

Zorya

A few examples of those expressing support for Assange and contempt for this extra-territorial rendition include...

Noam Chomsky

John Pilger - who in spite of what has been said of him in this thread, is a BAFTA award winning documentary maker, award-winning journalist and lauded by Noam Chomsky -'' John Pilger's work has been a beacon of light in often dark times. The realities he has brought to light have been a revelation, over and over again, and his courage and insight a constant inspiration."

Dinah PoKempner - Human Rights Watch, General Counsel

The Centre for Investigative Journalism

Freedom of the Press Foundation

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Reporters Without Borders

Peter Tatchell LGBT activist

Tulsi Gabbard

Digital Rights Watch

Chris Hedges

Edward Snowden

Agnes Callamard, Director, Global Freedom of Expression, Columbia University

Abby Martin

Daniel Ellsberg - Pentagon Papers

Chelsea Manning

Several UK Labour MPs - Abbbott, Corbyn, Burgon etc

David Kaye - UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression

Jeremy Scahill

NUJ - National Union of Journalists

Mike Gravel - No More Wars (read the Pentagon Papers into the record)

Cristina Kirchner - former Pres Argentina

Glenn Greenwald

President of the United Nations General Assembly, Maria Fernanda

and many, many others.

1641

biko wrote:

I don't know. No-one here ever does criticises Stalin

I would any time. And plenty others would, I'm sure. But he's not the subject of this thread.
Assange is not above criticism. Everything is not black or white.

Dohnjoe

Slavery, Hitler, and torture references aside, the Swedes should get a priority on him. Also the US charges against him quite rightly have journalists worried.

Highlighted in this editorial here in the Guardian (from the Observer)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/14/the-observer-view-on-extraditing-julian-assange

It’s not difficult to despise Julian Assange. For seven years, he has attempted to evade rape and sexual assault charges in Sweden by seeking asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He has dismissed the charges as a “radical feminist conspiracy” and tried to smear the complainants as acting on behalf of the CIA. His excuse for refusing to face trial in Sweden – that he would then face extradition to the US – has always been hogwash. He is no safer from extradition in Britain than he would have been in Sweden, as he may soon discover.

There are questions to be asked about WikiLeaks, too. The organisation has been invaluable in allowing whistleblowers to safely publish documents that the authorities would rather have kept hushed up, from the truth about the commodity trader Trafigura’s devastating dumping of chemical waste in Ivory Coast to videos of US helicopter attacks on Iraqi civilians. It is, or certainly was in its early days, an important tool in cutting down to size those in power who would abuse their power.

But WikiLeaks has also acted immorally and irresponsibly. It dumped online thousands of unredacted secret diplomatic cables, potentially exposing thousands of individuals named in the documents to grave danger. It was an act criticised even by close allies such as Edward Snowden, the US National Security Agency whistleblower who himself leaked thousands of files of highly classified information in 2013 and who is now living in Moscow.

Then there is Assange’s conspiracy-mongering, his willingness to ally with the most odious of figures, such as the Holocaust denier Israel Shamir, his attempts to smear and threaten critics.

One could argue that Assange is being charged not so much with computer hacking as with helping a source conceal her identity. That is normal journalistic behaviour. According to the indictment, “it was part of the conspiracy that Assange encouraged Manning to provide information and records from departments and agencies of the United States against him”. Encouraging sources to provide more information is also normal journalistic behaviour.

Many have questioned whether Assange is a “real” journalist and whether he should therefore be protected under the law. That is irrelevant. Whatever one thinks of Assange’s status as a journalist, the US indictment against him poses a threat to all journalists and potentially undermines press freedom.

Zorya

1641 wrote: »

I would any time. And plenty others would, I'm sure. But he's not the subject of this thread.
Assange is not above criticism. Everything is not black or white.

Of course he is not above criticism. I have criticised aspects of his methods - though the criticism of his personality seems irrelevant in the circumstances, I don't have to live with him.

But the glee expressed by some at the prospect of his long imprisonment for revealing the very murky side of political and military operations in the US and other places - ie publishing whistle-blowers - is seriously worrying in terms of how people view the rights of all of us citizens to a free and investigative press.