Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador withdraw asylum

The timing of them closing and reopening the investigation was really odd. Assamge claims he ran because he believed he'd be sent to the US. He denied all the charges and there are no charges so he's innocent.

If you are one of those guys that decides that without a trial and hearing the evidence that you'll decide somebody did it then you have a big mental problem.

I despise people who come up to you and say 'did you hear about Jimmy Sullivan?' You know it's going to be something bad and if it's bad they know it's true without any proper knowledge. They don't like my response which is, I didn't hear about it, it's none of my business and I don't want to know.

I believe those people have mental problems which leads to wanting to hear and spread bad things about people.

I'm like that because I've no time for unfounded conjecture.

Unless you have all the facts about something you have no business saying anything about it or accusing anybody of doing anything.

The fact that no country would activate an arrest warrant for him for the Swedish charges says a lot as well.

Indeed, because the 'west' is a homogenous entity to which all who live there support it and adhere to the same set of ideals! Furthermore how dare any one highlight potential crimes or abuses of the 'west'!

I actually lauded a fair few of Wikileak's leaks. However as the years went on, it became apparent that many of his own leaks were both irresponsible and put innocent lives at risk. That's why a lot of publications tended to distance themselves from him. Then there's the fact he avoided specific leaks around Russia etc. The man pretty much became a cult of personality who could do no wrong and that's part of what ruined the platform.

It may have been "convenient" - but how was it his fault that the Swedes didn't charge him while he was on their patch? If they had sufficiently incriminating evidence surely they could have got a warrant to arrest him and so ensure that he faced the music.

In the absence of such evidence was he not as free to come and go as you or me?

Its crap because there is no statute of limitations on a rape charge. And time doesn't affect the evidence in a rape case either.

The American line of him putting innocent lives at risk has been well and truly proven false at this stage but still lingers on.

The US themselves admitted not being able to show that one person was harmed by the publications. If there was, they would have kept that all over the news, and used it against him.

The bit about publications distancing themselves from him is more interesting. The reason WL worked with journalists was in part to ensure that the redactions and protection of sources were done correctly and carefully. So that it was the publications themselves and their legal teams and much as WL who decided what got published.

Eventually, the full unredacted cables were released years later, and this only came about because one of those very trusted publications, The Guardian published the encryption password that WL had given them to protect the unredacted cables. (see David Leigh, Guardian Books)