Too bad about Julian Assange

[eyeball]

https://www.theguardian.com/media/live/2019/apr/11/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-arrested-at-the-ecuadorean-embassy-live-updates

 

These are certainly dangerous times for whistle-blowers everywhere.  One day people will name schools after people like Assange but probably not anytime soon.  These are very heady times for just about anyone in power.

The clash between governments and those they govern is not going well for the latter.

 

[bush_cheney2004]

Assange is a criminal hacker...he conspired to illegally access networks and databases.   

That is what he will be extradicted for, not some lofty pretense of press freedoms being attacked by government.

 

[eyeball]

1 minute ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

Assange is a criminal hacker...  

Meh, people who stand in front of pipelines are called terrorists.

 

[eyeball]

In similar fashion as the Tree of Liberty, the Tentacles of Power occasionally need to be bathed in light.  My apologies to anything else with tentacles.

Edited April 12, 2019 by eyeball

[bush_cheney2004]

3 minutes ago, eyeball said:

In similar fashion as the Tree of Liberty, the Tentacles of Power occasionally need to be bathed in light.  My apologies to anything else with tentacles.

 

That's fine, then pay the price...don't cry like a baby when the cops come a knockin'.

[eyeball]

3 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

That's fine, then pay the price...don't cry like a baby when the cops come a knockin'.

Or crap your pants...like a government when the leaks come a dribblin'.

[bush_cheney2004]

4 minutes ago, eyeball said:

Or crap your pants...like a government when the leaks come a dribblin'.

 

Assange will be able to crap his pants in detention before trial.  

[eyeball]

1 minute ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

Assange will be able to crap his pants in detention before trial.  

True enough but not like a government or why.

I wonder what sort of leaks might be on tap following this development.  I doubt Assange didn't have the sense to save something particularly galling for this eventuality, I know its what I would have done.

[bush_cheney2004]

6 minutes ago, eyeball said:

True enough but not like a government or why.

I wonder what sort of leaks might be on tap following this development.

 

Leaks will have been around long before Assange...he ain't no Daniel Ellsberg.

...and leaks will continue long after Assange is prosecuted.

[eyeball]

7 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

Leaks will have been around long before Assange...he ain't no Daniel Ellsberg.

Jury's still out on that. It'll come down to how good Assange's lawyer is and how competent the government isn't. In the meantime Ellsberg is winning international awards.

Quote

...and leaks will continue long after Assange is prosecuted.

Lets hope so.

Edited April 12, 2019 by eyeball

[bush_cheney2004]

1 minute ago, eyeball said:

Jury's still out on that. It'll come down to how good Assange's lawyer is and how competent the government isn't.

 

Ellsberg walked....Assange may not be so lucky.

Ellsberg did not hide out in an embassy for six years.

[eyeball]

56 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

Ellsberg did not hide out in an embassy for six years.

Yet he inspires whistle-blowers to do so. 

[bush_cheney2004]

7 minutes ago, eyeball said:

Yet he inspires whistle-blowers to do so. 

 

No need to hide from the law if their actions are legal.

[eyeball]

4 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

No need to hide from the law if their actions are legal.

The need to hide stems from leaking illegal government actions, like indiscriminately gunning down innocent journalists.

[bush_cheney2004]

12 minutes ago, eyeball said:

The need to hide stems from leaking illegal government actions, like indiscriminately gunning down innocent journalists.

 

Ellsberg did not hide....Assange did.

[GostHacked]

11 hours ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

Assange is a criminal hacker...he conspired to illegally access networks and databases.   

That is what he will be extradicted for, not some lofty pretense of press freedoms being attacked by government.

 

Just like the  US Military, CIA, FBI and other US security agencies.

[GostHacked]

9 hours ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

 

No need to hide from the law if their actions are legal.

If only those making the laws followed them too.

[scribblet]

Apart from breaking the law which he should be accountable for, his big crime was helping Hillary lose the election. 

[OftenWrong]

34 minutes ago, scribblet said:

Apart from breaking the law which he should be accountable for, his big crime was helping Hillary lose the election. 

And Hillary is still so seething with rage that she had to speak up about it. How dare this scum out me.

[eyeball]

39 minutes ago, scribblet said:

Apart from breaking the law which he should be accountable for, his big crime was helping Hillary lose the election. 

What about the crimes he uncovered, who should be accountable for committing them?

[Owly]

This "computer inttusion" charge seems pretty flimsy to me and the extradition process, if it goes ahead could take years. And of course trump claims he "knows nothing about wikileaks" even though a couple of years ago he said "I love wikileaks".

[OftenWrong]

10 hours ago, Owly said:

This "computer inttusion" charge seems pretty flimsy to me and the extradition process, if it goes ahead could take years. And of course trump claims he "knows nothing about wikileaks" even though a couple of years ago he said "I love wikileaks".

Yeah could take a long time. Too bad Hillary didn't get her way, when she said why can't we take Assange out with a drone.

[OftenWrong]

On 4/11/2019 at 9:15 PM, eyeball said:

These are certainly dangerous times for whistle-blowers everywhere.  One day people will name schools after people like Assange but probably not anytime soon.  These are very heady times for just about anyone in power.

Whistleblowers are never protected. I've known some people who could be called that, and when they blew the whistle and couldn't be fired because of the rules, the company just waited until 3 years later and shitcanned all if them, once the "authorities" were gone away and no longer looking. They punished those people, because they dared to speak out against them for their negligence. In doing so they sent a message to everyone else too- don't even think about whistleblowing.

When I was a kid I went to a school named after Etienne Brule. Later I found out he was considered a traitor by some people, namely, the French. The British loved him of course, and named a school and a park after him. One man's hero, another man's traitor. So pick your side in this fight, because you're either with us against us.

Quote

The clash between governments and those they govern is not going well for the latter.

Was it ever?
Now we can see the violence inherent in the system.

Now we can see the violence inherent in the system.

Now we can see the violence inherent in the system

[OftenWrong]

Assange has a lot of valuable information in his head that "authorities" would love to get hold of, such as his communication networks, knowledge of spies, connection to protest groups and computer hackers. Intelligence agencies would surely love to siphon this info right out of his brain.

Assange may risk torture in United States, his lawyer says

However it will be worse for him if they send him to another country to carry out the torture, as our western-allied countries are known to occasionally do. Even in the UK, he's not completely safe.  At the very least they will give him psychotic drugs to make him speak, and use mild torture techniques like sleep deprivation, loud noise and bright lights. They're probably already doing that to him right now.

[GostHacked]

For the record, it was Manning , a US military service member who leaked the documents,  not Assange.