Julian Assange: hero or criminal asshole?

He's thoroughly pissed off the US government. He's going down. I'm not sure what to think, though.

Is he still Pammy Anderson's boyfriend?

He exposed how corrupt our goverment is, thats why the gov hates him.

Total asshole and total coward. If I never heard another word about him ever again - it would be too soon.

Go to Russher and try that mess

Whatever you think of him, he's suffered enough. His mental health is completely shot.

What has happened to him isn't a whole lot better than if he'd been in Russia, and he's said he will suicide rather than be imprisoned in the US, so IDK what that tells you about your great little country.

r6, to whom are you addressing your remarks?

Australians meddling in American democracy is an affront. An ongoing assault.

You love American money, take jobs from American people and contribute nothing beneficial to American society. Take. Take. Take

I can't believe this is still dragging on, after all these years. What an indictment of the British judicial system.

I thought he was dead.

Stank ass whiner.

[quote] I can't believe this is still dragging on, after all these years. What an indictment of the British judicial system.

The British judicial system will give this case at least as much scrutiny as a death row case would receive in America. Given that Assange is facing life entombed in a supermax prison, that is not an unreasonable analogy.

I believe Assange is a criminal, and has done terrible damage, but I don’t think he deserves the punishment which awaits him in the US. I doubt many British jurists do either. If they can find a reason to refuse extradition, they will do it, just as Theresa May did in the case below.

Maybe he'll get off with a last second pardon from His Majesty, and can ride off into the sunset with décolletage-queen Chelsea Manning for a proper Hollywood ending.

Part of acts of civil disobedience is being willing to accept the consequences. People died because of what he did.

Can’t we just drone him?

I don't trust him. I supported him at one point but he blew that

Both the DNC and the RNC were hacked but 'for some reason' wikileaks/assange ONLY released the DNC stuff

The stuff that lead to the whole Pizzagate bullshit BTW

I love that pic of Obama staring down that puffy faced short stack Pootunt.

I hope the hang Assange upside down and waterboard him through his anus, THEN I want him locked up in supermax. Fuck him into one of Jupiter’s futhest moons.

I don't. I want him punished to the fullest extent of the la, with a fair trial, because I'm not a subhuman.

Can you prove anyone died as a direct result of his actions, R14? That sounds like something a government shill would say.

Can you prove anyone didn't? That sounds like something a self-appointed expert would say.

Hope they stick him in a windowless cell for 125 years with only a slab of metal for a bed and a lidless shitter, 1 ply toilet paper.

Fuck him.

[quote]The Wikileaks founder has been in Hindmarsh Prison in the UK and is wanted in the US for espionage, facing 18 charges related to the publication of a range of highly classified material [bold]about the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.[/bold]

Bruh. What is wrong with you people? Stay focused.

The info he revealed can be terrible and he can be a self-promoting criminal at the same time, r22. If he's so damned noble about it, he'd face the consequences of breaking the law with dignity. Instead, he's spent his moral capital on celebrity and stinking out the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Martin Luther King, he ain't.

r23 You don't find it odd that a sizeable amount of the public suddenly turned on him en masse during the 2016 election drama? That doesn't seem, oh I don't know, oddly convenient for the US Government, to you?

He worked with Russia to elect Trump.

He is an enemy of democracy and has faced the consequences of his actions.

[quote]He worked with Russia to elect Trump.

According to whom? It wouldn't, by chance, be [italic]members of the US Government[/italic], now, would it?

You're almost there. Trump is definitely a puppet. You seem to have the puppeteers mixed up, though, r25. Take your time.

R24, it all came out after Trump won.

If everyone leaked intelligence we'd be in a big mess, so there has to be some pretty severe consequences for willingly doing so.

And, as time has gone on, I've wondered if his motivation was purely selfless. He's been made a bit of a celebrity in the process, so perhaps he was also motivated by self interest.

r27 No. No it did not. Do you not remember when Wikileaks first posted that Reuter's journalist Iraq footage? That happened in 2010. The US Gov't has been pissed at this man ever since.

[quote]If everyone leaked intelligence we'd be in a big mess, [bold]so there has to be some pretty severe consequences for willingly doing so.[/bold]

r28 Or, alternatively, political and military leaders could just refrain from doing objectively shady and unethical shit in the first place?

Julian Assange has always been an asshole. What was the point of posting the fact that US intelligence was monitoring Angela Merkel’s sleep habits other than to damage the US-German relationship and embarrass the US. It served no policy position.

Thanks R30 for your post from candy land.

R31 Thanks, you've said similar to what I was planning to say to R30 - ie Assange didn't just stick to leaking "objectively shady and unethical shit", which makes me question his true motivation.

[quote]What was the point of posting the fact that US intelligence was monitoring Angela Merkel’s sleep habits

r31

R30 lives in Pollyannaland.

r34 No. It's the exact opposite, actually.

No, it's not. Values are one thing, but extensive knowledge and training around how intelligence works it isn't.

What R16 said. Why only the DNC stuff?

[quote]but extensive knowledge and training around how intelligence works it isn't.

This has nothing to do with the primary (and arguably most controversial) charge Assange is currently facing; publishing classified information that was given (read: leaked) to him by someone who actually does have "extensive knowledge and training around how intelligence works (Manning)." That individual has, also, already served their sentence and is free.

A 175 years conviction for attempted hacking and publishing of information that Assange didn't even retrieve himself sets a dangerous precedent for the freedom of the press portion of the 1A. Motives for publishing in journalism are irrelevant to charges under the Espionage Act, anyway.

Wasn't he holed up in some embassy smearing shit on the walls and acting so crazy that the embassy funny got sick of him?

Manning showed up in court, R38. Assange knew what he was sharing.

r40 Him knowing what he was sharing is not the issue. He was under no obligation under US law to protect classified government documents, Manning was. Charging him for attempted hacking of government systems is the only charge that doesn't lead to a slippery 1A slope. The publishing, charge, does.

I think this guy had an interesting breakdown of the entire situation.

Asshole. He revealed the identities of Iraqi Jews in hiding because he couldn't be bothered to edit the information he released. He argued that all information should be free, or somesuch garbage. Then, when his location was released, he whined about his privacy being invaded. Fuck him.

Working for Pootie. Why didn't he go to Mother Russia's embassy to hide?

Either the FSB gave Assmange the hacked RNC emails and he refused to publish them OR the FSB didn’t bother to turn over the hacked RNC emails.

So they could be used for blackmail at a later date.

[quote] Can you prove anyone didn't? That sounds like something a self-appointed expert would say.

I'm not the person you're arguing with, but you cannot ask someone to prove a negative. You lost your argument right there.

Looks like Biden is considering dropping the prosecution of Julian Assange

Send him back to Australia and let him die in the Outback. His mental state must be beyond repair surely? Does the USA taxpayer really want tp pay for this loon sitting in a jail cell?

Nope. Assmange needs to cough up the FSB agents who fed him the RNC hacks and all of the other shit he acted as an FSB go between for.

Plus, he needs to give up Bannon and Stone for their part in election interference.

Maybe after he’s coughed that up, we can keel haul him to Australia.

Not all white haired autistic heroes wear capes

In russher, people get pushed from windows or served tea with plutonium for a much smaller crimes.

I like you r 48. Your ideas are excellent. Add Scabies Bannon and Stone to the keelhauling.

Round the clock waterboarding is too good for these three traitors.

How has this still not been resolved yet? British courts suck ass even harder than the American ones.

Russian stooge

If you combine the time he spent in the Ecuadorian embassy and in Belmarsh Prison, it's almost 12 years.

I'm not certain that keeping him imprisoned for longer is in anyone's interests.

The fact that Our Lady of the Favelas Glenn Greenwald is constantly tonguing his asshole tells me all I need to know about him and his interests.

I’m not a violent man, but he has the textbook definition of a punchable face.