[HN Gopher] Julian Assange in Limbo ___________________________________________________________________ Julian Assange in Limbo Author : AndrewBissell Score : 56 points Date : 2020-06-13 22:03 UTC (56 minutes ago) (HTM) web link (www.lrb.co.uk) (TXT) w3m dump (www.lrb.co.uk) | dooglius wrote: | https://archive.is/haMuY | seesawtron wrote: | Check out Chomsky's support for Assange [0]. Sadly there's too | much going on to bring enough attention to this case. | | [0] https://youtu.be/gxLa6jtF01g | us0r wrote: | > After long research, his team of 120 counterintelligence | officers hadn't been able to find a single person, among the | thousands of American agents and secret sources in Afghanistan | and Iraq, who could be shown to have died because of the | disclosures. | | Sounds like the NSA who couldn't point to a single instance of | stopping any type of terrorist attack/operation despite | collecting anything they could get their hands on. | vkou wrote: | Is he being accused of disclosing information that got someone | killed? | | Or of assisting a hacker? | | If he's not accused of doing the first, then this is hardly | relevant to his case. | class4behavior wrote: | This is most certainly relevant. It may not be proof, but | it's notable evidence; and not the only one. | HenryKissinger wrote: | That's because the CIA and the Department of Defense worked | around the clock to prevent that from happening. Former | Director of National Intelligence James Clapper wrote in his | book, "Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in | Intelligence" | | > After Manning's arrest, Assange seemed intent on dumping as | many classified documents onto the internet as he could, as | quickly as he could. In my last few months as USD(I) and my | first few months as the fourth DNI in five years, my time and | attention were also taken up by the efforts at DOD and CIA to | deal with these document dumps. Teams were on standby in both | places to sort quickly through whatever was exposed in an | effort to find names and identifying details for people in Iraq | and Afghanistan who were helping the US war effort, and then | try to rescue them before the Taliban or Iraqi insurgents could | find and kill them. | upofadown wrote: | Kind of missing the punch line there. Who did they save | through their efforts? | theferalrobot wrote: | > Sounds like the NSA who couldn't point to a single instance | of stopping any type of terrorist attack/operation despite | collecting anything they could get their hands on. | | This can't be true - there are plenty of sources citing foiled | plots and we see similar publications from other governments | (EU and beyond) citing similar justifications. A quick google | yields: | | https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/nsa-director-50-potential-te... | | https://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/nsa-leak-keith-alexan... | | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/gchq-foiled-terr... | barking wrote: | Stories like this are about the only reason to welcome the rise | of China as a counterweight to the USA. Pity it's not the EU | instead. | the_pwner224 wrote: | This seems like a good overview of the situation to me; I had | previously heard Assange mentioned but never really knew what | happened. Thanks. | jedberg wrote: | > But today Ellsberg is celebrated as the patron saint of | whistleblowers while Assange is locked in a cell in London's | Belmarsh maximum security prison for 23 and a half hours a day. | | Ellsberg was charged with a bunch of crimes too, which would have | resulted in 100+ years of jail time. He's considered a good | person _now_ because he defended himself and won. It should also | be noted that he very much supports Wikileaks. | | It should also be noted a big difference in the cases is that | Ellsberg leaked documents he already had legal access to, and was | therefore a whistleblower. Assange leaked documents that he had | to illegally acquire first (either with help or without, but | either way he was in possession of stolen goods). You can't get | whistleblower protection for leaking information you didn't have | legal access to. | | I totally understand why Assange is fighting extradition -- it's | highly unlikely he would be treated fairly or get a fair trial. | But I doubt he'll ever be broadly considered a hero until he | defends himself in court. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2020-06-13 23:00 UTC)