10 ms·

Ola Bini, Swedish Software Developer with Ties to Assange, Arrested in Ecuador

296 points by synthc 7y ago

synthc 7y ago
Ola Bini was on the core development team of JRuby, created the Ioke programming language, and blogs about his research on privacy, security an croptography: https://olabini.com/blog/ https://olabini.com/blog/
- Gravityloss 7y ago
  They have another blog too (linked from the main blog) https://reap.ec/ https://reap.ec/
- good_guy 7y ago
  Something something two birds with one stone.
- hvs 7y ago
  I saw a presentation from him in Chicago on Ioke back when he was still working for Thoughtworks (2010?). Seemed like a very intelligent, interesting guy. Hadn't really followed what he was doing until this news. Life takes us in strange directions.
- Boulth 7y ago
  He also worked on a new version of OTR: OTRv4.
- gimmeThaBeet 7y ago
  Ah, bingo, I was scratching my head trying to remember where I'd heard the name, because I was sure it was definitely not in the Assange/wikileaks context. That's certainly wild.
  - username223 7y ago
    Indeed. I heard of him back when he was a popular Ruby on Rails blogger, but had stopped paying attention years ago. It's crazy to see him arrested in Ecuador in association with WikiLeaks.
- taf2 7y ago
  I recall meeting him in 2006-7 at a railsconf talk he gave about jruby, seemed like a nice guy and pretty sharp too hopefully what he’s accused of isn’t true and he’ll be ok.
jasonvorhe 7y ago
> Ecuadorian officials believe Bini may be part of a blackmail ring assembled to pressure President Lenin Moreno and his government to allow Assange to remain in the embassy, according to the Times of London. Ouch. Don't miss with nation state officials.
maxheadroom 7y ago
>"He has been detained simply for investigation purposes" And then >"Ecuadorian diplomats told their counterparts in the UK that they were worried that Assange’s associates would try to seek revenge with cyberattacks and information leaks if he was handed over. Britain agreed to assist Ecuador in shoring up its cybersecurity, the newspaper reported." If I'm reading the subtext here, correctly, Bini was arrested but not charged with anything, presumably as a measure to keep him from orchestrating "retaliation". >"Ecuadorian officials believe Bini may be part of a blackmail ring assembled to pressure President Lenin Moreno and his government to allow Assange to remain in the embassy, according to the Times of London." I don't see how they can claim blackmail, if the INA Papers were released before they ousted Assange. Isn't this the antithesis of how blackmail works...? Edit: Ecuador is now saying hacking is the charge, it sounds like (admittedly, my Spanish isn't that great). https://www.fiscalia.gob.ec/ciudadano-sueco-fue-procesado-por-presunto-ataque-a-la-integridad-de-sistemas-informaticos/ https://www.fiscalia.gob.ec/ciudadano-sueco-fue-procesado-po...
- jm4 7y ago
  It was reported that Assange had a “panic button”. The report said that he had directly threatened the government of Ecuador with with retaliation if anything happened to him. I don’t have a link handy, but it shouldn’t be hard to find. There were also those strange tweets back in 2016 - codes or something, I don’t remember clearly - and speculation about some sort of dead man switch. Who knows if it’s true, but this seems to be what they’re worried about.
  - sschueller 7y ago
    I doubt Assange would rely on anyone other than himself. So if there is a "panic button" it would more than likely be a dead mans switch.
    - 13415 7y ago
      Assange has relied on many people in the past, so there is not much evidence for your claim other than personal sentiment. What seems more credible is that only he has the keys to some data kept by other persons and he could release these keys via others like e.g. his lawyers. Arresting others who might help him with releasing the data once they have the key makes "sense" from that perspective, although it could be illegal (but IANAL in Ecuador).
duxup 7y ago
Is nypost reliable here? In the past I've found them to be pretty much a celeb gossip mag and the harder news they cover has similar skewed and sensationalized stories. I hate to go down the path of questing every media source like happens these days, but nypost in particular seems a bit of generally speaking. Not saying I know any different that this story or if they're right / wrong.
- Erikun 7y ago
  Swedish media has written about it and the guardian as well. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/apr/12/julian-assange-ecuador-arrests-man-with-alleged-links-to-wikileaks https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/apr/12/julian-assange... Swedish state television (swedish only) https://www.svt.se/nyheter/utrikes/ecuadors-ambassad-i-sverige-bekraftar-svensk-forhord-om-wikileaks-och-slappt https://www.svt.se/nyheter/utrikes/ecuadors-ambassad-i-sveri...
  - isoskeles 7y ago
    Here is The Guardian lying about Assange and Manafort meeting: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-held-secret-talks-with-assange-in-ecuadorian-embassy https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-hel... I don’t trust much that appears in that paper.
    - r00fus 7y ago
      Where is your proof that it’s a lie?
      - belorn 7y ago
        One would think this claimed fact would be included in the Mueller report. And the questions remains, how could Manafort sneak three times into that place without any visual evidence being made? London is infamous for video surveillance. The embassy entrance logs are also empty of his name and ecuadorian consul in London formally denied that Manafort’s three visits had happened. Which makes this a nice conspiracy where everything except the guardian points in the same direction. US journalist Glenn Greenwald summed it up: ‘It is certainly possible that Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and even Donald Trump himself “secretly” visited Julian Assange in the embassy. It’s possible that Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un joined them’
erpellan 7y ago
Blog post from his employer: https://autonomia.digital/cad/2019/04/12/ola-bini-arrest.html https://autonomia.digital/cad/2019/04/12/ola-bini-arrest.htm...
blattimwind 7y ago
Ola Bini is quite an interesting name, phonetically speaking. Both first and last name sound very feminine (to me), yet it is a male Swedish name.
- fnordsensei 7y ago
  If I remember correctly, Ola is a modern abbreviation of Olaus, which in turn is the Latinization of Olof (which is an ancient name).
  - ulzeraj 7y ago
    Oh so the portuguese version should be Olavo.
- tyingq 7y ago
  I thought the same of Elton John's song Nikita, and the French film. Both sound feminine to Western ears, but it is clearly a masculine name in Russia.
  - blattimwind 7y ago
    Nikita sounds probably only male (with an echo of Sovjet anthem in the background) to me because I learned about Nikita Chruschtschow early on.
lgleason 7y ago
I'll bet you that if you pull further on that string past Ola you will find a lot more that just him. Software has a lot of loud activists, private organizations that hire based on political ideology with ties to governments and many underground networks.
- SahAssar 7y ago
  Have something substantive to back any of that up? It just sounds like vague conspiracy fluff right now.
sandebert 7y ago
He's also a former columnist for the largest IT newspaper in Sweden, called Computer Sweden. A search for his name brings up lots of columns (Swedish only, sorry): https://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.50095?actionType=search&queryText=ola+bini&articleType=0&publicationSelect=0&dateRange=4&sort=1 https://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.50095?actionType=search&queryTex...
wslh 7y ago
It is always fine to check double standards when these things happen. Just remembering when Augusto Pinochet was freed in UK [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indictment_and_arrest_of_Augusto_Pinochet#Arrest_in_London https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indictment_and_arrest_of_Augus...
- kmlx 7y ago
  that was a very interesting case back in the day: “Despite his release on grounds of ill health, the unprecedented detention of Pinochet in a foreign country for crimes against humanity committed in his own country, without a warrant or request for extradition from his own country, marks a watershed in international law. ”
coldtea 7y ago
In "totally unrelated" news, IMF approved a multi-billion loan to Ecuador last month: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-imf/ecuador-inks-4-2-billion-financing-deal-with-imf-moreno-idUSKCN1QA05Z https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-imf/ecuador-inks-...
huxflux 7y ago
"underground networks", that made me laugh.

296 points by synthc 7y ago

Ola Bini was on the core development team of JRuby, created the Ioke programming language, and blogs about his research on privacy, security an croptography: https://olabini.com/blog/ https://olabini.com/blog/

Gravityloss 7y ago
They have another blog too (linked from the main blog) https://reap.ec/ https://reap.ec/
good_guy 7y ago
Something something two birds with one stone.
hvs 7y ago
I saw a presentation from him in Chicago on Ioke back when he was still working for Thoughtworks (2010?). Seemed like a very intelligent, interesting guy. Hadn't really followed what he was doing until this news. Life takes us in strange directions.
Boulth 7y ago
He also worked on a new version of OTR: OTRv4.
gimmeThaBeet 7y ago
Ah, bingo, I was scratching my head trying to remember where I'd heard the name, because I was sure it was definitely not in the Assange/wikileaks context. That's certainly wild.
- username223 7y ago
  Indeed. I heard of him back when he was a popular Ruby on Rails blogger, but had stopped paying attention years ago. It's crazy to see him arrested in Ecuador in association with WikiLeaks.
taf2 7y ago
I recall meeting him in 2006-7 at a railsconf talk he gave about jruby, seemed like a nice guy and pretty sharp too hopefully what he’s accused of isn’t true and he’ll be ok.

jasonvorhe 7y ago

> Ecuadorian officials believe Bini may be part of a blackmail ring assembled to pressure President Lenin Moreno and his government to allow Assange to remain in the embassy, according to the Times of London. Ouch. Don't miss with nation state officials.

maxheadroom 7y ago

>"He has been detained simply for investigation purposes" And then >"Ecuadorian diplomats told their counterparts in the UK that they were worried that Assange’s associates would try to seek revenge with cyberattacks and information leaks if he was handed over. Britain agreed to assist Ecuador in shoring up its cybersecurity, the newspaper reported." If I'm reading the subtext here, correctly, Bini was arrested but not charged with anything, presumably as a measure to keep him from orchestrating "retaliation". >"Ecuadorian officials believe Bini may be part of a blackmail ring assembled to pressure President Lenin Moreno and his government to allow Assange to remain in the embassy, according to the Times of London." I don't see how they can claim blackmail, if the INA Papers were released before they ousted Assange. Isn't this the antithesis of how blackmail works...? Edit: Ecuador is now saying hacking is the charge, it sounds like (admittedly, my Spanish isn't that great). https://www.fiscalia.gob.ec/ciudadano-sueco-fue-procesado-por-presunto-ataque-a-la-integridad-de-sistemas-informaticos/ https://www.fiscalia.gob.ec/ciudadano-sueco-fue-procesado-po...

jm4 7y ago
It was reported that Assange had a “panic button”. The report said that he had directly threatened the government of Ecuador with with retaliation if anything happened to him. I don’t have a link handy, but it shouldn’t be hard to find. There were also those strange tweets back in 2016 - codes or something, I don’t remember clearly - and speculation about some sort of dead man switch. Who knows if it’s true, but this seems to be what they’re worried about.
- sschueller 7y ago
  I doubt Assange would rely on anyone other than himself. So if there is a "panic button" it would more than likely be a dead mans switch.
  - 13415 7y ago
    Assange has relied on many people in the past, so there is not much evidence for your claim other than personal sentiment. What seems more credible is that only he has the keys to some data kept by other persons and he could release these keys via others like e.g. his lawyers. Arresting others who might help him with releasing the data once they have the key makes "sense" from that perspective, although it could be illegal (but IANAL in Ecuador).

duxup 7y ago

Is nypost reliable here? In the past I've found them to be pretty much a celeb gossip mag and the harder news they cover has similar skewed and sensationalized stories. I hate to go down the path of questing every media source like happens these days, but nypost in particular seems a bit of generally speaking. Not saying I know any different that this story or if they're right / wrong.

Erikun 7y ago
Swedish media has written about it and the guardian as well. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/apr/12/julian-assange-ecuador-arrests-man-with-alleged-links-to-wikileaks https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/apr/12/julian-assange... Swedish state television (swedish only) https://www.svt.se/nyheter/utrikes/ecuadors-ambassad-i-sverige-bekraftar-svensk-forhord-om-wikileaks-och-slappt https://www.svt.se/nyheter/utrikes/ecuadors-ambassad-i-sveri...
- isoskeles 7y ago
  Here is The Guardian lying about Assange and Manafort meeting: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-held-secret-talks-with-assange-in-ecuadorian-embassy https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-hel... I don’t trust much that appears in that paper.
  - r00fus 7y ago
    Where is your proof that it’s a lie?
    - belorn 7y ago
      One would think this claimed fact would be included in the Mueller report. And the questions remains, how could Manafort sneak three times into that place without any visual evidence being made? London is infamous for video surveillance. The embassy entrance logs are also empty of his name and ecuadorian consul in London formally denied that Manafort’s three visits had happened. Which makes this a nice conspiracy where everything except the guardian points in the same direction. US journalist Glenn Greenwald summed it up: ‘It is certainly possible that Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and even Donald Trump himself “secretly” visited Julian Assange in the embassy. It’s possible that Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un joined them’

erpellan 7y ago

Blog post from his employer: https://autonomia.digital/cad/2019/04/12/ola-bini-arrest.html https://autonomia.digital/cad/2019/04/12/ola-bini-arrest.htm...

blattimwind 7y ago

Ola Bini is quite an interesting name, phonetically speaking. Both first and last name sound very feminine (to me), yet it is a male Swedish name.

fnordsensei 7y ago
If I remember correctly, Ola is a modern abbreviation of Olaus, which in turn is the Latinization of Olof (which is an ancient name).
- ulzeraj 7y ago
  Oh so the portuguese version should be Olavo.
tyingq 7y ago
I thought the same of Elton John's song Nikita, and the French film. Both sound feminine to Western ears, but it is clearly a masculine name in Russia.
- blattimwind 7y ago
  Nikita sounds probably only male (with an echo of Sovjet anthem in the background) to me because I learned about Nikita Chruschtschow early on.

lgleason 7y ago

I'll bet you that if you pull further on that string past Ola you will find a lot more that just him. Software has a lot of loud activists, private organizations that hire based on political ideology with ties to governments and many underground networks.

SahAssar 7y ago
Have something substantive to back any of that up? It just sounds like vague conspiracy fluff right now.

sandebert 7y ago

He's also a former columnist for the largest IT newspaper in Sweden, called Computer Sweden. A search for his name brings up lots of columns (Swedish only, sorry): https://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.50095?actionType=search&queryText=ola+bini&articleType=0&publicationSelect=0&dateRange=4&sort=1 https://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.50095?actionType=search&queryTex...

wslh 7y ago

It is always fine to check double standards when these things happen. Just remembering when Augusto Pinochet was freed in UK [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indictment_and_arrest_of_Augusto_Pinochet#Arrest_in_London https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indictment_and_arrest_of_Augus...

kmlx 7y ago
that was a very interesting case back in the day: “Despite his release on grounds of ill health, the unprecedented detention of Pinochet in a foreign country for crimes against humanity committed in his own country, without a warrant or request for extradition from his own country, marks a watershed in international law. ”

coldtea 7y ago

In "totally unrelated" news, IMF approved a multi-billion loan to Ecuador last month: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-imf/ecuador-inks-4-2-billion-financing-deal-with-imf-moreno-idUSKCN1QA05Z https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-imf/ecuador-inks-...

huxflux 7y ago

"underground networks", that made me laugh.