19 ms·
Assange arrested in London (BBC)
- dgudkov 16y agoThis can be better for him in terms of his safety now. Hope everything will end safely for Assange.
- bobds 16y agoAssange willingly showed up at a police station and was arrested by appointment. He probably has a plan.
- ebaysucks 16y agoAgreed - What happens in the next few days will tell a lot about the position the UK really has in this matter. The optimist in me is hopeful the UK is helping him to get the Interpol heat off of him and set him free on bail. After all, Assange might help the UK in anticipating future Wikileaks releases. There's plenty of potential for deals.
- pbhjpbhj 16y agoHow is this relevant to whether or not he committed a sexual assault? If there's a weight of evidence showing he's guilty then he should be extradited and tried.
- jacquesm 16y ago> If there's a weight of evidence showing he's guilty then he should be extradited and tried. Agreed. The corollary of that is that if there isn't he should be set free.
- msy 16y agoI think the plan is fairly simple: to clear his name by showing these absurd trumped-up charges for what they are, the machiavellian machinations of the US via a disturbingly compliant Swedish legal system.
- bobds 16y agoI read a good article on why the charges against Assange are absurd: http://rixstep.com/1/20101001,01.shtml http://rixstep.com/1/20101001,01.shtml And a more recent follow up: http://rixstep.com/1/20101202,01.shtml http://rixstep.com/1/20101202,01.shtml
- alextgordon 16y agoIs there a better source? I'm not sure I'm inclined to believe anything rixstep says.
- bobds 16y agoI'm not inclined to believe anything regarding Wikileaks or Assange. I'm sure more than a few people have seen those tweets and some Twitter crawlers/indexers have them stored somewhere. We'll see how it plays out, no need to speculate at this point.
- elai 16y agoWow, a conspiracy theory that would make sense. The US government finds the leak in may, knows wiki leaks has it. Knows that they'll not be able to directly attack the organization on free speech grounds so they create a character assignation plot and create a rape plot.
- RuadhanMc 16y agoUnless they actually charge him with something in Sweden -- which I believe is actually a requirement for this sort of warrant to be issued -- they won't be able to move him to Sweden. Hopefully sanity doesn't desert the British legal system as well.
- nagrom 16y agoSpoken by someone who doesn't know the British legal system well at all. The lack of sanity in the system is breathtakingly clear. We recently convicted someone for making a joke via Twitter, and he didn't have the resources of a government(s?) behind the conviction: http://heresycorner.blogspot.com/2010/11/with-conviction-of-paul-chambers-it-is.html http://heresycorner.blogspot.com/2010/11/with-conviction-of-... The British legal system is extremely thorough, but excrutiatingly slow. The problem with this approach to justice is that we tend hand people off to foreign governments and then it's too late to recall them. Lessons be will learned, no individual blame will be attached, and Assange will be ruined.
- binarymax 16y agoA possible blunder. This is way bigger than McKinnon and he had to fight tooth and nail. If Assange is not extradited to Sweden there is a good chance he will be sent to the US (maybe as an enemy combatant).
- ebaysucks 16y agoOn what possible legal grounds?
- sigzero 16y agoYou assume there needs to be legal ground.
- TallGuyShort 16y agoBut of course there does! Why, you need legal ground to issue an arrest warra.... Oh wait - now I see your point....
- binarymax 16y agoIf you are officially accused of being a terrorist (or aiding a terrorist organisation) by the states, they can hold you indefinitely. The UK can hold you as well without reason for a specified period as well (90 days?). The UK has very little to gain from his release and much to lose - it will injure US/UK relations.
- bobds 16y agoUse the Guardian thread, it has the most comments. Guardian http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978645 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978645 MSNBC http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978690 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978690 BBC http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978651 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978651 TheNextWeb http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978656 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978656 Sky http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978613 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978613 CNN http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978636 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978636 NY Times http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978692 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978692
- jeroen 16y agoNot anymore. This thread now has more comments.
- ghostDancer 16y agoWith Assange in the courtroom: http://twitter.com/#!/newsbrooke http://twitter.com/#!/newsbrooke
- bobds 16y agoI wonder why the Guardian version didn't make it to the front page.
- Semiapies 16y agoMany of these threads are dead.
- tung 16y agoDespite my low level of contribution to this site, I must say I'm tired of seeing WikiLeaks/Assange on the Hacker News front page. Granted, all this may be newsworthy, but going by the Hacker News Guidelines, it feels more "Off-Topic" than on, in that it's about politics and would be covered on TV news, like the TSA submissions a while ago.
- garply 16y agoI don't think this story is off-topic. Most of us are interested in how technology is changing the world around us. That means something on-topic can be about how new technology is affecting medical practice (for example, potential advances against tooth decay) or about how it is affecting politics (in this case, increasing governmental vulnerability to widespread dissemination of secret information).
- tung 16y agoIt looks like more people agree with you than me, so I'll take the opportunity to at least explain my point of view. I come to Hacker News to see people talk about technology, innovation, trends, start-ups and tiny projects that pop up that do things that seem so obvious in hind-sight, but are in fact really clever. This recent news about WikiLeaks and Assange I feel don't really fit in any of these categories. The Hacker News Guidelines [1] may be open to interpretation, but it does explicitly state: > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics and > If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. There is a bit after the first quote that states "unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon," which I suppose is where we disagree. Nonetheless, if you and others feel it fits here, I'll respect your opinions. [1] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- Uchikoma 16y agoWhen your startup is terminted on PayPal or AWS on dubious ground, come back and leave a comment.
- 16y ago
- jyoti00 16y agoyawn...
- wakeup 16y agomans fucked.
- lhnz 16y agohttp://rixstep.com/1/20101202,01.shtml http://rixstep.com/1/20101202,01.shtml Is this correct?
- jacquesm 16y agoIt's a dubious source but it raises interesting points for independent verification. Someone in the mainstream media (one of those investigative journalists that they have so many of there) should dig in and find out.
- nhangen 16y agoI'm enthralled by the world's obsession with this man. Sure, I get that some people like that he plays reluctant hero up against the "evil" US, but come on. The guy is charged with sexual assault. If there's any chance he did it, then he should go to trial. Why would we treat him any differently than other criminals? If there was no misconduct, then we will find out, and the charges will be dropped.
- mike-cardwell 16y agoI keep reading that the sex was consensual and that it's the fact he didn't use protection that made it a crime. I don't really understand how this can be the case though, but it seems to be all over the place if you google it. Sweden must have a very strange law.
- nhangen 16y agoI scoured the web and read a bit about the case. It seems that one of the "victims" isn't complaining, though the 2nd is. I'm not going to play PI, but it seems to me that if a woman is that upset after sex, then something went wrong. Maybe he refused to spoon.
- mike-cardwell 16y agoWhatever it was, it doesn't sound like anything which could be classified as an assault, sexual or otherwise.
- nhangen 16y agoIsn't that what the trial is supposed to find out? I don't know a lot about the UK justice system, but I imagine they wouldn't issue a warrant without something to bring to the trial.
- Raphael 16y agoI just seems too convenient that he would be accused of rape now.
- Sharlin 16y agoIn other, rather ironic, news, two Irishmen brutally assaulted a Swedish citizen on a ferryboat from Sweden to Finland. They were taken into custody on arrival in Finland, but were later released because the crime occurred on Swedish waters. The men subsequently returned to Ireland. The Swedish police decided to drop the case irrespective of ample CCTV evidence and both men having pleaded guilty. Quoting prosecutor Thomas Holst: "Were we to try to get everyone suspected of a less serious crime extradited, we would have to work around the clock."
- bourdine 16y agoSad. I really wanted to see the promised documents about UFOs. In my opinion, it would raise much more noise in the society.
- getsat 16y agoIf you have the "insurance" file, you likely already have them on your computer. Why would Julian's arrest/conviction/disappearance affect whether or not you see the documents? He has nothing to do with the leaking effort. http://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/12163859271917568 http://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/12163859271917568
- steveklabnik 16y agoThe documents will continue to be released as usual. http://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/12114747864391680 http://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/12114747864391680
- known 16y ago"If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you." --Oscar Wilde
- Jamiecon 16y agoAm I just cynical, or does anyone else get the overall impression that this is a bunch of geeks running around fantasising that they're in 'The Matrix' or something. And doing it thanks to the efforts of a single confused 22 year old (Manning), who is now screwed. Some of the material I've read so far is interesting. Very little surprises me. None shocks me. There is no technological achievement here, either in the original leak, or the distribution of the material. If anything, I get the impression that Wikileaks is fairly inept. I'm not really against the leak - I've enjoyed reading the material. One of the things (genuinely) that I've found fascinating is the quality of the writing - I wish some of the people I work with could write as well. Irritating people do get to me though, and I'm beginning to lump Assange in with Jimmy Wales. Wikipedia, and Wikileaks both have larger than life, seemingly egocentric figureheads. Both services depend heavily on the efforts and religious-level fervour of other people who often do things for free or near-free. Weird? I mean, if I ran a web site that distributed material which might get a governmental back up, I would probably keep a low profile. Looking forward to some robust comments on my thoughts!
- getsat 16y agoAssange is 39, not 22 (though, admittedly, he does not look his age). Assange explains why he is a figurehead in his Q&A session with CNN: http://articles.cnn.com/2010-12-03/world/wikileaks.assange.qanda_1_julian-assange-bradley-manning-wikileaks http://articles.cnn.com/2010-12-03/world/wikileaks.assange.q...
- getsat 16y agoOh, sorry, I didn't realise you were referring to Manning. My apologies.
- Jamiecon 16y agoNo worries, I wasn't clear.
- dagw 16y agoI find it telling that the one actually interesting and critical question from an actual diplomat, about to what extent he feels his leaks are undermining the diplomatic process, is the one question he refuses to answer.
- InclinedPlane 16y agoWhy this is important: The world is changing, the definition of "journalist" is changing. In a different time such leaks would have come from a spirited and lively free press, but today our traditional forms of journalism (newpapers, radio, tv) are utterly mainstream, moribund, and very much part of the establishment. Wikileaks throws the new order into sharp contrast and raises questions about what is journalism, what legal protections journalism deserves, etc. Some of these questions had been answered (especially in the US) but the question now is to what degree and in what way do those decisions carry over to the brave new world of the internet. The worst case scenario is that courts, the public, etc. decide to keep an antiquated cargo cult definition of journalism, restricted to newspapermen and television reporters. The danger there is that the flourishing of journalism on the internet in unfamiliar forms will lack the protections (legal and societal) that traditional journalism has had. This is all the more sensational because Assange and wikileaks have become the poster boy / touchstone for these issues. This is troubling to me because wikileaks is not the best archetype for nouveau journalism. Firstly he has a very significant political ax to grind (though he has not been grinding it as sharply as in the past such as with "Collateral Murder"). Secondly the revelations that have come from wikileaks have tended to be comparatively minor, especially when judged against the cost of obtaining the leaked information. This sets him up as the perfect target for governments and traditionalists to tar and feather him and use him as an archetypal example of why new media is not journalism and does not deserve the same protections as traditional journalism.
- ashutoshm 16y agoUnder the spreading chestnut tree I sold you and you sold me There lie they, and here lie we Under the spreading chestnut tree