4 ms·

I don't care if his voluntary embassy stay was "similar to a Nordic prison" because he was not made to stand trial and face justice for his crimes. Justice isn'

I don't care if his voluntary embassy stay was "similar to a Nordic prison" because he was not made to stand trial and face justice for his crimes. Justice isn't "well I did a bad thing and locked myself in a comfy house with internet and takeout food for a few years". Could you even imagine? His "freedom of movement" is self-restricted by his fear that he will have to face justice for acting as an agent of Russian military intelligence to attack America including laundering Russian intelligence into America to upset elections. He got away with raping a woman completely. Zero justice, zero rehabilitation, zero punishment. His voluntary embassy stay is related to his fear of facing justice for playing spy games, not for rape. EDIT: It's disgusting how many people are justifying his lack of justice for raping a woman by saying that his unrelated embassy stay "makes up" for it. What happened to morality? He raped a woman and did not stand trial for it. He received no punishment. If you did this, make no mistake, you'd have gone to prison. Because you're not an agent government playing spy games. Because protecting you doesn't advance a nations anti-west ideology. Because you're a regular person so you have to face regular person justice.

friendlybus 7y ago
Really depends on what you mean by 'got away with rape'. He spoke to one judge who questioned him and left him free to go. The case got closed and the reopened by a completely different judge and he was called back. The political ties of the woman he slept with leaves a lot of unknown questions in place. He had a modicum of interaction with the justice system and offered to be questioned over the phone which they religiously denied. Nobody should get away with rape, but it's not clear to me that's what the story is in regards to justice.
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lovetox 7y ago
> He got away with raping a woman completely. Why are you saying this like it's a undeniable fact?
- iamnothere 7y ago
  Especially since the original "victim" retracted the allegations. Sweden simply refused to drop the charges afterwards, apparently for political reasons.
  - ceejayoz 7y ago
    That doesn't appear to be the case. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/julian-assange-rape-victim-elisabeth-fritz-sweden-drop-investigation-wikileaks-stockholm-british-a7744741.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/julian-assan... "The woman who accused Julian Assange of rape has said she is 'shocked' by Sweden’s decision to drop the seven-year investigation."
    - iamnothere 7y ago
      This is curious, because I definitely remember someone recanting their allegations. It was a big deal. It's hard to find clear information on it now. Was there a second accuser maybe? Edit: based on some other comments there may have been two accusers. In that case my original comment was misleading, thanks for the correction.
DiogenesKynikos 7y ago
> His "freedom of movement" is self-restricted by his fear that he will have to face justice for acting as an agent of Russian military intelligence to attack America including laundering Russian intelligence into America to upset elections. Let's assume for a moment that your premise is true, and Assange got the DNC documents from Russian intelligence. Should he have buried the documents? He had in his possession documents that a huge number of Americans would find politically interesting. They showed, among other things, that DNC operatives were biased against Bernie Sanders and looking for ways to undermine him. They also contained transcripts of speeches to Wall Street firms that Hillary Clinton had refused to publish during the primaries. Assange has always said that he will publish whatever documents are verifiable and of public interest. If he had decided not to publish the DNC documents, that would have been a violation of his stated principles. It would even look like he's hiding documents in order to help Hillary Clinton win the election. What you're describing as "acting as an agent of Russian military intelligence" is actually the publication of documents of public interest - something journalists do. If what you're saying is correct, every NY Times journalist who publishes state secrets could be thrown in jail. Imagine if a NY Times journalist got a cache of documents about misdeeds of the Russian government, and the NY Times were to publish those documents. Imagine then that the Russian government claimed those documents came from a foreign intelligence service, and labeled the NY Times journalist a hostile intelligence agent. Would you support the extradition of that journalist to Russia to face charges of espionage?
- matthewdgreen 7y ago
  >Let's assume for a moment that your premise is true, and Assange got the DNC documents from Russian intelligence. Should he have buried the documents? The idea that Wikileaks took a non-partisan, journalistic attitude towards these leaks is a fantasy. He repeatedly contacted the Trump campaign and told them that he had "damaging leaks" on the way, and made it clear in internal chats that he wanted to use Wikileaks to sway the election outcome. https://qz.com/1599384/mueller-report-on-trump-campaigns-contacts-with-wikileaks/ https://qz.com/1599384/mueller-report-on-trump-campaigns-con...
  - DiogenesKynikos 7y ago
mapcars 7y ago
>face justice for his crimes Which crimes exactly? Folloing a link from above: >Strangely, however, the women themselves never claimed to have been raped, nor did they intend to report a criminal offence. Go figure. Moreover, the forensic examination of a condom submitted as evidence, supposedly worn and torn during intercourse with Assange, revealed no DNA whatsoever — neither his, nor hers, nor anybody else’s. Go figure again. One woman even texted that she only wanted Assange to take an HIV test, but that the police were “keen on getting their hands on him”. Go figure, once more. https://medium.com/@njmelzer/demasking-the-torture-of-julian-assange-b252ffdcb768 https://medium.com/@njmelzer/demasking-the-torture-of-julian...

friendlybus 7y ago

Really depends on what you mean by 'got away with rape'. He spoke to one judge who questioned him and left him free to go. The case got closed and the reopened by a completely different judge and he was called back. The political ties of the woman he slept with leaves a lot of unknown questions in place. He had a modicum of interaction with the justice system and offered to be questioned over the phone which they religiously denied. Nobody should get away with rape, but it's not clear to me that's what the story is in regards to justice.

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lovetox 7y ago

> He got away with raping a woman completely. Why are you saying this like it's a undeniable fact?

iamnothere 7y ago
Especially since the original "victim" retracted the allegations. Sweden simply refused to drop the charges afterwards, apparently for political reasons.
- ceejayoz 7y ago
  That doesn't appear to be the case. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/julian-assange-rape-victim-elisabeth-fritz-sweden-drop-investigation-wikileaks-stockholm-british-a7744741.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/julian-assan... "The woman who accused Julian Assange of rape has said she is 'shocked' by Sweden’s decision to drop the seven-year investigation."
  - iamnothere 7y ago
    This is curious, because I definitely remember someone recanting their allegations. It was a big deal. It's hard to find clear information on it now. Was there a second accuser maybe? Edit: based on some other comments there may have been two accusers. In that case my original comment was misleading, thanks for the correction.

DiogenesKynikos 7y ago

> His "freedom of movement" is self-restricted by his fear that he will have to face justice for acting as an agent of Russian military intelligence to attack America including laundering Russian intelligence into America to upset elections. Let's assume for a moment that your premise is true, and Assange got the DNC documents from Russian intelligence. Should he have buried the documents? He had in his possession documents that a huge number of Americans would find politically interesting. They showed, among other things, that DNC operatives were biased against Bernie Sanders and looking for ways to undermine him. They also contained transcripts of speeches to Wall Street firms that Hillary Clinton had refused to publish during the primaries. Assange has always said that he will publish whatever documents are verifiable and of public interest. If he had decided not to publish the DNC documents, that would have been a violation of his stated principles. It would even look like he's hiding documents in order to help Hillary Clinton win the election. What you're describing as "acting as an agent of Russian military intelligence" is actually the publication of documents of public interest - something journalists do. If what you're saying is correct, every NY Times journalist who publishes state secrets could be thrown in jail. Imagine if a NY Times journalist got a cache of documents about misdeeds of the Russian government, and the NY Times were to publish those documents. Imagine then that the Russian government claimed those documents came from a foreign intelligence service, and labeled the NY Times journalist a hostile intelligence agent. Would you support the extradition of that journalist to Russia to face charges of espionage?

matthewdgreen 7y ago
>Let's assume for a moment that your premise is true, and Assange got the DNC documents from Russian intelligence. Should he have buried the documents? The idea that Wikileaks took a non-partisan, journalistic attitude towards these leaks is a fantasy. He repeatedly contacted the Trump campaign and told them that he had "damaging leaks" on the way, and made it clear in internal chats that he wanted to use Wikileaks to sway the election outcome. https://qz.com/1599384/mueller-report-on-trump-campaigns-contacts-with-wikileaks/ https://qz.com/1599384/mueller-report-on-trump-campaigns-con...
- DiogenesKynikos 7y ago

mapcars 7y ago

>face justice for his crimes Which crimes exactly? Folloing a link from above: >Strangely, however, the women themselves never claimed to have been raped, nor did they intend to report a criminal offence. Go figure. Moreover, the forensic examination of a condom submitted as evidence, supposedly worn and torn during intercourse with Assange, revealed no DNA whatsoever — neither his, nor hers, nor anybody else’s. Go figure again. One woman even texted that she only wanted Assange to take an HIV test, but that the police were “keen on getting their hands on him”. Go figure, once more. https://medium.com/@njmelzer/demasking-the-torture-of-julian-assange-b252ffdcb768 https://medium.com/@njmelzer/demasking-the-torture-of-julian...