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> .. in the United States, it will likely be excluded as irrelevant because the Espionage Act does not allow a public interest defense. Remind me again, what m

> .. in the United States, it will likely be excluded as irrelevant because the Espionage Act does not allow a public interest defense. Remind me again, what made the USA any better than North Korea or any other off-the-rails criminal regime? If this statement about the Espionage Act is correct, then why is there even a discussion whether Assange will get a fair trial in the USA? It's plain as daylight that he never will, even for that specific fact only. In fact, any country that signed and ratified the UN's UDHR, should be barred from extraditing anyone to the USA. Especially for cases like these. If this involved an African, Asian or a Middle Eastern country, the USA and EU would no doubt threaten with bombing the country into submission, if they would continue to violate basic human right in order to cover up their criminal actions.

AsyncAwait 6y ago
Exactly. A lot of people ask also why Snowden keeps "hiding" in Russia and doesn't come back to face the music. It's because he's not even allowed to use the public good defense per the Espionage Act. As for Assange, the poor man has already suffered enough, what the UN amounts to torture. This is despicable and anyone who is concerned about the Uyghurs, Rohingya etc. should voice a strong opposition to what is happening to Assange in the West. P.S. His prosecution isn't even about the 2016 election, however you feel about that, it's about him exposing war crimes committed by the U.S. government, killing civilians, including knowingly journalists and laughing about it.
- chupasaurus 6y ago
  Snowden avoids the prosecution because even on a public trial he will get a life-long sentence since Espionage Act doesn't have an exemption for acting in the public interest.
  - AsyncAwait 6y ago
    Right. What did I say differently?
- justanotheranon 6y ago
  until the Espionage Act is ruled unconstitutional by SCOTUS, the war crimes and abuses of power exposed by Snowden and Assange will never be resolved. Since 2013, I have come to view Assange and Snowden and future leakers and whistleblowers as necessary steps of the journey, but not the destination. the destination is to create some contrived legal case that perfectly triggers multiple legal conditions which unlocks the door to be able to directly and openly challenge the espionage act in court. the US Intelligence Community have always gone to extraordinary contortions to prevent the Espionage Act itself from being invoked against the Press which could make it possible to challenge it. Even in Elsberg's case, his charges were dropped before SCOTUS could decide whether the Espionage Act applied to the Press and the Public Interest. i think one reason why DOJ has been so rabid and vicious against Assange is because he is not a US Citizen, so they don't have to give him as much Freedom of Speech as they would an American. i dont feel optimistic about Assange's case. if it was going to turn out good, that would have happened years ago. i can only hope the spiritual successor to Wikileaks is led by an American who is wickedly clever enough to leak the right kind of top secrets that are scandalously in the Public Interest and thereby force a head on collision between SCOTUS, the Espionage Act and the First Amendment.
jariel 6y ago
"Remind me again, what made the USA any better than North Korea or any other off-the-rails criminal regime?" ... is an intellectually offensive question. Posed in the open, by someone on an 'American' blog, in perfect safety knowing there would not remotely ever be any repercussions for posing the question.
- justanotheranon 6y ago
  you don't know that there won't be repercussions. perhaps when i say "America is already at dystopian North Korean levels of mass propaganda", my IP address is stored in XKEYSCORE and my cell phone billing info is cross referenced and my name is put on a Watchlist. perhaps when i try to apply to a FedGov job, some automated sytem for scoring Inside Threats uses that Watchlist, and determines i am a security threat, and i am denied the job. perhaps that automated scoring system is sold to the private sector, and then i am also denied jobs and bank loans and housing and travel when the system rejects me for unspecified reasons, since the existence of the secret Watchlist will never be known outside of FedGov. through the existence of numerous forms of mass surveillance exposed by Wikileaks, we know the machinery of an automated social credit system has already been built. it's operational. the only question is how far along are they in putting it to use to truly turn us into a superficially happier nation sized prison camp like North Korea.
  - smeeth 6y ago
    The fact that you have to say “perhaps... perhaps... perhaps...” when you describe your authoritarian fantasy is all anyone needs to know. One does not need to similarly caveat North Korean or Chinese authoritarianism, you can see the gulags on Google maps. Have there been human rights and privacy abuses by the US government? Yes. Is our government a bad parody of a dystopian sci-fi movie? Please, let’s keep ourselves grounded in facts.
  - exolymph 6y ago
    The fact that you are able to post whatever you feel like typing is radically more freedom than we can presume is available to the average North Korean. Pull the other one, man.

AsyncAwait 6y ago

Exactly. A lot of people ask also why Snowden keeps "hiding" in Russia and doesn't come back to face the music. It's because he's not even allowed to use the public good defense per the Espionage Act. As for Assange, the poor man has already suffered enough, what the UN amounts to torture. This is despicable and anyone who is concerned about the Uyghurs, Rohingya etc. should voice a strong opposition to what is happening to Assange in the West. P.S. His prosecution isn't even about the 2016 election, however you feel about that, it's about him exposing war crimes committed by the U.S. government, killing civilians, including knowingly journalists and laughing about it.

chupasaurus 6y ago
Snowden avoids the prosecution because even on a public trial he will get a life-long sentence since Espionage Act doesn't have an exemption for acting in the public interest.
- AsyncAwait 6y ago
  Right. What did I say differently?
justanotheranon 6y ago
until the Espionage Act is ruled unconstitutional by SCOTUS, the war crimes and abuses of power exposed by Snowden and Assange will never be resolved. Since 2013, I have come to view Assange and Snowden and future leakers and whistleblowers as necessary steps of the journey, but not the destination. the destination is to create some contrived legal case that perfectly triggers multiple legal conditions which unlocks the door to be able to directly and openly challenge the espionage act in court. the US Intelligence Community have always gone to extraordinary contortions to prevent the Espionage Act itself from being invoked against the Press which could make it possible to challenge it. Even in Elsberg's case, his charges were dropped before SCOTUS could decide whether the Espionage Act applied to the Press and the Public Interest. i think one reason why DOJ has been so rabid and vicious against Assange is because he is not a US Citizen, so they don't have to give him as much Freedom of Speech as they would an American. i dont feel optimistic about Assange's case. if it was going to turn out good, that would have happened years ago. i can only hope the spiritual successor to Wikileaks is led by an American who is wickedly clever enough to leak the right kind of top secrets that are scandalously in the Public Interest and thereby force a head on collision between SCOTUS, the Espionage Act and the First Amendment.

jariel 6y ago

"Remind me again, what made the USA any better than North Korea or any other off-the-rails criminal regime?" ... is an intellectually offensive question. Posed in the open, by someone on an 'American' blog, in perfect safety knowing there would not remotely ever be any repercussions for posing the question.

justanotheranon 6y ago
you don't know that there won't be repercussions. perhaps when i say "America is already at dystopian North Korean levels of mass propaganda", my IP address is stored in XKEYSCORE and my cell phone billing info is cross referenced and my name is put on a Watchlist. perhaps when i try to apply to a FedGov job, some automated sytem for scoring Inside Threats uses that Watchlist, and determines i am a security threat, and i am denied the job. perhaps that automated scoring system is sold to the private sector, and then i am also denied jobs and bank loans and housing and travel when the system rejects me for unspecified reasons, since the existence of the secret Watchlist will never be known outside of FedGov. through the existence of numerous forms of mass surveillance exposed by Wikileaks, we know the machinery of an automated social credit system has already been built. it's operational. the only question is how far along are they in putting it to use to truly turn us into a superficially happier nation sized prison camp like North Korea.
- smeeth 6y ago
  The fact that you have to say “perhaps... perhaps... perhaps...” when you describe your authoritarian fantasy is all anyone needs to know. One does not need to similarly caveat North Korean or Chinese authoritarianism, you can see the gulags on Google maps. Have there been human rights and privacy abuses by the US government? Yes. Is our government a bad parody of a dystopian sci-fi movie? Please, let’s keep ourselves grounded in facts.
- exolymph 6y ago
  The fact that you are able to post whatever you feel like typing is radically more freedom than we can presume is available to the average North Korean. Pull the other one, man.