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Litvinenko was when I realized that nation states only play by rules when it suits them and break them when they can get away with it. Putin can get away with
by iaw 6y ago
Litvinenko was when I realized that nation states only play by rules when it suits them and break them when they can get away with it. Putin can get away with murdering individuals or invading Crimea without any major repercussions. The US and Europe can extradite and jail spymasters (if the independent can assert Assange was a journalist I can assert he's a spymaster).
I don't find this situation to be black and white, I personally want Assange extradited and brought to trial. I'm sorry that Chelsea isn't cooperating.
Realpolitik: He played a game that regular people shouldn't participate in and after a decade he's experiencing the repercussions.
If his releases had been more even-handed towards Russia or he had not tried so hard to damage Hilary Clinton I may think he was some goodhearted neutral observer that just wants the truth out there, but it looks to me like he wanted to leverage the information he had to achieve desired outcomes (just as a spymaster at a nationstate agency would).
- throwawaysea 6y agoShould any of that matter if the information he released is the truth?
- jklm 6y agoLet’s say Russia releases the names and pictures of 100 active CIA agents who they uncovered as having done their country harm but are now active in other countries and out of their reach. It’s the truth, now what are your thoughts?
- dragonsngoblins 6y agoI.... I'm having a hard time understanding why anyone would have a moral problem with that? It isn't even 100 active CIA agents who have nothing to do with Russia, apparently these agents actively damaged them.
- jklm 6y agoFor agents in the wrong country at the time of the announcement, it may just condemn them to torture or death.
- dragonsngoblins 6y agoI mean, sure and that sucks for them but I kinda think that is part of the risk of being an agent. Don't want to get killed by foreign governments? Then don't go and do espionage in their countries. These are agents who have materially harmed another nation, it isn't as if they have only been acting in a purely defensive capacity and working on the internal security of the US.
- jklm 6y agoI don't think you can know for sure what exactly they did. Does the crime merit death? You raise a point that they weren't acting in a purely defensive capacity - for all we know, "did Russia harm" could mean they were a counterintelligence agent that successfully sounded the alarm on a Russian intelligence operation on US soil. From that perspective, wouldn't Russia be the aggressor now?