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It's okay when CIA convinces some non-US citizen to become an agent and provide secrets from their government. All governments do this. Somehow it's different

It's okay when CIA convinces some non-US citizen to become an agent and provide secrets from their government. All governments do this. Somehow it's different in Assange's case because he is not government entity.

tablespoon 5y ago
> It's okay when CIA convinces some non-US citizen to become an agent and provide secrets from their government. All governments do this. Somehow it's different in Assange's case because he is not government entity. It's pretty standard to be friendly to people who spy for you, and hostile to those who spy against you. If the FBI catches a Russian spy who doesn't have diplomatic cover, that person is going to get prosecuted (and if they do have cover they'll become persona non grata and expelled); ditto if the Russians catch an American spy.
giantrobot 5y ago
All governments do that but those agents are persecuted when they're caught by the targeted government. If the spymaster is also caught they'll also be persecuted under the target country's laws unless they have some sort of diplomatic cover from their own government.
anonymousiam 5y ago
Replying to myself because the two replies apparently missed the distinction between the entity doing the "coercion" (Assange/CIA) and the entity doing the spying (the agent, or Manning in this case). Nobody prosecutes the CIA/GRU/PRC for coercing others to spy.
- giantrobot 5y ago
  > Nobody prosecutes the CIA/GRU/PRC for coercing others to spy. Except for expulsion of diplomats, arrests of agents, sanctions against government officials, indictments for officials and agents, and of course war. Besides all of those things that happen all the time nobody prosecutes spy agencies. eyeroll Assange is a self-styled spymaster that's not actually very good at the job. Spies that go around advertising their spying and bragging about conspiracies of which they are a part are not good spies.

tablespoon 5y ago

> It's okay when CIA convinces some non-US citizen to become an agent and provide secrets from their government. All governments do this. Somehow it's different in Assange's case because he is not government entity. It's pretty standard to be friendly to people who spy for you, and hostile to those who spy against you. If the FBI catches a Russian spy who doesn't have diplomatic cover, that person is going to get prosecuted (and if they do have cover they'll become persona non grata and expelled); ditto if the Russians catch an American spy.

giantrobot 5y ago

All governments do that but those agents are persecuted when they're caught by the targeted government. If the spymaster is also caught they'll also be persecuted under the target country's laws unless they have some sort of diplomatic cover from their own government.

anonymousiam 5y ago

Replying to myself because the two replies apparently missed the distinction between the entity doing the "coercion" (Assange/CIA) and the entity doing the spying (the agent, or Manning in this case). Nobody prosecutes the CIA/GRU/PRC for coercing others to spy.

giantrobot 5y ago
> Nobody prosecutes the CIA/GRU/PRC for coercing others to spy. Except for expulsion of diplomats, arrests of agents, sanctions against government officials, indictments for officials and agents, and of course war. Besides all of those things that happen all the time nobody prosecutes spy agencies. eyeroll Assange is a self-styled spymaster that's not actually very good at the job. Spies that go around advertising their spying and bragging about conspiracies of which they are a part are not good spies.