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No, but their lives have been ruined for... what? Think about this: we spent millions of dollars identifying the leak by Assange, then forcing Assange to sit in

No, but their lives have been ruined for... what? Think about this: we spent millions of dollars identifying the leak by Assange, then forcing Assange to sit in an embassy, on PR to discredit his character, and on convincing countries to hand him over. Yet somehow Epstein and Harvey Weinstein run rampant among our own soil, all with open secrets. Literally decades of abuse before authorities finally arrest them, and only because regular people came out and protested after they heard of the stories publicly. Like the gov had no idea ever... for decades on open secrets like that... until now? The effort put into these scenarios are very skewed.

gamblor956 5y ago
Assange chose to remain in an embassy for years rather than face questioning (not even a trial) for the offenses alleged against him. Snowden and Manning's leaks endangered the lives of US and foreign military and intelligence personnel, and a number of foreign intelligence personnel were killed after being identified in those leaks. Yet somehow Epstein and Harvey Weinstein run rampant among our own soil, all with open secrets. Do you expect the police to just magically know that people are committing crime? The criminal investigation process usually begins with a police report (of someone reporting a crime). In the absence of a police report (as with the Epstein and Weinstein cases) the police have "no cause" to investigate absent some other mechanism that publicly reveals alleged crimes (like a news report). And on that note, in both of the cases you cited, prosecutors did try to investigate the rumors, but couldn't find anyone wiling to testify against those men until the scale of their crimes became public. Epstein was arrested and awaiting trial once his crimes became publicly known, and before he committed suicide was expected to face charges in multiple states and countries. Epstein became so toxic that multiple men known to have gone to Epstein's parties have faced social and financial repercussions for it. Melinda Gates famously divorced Bill because of his friendship with Epstein. Similarly, Weinstein was also arrested once his crimes became public and is facing charges in multiple states, was kicked out of every industry group, and essentially banished from his former life.
- tablespoon 5y ago
  > Snowden and Manning's leaks endangered the lives of US and foreign military and intelligence personnel, and a number of foreign intelligence personnel were killed after being identified in those leaks. Nitpick, but wasn't that only true of Manning? Assange irresponsibly put Manning's cables out in unredacted form, which I believe revealed the names of sources who were put in danger. IIRC, Snowden only leaked to Greenwald and a few mainstream newspapers who were careful to make redactions on what they released to avoid such outcomes.
fouric 5y ago
> Yet somehow Epstein and Harvey Weinstein run rampant among our own soil, all with open secrets. That's partially a product of the US justice system, which is among the more rigorous in the world, and tends to favor letting the guilty go free over punishing the innocent. This is a trade-off, not an objectively bad thing. Now, I would attribute the rest of those scenarios to plain-old corruption - which is a problem for every system of government without checks and balances (that are actually used).
zepto 5y ago
> Yet somehow Epstein and Harvey Weinstein run rampant among our own soil, all with open secrets. What are you talking about? Epstein died in jail, and Weinstein is currently in prison.

gamblor956 5y ago

Assange chose to remain in an embassy for years rather than face questioning (not even a trial) for the offenses alleged against him. Snowden and Manning's leaks endangered the lives of US and foreign military and intelligence personnel, and a number of foreign intelligence personnel were killed after being identified in those leaks. Yet somehow Epstein and Harvey Weinstein run rampant among our own soil, all with open secrets. Do you expect the police to just magically know that people are committing crime? The criminal investigation process usually begins with a police report (of someone reporting a crime). In the absence of a police report (as with the Epstein and Weinstein cases) the police have "no cause" to investigate absent some other mechanism that publicly reveals alleged crimes (like a news report). And on that note, in both of the cases you cited, prosecutors did try to investigate the rumors, but couldn't find anyone wiling to testify against those men until the scale of their crimes became public. Epstein was arrested and awaiting trial once his crimes became publicly known, and before he committed suicide was expected to face charges in multiple states and countries. Epstein became so toxic that multiple men known to have gone to Epstein's parties have faced social and financial repercussions for it. Melinda Gates famously divorced Bill because of his friendship with Epstein. Similarly, Weinstein was also arrested once his crimes became public and is facing charges in multiple states, was kicked out of every industry group, and essentially banished from his former life.

tablespoon 5y ago
> Snowden and Manning's leaks endangered the lives of US and foreign military and intelligence personnel, and a number of foreign intelligence personnel were killed after being identified in those leaks. Nitpick, but wasn't that only true of Manning? Assange irresponsibly put Manning's cables out in unredacted form, which I believe revealed the names of sources who were put in danger. IIRC, Snowden only leaked to Greenwald and a few mainstream newspapers who were careful to make redactions on what they released to avoid such outcomes.

fouric 5y ago

> Yet somehow Epstein and Harvey Weinstein run rampant among our own soil, all with open secrets. That's partially a product of the US justice system, which is among the more rigorous in the world, and tends to favor letting the guilty go free over punishing the innocent. This is a trade-off, not an objectively bad thing. Now, I would attribute the rest of those scenarios to plain-old corruption - which is a problem for every system of government without checks and balances (that are actually used).

zepto 5y ago

> Yet somehow Epstein and Harvey Weinstein run rampant among our own soil, all with open secrets. What are you talking about? Epstein died in jail, and Weinstein is currently in prison.