66 ms·

Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

• slowhadoken 2y ago
  It’s wild that Julian Assange is going to do five years in prison and Bush Jr and Dick Cheney are walking around free.
  • codezero 2y ago
    when was Snowden a head of state?
• stale2002 2y ago
  Crazy that this has gone on for so long.
  • pkaye 2y ago
    Most of that time was spend escaping the Swedish arrest warrant.
    • paulryanrogers 2y ago
      By narrow definitions of escape. He was essentially under house arrest, unable to leave the Ecuador embassy for years.
      • arp242 2y ago
        Or he could have just faced up to the charges... That house arrest was entirely self-imposed for the first five years or so.
        • ranger_danger 2y ago
          I don't think you understand what would have really happened if he did that, or where he would have really ended up.
          • DSingularity 2y ago
            A good chance dead.
          • arp242 2y ago
            [flagged]
            • beaeglebeachedd 2y ago
              Yeah the rape accusation timing, for which he was never convicted, was quite convenient wasn't it.
              • CRConrad 2y ago
                > for which he was never convicted Uh, what's this thread about, again...? He "was never convicted" because he evaded trial by hiding out for seven years.
          • fastball 2y ago
            I don't think you do either?
    • protocolture 2y ago
      I mean he was proven justified there, the grand jury having been in place secretly for ages.
  • ngetchell 2y ago
    Wasn't there a tape accusation as well? I don't see why it wouldn't be both.
• mikemitchelldev 2y ago
  What could he possibly do next (if he avoids a prison term)?
  • anigbrowl 2y ago
    Write a book, be an internet pundit
    • adventured 2y ago
      The Edward Snowden route more or less, with his own twists.
    • admissionsguy 2y ago
      > internet pundit public intellectual*
    • karmasimida 2y ago
      Set a podcast
  • rsingel 2y ago
    Get a gig with a Russian media outlet, again... See if Roger Stone has any work for him to do? See if GRU has any more deliveries it needs him to make? https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-the-russians-hacked-the-dnc-and-passed-its-emails-to-wikileaks/2018/07/13/af19a828-86c3-11e8-8553-a3ce89036c78_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-t...
    • rootusrootus 2y ago
      Yeah I was gonna say, there's all sorts of media opportunities on the right for him. He will be fine.
    • doubloon 2y ago
      oh how his fans are going to get an awful taste in their mouth when they realize which side he is on
• cyberlurker 2y ago
  Probably the best outcome that could be expected for all involved. What a bizarre story though. Even if it causes a chilling effect on future leakers it did not make the US government look better at all, from my view.
• m3kw9 2y ago
  So basically he done his time
  • tptacek 2y ago
    Yes, and voluntarily, at that.
    • ein0p 2y ago
      The Belmarsh thing wasn’t voluntary in the least
• tptacek 2y ago
  [flagged]
  • stale2002 2y ago
    [flagged]
    • rconti 2y ago
      is this supposed to read "_wasn't that_ the US was going to bring any charges at all?" Either way, I don't follow, but at least it would grammatically make more sense.
    • tptacek 2y ago
      In response to the last thread I participated on about Assange, 3 months ago, in which I predicted this outcome (which was easy to do, since it's been in the offing for like 6-9 months now), I was told that all these plea agreements were just a trick to get Assange onto US soil so they could execute him. Hey, maybe that could still be the case! They're flying him to the Northern Mariana Islands for the hearing, prior to releasing him in Australia. That could be where the disappearing happens. I don't know what this link is supposed to represent, beyond the fact that I've never been a supporter of Assange's, since long before the 2016 election shenanigans that cost him so much of his support among American nerds. I'm sure at some point I've said I didn't buy that he was a major prosecution target --- that was before I read the indictment that spelled out his conspiracy liability for computer intrusions, which, as it turns out, does make sense: you can't safely instruct people to hack into DoD computers any more than you can safely instruct henchmen to murder people in America. I'm not a lawyer, I read some stuff, I updated my take.
      • stale2002 2y ago
        [flagged]
        • tptacek 2y ago
          Could you maybe provide a more specific search through my comment history to make whatever point you're trying to make? Because "tptacek assange" isn't nearly enough, and I'm not going to do your archival research for you.
• h2odragon 2y ago
  https://archive.ph/eYe4G https://archive.ph/eYe4G
  • dang 2y ago
    (That's the NYT piece, for those keeping track. We merged https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40782258 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40782258 hither)
• java-man 2y ago
  Yes, let's spend 6 trillion dollars replacing Taliban with Taliban, and destroy the life of one foreigner just to make an example. And who was punished for killing journalists in [0]? The whistleblower. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007,_Baghdad_airstrike https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007,_Baghdad_airstri...
• xs83 2y ago
  [flagged]
  • tptacek 2y ago
    OK, we've just worked out the funniest thing Assange could do at this point.
    • CyberDildonics 2y ago
      What's funny about it?
  • Cody-99 2y ago
    Why are some many people here spouting conspiracies lol? Manning, his partner in crime, has been out of prison and living a normal life for years but Assange is going to get disappeared for some reason? If the US government wanted to keep him in a hole they could have not offered a plea deal and kept going through the extradition process in the UK (where he would have stayed in jail since he has a history of fleeing).
    • xs83 2y ago
      Number one reason is probably * gestures wildly at everything *
• ein0p 2y ago
  [flagged]
  • wmf 2y ago
    Fellas, is it "based" to become a mouthpiece for Russia?
    • M2Ys4U 2y ago
      For people who unironically use the word "based", yes.
    • ein0p 2y ago
      Is Snowden a “mouthpiece for Russia”? I don’t think he is. I don’t see why Assange would be either. I just don’t see how he’d be able to continue his work _anywhere_ in the West. We have so much “freedom” these days that we imprison foreign citizens on foreign soil and fabricate rape accusations against them.
    • Culonavirus 2y ago
      The real question you should be asking is if it's "based" to persecute your political opponents and whistleblowers to such a degree that they can only turn to the most ideologically opposed (and nuclear armed) country there is for "safety". I'm sure Snowden is REALLY HAPPY to live in Russia. Dare I say positively glowing. Ahem...
      • anigbrowl 2y ago
        I don't have a strong opinion about Snowden, but I do not think Russia was his only option by any means. From Wikipedia's article about US extradition treaties: The United States does not have an extradition treaty with China, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine, Vietnam, the GCC states, most African states, and most former Soviet states, among others. Some countries with US extradition treaties have refused to extradite includes: Ecuador, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Iceland, Pakistan, Egypt, Switzerland, Venezuela, Zimbabwe etc. There's also a map if you prefer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_extradition_treaties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_extradit... I can think of a lot of places I'd prefer to live besides Russia, while still offering a decent level of social/technological development.
• morkalork 2y ago
  [flagged]
  • westpfelia 2y ago
    [dead]
    • aaomidi 2y ago
      [flagged]
      • westpfelia 2y ago
        [flagged]
    • perihelions 2y ago
      Iraq, not Afghanistan; and it wasn't an ambulance—it was private vehicle with an uninvolved civilian, and two children. You can read one account of it here (from the PoV of one of the soldiers): http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/04/2007-iraq-apache-attack-as-seen-from-the-ground/ http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/04/2007-iraq-apache-att... We can't be a "beacon of democracy" so long as we're shooting children from helicopters, covering it up as "national security", and prosecuting journalists who disclose these things to the US public. Democracy is premised on its people understanding the things its government is doing in their name.
  • 9659 2y ago
    heard that he has a tax issue that he will be hit with as soon as he returns to the mother country.
    • ra 2y ago
      I think spending 12 years as a political prisoner will be enough to grant him some breathing space for that.
    • rsingel 2y ago
• 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
  > Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, agreed to plead guilty on Monday to a single felony count of illegally disseminating national security material
• faeriechangling 2y ago
  He was already effectively a political prisoner. The US made enough of an example of him I guess. Expose US war crimes and this will happen to you.
  • dralley 2y ago
    Much like Snowden, people attach to whatever the highest-profile thing they released was, and act like that's the only thing they released. It's not, it's just what got the most attention. It's maybe 0.5% of the portfolio if you're being generous. Both Snowden and Assange went far beyond "blowing the whistle" in what they leaked and/or solicited.
    • lupire 2y ago
      OK, so Snowden ann Assange deserve punishment. Where is the punishment for the people commiting the crimes and treason that Snowden and Assange exposed?
      • sanderjd 2y ago
        They deserve punishment too.
      • TacticalCoder 2y ago
        > Where is the punishment for the people commiting the crimes and treason that Snowden and Assange exposed? Other funny things have been exposed too and nothing ever happens. Like for example $12 billion, in hundred dollars bills, being send by a military cargo plane to Iraq, after the Iraq war. Of these $12 billion, $9bn are totally unaccounted for: it's not even clear if they ever made it to the plane. That is well documented. Just imagine the number of crooked politicians and military officials involved in such a highway robbery: robbing the people, to enrich themselves. "Which fraud are we going to commit today, we didn't steal enough money: we need to choke on more money, what's our plan?" "I know, I know, let's make $10 bn in hundred dollar bills disappear!" It is also very likely, but probably too soon to be exposed/revealed, that such similar shenanigans happened with SBF/FTX and the funding of the war in Ukraine, where monkey business happened with US donations that probably never made it to Ukraine. To me it's no coincidence that all the charges against SBF concerning the bribing of politicians have been dropped: that's quite the can of worms for it's certainly related to money which disappeared while supposedly going to Ukraine. Another really funny one too is the government refusing the audit of the (missing) gold in Fort Knox (yeah, no, if out of $12 bn we know that $9bn vanished, I guarantee you there's no way all the gold supposed to be in Fort Knox is there). "It's too complicated to do an audit". I read: "a sizeable amount of that gold indeed vanished, like those $10 bn in $100 bills". That's my main reason for wanting to pay as little taxes as possible: it makes me puke to know I encourage crime. Now although these traitors and petty thieves shall never ever be send to jail, at the end of the day there are more important things, like having a clear conscience and being able to look your kid in the eyes. So let these traitors choke on their ill-acquired wealth, they deserve to be the miserable cockroaches they are.
• boomboomsubban 2y ago
  How do plea deals work for precedent? As despite the constant claim that he was only being charged for assisting in hacking US computers, the plea deal is over violations of the Espionage Act specifically about receiving and publishing classified documents. Or basically his acts as a journalist. Can this be used to indict other journalists who receive and publish classified information? As if so, this feels like a huge loss, though I can hardly blame Assange for not continuing the fight.
  • tptacek 2y ago
    They don't. Generally: lower court decisions don't create binding precedent. Further: Assange wasn't simply charged with "receiving and publishing classified information"; he was charged with being instrumental in that information being exfiltrated in the first place.
    • boomboomsubban 2y ago
      "Generally" is one of those somewhat troubling terms on a case that has severe First Amendment implications, but that's good to know. >Further: Assange wasn't simply charged with "receiving and publishing classified information"; he was charged with being instrumental in that information being exfiltrated in the first place. Those charges were (presumably) dropped as part of the plea, and his plea did not mention them. The plea is only about receiving and publishing.
      • tptacek 2y ago
        The standing indictment at the time of the plea deal is very easy to find on Google. And the plea is not only about receiving and publishing; what I think you're not seeing is the explicitly enumerated "overt actions" you would have seen in a full trial, but those "overt actions" are the things that connected Assange to his criminal liability in this case. But the conspiracy charge is right there.
        • boomboomsubban 2y ago
• esnard 2y ago
  JULIAN ASSANGE IS FREE Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stanstead airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK. This is the result of a global campaign that spanned grass-roots organisers, press freedom campaigners, legislators and leaders from across the political spectrum, all the way to the United Nations. This created the space for a long period of negotiations with the US Department of Justice, leading to a deal that has not yet been formally finalised. We will provide more information as soon as possible. After more than five years in a 2x3 metre cell, isolated 23 hours a day, he will soon reunite with his wife Stella Assange, and their children, who have only known their father from behind bars. WikiLeaks published groundbreaking stories of government corruption and human rights abuses, holding the powerful accountable for their actions. As editor-in-chief, Julian paid severely for these principles,and for the people's right to know. As he returns to Australia, we thank all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom. Julian's freedom is our freedom. [More details to follow]
  • ironcurtain 2y ago
    [dead]
  • dang 2y ago
    That is the text of https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1805388007475732646 https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1805388007475732646, for those keeping track. (We merged that thread hither from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40782571 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40782571.) Other URLs from threads we merged: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-25/julian-assange-released-from-prison-/104017664 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-25/julian-assange-releas... https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/24/us/politics/assange-plea.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/24/us/politics/assange-plea.... https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crgggyvp0j9o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crgggyvp0j9o
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • 2y ago
• adolph 2y ago
  Assange was charged by criminal information — which typically signifies a plea deal — with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, the court documents say. What a waste of a life over a pointless and vindictive prosecution. Here’s hoping all prosecutors involved go the way of Stevens’ https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3663 https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedeta...
• kylehotchkiss 2y ago
  I'm curious if there are any Australia <-> USA deals here too, in terms of restrictions he may have upon arriving to AU
• anonymouse008 2y ago
  [flagged]
• ChrisNorstrom 2y ago
  They think their harrasment of him is going to deter future whistleblowers but the only thing they've done is encourage future leakers to "go all the way, leak everything no matter how damaging, and then kill yourself to be a martyr. They should have just pardoned him and let him go.
• required-field 2y ago
  [flagged]
• konfusinomicon 2y ago
  still no word of what happened to his beloved pet guinea pigs during his time at the Ecuadorian embassy.
  • seeknotfind 2y ago
    WebMD > "The average guinea pig lifespan is between five to eight years"
• bdjsiqoocwk 2y ago
  Assange freed, didn't have that on my bingo card.
• novacancy 2y ago
  I wonder what legal repercussions could follow from him "admitting" to have commited whatever they want him to admit
  • codezero 2y ago
    he has spent a long time resisting, what makes you think he's admitting to what "they" want him to admit to?
  • surfingdino 2y ago
    The article states what's going to happen. He'll be charged and immediately released, because he made a deal.
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• worstspotgain 2y ago
  I suppose this concludes the dark-comedic odyssey that began when he flew to Stockholm on 8/11/10 [1], just shy of 14 years later. In its totality it reads like something Kafka might have written as a teenager. Whether or not his work had any worth to it, it's hard not to conclude that he was a de-facto Russian agent, IMO. The most pungent data point is probably that Rohrabacher [2] was mediating a pardon deal between him and Trump. [3] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assange_v_Swedish_Prosecution_Authority https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assange_v_Swedish_Prosecution_... [2] https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/kevin-mccarthys-joke-trump-putin-six-years-later-rcna33680 https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/kevin-mc... [3] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/feb/19/donald-trump-offered-julian-assange-pardon-russia-hack-wikileaks https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/feb/19/donald-trump-o...
• vr46 2y ago
  Well that was all worth it
• tamimio 2y ago
  He is a legend and should inspire future whistleblowers. Both his leaks and trials exposed how corrupt the justice system is.
  • FireBeyond 2y ago
    What, by picking and choosing what content to release to push a political agenda? Like getting leaked data from the DNC and RNC and coordinating with the Trump campaign to time DNC leaks for maximum effect (I have no love for the DNC) while not releasing RNC content sent to you?
    • harry8 2y ago
      >What, by picking and choosing what content to release to push a political agenda? I think you've confused wikileaks with the new york times there. The times definitely pick and choose. I have seen no evidence that wikileaks suppressed anything ever. Link if you have it as that would make them more like the times.
      • FireBeyond 2y ago
        Fraid not: > Just before the stroke of midnight on September 20, 2016, at the height of last year’s presidential election, the WikiLeaks Twitter account sent a private direct message to Donald Trump Jr., the Republican nominee’s oldest son and campaign surrogate. > The messages show WikiLeaks, a radical transparency organization that the American intelligence community believes was chosen by the Russian government to disseminate the information it had hacked, actively soliciting Trump Jr.’s cooperation. Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/the-secret-correspondence-between-donald-trump-jr-and-wikileaks/545738/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/the-sec... > Candidate Donald Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and others in the Trump Organization received an email in September 2016 offering a decryption key and website address for hacked WikiLeaks documents, according to an email provided to congressional investigators. Source: https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/08/politics/email-effort-give-trump-campaign-wikileaks-documents/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/08/politics/email-effort-give-tr... > In the messages, WikiLeaks urged Trump Jr. to promote its trove of hacked Democratic emails and suggested that President Trump challenge the election results if he did not win, among other ideas. Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-jr-communicated-with-wikileaks-during-2016-campaign/2017/11/13/947e64d4-c8bb-11e7-aa96-54417592cf72_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-jr-comm...
• ggm 2y ago
  Politically shrewd for each of the 3 primary governments involved, removes the issue from the agenda. I'd say its zero-sum outcome for any player: as many people will be angry as happy he's freed. the point being it can't be weaponised as easily as having him in the cell. Sweden may differ of course. I don't think either of the 3 primaries care what Sweden thinks.
  • searealist 2y ago
    Sweden does as the US tells.
    • carlosjobim 2y ago
      The people downvoting your comment are ignorant on reality. It is common knowledge that Sweden has been used by the CIA as a black site. Sweden has been a satellite state to the US for a long time, just as other countries are or have been satellites of Russia. Edit: Your down votes do not change reality. More important countries than Sweden have been satellites, such as East and West Germany.
      • ted_bunny 2y ago
        Still waiting on the rebuttal to this. Own up or shut up.
      • impossiblefork 2y ago
        Sweden was not used as a black site. The US promised to not torture three guys who were handed over to them, and then started torturing them, illegally at Bromma airport, but this was restricted to things that they did not regard as torture, such as drugging people, putting things into their colons, use of 'restraints', etc. There were no black sites in Sweden. There was torture here, but only for one afternoon, on an airplane that soon left our territory.
        • mandmandam 2y ago
          > this was restricted to things that they did not regard as torture, such as drugging people, putting things into their colons What the fuck? Amazing I never heard about this, even doing my best to follow the 'extraordinary rendition' atrocities.
• funOtter 2y ago
  Why is this case located with the United States District Court For The Northern Mariana Islands?
  • cypherpunks01 2y ago
    The case is federal, it's not confined in jurisdiction. But the plea deal is being entered there because of "defendant’s opposition to traveling to the continental United States to enter his guilty plea and the proximity of this federal U.S. District Court to the defendant’s country of citizenship, Australia, to which we expect he will return at the conclusion of the proceeding" https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nmid.6473/gov.uscourts.nmid.6473.3.0.pdf https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nmid.64...
    • teractiveodular 2y ago
      Interesting. So he'll have to physically be present in the CNMI? Presumably he'll fly London-Tokyo-Saipan, since this is just about the only way to get there without transiting the US (including Hawaii).
      • cypherpunks01 2y ago
        Yes, he'll be in court in Saipan on Wednesday morning to enter the plea. Apparently he's already left London, according to WikiLeaks twitter account and other reports. Don't think he's flying coach though : )
      • martyvis 2y ago
        Apparently going via Bangkok. https://x.com/eevblog/status/1805402801658638356?t=NWDJGlqrIerPoKSVryAPtg&s=19 https://x.com/eevblog/status/1805402801658638356?t=NWDJGlqrI...
        • teractiveodular 2y ago
          Ah, it's a private jet (Bombardier Global 6000), not commercial aviation. Then again, after all he's been through, it would hardly be fair to subject Assange to the horrors of cattle class on United.
• sackfield 2y ago
  In an ideal world we would get to do a reverse investigation to understand which government officials were complicit in his very obviously politically motivated detention, action would be taken upon those individuals to ensure accountability, and the system itself would be updated so powerful interests can't abuse the law like this. How far are we from this world?
  • dboreham 2y ago
    Responsibility has to be pretty defuse, right? You can at least begin with all the presidents in office since he was prosecuted, until N-1 since presumably the Nth just released him.
    • sackfield 2y ago
      Diffusion of responsibility is definitely a defense in these cases, but the system should recognize this shortcoming and assign accountability (at least in an ideal world). Although I'm willing to bet that the true actors here weren't necessarily presidents (even though they would ultimately be accountable like you say). Would be interesting to see who demanded what and when.
      • ambicapter 2y ago
        Diffusion of responsibility comes from diffusion of power, which is an intended goal of many stable systems of government. Cuts both ways.
      • akira2501 2y ago
        It's not to lionize Assange, but these are almost crimes against humanity, they stole peoples tax dollars and then built a surveillance state used against the citizens. When that was revealed they then used the same tools to destroy a single human being for the purposes of creating a decade long chilling effect for anyone who might consider doing the same. There shouldn't be any diffuse responsibility for participating in this farce at any level. When the information was released the public never clamored for it to be investigated and for people to be hunted down and jailed for releasing it. It was entirely a captured administrative state claiming for itself rights it demonstrably never had, such as claiming a foreign national committed treason, or that he could be viewed as an "enemy combatant." To have gone along with this willingly deserves the same scrutiny we gave German officers at the end of WWII.
• chaoskitty 2y ago
  It amazes me that so many people care more about the act of whistleblowing, which informs us, the citizens, about what our governments are doing that's illegal, than about the illegal activities themselves. What does that say about those people? Are they easily led by emotion? They certainly don't care about the rule of law, if breaking the law by others can so easily be ignored. They aren't particularly patriotic, if they think that subverting the checks and balances in their preferred kind of government is fine. I'm glad this partiular episode will be finished soon.
  • tene 2y ago
    You've got it exactly right, many people in the US care far more about compliance with and respect for authority than they do about rule of law.
    • KobeQueef 2y ago
      [dead]
  • slg 2y ago
    >It amazes me that so many people care more about the act of whistleblowing... This is true in both directions and Assange is the perfect example of that. Someone being a whistleblower is not a get out of jail free card and there are still laws regarding how whistleblowing should be handled and what qualifies. Assange leaked a lot of important stuff that qualifies, but that wasn't all he leaked or did. A shockingly few number of people seem willing to engage this issue with the nuance that is requires and either label Assange a hero or a villain when he clearly is somewhere in between.
    • protocolture 2y ago
      I am not aware of anything he has leaked being problematic. In fact, the US couldnt demonstrate that he had lead to the death of any soldiers or spies. And in a lot of cases, the spying was certainly unjustified. I find it troubling that people dont have the nuance to identify that hes a bit of a smelly housemate and problematic manager but ultimately a clear net benefit to mankind.
• funkhouser 2y ago
  Hilarious that he was counting in Trump to get him released, but it wound up being under Biden. You can tell it’s election year for the USA. Probably hoping for a little extra PR from it all for being the Good Guys (tm)
  • senectus1 2y ago
    Trump was never going to release him. Assange was just a soundbite for him to dogwhistle.
    • funkhouser 2y ago
      Absolutely. Did you hear Trump recently saying he’d get Dread Pirate Roberts guy released or something like that? The silk road guy?
  • popularrecluse 2y ago
    Trump has caused more damage to U.S. intelligence interests than Assange ever did. Trump's unpunished actions make the prosecution of other violators look like pantomime.
• anarchy_matt 2y ago
  information should be free, exposing US war crimes shouldn't be illegal
  • sanderjd 2y ago
    I'm personally glad that the Allies were able to keep the information about their plans to land on the beaches in Normandy from "being free", in order to catalyze their victory in WWII. But I think, charitably, what people mean when they say things like this is that more information should be free. And I think agree with that. But I'm not entirely convinced it applies to everything Assange is responsible for releasing.
    • kobalsky 2y ago
      Does this qualify as some sort of variation of Godwin's law? Keeping war crimes classified until everyone responsible is dead is not the same as keeping plans secret during a war. Hard to mix those two up to the point I'd say it was done in bad faith.
      • fastball 2y ago
        The commenter you are replying to is not the one who mixed those things up. Julian Assange did that.
      • sanderjd 2y ago
        When you are talking about military secrets and making the unqualified assertion that information should be free, it is on topic to mention times when successfully keeping military secrets was critical for a better outcome of a conflict. It's also worthy of outrage when keeping secrets leads to monsters escaping accountability. But don't pretend it isn't the same thing! It would be very nice if all military secrets that get leaked were only of the "exposing war crimes" sort, but all that information is all mixed together with the "jeopardizing people and plans" information. It's just not this clear cut "leaking is always good because information should be free" thing that a lot of people want it to be. It also isn't the clear cut "people who leak information are bad" that a lot of other people want it to be. It's a mix of good and bad and the details matter.
• usernamed7 2y ago
  I never thought they had it in them. Never thought in a million years they'd let this go. It gives me some faith that the US govt. was able to move on from this. When democracy itself is at stake, this wins important favorability. Good on the biden administration. Less persecution of those that benefit society, more persecution of those that seek to undermine it, please.
  • DSingularity 2y ago
    Good on Biden? It was only Assange good fortunes that his bail hearing coincided with Biden polling so terribly that they were probably forced for release him. I’m sure they believe themselves to be hemorrhaging votes and unable to risk any more negative publicity with the left. So they decided they don’t want to receive him any more. Is that too cynical of a view? I mean this is an administration that is supplying the most destructive weapons to Israel so they can kill and dismember Palestinian women and children — what’s the freedom of one innocent man to such people?
    • rootusrootus 2y ago
      > coincided with Biden polling so terribly Do you think this helps Biden? Assange is a right winger, helping him out isn't likely to convince moderates to go for Biden.
      • DSingularity 2y ago
        Yeah. Avoiding the persistent enmity of the traditional liberal left — you know the anti war, pro freedom of speech crowd that used to represent the fundamentals of being liberal in the US — during the election cycle almost certainly helps Biden. Or do you think traditional liberals ripping Biden non-stop when most liberals are demoralized by everything happening is going to help Biden somehow? The only people who think this hurts Biden are people that think Clinton was a better liberal candidate than Bernie.
  • ranger_danger 2y ago
    Hopefully he will not have a mysterious accident not too long after returning home.
• wumeow 2y ago
  Kudos to the Biden administration for putting an end to yet another long running US boondoggle.
  • Ylpertnodi 2y ago
    Guantanamo should be next.
    • beaeglebeachedd 2y ago
      If you're referring the prison, no one will take most the people there, that's probably why it "can't" be closed. They should be released if they haven't been convicted by now... The question is to where?
• gettodachoppa 2y ago
  [flagged]
  • contingencies 2y ago
    Heh. Get ready to be proven wrong.
  • saalweachter 2y ago
    What dirt did Assange release on Hillary Clinton?
    • instagib 2y ago
      https://wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Democratic_National_Committee_email_leak https://wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Democratic_National_Committe... >The emails and documents showed that the Democratic Party's national committee favored Clinton over her rival Bernie Sanders in the primaries.[6] These releases caused significant harm to the Clinton campaign, and have been cited as a potential contributing factor to her loss in the general election against Donald Trump.[7]
      • throwawaythekey 2y ago
        The wiki article you are quoting from really buries the lede. To give one example in the debates there were plants in the audience to ask prearranged questions for Clinton. https://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/donna-brazile-hillary-clinton-leak-regret-236184 https://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/donna-brazile-hillary...
• cletus 2y ago
  So I have a couple of thoughts on this. For context, I'm a big fan of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. Julian Assange is... more interesting. Imagine you're a journalist and someone hands you a shoebox full of SD cards with classified materials including video evidence of war crimes. Most of us would agree it is the ethical thing to do to publish that and you're definitely a journalist. Now imagine you had a contact in the military with acccess to classified data. What if instead of simply receiving that information, you tell that person what you're interested in. Are you still a journalist? What if you procure tools for that person to bypass security procedures? What if you instruct them on methods they can smuggle out that information from a secure facility? Are you still a journalist? What if you run someone off the road so they have a car accident and they miss their shift and that person is in charge of facility security, making it easier for your contact to smuggle out classified materials? Are you still a journalist? This can go on and at some point you're no longer a journalist. My point is that Assange was allegedly more of an active participant in acquiring these materials so there's an argument to be made that he wasn't a journalist, legally speaking. But here's where I think Assange really hurt himself: by playing politics in selectively releasing the Podesta and DNC emails to try and sway the 2016 election. This demonstrated that Wikileaks is not, as it portrays itself, a vessel for unfiltered publication. This mattered in the court of public opinion because that's what would ultimately have to come to Assange's aid. Now make no mistake: the US government did what it set out to do, which was to create a chilling effect on journalism that exposed US government secrets. Assange has essentially spent 12 yaers in confinement between the Ecuadorian embassy and Belmarsh awaiting extradition.
  • dietr1ch 2y ago
    If only government secrets were just their grandma's recipes. Why do governments are given special treatment when some of their secrets are crimes that are disclosed too late to get anyone involved in a trial, and happened too long ago to do anything about it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r...
    • JackSlateur 2y ago
• hi-v-rocknroll 2y ago
  [flagged]
• hi-v-rocknroll 2y ago
  Never thought I'd live to see the day. After looking after his health and family, I hope he resumes interviews and podcasting. Today was a good day.
  • jtdev 2y ago
    [dead]
• stainablesteel 2y ago
  if everything written here actually happens, i suppose this is as satisfying an ending that everyone can get i really hope this man will be free. there's still a really bad precedent set that they will imprison you first, make you serve your term, then get your day in court to go free.. its a bit crooked and i really dont like this part of me thinks this is happening now because the presiding dominant western political establishment is losing power everywhere and they don't want the growing adversarial camp to hold freeing him as a victory while being able to set the precedent of his guilt to someday have in their back pocket the ability to do this again without the perceived unfairness
• MOARDONGZPLZ 2y ago
  > Julian's freedom is our freedom. A little too heavy handed. Yeah it seems like from the outside he was potentially overly punished, pending further details that may never materialize, but “his freedom is our freedom” is pretty extreme given what he did. He’s not relatable.
  • dmix 2y ago
    Yes the world is clearly a worse place because of Snowden, without him just imagine the true power the national security state could have achieved and how much safer we’d all feel.
    • georgeplusplus 2y ago
      I don’t know, did he really change really anything? It doesn’t feel like it at least. Outside of the tech community, he’s not really known except for being that guy who leaked things.
      • dmix 2y ago
        You don’t have to become a celebrity that every random person on the street knows to try to do some good in the world, whether it works or not. And objectively the internet is a safer place thanks to the Snowden NSA leaks which were directly inspired, not just ideologically but technically in how it was done, by Assange. You can look at the mass adoption of encrypted messaging and HTTPS adoption statistics (which grew exponentially directly after the leaks to become near standard), and plenty of other metrics to see that. Wikileaks was the spawn of many good things, even despite it’s flaws.
        • newzisforsukas 2y ago
          > You can look at the mass adoption of encrypted messaging and HTTPS adoption statistics (which grew exponentially directly after the leaks to become near standard), and plenty of other metrics to see that. I don't think increased TLS adoption was caused by Snowden or Wikileaks. It was because of the HTTP/2 protocol and Lets Encrypt taking off. You can read about that history here: https://opensource.com/business/16/8/lets-encrypt https://opensource.com/business/16/8/lets-encrypt According to Aas, they decided to start LetsEncrypt in 2012. Before Snowden leaked anything. Similarly, one could argue that encrypted messaging became popular because of the work done on projects like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NaCl_(software) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NaCl_(software) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisper_Systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisper_Systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp (which added "encryption" in August 2012).
• DSingularity 2y ago
  For those who don’t know the obvious reason behind his persecution is Wikileaks revealing embarrassing US secrets (re: embassy cables and Bradley/Chelsea Manning) and publishing IS war crimes in Iraq (re: collateral murder).
  • thallium205 2y ago
    And publishing DNC and Podesta emails.
  • Cody-99 2y ago
    Turns out taking an active role in breaking into government systems is a bad idea. The whole situation is funny because he would have been out years ago had he not done everything in his power to avoid a trial haha.
    • jiggawatts 2y ago
      Everybody keeps repeating this without actually knowing specifically what his "crime" was. Here it is: He was sent a Windows NT password hash, he ran hashcat over it, couldn't successfully reverse it, and gave up. That's it. Prosecuting him for this "heinous crime against the state" has cost US and UK taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. At the time of this "crime" occurring he was not physically in the USA, not a citizen of the USA, and hence not subject to its laws. Unless you think the USA is the world government and can police anyone, anywhere, for anything? A link to the "tools of the crime": https://github.com/hashcat/hashcat https://github.com/hashcat/hashcat
      • Cody-99 2y ago
        >He was sent a Windows NT password hash, he ran hashcat over it, couldn't successfully reverse it, and gave up. Yeah..? He played an active role with his conspirator lol. He doesn't pretend to be some fool who accidentally got involved so there is no reason for you to do so on his behalf by trying to deny his crimes. >At the time of this "crime" occurring he was not physically in the USA, not a citizen of the USA, and hence not subject to its laws. An abused claim. Plenty of Russian hackers aren't US citizens or in the US when they commit credit card fraud or launch ransomware attacks but obviously they are still able to be charged under US law (or the law of any country they attack). And no one can seriously argue otherwise. Sitting in a different jurisdiction doesn't mean you can't be charged with a crime. For example, the South American drug lord isn't free to traffic drugs into Europe just because he isn't in Europe or a European citizen. That would be stupid and isn't how the world works. >Unless you think the USA is the world government and can police anyone, anywhere, for anything? US law can apply to the whole world if the US wants to enforce it (and so do most countries for plenty of crimes like cybercrime, terrorism, money laundering). >Prosecuting him for this "heinous crime against the state" has cost US and UK taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. I mean sure; trying any person for a crime cost money. Not really relevant.
• animanoir 2y ago
  [flagged]
  • munificent 2y ago
    > when USA is convicted What does it mean to convict a country? Do all of its citizens serve jail time, proportioned out by how much taxes they paid?
    • animanoir 2y ago
      don't take it literally, my friend, tho you understand the point (hopefully).
      • munificent 2y ago
        I truly do not. I understand the desire for justice, but I honestly don't even know what "justice" means when the actor involved is a state. This is, I think, one of the fundamental challenges of the modern world. We've gotten so good at building huge organizations of people (states, corporations, etc.) that can harness the efforts of thousands or millions of people. But the result incredibly powerful entity has a diffusion of responsibility that confounds our notions of morality, right, wrong, and justice, which were all developed under the assumption that the primary actor is a person.
        • Davidzheng 2y ago
          But isn't the problem that the state produces so much good as well as the bad. If the moral scale were so clear-cut, then being a state or not does not really excuse at all. Many people can image what justice can be for ISIS or Nazi germany for example. It is maybe a similar question as when you ask how should Google, Apple, or Amazon be punished when they violate laws/behave in bad faith.
          • munificent 2y ago
            > But isn't the problem that the state produces so much good as well as the bad. Yes, that's definitely part of the problem. How do you evaluate the overall goodness of an organization that does thousands of things, some helpful, some harmful?
• zogrodea 2y ago
  Am I the only one who feels suspicious about this and would hesitate to trust the persecuters? Maybe that's not a entirely a reasonable reaction (I just woke up about 10 minutes ago) but it's how I feel currently and I'm wondering if anyone else would feel the same. The U.S. as a national entity certainly isn't above lying, as leaks regarding them have shown.
  • wmf 2y ago
    This isn't really between the US and Assange; it's between the US and UK. If the US doesn't honor the rules for extradition then the UK may decide not to extradite people in the future.
    • deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    • throwawaythekey 2y ago
      The UK have already heavily bent (broken) the extradition rules in the favor of the US. I don't think the UK will mind as long as it doesn't cause public uproar. Most notably, the UK-US extradition treaty, which has exemptions for political offenses (e.g. espionage), has been found not to apply. This article is decent https://theconversation.com/julian-assange-how-british-extradition-law-works-224703 https://theconversation.com/julian-assange-how-british-extra..., but from the middle of the trial. Craig Murray's blog is also a good source of info.
  • colimbarna 2y ago
    In addition to the UK, it's almost certain that this had high level political influence between Australia's prime minister and the US president. I don't think the perspective that the US would be willing to damage their relations with Australia and the UK over this especially while the US is Considering the lengths Assange has gone to to avoid entering US custody, I think he's weighed up the ability to trust the US on this one with probably more information than we have.
• pharos92 2y ago
  This entire case was a catastrophic show of hand in how the justice systems across the west have been weaponized and used against the values it proclaims to protect.
  • sambazi 2y ago
    and the closure is likely a timed gesture to reinforce the point that those values are indeed still there and worth defending
• nemo44x 2y ago
  Considering he served 12 or so years I’m not sure he won anything. But it’s great he’s free, or it sounds like.
  • tivert 2y ago
    > Considering he served 12 or so years I’m not sure he won anything. He didn't serve 12 years. He locked himself in his room for 7, then he actually served 5.
    • nemo44x 2y ago
      I think that qualifies. 12 years of no freedom. Happy he finally gets to move on with his life. A real brave journalist who actually spoke truth to power.
      • tivert 2y ago
        > I think that qualifies. 12 years of no freedom. It absolutely does not quality. Being on the lam is obviously not the same as serving time in custody. You can only sum up to 12 by making false equivalencies and ignoring important differences. It reeks of having a self-serving preordained conclusion (or being downstream from one) then distorting everything until it fits.
• andy_ppp 2y ago
  He must be enemy number one for a lot of states who want to make the US look sub human and engage in conspiracies.
• jeswin 2y ago
  Julian Assange's years of torment (14 years, which in many countries exceeds the length of parole eligibility for a life sentence) affected how I viewed the world and my political leaning. It wasn't clear how what he did wasn't journalism. Daniel Ellsberg who was bound by US laws didn't suffer like this; and Assange is not even a US citizen. Remember the people who didn't stand by him: The entire left. Most European Governments, who were collaborating in a decade of torture; that he had to be protected by Ecuador is an utter shame. Of course WaPo, NYT, et al. Now every time I hear a high pitched social justice squeal from these folks, I realize that it's selective and merely self-serving. Sorry, political rant because this is a political topic.
  • Davidzheng 2y ago
    Yeah it's absolutely insane how the American left depicted him. Admittedly controversial in discretion of disclosure and some election related effects--but to view your own political agenda above morality and their ostensible caring of human rights and war crimes just shows the depth of the hypocrisy. (Obviously American right wing is no better...)
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • forgotmypwlol 2y ago
    You’re confusing Liberals for the left. Virtually the entire left that I’m aware of has championed his cause around the world, including in America. Think Chomsky and Democracy Now, not Jake Tapper and the NYT.
  • kasey_junk 2y ago
    I don’t have a strong opinion on Assange’s initial actions but a big chunk of his “years of torment” were a legal tactic on his part. A legal tactic that appears to have worked! He could have engaged with the various legal processes being held against him, but he chose extra-legal protests instead. None of us know if that approach is better or worse than what he did, but this wasn’t torment without agency. It was a direct outcome of his own choices.
• epa 2y ago
  I hope he takes his future security seriously. They are always around the corner.
• whoitwas 2y ago
  Can someone who has an accurate source post when Wikileaks cryptographic canary expired? I'm unable to find a source and it's important to know they shouldn't be trusted. Here's when their key expired in 2007: https://wikileaks.org/wiki/WikiLeaks_talk:PGP_Keys https://wikileaks.org/wiki/WikiLeaks_talk:PGP_Keys From another below: vikingerik A canary goes something like "This website has not received or acted on any government orders to disclose or modify or remove material." When they ever do, then they remove that notice. The government enforcement usually includes a gag order prohibiting the target from saying that they're under orders, so the intent is that you can infer government gag pressure by the canary having been removed. Wikileaks used to have such a notice and no longer does, so we assume government enforcement is why.
  • Sephr 2y ago
    I remember at the time that it expired, all of the moderators on their official subreddit also got replaced. The insurance file also got changed out at some point as the hash changed.
    • vintermann 2y ago
      The wikileaks subreddit was never official, and it was a train wreck. Two very dodgy Trump supporters "volunteered to help with the increased traffic" around the time of the Podesta releases and basically took over.
      • random6754478 2y ago
        Didn’t those Podesta leaks turn out to be legitimate?
        • vintermann 2y ago
          Absolutely, but that doesn't mean the "volunteering" moderators weren't super-sleazy.
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
• RcouF1uZ4gsC 2y ago
  > Court documents revealing Assange's plea deal were filed Monday evening in U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean. Assange was expected to appear in that court and to be sentenced to 62 months, with credit for time served in British prison, meaning he would be free to return to Australia, where he was born. I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. He is appearing in US territory before a US judge who is actually under any obligation to honor the plea deal. The judge could reject the plea deal and remand him to custody or sentence him to US prison.
  • throwup238 2y ago
    IANAL but the judge can't both reject the plea deal and sentence him, since rejecting the plea deal invalidates the guilty plea. Rejecting it and remanding him to custody would cause a diplomatic incident. He's not out of the woods yet by any means, but if they reached a deal his lawyers are confident in, I wouldn't be worried about the judge. They are supposed to deffer to international law if US is a party to the treaties involved (which in the case of extradition, it is).
    • aixpert 2y ago
      The history of Assange is the history of diplomatic incidents, in that sense rejecting the plea deal would not be out of the ordinary
      • deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
      • smegger001 2y ago
        yeah we weren't supposed to force the plane carrying the president of Ecuador to land so we could search it for Assange yet we did that anyway.
    • mike_d 2y ago
      > Rejecting it and remanding him to custody would cause a diplomatic incident. Why would it be a diplomatic incident? When you are a fugitive from justice taking a plea deal is always a gamble because you have to show up in court. Should the judge reject your deal, you are handed over to US Marshals pending a new court date. Edit: downvote all you want, it doesn't change facts. There is a separation of powers between the prosecutor who is negotiating the extradition/plea and the judge who independently evaluates the agreement.
• nabla9 2y ago
  Despite what his defenders claim, he went beyond journalism and actively engaged in process to obtain and disclose national defense information. Now he will pledge guilty for that.
  • MrVandemar 2y ago
    > Despite all his defenders, he went beyond journalism and actively engaged in process to obtain and disclose national defense information. "National Defence Information" ... is that what we're calling "War Crimes" these days?
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • superkuh 2y ago
    False. What they are charging him with is a brief speculative chat discussion about potentially having Manning provide the hash of a password to Assange to help crack it. But this discussed behavior never actually happened and was never referenced by them again. That's the conspiracy charge they indicted Assange for. If you don't believe me then read https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-charged-18-count-superseding-indictment https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wikileaks-founder-julian-assa... . If you say that's too long to read then just read the last 4 paragraphs. They've bent over backwards to charge him here over something that literally did not happen and was only discussed as an option in passing. If they had anything else to charge him with they would. But they don't and rely on people like you propagating falsehoods.
    • deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    • nabla9 2y ago
      True according to Assange himself. Keep up with the events.
      • superkuh 2y ago
• keepamovin 2y ago
  Congratulations! I share in the popular jubilation and sense of epoch-making reconciliation, that aligns with the stars, even tho I think Assange acted like an egotistical fool who squandered the great lens of transparency and accountability he had created through misjudged self-importance and vulnerability to manipulation by his sources for their own ends. Hopefully his Second Act brings good fruits without the thorns and rot of the previous ages. Good luck to him!
  • keepamovin 2y ago
    53 points and counting
  • drekipus 2y ago
    Yes, we should whip him for not having a level head when the entire US government is against him. Someone like you and I would have been sure to keep humble and not be egotistical when seeking asylum and fair justice against an entity that has military bases all over the world
    • keepamovin 2y ago
      Well you don't know what I would do (except for what I'm saying here where you can see I wouldn't do what he did! haha), but I understand if you're speaking for yourself. I think precisely in that situation is when you need that kind of ability. But I wouldn't say we should whip him! Again speaking for yourself I suppose hahahahahaha! :)
      • radu_floricica 2y ago
        I don't know there's a teapot on Mars either. But it's an easy guess.
        • keepamovin 2y ago
          The silence and arrogance of the HN COMMENTARIAT makes this point unwinnable for you. You miss a key emotional boundary: to cannot know. You dismiss just undermines by revealing lack of empathy
• skilled 2y ago
  YES!!!!!!!!!! REJOICE!!!!!!!!!!! Woooo!!! This is incredible news to wake up to.
• blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
  The fact that he has to plead guilty even to one charge is so disappointing and also inconsistent. Assange just published others’ leaks. This is just journalism right? Would the NYT or WaPo get in trouble for publishing leaked private information? For example recently with Trump’s tax returns. The way Assange has been vilified and confined and threatened is disgusting. Still, I hope he finds happiness and peace.
• udev4096 2y ago
  I think the pressure from the Australian government had to do a lot with this good news[0][1]. 0. https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=chamber/hansardr/27604/&sid=0139 https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansar... 1. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/10/politics/biden-assange-australia/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/10/politics/biden-assange-au...
  • yawnxyz 2y ago
    Wow. When I was in Sydney I was surprised at how many protests around there were about Julian Assange... didn't really understand why they cared about him or the US. Guess that worked?
    • largbae 2y ago
      He is Australian right?
      • gklitz 2y ago
        [flagged]
        • dspearson 2y ago
          How can you commit treason against a foreign country?
          • sofixa 2y ago
            From a another foreign country too. It's pretty similar to the US claiming jurisdiction over Ukrainians running torrent websites from Ukraine. Or over random Afghanis who share their first name (something extremely unique like Omar or Abdul or Mohamed) with a supposed terrorist, enough to kidnap to torture them.
          • rvnx 2y ago
            If it's a foreigner it's possible, but it's called espionage or conspiracy
• strathmeyer 2y ago
  [flagged]
  • largbae 2y ago
    Sarcasm? I hope?
    • cornholio 2y ago
      [flagged]
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
• trustno2 2y ago
  Can he now go join Snowden in Moscow?
• jillesvangurp 2y ago
  Good, this was getting majorly embarrassing for all countries still involved with this legal mess. The man dying in prison stuck in legal limbo without any conviction whatsoever (innocent until proven guilty and all that) would have been a PR disaster for the UK. And of course there's also the issue that the UK is very likely to get a new government that would have likely been leaning to just letting the man go in any case. At least the current Labour leader strikes me as a decent man with some actual principles and backbone and this would fundamentally be a decent thing to do. This would have been embarrassing for the US. One country doing something decent and calling another out on the whole indecency of the whole case. Not a good look after a decade plus of legal limbo with no end in sight. And of course the man actually being extradited (as unlikely as that would have been at this point) would just refocus the attention on all the embarrassing things that Wikileaks actually leaked that have caused this whole vindictive attitude towards Assange. All that stuff being rehashed in court rooms and the media for months on end was not going to end well. So, the US grudgingly finally doing the right thing via a plea deal seems like a good face saving compromise that just ends this now.
  • tetris11 2y ago
    > At least the current Labour leader strikes me as a decent man with some actual principles and backbone and this would fundamentally be a decent thing to do. (massive sidetrack, but I can't let this sentence go unpunished) The current labour leader is the lamest duck in a group of wet blankets. His policies revolve around not being as corrupt as the Tories whilst doing virtually nothing else to better his constituents. His backbone has a restitution coefficient somewhere in the Oort cloud.
    • davedx 2y ago
      Labour just said they’ll enforce the warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest. You find that lacking backbone?
      • locallost 2y ago
        Starmer has absolutely no opinions on anything other than not rattling the cage of conservative voters. This makes him broadly acceptable, but long term nobody is truly supporting him.
• csours 2y ago
  The enemy of my enemy ... is an asshole.
• yobid20 2y ago
  [flagged]
  • averageRoyalty 2y ago
    By the laws of a country he's never been to? Your comment actually violates the laws of my micronation. Please come here and face summary execution.
• aredox 2y ago
  [flagged]
• AlexCoventry 2y ago
  Is there any risk that he could face further charges in Australia?
  • threeseed 2y ago
    He broke no laws in Australia. But the fact he is pleading guilty to a serious crime will have further implications for his life e.g. preventing travel, not allowed to apply for certain jobs etc.
    • londons_explore 2y ago
      The fact his name is assange already makes him ineligible for a bunch of things, and his connections and popularity already open lots of doors for him that aren't open for you and I. I think he'll be fine.
      • SuperNinKenDo 2y ago
        I doubt he'll ever be fine after what he's been through.
      • closewith 2y ago
        I think most likely his life is already over and he's being allowed to return to remaining years of psychological and physical ordeal following an experience most of us have no context to imagine. I'm glad he's going home to his family, but this is a least-worst outcome to an awful miscarriage of justice that destroyed many lives.
  • yzydserd 2y ago
    The Australian government brokered the deal [0] after their parliament voted for him to be freed [1] [0] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/apr/10/biden-assange-espionage-charges https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/apr/10/biden-assange-... [1] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/14/australian-mps-pass-motion-urging-us-and-uk-to-allow-julian-assange-to-return-to-australia https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/14/austr...
• sharpshadow 2y ago
  Wow that's the greatest news of this year! Congrats Julian!
• jesterson 2y ago
  That's something to drink to - tomorrow. Still can't believe US/UK government thugs would just let him go after torturing in prison 15 years for something every journalist out there should be doing.
• ryan_lane 2y ago
  [flagged]
  • belter 2y ago
    "How Swedish authorities falsified the rape complaint against Julian Assange" - https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000114363431/wie-die-schwedischen-behoerden-die-vergewaltigungsanzeige-gegen-julian-assange-faelschten https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000114363431/wie-die-schwe...
    • jamespo 2y ago
      Blog piece. What he did is known as "stealthing" and it strangely doesn't address that at all?
      • iamtedd 2y ago
        > What he is alleged to have done FTFY
        • jamespo 2y ago
          If only this could have been decided in something known as a "trial".
          • iamtedd 2y ago
            The Swedish prosecutors dropped the case. Evidently, they didn't think they had enough evidence to bring it to trial. That's the way it goes sometimes. Not all cases are strong enough to allow justice to be done. That doesn't mean we can then say that he definitely did what people were accusing him.
            • joshuamorton 2y ago
              > Evidently, they didn't think they had enough evidence to bring it to trial. I believe he basically hid in the Ecuadorian embassy until the statute of limitations ran out.
• light_triad 2y ago
  The whole saga is an interesting lesson in how a noble cause can end up helping anti-democratic forces. Assange gave the public invaluable information that would not have been know otherwise, but he ended up playing right into the hands of the people who wanted to discredit Clinton. Politics is complicated.
  • DaoVeles 2y ago
    Road to hell is paved with good intentions.
  • webninja 2y ago
    Yes, and politics is not about supporting only one side either. If transparency makes for more informed decisions, who’s to judge the better outcome? Meritocracies die in darkness and evidence of corruption scares lots of voters away. Especially the unaffiliated/independent ones that decide elections.
    • bandrami 2y ago
      Weird that he had the hacked emails of two political parties in the US and only released one of them, then
      • lukan 2y ago
        Are there sources for this?
        • bandrami 2y ago
          Both the Mueller report[1] and the Senate report[2]. There is apparently some question whether Wikileaks even got the RNC data and didn't release it or just didn't bother asking for it in the first place[3]. Assange himself has discussed why he was only interested in hurting the Democratic party in the US[4]. 1: https://www.justice.gov/archives/sco/file/1373816/dl https://www.justice.gov/archives/sco/file/1373816/dl 2: https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/docu... 3: https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/12/10/report-russian-hackers-had-rnc-data-but-didn-t-release-it https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/12/10/report-russi... 4: https://theintercept.com/2018/02/14/julian-assange-wikileaks-election-clinton-trump/ https://theintercept.com/2018/02/14/julian-assange-wikileaks...
• DaoVeles 2y ago
  All around my neighborhood is the graffiti of "Free Assange, Oz hero". Just this morning I saw a large amount of it in a new place. Was thinking "I really hope one day it happens but I am doubtful". And then I just saw this... wow! I am so glad to be wrong, to see my pessimistic side be completely wrong. Julian is free!
  • noahlt 2y ago
    What part of the world is your neighborhood in?
    • bryanrasmussen 2y ago
      I'm thinking OZ hero implies Australia.
      • fsckboy 2y ago
        we're certainly not in Kansas, at least not any more!
        • hoyd 2y ago
          :-)
      • oska 2y ago
        It's actually quite rare for Australians to refer to Australia as Oz, at least in my experience. Seems to be much more a thing in the US and, to a much lesser extent, the UK. If that graffiti were written in Australia, I think it would be far more likely written as 'Aussie hero'.
        • RoyalHenOil 2y ago
          I am from the US originally, and I literally never heard anyone call Australia "Oz", and didn't even know what it meant, until I moved to Australia. Americans — at least all the ones I encounter — are almost always confused by the designation (they think you're making a reference to The Wizard of Oz). I think that's because "Oz" comes from "Aussie", which Americans mispronounce (they say something like "ossy" rather than "ozzy"). It's uncommon for Australians to say "Oz" in my experience, but it's still definitely a thing (albeit mostly in ads/marketing rather than daily speech). And even the ones who never say it still know what it means. I don't know what people say in the UK because I have never been there.
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• DaSexiestAlive 2y ago
  whatever happened to the r--- allegations from Sweden, I understand that Sweden has dropped the charges but.. can we get some closure about that as interested followers of this entire saga? Hope that's not too much to ask..
  • chgs 2y ago
    He fled and let the statute of limitations expire. His excuse was Sweden might extradite him to the US, but the UK wouldnt.
    • ChrisKnott 2y ago
      > Sweden might extradite him to the US, but the UK wouldnt An excuse that was always made zero sense. It later emerged that at the time of the Swedish investigation, there was no indictment from the US.
      • lukan 2y ago
        And you do not think, that would have changed the minute, he was in jail in sweden?
        • blitzar 2y ago
          > but the UK wouldnt The UK routinely extradites people to the US (and facilitated extraordinary renditions from UK soil). The claim he could not leave the UK for fear of being extradited to the US was always a nonsensical lie.
          • lukan 2y ago
            I did not comment on that. But it seems he was right that he was in fact not extradited to the US after all while being in the UK. (there was no claim that the UK does not extradict to the US in general, but in this specific case they might not)
• dav43 2y ago
  The lack of support and lack of agitation by the Australian Government on both sides of parliament is a testament to how bad Australian politics is. He was an Australia citizen left out to dry. Disgraceful.
  • damsalor 2y ago
    Aus can hardly antagonize us/uk
    • m0llusk 2y ago
      Australia is a long time critical ally of the US that has accumulated significant political and social capital and can expect any requests to be considered seriously.
    • iamtedd 2y ago
      Don't help our own citizens in trouble, in case we offend a foreign country?
      • 2a0c40 2y ago
        Depends on the foreign country. It's the US, so yes.
        • onethought 2y ago
          Just go look up former prime minister Julia Gillard address US congress. I cringe every time I rewatch. (Then again thanks to Wikileaks we now know US were “assessing” whether Gillard would be a good replacement to Rudd a year before it all happened… so I guess that made her a fan!
      • coldtea 2y ago
        It's not just a foreign country, it's their boss.
      • Qwertious 2y ago
        Our core military strategy is to suck up to naval superpowers in hopes they'll include us in their own defense strategy. It's sound policy, but it means that ultimately we can't afford to piss them off.
• penguin_booze 2y ago
  Good for him, and I'm glad he's out. But this remains a lesson to whistleblowers: "we. will. make. you. suffer". At least he's alive.
  • bandrami 2y ago
    What whistle did he blow?
    • bandrami 2y ago
      Weird how many people could downvote this and how few people could give an example of him blowing a whistle on something
• zpeti 2y ago
  Now do Snowden.
• budududuroiu 2y ago
  I'm happy that he's been freed from Belmarsh because being locked up for 5 years without a conviction is madness. However, I won't cheer for Assange, the person. He's using the guise of impartial journalism to be anything but impartial. His selective disclosure of leaks, with a heavy bias towards NOT disclosing Russian caches, is pretty damning. Assange was shouting from the rooftops that WikiLeaks "doesn't have targets", but at the same time chose to focus on the DNC campaign leaks and decline to publish 2016 caches showing Russian involvement in Ukraine, and Wikileaks declined to publish documents revealing a 2 billion euro transaction between Syrian regime and a Russian bank. WikiLeaks also handed information on Belarusian dissidents to the Lukashenko regime. Not to mention the infamous leaks of Taliban informants details, to which Assange was quoted saying: "Well, they're informants, so if they get killed, they've got it coming to them. They deserve it.", as well as the 2015 Saudi leaks which revealed the virginity status of multiple Saudi women, several Saudis suffering from HIV as well as being arrested for being gay. The level of care and privileges he's had while being imprisoned weren't afforded to the many Afghan informants, Belarusian dissidents and the LGBTQ members in Saudi that he's exposed. (TL;DR - if Assange was on modern Twitter, I bet he'd be a Assad-loving, anime-pfp-displaying, Putin-bootlicking tankie)
  • dindobre 2y ago
    Couldn't have said it better
  • mardifoufs 2y ago
    What's your point? That journalism is biaised? Sure! The important part was that it uncovered important stuff. Saying "what about the Russian documents!!" Is just that, whatboutism
• beardyw 2y ago
  Also here; Julian Assange leaves UK after striking deal with US justice department https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jun/25/julian-assange-plea-deal-with-us-free-to-return-australia https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jun/25/julian...
• gorgoiler 2y ago
  In the centenary year of Kafka’s death.
• impossiblefork 2y ago
  This isn't something good though, in fact it's really bad. He's actually agreed to confess to something which the US should have no legal authority over. We must remember that the US are torturers who tortured people here in Sweden, right at Bromma airport, even after specifically agreeing not to torture them. It is not a country which should have any influence whatsoever outside its borders; and this is someone who exposed very severe crimes and who had no duty whatsoever to keep any US defence information secret.
  • RCitronsBroker 2y ago
    I wholeheartedly agree. Thank you for caring. Sincerely, an afghan.
    • impossiblefork 2y ago
      [flagged]
      • RCitronsBroker 2y ago
        this feels like a mistype. if it’s not, unfortunately there isn’t much afghan culture left at this point, at least the lovely parts. blown to bits and driven into diaspora, infested with the drug trade and extremism to cope with the state of their country and lives. we still love to be hosts and cook for people tho, so there’s that. My heart still aches for a future where at least the poppies are of the pharmaceutical thebaine-kind. Things are downright horrible atm.
        • impossiblefork 2y ago
          No. Obviously you regard Afghan culture as something valuable and good, since you're from there, but I see culture as tree, and if it has bad outcomes, I regard the branch that produced the poisoned tree as a poison tree. Then it's a matter of how far one wants to backtrack, and I suppose that's how much one cares about other aspects of the fruit. I think much of the problem is Islam + Central Asia/Mongols/steppe conquests, and I think either is bad enough on its own.
• bitcharmer 2y ago
  [flagged]
  • closewith 2y ago
    No, the damage is done and this is a better deterrent than if they'd killed him. Now any journalist knows that if they annoy the wrong people, they could have their lives and family completely destroyed right out in public and all done perfectly "legally".
    • martin_a 2y ago
      I think this is the most important part of this whole story. They (as in "the US government") will get you _anywhere_ and destroy your life if they think it's the right thing to do. And you can't expect any other government to stand in their way (except for those you probably don't want to interact with).
      • dom96 2y ago
        Not anywhere, Snowden managed to evade them.
        • jangxx 2y ago
          I haven't heard anything about him in a while, I assume he's still living in exile in Russia? In which case, yes, he might have evaded the US, but he still gave up a lot of his freedom in return.
        • dns_snek 2y ago
          Physically, yes. But his life was unlawfully destroyed and his choices are narrowed down to an ideologically hostile territory that'll keep him alive, and a hostile territory that will torture him to death if he ever leaves the former.
        • jonathanstrange 2y ago
          At a high price, though. Contrary to how this is sometimes portrayed to discredit it him, Snowden never intended to end up in Russia, and now he's forced to collaborate with a regime he undoubtedly despises. And he can never leave again.
• Rakshith 2y ago
  is this Biden campaign move because they know they have literally nothing to sell people to?
  • corinroyal 2y ago
    Sentences start with a capital letter.
• preisschild 2y ago
  [flagged]
  • LAC-Tech 2y ago
    They're not my enemies?
    • lannisterstark 2y ago
      Russian government isn't? That says more about you than anybody else.
      • exoverito 2y ago
        To be fair the American government acts like an enemy to most of its people too.
      • LAC-Tech 2y ago
        Yeap. Neither is Iran. They're someone elses enemy, not mine.
        • lannisterstark 2y ago
          They'll be your enemies if you're the "wrong" kind of person as soon as you step on their soil. Hope it helps, because it doesn't to millions of people living in their regimes. Authoritarianism apologia is wild.
          • LAC-Tech 2y ago
            No Persian government agents have ever come to my country to try and fraudulently steal a passport from a man with cerebal palsy. Israeli ones have though.
            • lannisterstark 2y ago
              Yet. Not to mention you sidestepped the entire conversation. It sucks for their own people. Their own govt is their enemy - we should be standing next to them, not going "oh yeah you're oppressors of your own people but in my book you're cool because I dislike my own country/Israel/West" or whatever the new excuse is.
• richrichie 2y ago
  Not sure how many at HN saw the Apache gunship mowing down civilians and journalists with cannon fire. Assange did a great service to shine light on the barbarians in action under the guise of saving freedom and democracy and paid a heavy price.
  • secondcoming 2y ago
    I saw it. I also saw the scores of other Apache videos mowing down legitimate targets (people launching rockets and mortars from vehicles)
    • dewey 2y ago
      What are you trying to do with that comparison?
    • richrichie 2y ago
      There is such a thing as war crime. US may be exempt at this moment, but things will change. They always do.
• preisschild 2y ago
  [flagged]
  • sofixa 2y ago
    Not everything is russian propaganda. A lot of the internet is, but them getting it right one time, or WikiLeaks and russian state assets having the same goals for a period of time, or russian propaganda getting a boost out of WikiLeaks does not mean WikiLeaks is russian propaganda. If the US didn't want to fuel russian propaganda with crimes against humanity, they shouldn't have fucking committed crimes against humanity. If this is about the emails story, blame the lapses in security on the people responsible for them, and the incompetent candidate that got tanked with that.
    • mrighele 2y ago
      Wikileaks turned down leaks on russian government to focus on Hillary Clinton. To me it seems more than just having the same goals for a period of time.
    • af78 2y ago
      Russia Today is absolutely, 100% propaganda. Raising awareness about government surveillance is a laudable goal but it does not seem to be that of Wikileaks. How does publishing Clinton's or Macron's campaign e-mails reveal anything about government surveillance? Unlike most human right groups, for example, that cover human rights abuses no matter who the abuser is, Wikileaks consistently acts in ways that further the cause of Russia and maximize the damage done to adversaries of Russia. Getting allies Trump and Le Pen to power in the USA and in France is a goal of Putin, this is not a secret. https://x.com/TheoLaubry/status/1512009330991763457/photo/1 https://x.com/TheoLaubry/status/1512009330991763457/photo/1
  • oldpersonintx 2y ago
    [dead]
• atoav 2y ago
  The damage to freedom of speech is already done. Any free society can't afford to not investigate the way the justice system has been abused in multiple democratic nations to achieve a punishment without conviction. The people who carried that out should be held to account. I get that the US has (had?) an interest to make him pay and that the only thing that really counts in geo-politics is power — but I don't see why my country should be allied with a nation that punishes the people uncovering their war crimes instead of (at least: also?) punishing those who carried them out. That being said I can't shake the feeling that it would also be to some degree in the self interest of US citizens that their government respects the rule of law. Hard to claim to be the good guy while you are the driving force behind such things or propaganda campaigns against vaccines¹ or all² the³ other¹¹ things¹² the¹³ has¹¹¹ done¹¹² ¹: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/ https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covi... ²: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-67582813 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-67582813 ³: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor ¹¹: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MKUltra https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MKUltra ¹²: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1953_Iran_coup https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1953_Iran_coup ¹³: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%27%C3%A9... ¹¹¹: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Brazilian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Brazilian_coup_d%27%C3%... ¹¹²: You get the point, also not all superscript numbers seem to be supported on HN
• bjornsing 2y ago
  Paraphrasing Winston Churchill: “You can always trust the Americans to do the right thing, after having exhausted all other options.”
  • cies 2y ago
    [flagged]
    • helpfulmandrill 2y ago
      Why did they laugh? They drone kill plenty of people.
    • mandmandam 2y ago
      Joke or not, assassinating him was very seriously discussed at the highest levels. https://www.yahoo.com/news/kidnapping-assassination-and-a-london-shoot-out-inside-the-ci-as-secret-war-plans-against-wiki-leaks-090057786.html https://www.yahoo.com/news/kidnapping-assassination-and-a-lo...
      • throwawayffffas 2y ago
        "Very seriously", according to the article Trump floated the idea, and a few people suggested plans, while the lawyers said you can't do that. Which is something apparently everyone knew from the begining.
    • throwawayffffas 2y ago
      The first link is Hillary denying it and the second is a screenshot of a wall of text from thepundit.com, that claims sources said that she blurted out "Can't we just drone this guy." and everyone in the room laughed. Not exactly damning evidence.
      • cies 2y ago
        The list for the Clinton's is about as long as the list ascribed to Putin. Only for the Clinton's there's a book: https://www.amazon.com/New-Clinton-Body-Count-Suspicious/dp/B09QP6QN1M https://www.amazon.com/New-Clinton-Body-Count-Suspicious/dp/... And for Putin there's a Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_to_Vladimir_Putin_in_Russia#Opposition_figures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_to_Vladimir_Putin_i... (look for the "†" marks and read to see if you think it was natural causes or accidents)
• pipes 2y ago
  My view of him changed when I saw a recording of him in a documentary saying that murdered Iraqi translators who worked with the US military got what they deserved for working with the enemy.
  • mandmandam 2y ago
    Considering what America did to Iraq, I think that's an understandable viewpoint. However, Assange has always displayed a great respect for human life, and so, this doesn't sound like him at all. I can't find any clip of this, nor anyone discussing this, and have never heard of it before your claim. Care to bring receipts? Edit: Looking more into it, I found the source - people said that Declan Walsh said that he heard Assange say this at a dinner party. You really ought to be a little more discriminating when using a single quote to try and completely dismiss someone.
    • varjag 2y ago
      What makes you think he values human life? He sent his buddy with the cables to my home country to share with KGB prior to the public release. I hope the rest of his life is equally miserable now that he is a free person.
      • pipes 2y ago
        KGB? Please can you expand on this, I'm genuinely interested (see my comment above).
        • varjag 2y ago
          Here's a summary: https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/02/wikileaks-belarus-and-israel-shamir/ https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/02/wikileaks-belarus-... It was reported in several major publications as well at the time.
          • mandmandam 2y ago
• steve_gh 2y ago
  This has nothing to do with the merits (perceived or otherwise) of Assange's case. Assange was never going to be extradited to the USA, because of the US Govt's behaviour in the Harry Dunn case (finally closed this month): Harry Dunn was a UK teenager who, while riding his motorcycle was struck and killed by a car driving on the wrong side of the road close to a US Airforce base. The driver, Anne Sacoolas, was reported to be the wife of a US Intelligence Officer. Under the UK- US Govt agreement, Intelligence Officers could be prosecuted locally, but their husbands / wives had diplomatic immunity. The US Govt asserted diplomatic immunity (probably aided and abetted by the UK Govt), and Sacoolas was swiftly hustled out of the UK on a private flight by the NSA or CIS). Anyhow, after a long campaign for justice by Dunn's family, it turns out that Anne Sacoolas is herself a senior US Intelligence officer, so should not have had diplomatic immunity. Charges were brought in the UK, but the US Govt refused to extradite, despite a direct request from the UK Prime Minister (Johnson) to the US President (Trump). There has been huge and sustained public sympathy in the UK for the Dunn family in their quest for justice, and the UK legal system and civil service was seriously angered by the attitude of the US Govt. Anne Sacoolas finally pleaded guilty over video link to charges of causing death by dangerous driving earlier this year. The inquest on the death of Harry Dunn (which was delayed until the conclusion of the criminal case) concluded earlier this month. The UK was not going to extradite Assange as the US Govt refused to extradite Sacoolas. There was enough noise around the conditions that Assange could be held in, or the possibility of him facing the death penalty, for UK judges (who have a lot of independence) to raise questions on Assange's possible treatment in the US, and refuse an extradition request - it had already been going round in circles on this question for years. Everyone wanted a face saving resolution - and with the possibility of a Trump presidency next year, the UK Govt did not want to have a point of contention with Trump, and his severely transactional approach. So, this is a face-saving compromise for the UK and US Govts. Assange pleads guilty (so the US says they have brought him to justice), Assange goes home (not to the US), and the UK Govt gets a nasty diplomatic problem resolved.
• jwmoz 2y ago
  Amazing news. #FREEDASSANGE
• frereubu 2y ago
  I'd encourage people to read this excellent piece in the London Review of Books by someone who was contracted to ghostwrite Assange's autobiography, and who initially felt very sympathetic towards the aims of Assange and Wikileaks: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n05/andrew-o-hagan/ghosting https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n05/andrew-o-hagan/ghost... I found it very insightful and nuanced when it comes to Assange and his motivations, presenting him as neither hero nor villain, but someone who started something that he couldn't really handle.
  • shoo 2y ago
    that is indeed an excellent read, thank you for sharing it
    • frereubu 2y ago
      You're welcome. I dread these Assange threads on HN because they often seem to devolve into people shouting past each other, and this is the most thoughtful piece, with direct and lengthy access to Assange, that I've read.
  • pradn 2y ago
    Andrew O’Hagan's article on Assange is rather famous, not only for its contents, but also for being 25,000+ words in a magazine that still pays per word. The LRB can pull it off because they're subsidized by the editor's family funds.
  • KennyBlanken 2y ago
    [flagged]
    • frereubu 2y ago
      This is exactly the kind of inflammatory rhetoric that I find really difficult. You could have stated this very differently instead of using sarcasm and we might have agreed on some points, but "is an odd way of saying" is so unnecessary. Did you read the article? You may find quite a bit to agree with. I personally have a pretty low opinion of Assange, and the article talks quite a bit about his narcissistic tendencies. Your language also doesn't allow for the fact that although his actions might have helped Russian intelligence, it may well not be that he sat down at some point and explicitly said "right, how can I help the Russian government?" There's some fantastic literature about how well-meaning people can get dragged in some terrible directions, like Into That Darkness about Franz Stangl, the commandant at Treblinka. I'd encourage you to rethink the way you phrase things like this if you want to have substantive debate. If you just want to shout at people, fill your boots, but I'm not going to engage with it.
• FrostKiwi 2y ago
  FINALLY! 12 years stuck in embassies and jails. Such a shame no one will be punished for making him go through that.
  • varjag 2y ago
    Should not have skipped that bail, could have saved a lot of time.
• lhnz 2y ago
  It's bittersweet. It seems likely to me that the US government didn't really want an open trial due to the possibility of scrutiny and that indefinite detention without trial followed by setting the legal precedent that aiding and abetting legal whistleblowers is a criminal conspiracy was their goal.
• jacknews 2y ago
  The mainstream press are all over this now, seemingly sharing the jubilation. Where were they in the dark days of the semi-secret travesty of a trial in London? Thankfully people like Craig Murray stepped up to the crucial fourth estate role they abdicated, to witness it for us.
• squarefoot 2y ago
  > JULIAN ASSANGE IS FREE No, he is not. Nobody can go through what he has been forced to suffer in all those years without lasting consequences that can't be undone: years of his life have been taken away, his health has been damaged, his family has been hit as well. He may be free to roam around, but he's not the same person anymore. I don't see any happy ending here, especially if there are no consequences for the psychopaths dressed as patriots who forced him into that ordeal.
  • moffkalast 2y ago
    Yeah, 5 years in a 2x3m cell with total social isolation? People almost went mad locking down 2 months during covid an they had internet. I doubt he'll ever be the same, or even a functioning person again.
    • deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    • joenot443 2y ago
      John McCain spent a little over 5 years being tortured in solitary confinement in a Vietnamese POW camp and later became Arizona senator. Exceptional people are capable of a lot, I'm sure Assange hasn't lost his spirit yet.
      • Aerbil313 2y ago
        Doesn't change the fact solitary confinement is torture and he underwent it.
        • joenot443 2y ago
          You're totally right about that.
    • olalonde 2y ago
      Why was he put in isolation? Seems harsh, especially given that he is not a violent criminal.
• bigbacaloa 2y ago
  [dead]
• zarzavat 2y ago
  The timing of this less than 2 weeks before the UK gets a new Prime Minister can’t be a coincidence. I don’t believe that Starmer would have actually have dropped extradition proceedings against Assange as he’s extremely stingy with his political capital, but I guess things look different on the other side of the Atlantic. Easy to see a “left wing” government incoming and think “oh shit we’d better agree a plea deal”.
• nova22033 2y ago
  Now that he's free to speak truth to power, I hope someone leaks the details of Putin's secret bank accounts. https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/17/wikileaks-turned-down-leaks-on-russian-government-during-u-s-presidential-campaign/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/17/wikileaks-turned-down-l... https://www.dailydot.com/debug/wikileaks-syria-files-syria-russia-bank-2-billion/ https://www.dailydot.com/debug/wikileaks-syria-files-syria-r...
• pydry 2y ago
  [flagged]
  • jml78 2y ago
    What? Wikileaks had a huge drop of shit about Russia they were going to publish. Assange was told he would be falling out a window if he published it. Then he buried it. He is only about publishing leaks about western countries that don’t directly tell him they will murder him. That isn’t a free society.
    • trogdor 2y ago
      Source?
      • pydry 2y ago
        There won't be any kind of source that isnt horseshit.
    • jprete 2y ago
      If the response was "publish this and we will credibly kill you" then I'm not going to blame Assange for burying it. I'm going to blame whatever country he was in for the fundamental problem of not being able to protect people on its soil from Russian assassination.
      • deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
  • thiagoharry 2y ago
    My anedoctical experience is that Assange detractors are mostly restricted to US and some countries that are its closer allies. Here in Brazil I would find hard finding someone with negative views about him. Between informed people that knows about him, he is a hero that exposed the truth and an example of US hipocrisy concerning free press and human rights.
  • 2y ago
• cryptica 2y ago
  It will be great to have him back in Australia. This is a win for press freedom and hopefully the beginning of rehabilitation of the political system.
• Uptrenda 2y ago
  As a fellow aussie I'm proud of Assange. I am kind of surprised other Australians feel the same because we're kind of a nation of bootlickers. I'm curious what happens now though. If he returns to Australia. Is he actually going to have real freedom and privacy? Or is this going to be kind of superficial where everything he does is monitored by like 5 different agencies and he can't even use the Internet. Like, I've got to see the result to believe it...
  • globalnode 2y ago
    we arent bootlickers, thats just our politicians and business leaders.
    • Uptrenda 2y ago
      You're probably right given ned kelly and all
    • jampekka 2y ago
      How do the politicians get elected then? You're not (on average) bootlickers but do prefer to be ruled by bootlickers?
      • globalnode 2y ago
        people on average are naive about politics, even when they declare they dont trust politicians. they fall for the same tricks every time: fear and greed mostly. they then go and vote based on what they think will maximise their returns and the people they vote for turn around and start bootlicking while ignoring domestic concerns until the next election cycle. so no, we arent bootlickers, stupid yes, bootlickers no.
• globalnode 2y ago
  ungh this is going to bring the crazies out -- im glad hes finally out although nothing is going to undo the suffering he's had to go through. I guess he can maybe be thankful hes still alive? unlike the people he originally called the US out for murdering.
• Hitton 2y ago
  It would be ludicrous to say that justice won, but I'm glad he is finally free.
• eql5 2y ago
  ...and the most important WikiLeaks will be published sooon... (in a web-wide-shut near you).
• FooBarWidget 2y ago
  It's sad to see that Julian Assange, through all his suffering, has achieved so little. I'm not only talking about whether he was able to bring accountability to governments and policymakers. Here on HN, people tend to think highly of "journalists", especially those involved with foreign policy-related stories, as being some sort of guardians of democracy. Yet Julian Assange has shown that many journalists are in fact working closely together with governments to generate consent for war. To this day, journalists are still actively misleading the public with fearmongering for the Next Big Enemy(r) with whom who we should go into war with next. And a large part of the public — including the HN crowd — are still falling for this.
• BrandoElFollito 2y ago
  Legally speaking, my understanding is that he did something that the US does not approve of (and is presumably a crime in the US). Then the US requested the countries he happened to be in to extradite him to the US. If this is correct, if he were in Australia (his country) when the US issued their request, he would have been free, right? (without the possibility to travel I guess as other countries may follow the US request).
• _heimdall 2y ago
  > and their children, who have only known their father from behind bars. Well thats fascinating. Were his kids somehow all born after he was imprisoned?
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • luc4sdreyer 2y ago
    The youngest was born in 2019, the same year he was incarcerated (April 2019). Pregnancy lasts 9 months, so even if the child were born in early 2020, there would be no reason to assume infidelity.
    • _heimdall 2y ago
      I wasn't assuming infedlity, I could have been more clear there. I really was just curious on timing how none of his children could have met him before he was imprisoned.
  • danielvf 2y ago
    I was somewhat surprised as well at the phrasing here, and had to look it up. During Assange's time in the Ecuadorian embassy, he fathered two children by a female lawyer hired to be on his defense team. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_Assange#Personal_life_and_marriage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_Assange#Personal_life_a...
    • _heimdall 2y ago
      Not sure how I missed the timing in that Wikipedia note, thanks
• throwawayffffas 2y ago
  The celebration is premature. The deal could fall through. Don't you remember what happened last year with Hunter Biden, he had a deal until he didn't.
• assimpleaspossi 2y ago
  I wonder how people would have felt if, instead of releasing stuff about the USA, he had released it about your country's doings instead.
  • bradley13 2y ago
    If we were torturing people, I sure hope someone would leak it.
  • KobeQueef 2y ago
    [dead]
• jml78 2y ago
  My issue is that he was influenced by Russia. Aka they threatened his life and he then proceeded to leak information about the US but keep Russian secrets. I mean I don’t blame him for not wanting to be murdered by Russia but he isn’t a freedom fighter when he only leaks things for countries that don’t directly threaten his life.
  • Draiken 2y ago
    I agree with you on that. I dislike the partisanship that was demonstrated (even if coerced). However, for me, personal feelings about him should not matter in this case. It's a question of how our society treats people that expose bad actors. He's a flawed human being like every other one, but what he did was not wrong even if deemed illegal (by the justice system from the exposed party, who would've guessed).
  • itsoktocry 2y ago
    >he was influenced by Russia This argument is completely nonsensical, this idea that who revealed the crime matters more than the actual crime. What does it matter who "influenced" him, if the information was legit? And is it your opinion that none of this information should be released unless it covers all countries equally? Do you honestly think he should have thought, I can't reveal this crime until I find an equal Russian crime, for equality. What a wonderful, open world that would be! Utterly ridiculous. This is the same stupidity as "Hunter's laptop". It allows the Idiocracy to dismiss anything because "the Russians!".
    • lisper 2y ago
      > What does it matter who "influenced" him Because they may have influenced the timing and content of the leaks to further their own ends. Revealing sensitive information is not a neutral act. It has consequences far beyond the exposure of bad actors.
      • gorlilla 2y ago
        Again, the fundamental argument is that the bad actors still had time, chance and opportunity to own and be accountable for the misdeeds but chose to hide them instead. Any ability to influence the timing of the release is still a direct consequence of their underlying malfeasance.
• knodi 2y ago
  Lets not forget this dude colluded with Russian intelligence to interfere with 2016 US elections. He's not freedom fighter he's an assets to some intelligence service.
  • user3939382 2y ago
    Interfered by publishing real, truthful documents. Right.
• throw4847285 2y ago
  Julian Assange reminds me of Martin Luther. Both men struck a devil's bargain with autocrats because they feared persecution by a powerful empire, and in doing so, they sacrificed the more utopian elements of their political/religious project.
• skilled 2y ago
  If you care about this news and you are able to do this financially, consider supporting Julian's fee for having have had to take a private plane for this entire process: > Julian Assange has embarked on flight VJ199 to Saipan. If all goes well it will bring him to freedom in Australia. But his travel to freedom comes at a massive cost: he will owe USD 520,000 which he is obligated to pay back to the Australian government for the charter flight. He was not permitted to fly commercial airlines or routes to Saipan and onward to Australia. Links: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/free-julian-assange https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/free-julian-assange https://x.com/Stella_Assange/status/1805573781303308326 https://x.com/Stella_Assange/status/1805573781303308326
  • trogdor 2y ago
    >He was not permitted to fly commercial airlines or routes to Saipan and onward to Australia. Not permitted by who, and on what basis?
    • whamlastxmas 2y ago
      Presumably either the US or UK as part of his plea deal or bail conditions. Maybe some form of house arrest where he’s not to be in public.
      • tylergetsay 2y ago
        I would bet it is Saipan local goverment, they probably don't have (or dont want to expend) the resources to secure him.
    • blitzar 2y ago
      Once he was tried, convicted, sentenced and released in Saipan there can be no possible basis for restricting the mode of travel to "PJ or better".
  • mrcsharp 2y ago
    With how much the AU gov loves to waste our tax money on useless crappy programs, this would be the one instance where I would wholeheartedly support giving the $500k of tax money away.
• jaimex2 2y ago
  Well, I hope we all learned a lesson about whistle blowing. Keep your name and any trace back to you out of it. No idea how but I have yet to see a story of a whistleblower not getting fucked over. Probably the answer is to not bother and try and destroy the system from within.
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• Marazan 2y ago
  "Well, they're informants," Assange replied. "So, if they get killed, they've got it coming to them. They deserve it."
• misterbishop 2y ago
  Liberal abandonment of Assange for 10+ years was completely fucking shameful.
• m3kw9 2y ago
  I always imagine what his first meal is gonna be like
• m3kw9 2y ago
  What was the deal?
• seanw444 2y ago
  I'm still holding out hope that the next guy pardons him.
• cluster-luck 2y ago
  Quite literally this is the best news of 2024.
• syngrog66 2y ago
  I am amused they are flying him from London to "a remote Pacific island" and announcing it in public and pointing out his route and stopovers along the way. Sooo many "wrongness" buttons being pressed, haha. Assange is among a small set of Westerners who I've assumed that if they dont end up in US prison would either end up in Russian exile or have an "accident" arranged for them, or disappeared by Russia. Snowden is in this set -- and he's already fled to Moscow. Trump is in the set too. A few others. Though Trump is a special case becsuse of the complexities of his US SS protection. But they are all the kind of traitors/assets that either Putin would want to keep a close eye on if they couldnt off them entirely.
• commiepatrol 2y ago
  What are the chances he “commits suicide” now?
• babypuncher 2y ago
  I wouldn't call his work on Wikileaks "groundbreaking", he was clearly only willing to leak documents his benefactors wanted him to. I agree that whistleblowing shouldn't be punished like we usually do, and the attempts to imprison him were a farce, but I still think he's a piece of shit who ruined any journalistic credibility he had when he got in bed with Putin.
  • rvnx 2y ago
    And whistleblowing is for a different case, it is when you work for an organization and see illegal or dangerous things, and choose loyalty to the law / public interest instead of the organization whom you work for. Here it is different, it is an activist sponsored/supported by an enemy state actively seeking to create chaos in a foreign government.
    • joyeuse6701 2y ago
      Agreed, but I wonder if the west is stronger for it. If he had spread only lies and propaganda that the people ate up, maybe we’d only be stronger from the experience, but revealing actual problems in our system allows us to fix what otherwise lacked incentive to fix. Maybe.
      • rvnx 2y ago
        True. I wonder what is the end result. It could be that these leaks actually improved the practices and government entities act nicer, due to the fear of getting caught. Or, just worse: It could have actually improved the information-protection practices, and serious crimes that would have "naturally" leaked to the press, are now even better guarded than before Wikileaks.
• sandworm101 2y ago
  I am going to hold the celebrations until we are sure there isn't anything else on the horizon. He isn't getting a pardon and being declared free and clear of charges in the US is very difficult. Who knows what state prosecutor might want to bring new state charges. He may also be wanted as a material witness. If I were him I wouldn't set foot outside Australia ever again.
  • bbor 2y ago
    [flagged]
    • ralusek 2y ago
      Trump strikes me as far more likely to grant him a pardon than Biden. Biden is neoliberal, which are just as hawkish as neocons (they’re functionally identical). Trump is more of a populist, anti-war, “anti-deep-state” (i.e. intelligence agencies) sort, who has at least entertained the idea of a pardon.
      • jasonlaramburu 2y ago
        Trump had 4 years to free Assange but did nothing. He will say anything to get elected. It's surprising how people don't see it. In Texas we call that 'All hat, no cattle.'
        • ralusek 2y ago
          Biden has also had 4 years, I simply said who was more likely to pardon.
          • jasonlaramburu 2y ago
            Right and presumably the guy who actually freed him, vs just talk, is going to be more likely to pardon him?
        • funkhouser 2y ago
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• luxuryballs 2y ago
  Special thanks to Donald Trump for spooking the current admin so much that they actually did something good!
• which 2y ago
  If Australia truly loved Assange they would've done the thing Russia does where they start their own bogus competing extradition proceeding in order to repatriate the person. Not to mention that they stuck him with a $500k bill!
  • nojvek 2y ago
    Seeing how much censorship Australian govt wants on it's own public, "love Assange" is a far cry from reality. Also Australia is beholden to US and has deep ties with it.
  • DoItToMe81 2y ago
    Australia is on an America-led course to humiliate and destroy whistleblowers. Our governments were upset in public, but no doubt cheering on Assange's treatment in private. Just look at what they did to David McBride.
• drojas 2y ago
  This is almost bringing me to tears today. I am happy he's finally going to be free but I am still in deep sadness because this is not the world we are supposed to living in. With all of our knowledge and technology we are still doing horrible things as a civilization and we have lost control of our leadership. This scares me a lot because it is a growing problem and every day it seems like humanity is losing more and more of itself to evil and greedy powers that be. Assange did a great thing by exposing corrupt and criminal behavior at the highest levels and got such a inhumane treatment from the most powerful organizations on earth. He should not have been punished, he should have been protected and praised and his case should be a matter of study on every school on earth.
  • jfax 2y ago
    This is beautifully articulated. I myself thought for a long time that if the day ever came that Assange walks free, I'd cry, but instead I feel a strange emptiness inside. The world isn't the one I'd imagined for this day.
    • resters 2y ago
      Indeed. Though it is still inspiring that there are people like Assange who are willing to face personal hardship in the name of democratic values such as press freedom and government accountability / transparency. None of the US leaders whose crimes were exposed by Assange have faced any consequences whatsoever, and many of them remain influential, lauded figures in American society.
      • qsdf38100 2y ago
        [flagged]
        • 9dev 2y ago
          Well, might it be that Assange did never receive something comparable to the US cables? You do remember he used to run a platform to publish whistleblower files, right?
• Thoreandan 2y ago
  Reminder, for context, since news stations that should know better are parroting the narrative that he published unredacted stuff as soon as he got it, instead of What Actually Happened: https://web.archive.org/web/20110901064746/https://wikileaks.org/Guardian-journalist-negligently.html https://web.archive.org/web/20110901064746/https://wikileaks...
• randomopining 2y ago
  Remember that a site like this only exists in the sphere of US hegemony. If we lived in NK, Russia, or China and debating decisions by the government... whelp that wouldn't exist there. Wrong and right are not absolutes.
• consumer451 2y ago
  He should not have spent all of this time being persecuted by the US government, but he should have been ostracized by the public long ago. I believe that if not for the prior, the latter would have occurred much more readily. > A reporter worried that Assange would risk killing Afghans who had co-operated with American forces if he put US secrets online without taking the basic precaution of removing their names. "Well, they're informants," Assange replied. "So, if they get killed, they've got it coming to them. They deserve it." A silence fell on the table as the reporters realised that the man the gullible hailed as the pioneer of a new age of transparency was willing to hand death lists to psychopaths. They persuaded Assange to remove names before publishing the State Department Afghanistan cables. But Assange's disillusioned associates suggest that the failure to expose "informants" niggled in his mind. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/sep/18/julian-assange-wikileaks-nick-cohen https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/sep/18/julian...
  • Log_out_ 2y ago
    Didn't know that and yes, that is condemning. The conclusion for future leak prevention is clear, all sensitive data storage must be tainted with false positives, that only a need to know filter window exposes time and access sensitive.
    • deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  • TeeMassive 2y ago
    The sources are out of context quotes coming from hear say sources; those sources being clearly politically motivated think tanks.
    • Aloisius 2y ago
      The source was Declan Walsh, who was a journalist for the Guardian and now the NYT.
      • 2y ago
• animex 2y ago
  Now do Snowden.
• znpy 2y ago
  My guess is that the US government will have him killed within the year.
• husamia 2y ago
  Bitcoin sell off happened around the release of JA
  • thunkshift1 2y ago
    Doesnt mean anything
• tracker1 2y ago
  I'd still like to see a full pardon and record expunged.
• trojanhunt5 2y ago
  [dead]
• demondemidi 2y ago
  I have trouble being happy for a man that was bought off to facilitate Russian intervention in my country’s government.
• nikkwong 2y ago
  Is anyone else here surprised that the reaction to him being free is so overwhelmingly positive? Assange certainly did great work to reveal government corruption and abuses of power. At the same time, some state secrets are best kept secret for national interests and Assange seemed to show a lack of regard for protecting this type of information. It often seemed that he was working in his own self interest rather than one that prioritized the interests of the US, humanity and civilization on the whole. I guess.. I just expected more nuanced discussion around this on HN.
  • ben_w 2y ago
    > Is anyone else here surprised that the reaction to him being free is so overwhelmingly positive? Not really, though I am frustrated as it does feel like he's only popular because he's an underdog sticking it to The Man. Even in isolation and ignoring the preceding case — for which he fled to the embassy in order to not risk the very outcome he's now facing (c.f. going to the USA, "Assange would appear in court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S.-controlled territory north of Guam", even though that wasn't even on the cards at the time he fled) — many other journalists manage to publish damning evidence that seriously upsets their governments without having to solicit for it (AFAICT, no journalists have gotten into trouble for publishing Snowden's leaks, just Snowden himself), while some other journalists who broke the law to get their scoops also faced court for breaking the law to get their scoops: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_arrested_in_the_News_International_phone-hacking_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_arrested_in_the...
    • EnergyAmy 2y ago
      There's a pretty big difference in breaking the law to get hot goss vs breaking the law to expose corruption at the highest levels of government. There's limits of course, but whistleblowers should be afforded a lot of leeway, particularly because quite often doing things the "right way" is engineered to accomplish nothing.
      • ben_w 2y ago
        Sure, but that protection (that doesn't fully exist in practice but should) would still go to Manning rather than Assange. Assange is to Manning as Glenn Greenwald is to Snowden. (Except for all the differences which make the legal issues in this case a thing in the first place).
• zerofs 2y ago
  Russia hacks the DNC, Wikileaks distributes the hacked emails, Trump gets elected. Assange is a POS.
• tehjoker 2y ago
  Congrats to Mr. Assange! He paid a high price for showing us what our governments are doing in our name (i.e. war crimes).
• r721 2y ago
  LIVE: Julian Assange arrives in Saipan for his court hearing [Reuters] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFZI0YIqeAE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFZI0YIqeAE
• CHB0403085482 2y ago
  Australian news update: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-26/julian-assange-wikileaks-guilty-conspiracy-mariana-islands/104022410 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-26/julian-assange-wikile...
• kristianp 2y ago
  Meanwhile, Ola Bini has been jailed for a year in Ecuador? I remember him for his work on jruby. https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/04/08/activist-ola-bini-sentenced-to-one-year-in-prison-after-ecuadorian-court-overturns-acquittal/ https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/04/08/activist-ola-bini-sen...
• Raight 2y ago
  [flagged]
• fsloth 2y ago
  Julian Assange clearly was operating against the west, for the benefit of authoritarian powers. Had he done what he did to China or Russia, he probably would not be a alive. He is not a character worth celebrating. His liberty is a triumph of western values. We don’t off our dissidents.
• pvaldes 2y ago
  And justifying more than a decade of home arrest to deactivate that tick bomb before the new elections. The man looks 40 years older.
• kripy 2y ago
  Tracking his flight: https://www.flightradar24.com/VJT199/35db3268 https://www.flightradar24.com/VJT199/35db3268
• bilbo_skywalker 2y ago
  Prometheus Bound deserves modern reinterpretation starring Assange
• tndibona 2y ago
  This isn’t getting front page news on CNN, Fox, or WNYC radio. This is concerning.
• bishbosh 2y ago
  Amazing to see!