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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,

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
      From your link: > Wikileaks response: > A representative of Wikileaks responded, ‘We have no further reports on this “rumour/issue”. Another Wikileaks representative told Index “obviously it is not approved”. Following back the Guardian story linked in the above, there's this: > Assange subsequently maintained he had only a "brief interaction" with Shamir: "WikiLeaks works with hundreds of journalists from different regions of the world. All are required to sign non-disclosure agreements and are generally only given limited review access to material relating to their region." As far as I can tell, it looks like Wikileaks paid Shamir ~$2,000 for reviewing a batch of documents, but he maybe broke his NDA and tried to sell the docs (even the evidence for this, as far as I can see, is purely circumstantial). It's all a far, far cry from "Assange gave cables to KGB". Small wonder this isn't even in the top 3 attempts to smear Assange as 'linked' to Russian agents (all of which have never had a shred of direct evidence btw).
      - varjag 2y ago
        It was in Belarusian govt news at the time where they openly bragged about getting the cables. Really really doubt they wanted to frame Assange for anything as just as Russians they are entirely sympathetic bunch. Notice also how I never said "Assange gave cables to KGB" but that his buddy did. Are you going to bicker over whom Shamir got the cables from?
      - mint2 2y ago
        One of the things about the whole asssange wikileaks affaire that always bothered me is how many people would pick a sides and then consider anything the opposing side to claim to be suspect and likely false, while taking everything “their” side said at face value without inspection. It was nonstop extreme confirmation bias on display. Of course wikileaks/assange aren’t going to admit to doing something terrible. Whether or not it’s true, they’re going to give the same answer! I haven’t looked into that Belarusian thing, so I don’t know what evidence there is but it doesn’t make sense to take Wikileaks at face value - it’s obvious confirmation bias. Even if one doesn’t want to accept that it’s confirmation bias, one should be aware that it comes off as it to everyone else. The whole wikileaks thing was so annoying because it was 95% of the time of two different choirs preaching opposite sermons based only on faith not objective facts.
pipes 2y ago
Looks like someone did my homework for me, see the comments above.

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
    From your link: > Wikileaks response: > A representative of Wikileaks responded, ‘We have no further reports on this “rumour/issue”. Another Wikileaks representative told Index “obviously it is not approved”. Following back the Guardian story linked in the above, there's this: > Assange subsequently maintained he had only a "brief interaction" with Shamir: "WikiLeaks works with hundreds of journalists from different regions of the world. All are required to sign non-disclosure agreements and are generally only given limited review access to material relating to their region." As far as I can tell, it looks like Wikileaks paid Shamir ~$2,000 for reviewing a batch of documents, but he maybe broke his NDA and tried to sell the docs (even the evidence for this, as far as I can see, is purely circumstantial). It's all a far, far cry from "Assange gave cables to KGB". Small wonder this isn't even in the top 3 attempts to smear Assange as 'linked' to Russian agents (all of which have never had a shred of direct evidence btw).
    - varjag 2y ago
      It was in Belarusian govt news at the time where they openly bragged about getting the cables. Really really doubt they wanted to frame Assange for anything as just as Russians they are entirely sympathetic bunch. Notice also how I never said "Assange gave cables to KGB" but that his buddy did. Are you going to bicker over whom Shamir got the cables from?
    - mint2 2y ago
      One of the things about the whole asssange wikileaks affaire that always bothered me is how many people would pick a sides and then consider anything the opposing side to claim to be suspect and likely false, while taking everything “their” side said at face value without inspection. It was nonstop extreme confirmation bias on display. Of course wikileaks/assange aren’t going to admit to doing something terrible. Whether or not it’s true, they’re going to give the same answer! I haven’t looked into that Belarusian thing, so I don’t know what evidence there is but it doesn’t make sense to take Wikileaks at face value - it’s obvious confirmation bias. Even if one doesn’t want to accept that it’s confirmation bias, one should be aware that it comes off as it to everyone else. The whole wikileaks thing was so annoying because it was 95% of the time of two different choirs preaching opposite sermons based only on faith not objective facts.

pipes 2y ago

Looks like someone did my homework for me, see the comments above.