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Statement by Julian Assange after One Year in Ecuadorian Embassy
- laureny 13y ago> A few weeks ago, Edward Snowden blew the whistle on an ongoing program - involving the Obama administration, the intelligence community and the internet services giants - to spy on everyone in the world. Er... no.
- laureny 13y agoVery painful to read and I detect signs of growing paranoia in his text. It seems like he no longer has full mental sanity.
- unimpressive 13y agoIt's very hard to keep your 'sanity' when US congressmen call for your assassination and you live in a tiny building which you can never leave. My personal description of his words wouldn't be inaccuracy, but being hackneyed.
- cbgfdgmhtyju 13y ago> It's very hard to keep your 'sanity' when US congressmen call for your assassination and you live in a tiny building which you can never leave. Especially when your world view is so distorted to begin with.
- unimpressive 13y agoQuite sorry, you're correct, the calls for assassination were from a chap in Canada, and the congressmen were calling for an espionage charge, which is a crime that carries the death penalty as far as I know. Source: Wiki EDIT: And the death penalty would likely be sought by that interpretation. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/01/us-embassy-cables-executed-mike-huckabee http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/01/us-embassy-cable...
- mpyne 13y agoThe U.S. didn't execute Walker or Hanssen, and even Assange is in the minor leagues compared to those two.
- cbgfdgmhtyju 13y agoI love this quote from his lawyer: "It's interesting to note people as high up the American tree as Sarah Palin have called for him to be hunted down by American special forces and assassinated." You gotta be worried when laughing-stock resigned governors of small states are out to get you. Also, what she actually said was just: "Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?"
- cbgfdgmhtyju 13y agoOh, and I totally was talking about Assange's world view. Not yours (which I don't know about :)).
- blueprint 13y agoWhen you talk to someone who knows, you should also include the evidence. What concrete things are distorted or wrong with his world view ? If you don't point out the fact in what you speak, we can understand that you don't actually know anything.
- aclevernickname 13y agoHey, look, a new user, whose only post has the goal of discrediting Assange!
- unimpressive 13y agoI just assumed that it was a HN regular who didn't want to take the reputation hit for their 'unpopular' opinion. But yeah, it's a red flag. (I also couldn't tell if they were talking about me or Assange.)
- cbgfdgmhtyju 13y agoHi! I've actually made a bunch of other posts discrediting Assange, too, but they're under other slamming-fist-against-the-keyboard usernames. :)
- aclevernickname 13y agoSo do you at least get paid for it? serious question.
- clicks 13y agoThis makes me curious. Do you think three-letter agencies are now actively trying to shape public opinion of themselves and their doings by astroturfing popular tech blogs? I recall seeing a document not too long about how the FBI could basically "destroy" a public forum by trolling, insulting, making fun of certain ideas certain principles certain people. In the recent months I've been seeing this on Reddit, -- views that before couldn't be found before about acceptance of surveillance at the cost of liberty, about the goods of laissez-faire capitalistic systems -- you didn't see this much on Reddit before. I'm not sure what to make of it, if it's just new users with different views or if there is some concerted effort by political, or possibly governmental entities to shape things in their favor. That probably sounds unreasonably conspiratorial, but nevertheless consider how effective such a taking would be. Once the public at large is on their side, it's a done deal. Anyway, the great thing about HN is we wouldn't fall prey to such troll tactics. It's good that unsubstantiated attacks, ad hominems, etc. are usually downvoted.
- trotsky 13y agojust because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.
- weinzierl 13y agoStop eating the young: Edward Snowden, Barrett Brown, Jeremy Hammond, Aaron Swartz, Gottfrid Svartholm, Jacob Appelbaum, and Bradley Manning. Why is Jacob Appelbaum in the list? Unlike the others he is alive and free.
- Steer 13y agoHe has some good points which I appreciate, but I do think he's trying to associate his own ordeal with something that is of a completely different magnitude. He's stuck at that embassy because he does not want to be interrogated by the Swedish police on suspicions of having had sex with a woman without a condom against her will. He is of course not guilty until proven otherwise, but the reason that he is at the embassy does at least not make him a hero. Again, I agree with most of his points, but I find the association in this passage distasteful: > As a result of that decision, I have been able to > work in relative safety from a US espionage investigation. > > But today, Edward Snowden’s ordeal is just beginning. Update: I should have also written that Assange says that he will not go to Sweden because the authorities here will extradite him to the US.
- CamperBob2 13y agoHe's stuck at that embassy because he does not want to be interrogated by the Swedish police on suspicions of having had sex with a woman without a condom against her will. You know very well that this is not an accurate or complete statement of the problem.
- Steer 13y agoTechnically I think I am correct with that statement (or at least close). In regards to any other theories as of why the Swedish police is trying to extradite him to Sweden I have a hard time believing them. I know quite a lot of people believe them and of course there could be some truth in them (or not), but from what I know and believe they are not believable. I could be wrong. Debating this is to me like debating religion, you believe what you believe. Regardless, I still say that he's trying to associate himself with people that have done far, far more good than he has done.
- lettergram 13y agoHe probably helped give Snowden hope that actually leaking information without death was possible. The more this happens, the more people will do it.
- GuiA 13y agoIt's discouraging to observe that Assange's word are met by the tech community here with the same snark and derogation that Stallman's were a decade or so ago. But today, the threads about Stallman on HN tend to converge towards a sentiment of "oh crap, he wasn't actually completely insane". I predict that the same will happen with the words of Assange (and others). I am personally saddened that our community reacts this way. We're the only ones with any grounds whatsoever (no matter how small they are) to fight against this, and lazy hand waving is the best that we can do.
- rimantas 13y agoAssange and Stallman are world apart, but yes, I have no problem dismissing both.
- casual_slacker 13y agoPersonally, I still find it insane that people run code on machines they own without being able to examine the source. Many of these programs have access to all of your files as well!
- belorn 13y agoI can understand that people will run code without examine the source for it. What I don't understand is how we at the same time consider bugs and crashes the responsibility of the user, and not something that the developer is liable for. You want to sell me software and refuse to tell me how it work. Fine. Just be dam ready to take responsibility for said software when it breaks my computer. And don't even try to steal my private data. If a hire a cleaner, and the person goes around and steal information from my desk, I don't really care if the hire contract of 40 pages said somewhere "might collect data for improvement of the service". nor do I care if it also say "no liability" when the china/laptop/valuable item crash into the floor by the careless cleaner. On other hand, if you give me the source, I got the tool to verify the code, make sure nothing breaks, and fix problems. Like if I buy a power tool, it really is my responsibility if I hurt myself with it.
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- _k 13y agoSo Iceland isn't willing to help Snowden ?
- rimantas 13y agoDisclaimer: I never liked Assange, and I think his he is most concerned about self-promotions. That said my cynical view is that the only reason for this statement is that Edward Snowden stole his show (and I have huge respect for Snowden) so Assange felt the need to remind about himself.
- general_failure 13y agoWhy does it matter if he did something for self promotion ? What he did was courageous.
- lttlrck 13y agoSince his involvement in the initial act that thrust him into the spotlight I see nothimg that warrants the accolade of courageous.
- obviouslygreen 13y agoThat it shouldn't matter (with which I agree) doesn't change the fact that it does matter to people. Taking the teeth out of a threat that's largely posed by public opinion is vastly easier when you can convince said public that the source of the threat is of impeachable character or distract them with some flaw or misdeed; people will happily fill in "well, he's kind of a sleazeball, so to hell with him" from there.
- Peaker 13y agoI think this is the exact image of Assange that US authorities tried to build, as if his concern about himself is relevant for anything at all.
- deathcakes 13y agoI also have no time for him as a personality - however you can't tell me that you disregard his arguments on that basis? I know I certainly don't.
- kragen 13y agoIf his self-promotion weren't necessary to produce results, we'd all be reading news stories about Cryptome and how John Young, Architect, was seeking asylum.
- Estragon 13y agoI'm curious: does some kind of statute of limitations apply to Assange's case?
- belorn 13y agoStop spying on the world. Eradicate secret law. Cease indefinite detention without trial. Stop assassinating people. One would think that those things were obvious democratic views and can't possible refer to anything other than some dark dictatorship in some back-hole country that no one has heard of. Yet this is not even denied by largest democratic country in existence. Is there any defense for how this got started and kept going?
- hkmurakami 13y ago> Is there any defense for how this got started and kept going? The defense is "in the name of national security". Whether this defense actually holds any weight will probably depend on where we lie on the spectrum of privacy, liberty, and our supposed safety.
- belorn 13y agoJust as an intellectual challenge. A dark dictatorship would also claim national security, but people would likely not accept that. Is that because we simply have a bit of blind trust in democracies, or is there something else going on?
- hkmurakami 13y agoMaybe the key is in the secrecy.
- derefr 13y agoThese are basically the definition of "populist sentiment": things that it makes voters happy to hear/think about, but which no political party desires.
- whodoneit 13y agoWhat world do you live in where this would be populism? Most people don't care, and most of those who do would counter those points with "yes, but I'm afraid".