Julian Assange Extradition Hearing, or “Freedom of Press Trial of the Century”

The problem I have with Assange is this. A lack of integrity if indeed his mission is “The political objective of seeking to achieve greater transparency in the workings of governments is clearly both the motivation and the modus operandi of Mr Assange and the organisation WikiLeaks.”

He is SELECTIVE in the governments, political figures, and nations he chooses to hack and reveal.

For example, in the US, the hacked emails of Clinton, and only Clinton offered to Trump.

Or the fact that very very little is revealed in the name of transparency of countries like Russia, even declining to publish material embarrassing to Russia. It puts to question his role and motives.
yes it is a good argument Coyote which I have seen before. Only problem is it looks a little too good. It is known that one of the ways to get someone to believe what you want is to let them see it so many times they believe it has been proved. So I did a look for something speaking of this which led me to a Consortium article. A lot of it is about the argument that he is a Russia stooge but that still answers many of the questions of yours. With regard to presenting information concerning Russia itself

There is no evidence that Assange ever provided any assistance to the Russian government, knowingly or unknowingly. In fact, WikiLeaks has published hundreds of thousands of documents pertaining to Russia, has made critical comments about the Russian government and defended dissident Russian activists, and in 2017 published an entire trove called the Spy Files Russia exposing Russian surveillance practices.

 
Yes. I would add that we should remember that defending Assange from such slanders does not imply he was perfect in all his actions and decisions.. His personality, skillset and elan allowed him to leapfrog to fame and lead WikiLeaks, but he certainly had weaknesses too. The pressure under which Assange and WikiLeaks found themselves were immense. Assange was headstrong and definitely not an “organizational man.” WikiLeaks had no developed bureaucracy with fixed and secure abode, no great source of funds for lawyers, translators, researchers, factcheckers. Assange was rightly paranoid. He certainly made mistakes of judgement, and (imo) serious political mistakes too. But his contributions were important, and hopefully one day we will see another, better, fearless non-government international “WikiLeaks-like” organization develop.

Edward Snowden was a much more stable personality. Much less flamboyant. An American unlike Assange, Snowden gave up his comfortable lifestyle and job for clearly patriotic reasons — but he was also branded a spy and hunted down for revealing truths the lying CIA and NSA had hidden and criminally denied.

Today Snowden is stuck in Moscow — but certainly not because he is pro-Russian or supports Putin’s war in Ukraine. He simply had no other place on earth where he could escape U.S. government pursuers. He also deserves amnesty from all charges, so he can return to a normal life in the West. Both men have paid enough for their “crime” … of exposing the truth.
 
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Yes. I would add that we should remember that defending Assange from such slanders does not imply he was perfect in all his actions and decisions.. His personality, skillset and elan allowed him to leapfrog to fame and lead WikiLeaks, but he certainly had weaknesses too. The pressure under which Assange and WikiLeaks found themselves were immense. Assange was headstrong and definitely not an “organizational man.” WikiLeaks had no developed bureaucracy with fixed and secure abode, no great source of funds for lawyers, translators, researchers, factcheckers. Assange was rightly paranoid. He certainly made mistakes of judgement, and (imo) serious political mistakes too. But his contributions were important, and hopefully one day we will see another, better, fearless non-government international “WikiLeaks-like” organization develop.

Edward Snowden was a much more stable personality. Much less flamboyant. An American unlike Assange, Snowden gave up his comfortable lifestyle and job for clearly patriotic reasons — but he was also branded a spy and hunted down for revealing truths the lying CIA and NSA had hidden and criminally denied.

Today Snowden is stuck in Moscow — but certainly not because he is pro-Russian or supports Putin’s war in Ukraine. He simply had no other place on earth where he could escape U.S. government pursuers. He also deserves amnesty from all charges, so he can return to a normal life in the West. Both men have paid enough for their “crime” … of exposing the truth.
yes, it made no difference to me whether he had done anything on Russia. We need to be aware of where he got most of his material from. That usually is what messengers/journalists report on They can only report from where they get the news. I also think there is no need for him to be an angel but also he was not a rapist and that surely was what turned a lot of people against him because it terrifies people to support a racist. I think before that most or certainly some like the Guardian who made a lot of money from him, supported him. Possibly the papers who presented his work also had a word said to them. The Guardian were bought by people who I don't quite remember but seemed to have some link to intelligence or the Guardian did after it was sold so the papers became hush including the ones who were paid to make money out of him. Can you imagine this happening to someone prior to 2001. I can't but I am in the UK. The other interesting thing about Assange is the statement that he is on the autistic scale. That defo can be making things even more difficult. I have a grandson who I think is probably a bit like him, if he is. He is very high functioning and does not even have all of the most common symptoms but the ones he has upset his life, particularly his social life and emotions. We move from does he have it or does he not. Should we get him tested. Would that mean he would know that he is not alone in the way he sees the world, (they describe themselves as wired differently,) or would it make him feel there was something wrong with him. In a sane world, in a democratic world, Assange would be free. Even if the desire was to really really hurt him, that has been done. For several years now according to the UN Rapporteur he has been showing signs of psychological torture.
 
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Apologies. I have just posted an update on this hearing on the current events forum.


Its less a philosophical discussion that you are having here but it does hint at what a murky business it all is.

Personally I am broadly supportive of what Assange claims to believe in but as an individual, I have my doubts about him.
I felt really bad about some of the things Mr. Assange was saying about some of the people in the country I love, but if he was telling the truth, I'm sorry his indiscrete words caused divisions. But if he was telling the truth, and it shows he was being fair in delivering the truth, Lady Justice will hopefully determine his fate by not condemning the truth. Ultimately, the truth will make you free, Unfortunately for Mr. Assange, he gets fried a lot for his version of the truth. Good night all, May God bless and keep this world safe and place fairness for those whose truths are misunderstood.
 
I don't get this whole situation on why Biden and his intelligence apparatus wants to punish Mr. Assange.

Assange is foreigner with no duty to the US government, yet they want to lock him into a penitentiary.

OTOH, Bradley Manning did just as bad, and was a sworn US Military personnel.

Mr. Manning had obligations to America, yet Obama let him slide because Mr. Manning is a liberal and a she-male.
 
Assange was a danger to our National Security.
He told the truth about the war in Iraq.
Doing things like this used to be considered keeping an eye on Democracy. Given that you have a democratic vote you have a responsibility for what your country does. Can't exercise that responsibility if the truth is kept from you.
 

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