27 ms·

Julian Assange arrested in London

• purpleslurple 7y ago
  Julian Assange used to be hailed as a hero for exposing American hypocrisy, but with the secretive way wikileaks operated and the track record of anti-US releases, perhaps it was only a matter of time before Assange and wikileaks were used as pawns for geopolitics. Still, I'm curious when did Assange willingly start working for Russia --- was it from the very beginning, or was it after his legal troubles? I wonder what Snowden thinks of the whole situation, as Assange did help him get to Russia. Has Snowden been actively involved in US politics (the way Assange and wikileaks substantially affected the last US presidential election)?
  • lazyjones 7y ago
    You'd think that after the stupid Russian collusion story was dismantled by the recent Mueller report, people would be a little more careful with such paranoid allegations, but here we go...
    • moccachino 7y ago
      >You'd think that after the stupid Russian collusion story was dismantled by the recent Mueller report Not true at all. No one except the DoJ and probably white house have seen the Mueller report. They do all they can to prevent people from seeing this supposedly exonerating report.
    • pcnix 7y ago
      You mean the Mueller report that hasn't been released yet?
      • just_a_dev 7y ago
        Lol.
    • pjc50 7y ago
      The story was hardly dismantled. A number of people have actually pled guilty and been jailed for crimes as a result. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/20/17031772/mueller-indictments-grand-jury https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/20/17031772/m...
      • billfruit 7y ago
        None have plead guilty or sentenced for collusion or collaboration with Russia. They have been convicted for lying to federal officials or some such offense.
    • zimpenfish 7y ago
      > after the stupid Russian collusion story was dismantled by the recent Mueller report Hardly anyone has actually read the full 400 page report. And "collusion" has a specific legal meaning which can easily be skirted by a whole raft of plausible deniability methods - Mueller is a stickler; he's almost certainly not going to say "collusion" happened unless he has definitive proof that would hold up in court.
    • bjourne 7y ago
      Yes, but this twitter convo between WikiLeaks and Donald Trump Jr. is pretty damning. https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/930228239494209536 https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/930228239494209536
      • Sacho 7y ago
        What's so damning about that convo? Try reading that conversation with the assumption that WL is a neutral party that wants to advance its own interests: - leak more documents(Trump tax returns) - get more publicity(asking Trump Jr to retweet/push their stories and lead viewers to their site) - fight allegations of partisanship(publish anti-Trump documents) How else would you approach Donald Trump Jr in this conversation? You need to give him some reason to help you.
  • paulcarroty 7y ago
    > I wonder what Snowden thinks Guess all Snowden posts is curated by KGB.
    • DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
      everything of substance that a US based journalist says is voluntarily in line with the position of the CIA (self censorship). If not they'd have to be living in a country without extradition (e.g. Greenwald). I'm re-reading the Gulag Archipelago right now and considering the parallels to US's secret prisons, torture programs etc they are not at all more free than Stalin Russia. A nation of fucking slaves.
  • thecatspaw 7y ago
    > Has Snowden been actively involved in US politics Uh, the snowden leaks?
• paulcarroty 7y ago
  I think Wikileaks affiliated/sponsored from Russia 'cause Assange rejected documents about russian corruption: https://www.businessinsider.com/assange-turned-down-documents-related-to-russian-government-corruption-2017-8 https://www.businessinsider.com/assange-turned-down-document... Anyway, "democracy dies in darkness", so every dirty shit must be highlighted sooner or later.
  • slezyr 7y ago
    More proofs. Assange refused to disclose info on Russia's aggression in Ukraine - FP https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-other_news/2288391-assange-refused-to-disclose-info-on-russias-aggression-in-ukraine-fp.html https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-other_news/2288391-assange-... Wikileaks: A new angle on MH17: Rebels fired at Ukraine fighter jet which was using MH17 as decoy http://www.maxkeiser.com/2014/07/weeks-ago-they-wanted-to-provoke-the-militia-to-shoot-at-the-passenger-plane-there-would-be-a-global-catastrophe-civilians-would-die/ http://www.maxkeiser.com/2014/07/weeks-ago-they-wanted-to-pr... … and https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/492033939142619136?lang=en https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/492033939142619136?lang...
    • paulcarroty 7y ago
      Thanks for the links, man. More info about MH17 fake photo: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2014/11/14/russian-state-television-shares-fake-images-of-mh17-being-attacked/ https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2014/11/14/russian-state-tel...
• rudiv 7y ago
  RIP. It's only a matter of time before he's extradited, and I would think the current US government would definitely push for the death penalty under the Espionage Act. I suppose it's little solace that he'll join a long list of illustrious names prosecuted under that infamous act. (Emma Goldman, Eugene Debs, Victor Berger, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden)
  • rudiv 7y ago
    Reading the rest of the comments, it's surprising that so many people seem to have reduced WikiLeaks & Assange to 'co-conspirators with the President'. They've been around before the 2016 election.
    • fifnir 7y ago
      But on the biggest issue of american politics of the last 50 years, he has found himself (chosen?) on the wrong side of history <edit> If you hear trump talk for two minutes and you don't immediately realize the danger and what he represents, you might be too cynical
    • nerflad 7y ago
      The majority of people I know don't remember or care what Chelsea Manning's leaks actually contained. Or that she exists.
      • Loughla 7y ago
        Honestly, in flyover country, the only time folks talk about Chelsea Manning is as a thinly veiled attack on trans individuals. Nothing about what was leaked or that she even leaked anything important. It's sad.
  • matthewmacleod 7y ago
    Neither the UK nor Sweden is legally able to extradite to countries where there is a risk of the death penalty being applied.
• AnaniasAnanas 7y ago
  The "moral" course of events would be for him to receive a fair trial in the UK or Sweden concerning the rape and possibly the contempt of court charges. The "immoral" course of evens would be if he was extradited to the US or some other country, receive an unfair trial, or having to defend against other charges.
  • snvzz 7y ago
    >The "moral" course of events would be for him to receive a fair trial in the UK or Sweden concerning the rape and possibly the contempt of court charges. Charges (which were ridiculous to begin with) were dropped. >The "immoral" course of evens would be if he was extradited to the US or some other country, receive an unfair trial, or having to defend against other charges. That's horrible, but what I expect. Extradition to a country that has the death penalty from a country that doesn't shouldn't be a thing.
    • Stuckinsofa 7y ago
      Why were the charges ridiculous?
      • snvzz 7y ago
        Sweden's laws on "sexual misconduct" are extremely backwards. Do not quote me on this, but I recall it was something along the lines of "he touched me while I was asleep after we had sex".
        • dlp211 7y ago
          No. He put himself inside her without a condom after an consensual agreement was made that he would use a condom.
          • AnaniasAnanas 7y ago
            This was a dickish thing to do on his part (although far form rape). I think that the seven years he spent at the embassy are enough of a punishment. The only thing that I believe would be fair to have is monetary compensation to the victims.
• jackweirdy 7y ago
  > Ecuadorian embassy withdrew his asylum and UK police were invited in to arrest him. According to a journalist at Sky news https://twitter.com/NewsTMac/status/1116274082922803200 https://twitter.com/NewsTMac/status/1116274082922803200
  • peteretep 7y ago
    Hard to imagine how that would have ended any other way really. No benefit for the Ecuadorians in man-handling him, he wasn’t going to leave of his own accord, and the Brits (proooobably) weren’t going to storm the place. Pity whomever has to fumigate the room.
    • guiriduro 7y ago
      The Equadorian president Moreno didn't like Wikileaks publishing the INA papers that have lead to accusations of corruption against him. Assange could prbably have forseen that would endanger his asylum but published anyway, kudos to him.
      • monocasa 7y ago
        WikiLeaks didn't publish the INA papers.
    • chronogram 7y ago
      Fumigate? Does he smoke or something?
      • jacobush 7y ago
        Reference to his cat
      • belorn 7y ago
        They might be referring to the fact he had a cat, but then I doubt people fumigate all apartments where the previous owner has a cat. If that had been the case then cat ownership would carry a bit higher rent.
• skilled 7y ago
  > URGENT: Ecuador has illegally terminated Assange political asylum in violation of international law. He was arrested by the British police inside the Ecuadorian embassy minutes ago. Source: https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1116273826621480960 https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1116273826621480960 Holy moly, this will be interesting! EDIT: If you're interested, here's a video of him being escorted out of the embassy -- https://twitter.com/RitaPanahi/status/1116281098747568128 https://twitter.com/RitaPanahi/status/1116281098747568128 EDIT2: Comments from Snowden advising journalists to cover the story with authentic facts: https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1116285397284290560 https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1116285397284290560
  • engineeringwoke 7y ago
    International law isn't enforcable, really. It would be great if it were, but why would sovereigns give up absolute control of their legal systems?
    • cm2187 7y ago
      There isn’t really such thing as international law. Only treaties between states that are sovereign, and as such can tear them up if they do not wish to abide to them anymore.
      • Mvandenbergh 7y ago
        "International rules and customs" would be a better term. International Law is real but it is not "law" in remotely the same way that domestic laws are and using the same word for them is confusing.
        • SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
          Rules, customs and precedent. Which is pretty much the basis for law anywhere.
  • peteretep 7y ago
• thrax 7y ago
  Good.
  • dpwm 7y ago
    Care to elaborate? There's many ways this could be a "good" thing: exposing the farce of international law when the US government and military claim global jurisdiction over a man who never set foot there seems just one of them.
    • hardlianotion 7y ago
      As far as we know, there is no extradition case in place.
      • thinkingemote 7y ago
        Reload the page
        • hardlianotion 7y ago
          Thanks. Will be interesting to see what the request is for. The limited amount I have read on the subject makes me think it will have to be very carefully worded - Assange appears not to have stolen anything and is not a citizsn of the US.
• no1youknowz 7y ago
  I wonder if the WikiLeaks "Dead Man's Switch" will be triggered this time? I know there were some news articles in the last couple of years of this being the case...
  • antt 7y ago
    I believe it was when he was sentenced?
  • chvid 7y ago
    It is just a bluff for attention.
  • BLanen 7y ago
    As soon as he drops the promised Russia documents, I'm sure!
  • mrtksn 7y ago
    It did, it's a video of an NSA official murdering a congressman at a park then making it look like a drug overdose. I have to say, NSA operatives have really bad haircuts.
    • ColanR 7y ago
      Wow. Do you have a link?
      • mrtksn 7y ago
        Okay maybe I should't be joking on this, it's the plot of the movie called "Enemy of the State". Nice movie.
        • tyingq 7y ago
          That scene was likely somewhat inspired by the conspiracy theories about Vince Foster. Foster was found dead in Fort Marcy Park, a federal park in Virginia.
  • 7y ago
• Traster 7y ago
  Well, this certainly makes some of us look a bit stupid after criticizing him for crying wolf a few days ago.
  • simonvc 7y ago
    You know how that story ends right?
  • stingraycharles 7y ago
    Where was that?
    • makomk 7y ago
      It was certainly all over social media, plus several major outlets were quite open about not stationing reporters outside the embassy because clearly he was just crying wolf. That's probably why this BBC article just has a stock image.
  • DavidVoid 7y ago
    He was wanted by British police for jumping bail, why wouldn't they arrest him?
    • thinkingemote 7y ago
      Reload the page for the news of his extradition
    • celticninja 7y ago
      breaching bail is not a crime, he either has to be released on the same bail conditions or charged with a crime. However the US have now requested his extradition now that he is in custody.
    • Traster 7y ago
      It's not that the police wouldn't arrest him if they could. It's just that he repeatedly claimed he was getting kicked out of the embassy and it didn't happen... until now.
• lolc 7y ago
  So basically he's been arrested for not complying with UK court orders, right? And the question now is whether the U.S. will seek extradition. Or did they already?
  • hardlianotion 7y ago
    Yes. The whole episode looks very ill-judged.
    • deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
  • deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  • thinkingemote 7y ago
    Question has been answered.
• chvid 7y ago
  About time. It will be good see his case brought before the courts whatever they will be in the US, UK, Sweden ... staying in the embassy for so many years is just absurd.
  • belorn 7y ago
    The offense he is being charged with is absconding on the bail. The maximum punishment for that is complicated, but as far I can see it is either max 3 months or it can be sent to the Crown Court where it is max 2 years.
  • Cthulhu_ 7y ago
    And what case would that be? The case in Sweden was dropped for example.
    • chvid 7y ago
      I don't know if the rape case in Sweden can be reopened. But I suppose the US wants him in relation to the Russian election meddling investigation plus other cases and I suppose for him to be extradited he will first appear before a UK court. There are obviously open cases as he has been arrested.
      • DavidVoid 7y ago
        The statute of limitations expires in August 2020 so it can be reopened.
    • fredoralive 7y ago
      The immediate one is breaking bail conditions. Possibly extradition to the US over Wikileaks stuff, but no pubic application for that yet. But if he could be extradited from the UK to the US over Wikileaks, why would the US do the convoluted "extradite him to Sweden then on to the US from there" scheme that he claims was in progress? (ducks)
      • thinkingemote 7y ago
• overkalix 7y ago
  I was writing a long post but I deleted it. I don't know what to say, I don't like the guy, but I have an even stronger dislike for how international politics and intelligence services work.
  • tramtrist 7y ago
    I also feel the same way. He may have committed some heinous crimes outside of the actual hacking/leaking but to say we all didn't benefit from what we learned regarding how our government spies on us would just be flat out wrong..
    • fxbl0i 7y ago
      What crimes did he commit? Honest question. I heard that someone accused him of being a rapist but then dropped the charges so I guess it was false. What else is there?
      • 0x54D5 7y ago
        He skipped bail. That is a crime. He literally locked himself up for 7 years for something that in the UK would never have been as severe as 7 years of imprisonment.
      • josteink 7y ago
        Fleeing the arrest for fake rape-allegations staged by the CIA. I can’t see why anyone would do that if they valued their own personal security. /s
      • toby- 7y ago
        Skipping bail; failing to surrender to the court after he was previously released on bail. The sexual assault case against him in Sweden has since been dropped, but the warrant for skipping bail is still active.
        • askmike 7y ago
          Though given his situation and the quite likely extradition to the US, who wouldn't have done the same? Technically something criminal but..
• narrator 7y ago
  I wonder if this has to do with the upcoming DECLAS. Seems that would be coming up soon given what Barr has just testified.
  • jefe_ 7y ago
    This was my first thought as well, think there are 2 possibilities: 1. The Mueller report presents uncomfortable yet legal, coordination with WikiLeaks, in which case extraditing and prosecuting Assange would allow administration to distance itself and present any coordination as incidental. 2. Assange releases were cited in FISA requests. If intelligence agencies had an established assessment on Assange's ties to Russia, and requests were authorized with elements contradicting those assessments, it could raise eyebrows. It seems firmly establishing presence or lack of Russian backing, along with sources would bring clarity to several matters.
    • narrator 7y ago
      Maybe they want to get him to the U.S and get his testimony into evidence. Extradition from the U.K might be difficult after DECLAS.
• vectorEQ 7y ago
  rip. at least he's already used to being confined to a small space.. don't expect any judge to feel sorry for him. no lawyer will get him out of this one.
• belorn 7y ago
  This mean that the single most expensive police case in the history of UK will have an end. It will be interesting to see the final price tag in respect to the final verdict.
  • hardlianotion 7y ago
    Which is strange as the UK had little skin in the game to begin with
    • rudiv 7y ago
      I think trying to maintain the 'special relationship' is their skin in the game.
      • DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
        the word lapdog or poodle comes to mind.
    • foldr 7y ago
      The state can't be seen to wink at skipping bail, or everyone would be doing it. I don't think you need to look for any deeper explanation than that.
      • hardlianotion 7y ago
        Agreed. But it is ironic.
      • belorn 7y ago
        That is a nice sentiment but I would like see the police budget if they start to spend the same amount of resources on all bail skips. Everyone being equal within the eyes of the law. The police budget for the Assange case was about £3.5m per year. That is a lot of money which could be used in order to address other areas which the police is accused of turning a blind eye to.
• antocv 7y ago
  Do you guys remember when the airplane of president Morales, was forced down in Vienna when he was on a flight home? Breaking diplomatic immunity, hospitality etc. Just because CIA believed Assange was in that flight, that Morales would help him escape. EDIT: My mistake, that was for Snowden, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident
  • overkalix 7y ago
    They believed Snowden was on-board, and to make the plane go to Wien, the Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian governments were pressured to deny Morales right of passage and pressured him to allow the plane to be searched. The governments of half of Europe fold like a cheap suit to the interests of the US intelligence services.
    • peteretep 7y ago
      > The governments of half of Europe fold like a cheap suit to the interests of the US intelligence services The governments of most of Western Europe have geopolitical interests strongly allied to the US. > Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian So, all members of SIGINT Seniors Europe except Portugal.
      • overkalix 7y ago
        Is it in the interests of European governments for the US government to spy on European governments and citizens? Cool-cool-cool.
        • peteretep 7y ago
          I mean, I don't want to go all _Tu quoque_ here, but if you think that's a one-way street then I think you're being a little naive. Examples (in English) from two German news sources: https://www.dw.com/en/austria-angry-at-germany-over-enormous-spy-effort/a-44257734 https://www.dw.com/en/austria-angry-at-germany-over-enormous... https://www.thelocal.de/20170622/germany-spied-on-the-white-house https://www.thelocal.de/20170622/germany-spied-on-the-white-...
• ggm 7y ago
  Did the people who stood bail for him get their money back when he went awol?
  • stendinator 7y ago
    Isn't the point of bail precisely that you don't get the money back if you don't show up?
    • ggm 7y ago
      Ken Loach and John Pilger probably didn't plan on him skipping bail. I think you can plead, but yea. It's probably gone.
• mezod 7y ago
  I'm simply so disappointed about 90% of the comments in this thread. I really thought you people had some f. values.
  • _Codemonkeyism 7y ago
    Yes, I guess most have, one of them being "rule of law".
• lazyjones 7y ago
  He looked very ill on the Daily Mail photos, I hope he'll survive the next couple of weeks... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6911187/Wikileaks-founder-Julian-Assange-arrested-police.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6911187/Wikileaks-f...
  • chvid 7y ago
    I agreed. He does not look good. Is he being carried out? Yelling "UK must resist".
  • anoncake 7y ago
    Being stuck in an embassy for 7 years cannot be healthy.
    • efraim 7y ago
      He certainly has some mental health issues, that's for sure.
    • icebraining 7y ago
      He looked fine just two years ago[1], right before the Ecuadorian presidency changed hands. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/19/julian-assange-signals-he-will-stay-in-ecuadorian-embassy https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/19/julian-assange...
  • belorn 7y ago
    I agree. There are good reasons why prisons have exercise yards. 7 years in a room is very brutal on a human body.
  • Theodores 7y ago
    I think he is in disguise! The difference the beard makes, he used to have stature on the balcony with his hairdo of a year ago, now he physically looks little. Interesting how the UK laid siege to the embassy at vast expense. Had they not done that and just snitched silently with someone watching the normal CCTV that the UK is famous for then they would have had him getting used to nipping outdoors. But no, they made an example of him, and at considerable taxpayer expense. It would only be a matter of time before the government of Ecuador would change to an American rather than a Bolivarian one, so even if they could not coax him out by having the absence of police then he would get himself having 'new landlords'. Regarding Sweden, women are not 'mere chattel' in Sweden. To claim that the original allegations were just trumped up US bullshit is nonsense and a failing to understand that Swedish law is serious about equality. I don't think that the English speaking nations are anywhere near Sweden when it comes to treating everyone equally in law. The law is a double edged sword, Assange could have understood Swedish law a bit better and respected it. That would have served him better than British law.
• antocv 7y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007,_Baghdad_airstrike https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007,_Baghdad_airstri... "Apache pilots watched people run into a building and engaged that building with several AGM-114 Hellfire missiles." "controversy following the release of 39 minutes of gunsight footage by leaks website WikiLeaks." "Press reports of the number killed vary from 12[1][2] to "over 18".[3][4] 2 journalists were killed, and 2 children were wounded." The murderers of those 2 journalists and wounding 2 children are free, they had been laughing while killing them. Here we see whom the state hunts for "justice", Assange, for letting us know above.
  • yreg 7y ago
    He wasn't arrested for that specific video.
    • dvfjsdhgfv 7y ago
      Nobody would be that stupid to try to arrest him for this.
    • kakarot 7y ago
      Of course, he was arrested on completely unrelated bogus charges, so that we never have to have the conversation about whether or not he deserves prison for whistle-blowing.
  • Stuckinsofa 7y ago
    Oh come on. The fact that he has done some good doesn't mean that he is above the law.
    • garmaine 7y ago
      What law, exactly?
      • Stuckinsofa 7y ago
        I will refer you to reading TFA. Also: rape.
• Mvandenbergh 7y ago
  It will be interesting to see if the US tries to extradite him. It's actually not 100% clear that he's broken any US laws in any ways that they aren't also routinely broken by newspapers. There's a few avenues: 1) Publishing classified information. Easy to show that he did this but a very difficult path to go down when American newspapers do this all the time. 2) Conspiracy to commit espionage. Probably the most likely, this would require showing that he was actively working with someone to extract classified information. Just openly soliciting leaks to an email address wouldn't be enough, he'd really have to be talking to a leaker before/during the extraction of the data. Depending on the nature of his communications with Guccifer (The GRU hackers from 2016) they may be able to make a case on this basis. 3) Al Capone style / collateral attack. The US made it very hard for Wikileaks to operate financially. Maybe he did something that falls under the US' capacious money laundering rules? Note that this case is fundamentally different from Manning / Snowden / Winner who all had access to classified information legally and misused that access. Due to the first amendment, American espionage laws are quite narrowly written compared to those of many other countries and while it is easy to prosecute people on the "inside" for leaking classified material to the "outside", it is much harder to prosecute someone for what they do with it when it's out. (Edit: Well that was fast! Interested to see what's in the indictment)
  • isostatic 7y ago
    America could have just as easily extradited him from the UK as from Sweden.
    • garmaine 7y ago
      He wasn't in the UK.
      • raaxe 7y ago
        He is now.
      • foldr 7y ago
        Extraterritoriality of embassies is a myth. Assange was in the UK when he was in the Ecuadorian embassy. However, the UK authorities could not have removed him from the embassy without violating the Vienna Convention.
• draugadrotten 7y ago
  Assange was arrested just 1 day after Russian president Putin met with Swedish PM Löfven. https://www.thelocal.se/20190410/heres-what-stefan-lfven-and-vladimir-putin-talked-about-in-their-first-one-on-one-meeting https://www.thelocal.se/20190410/heres-what-stefan-lfven-and...
  • Stuckinsofa 7y ago
    Few if anyone on Sweden care about this. It's a normal rape case albeit with a celebrity in it. It should go through the normal process. Hardly something Putin would discuss with Löfven.
• antocv 7y ago
  My introduction to bitcoin was due to this https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2010/12/07/visa-mastercard-move-to-choke-wikileaks/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2010/12/07/visa-m... 2010, about November, when Wikileaks was loved by everyone here on HackerNews. When donations were piling up by PayPal, Visa, Mastercard. When Assange was the postgresql security hacker turned whistlblower-enabler and journalist. Then suddenly all donations, globaly, halted to Wikileaks. Bitcoin was the only way, and its only real use still possible - censorship resistant transfer of value.
  • tomp 7y ago
    > censorship resistant transfer of value But how do you get actual value out of it, i.e. currency? AFAIK most exchanges have pretty strict money laundering rules these days, it's not like Wikileaks could just open an account to liquidate those BTC donations...
    • celticninja 7y ago
      It is possible to exchange for cash and it isn't money laundering to just change BTC to cash. An exchange may face political pressure to stop facilitating wikileaks converting BTC to USD/GBP/EUR but thats about the extent of it.
    • magnamerc 7y ago
      There are several ways to bypass exchanges. LocalBitcoins and Bisq are two ways. There are more though.
      • deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
• eternalban 7y ago
  That's a rather sanitized picture that the British establishment mouthpiece (that's BBC News to you) has on its article. Doesn't BBC news have reporters on scene in London to give us the pretty picture to go with the articles?
  • makomk 7y ago
    The UK press didn't bother stationing reporters outside because they thought his imminent arrest was just something he was making up for attention. It looks like they've now replaced the stock image with a video from Ruptly, which is part of Russia Today.
• mikeq101101 7y ago
  The comments here disgust me. People here used to have some principles, now there's so many people just repeating establishment talking points.
  • matt4077 7y ago
    And I can't understand how so many people stay loyal to a guy who just wasted seven years of his life in a self-imposed prison with absolutely no upside except delaying whatever awaits him now. Or how many will, when given a choice between: (a) a wild conspiracies theories about a totally-average Swedish woman being paid by the CIA to make up some not even that damning rape charges, then asks him for an $20/5min STD test in exchange for dropping the charges, knowing too well that Assange will be stupid enough to refuse, so as to enable execution of a convoluted three-country extradition plan when they could just as well wait for Assange to travel to whatever country has the extradition treaty they liked best or (b): guy with a history of being egotistical, who rarely managed to work with anybody, and who has a history of ignoring the house rules on hygiene (cf cat) thought nothing of discreetly trying again without a condom ...choose the former for no reason but political or personal sympathy.
    • tingol 7y ago
      You are delusional. You talk about him like he's your creepy neighbor from the street. This guy messed with dangerous people for the sake of truth. He is being prosecuted by the most powerful country in the world with by far the most reach outside its own borders. All his trouble began after he leaked US butchery in Iraq. You think his self-imposed exile is an egotistical act instead of what it really is: Step outside and you're gone. I would really like to see what your actions would be in this situation. But you don't seem the type to risk your own life for the sake of others knowing the truth. But if you think your option (b) of him being creepy is the one that makes more sense even after the fact that the woman has proven ties with the CIA than I feel sorry for you and our society because that represents the death of what I think is one of the most important pillars of modern civilization: freedom of press.
      • 7y ago
• dschuler 7y ago
  Well, they _did_ warn him about the cat litter issue. All jest aside, I wonder what he could have done differently (not taking sides here, just speculating). One option would have been to live among the public in the UK, and let himself be extradited to Sweden, then the US. This act alone would have drawn attention to the fact that people in the EU can - under some circumstances - be extradited to the US, which would have been alarming to the general populace in Europe since the US still has the death penalty. The possibility that he would have been imprisoned in Sweden instead would have been weighed against indefinite house arrest in the Ecuadorian embassy - for 7 years in this case. In any event, I think we'll learn quite a bit about international relations work in practice.
• skekaeeeww 7y ago
  About time.
• _iyig 7y ago
  In the Afghan War Documents leak, Julian Assange refused to redact the names of Afghans who informed on the Taliban. He referred to them as “spies and traitors” in comments to the media. A reporter for the Guardian claims he said, “Well, they're informants. So, if they get killed, they've got it coming to them. They deserve it.” Nasty way to diss on fellow leakers, in my opinion. I wonder if Mr. Assange feels he himself deserves what’s now coming to him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_War_documents_leak#Informants_named https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_War_documents_leak#Info...
  • megous 7y ago
    People take real risks when telling on others. That it may be later revealed and their targets may try to take revenge is part of that. There's no clear just way to view the entire situation. Though Assange was unreasonable to call them all "spies and traitors", if that's what he did.
    • olalonde 7y ago
      > People take real risks when telling on others. That it may be later revealed and their targets may try to take revenge is part of that. I'm not sure if you meant to defend him but that describes Julian Assange's own situation pretty well.
      • megous 7y ago
        I only meant to point out that being an informant for occupying force is not some clear cut morally good situation from an outside POV on the informant, when the giving of information leads to: - killing people by bombings - locking people up without usual safety/legal process regards, and torturing them (either directly, or by having a pretty nasty jail) Innocent people are often killed, and locked up. This is not some precise process. Also being an informant druing war for one side is not the same thing as being an informant for police in the peaceful western country, or informing on curruption via leaks. These are wildly differing contexts. You can't view informants with high regard, unviersally. People will falsely report on neigbours, to settle some past grudge, because they know trigger happy Americans will bomb/storm the place, if they can make the story plausible enough. Even if you assume good reports, bystanders get killed, or snatched up too. And through all this you have to still assume us-vs-them mentality, that all Taliban members are bad, and informing on them is good. So there's a grain of truth in the view that was ascribed to Assange, above. But it's unreasonable, to go full way, and make all informants be traitors and whatnot. There's this book, that makes good points about the complexity of the situation in Afghantistan, and the US intervention: https://www.amazon.com/No-Good-Men-Among-Living/dp/1250069262 https://www.amazon.com/No-Good-Men-Among-Living/dp/125006926...
• mc32 7y ago
  Assange is a flawed personality. That said, over the years there was a transformation. People defended him despite his issues when his whistleblower endeavors aligned. Once they no longer aligned, many many of his supporters turned around and called out his peccadilloes and transgressions. People still defend Snowden but if he ever releases information seen as politically damaging to one side, all that adulation is out the window. That’s to say all this support isn’t actually principled support but rather political.
  • Traster 7y ago
    On the flip side over the years Assange has very much moved from a proponent of openness and protection for leakers to being a political campaigner. His choice to deliberately release material during the US election campaign in a way that was designed to politically damage the candidate he opposed goes way beyond the mission statement of wikileaks and also brings into question whether wikileaks is operating independent of Russian influence.
    • hyperdunc 7y ago
      The fact that material existed in the first place is solely the fault of the candidate.
      • Traster 7y ago
        Firstly, there is not one campaign that's existed since 2000 that won't have had atleast a few campaign staffers with embarrassing emails. Secondly, the issue isn't only about the clear co-ordination with a hostile foreign state, it's that rather than abiding by Assange's own claimed values, he kept the data private and then leaked it over a political campaign to try and cause political damage. That's nothing to do with data being free, that's a political campaign by a foreign power.
        • mc32 7y ago
          Although somewhat tangential the conspiracy charges prove his suspicion they were trying to get him extradited (contrary the coy responses from the admin). Given that as well as the half joking “drone him” joke, it’s not hard to imagine why he might have a bias.
• hnsukas 7y ago
  Who will reveal the secrets of governments and Google real agenda now ? What a loss. Google are happy for sure.
• hnsukas 7y ago
  Why nobody demand YouTube facebook or twitter to be censored ? There is so much sex and violence ? Why every other social media loose they domains .. Sounds like Google Facebook and Twitter is working with governments and sing like a rat in cheese.
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• dmIequals 7y ago
  Today my friends, I think we can all agree is a sad day, I know JA has been accused of some bad things and it would seem they may be true, but it's what he stands for, this is a loss for liberty all around the world.
• fukbezos 7y ago
  Lock him up
• akerro 7y ago
  So now we're waiting for encryption keys to be released to 100s Gbs of archives that we host on torrents?
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• geofft 7y ago
  Chelsea Manning, who actually leaked things, is still in prison because of it. Apparently nobody cares.
  • chadcmulligan 7y ago
    Indeed the propaganda war has been won. Oceania prevails.
  • megous 7y ago
    In a solitary confinement non the less, for contempt of court, for refusing to testify in Assange case. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/23/chelsea-manning-jail-solitary-confinement-wikileaks https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/23/chelsea-mann... Is this common in US?
    • geofft 7y ago
      I'm not deeply familiar with grand jury process in the US but yeah I think it's unusual to place someone in solitary (which, btw, is torture according to the UN) for refusing to testify to a grand jury. By the way, she has a defense fund if you want to help her out: https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/chelsea-manning-needs-legal-funds-to-resist-a-grand-jury-subpoena https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/chelsea-manning-needs-... (I've donated.)
    • hannasanarion 7y ago
      Punishing people for refusing to testify is, yeah. There is no right to non-friend-incrimination. You can stay silent in your own defense, but if the government can prove that you have information on somebody else, they can compel you to give it up.
  • e12e 7y ago
    Actually, she's not in prison - the sentence was commuted. Unfortunately it looks like she might be jailed indefinitely for not testifying for a grand jury :/
    • 7y ago
• dandare 7y ago
  As a parent I will always remember that WikiLeaks (Assange) helped to stop the torture of children in Iraq. The war cables revealed that the US government knew about the routine torture of prisoners and opponents including women and children by the Iraqi authorities, a de facto puppet regime of the US. The US government knew about this from the alarmed reports of its own personnel and decided to turn a blind eye because... I have no idea why. If not for Assange and Manning, more parent's would have to watch while their child is brutally tortured and mutilated by the psychopathic enforcers of the US puppet regime. This is where every rational discussion about WikiLeaks and Assange should always start. Now we can talk about Assange's abrasive personality and dumb political views.
  • empath75 7y ago
    I think Obama and Bush really badly mishandled both Snowden and Assange. Heavy handed responses to both of them drove them into the arms of Russia. I don’t think either of them were Russian assets when they started.
    • billfruit 7y ago
      And also Julia Gillard, she was very unsympathetic, even hostile to him.
      • roenxi 7y ago
        Julia Gillard [then PM of Australia, 0]. The Australian governments mild condemnation of Assange as the situation unfolded was as disappointing as it was predictable. US lap-dogs and all that. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Gillard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Gillard
    • UweSchmidt 7y ago
      How should it have been "handled" in your opinion? 'Protect the whistleblower' or take out the 'threat to national interests'?
      • 7y ago
• discordance 7y ago
  Despite Julian's character or the surrounding controversies, let's not forget the positive impact Wikileaks made with contributions like Collateral murder [0]. 0: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007,_Baghdad_airstrike#Leaked_video_footage https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007,_Baghdad_airst...
  • fixermark 7y ago
    Or the release of the Vatican letters.
    • metalchianti 7y ago
      Or Vault 7.
• raubtier 7y ago
  You just gotta love the way he was a hero for the liberals until he leaked the dnc email. Now he's Putins agent. Btw, I haven't seen any link about the release of the Mueller report.
• DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
  and considering the public mood after a several year campaign to demonize Wikileaks and Assange by the US media, chances are pretty high that he will rot in a US prison for life or have his ashes thrown into the sea the same way as they did with Osama bin Laden. The US is a terror state that uses torture and secret prisons. I hope that EU countries will stop extradition asap.
  • Crosseye_Jack 7y ago
    > or have his ashes thrown into the sea the same way as they did with Osama bin Laden. The UK won't extradite if the death penality is on the cards. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/41/section/94 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/41/section/94
    • techntoke 7y ago
      This is ridiculous. No one is talking about death penalty except people trying to inflame the situation.
      • alex_young 7y ago
        Tell that to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. We've executed for sharing secret documents before, and may again.
        • dragonwriter 7y ago
          The Rosenbergs weren't extradited from a country which would require a formal guarantee that the death penalty would not be used, so are not a relevant precedent.
          • thefounder 7y ago
            I bet the formal guarantee will be negotiable, especially when on the other end is the US. That's why UK has a special relationship after all. Assange would have been safer in Russia than UK for sure.
• ryanlol 7y ago
  I just donated $2000 to the WL defense fund. You should also consider supporting their efforts to destroy the western political establishment. The defense fund is operated by the Courage Foundation which has an excellent track record with similar cases such as that of Lauri Love. https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/39o6E2qascmB5rNwFtJU6ug5PXZx5K2ED3 https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/39o6E2qascmB5rNwFtJU6... https://defend.wikileaks.org/donate/ https://defend.wikileaks.org/donate/ Death to America
  • J_cst 7y ago
    Your latest sentence is really sad and in my opinion should be edited and removed.
    • ryanlol 7y ago
      Why? It refers to policies, not the nation. "death to the US's policies" simply doesn't sound very catchy.
      • J_cst 7y ago
        The word "death" has a very well defined meaning and pairing it to America conveys a significance which I find disturbing. Moreover, the fact that you built the frase in such an ambiguous way, led me to think that you did it on purpose. In everybody's interest I politely invite you not to play this game, thank you
        • ryanlol 7y ago
          "Death to Americans" would be disturbing, "Death to America" simply isn't. There isn't any credible disturbing interpretation here, if someone meant Americans instead of America then they would use that word. In fact, even if I was calling for death to the nation, it'd still be a stretch to interpret that as calling for the death of Americans. Death to any countries attempting to imprison journos.
• shrewduser 7y ago
  I just want to know, from the people who seemed to have turned against Assange, how do you know it's not a concerted disinformation / propaganda campaign to remove all his credibility and reduce public support? By my reckoning It's really hard to know what to even believe about a guy who might credibly be targeted by that.
  • fixermark 7y ago
    If it was, WikiLeaks would have leaked the details by now.
    • hallihax 7y ago
      I doubt anybody involved in targeting and suppressing Wikileaks post-2016 is leaking their plans to Wikileaks itself.
      • fixermark 7y ago
        Why? Every organization has whistleblowers. By the same token that Chelsea Manning leaked the state department cables, one can imagine a middle-tier operative with differing political ideology dropping a hint.
        • hallihax 7y ago
          Sure, it's definitely a possibility - but not a likely one. The people in charge of any such operation against Wikileaks would be particularly mindful of their own operatives leaking to WL itself. There's no reason whatsoever to assume WL has any information about anything at any given time, unless they've publicly suggested that they have.
        • syrrim 7y ago
          >Every organization has whistleblowers. this is not clear. A sufficiently small organization needn't have whistleblowers. The extreme level of confidentially practiced in the relevant organizations ensures that the number of people privy to the knowledge and capable of leaking is very small.
• YeGoblynQueenne 7y ago
  Regarding the allegations against Assange: Assange visited Sweden in August 2010. During his visit, he became the subject of sexual assault allegations from two women with whom he had sex. He was questioned, the case was initially closed, and he was told he could leave the country. In November 2010, however, the case was re-opened by a special prosecutor who said that she wanted to question Assange over two counts of sexual molestation, one count of unlawful coercion and one count of "lesser-degree rape" (mindre grov våldtäkt). Assange denied the allegations and said he was happy to face questions in Britain.[7][166] In 2010, the prosecutor said Swedish law prevented her from questioning anyone by video link or in the London embassy. In March 2015, after public criticism from other Swedish law practitioners, she changed her mind and agreed to interrogate Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, with interviews finally beginning on 14 November 2016.[167] These interviews involved police, Swedish prosecutors and Ecuadorian officials and were eventually published online.[168] By this time, the statute of limitations had expired on all three of the less serious allegations. Since the Swedish prosecutor had not interviewed Assange by 18 August 2015, the questioning pertained only to the open investigation of "lesser degree rape", whose statute of limitations is due to expire in 2020.[169][170][171][172] On 19 May 2017, the Swedish authorities dropped their investigation against Assange, claiming they could not expect the Ecuadorian Embassy to communicate reliably with Assange with respect to the case. Chief prosecutor Marianne Ny officially revoked his arrest warrant, but said the investigation could still be resumed if Assange visited Sweden before August 2020. "We are not making any pronouncement about guilt", she said.[173][174][17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange#Swedish_sexual_assault_allegations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange#Swedish_sexual_...
• fenomas 7y ago
  For anyone interested in understanding Assange, check out this excellent article by Andrew O'Hagan from a few years ago: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n05/andrew-ohagan/ghosting https://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n05/andrew-ohagan/ghosting O'Hagan was hired to ghost-write Assange's autobiography and wound up spending some months in his inner circle, and his account is very detailed and balanced.
  • justtopost 7y ago
    He literally just called him an autist and writes him off. Its frankly depressig no matter the truth.
    • fenomas 7y ago
      That sentence is just the author giving his impression of Assange before meeting him and spending years with him. The full article doesn't write off Assange at all, if anything it's quite sympathetic to him.
• neverminder 7y ago
  > Extradition request from US confirmed > Scotland Yard has confirmed that Assange was arrested on behalf of the US after receiving a request for his extradition. > In a statement it said: > Julian Assange, 47, (03.07.71) has today, Thursday 11 April, been further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities, at 10:53hrs after his arrival at a central London police station. This is an extradition warrant under Section 73 of the Extradition Act. He will appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates’ Court as soon as possible. https://www.theguardian.com/media/live/2019/apr/11/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-arrested-at-the-ecuadorean-embassy-live-updates https://www.theguardian.com/media/live/2019/apr/11/wikileaks...
  • YeGoblynQueenne 7y ago
    From the same Guardian article: Sweden’s chief Prosecutor Ingrid Isgren, has issued this statement: “This is news to us too, so we have not been able to take a position on the information that is now available. We also do not know why he is under arrest. We are following the developments.” So, yes, he was arrested on behalf of the US and not Sweden.
    • icebraining 7y ago
      We already knew Sweden had dropped the warrant, the claim now was that they were trying to arrest him for violating UK law (skipping bail). Unsurprisingly, there's more than that, although I didn't expect to see confirmation so soon.
• fixermark 7y ago
  I honestly don't know what assange or wikileaks thought was going to happen when they leaked information that was politically embarrassing to an Ecuadorian ally. On the plus side, I'm now far more convinced of WikiLeaks' non-partisanship (or naivete), since they threw their own founder under the bus.
  • Synaesthesia 7y ago
    They say they had nothing to do with the INA leaks. https://defend.wikileaks.org/2019/04/03/ecuador-twists-embarrassing-ina-papers-into-pretext-to-oust-assange/ https://defend.wikileaks.org/2019/04/03/ecuador-twists-embar... Julian didn’t have internet access so I don’t see how he could have done it.
• tabs_masterrace 7y ago
  Very sad day. Remember this all started with the leak of the "Collateral murder" video. That's when the Interpol notice went out, and he had to seek asylum at the embassy. It was already quite disgusting how powerful entities were able to seemingly fabricate sexual charges as needed. Later on he made very influential enemies by exposing corruption in the democratic political party. Instead of any follow up on that front, the pressure on Assange increased and the whole Russian scaremongering narrative was pushed. Probably to distract from own potential repercussions. For me that looks a lot like government oppression. Something like that wouldn't fly in Germany for example. We had recently had an popular elected political removed from office for something quite insignificant - it was found out, he copy & pasted a few paragraphs in his decade old (and unrelated) doctoral work. It doesn't look much different then the cases where Chinese or Russian governments going after journalists
  • skilled 7y ago
    Video in question: https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/ https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/
  • matt4077 7y ago
    > Remember this all started with the leak of the "Collateral murder" video. That's when the Interpol notice went out, and he had to seek asylum at the embassy. Collateral Murder was published in April, 2010. The warrant came in November of that year, seven months later. Yes, sure, it possibly takes that long to organise a conspiracy, especially if you have to recruit a Swedish feminist student into the CIA and also get at multiple prosecutors in one of the least corrupt countries in the world. But the connection still seems tenuous.
    • throwaway_m73 7y ago
      Don't know what you're talking about with the CIA. More likely they just looked up any previous court cases in every previous place he lived, couldn't find anything open but a juicy closed case that they could ask re-opened as a favor. That's not so strange. Considering that they closed the investigation on the grounds that they couldn't reach him, but refused to question him in london, it seems plausible the whole thing was just a play to get him on their soil.
• localhostdotdev 7y ago
  it's going to be interesting to see what is in all those insurance files https://legalinsurrection.com/2013/08/whats-behind-wikileaks-latest-release-of-insurance-files/ https://legalinsurrection.com/2013/08/whats-behind-wikileaks...
• NoblePublius 7y ago
  Civil disobedience means accepting the consequences of one’s actions. Mr Assange is a narcissist, probably a pasty, and deserves to be prosecuted for his crimes. For it is in the state’s treatment of him can the public find the truth, if any, in his claims. Stop being such a pussy, Jules, and own up to your actions.
  • thinkingemote 7y ago
    What if the trail is in secret?
• wolfgke 7y ago
  3 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19599699 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19599699 (sorry for this shameless promotion of my HN submission)
• daveheq 7y ago
  I love the idea of WikiLeaks exposing corruption, however I think Assange got mad with a power lust and released things that put innocent people in danger unnecesaarily, and then become overly-biased by releasing only anti-DNC/Hillary stuff while sitting on RNC/Trump dirt that they were also rumored to have.
• auntienomen 7y ago
  Play espionage games, win espionage prizes.
• tareqak 7y ago
  Looks like he was arrested on two counts: skipping bail in the UK, and an extradition request to the US soon after [0][1]. [0] http://news.met.police.uk/news/arrest-update-sw1-365526 http://news.met.police.uk/news/arrest-update-sw1-365526 [1] http://news.met.police.uk/news/update-arrest-of-julian-assange-365565 http://news.met.police.uk/news/update-arrest-of-julian-assan...
• rndgermandude 7y ago
  http://news.met.police.uk/news/update-arrest-of-julian-assange-365565 http://news.met.police.uk/news/update-arrest-of-julian-assan... "Julian Assange, 47, (03.07.71) has today, Thursday 11 April, been further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities, at 10:53hrs after his arrival at a central London police station. This is an extradition warrant under Section 73 of the Extradition Act. He will appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates' Court as soon as possible."
• newintellectual 7y ago
  ProTip: if a country gives you political asylum, don't go poking them in the eye with your finger.
• bitL 7y ago
  Is there any manual on how to behave in a totalitarian society, how to "blend" with "normal" people not questioning authorities and "looking the other way", "doing the right thing"; what are efficient ways to dissent etc.?
  • luckylion 7y ago
    Leave.
• sirinath 7y ago
  WikiLeaks help trasparancy. Hence, why has no privacy groups made any protests regarding the arrests.
• papermill 7y ago
  So now Trump has both assange and manning in prison? Funny how the entire media has been soft on Trump on this matter. You would think "journalists" at CNN, MSNBC, NYTimes, WaPo, etc would be going crazy over Trump's attack on free press, leakers and people holding power to account. Who has done more to try and hold power to account than assange and manning? Wonder what the economist is going to write? After all he won their "New Media Award" in 2008 along with Amnesty International UK Media Awards and a few Free Speech awards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange#Honours_and_awards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange#Honours_and_awa... Let me guess what's going to happen next. The media is going to start pushing "sweden sex abuse" and anti-assange and anti-manning stories.
  • luckylion 7y ago
    "The media" has been pretty anti-assange for quite some time, increasingly so since the 2016 election, so those awards are forgotten, I'd wager. It's going to be interesting. On the one hand it's a great opportunity to shit on Trump, on the other hand he's doing their bidding. My guess is that it's going to be a variation of "we hope the cruel man-child in charge isn't going to overstep the lines of due process, we will pay close attention #DemocracyDiesInDarkness", which he won't, and that will be it and everybody is happy, because "he did get his chance in court", like Manning.
• huxflux 7y ago
  No one is above the law!
• nprateem 7y ago
  I wonder if we'll finally get so see what's in the "insurance" archive he put on torrent sites all those years ago, if anyone still has a copy...
• huxflux 7y ago
  "on behalf of the US after receiving a request for his extradition". Déjà Vu on what Canada just recently did for the US as well. Despicable.
• quotz 7y ago
  Democracy dies right in front of our eyes. I say we protest
• Salamat 7y ago
  Any possible relation to the arrest of Assange? IMF board approves $4.2 bln financing deal with Ecuador March 11 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund’s executive board approved the $4.2 billion financing deal with Ecuador https://www.reuters.com/article/ecuador-imf/imf-board-approves-42-bln-financing-deal-with-ecuador-idUSL1N20Y1O6 https://www.reuters.com/article/ecuador-imf/imf-board-approv...
  • cheez 7y ago
    Good question: https://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/tad/extarr2.aspx?memberKey1=270&date1key=2019-03-31 https://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/tad/extarr2.aspx?memberK...
  • envy2 7y ago
    That article is a month old——so, unlikely.
    • injb 7y ago
      I don't see how that makes it unlikely. This has probably been months in the making.
    • cheez 7y ago
      You know real life politics doesn't move as fast as you see on TV right?
    • Salamat 7y ago
      IMF has last granted a loan to Ecuador in Mar 21, 2003, that is 16 years. Now Ecuador is a client.
  • idlewords 7y ago
    Call me a patsy, but it seems more likely that Ecuador kicked him out of the embassy because it asked him not to do certain things as a condition of his living there, and he did those things.
    • 7y ago
• throw2016 7y ago
  Hey look we have democracy, freedom, free speech but if you actually try to use any of these seriously beyond ranting about some politician to actually exposing the rot we will demonize and come after you. This is a nice arrangement, the vast majority will never offer organized dissent and can keep on posturing about 'freedom' and 'democracy' while those who put their head above are swiftly cut down to size. Isn't it curious that the bare basic actions of whistle blowing and dissent are not able to operate freely in the west?
• belorn 7y ago
  I would like to locate all HN comments which said he never would get arrested on behalf of the US, and that Assange objections was all just pretense for trying to escape justice from the UK/Swedish legal system.
  • throwawaylolx 7y ago
    Yeah, moments before the arrest, many people in this thread were accusing him of paranoia/manipulative intents: >He claimed that his reason to do so was to avoid extradition to the US, but Sweden wasn't allowed to extradite him without UK's permission first [0]. He could've gone to Sweden and face the charges, and avoided this whole thing. But he had to make himself look like a victim of a conspiracy instead, and his followers eats it up. >If this truly was some sort of grand conspiracy to get him extradited to the US, I'd imagine the CIA has more reliable and straightforward methods of arresting/disappearing someone. >He was before he ran to the embassy, skipping bail, on the pretext that if the UK extradited him to Sweden, Sweden would extradite him to the U.S. That's an invalid pretext. And beyond HN, journalists have some interesting articles too. The Guardian's James Ball in 2018 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/10/julian-assange-ecuador-embassy-wikileaks-us-sweden https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/10/julian... >The WikiLeaks founder is unlikely to face prosecution in the US, charges in Sweden have been dropped – and for the embassy, he’s lost his value as an icon >Assange does not want to be trapped in Ecuador’s embassy, and his hosts do not want him there. Their problem is that what’s keeping him trapped there is not so much the iniquitous actions of world powers, but pride. Perhaps it’s not Ecuador and the UK that need a mediator, but rather Ecuador and Assange.
    • foldr 7y ago
      Hmm? This just goes to show that the USA didn't need to manufacture rape allegations in Sweden just in order to get Assange extradited, since their best chance of doing so was to extradite him from the UK.
      • rndgermandude 7y ago
        He was in Sweden at the time. The UK couldn't have extradited him from Sweden to the US. Not saying that the Swedish charges were all manufactured, just following your hypothesis.
• norin 7y ago
  Snowden is the real hero.
• OrgNet 7y ago
  A comment by Rafael Correa, the former president of Ecuador: > The greatest traitor in Ecuadorian and Latin American history, Lenin Moreno, allowed the British police to enter our embassy in London to arrest Assange. Moreno is a corrupt man, but what he has done is a crime that humanity will never forget. https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1116295734712766464 https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1116295734712766464
• antt 7y ago
  And be prepared for the 180 degree turn in the liberal circles when the Republicans try to get him executed. With friends like the Democrats do progressives really need enemies?
  • jkaplowitz 7y ago
    According to the article, the crime for which he'd be extradited has a maximum penalty of five years in prison, not death.
    • deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    • isostatic 7y ago
      If it did attract a death penalty he would be ineligible for extradition.
    • antt 7y ago
      1 hours ago it was 1 year for skipping bail. At the rate at which the maximum sentence is growing we should be seeing him hung and quartered by mid day tomorrow.
      • jkaplowitz 7y ago
        The extradition request arrived in 2012, but they managed to keep it secret until this arrest. Now that official press releases have come out from both countries, we know the charge underlying the extradition. The fact sheet linked from the UK press release explains that the rules for UK->US extradition would require consent from the UK, including consideration by the UK courts, of any additional offenses that the US may want to add while they have him in connection with this extradition. https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2019/04/11/extradition-factsheet/ https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2019/04/11/extradition-f... They may very well approve some additional offenses, but probably not ones with the death penalty.
    • idlewords 7y ago
• dorfsmay 7y ago
  Was his so called dead man switch ever confirmed, or was it just a rumour? Assuming he has no internet access in jail, I suspect we will find out soon...
• mickael-kerjean 7y ago
  Considering Assange is not a US citizen, how could their be ground for an extradition to the US? This doesn't sound right
  • wavefunction 7y ago
    Various international legal frameworks and agreements.
  • spork12 7y ago
    Ask Pablo Escobar
  • isostatic 7y ago
    The U.S. often extradites non-US nationals [0], even ones that have never been to the U.S. in their entire lives [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NatWest_Three https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NatWest_Three [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_McKinnon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_McKinnon
  • crumpets 7y ago
    Citizenship has no relationship to extradition.
  • coding123 7y ago
    I want to know too, specifically.
  • gnode 7y ago
    It depends on the extradition treaty and the delivering country's law. Technically the US doesn't extradite people to the US, other states extradite people to the US upon their request in accordance to an extradition treaty. The UK courts are still yet to decide whether there is a legal basis to extradite Assange. For example, the extradition of Lauri Love was denied by the court, which was also for computer related crimes allegedly carried out outside of US territory.
• okket 7y ago
  FYI: "WikiLeaks Founder Charged in Computer Hacking Conspiracy" https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/wikileaks-founder-charged-computer-hacking-conspiracy https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/wikileaks-founder-charg...
• wallace_f 7y ago
  It shouldn't matter if you think Assange is good or bad with respect to arresting a publisher for publishing when news media has been doing the same thing... Because freedom of the press is our constitutional right in America.
• citilife 7y ago
  I still don't understand how he is subject to U.S. rule of law if he: a) Isn't a U.S. citizen b) Not residing in the U.S.
  • cedivad 7y ago
    Last time I pointed that out on an unrelated article around here all I got were downvotes. Let's say you and I have the same mislead views on what is right. And all of this makes me sad.
  • tim333 7y ago
    They say "federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified US government computer"
• kevinguay 7y ago
  I'm surprised it took them this long to kick him out of the Embassy. Talk about overstaying your welcome.
• eruci 7y ago
  Wikileak Plugged.
• brbrodude 7y ago
  Is it just me or each day the more it seems the western world is viciously cycling on a downward spiral?
  • brbrodude 7y ago
    2 downvotes why? I made my point and I stand to it. The signs are fucking everywhere.
• objektif 7y ago
  It is mind blowing to see commenters here that claim Assange is a Russian asset.
  • tim333 7y ago
    I didn't think of that till you mentioned it but he does seem to have been hanging out with the Russians https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/21/julian-assange-russia-ecuador-embassy-london-secret-escape-plan https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/21/julian-assange...
• idlewords 7y ago
  This thread is all over the map with speculation. There is a press release from the Department of Justice that lays out what Assange is being extradited for, and it may help to read it first. Apparently Assange helped Manning try to get into a classified computer system with a password that was not hers, and that is the basis of the extradition case: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/wikileaks-founder-charged-computer-hacking-conspiracy https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/wikileaks-founder-charg... Related HN thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19634137 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19634137
• dmitryminkovsky 7y ago
  I can’t imagine the mix of emotions you must feel when simultaneously emerging from seven years of house arrest and being arrested and facing more time of arrest elsewhere. Must be a mix of “wow I’m outside” and awful dread.
• ct520 7y ago
  Love it. So we finally get to see if assange is really working with Russian government.
• muktaakash 7y ago
  We are engaged and agitated. Period.
• throw1Away2378 7y ago
  What would someone that lives in London and believes that what it's happening to Assange is criminal and would like to help somehow or help it not happening with the next 'Assange' or 'Snowden' do? I have tried to reach out to Sarah Harrison in the past but got nowhere, I'm not an activist or know anyone, just a normal bloke that would like to get involved. What would be my options? Volunteer at Amnesty International? Doesn't seem like they did anything to help. I'm a member of this forum, hence asking it here, I don't even know which other online communities I should be asking this, but I feel like doing something is the right thing to do and feel frustrated I haven't been able to find a way to get involved with the people helping out.
  • Synaesthesia 7y ago
    Amnesty International is a fine but frankly quite conservative organization. Getting involved in political activity. Read Noam Chomsky. Do what you can to make the world a better place and make people aware of the truth.
• mcguire 7y ago
  "Mr Assange, 47, [appeared] at Westminster Magistrates' Court. He pleaded "not guilty" to the 2012 charge of failing to surrender to the court. [...] Finding him guilty, District Judge Michael Snow said Mr Assange's behaviour was "the behaviour of a narcissist who cannot get beyond his own selfish interest"." How does the English justice system work? He was arrested, and almost immediately taken to court and convicted?
  • giarc 7y ago
    I have no idea, but the charge was failure to surrender. It's pretty obvious, 7 years later, that he is guilty of that.
    • mcguire 7y ago
      Maybe. My understanding is that failing to surrender to an illegal warrant would not itself be a crime. Unless Assange has accepted that the surrender order was valid or he has been previously convicted in absentia, he would seem to need a court proceeding to argue that. Unless seeking asylum from a country is automatically illegal. Imagine the international hijinks if an Australian went to the British consul in Moscow for asylum at the height of the cold war, and the Soviets charged him for that itself....
• ascendantlogic 7y ago
  I feel conflicted over this. I was a strong believer in the original mission of transparency and showing us what the world's elite and powerful were doing. But once they started playing favorites with information disclosure during the 2016 election their entire existence became tainted in my mind. Obviously I don't want to see the man burn for showing the world some of the terrible things that happen behind closed doors but I also don't trust him or his organization anymore to be impartial arbiters of transparency.
• AnnoyingSwede 7y ago
  The word in media now is that if Obama was the president still Assange would have a better chance of getting fair treatment. This seems wrong to me. Julian served Trumps purpose by releasing the Clinton emails, making me think that Trump might actually swing on his harsh words (like he does with many other things) and grant amnesty to Julian? Takers?
• clouddrover 7y ago
  > Finding him guilty, District Judge Michael Snow said Mr Assange's behaviour was "the behaviour of a narcissist who cannot get beyond his own selfish interest". Seems a bit personal for a ruling on a breach of bail conditions.
  • whamlastxmas 7y ago
    Watch the video of the arrest and look at the cop smirking as assange is dragged out. It seems there's plenty of personal feelings around him.
• nimbius 7y ago
  Im sure this is unrelated, but I wonder how the Julian Assange "nuclear" insurance file plays into all of this? will it be released?
• nimbius 7y ago
  im curious to see how this plays out in the context of the julian assange "insurance" file? will it be released?
• scoutt 7y ago
  Feeding my imagination for downvotes: UK: we need a delay for the Brexit! Puppeteer of the world: and what's in there for us? UK: mmmm, let me think. OK, we'll give you Assange! Puppeteer of the world: that's a deal.
• shiado 7y ago
  A sad day for journalism. As is typical the idiot Republicans will rejoice the capture of 'an Enemy of the state who put troops in danger' or some equally patriotic bullshit, and idiot Democrats will probably run with 'a verified GRU agent who personally sucked Putin's dick' narrative to keep the Russia narrative on life support, but neither will talk about how publishing information about the warcrimes of America will get you extra-legal extraordinary treatment and the implications for press freedom.
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• Flyingdeep 7y ago
  Is it even legal to take him with force out of the embassy? He should be 'protected' there no? I guess when it comes to the US, they just waited for the right moment to make the move
• checkyoursudo 7y ago
  Being reported in The Guardian: > Elisabeth Massi Fritz, lawyer for the Swedish woman whose case against Assange remains outstanding, has given the Guardian a longer statement: > "My client and I have today received the news that Assange has been arrested in London. It did understandably come as a shock to my client that what we have been waiting and hoping for since 2012 has now finally happened. We are going to do everything we possibly can to get the Swedish police investigation re-opened so that Assange can be extradited to Sweden and prosecuted for rape. No rape victim should have to wait nine years to see justice be served. > I have requested an urgent procedure [from the prosecutor to extradite Assange]." https://www.theguardian.com/media/live/2019/apr/11/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-arrested-at-the-ecuadorean-embassy-live-updates?page=with:block-5caf5f208f08bc7376aeb5d3#block-5caf5f208f08bc7376aeb5d3 https://www.theguardian.com/media/live/2019/apr/11/wikileaks...
  • kuzehanka 7y ago
    Rape? The charges against him were Sexual Assault for allegedly not using a condom. It's been escalated to rape now?
    • sieabahlpark 7y ago
      I saw someone mention rape on Reddit so that's probably where they got the info.
    • sneak 7y ago
      No, there were no charges against him. He has not been charged with a crime in any country.
• MrXOR 7y ago
  Free Julian Assange
• chx 7y ago
  There are a number of things connecting Assange to Russia. https://www.salon.com/2017/01/07/donald-trump-julian-assange-and-russia-how-theyre-connected-and-how-they-changed-an-election/ https://www.salon.com/2017/01/07/donald-trump-julian-assange... this lists six such things. https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/303172-pussy-riot-member-assange-openly-works-with-russia https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/303172-pus... is particularly damaging because one of the arguments of the "Wikileaks is not a Russian org" is that it sympathetizes and works with Pussy Riot... https://www.thedailybeast.com/wikileaks-inside-the-farage-assange-trump-connection https://www.thedailybeast.com/wikileaks-inside-the-farage-as... https://gizmodo.com/assange-turned-down-dirt-on-russia-strongly-suggesting-1797954045 https://gizmodo.com/assange-turned-down-dirt-on-russia-stron...
  • dontbenebby 7y ago
    > There are a number of things connecting Assange to Russia. His own OkCupid listed that he loved everything Russian (except the food) long before the 2016 election: https://mashable.com/2010/12/13/julian-assange-okcupid/ https://mashable.com/2010/12/13/julian-assange-okcupid/ That being said, while he's a piece of shit we need to be careful we don't erode press freedoms we've had for a very long time just because we really don't like one jerk.
    • chx 7y ago
      And what if a Russian agent disrupting USA elections masquerades as a journalist?
      • Synaesthesia 7y ago
        If you’re releasing factual information about the DNC that’s doing the US a service and what a journalist should do.
      • dontbenebby 7y ago
        And what if a journalist who uncovers malfeasance by a candidate is maligned as an agent of a foreign power? Part of living in a democracy is dealing with the consequences of free speech as an accepted cost of living in a free society.
• jokoon 7y ago
  Wouldn't the Trump administration be kind with Assange as it was showed that wikileaks helped hurting the Clinton campaign?
• cparsons3000 7y ago
  Looks like Assange was attempting to destabilize Ecuador's govt while in the embassy (at least that's what they claim). “Ecuador’s Interior Minister María Paula Romo says Julian Assange's asylum was revoked because there was sufficient evidence that he was meddling in Ecuador's internal affairs in an effort to destabilize the government. Romo also reiterated President Lenin Moreno's remarks that Assange was consistently violating embassy residency rules, and specifically called out how he would put feces on the walls.”
  • Synaesthesia 7y ago
    The supposed meddling in the internal affairs of a government is these INA papers which are embarrassing for Ecuador’s govt. But there’s no evidence that he or Wikileaks have anything to do with these INA leaks. https://defend.wikileaks.org/2019/04/03/ecuador-twists-embarrassing-ina-papers-into-pretext-to-oust-assange/ https://defend.wikileaks.org/2019/04/03/ecuador-twists-embar...
    • dragonwriter 7y ago
      > The supposed meddling in the internal affairs of a government is these INA papers which are embarrassing for Ecuador’s govt. No, it's not. The INA leaks, AFAICT, are part of (but not the whole of) the basis separate accusation that Assange and his supporters have been attempting to destabilize Ecuador. The biggest deal with regard to foreign governments was actually over his intervention, which had public aspects, over Catalonia. It also, most critically because it targeted the embassy's host country, included overt interventions in British politics, including his accusations that the British government fabricated the link to Russia in the Skripal poisoning.
• MrZongle2 7y ago
  This was inevitable as soon as Ecuador started making uncomfortable noises about Assange camping out in the embassy. He's made too many enemies. If there's any truth to the charges, that just made things easier for the authorities.
• Myrmornis 7y ago
  https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/press-release/file/1153481/download https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/press-release/file/1153481... So basically the allegations are primarily that Manning provided Assange with a hashed password, and Assange tried, and failed, to determine the corresponding plain text password. This somehow involved Manning using a Linux OS (off a CD). I'm not clear how a fresh Linux OS would help bypass admin privileges and access a hashed password. ------------------------------------------------------------- Manning did not have administrative-level privileges and used special software, namely a Linux operating system, to access the computer file and obtain the portion of the password provided to Assange. ... ACTS IN FURTHERANCE OF THE CONSPIRACY 23. ... Manning copied a Linux operating system to a CD...
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• bbcfake 7y ago
  How about cia snuff video ?
• sneak 7y ago
  This article tiptoes around it carefully, but let’s be clear here: he was never charged in Sweden. There were no charges brought against him for sexual assault.
• calimac 7y ago
  WWG1WGA Enjoy the show
• jammygit 7y ago
  My understanding, which may be inaccurate, was that manning was tortured via not letting him/her sleep for more than a few minutes at a time for several months on the grounds of suicide prevention. I'm quite worried about assange: BBC suggested a 6 month jail sentence, but I don't think anyone believes that is how he will get off if the USA gets him. Please correct my story about manning if I am misinformed.
• nikolay 7y ago
  Bastards! If they do anything to this global hero, many unpredictable today things will happen and none good for those who don't like the Truth!
• goodroot 7y ago
  I am sad for two reasons. 1: He tried to make the world better by exposing American tyranny. 2: The timing and vigour of the waves of paid shills is chilling. This place is not a place for free and open discussion. The sophistication of narrative control has won, and we need to solve the problem.
  • dang 7y ago
    Please don't break the site guidelines by making insinuations of astroturfing or shillage when you have no evidence for this. The presence of opposing opinions is evidence of nothing except that a topic is divisive. Meanwhile such accusations and insinuations damage the container here, and are off topic besides. I've written a ton about this if you or anyone wants more information. See the links at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19538691 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19538691.
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• highdesertmuse 7y ago
  Perhaps this is the beginning of the investigation into Hillary Clinton et al. Assange has a lot of bargaining chips if he does get extradited to the US. Maybe he'll get immunity like the raft of Obama cronies, in exchange for producing 33,000 mis-placed emails.
• objektif 7y ago
  Assange is not just a hero but he will go down in history as a Legend. So called liberals who turned on him are hypocrites. I hope they realize their mistake soon.