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Assange Agrees to US Prison If Obama Pardons Chelsea Manning (theverge.com)
"If Obama grants Manning clemency, Assange will agree to U.S. prison in exchange -- despite its clear unlawfulness," Wikileaks announced on Twitter Thursday. An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes The Verge:
WikiLeaks' statement was released one day before a Swedish appeals court decided to maintain a warrant for Assange's arrest over a 2010 rape charge. Assange has said that extradition to Sweden would lead to his eventual extradition to the US, where he could face charges related to WikiLeaks' publication of secret government documents... Assange has been living in political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012...
Chelsea Manning, a former US Army private, was convicted in 2013 for providing a trove of documents and videos to WikiLeaks, and is currently serving a 35-year sentence at the US Disciplinary Barracks in Leavenworth, Kansas. She was hospitalized after a reported suicide attempt in July, and this month went on a hunger strike to seek treatment for her gender dysphoria. Manning ended her hunger strike this week after the military agreed to allow her to have gender reassignment surgery. She still faces indefinite solitary confinement due to administrative charges related to her suicide attempt.
The tweet also included a link to a letter from Assange's attorney, Barry Pollack, calling on the Justice Department to be more transparent about its investigation into WikiLeaks -- and citing the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information. "Director Comey made it clear his conclusion was based on the necessity of proving criminal intent [and] noted that responsible prosecutors consider the context of a person's actions... Criminal prosecution is appropriate only when a person...was intending to aid enemies of the United States or was attempting to obstruct justice."
Chelsea Manning, a former US Army private, was convicted in 2013 for providing a trove of documents and videos to WikiLeaks, and is currently serving a 35-year sentence at the US Disciplinary Barracks in Leavenworth, Kansas. She was hospitalized after a reported suicide attempt in July, and this month went on a hunger strike to seek treatment for her gender dysphoria. Manning ended her hunger strike this week after the military agreed to allow her to have gender reassignment surgery. She still faces indefinite solitary confinement due to administrative charges related to her suicide attempt.
The tweet also included a link to a letter from Assange's attorney, Barry Pollack, calling on the Justice Department to be more transparent about its investigation into WikiLeaks -- and citing the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information. "Director Comey made it clear his conclusion was based on the necessity of proving criminal intent [and] noted that responsible prosecutors consider the context of a person's actions... Criminal prosecution is appropriate only when a person...was intending to aid enemies of the United States or was attempting to obstruct justice."
Assange knows that will never happen. Obama has trouble even treating Manning like a normal human being.
-- Cheers!
He is a fugitive from raping two women in Sweden, volunteering to go to jail in the US as long as the US lets go of someone who was in the military and admits releasing lots of military secrets?
Is this offer serious? To me it comes off as laughably weird. Why not volunteer to go to French jail if they pardon Carlos the Jackal?
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
It does not matter where I personally stand on any of this politically. That is torture and the authorities backing and authorizing it know it.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
He's trying to get himself attention, and succeeding it would seem as here's a story on it.
Assange has acted rather oddly throughout this whole thing, at least if you take his rhetoric at face value. He happily went to Sweden and spent time there until these allegation came up, at which time he went to the UK. He then claimed that the reason was that the charges were BS and Sweden would just hand him over to the US because they were after him as soon as he went back. That of course makes one questions:
1) Why would he go to Sweden in the first place, if he knew it was a country that would hand him over to the US extra judicially?
2) Why would he flee to the UK and feel safe there, a country with such a special relationship with the US it is literally called the "special relationship"?
He then fought the extradition to Sweden in the UK courts and lost. They were ruling just on the validity of the extradition request, not on the validity of the charge behind it. He then fled to the Ecuadorian embassy, claiming that he'd be handed over to the US if he went to Sweden.
So there we are today. Now near as I know, the US has not sought his arrest. While they don't like him, it doesn't look like he's broken US law. Publishing classified US information isn't a crime if you weren't the one who had access to it. So a guy who has a security clearance and gets information and gives it to a paper, he's breaking the law. However the paper that then publishes it is not.
Now maybe he really does know something most don't, but it seems more likely this is just him trying to get in the news. He knows this is an empty offer since the US wouldn't agree to it as they don't have a valid charge to bring against him. This is all between him and Sweden and now him and the UK (even if Sweden dropped the charges, he still broke UK law be fleeing his bail). The US isn't involved.
Manny was never disappeared. From the minute he was taken into custody his location was known. He was in solidary confinement in the Quantico military base. He was there because he was charged with some serious crimes. He was in solidary under suicide watch. He was also kept away from other military personnel that were also in custody for his protection. For some reason the military, even those in jail, do not tolerate someone who they consider an oath breaker and traitor.
The US could have extradited Assange before he put himself in the Ecuadorian embassy. There is no warrant or ongoing investigation of Assange. Why would the US waste time going after him when they have let Greenwald and company walk around free. The US would have a much better case against Greenwald but they are not going after him.
Snowden cannot be pardoned because he has not been convicted of a crime. The chances of any President bending the rules when it comes to pardons and amnesty is zero.
Manning has a pretty good shot of getting his sentence reduced or getting paroled early. He was clumsy and a little unhinged when he committed his crime. On the other hand Snowden was purposely lied to get into a position for the sole purpose of stealing classified data. In what little universe was he living in where he could steal classified data on foreign intelligence operations and not reap a sizable prison term? His actions, which he has admitted to, meet every requirement for being charged under the Espionage Act. His only argument is that he did it for a good cause which is utter bullshit. That lame excuse might have sufficed if he only released domestic related data but releasing the foreign intelligence programs sealed his fate. Contrary to popular belief the US Foreign Intelligence services are not required to work within the Constitution or Bill of Rights. If some whiny European has a problem with that tough shit because I guarantee their own country does the same damn thing whenever possible. It was the Europeans themselves who collected information that they shared with the US. The US didn't need to waste resources in Europe since they were doing a good enough job all by themselves.
>Manning isn't disappeared
Just because we know where he is doesn't mean he's not disappeared. When you are put into solitary confinement with no contact with the outside world with no day-night cycle (they keep the lights on all the time) you have been thrown in a hole to be forgotten about.
BTW, long term solitary confinement is torture. Not all torture is physical.
And no, he's not in "protective custody" to prevent other inmates harming him. You can request and get out of protective custody (which is a form of solitary confinement) and people often do to take their chances in general population because pc is so awful.
>Snowden can't be pardoned because he hasn't been convicted.
You don't need to be convicted to get a pardon. Ford pardoned Nixon before any conviction happened. Your argument is invalid.
>The US doesn't want Assange evidenced by the fact that Greenwald is free
Greenwald is an old-school journalist and thus protected in the court of public opinion as well as by precedent. Assange isn't. Assange has been bad-mouthed enough that the general public doesn't give a shit about him and probably thinks he "deserves whatever happens to him." Going after Greenwald is a non-starter. Going after Assange will get someone promoted.
>Contrary to popular belief the US Foreign Intelligence services are not required to work within the Constitution or Bill of Rights
US foreign intelligence isn't supposed to spy on US citizens. That's a violation of my rights as a citizen. Fuck you for defending this.
How do those boots taste?
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BMO
Assange is not currently wanted in the US. There is no indictment against him, there isn't a warrant for his arrest, and there is no request for extradition.
You actually don't know that... there are "secret warrants" and sealed indictments...
He may well be wanted but the government just won't admit it...
Thank you for that completely fucking irrelevant piece of information.
Given that Assange was questioned in Sweden prior to leaving the country and prosecutors deemed there to be no charge to answer, I think it's pretty fucking valid to point out that he hasn't been charged with anything.