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Sweden Drops Julian Assange Rape Investigation (cnn.com)
rmdingler writes: "Sweden is dropping its investigation into WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on rape allegations, according to a prosecution statement released Friday," reports CNN. "Assange, who has always denied wrongdoing, has been holed up at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012, in an effort to avoid a Swedish arrest warrant." Despite Friday's announcement, he's unlikely to walk out of the embassy imminently. There is no apparent change in the risk of being detained in the west, particularly in the U.S., but it's definitely a win for Assange.
Joshua.Niland adds: The pressure on Julian Assange may have lifted ever so slightly with Swedish prosecutors dropping their investigation into the allegations of rape. A brief statement ahead of a press conference by the prosecutor later on Friday said: "Director of Public Prosecution, Ms Marianne Ny, has today decided to discontinue the investigation regarding suspected rape (lesser degree) by Julian Assange." This will not likely deter the United States from pursuing their own charges against him for publishing tens of thousands of military documents leaked by Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning.
After describing the development as "an important victory," Assange said, "[...] it by no means erases seven years of detention without charge under house arrest and almost five years here in this embassy without sunlight. Seven years without charge while my children grow up without me. That is not something I can forgive. It is not something I can forget."
FIRST POST
I wonder if Trump had made a back channel request for Sweden to send Assange to the USA if Sweden ever got their hands on him - so Sweden decided they didn't want to be involved something like that and dropped the whole thing?
Could still technically pardon Snowden and Assange.
Guess I'll have to do it. Boldfacing the interesting parts, which for some reason Slashdot didn't bother covering in the summary.
You're treating a symptom while the disease rages on. The fish rots from the head. Why not cut off the head?
I know slashdotters love to hate assange but now we know it was fake charges all along and he's a truly innocent man at last! apparently though he can't yet leave because he has pending U.K. charges for being on the run from the initial charges :/
Wikileaks Russia gave us Trump so Julian Assange can spend the rest of his life under house arrest as far as I'm concerned.
If all treasonous and/or stupid republicans would kindly jump off a bridge, that would help to heal this terrible wound our country is facing.
Trying to imagine how Assange can see "victory" in any part of his situation. While he started with nice ideals, at this point he has been transformed into a "useful idiot", though it would still make a lot of powerful people quite happy to see him punished well beyond indefinite imprisonment in an embassy.
Still seems to me to be an economic problem at heart. Largely based on a couple of books about WikiLeaks, I think it was the lack of a viable economic model that led them (though mostly just Assange) to where they are now. Competing economic models of journalism are equally bad or worse. Consider the eyeballs-for-advertisers model that produces disaster porn like CNN and clickbait websites. Worse than that is the paid propaganda model of FAUX "news", rightwing listen-to-a-nut-talking radio, and Alt-Right websites. The vestiges of mainstream journalism are now engaged in a last-newspaperman-standing strategy, and I think journalism still loses, regardless of whether the last paper standing is the "venerable" NY Times or the Washington Post. (I think the LA Times is already on the ropes and the Boston Globe was never a real contender, though the last paper might be some dark horse like the tainted WSJ.)
Assange is no longer part of any solution, so he must be part of the precipitate.
If this is still the first post, it says something about the state of the Slashdot, eh?
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
If Assange was seriously worried about US prosecution for leaking national security secrets, he should have transitioned genders during the previous administration. That strategy has always (n=1) resulted in a pardon.
It seems far more likely a request from President Trump would be for Swedish prosecutors to:
"Stop the Witch hunt. Leave Assange alone. He's a good man."
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
U should respect Slashdot for all it gives u - so if we didnt post the content & u did & got karma points, whats the big deal ?
...it's RAPE, plain and simple.
>Wikileaks clearly hindered the Democratic candidate to the benefit of the Republican.
The DNC and Hillary hindered the Democratic Candidate to the benefit of the Republican.
1. "I'm with her" instead of "I'm with you" as a campaign slogan - it could not be more fitting a campaign slogan for Hillary.
2. I'm not Trump - a ham sandwich is not Trump. It's not some great accomplishment.
3. Castigate and insult Bernie voters *continually* as if they're not needed to win the election.
4. Not have any real platform. Asked what Hillary stands for, she said "I occupy both the center right and center left" - as if that means anything. And when she won the nomination, she stood on that stage mouthing some of the ideas Bernie had, and then got
5. Hillary ran a campaign full of rookie mistakes, and didn't learn from them.
And her campaign and the DNC are /still/ blaming everyone but themselves.
All the while the DNC has no platform that anyone can discern. Just the other day, Perez was out shaking hands with anti-choice idiots. "My" oarty stand for /nothing/.
--
BMO
#4 was incomplete and the last sentence typoed "party"
I'm slipping.
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BMO
and surrender to the US. https://www.usnews.com/news/na...
Manning is free. That was the condition. Please Mr Assange, honor your own words.
17779 eligible voters in a district, 17779 'vote' as one. This is Russia.
because US went off the reservation in pursuit of those guys (him and Snowden). And since that part was very publicly proven, it throws some serious shade on the whole accusation thing.
Let's put this in a less charged context than rape. Suppose a woman did some lines of cocaine with a man and the claims "he forced me to do that last line of cocaine!" In a system that isn't based on presumed guilt, you know what the court and/or jury are going to see?
1. She was there of her own free will.
2. She did cocaine with him freely, by her own admission, for most of that time.
3. She lacks signs of coercion.
4. Police have found not traces of evidence to plausibly back up her sudden change of mind.
5. Another line of cocaine made it into her system.
Now, if you are a judge or jury who is not a psychopath, you are probably going to weigh that evidence and conclude that you have a non-trivial chance of being the implement of someone's revenge. You are a decent person who doesn't want to throw someone in prison on a "maybe" or a "it looks bad, but I don't know." You're going to side with Assange here.
You didn't care to complete #4 the first time, or when you posted again nothing how it was incomplete.
You're just stating the obvious shit we all know, anyway. Hillary and the DNC are corrupt and incompetent and their actions, when exposed, resulted in America rejecting the fuck out of her. (Someone will come along and talk about the popular vote.)
*Bradley Manning
And for all that she still got nearly as many votes as Obama did against Romney.
I agree Clinton's campaign was far from stellar and not inspiring but aside from well-targeted strategy by the Trump campaign, there was also some heavy voter suppression going on and Comey's thumb on the scale.
And the photos from Trump tower showing his face at the moment of victory was clearly a "oh-shit-what-do-I-do-now" expression
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
After pissing blood all day Friday, Barak Hussein Obama will be in London on Saturday to Twerk in front of the Ecuadorian Embassy to use his feminine curves and charms to lure Assange out so that the FBI can make an arrest.
Jajajajajajajaja
You do realize that any other candidate would have nuked Trump by double digits? Yes? Bernie would have annihilated him.
Chuck Schumer was bitching some time before Nov 8 that Hillary was only single digits ahead of Trump. Her lead was literally 5 percent. Yet comments like that did not lead the Hillary campaign to change their strategy (what they called a strategy, anyway).
He was ringing the bell on the Establishment side long enough before the election that someone should have noticed. Nobody did. The odds for Hillary winning the general election were .25 to 1 *for* winning.
On the night of the election, starting at 9pm Eastern, my wife and I were at a restaurant and started watching the returns roll in. After the first hour, we turned off our phones. We knew, to our horror, that we were getting a grifter douchebag for a president.
And it was entirely preventable.
Stop excusing Hillary's god-awful campaign.
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BMO
"You should respect BeauHD's authoritah!"
You are welcome on my lawn.
*alleged* charges. There is nothing formal, only rumors at this point. There is nothing they could actually charge him of other than anything any other journalist has done in publishing same information.
Twinstiq, game news
Assange said, "[...] it by no means erases seven years of detention without charge under house arrest and almost five years here in this embassy without sunlight.[...]"
He was never under detention or house arrest. He chose to hole up in a foreign embassy. He could have walked out at any time he wished.
The thing I regret most of all is that Rand Paul ran as a Republican.
If he had been the Libertarian Candidate he might be sleeping in the White House tonight.
You should respect Slashdot by not posting chatspeak comments.
This isn't twitter. The character limit is huge.
Nah, you'd be blamed as one of the people who took votes away from Hillary.
Trust me on this.
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BMO
U should respect Slashdot for all it gives u - so if we didn't post the content & u did & got karma points, whats the big deal ?
Water's wet. Sky's blue. Women have secrets. When you're cliff-diving, the judges award you extra points for degree of difficulty.
When you're posting on Slashdot, bonus points are awarded for deserved condemnation of the editor, and occasionally the OP.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
September 8, 1974
By the President of the United States of America a Proclamation
Richard Nixon became the thirty-seventh President of the United States on January 20, 1969 and was reelected in 1972 for a second term by the electors of forty-nine of the fifty states. His term in office continued until his resignation on August 9, 1974.
Pursuant to resolutions of the House of Representatives, its Committee on the Judiciary conducted an inquiry and investigation on the impeachment of the President extending over more than eight months. The hearings of the Committee and its deliberations, which received wide national publicity over television, radio, and in printed media, resulted in votes adverse to Richard Nixon on recommended Articles of Impeachment.
As a result of certain acts or omissions occurring before his resignation from the Office of President, Richard Nixon has become liable to possible indictment and trial for offenses against the United States. Whether or not he shall be so prosecuted depends on findings of the appropriate grand jury and on the discretion of the authorized prosecutor. Should an indictment ensue, the accused shall then be entitled to a fair trial by an impartial jury, as guaranteed to every individual by the Constitution.
It is believed that a trial of Richard Nixon, if it became necessary, could not fairly begin until a year or more has elapsed. In the meantime, the tranquility to which this nation has been restored by the events of recent weeks could be irreparably lost by the prospects of bringing to trial a former President of the United States. The prospects of such trial will cause prolonged and divisive debate over the propriety of exposing to further punishment and degradation a man who has already paid the unprecedented penalty of relinquishing the highest elective office of the United States.
Now, THEREFORE, I, GERALD R. FORD, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9,1974.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-ninth.
GERALD R. FORD
The allegations are that women that agreed to have sex with a condom were being fucked - while sleeping - without a condom.
The last time I read the story it was one without consent while sleeping after consensual intercourse. The other said the condom broke during consensual intercourse, but he would not stop. Those stories didn't have a ring of truth to them in my mind because they would leave no credible physical evidence. It read like Assange was being framed by a honeypot.
Add to that the fact that Assange was interviewed and released by another prosecutor, and the whole of events starts to smack of conspiracy.
Until Assange leaks something that's anti-Trump. See James Comey for a perfect example of what happens if you don't swear a loyalty oath and submit to being Trumo's bitch. He'll toss in a Tic Tac and give it the old college try.
At least not at this point. It's an empty pledge, which is why he made it. The UK is who wants him. Regardless of the status or validity of the original rape charge, he fled bail (and is still fleeing) in the UK so they have a criminal case against him. Skipping bail is illegal, even if the court later determines the charge that lead to the arrest and subsequent bail is complete BS.
Given that he's been flaunting it for quite some time, they are very likely to pursue it as well.
erm. There are a lot of happy parents that would disagree with you on this.
Eh? Where did that come from?
Oh. Found it. Per my settings, I mostly don't see the ACs. Not all of them are trolls, but even when they aren't, they tend to be wasting my time. Having dug up the actual parent of your reply, I'll just say I think you [Cederic] are just wasting your time by feeding an obvious troll. No detectable interest in a rational discussion there.
Quite serendipitously and tangentially, there is an actual issue touched there. After all these years, I'm still wondering if Assange was set up. It is possible that his real crime was the invention of stealthing, and in that case the critical legal issue is how the Swedish legal system addresses undefined crimes. One version of the nationalistic joke is "In America [but you can swap countries in accord with fashion trends or your actual prejudices], everything is permitted unless it is explicitly forbidden, while in Germany everything is forbidden unless it is explicitly permitted." A typical punchline might be "And in France, everything is required [or expected?] as long as it is explicitly forbidden." What do the laws of Sweden say?
Depending on when Assange got on their radar, it is quite possible he was targeted years ago. By whom? I'd say by any powerful person or nation with secrets to hide, which seems to provide plenty of suspects. Depends on someone's prediction that the very idea of WikiLeaks was a sufficient threat to worry about.
If targeted, then they would have accumulated targeting data about Assange. For example, they could have found out about his philosophy related to eugenics and his belief in his own superior genes and duty to reproduce. Combine that with some data about the kind of women he's interested in and details of his schedule and the schedules of suitable women, and something could be arranged. Add in a bit of patience and there's no need to expose anything to any of the actual participants in the "crime", especially when none of them knew there was a crime involved.
No, I'm not actually ready to say that Assange was set up, but it's like my sig says, coercion counts. I really like that freedom thing.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
You [974911] are a flaming troll and must be using a herd of sock puppets to self-moderate your own incoherent tripe.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
He's always been available-- they could come to talk to him at the embassy, interview him on the phone, or whatever. He just won't go where it's easy for the US to grab him, which is not at all an unrealistic fear at this point.
A modest proposal: if we're the good guys, we shouldn't go around acting like the bad guys in a cold war spy novel.
You'd be better off blaming the hopeless Republicans at the primaries if you want to blame someone other than Trump.
It was so pathetic that even tollbooth guy - unfit for trust in any office - was a leading contender for a while.
You do realize that any other candidate would have nuked Trump by double digits? Yes? Bernie would have annihilated him.
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BMO
I'm not so sure about that. Trump annihilated the entire GOP slate without saying 2 coherent sentences in a row and there were some heavyweights - and I'm not making a sly remark about Chris Christie. Hillary's campaign has a great many problems including carrying Bill's baggage and 30 years of being smeared by rightwing media but this election was all about angry people who thought everyone but them is getting ahead.
"I can't get a job or afford medication but all my elected reps are doing is finding a safe place for chicks with dicks to piss?"
I don't think Bernie's message would resonate with *enough* of them to have prevented what happened in Michigan, Pennsylvania & Wisconcin.
Rick Scott has tossed so many off Florida's voter rolls that I can't say if Sanders could have prevailed there either
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
You [974911] are a flaming troll
Is that what you masturbate to? You would know all about flaming trolls
It seems far more likely a request from President Trump would be for Swedish prosecutors to:
"Stop the Witch hunt. Leave Assange alone. He's a good man."
That seems highly unlikely.
To 'guarantee' that the law is applied equally to all citizens it is illegal for Swedish politicians to make requests to the judicial branch so Trump would have to go directly to the prosecutor rather than going to whoever he perceives being in charge. That is not Trumps style, he thinks all countries are set up like Russia or North Korea where there is a supreme leader with absolute power.
If he made a request to the Swedish prime minister, the Swedish king (Who have no political power.) or the prosecutor I don't see why they would respond.
Most of the world is pretty much in a standby mode regarding the US president right now.
Old trade agreements, military co-operations and deals with the intelligence community keeps going as usual. They were in place before Trump and will keep going after Trump.
New deals with Trump at this point is pretty pointless. He is not in a position to get deals ratified.
If you want something you will talk with everyone else involved to make sure that the deal can go through without Trump doing more than signing a paper, or if things drag out, everything is set up so the next president won't face much trouble getting the deal through.
Typically you can still respond to a president to get some goodwill going but in Trumps case it is unlikely he will honor it down the road and it is questionable if he will be in a position to do so.
Best case scenario for anyone helping out Trump is that he calls you a 'smart guy' which lumps you in with Putin, Erdogan and Kim Jong Un and other people Trump have praised.
Watch RT: Where we tell you what your state run news won't.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
If you want to see the outcome of term limits, just look at the House of Representatives vs the Senate. The Senate average term is 12 years. The House average term is 10 years. That 2 year difference shows up in a lot more corruption.
The only people who benefit from term limits are corporations with lobbyists who can afford the access and tell their side of the story. By the time the congressman gets enough perspective, understands the tendencies of the organizations he is trying to regulate, he's already out of there.
He was formally notified of the charges while he was still in Sweden, then the case was dropped and he left. When the case was restarted, why do they need to formally re-notify him? Or does formally notify have a different meaning, more like "charge"?
To 'guarantee' that the law is applied equally to all citizens it is illegal for Swedish politicians to make requests to the judicial branch so Trump would have to go directly to the prosecutor rather than going to whoever he perceives being in charge.
As a Swede - riiiiiiiiiiiiight. That's one of those fine, noble, theories that however aren't too closely tied to reality. The prosecutor in the TPB case said not too long before a delegation of Swedish politicians visit the US that he didn't see what TPB was doing as anything illegal. And shortly after the delegation returns home , well you know what happened...
why was she hanging around he creepy albino anyway. gross. hmm maybe this albino will get himself into a position where i can get some money by calling him a rapist. he looks the type.
Assange said, "[...] it by no means erases seven years of detention without charge under house arrest and almost five years here in this embassy without sunlight. Seven years without charge while my children grow up without me. That is not something I can forgive. It is not something I can forget."
I wonder why he was detained for seven year years?
Oh yeah, because he was dodging an arrest warrant for a crime (he allegedly) committed.
If he was concerned about being extradited to the US over wikileaks this doesn't change anything, the UK is just as likely (if not moreso) than to carry out an extradition request from the US.
I stole this Sig
Pushing aside his slightly revisionist outlook claiming he was "detained.. no charges" as I'm sure had he not hid in the embassy (as he was free to do) then he might have been charged, why was going to Sweden more risky than normal international travel?
I'm aware of the suggestion that custody in Sweden apparently improve the chance of ending up in the US but wouldn't that be a real risk passing through customs in most countries anyway (or at least those not antagonistic to the US). Wouldn't there be a risk of hearing "Would you like to come with us, sir" when entering Australia (or wherever).
First off, let me say that you have won the Internet for the next hour for this spectacular display of intellectual posturing while managing to be utterly clueless that you have said absolutely nothing of legal relevance to my points.
Now then, I have shocking news for you. Her complaint isn't worth a bucket of warm piss in an honest court room. Do you want to know why? Let's go over it, in blunt and sober detail:
1. She admits she had sex with him with informed consent of what she was doing.
2. She admits she invited him to spend the night with her, in her bed.
3. Fornication is legal, rape is not. Chant that a 1000 times before proceeding if you have to, to understand why we're about to run into problems.
4. She claims she was asleep, but we have no proof she was asleep.
5. She claims she did not consent to this act, but consented to having sex with him hours earlier.
6. She has no evidence that can concretely back up another claim of coercion.
If you are not a psychopath like many modern feminists, you are not going to vote to convict on that evidence because there is literally nothing that passes muster on "guilty beyond a reasonable doubt" that she was raped. In American courts in particular, if you gave the state a conviction on a case this flimsy, you might as well wipe your ass with the bill of rights and set it on fire when you're done.
Is there any physical or tangible evidence whatsoever the Assange did what was claimed?
Or are you basing your "Assange was in the wrong" on a psychic vibe?
As additional evidence, I note the sudden horde of negative mods on the branch. Just par for the brokenness of Slashdot, unfortunately.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
You're one of the fucking CIA shills here that's been spitting out lies about Assange for years. The investigation is closing down, because it's been a long farce, supported only by the vitriolic hatred of Hitlery "it's her turn" Clinton. Now that she's finally out of any influence over government, this (and hopefully scumbag personas like yourself) will disintegrate and disappear.