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Julian Assage Taunts US Government For Forcing Wikileaks To Invest In Bitcoin (facebook.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the prisoner's-dilemma dept.

Saturday's tweet from Julian Assange says it all: "My deepest thanks to the US government, Senator McCain and Senator Lieberman for pushing Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, AmEx, Moneybookers, et al, into erecting an illegal banking blockade against @WikiLeaks starting in 2010. It caused us to invest in Bitcoin -- with > 50000% return."
Assange's tweet was accompanied by a graph showing the massive spike in the price of bitcoin -- though most of that growth occurred in the last year.

7 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. ASSSANGGGE!!!! by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Screamed yet another agitated U.S. President at the sky.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:ASSSANGGGE!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here is a source:
      http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/julian-assange-affidavit-states-rape-victim-sent-texts-denying-attack-1434895

      There are many more, I suggest you bother trying, although of course your rather obvious smear game shows you are almost certainly an 'involved party' shall we say?

      Interesting isnt it, to try and smear someone with first rape of two women (which appears to mostly be a spat because they were angry he slept with both at similar times - women dont like that, but thats hardly rape), and now we are supposed to believe he is a hardcore Gay Pedophile (this time without even an attept to make up evidence - I assume because that worked out so badly last time).

      Hint: one makes the other look somewhat unlikely, dont you think?

      So sorry, back to the training manual for you, try harder next time, the ministry of disinformation expects better!

    2. Re:ASSSANGGGE!!!! by The+Cynical+Critic · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Did you pay any attention at all when he locked himself into the embassy? He never went there because he had an active extradition request on himself, but because of the real risk that if he's arrested, the U.S is going to put in an extradition request, apply pressure to bypass the normal procedures to deny him any kind of due process (which the U.S has the ability to do) and finally stage a similar sham of a trial that Manning got. Try to remember that before and after locking himself into the embassy U.S intelligence did their best to try to wiretap him using, amongst other things, a stingray-type device (which they forgot to re-configure for him so it initially showed up as a south american carrier's base station in the middle of London) meaning that they clearly were looking for cause to extradite him.

      With another autocrat in the white house you can't exactly blame him for not daring to come out yet...

      --
      "Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it."
    3. Re:ASSSANGGGE!!!! by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You have to admit the genius in this. Why should the US waste money on pursuing him, when he's incarcerated himself through his own paranoia?

      --
      Better known as 318230.
  2. I may not have any Bitcoin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    but I can leave my house

  3. Re:Mooning the giant by Gussington · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Word is that the President of Ecuador is getting pretty tired of this guy and is thinking about ejecting him from the London embassy.

    We've been hearing that since 2 minutes after he entered the Ecuadorian embassy. Unless you are the President of Ecuador, or one of his aides, I suggest you stop believing the headlines...

  4. End of Visa Mastercard Duopoly by ghoul · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Visa, Master and Swift have been abused so badly in pursuit of political goals in US Primaries that people all over the world have lost faith. Case in point - Sanctions against Iran a country which does not promote Wahabbism whil allowing full trae with Saudi. People have realized that depending on American and Western money networks opens you up to financial blackmail whenever American politicians want to do some dog whistling.
    Russia has created its own payment network and making it difficult for Visa and Master to operate there in order to drive adoption. China most transactions are moving to Baidu's network. India is now using PayTM. As more and more major economies start moving away from western payment systems the West's power to use sanctions as a policy tool will go away. Since money still needs to move between the competing monetary systems cryptocurrencies will become the interface currency

    --
    **Life is too short to be serious**