Ecuador Will Be Handing Assange Over To UK Authorities 'In Coming Weeks Or Days': RT (express.co.uk)

Ecuador is planning to hand over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to UK authorities in the "coming weeks or even days," RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said, citing her own sources. Simonyan reported the news in a recent tweet, which was reposted by WikiLeaks. Slashdot reader Okian Warrior first shared the news. Daily Express reports: Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan is said to be involved in the diplomatic effort, which has come weeks ahead of a visit by new Ecuadorian president, Lenin Moreno, who called Mr Assange an "inherited problem." He also referred to the exiled WikiLeaks founder as a "stone in the shoe." Sources close to Assange claim he was not aware of the talks, but believe America is piling "significant pressure" on Ecuador to give him up, according to the Sunday Times. The sources claim that America has threatened to block a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if he is not removed from the embassy, based in Knightsbridge, west London. UPDATE 7/21/18: The Intercept also confirmed the news. Glen Greenwald, former reporter for The Guardian, writes: "A source close to the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry and the President's office, unauthorized to speak publicly, has confirmed to the Intercept that Moreno is close to finalizing, if he has not already finalized, an agreement to hand over Assange to the UK within the next several weeks. The withdrawal of asylum and physical ejection of Assange could come as early as this week."

Comments

Equador

[Anonymous Coward]

A new country?

Re:Equador

[Anonymous Coward]

Would be nice if we had new "editors" instead.

Re: Equador

[Anonymous Coward]

Equador is a secret mystical place where the rare covfefe plant is grown, which when smoked makes everything make sense.

Re:Equador

[Anonymous Coward]

It's spelled editqors.

Re:Equador

[Anonymous Coward]

It's right next to Molvania and Latveria.

Re:Equador

[Anonymous Coward]

There are people that does not understand written sarcasm. It is spelled "Ecuador".... just in case.

Re:Equador

[PPH]

You mean 'wikador'.

Re:Equador

[haruchai]

It's right next to Molvania and Latveria.

Also borders Nambia, Columbia and Denmakr

Re: Equador

[Anonymous Coward]

Come now, everyone knows that covfefe is exclusively grown in Nambia.

Re: Equador

[Ecuador]

Don't get me started on that...

Re:Equador

[pjt33]

The really sad thing is that it's spelt correctly in the summary, twice, so it's not even consistently wrong.

Re:Equador

[Anonymous Coward]

A new country?

Nah, something else BeauHD can blame on Russia! Russia! Russia!

Kinda telling the biggest pusher of Russia! Russia! Russia! fake news here on Slashdot can't even spell something correctly when it's spelled correctly in the summary he posted.

Elementary school was the best decade of BeauHD's life. He probably felt so proud to be the only 6th grader who could drive himself to school.

Re:Equador

[Anonymous Coward]

It's right next to Molvania and Latveria.

Nope, those are in Europia. Nambia is next to Wakanda, in Afrikia. Wakanda got the Vibranium, Nambia got the Covfefe.

Glad I could clear that up for you. Yours truly, Donald J. Trump

Re:Equador

[Anonymous Coward]

It's easy to find, it's right on the ecuator.

PS Captcha is quantile.

Re:Equador

[wwphx]

I thought Columbia was where they discovered electricity.

Re:Equador

[Anonymous Coward]

Long live space race. Long live Molvania.

Re: Equador

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't that the country where SJW's are from?

Re:Equador

[Anonymous Coward]

The really sad thing is that it's spelt correctly in the summary, twice, so it's not even consistently wrong.

Spelled. Spelt is a grain.

Re: Equador

[Anonymous Coward]

He should swim for it.

Re: Equador

[BlMccoy]

PRESIDENT AND âoeBRAINâ - we love you and pray for you every time we think of you . God continue to greatly bless you ... POTUS , JULIAN . He ranks right up there with you . HE IS ALSO A GREAT AMERICAN HERO !! He has greatly suffered for his patriotism and. Is also a âoebrainâ ...!! He deserves much better ...!! How about a parade ...?

Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Assange's contribution to humanity is immense. Uncovering really dodgee dealings which are ruining countless lives.

We must all side with Assange. (And don't believe the Right Wing Cuban's in exile who just happened to be there to hit on him and then get raped story - load of shit)

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a death sentence for Assange. He will be thrown in the most violent prison with a high percentage of Islamic fanatical inmates.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

He was certainly OK in the early days, but when he became a Russian puppet and started one sided "leaks" in order to sway the elections to the candidate most likely to abuse human rights, he stopped being defensible.

He's also apparently a likely rapist. Which is why he's hiding out in the first place. The "It's all America!" stuff is codswallop. The US has no extradition warrant out on him, and never has done. He just doesn't want to go to Sweden and be asked awkward questions.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

The Swedish rape accusation is barred

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

In Sweden it's considered rape when the female change her mind next day next week, month, year

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Rei]

How I'm feeling in response to this news...

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Rei]

The actual situation

Director of Public Prosecution, Ms Marianne Ny, has today decided to discontinue the investigation regarding the suspected rape (lesser degree) by Julian Assange. The motive is that there is no reason to believe that the decision to surrender him to Sweden can be executed in the foreseeable future.
– Almost 5 years ago Julian Assange was permitted refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has resided ever since. In doing so, he has escaped all attempts by the Swedish and British authorities to execute the decision to surrender him to Sweden in accordance with the EU rules concerning the European Arrest Warrant. My assessment is that the surrender cannot be executed in the foreseeable future, says Marianne Ny.

According to Swedish legislation, a criminal investigation is to be conducted as quickly as possible. At the point when a prosecutor has exhausted the possibilities to continue the investigation, the prosecutor is obliged to discontinue the investigation.

– At this point, all possibilities to conduct the investigation are exhausted. In order to proceed with the case, Julian Assange would have to be formally notified of the criminal suspicions against him. We cannot expect to receive assistance from Ecuador regarding this. Therefore the investigation is discontinued.

– If he, at a later date, makes himself available, I will be able to decide to resume the investigation immediately, says Marianne Ny.

As a result of the decision to discontinue the investigation, the prosecutor has reversed the decision to detain him in his absence and withdrawn the EAW.

– In view of the fact that all prospects of pursuing the investigation under present circumstances are exhausted, it appears that it is no longer proportionate to maintain the arrest of Julian Assange in his absence. Consequently, there is no basis upon which to continue the investigation, says Marianne Ny.

Translation of the decision (pdf)

Case no. in Stockholm District Court: B 12885-10

Press service
+46 10 562 50 20

If he's handed over to the British, he'll go to jail for his violation of the terms of his bail; there's already a warrant out for him for this. During this time, Sweden can decide to reopen the case, now that he's available, if they choose. The three misdemeanors (2x molestation, 1x unlawful sexual coersion) have hit the statute of limitations, but the rape filing has a couple years left before its statute of limitations expires.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[DCFusor]

The ACs and trolls here don't want facts, man - they even think they know what's going to happen. I guess mom's basement plus gov astroturfing incentives are pretty loud on this one.
.

There sure is a lot of bitterness out there from the people whose misdeeds he's revealed, and it seems they really, really want to "get even" though it will make them look even worse to those of us who are paying attention to anything like truth. And as if it'd make us forget their original misdeeds.
.

Anti-virtue signalling by those who want to deter any future entities who would reveal their wrongdoing?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Not when she drops all charges.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Entrope]

Does Sweden not toll the statute of limitations when the suspect is a fugitive from justice? This is the classic kind of case where someone (under US law, at least) loses the right to challenge a delay in being tried for an offense: the delay is due solely to their status as a fugitive.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

So you think that if someone is forced to say "yes" in the moment, that person should not be able to "change" their minds when they feel safe? And forcing someone to say yes to sex is the textbook definition of rape no matter how you twist it.

Anyway, in Sweden you are considered innocent until proven guilty so there is the burden of proof for the accuser. In these types of cases it comes down to word against word, which is a shitty position for the accuser. So even though Sweden has a definition of rape that others might not agree to, and nowadays even a consent law, it hasn't changed much in practice. You still need proof.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

She is a feminist that wants him in jail for that honey trap that didn't work and she had a lot of time to visit Assange and talk to him in UK (they have done that to other people before)

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

So you think that if someone is forced to say "yes" in the moment, that person should not be able to "change" their minds when they feel safe? And forcing someone to say yes to sex is the textbook definition of rape no matter how you twist it.

Anyway, in Sweden you are considered innocent until proven guilty so there is the burden of proof for the accuser. In these types of cases it comes down to word against word, which is a shitty position for the accuser. So even though Sweden has a definition of rape that others might not agree to, and nowadays even a consent law, it hasn't changed much in practice. You still need proof.

Your logical fallacy is the Staw man.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Opportunist]

That would make Sweden one of the few countries that didn't turn the burden of proof around when it comes to rape.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Rei]

For the record, the unexpired charge is:

4. On 17th August 2010, in the home of the injured party [name given] in Enkoping, Assange deliberately consummated sexual intercourse with her by improperly exploiting that she, due to sleep, was in a helpless state. It is an aggravating circumstance that Assange, who was aware that it was the expressed wish of the injured party and a prerequisite of sexual intercourse that a condom be used, still consummated unprotected sexual intercourse with her. The sexual act was designed to violate the injured party’s sexual integrity.

The statute of limitations would have been hit in August 2020. #1-3 are already expired.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[JaredOfEuropa]

Word against word is a shitty position for the accused as well, if he is actually innocent. A rape charge is no joke. By the way, doesn’t the consent law aim to reverse the burden of proof? Instead of the accuser having to prove rape, the accused now has to prove consent or be deemed guilty, and of course proving that will be very hard (no one is going to stop in the middle of a passionate gropy kissy session on the couch to ask: “before we go any further, would you mind signing this?”).

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it's considered rape if an accused rapist tricks you into having sex with him, for example, by pretending he or she is using contraception.

Which is fucking should be.

Note that this law actually benefits men more than women in general compared to, say, American rape laws, as women generally have an easier time pretending to be using contraception than men do. I'm not saying that's a good or bad thing, just pointing it out, knowing how many here think.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't subscribe to the "ends justify the means" theory here. Yeah, he's shown light on some scummy shit that needed being exposed. But you don't get to dodge justice and jump bail.

Nobody is above the law. Whistleblowers don't get a pass on non-whistleblowing-related shit.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[MachineShedFred]

Isn't there also a flight warrant in the UK due to skipping bail, or failure to appear, or some other thing? I'm not familiar with UK law, but I imagine you don't get to hole up in a foreign embassy for years and not have consequences for it.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Wrath0fb0b]

I don't know about Sweden, but in the US you can't run the statute of limitations by being a fugitive from justice.

At least here in the US, once charges are filed, there is no further statute of limitations. The accused can get the charges dismissed if the trial is unreasonably delayed[1] through no fault of their own, but in this case it seems plausible that the lack of speedy trial has to do with the defendant.

[1] See Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514 (1972) for a more full discussion

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Rei]

Yes, he has a warrant out for him for bail jumping in the UK.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Rei]

Unfortunately, in Sweden you can (their judicial system is most criticized for being too defendant-friendly, hindering the effectiveness of investigations). The statute of limitations has already been run out for three of the four charges against Assange on the original EAW.

Even while Assange was hiding out from Sweden, he was able to repeatedly legally challenge the warrants against him (in absentia) in court. He lost each time, but IMHO that's not a bad strategy... hide out, challenge your warrant repeatedly, and hope that at least one argument sticks.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[allcoolnameswheretak]

Assange's contribution to humanity is immense. Uncovering really dodgee dealings which are ruining countless lives.

I was a strong proponent of Wikileaks, hell I even bought one of their T-shirts to support them. Right up to the point when they were always singularly highlighting grievances in the US and the West in general, while seemingly giving real police states like Russia and China with desolate human rights conditions a free pass.

Also Assange has been a too useful idiot to Putin's plan of dismantling Europe and hurting NATO lately in his support of separatist movements like Brexit and Catalonian independence. Parts of Europe are practically paralyzed due to being busy with these non-issues. It's no secret that Russia is supporting separatist and right-wing parties throughout Europe.
Assange has been acting like one of these Russian agents lately, whose purpose it is to undermine our democracies by spreading FUD, so fuck him.

Also, Slashdot shouldn't post articles citing RT.com sources. RT is Russia's propaganda mouthpiece disguised as a a legit news channel.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[b0s0z0ku]

You're assuming that the "justice" is actually justice, not a kangaroo court. I view him dodging "justice" as somewhat in between people fleeing East Berlin and people violating the old US fugitive slave law. "The law's the law" is a platitude for people who choose not to think. No. Governments aren't always right, and sometimes people fleeing so-called justice is a good thing.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[franzrogar]

Assange is great AND is the worst.

Do not forget how he approves Catalonian criminal organization shitting in the Constitution and Laws in Spain.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Rei]

In this case, it's word-told-in-person-and-SMSed against admitted-word.

Specifically: the incident in question occurred late morning after a night of refusing to consent to unprotected sex, from a person who had a well documented lifetime paranoia about unprotected sex. Earlier in the morning, she had complained - both on SMS with a friend, and in person to another friend encountered at the grocery store while out buying food for Assange - about his behavior, and how mad she was getting about him continually trying to F* her unprotected. She then returned home and went to sleep. Assange does not deny the prevous night's refusals to consent to unprotected sex; he just claims that she woke up and consented.

In short, Assange's argument is: This person, with a well documented history of paranoia about unprotected sex, who was literally complaining about his attempts to sleep with her unprotected right up to when she went to sleep, just suddenly woke up and had a change in lifetime philosophy with a person she had just been mad at.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop drinking the cool aid.

You have no idea of the leaks that Wikileaks put out in Russia because they are a) in Russian and b) Dont' fit into the false narrative you've swallowed so are not reported by the corrupt as hell western media.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Joce640k]

To all those who say America isn't going to extradite him from the "Sweden Trap", why are they "piling on the pressure"?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[b0s0z0ku]

Every region should have the right of peaceful secession from a country. Governments should be fluid, not fixed in stone -- if a majority of people in a region choose not to share a government with people with people who are distant from them, they should have that right.

There are plenty of recent precedents for bloodless dissolution of countries. Czechoslovakia. The former Soviet Union.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

I partially agree with the Russian Puppet statement. Assange position (i'm paraphrasing) was that he believed America needed a change in politics that would have never come from Hillary Clinton. Even off that is true, i think this is the classic story of the fish, that jumps into the fire to avoid the frying pan.
As for rapist, I would not be that sure. The charges seemed to be week at best.
If Sweden prosecutor wanted to move forward with it, they could have without having him extradited first (and Ecuador, even under Correa, would have turn him in if he was found guilty of rape), the fact that they insisted on having him extradited just to interrogate him, tells me that most likely they were simply acting in behalf of the USA.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Joce640k]

I don't subscribe to the "ends justify the means" theory here. Yeah, he's shown light on some scummy shit that needed being exposed. But you don't get to dodge justice and jump bail.

Nobody is above the law. Whistleblowers don't get a pass on non-whistleblowing-related shit.

Let's see how long it takes for him to be shipped from Sweden (where he might be guilty of something) to the USA, where he isn't guilty of anything except pissing off people with too much power.

Remember: Sweden had already closed the case against him and returned his passport after he voluntarily went to be interviewed. He's agreed many times to be interviewed by Sweden on neutral ground.

It was US pressure that reopened the 'case' against him and started all this crap. It's the USA that's really after him, not Sweden. Sweden is just an excuse.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[loonycyborg]

It is a mockery of justice that a court of law has to sift to that couple's personal life like that. I'd say it would be enough of a reason for her to dump him but it definitely should never have made it to court. Court shouldn't safeguard bullshit stuff like "sexual integrity" because it's impossible. Everyone have different views on that. And if two people have incompatible views they just stop their relationship or change their views.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Joce640k]

Which she did.

Anybody willing to bet against him being found "not guilty" in Sweden then shipped to the USA within two hours of landing?

Or even that there'll be any sort of trial at all in Sweden before he's shipped to the USA?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

My understanding is that he was never actually charged with anything, simply accused and wanted for questioning.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Joce640k]

The entire 'Sweden' thing is fake.

The only plan is to get him on Swedish soil so they can "lend" him to the USA.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

He was certainly OK in the early days, but when he became a Russian puppet and started one sided "leaks" in order to sway the elections to the candidate most likely to abuse human rights, he stopped being defensible.

Assange doesn't control what gets sent to wikileaks, the leakers do. If the leaks were one-sided, it has nothing to do with him and there's no reason to change your mind about his OKness due to what leaks came out.

Also, having the facts used by Russia doesn't make him a Russian puppet. Again, any puppets here would be the ones providing the leaks in the first place, not the guy who set up the site to receive and record the leaks.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

if have actually read about the bogus "rape" witch hunt regarding him and actually believe he is a rapist, i have some prime land in south florida to sell you that is sure to make you rich

and its even worse if you somehow fathom trump could/is/has been worse on human rights than hillary and what her cohorts have done around the world, you need thorazine

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Why blame the guy collecting leaks for the lack of leaks coming in from police states? Kind of hard to publish secret information about oppressive regimes that are known for executing leakers if there's few or no leakers willing to send damning information right?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

no one was forced to do anything in that event in question

the feminazis had some reget later, and in true psychopath style decided that sufficient to destroy someones life

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Applehu Akbar]

Putin's plan of dismantling Europe and hurting NATO lately in his support of separatist movements like Brexit and Catalonian independence. Parts of Europe are practically paralyzed due to being busy with these non-issues. It's no secret that Russia is supporting separatist and right-wing parties throughout Europe.

So...it was the Russians who sent all those radical Third World migrants to Europe?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless you are woman, you are also likely rapist.
Having dick these days makes you one.

And saying 'one sided' truth, still counts as saying it.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[dryeo]

While true, there is a question of clarity of the population to secede.
We ran into this in Canada the last time Quebec had a referendum to leave the Confederation. It got about 49.42% votes on the leave side which is awfully close to a 50/50 split. Afterwards the government passed the Clarity Act, based on a ruling by the Supreme Court that Quebec could not unilaterally secede but if it was a clear will of the people of Quebec, the government would have to enter negotiations. It would also take a change to the Constitution of the type that requires all Provinces to agree.
Two parts of the Clarity Act that I agree with is that the question on the ballot has to be clear and the majority has to be a clear majority. The clear majority was never stated what it should be but being of a Constitutional level, I"d think 60%+.
I find it weird when Constitutional level law is passed with a 50%+1 majority.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[b0s0z0ku]

Problem with things like the Clarity Act is that a bad government might keep shifting the goalposts for secession. In that case, you might end up with a choice of submission to the central government or violence.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[hcs_$reboot]

RT is Russia's propaganda mouthpiece

Russia is your best friend, now.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Amazing. If you would have called him a rapist when he was a "good guy" you would have been modded troll faster than a speeding bullet. Now that he's perceived to be a "bad guy" everything changes. But there's no alt-left goose-stepping or anything... no, no way.

And as for human rights? The candidate who had maybe been in some pretty filthy sexual trysts or the one who likely helped unstabalize a foreign nation, agreed to bombing civilians in foreign counties and assisting known terrorists.... Hmm.... who was more likely to violate human rights?

You fucking alt-left pigs baffle me with your lack of common sense and common decency.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

He was a hero when he leaked stuff that was beneficial to the left. He was a villain when he leaked stuff the left would rather have kept quiet.

The only thing on the left as fluid as their genders is their morality.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[pjt33]

Sweden couldn't legally do that: if they extradite him from the UK via a European Arrest Warrant, they can't then extradite him to anywhere without applying to the High Court in London. If they decide to ignore that provision of the treaty which established the EAW, they would have to assume that no-one would ever honour their applications again. Assange might well be narcissistic enough to think that he's worth it, but I'm amazed that anyone else would.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

so he must have had knife in hand? NOOOO???

Then pistol? NOOOO?

Well, I don't know, he hit her before???? What? Also no?

He must have thought of rape, and she felt endangered, that's right. Cause thought crime, of she thought he thought is the most heinous crime!

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[cbraescu1]

He's agreed many times to be interviewed by Sweden on neutral ground.

Assange could not "agree" to that for the simple reason Swedish prosecutors have never proposed such silly idea.

In reality Assange as a fugitive of justice made unreasonable proposals to the Swedish prosecutors, proposals inadmissible under the Swedish law (which means the prosecutors couldn't agree to them even if they wanted to).

Please stop spewing absurd propaganda. You have the right to defend Assange as much as you like, but not by disseminating fake information.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Riiiight...

So if I, as man don't want to have unprotected sex due to scare of pregnancy, I wake up next to very attractive and pretty person, who is also famous, I can not change my mind because I want fuck her? Cause that never happened?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Didn't call him a rapist, I called him a likely rapist. And while I'm AC today (I like being able to ignore Trumpsters) I most certainly did express the same view before it became clear he was in Putin's pocket. The rape allegations against him were always of some concern, and I remember posting in defense of his accusers.

So I suggest you stop putting words into my mouth, and suggest you start looking at the situation objectively. He's refusing to cooperate in a rape investigation, refusing to answer questions, and doing so by pretending that Sweden is going to unilaterally extradite him to the US. What do you think's more likely, that there's substance to the allegations, or that the Sweden and the US are cooperating on a bizarre conspiracy to sneak a minor annoyance into an American prison for a crime nobody can even identify?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[dryeo]

True, but on the other hand, with half the population not wanting to secede, especially combined with a badly worded question, you might have the choice of submission to the local government or violence.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

mod parent up

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, they come across as puppets of the three letter agencies in the U.S.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm surprised Trump hasn't found the interest and a way to have pardoned him already, at least as far as the U.S. is concerned. Trump says he wants to clean up the swamp .. Assange has already supplied some important chlorine bleach.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Assange's contribution to humanity is immense. Uncovering really dodgee dealings which are ruining countless lives.

I was a strong proponent of Wikileaks, hell I even bought one of their T-shirts to support them. Right up to the point when they were always singularly highlighting grievances in the US and the West in general, while seemingly giving real police states like Russia and China with desolate human rights conditions a free pass.

Also Assange has been a too useful idiot to Putin's plan of dismantling Europe and hurting NATO lately in his support of separatist movements like Brexit and Catalonian independence. Parts of Europe are practically paralyzed due to being busy with these non-issues. It's no secret that Russia is supporting separatist and right-wing parties throughout Europe.
Assange has been acting like one of these Russian agents lately, whose purpose it is to undermine our democracies by spreading FUD, so fuck him.

Also, Slashdot shouldn't post articles citing RT.com sources. RT is Russia's propaganda mouthpiece disguised as a a legit news channel.

Umm.. and FOX, CNN, MSNBC et all are all unbiased media sources? Or are you going to cry 'false equivalency'?

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup. The CIA or FBI will stuff Assange onto a Boeing âoeterrorismâ rendition flight to UAE, Qatar or Jordan to be âoemotivatedâ into confessing on video. :â(TM)(

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Itâ(TM)s always rape when the wife/woman wants more than half of everything and/or to smugly enjoy the man being sent to prison.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup. In media- and political-persecution terms, itâ(TM)s guilty-until-forbidden-to-prove-innocence.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Just a couple of the risks
- Needle through it
- Taking out of the trash, turning inside out and inseminating herself afterwards
- Saying sheâ(TM)s on birth control pills but really not
- Relationship anchor baby from another guy

This is why every guy would be wise to provide their own condoms, keep them safe from her adulterating them, pull out correctly and flush them immediately afterwards. Also, paternity tests.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Joce640k]

Pass the popcorn, we'll see who's right.

Assange might well be narcissistic enough to think that he's worth it, but I'm amazed that anyone else would.

Remember: He's already managed to have an Interpol arrest warrant issued for a case of "surprise sex".

Interpol getting involved in a sexual misdemeanor is a clear case of corruption at the highest levels.

(In case you don't know: Interpol isn't supposed to get involved in anything that doesn't involve organized criminals operating in multiple countries simultaneously. Their job is as a go-between among all the various police forces involved)

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Joce640k]

Here's a nickel, kid. Go get yourself a proper keyboard.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Joce640k]

Correct. He's only wanted for questioning at the moment.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Sweden couldn't legally do that:

Nobody is interested in "legally" or the U.S. would have signed out a warrant long long ago, something which would have limited their options because he would have to get handed over officially, with a number of guarantees in place.

No, this was a CIA interrogation center job from the start, and with Trump, they get extra props for torture on people like Assange.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[CaptainDork]

Those close to Assange say "they are piling on the pressure," so, for now, it's a fact not in evidence.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Strider-]

So...it was the Russians who sent all those radical Third World migrants to Europe?

Yes. Through their support of Assad the butcher, and other destabilizing conflicts in developing nations. It's economic warfare by refugee.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Joce640k]

It DIDN'T make it to court. He was questioned and released unconditionally.

Later the USA went on a fishing expedition, found that he'd been questioned about something in a country they have a nice extradition agreement with, and re-opened the case.

Remember: He's not accused of anything yet, they just want him for "questioning". All the "rape" nonsense is just what they've been feeding the press to turn the public against him. What they really want is for him to step on Swedish soil so they can grab him and take him to the USA (where his only crime so far is making people in power look bad).

It's corruption all the way up and it sucks to be him.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Joce640k]

Or ... just find a girl you actually like and trust instead of a controlling bitch who's out to ruin your life.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[CaptainDork]

Nah.

I've been following this saga since day one.

The Sweden rape shit was worked out and all parties agreed to let it go.

The UK has him on outstanding warrants for failure to appear.

--

Assange sunk to low levels way before the 2016 election cycle.

He's got an exaggerated sense of self appreciation and he's in over his head.

He has plans to claim immunity because he's a "publisher," and protected by way of freedom of the press.

Adversaries have lawyered up and point out that Assange has repeatedly claimed to be simply the spokesperson for WikiLeaks, and is in no way the custodian of any stolen intelligence.

It will be interesting to see what develops.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Joce640k]

the fact that they insisted on having him extradited just to interrogate him, tells me that most likely they were simply acting in behalf of the USA.

Of course they are.

The Interpol arrest warrant proves conclusively that this involves corruption all the way up. The head of Interpol should have laughed them out of the building when they applied for that (Interpol getting involved in a single-person sex offense? LOL!), but nooooo.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

So you think that if someone is forced to say "yes" in the moment, that person should not be able to "change" their minds when they feel safe? And forcing someone to say yes to sex is the textbook definition of rape no matter how you twist it.

Sure, but that has nothing whatsoever to do with Assange, since nobody has accused him of doing this. I'm curious why you are describing these things as if he had. It's incredibly misleading - anybody unfamiliar with the case would assume he has been accused of this. Why are you trying to mislead people?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[allcoolnameswheretak]

Umm.. and FOX, CNN, MSNBC et all are all unbiased media sources? Or are you going to cry 'false equivalency'?

All news sources are biased to an extent. There is a difference however between a bias and purposefully spreading disinformation to confuse, manipulate and distort the truth.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Joce640k]

OK, he's offered to be interviewed many times. How's that?

He's also offered to go to Sweden if they'll garantee he won't be extradited to the USA, they could have done that, there's no current extradition order on record.

But ... we know this is a case of high-level corruption (the Interpol arrest warrant proves that beyond any doubt) so they've denied him every chance.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

A CIA Plane will take him to Egypt and one of prisons where they don't come out alive

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[CaptainDork]

I'm agreeing with you, but have more to add:

There were two women.

One said he raped her but she later revealed that she did, indeed, express a liking for rough sex.

The other woman only wanted to talk to Assange to inquire as to whether he had any sexually transmissible diseases, because a rubber broke.

That woman self-tested and was found to be OK.

Both women dropped the charges.

Sweden, on its own volition, issued an arrest warrant for Assange on the premise that they wanted to question him.

He said, "Fine. Let's meet and talk."

Sweden ordered him to come back there.

Fearing a trap, Julian declined.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

By the time everyone sees the pressure in process it'll be too late for the guy.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Just because you like and trust her doesn't mean she won't be a controlling bitch who'll ruin your life. And she just has to go through a "bad phase" to screw you over for life, while she's set up for comfort for life.

You can trust women to do what their perceive is in their best interest. And they tend not to be the most consistenly rational creatures.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

He was certainly OK in the early days, but when he became a Russian puppet and started one sided "leaks" in order to sway the elections to the candidate most likely to abuse human rights, he stopped being defensible.

I don't think you understand wikileaks. They don't go get information, they don't have investigative stories (like journalists), they don't break into IT systems to steal info.

Wikileaks publishes info that other people provide to them.

If people provide info to wikileaks that is true and damaging to only one candidate, wikileaks has no obligation to go find true info that is damaging to the other candidate.

(and frankly, that other candidate you're referring to has lots of damaging true info published about them - unfortunately many voters just didn't care, and the candidate they were running against was just plain terrible and unpopular)

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[uffe_nordholm]

As far as Swedish media have reported (I live in Sweden), you are absolutely correct. But there are a few further facts that seem a bit odd:
- when he first left Sweden his attorney had previously asked the prosecutor if JA could leave the country. The prosecutor answered "yes."
- while in London JA has offered to be interrogated/questioned by Swedish police over internet or in person if Sweden would send a policeman to the UK. Sweden has rejected both offers on for me unclear grounds, most of which seem to be based on the fact that a Swedish policeman visiting the UK would not be able to apply the pressure of law on JA like he could in Sweden. However, this completely disregards the fact that UK police could apply the same pressure....


Even before the facts above took place, there were oddities in the case:
- according to media the first time the supposedly raped women contacted police, it was to find out whether or not they could force JA to take an STD-test
- somehow this inquiry was turned into a rape case by the policewoman they talked to
- the two supposed rape victim were interrogated over the phone and the conversation was not recorded, despite police regulations that rape victims _must_ be interrogated in the police station and the interrogation _must_ be recorded.
- both women were assigned the same attorney for defence. This verges on being illegal, as each victim of a crime should have a representative who cares only about them and no one else in the case: this way any possible confusion of who said what or what was done to whom (or similar confusion) is avoided.
- the first prosecutor who was assigned the case quite quickly came to the conclusion that there is not enough evidence to do anything, and dropped the case
- the next prosecutor who took the case (apparently voluntarily) just happens to be a well-known feminist and member of the party who had the power of government at the time. One of the supposed rape victims is also a feminist and member of the same party. This prosecutor has at least once said something along the lines that it must be possible to punish men even if a court finds them innocent.
- this second prosecutor called a press conference and announced to the world that JA was wanted for interrogation in connection with a possible rape. JA found out he was wanted by reading the news....

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

He's got an exaggerated sense of self appreciation

Then he would have taken the first real set of leaks and auctioned them off to an intelligence agency and retired to the Caymans, instead of angering said intelligence agencies - who have a penchant for kidnapping, murder and torture. Which means your line of "reasoning" is nothing more than ratfucking character assassination.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

He was a hero when he leaked stuff that was beneficial to the left.

Democrats not only aren't left, they hate it more than Republicans do. Case in point: how they still whine about Nader in the 2000 election but NEVER talk about the hundreds of thousands of Florida Democrats who voted for Bush.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a death sentence for Assange. He will be thrown in the most violent prison with a high percentage of Islamic fanatical inmates.

Why would they put him with his buddies? You clearly haven't thought this through ...

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[CaptainDork]

IF there is pressure in the process. It pisses me off that I have to post this for you right from the goddam summary:

Sources close to Assange claim he was not aware of the talks, but believe America is piling "significant pressure" on Ecuador to give him up ...

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[CaptainDork]

You haven't bothered to monitor this.

Assange deliberately avoided associating himself with the actual data.

His title was, simply, "Spokesman for WikiLeaks".

Otherwise he'd have been arrested immediately for possessing stolen property and none of this complicated shit would be in play.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Kjella]

I was under the impression Interpol handled that the crime was in one country and criminal in a different one all the time, instead of thousands of bilateral systems itâ(TM)s one clearing house where you send/recieve extradition requests. And I donâ(TM)t think they filter, Sweden asked for Assange and UK decided whether to approve or deny. Interpol is just the framework to manage the process.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[jon3k]

I'm not sure about Swedish, British or even US law, but my, probably incorrect, layman's understanding is that the statute of limitations doesn't apply if the charges have been filed. From wikipedia:

Common law legal systems can include a statute specifying the length of time within which a claimant or prosecutor must file a case. In some civil jurisdictions (e.g., California),[1] a case cannot begin after the period specified, and courts have no jurisdiction over cases filed after the statute of limitations has expired. In some other jurisdictions (e.g., New South Wales, Australia), a claim can be filed which may prove to have been brought outside the limitations period, but the court will retain jurisdiction in order to determine that issue, and the onus is on the defendant to plead it as part of their defence, or else the claim will not be statute barred.

Once filed, cases do not need to be resolved within the period specified in the statute of limitations.

With that said, does anyone know what would happen with Assange? It sounds like they just "discontinued the investigation" so were charges filed somewhere, anywhere? And can Assange wait them out at this point?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

The whole rape part, I don't believe given all the evidence we have and what all happened. That seemed more like a pretense to get him to extradite.

As far his Assange himself goes.

He served a purpose during the old days leaking stuff that needed to get out. He even did a service to the world leaking the DNC emails. But motive is a huge portion of it.

He wasn't leaking the emails to get the truth out, he was doing it at the behest of a foreign power to sway elections evidently and concealed that fact. And leaking just one side of the information at that key time allowed, what is basically a foreign traitor, to take control of the office and the Republicans are actively working with him to sell out this nation with policies that are detrimental to us and don't the reality they claim it to.

If he had leaked them after the elections or leaked both sides simultaneously or at least been honest about his sources as they weren't an individual that needed protection it was an entire nation who didn't, then this wouldn't have been so bad.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[c6gunner]

Interpol getting involved in a single-person sex offense? LOL!

Yeah, lol! They've been hunting Roman Polanski since 2005! Hilarious!

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Zumbs]

According to the Swedish government:

Extradition is permitted, provided that the act for which extradition is requested is equivalent to a crime that is punishable under Swedish law by imprisonment for at least one year. If sentence has been passed in the state applying for extradition, the penalty must be imprisonment for at least four months or other institutional detention for an equivalent period. Thus, extradition requires an offence punishable under the law of both countries ("dual criminality") that, in principle, is of a certain degree of seriousness.

Extradition may not be granted for military or political offences. Nor may extradition be granted if there is reason to fear that the person whose extradition is requested runs a risk - on account of his or her ethnic origins, membership of a particular social group or religious or political beliefs - of being subjected to persecution threatening his or her life or freedom, or is serious in some other respect. Nor, moreover, may extradition be granted if it would be contrary to fundamental humanitarian principles, e.g. in consideration of a person's youth or the state of this person's health. Finally, in principle, extradition may not be granted if a judgment has been pronounced for the same offence in this country. Nor may extradition be granted if the offence would have been statute-barred by limitation under Swedish law.

The state requesting for extradition must show that there is reason for extradition in the specific case. The outcome of the crime investigation in the requesting state - generally a conviction or a detention order - must be enclosed with the request for extradition. When extradition is granted, certain conditions may be laid down. For example, without the consent of the Government in the particular case, the person who is extradited may not be prosecuted or punished in the other state for any other offence committed prior to extradition (the "principle of speciality"). Nor may he or she be re-extradited to another state without the consent of the Government. Furthermore, nor may the person who is extradited be sentenced to death.

I'm not sure how Swedish law is on foreign nationals leaking government secrets, but one could argue that that resides under "military or political offences". I'm actually a bit surprised that there does not appear to be a provision requiring an expectation of a fair trial, though that could be what "being subjected to persecution threatening his or her life or freedom, or is serious in some other respect" refers to. Also note that:

If the person whose extradition is requested opposes extradition, it falls to the Supreme Court to examine whether extradition can be legally granted under the conditions laid down by law.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Zumbs]

I was a strong proponent of Wikileaks, hell I even bought one of their T-shirts to support them. Right up to the point when they were always singularly highlighting grievances in the US and the West in general, while seemingly giving real police states like Russia and China with desolate human rights conditions a free pass.

Wikileaks is mostly just an intermediary between the person(s) leaking data and journalists and the public. If they don't get any leaks from Russia or China they cannot leak them. Or are you claiming that Wikileaks is intentionally burying leaks from inside Russia and China? Or is it more a feeling that when they get leaks from Western sources they focus on the dirty deeds of Western governments?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Applehu Akbar]

Actually only a small fraction of that flood of "Syrian refugees" is actually Syrian. Are you going to claim that Russia is behind al Shabaab, Boku Haram, and the Bengali slaughter of dissident bloggers?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Van Jones: Russia is "Nothing burger" -- American Pravda: CNN Part 2

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

You Limey fuckwits defending your due process are the same cunts who voted Brexit.

YOUR COUNTRY IS BROKEN and you just won't admit it.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Whole the parent poster's choice of typing device + OS is pretty lame, his/her comment is 100% sound.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[thegarbz]

You're assuming that the "justice" is actually justice, not a kangaroo court.

It's generally a very good assumption in western systems. Kangaroo court does not mean "I don't think the court will treat him fairly based on my limited googling on teh internets"

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[thegarbz]

Remember: Sweden had already closed the case against him

There's still outstanding charges he's wanted for.

He's agreed many times to be interviewed by Sweden on neutral ground.

Yeah I know. All our legal systems let fugitives decide the terms of their interview.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

And Russia is also the party that is directly responsible for Europe proclaiming that those Third World migrants are more desirable than its own native citizens and stuffing as many of them into its countries as absolutely possible?

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

*while

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Sweden have interviewed people outside Sweden without problem then came the feminist prosecutor who refuses to do it because she has decided that he is guilty

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Dread_ed]

Please clarify: Did or did not the two women involved with the accusation and resulting investigation tell the police they no longer want to press charges?

This is seriously confusing.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Hard to tell the difference as they're all fucking crazy.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[PopeRatzo]

The statute of limitations would have been hit in August 2020. #1-3 are already expired.

Do statutes of limitations still run when the accused is a fugitive? I know that's not the case in the US. If I rob a bank and evade police for 5 years, I don't get to start living large in the sixth year and thumb my nose at the cops.

When an accused is a fugitive, the statute of limitations is "tolled", which means suspended, during the time he is a fugitive.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[PopeRatzo]

You have to admit, it's impressive how well alt-right jackoffs have familiarized themselves with the laws governing consent to sex.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[jwhyche]

Serious question here but is everyone a Russian puppet to you people? No doubt that is he is rapist and that is why Sweden wanted him. But a Russian agent to boot now?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[jwhyche]

Sweden you are considered innocent until proven guilty

Oh please. In no country are you considered innocent until proven guilty. That looks great posted to the side of a billboard but other than that is bullshit. In court and to the police you are guilty until proven beyond all doubt that you are innocent, even then you are still guilty.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah I agree CNN, MSNBC are usually spreading disinformation to confuse, manipulate and distort the truth often with direct CIA orders. FOX can be pretty bad too. RT sure its has bias but you can take that into account. Overall tho it is a more honest and open news outlet than any of the above or even the Big Brother Corporation (BBC).

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the charge does not expire when you actively evade the law by hiding in an embassy. The coward deserves whatever he gets.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh yeah, free speech and journalism are only to be defended when the journalist publishes things you like.

Anyway, he's not "apparently a likely rapist"; no charges were filed; alleged victims disavow inappropriate activity; and the Swedish state closed the case. Assange is in need of asylum because the British state has an arrest warrant against him for not showing up to an earlier hearing, regarding the now-closed case. It's expected that if they take him into custody, they would extradite him to the US.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

That may or may not have happened had Assange actually been _charged_. The fact that he was not even charged based on evidence other than his testimony gives you an indication of the merit of these allegations.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[gnasher719]

The statute of limitations would have been hit in August 2020. #1-3 are already expired.

Are you sure the clock for statute of limitation keeps running when you leave the country without permission, then flee from extradition by getting asylum in an embassy?

The reason for "statute of limitation" is mostly that if you were arrested and charged for rape that you are supposed to have committed ten years ago, you would have no idea where you were at the time, which person might be able to give you an alibi, and so on, so it is unfairly hard to defend yourself. These reasons don't exist if you knew about the accusation and fled.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

It's rape even if you do not force her to say yes and she changes her mind ...

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[gnasher719]

What you are explaining are the normal rules of extradition. But there is more. Let's say a German commits a crime in the USA, then travels back to Germany. And he gets extradited. Then either when his court case ends with "not guilty", or when his jail sentence ends, the Americans have to send him back to Germany. They have no right to send him anywhere else. They are also not allowed to prosecute him for anything than what was claimed in the extradition request.

Now Sweden has requested extradition from the UK. If or when the UK extradites him, Sweden can only prosecute him for the crimes in the extradition request, and they have no right to extradite him anywhere else. Even if the USA had a 100% legally perfect and justified extradition request, Sweden could not extradite him. Had he stayed in Sweden, they could extradite him, but not if he is only in Sweden because he was extradited.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[gnasher719]

He's also offered to go to Sweden if they'll garantee he won't be extradited to the USA, they could have done that, there's no current extradition order on record.

No, they couldn't. They have an agreement, and that agreement will say something like "if the USA files an extradition request, then Sweden will carefully examine that request, and if it is justified then the person will be extradited".

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Take your meds tard

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

We have to admire your name calling skills, I assumed you were bullied as a child and now you've discovered a taste for it?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[ArylAkamov]

Trandlation: I liked him when he exposed people I didn't like, now that he's doing things I don't like I'm going to call him a Russian agent because it's trendy.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

You deserve your shitty life.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Recently woke deep sleeping individuals cannot ethically nor philosophically (idk legally) consent to sex; they are often more asleep than awake. Mistakes like these are made often and unprosecuted, and this doesn't get much more high profile. I wish he could face simple ordinary justice, but the drive to punish a leaker effectively whistleblowing against a state is piggy-backong a rape charge to drive through their agenda for retribution and/or revenge. I don't like the stories about what is indiscriminately done to people that the state doesn't like. I don't see anywhere in the US Constitution where it limits the 1st Amendment to citizens, and personally subscribe to the view that the Founders intended it to apply to all people, everywhere, always.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Hereâ(TM)s a copper: complain to /. about their bugs.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck off dip shit.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

How are you doing Elon? I saw you in the news this week and it seems like you're not doing so well. Perhaps take it easy, chill out, and stop calling people pedos?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

For those watching at home, this one of those "The law's the law" people Boso was referring to.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Recently woke deep sleeping individuals cannot ethically nor philosophically (idk legally) consent to sex; they are often more asleep than awake.

I can tell you have never had a wake up blow job.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

+5 Insightful.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[allcoolnameswheretak]

Wikileaks is mostly just an intermediary between the person(s) leaking data and journalists and the public. If they don't get any leaks from Russia or China they cannot leak them. Or are you claiming that Wikileaks is intentionally burying leaks from inside Russia and China? Or is it more a feeling that when they get leaks from Western sources they focus on the dirty deeds of Western governments?

Wikileaks receives many leaks from all over the world, and it's up to the Wikileaks insiders, most of all Assange, to decide what to sift through, and what gets the most attention by forwarding to media and making the headlines. In this respect Wikileaks is no better than most news organizations - they want to get as much attention as possible. And I guess some dirt on the self-proclaimed leader of the free world is more spectacular and outrageous than all the shit that happens every day in Russia and China.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

That's why I like the alt-left jackoffs....feels less familiar that way!

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[allcoolnameswheretak]

... because it's trendy.

That's exactly what the Russian media is trying to get people to believe. That Russia-bashing is some kind of trend plotted by the west to discredit Russia.

If it weren't for the fact that Putin's Russia is the sociopath on the international scale at the moment.
- Annexation of Krimea
- Invasion of eastern Ukraine by Russian soldiers "on vacation"
- The downing of a passenger airliner with a Russian AA missile provided to the separatists
- Support for dictator Assad in Syria
- Covering up for use of chemical weapons in Syria
- Support for right-wing parties across Europe
- Internet trolls spreading FUD across the western Interenet
- Meddling in democratic process of US and other Western governments
- The ongoing murders of opposition figures and journalists in Russia
The list goes on.
Of course, a website like RT.com that is funded by the Kremlin would like to have you believe that that is all anti-Russian propaganda. Big surprise.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[MichaelSmith]

Yeah here in Australia it requires a 60/40 split, in two votes five years apart, so they have to be really sure.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[franzrogar]

Sorry, didn't read all the garbage you wrote.

This' Spain, hence the Spanish Constitution applies. It clearly states Spain is a SINGLE nation UNBREACKABLE.

There's a parte where you can start LEGALLY a reform of the Constitution.

These criminals didn't apply any instance for such thing, they directly VIOLATED THE CONSTUTITION.

Hence, they're just CRIMINALS.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

This prosecutor has at least once said something along the lines that it must be possible to punish men even if a court finds them innocent.

Yeah, it's called 'marriage'. Duh.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Right up to the point when they were always singularly highlighting grievances in the US and the West in general, while seemingly giving real police states like Russia and China with desolate human rights conditions a free pass.

Likely that point has not been reached, so you should still support WikiLeaks.

If you're wondering why there aren't _more_ leaks from those countries, well, I'd guess it's: 1. It's more dangerous. 2. Less people around WikiLeaks who know the relevant languages. 3. Less awareness of WikiLeaks.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[franzrogar]

Nice garbage you wrote. Please, define "region". Please, define "right". Please, define "country".

Goverments SHOULD NEVER EVER be fluid. If you had the least knowing how a Goverment work, what you have just wrote is just the stupidiest thing I've read this year.

And last, Catalonia has ALWAYS been part of someone. It has NEVER EVER been "indepent" (using the current meaning of independency). It started as the money-grabbers of Crown of Aragon in the Middle Ages.

So, sorry if I don't agree with your garbage. Please, next time you want to use high words, please, use them knowing what they mean.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[allcoolnameswheretak]

RT sure its has bias but you can take that into account. Overall tho it is a more honest and open news outlet than any of the above or even the Big Brother Corporation (BBC).

Yes, I'm sure that RT that is literally a state-sponsored news funded by the Russian Kremlin, a country on the bottom of the press-freedom index, and a de-facto police state in which independent journalists are murdered on a regular basis is more trustworthy than the BBC.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes and propaganda is only done by evil foreign countries. My country is genetically superior and hence has more moral leaders and media says everyone on every side.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

The russians gave us political correctness, too.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Rei]

The feminazis had...

I'm going to have to stop you right there; the current preferred term is "Feminazgûl". Our slogan: "The World Of Men Will Fall".

We're also made of straw.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Most countries will not extradite to places like the USA who are known to torture prisoners.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

"RT that is literally a state-sponsored news funded by the Russian Kremlin"
ands the BBC is what exactly genius?

"a country on the bottom of the press-freedom index"
No its not its "difficult situation" level 2/5. UK is satisfactory situation 4/5.

"independent journalists are murdered on a regular basis"
Now you are just making shit up.

If you want i will come check if there are any nasty russian monsters under your bed before you go to sleep.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

The fact, that Assange has sided with Russia well before the 2016 election meddling, is far too damning to let go just like that. Assange is very likely to live, and he will hopefully give a lot of evidence. What he probably does think, is, that there are people out there who might want him dead, so any official or prosecutor has to prove wrong such a position of Assange and his supporters.

If he's turned over to the UK, then he'll stay locked up just for the fact that he flunked bail there. After that, he'll be turned over to Sweden for questioning. After that is anyone's guess.

Had Assange not sided with Russia, then in theory, Sweden could have chosen not to let him go, and not extradite him to the United States either. Sweden can still do that, and not extradite him to the United States, though now I fail to understand why -- simply for the damage that Assange has done to affect the 2016 election in the U.S. Yes, he was not the only one, but he's played an important role in this.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Kiwikwi]

The Swedish government can block any extradition to a non-EU country if they feel like it, so yes, they could totally have given him that guarantee (at least until the next election).

The Government can refuse extradition even if the Supreme Court has not declared against extradition, as the law states that if certain conditions are fulfilled, a person "may" be extradited - not "shall" be extradited.

source

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Because he publishes without vetting and redaction, thus putting unaffected third parties and his sources in grave danger. Assange looks now to be the only person who chooses what to publish.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes. After all, it was Assad that bombed and continues to bomb the people of Syria, with Russian backing.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Look at the photos of migrant boats, most of the refugees are African. They come from Libia, Syria is not even on their way.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[F.Ultra]

They never wanted to press charges in the first place, however for serious offences like rape the state can and will press charges even if the victims refuse to do so.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

All sources I've casually observed over time and just searched for point to this being completely false. Either you have some source that contradicts official and investigated statistics, or you're full of shit and a liar.

Just the very first two:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/padr.12042

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_migrant_crisis

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes. Through their support of Assad the butcher, and other destabilizing conflicts in developing nations. It's economic warfare by refugee.

This should be memorized as a shining example of sheer shameless idiocy that it is.

This moron actually claims that the whole of Africa, and particularly Northern Africa from which most of the claimants come, then Iraq and Afghanistan in Middle East just to name a few, are all "destabilized" by the Russians. The. Fucking. Russians!

Not US/NATO bombing the shit out of Libya, not the US-instigated "Arab Spring" that destabilized Egypt and Syria, not ISIS which grew directly from the wreckage of US invasion and pillaging of Iraq, not the ongoing chaos in Afghanistan started by CIA financing of Taliban and Al-Queda which so spectacularly back-fired in 9/11, not Islamic barbarisms in Somalia and Yemen, where the staunch US Allies, the fucking House of Saud are slaughtering anyone in sight to establish their dominance, with US weapons of course, not the literal decades of fucking with the whole of Middle East via CIA coups, financing the likes of Saddam (when he was a good obedient US stooge), overthrowing governments and pissing on the populace....

NO. The Russians. The all-powerful Russians with mind-control beams and history-rewriting vodka.

What a cock-sucking brainless jackass of an imbecile one has to be to even propose that the Russians are to even remotely blame for the EU migrant crisis I cannot imagine. Advanced mental illness caused by prolonged exposure to ideologically pure group-think echo-chambers is the only explanation.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[F.Ultra]

Because it would be so damn difficult to get him extracted from the UK? The UK that is part of the 5-eyes, members of NATO and tight buddies with the US?

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

That's because admitting they knew Jeb Bush had committed fraud in Florida's elections would be tantamount to acquiescence with the partition of Poland.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[F.Ultra]

You honestly believe that we Europeans would have difficulty distinguishing between Syrians, Nigerians and Somalians?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[F.Ultra]

No we don't. Flee and you are safe.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Those that use the Mediterranean boat route, are not Syrian. Many -- if not most of those -- are economic migrants from Africa. Syrian refugees travel by land. And most Syrian refugees are holed up in city-sized camps in Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

It's generally a very good assumption in western systems.

This only shows how little do you know about western systems.

Having had extensive experience in that area I can only say they have a different, slicker and more photogenic fur on the kangaroos. With much better PR machine up front and legions of naive true-believers who still trust them ... like you.

A sad fact is that the world no longer has justice anywhere, if it even ever had it.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Or are you claiming that Wikileaks is intentionally burying leaks from inside Russia and China?

It's not entirely the answer to what you asked, but in same vein nevertheless: On August 25, 2016, Assange said himself to Megyn Kelly, that he would not release any damaging information about Trump. Keep in mind, that hackers lifted information form the RNC, too.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

- Annexation of Krimea

Crimea actually, part of Russia proper until 1954, 60-80% Russian-speaking (depending on who's counting), annexed after a (granted,questionable) referendum after successful US-sponsored coup in Ukraine. Sounds much less villainous after you know some facts. Also a great loss of resources that were supposed to be made available to US interests after the successful coup. Oops.

- Invasion of eastern Ukraine by Russian soldiers "on vacation"

You neglected to mention that the whole destabilization of Ukraine was accomplished by the US government and US billionaires directly meddling in Ukrainian politics to the point of organizing and sponsoring a coup and then installing a government to Mrs. Newland's liking (wait! isn't this like, like treason or something?! oh - wait, its the US doing it, move along). The Eastern Ukraine (again, 80% Russian speaking and identifying itself as Russian) neglected to participate in this new arrangement. Secession ensued. That the Russians are assisting their families living in the area should come as no surprise. You also note that Russia did not advance on Kiev.

- The downing of a passenger airliner with a Russian AA missile provided to the separatists

True. Why where civilian aircraft flying over a war-zone is an another discussion. See also Iran Air flight 655....

- Support for dictator Assad in Syria

Support for a Russian-allied tyrant is different from US supporting its Allied Tyrants (say the House of Saud) by how many levels of Hell exactly? Oh, I see, the same action's evil depends of who is doing it! Also known as Hypocrisy. And no, "whataboutism" is an Orwellian NewSpeak term, a logical fallacy in itself designed to deflect from exposing actions Hypocritical. Don't even bother.

- Covering up for use of chemical weapons in Syria

You should read stuff by Seymour Hersh (one of those old school war journalists no longer popular for their knack of telling inconvenient truths - oh, hey this sounds familiar!) and his on-site investigations of the Great Chlorine Fabrication. There are many others. For further reference check out a girl named Nayirah and incubator babies but then again it will probably bounce off your uncritical self-smug world-view like a water off a duck.

- Support for right-wing parties across Europe

Hang them now! How dare they have a preference! Wait, isn't this exactly what US is doing? Wasn't Obama actually co-campaigning in Britain against Brexit even...

Also no, the true right-wingers are the Bandera Nazis in Ukraine and they are firmly in the US corner

- Internet trolls spreading FUD across the western Interenet

From what you spout, I am afraid you are more guilty of this than the Russians...

- Meddling in democratic process of US and other Western governments

LOL. Pot. Kettle. Black.

- The ongoing murders of opposition figures and journalists in Russia

Having been fed a steady diet of bullshit of such high purity you probably also think that Putin is not having popularity ratings in 80% range and that his election victories are fake, right? You should read up on how he came to power in the wake of US-beloved Yeltsin (whom US installed as President of Russia by the way - oh the irony) but then again, it will probably do nothing to penetrate the calcified dogma you so fond of.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

How I'm feeling in response to this news...

While everyone else sees you like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neRw5b7HVjw

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[allcoolnameswheretak]

Crimea actually, part of Russia proper until 1954, 60-80% Russian-speaking (depending on who's counting), annexed after a (granted,questionable) referendum after successful US-sponsored coup in Ukraine. Sounds much less villainous after you know some facts. Also a great loss of resources that were supposed to be made available to US interests after the successful coup. Oops.

There was no "coup" unless you rely on Russian sources. It was the majority of Ukrainians who VOTED to join the EU. Russia views the EU as the gateway to NATO and of course Putin would have none of that, so he decided to invade the east and annex Crimea with soldiers without insigna, all the while putting up smokescreens denying any involvement. All of which is obviously illegal under international law.

Support for a Russian-allied tyrant is different from US supporting its Allied Tyrants (say the House of Saud) by how many levels of Hell exactly? Oh, I see, the same action's evil depends of who is doing it! Also known as Hypocrisy. And no, "whataboutism" is an Orwellian NewSpeak term, a logical fallacy in itself designed to deflect from exposing actions Hypocritical. Don't even bother.

The Syrians were protesting on the streets for more freedoms and democracy as part of the Arab spring. Assad decided not to chat and gun them down instead. You can bet your ass the US or any Western country would never be able or willing to uphold support for a regime that guns down their own citizens. Putin has no problem with that, obviously.

You should read stuff by Seymour Hersh (one of those old school war journalists no longer popular for their knack of telling inconvenient truths - oh, hey this sounds familiar!) and his on-site investigations of the Great Chlorine Fabrication. There are many others. For further reference check out a girl named Nayirah and incubator babies but then again it will probably bounce off your uncritical self-smug world-view like a water off a duck.

International inspectors have performed their investigations and it is clear that the Syrian regime bears responsibility for the chemical attacks. But you might prefer to believe Putin and Assad's version, since they are clearly more trustworthy than any international organization.

Hang them now! How dare they have a preference! Wait, isn't this exactly what US is doing? Wasn't Obama actually co-campaigning in Britain against Brexit even...

Voicing support for one party or the other is one thing. A foreign state actor providing material support and finances to a party and agenda of a foreign nation is another thing altogether.

The ongoing murders of opposition figures and journalists in Russia

Having been fed a steady diet of bullshit of such high purity you probably also think that Putin is not having popularity ratings in 80% range

Putin's rating haven't been in the 80's for a while now. Not that it matters. Of course a strong leader in a police state where the media is controlled by the government will have high ratings. How high do you think Hitler's rating where?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://www.washingtonpost.com...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world...
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/...
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/0...
The list goes on...
Business as usual in Putin's Russia.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[allcoolnameswheretak]

"RT that is literally a state-sponsored news funded by the Russian Kremlin"
ands the BBC is what exactly genius?

BBC is funded by license fees independent from the currently ruling party, and a commercial factor. RT is funded by the Russian government. Big difference, genius.

"a country on the bottom of the press-freedom index"
No its not its "difficult situation" level 2/5. UK is satisfactory situation 4/5.

Yeah, right. Russia is place 148 below Pakistan, Venezuela or Afghanistan on the Press Freedom Index, but not actual rock-bottom, you're right. That would be North Korea. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

"independent journalists are murdered on a regular basis"
Now you are just making shit up.

I wish I would.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[poity]

After embarrassing Bush and Clinton, along with many leaders of all political stripes, the people who defend Assange now are the truly principled.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

His comment is paranoid, and devoid of any reason. The comment about his keyboard is actually factual.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Russians! Russia Russia Russia!

Raaaaaaaaape! Raaaaaaaaape!

Russians rapists are raping me in Russia!

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[datavirtue]

Found a Russian

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Remove attractive and pretty, and substitute famous for infamous.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[datavirtue]

that's the one I go with

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[datavirtue]

There are far more accusations (1000:1) of being a "Trumptard", Russian, or creimer than there are actual posts by these actors. They are virtually non-existent except for the deluge of accusations that breath life into them.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[datavirtue]

The US is awash in kangaroo courts. Literally every small town has one.

Where you go in for a small infraction and find yourself pinned to the wall by a magistrate and his buddies at the police department. Didn't think you would need a lawyer? Think again.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[datavirtue]

If close to half the population wants to secede you should work something out, not just say "you lose" because of a small fraction of a percentage point. You are just forcing people to find another way in that case...which is dangerous. OK...the non-violent way didn't work...now what?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

It was the majority of Ukrainians who VOTED to join the EU. Russia views the EU as the gateway to NATO and of course Putin would have none of that, so he decided to invade the east and annex Crimea with soldiers without insigna, all the while putting up smokescreens denying any involvement. All of which is obviously illegal under international law.

WTF are you going on about? The sitting president was literally run out of the country amidst violent upheaval that threatened his and his family's life. There were no elections of any kind until after the fact. That's the very dictionary definition of a coup.

Your ramblings about what went on after are irrelevant as by that time the country was already fractured... by the US-sponsored coup. The "grass-roots" mob involved was encouraged, organized and equipped by the US NGOs and the State Department. Its participant members established the new government exactly as the State Department wanted. There are recorded conversations of Newland making the arrangements. So much for the Ukrainian "votes".

This is why its so hard to take people like you seriously.

The Syrians were protesting on the streets for more freedoms and democracy as part of the Arab spring. Assad decided not to chat and gun them down instead. You can bet your ass the US or any Western country would never be able or willing to uphold support for a regime that guns down their own citizens. Putin has no problem with that, obviously.

Muahahaha! Ahem... Saudi Arabia and beheading of anti royalty blasphemers, Chile and Pinochet and machine gunning of dissenters in soccer stadiums, Saddam and war on Iran (when chemical weapons were A-OK!), Iran and the Shah and his lovely Savak police, Spain and Generalissimo Franco, Greece and the Colonel Junta, just off the top of my head in 10 seconds.... I am sure I am missing at least 20 more. LOL

Not to mention actual invasions where the US itself machine-gunned protestors and tortured them in secret prisons.....

International inspectors have performed their investigations and it is clear that the Syrian regime bears responsibility for the chemical attacks. But you might prefer to believe Putin and Assad's version, since they are clearly more trustworthy than any international organization.

No they haven't. That's the whole point. The last time inspectors tried, Trump sent missiles at their investigation target. OPCW found that chlorine exposure was the source of reports of chemical attacks and after the "White Helmet" scam went bust the labs containing chlorine supplies were overrun by the Syrian army. No Sarin, no nerve-toxins, no military chemicals. Chlorine. Pool cleaners in concentrated form made by the "Moderate Rebels" and dispersed in contested areas ... they knew fools like you would eat it up and ask for more. Complete with fake casualty videos etc.

Assad had literally nothing to gain from using chlorine and much to lose. I know that to the likes of you anyone who you dislike is by definition crazy and irrational but to the rest of sane observers: his forces were winning, US was chomping at the bit for any excuse to bomb him, the Russians advised against counter-productive actions and had his back with air support, there was absolutely no tactical advantage to Assad. The "Moderate Rebels" (read ISIS) on the other hand...

Voicing support for one party or the other is one thing. A foreign state actor providing material support and finances to a party and agenda of a foreign nation is another thing altogether.

See also under "Color Revolutions" and Ukraine...

This raging Hypocrisy of yours is quite depressing.

Putin learned from the US after being on the receiving end more than once before he tried his hand at the game.

Putin's rating haven't been in the 80's for a while now. Not that it matters. Of course a st

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

ALL "date rape" is fake rape.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Rape is not a "serious charge". It's always just a tool for petty persecution.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone knows feminists are the shock troops of totalitarian capitalism.

No one here wants what you're selling. Go peddle your obvious lies somewhere else.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

No doubt that is he is rapist and that is why Sweden wanted him.

No doubt he's a rapist - despite the fact that the women involved went to the state not t press charges, but to ask for an STD test? Despite the fact he was cleared by prosecutors to leave the country? Despite the fact that Sweden has refused to interview Assange abroad, as they'e done to dozens of suspects since Assange left the country? Despite the fact that Assange has offered to return to Sweden if the government promises not to hand him over to the United States? Even if you're drinking the Hatorade on Assange and think that offer was a lie, it would mean Ecuador would no longer have a reason to grant him asylum.

So the only thing "not in doubt" here is the fact you've fallen for CIA-sponsored character assassination.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

The creimertards, "APK", Trump imprisonment fantasizers, Russian-conspiracy theorists, and the faggot/INCEL/pedophile/traitor/Nazi trolls are all the work of disreputable political operative David Brock, and his fifty cent army of "nerd virgins".

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/09/david-brock-hillary-clinton-correct-the-record/

Earlier they gained notoriety for their duplicitous "Correct the Record" misinformation campaign on behalf of presidential candidate Hitlary Clinton.

They are are employed by a Democrat affiliated "progressive" propaganda works called "American Bridge 21st Century". According to Wikipedia their biggest funder is George Soros.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Bridge_21st_Century

The purpose of their spamming and cyber-stalking is to silence unapproved narratives. They do this by deterring free public discussion and poisoning any forum that does not implement censorship of unapproved viewpoints.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[gravewax]

There is no statute of limitations once charges are drawn up. I.e. you can't just run from authorities till the charges expire. The Statute of limitations is around how long they have to file charges.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

He wasn't leaking the emails to get the truth out, he was doing it at the behest of a foreign power to sway elections evidently and concealed that fact.

The only evidence showing Wiikileaks acting at the behest of Russia - after publishing hundreds of thousands of documents on Russia and Russia's domestic surveillance apparatus after the 2016 election - is the crap between your ears.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Over 95% of the souls rotting in the American federal Gulag were railroaded into "confessing". Our "justice" system is a bad joke. The courts have squandered their legitimacy, and made themselves enemies of the people.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you not understand what the CIA does?

Your ignorance baffles me.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

while in London JA has offered to be interrogated/questioned by Swedish police over internet or in person if Sweden would send a policeman to the UK. Sweden has rejected both offers on for me unclear grounds, most of which seem to be based on the fact that a Swedish policeman visiting the UK would not be able to apply the pressure of law on JA like he could in Sweden.

Also the fact that that Sweden has done just that this dozens of times since 2011 (interviewed suspects abroad). Add to that Assange's promise to return to Sweden if they promised not to hand him over to the United States - as they've done to other people who were promptly tortured. Assange haters like to dismiss that as an empty promise - but if it were made then Ecuador would no longer have a reason to grant him asylum.

It's almost like Sweden could let this only be about alleged rape charges, if they wanted to. They don't want to.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[dryeo]

Yes, in the case of Quebec there were changes made, they were declared a distinct society, the Federal veto procedure was changed and various other changes. Quebec takes care of a lot of stuff that usually the Federal government takes care of, even things like immigration.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

Because it would be so damn difficult to get him extracted from the UK?

Yeah, it would. See the recent denial of extradition for an alleged hacker based on how the U.S. tortures and abuses prisoners. Which is no exaggeration after Obama had Chelsea Manning tortured for 18 months with solitary confinement and then sentenced in a kangaroo court.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[astrofurter]

I think most people know not to believe everything they see on RT.

Unfortunately there are still a few people who do believe everything they see on BBC/CNN.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

Parent is more correct than you are. Sweden may have hippie health care and higher education, but their justice system is still medieval in how it treats people suspected by the state of committing crimes. Swedish prosecutors are allowed to keep people in solitary confinement for weeks at a time, without outside contact of any kind, including access to a lawyer. People have confessed to murders they didn't commit in far less time.

The naysayers dismissal of Assange's entirely justified fears are easily addressed by how Sweden treated one of the Pirate Bay founders.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

The fact, that Assange has sided with Russia well before the 2016 election meddling

The only fact here is that is a dumbfuck talking point. One noticeably absent from when Wikileaks was unveiling corruption and war crimes from the Bush Administration - but that's before Americans became willingly propagandized back into outright McCarthyism.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[geekymachoman]

> Also, Slashdot shouldn't post articles citing RT.com sources. RT is Russia's propaganda mouthpiece disguised as a a legit news channel.

Yeah.. where the fuc is CNN ? Because that's the real news, isn't that right ?

Also, NY Times, Washington Post... real news... anti Trump and all, isn't that right you brainwashed twat ?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

You're not bothering to respond to the point. Go on, give it a shot. You can do it.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

The case of Gottfrid Svartholm neatly answers the concerns of those who dismiss Assange's (perfectly justified) fears of being interrogated without a lawyer and being handed over to the U.S.

https://www.theguardian.com/co...

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

Yeah I know. All our legal systems let fugitives decide the terms of their interview.

When your "legal system" has a penchant for kidnapping, murder and torture? That's exactly what you get to do. This line of CIA apologia is also rendered mute by the fact that Sweden has interviewed dozens of suspects abroad since 2010. Moreso by the additional fact that Assange has offered to return to Sweden if Sweden promises not to hand him over to US custody. Even if you are an Assange hater and think that offer is a bluff, if Sweden were to take it up, Ecuador would no longer have a reason to offer Assange asylum.

Sweden could easily make this be about rape charges if its only about rape charges, and could have done so years ago. They've chosen not to. Which means this isn't about an alleged rape and never has been.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

Assange could not "agree" to that

Of course he can. Not his fault that Sweden has ignored Assange's offer to be interviewed abroad, or his offer to return to Sweden if Sweden promises not to hand him over to the U.S.

Swedish prosecutors have never proposed such silly idea

A "silly idea" they've done dozens of times since 2011. But not for Assange. Hmm, almost like the charges are a transparent pretext to hand him over to US custody, or at least interrogate him for weeks without a lawyer or any outside contact. They've done it before.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

This is the same country that had the flight of a foreign head of state forced down because he may have been carrying Edward Snowden aboard. Of course the US wants Assange and is willing to apply enormous pressure to do so.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Except no charges have been filed.

Are you a retard or just a liar?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

- according to media the first time the supposedly raped women contacted police, it was to find out whether or not they could force JA to take an STD-test
- somehow this inquiry was turned into a rape case by the policewoman they talked to

Another swede here, and I don't think this is odd at all. A female friend of mine was sexually assaulted (groped) on a club and she came to me just a moments later. At first she mentioned it to me very casually, and I reacted by saying "thats is not ok, what did he do?" and how she felt. When she saw that I and other people around her took the situation seriously you could literally see the turmoil within her. Slowly by slowly she got over the initial shock that left her to appear just perplexed and she eventually grew so scared that we had to escort her away from the premises and to her front door for her to feel safe.

Some victims do not always realize what happens to them at the moment, they try to rationalize it. Realization might come later when the facts have sunk in and/or they are informed of the situation they were subjected to was illegal.

So the women might have contacted the police to get legal council on how they could get Assange to take an STD-test, but then got informed that just because you consent to having protected sex, under swedish law, it is still considered rape if the other party have unprotected sex with you later and you have not consented to that.

Also, filing a police report is not something only the victim can do. Not long ago there was a case which was brought up by the media and a concerned reader filed the police report urging an investigation.

As for Assange reading on him being wanted for interrogation on the news, it doesn't surprise me the least. Nor should it surprise anyone that followed his visit to Sweden. At the moment the media loved him. He had helped out some horrible crimes. Up to his visit in Sweden the news outlets had daily reports of this mysterious man of unknown age and origin, traveling the world and living out of a suitcase to stand up for justice and truth. The superlatives were flowing. According to the media at the time he was notoriously hard to find and/or contact out of safety concerns. It is not like you could look his phone number up. But when the rape accusations surfaced the media frenzy was like someone had chummed the shark waters. Of course the media spread the news extremely quickly.

We often have a very short memory. Go back and Google "Julian Assange Sverige" and enter a custom date interval (4/1/2010 -- 7/31/2010) and see what media wrote about Assange then. He played the part of a man that was very hard to track down, and given what Wikileaks had posted everyone thought that was perfectly normal and ok.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[thegarbz]

When your "legal system" has a penchant for kidnapping, murder and torture?

Oh please. Citing a single case from 17 years ago as an excuse to completely flaunt the entire justice system of a country isn't even hyperbole, it's borderline tinfoil hattery. Get a grip man.

Sweden could easily

Sweden could easily do a lot of things that breach the legal framework they have set in place. But in doing so they would confirm to do the very thing about which you just criticised them.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Your fallacy is not being able to spell "Straw man".

And no, this was not a Strawman. He claimed, correctly, that in Sweden it is considered to be a rape if a either party changes her mind after the act. But the wording insinuated that this is wrong. I asked if you are allowed to change your mind. How is that a logical fallacy?

Also, I pointed out that this consent (that can be revoked) has very little effect on the actual legal proceedings, since there are very little technical evidence and it usually only comes down to two parties words against each other.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

No, he's not. He's wanted for questioning.
Which he's agreed to, provided they won't extradite him to the US.

No charges have been filed yet, stop perpetuating lies.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

You seem to have very little trust in the legal system of your, or any other country. I am sad to hear that.

If someone accuses you of a crime, the legal system has to take allegations seriously and not just brush them away. But to convict you, more is needed.

Has there been miscarriages of justice? Yes, many times unfortunately. And these cases should be taken very seriously and rectified as soon as they are discovered and it is possible.

But claiming that you are "guilty until proven beyond all doubt that you are innocent, even then you are still guilty" is a pretty hefty accusation. Care to back it up with some facts? Or is it just your gut feeling? If so, what experiences has made you feel this?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[jeremyp]

Yes and, in fact the British are the only people who want to arrest him since Sweden dropped the rape investigation.

https://www.theguardian.com/me...

That's not to say that Sweden would not take up the investigation again if Assange left the embassy.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[jeremyp]

Yes, but if she said no to unprotected sex with him and he proceeded to have unprotected sex with her, it's rape. End of story.

The fact is that the only legal issue hanging over Assange when he skipped bail was the rape allegations. He obviously thought he couldn't beat those charges otherwise he would have allowed himself to be extradited to Sweden. It's not like the UK doesn't have an extradition treaty with the USA, not that the USA had requested anybody to extradite him at that time.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

So you watch a lot of tv, eh?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[jeremyp]

only if Assange was capable of seeing into the future.

The bottom line is he ran away from rape charges. He obviously thinks he's guilty.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Trump and Putin probably want him dead.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[quantaman]

It is a mockery of justice that a court of law has to sift to that couple's personal life like that. I'd say it would be enough of a reason for her to dump him but it definitely should never have made it to court. Court shouldn't safeguard bullshit stuff like "sexual integrity" because it's impossible. Everyone have different views on that. And if two people have incompatible views they just stop their relationship or change their views.

Having sex with someone who doesn't consent isn't a "couple's personal life", it's rape.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[quantaman]

There were two women.

One said he raped her but she later revealed that she did, indeed, express a liking for rough sex.

The other woman only wanted to talk to Assange to inquire as to whether he had any sexually transmissible diseases, because a rubber broke.

That woman self-tested and was found to be OK.

Both women dropped the charges.

Sweden, on its own volition, issued an arrest warrant for Assange on the premise that they wanted to question him.

He said, "Fine. Let's meet and talk."

Sweden ordered him to come back there.

Fearing a trap, Julian declined.

Not quite.

The first woman was the one who experienced "rough sex" and the broken condom, which she thought Assange deliberately broke (he claimed he wasn't aware... which seems implausible).

The second women had repeatedly expressed her preference against unprotected sex and so they'd have protected sex. But later she fell asleep and awoke to find him having unprotected sex with her.

The first one seems like some sketchy behaviour on his part but I don't think there's a case on its own.

But the second one is definite rape, not only was she asleep (and unable to consent) when it started, but it was a form of sex she had expressly prohibited.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[loonycyborg]

Rape is action of perpetrator forcing themselves on the victim. Using physical coercion or threat of violence. So after that victim runs away crying unless restrained. Something that is not the case here. Instead the "victim" carried on as if it was usual night. "consent" is merely a legal criterion to disambiguate certain acts between actual rape and BDSM roleplay and not essential part of definition of "rape".

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Agripa]

The entire 'Sweden' thing is fake.

The only plan is to get him on Swedish soil so they can "lend" him to the USA.

Sweden would never do something like that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Oh, ok. Yea, they would.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[quantaman]

Rape is action of perpetrator forcing themselves on the victim. Using physical coercion or threat of violence. So after that victim runs away crying unless restrained. Something that is not the case here. Instead the "victim" carried on as if it was usual night. "consent" is merely a legal criterion to disambiguate certain acts between actual rape and BDSM roleplay and not essential part of definition of "rape".

Rape INCLUDES a forcible physical rape. But it is not limited to such. Rape also includes sex when the victim did not consent and is incapable of consenting, and when the victim is intimidated into consenting (including though implied violence).

In this case (at least according to the report) the victim had clearly laid out the parameters under which she consented. He then waited till she was asleep in order to initiate intercourse that violated those parameters, that's rape.

That she didn't "run away crying" is only indicative of the fact she had just woken up mid-assault and was probably a little disoriented and unsure how to deal with it.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Any population should be allowed to secede? And where we stop? Region, County, City, neighbourhood, street block, building?

Canada may be a Confederation, Spain is not and never has been, not even for over its 500 years of existence as a State.

This case you expose may be applicable to territories like Canada but makes no sense to generalize because the results of indiscriminate secesion are just absurd.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

Oh, do pull out of this neocon narrative. After being interviewed by investigators Assange was cleared to leave the country. It was only after he left that another prosecutor decided to blow a couple of women who asked for an STD test to an Interpol case. And Sweden, despite its hippie health care and free college, is positively medieval when it comes to how it deals with suspects. Holding them in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer & using an arrest as a pretext to interrogate and deport to another country didn't start with Gottfrid Svartholm, he's just the perfect example of how Assange haters are full of crap.

Assange has offered to be interviewed remotely or in person if Sweden were to send an investigator abroad - something Sweden has done dozens of times since 2011 - or to return to the country if the government promises not to hand him over to the United States. Sweden has refused both offers. Even if you think Assange is merely posturing, such a promise would mean Ecuador would no longer have a reason to grant him asylum, meaning Assange would end up in Sweden's custody whether he meant that promise or not.

If this was really about an alleged rape case, Sweden could have made it be about a rape case years ago. This tells anyone with two functioning neurons this is not about alleged rape and never was.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

You also can ignore any law in existence and try a coup calling the angry mobs to take the streets like the Catalonian government and use that to declare the independence.

Yes, the Catalan Government formally declared the independence and inmediately suspended it thinking that would help to avoid the legal responsability of a coup.

Because what the State is going to do? Prosecute you? How dare!

Then flee from the justice and whine that the Evil(TM) State is after you just because are fascists(TM) and hold a grudge against you. And the most important is to always keep whinning and asking why why why they are so nasty with you if you are the good guys.

Of course, you sure already got hold of lots of money for the(you) cause from all these dumb peasants.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

Oh please. Citing a single case from 17 years ago as an excuse to completely flaunt the entire justice system of a country isn't even hyperbole, it's borderline tinfoil hattery. Get a grip man.

You're only insulting your own intelligence here. Remind us (and by us I mean you) who's the current head of the CIA? How many high level politicians have openly called for Assange's assassination? The number of whisteblowers persecuted in the previous administration's war on sources - three times as many as all previous presidents combined? The same president who had a foreign head of state's plane forced down because Edward Snowden might be aboard? All much more recently than 17 years ago. Hate Assange all you want, it's a free country, but to deny that his fear of Swedish complicity in US persecution is completely justified takes a powerful level of dumbfuckery.

Sweden could easily do a lot of things that breach the legal framework they have set in place. But in doing so they would confirm to do the very thing about which you just criticised them.

TSTRT

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[F.Ultra]

But she is a UK citizen, Assange is not so he is not covered by the laws that protect UK citizens from being extradited.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[LinuxLuver]

They aren't his buddies. Why be clueless? It's not funny.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[thegarbz]

You're only insulting your own intelligence here. Remind us (and by us I mean you) who's the current head of the CIA? How many high level politicians have openly called for Assange's assassination?

Get a grip man. At this point I'm actively looking forward to the absolutely nothing that will happen to him, not that I think that will stop any of you conspiracy nuts. But at least one conspiracy nut will be properly affected. Assange will have spent years in house arrest for nothing.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

Human rights aren't dependent on citizenship.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[cold fjord]

To all those who say America isn't going to extradite him from the "Sweden Trap", why are they "piling on the pressure"?

It seems it isn't the US, but Spain

Ecuador has a very close relationship with Spain in matters of both trade and diplomacy and wants to remain in their good graces. Moreno isn’t quite as fearful of ticking off the governments of the United States or Great Britain as he would be of getting under the skin of Madrid. But he’s also said to be more amenable to working with western governments than his predecessor. After Assange started publicly criticizing Spain’s handling of the Catalan independence movement, he went from being an inconvenience to a serious diplomatic problem.

Re: Terrible - Assange is great

[cold fjord]

Seems that those sources "close to Assange" are getting it wrong. They should be looking at Spain.

Is this finally the end for Julian Assange?

Ecuador has a very close relationship with Spain in matters of both trade and diplomacy and wants to remain in their good graces. Moreno isn’t quite as fearful of ticking off the governments of the United States or Great Britain as he would be of getting under the skin of Madrid. But he’s also said to be more amenable to working with western governments than his predecessor. After Assange started publicly criticizing Spain’s handling of the Catalan independence movement, he went from being an inconvenience to a serious diplomatic problem.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

So you're gonna be that way. There's no shortage of 100% legit reasons for Assange to fear being handed over to the US in the same way Gottfrid Svartholm was brought to Sweden as a pretext, interrogated for weeks without a lawyer or any outside contact before being deported to another country for a completely unrelated charge.

There is no reason whatsoever Sweden couldn't have promised Assange they wont extradite him if they were actually serious about wanting to question him for an alleged rape. Again, even if you're drinking the Assange Hatorade and think his promise was a lie, Ecuador would have had no reason to continue his asylum, and he would have ended up in Swedish custody regardless.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's not forget the tens of millions of pounds that have been spent on the police detail that's watching him. Pretty odd, considering the alleged situation.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[loonycyborg]

No. There's only one to deal with real rape: kick the crap out of perp. Nothing to be disorientated about.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[nyri]

I think in the coming decades, the current "Russian puppet" hysteria will be studied as a case of media induced mass delusion.

The sad thing is that believe in such cospiratorial theories is, in fact, something that Russians would like to see in West: They don't care so much who is in power but would like to see West consumed by internal discord such as a wide-spread belive that POTUS is not legimate. At best, it will render the office impotent. At worst, it will lead to civil war.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[lsatenstein]

Here comes the fifth, or does that rule apply only to American Citizens?

So far, his leaks stuff has been in most cases, beneficial to fight political corruption. What else does the USA not want the world to know?

Is the USA going to water-board Assange?

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Dread_ed]

Thanks for clarifying. I have read the news stories many times, and saw that he didn't commit what some Americans would call rape, and the women involved didn't want to press charges, but the government persisted.

However, whenever I see Assange discussed online there are so many people posting things that are not even "fact-based" or "based on a true story" with regard to his actions, and doing so with such temerity and with such a chorus of support, that it is hard to keep my bearings. I'm constantly wondering if the facts have changed while I wasn't looking.

One wonders if this could be the result of an intentional misinformation campaign.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[F.Ultra]

Worst of all is that if he had just meet with the prosecutors when they asked to see him the second time (i.e when the supreme prosecutor thought that the normal prosecutor dropped the charges in error and decided to reopen the case) instead of starting the whole extradition circus in the UK then the matter would probably been thrown away there and then. But at that time Assanges paranoia (which I can understand) took over and this whole circus started,

I don't think that this is a misinformation campaign and also not a US conspiracy to get their hands on him because if the CIA really wanted him they could do so far easier than starting a strange circus like this (e.g not dropping the charges half-way trough your conspiracy and let him leave the country).

And when Assange started the circus the supreme prosecutor got pissed and thus refused to comply with his demands (i.e letting the UK police question him), perhaps his legal team knew that this move would make the Swedish prosecutor pissed or it was just a lucky strike. In the end it made the Swedish prosecutors looking like they where not cooperative and added to the conspiracy theories out there.

Hopefully he will be handed over to the UK and they will charge him with his bail skipping and that will be the end of it, of course the conspiracy people will then claim that the US simply have lost interest.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[F.Ultra]

I do not 100% how it works in the UK but that is how it works here in Sweden. A Swedish citizen cannot be extradited to a non Nordic or non EU country while a non citizen (which is why Assange could claim that he could be extradited from Sweden to the US) can.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

There's always the standard issue "we wont extradite to countries that torture or execute prisoners", which easily applies to the U.S. Torture recently applied to Chelsea Manning for being a Wikileaks source.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Your slipping. You trolling is getting more simplified by the day. Unless you are that clueless about the world outside your borders, and you really thought that nonsense.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[F.Ultra]

Kind of, it says that they don't extradite people for crimes where the outcome can be the death penalty. So they extradite to the US just fine if the person does not risk capital punishment.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[F.Ultra]

But I don't really get where you are going with this. Sweden have exact the same rules so why would the US want to go via Sweden to get Assange and not just go via UK. As it now stands we are just arguing semantics on that no of the countries could extradite him which makes us both agree with each other.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Dread_ed]

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

Remember, about the time Assange freaked out Obama had just recently ordered a drone strike against a US citizen on foreign soil, murdering him. IF a sitting US president could kill assasinate a US citizen overseas what would stop him from doing the same or worse to Assange? I am sure that was part of Assange's logic and justifiable fear. In addition, Assange was being sought under the Espionage Act since late 2010, and in late 2011 the US painted him (flimsily) as an active participant in Chelsea Manning's attempts to gather intelligence. The US was obviously trying to create the impression he was an enemy of the state, and I am sure this was obvious to Assange more than anyone else.

I don't think the US Government is the good guy in this exchange. I don't think they have the capacity to tolerate an entity which will publish unvarnished truth from internal whistle-blowers. It is easy to see how anyone who seeks to expose illegal activity by the US government becomes a target. Assange knew the score. He's still alive, not in an supermax US prison, and not enduring torture at some rendition site. Good for him. Bad for us that he's been stifled.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

What do you mean, what do I mean. The UK just blocked extradition of a suspect based on how the US treats suspects and prisoners - whereas Sweden directly handed asylum seekers over to the CIA to be tortured in 2001. In 2013 Sweden went to great lengths to arrest a founder of the Pirate Bay in a non extradition country, and upon his arrival in Sweden, immediately interrogated him for weeks without a lawyer or any outside contact for an unrelated crime in an unrelated country - and then later deported him to said country.

If you're really hung up on citizenship, just refer to the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which forbids transporting prisoners to where they may be tortured. Sweden and the UK are both signatories, as is the United States to this treaty - one it has been in flagrant violation of ever since Bush's first year in office. Bush of course had a worldwide kidnapping and torture program. Obama also violated the treaty when he refused to prosecute those who committed torture, and tortured Chelsea Manning with eighteen months of solitary confinement and then pronounced guilty in a textbook case of unlawful command influence. The current Secretary of State is a big fan of torture, and the head of the CIA is a torturer.

So both the immediate parties involved would have to break a law they agreed to if Assange ends up in US custody. But it wouldn't be the first time they have done so - Sweden had been a signatory to the convention for over 15 years when it handed over Mohammed al-Zari and Ahmed Agiza to the CIA at an airport. Also note that the CYA move Sweden tried by getting "assurances" from Egypt that they wouldn't torture the men, but that was found insufficient by the UN Human Rights Committee.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[F.Ultra]

1. The Egypt rendition in 2001 was done in secret and when it was exposed it was a major political inferno here in Sweden and I have a hard time believing that any politician would want to try that route again (none of the people involved hold any political power today), it was also alleged that the CIA lied to the Swedish Foreign Minister that they had secret evidence that the two Egyptians was planning a terrorist attack in Sweden (so now Swedish politicians have learned not to trust the CIA anymore as well). But yes I agree that this case is troublesome.

2. Svartholm Warg was put on the international wanted list due to him not showing up when he was supposed to go to prison. Later he was also suspected of hacking Brittish company Logica and once he was deported to Sweden he was also sought after by Denmark for hacking and since Sweden and Denmark have a since long extradition agreement that includes citizens this was all done according to the law.

3. If Sweden would have deported Assange to the US we would not only break the UN conventions but also be in direct violation with the UK High Court, which is something that would have far more serious implications politically for Sweden than breaking the UN thing (which happened with the Egyptians).

4. This whole scheme is far to outlandish to be a CIA operation to get their hands on Assange, if they would want him they would have either swooped him off the streets at night like they did with some of the current Guantanamo residends that they snatched from Germany, Italy and Spain or they would simple have filed an official extradition request to Sweden when he was here. The whole question is moot since the rape allegations solves nothing for the CIA.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[F.Ultra]

If so they could just as easily have filed a formal extradition request to Sweden when he was here, no need to create this whole rape conspiracy. In fact I don't even understand what the rape part would solve for the CIA, there is no law here in Sweden that says that people accused of rape can be more easily be departed to the US (in fact it might be the opposite since if he was convicted of the rape then he would have to spend jail time here first before even being contemplated for extradition).

Also if that where the intent then why release him and let him go to the UK (Assange got clearance from the original prosecutor to go to the UK). And they could also just have snatched him off the streets in the middle of the night like they did with several of the "illegal combatants" that they snatched from Germany, Italy and Spain without these countries knowledge.

That the US is not the good guy in this exchange is something that I can agree on.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

1) Any one go to jail for it? And stay there for a while? If not, the "inferno" was more of a tempest in a teapot. Same as when the torture story broke here in the United States, and rather than the torturers going to jail, they got get-out-of-jail-free cards instead. And now we have a torturer at the head of the CIA - thanks Obama!

2) WYP? Svartholm was wanted in Denmark, Assange is wanted in the United States. Sweden pursed Svartholm and as soon as they had him they interrogated him for weeks without a lawyer or any outside contact for the alleged crimes in Denmark, which means it was their plan to do so all along, and then deported him to Denmark. Now, just repeat all that, only substituting the two men and "Denmark" for "the United States".

3) See #2. Also Sweden doesn't have to hand Assange over to the US directly - they could deport him to his native Australia or to Ecuador, where he was granted citizenship but is now government by a right wing toady of the United States. Allowing Sweden to play the "who, me???" card a second time if Assange ends up in US custody from either of those two countries. What's further problematic is that while Sweden is known for hippie health care and free education, you are outright medieval in how police are allowed to treat suspects. Specifically, that you can hold them for long periods of time for interrogation without outside contact of any kind, even a lawyer. See again #2 where this was done to Svartholm. Suspects have confessed to murders they didn't commit in far less time than Svartholm was held incognito, so I would be surprised if Assange doesn't confess that Russia hacked the DNC, Podesta and that he colluded with Russia to spoil the election for Hillary.

4) They wouldn't sweep Assange into the back of a van as he was a well known public figure by this point, as opposed to those poor bastards seeking asylum in Sweden, the threat of the dead man's package being released if something happened to him (before they knew what it was) and because Assange can claim protections as a journalist. As far as being too outlandish, we could have said the same thing about a head of state having his plane forced down because Edward Snowden might have been onboard, but of course that actually happened.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[F.Ultra]

#1 unfortunately politicians are protected from jail for things that they do in their line of work here in Sweden so that was never any option. However not being in power is something that any politician want to avoid and the party in power that time lost the following election partly due to this affair.

#2 You got this backwards. Svartholm was wanted to Sweden from skipping his prison time. He was extradited from Kambodia 2012 and then served his prison time in Sweden until he was released in May 2013 after 9 months in jail (2/3 of the time which is the usual amount for "good behaviour"). In June 2013 he was requested to be extradited to Denmark where he was later sentenced to 3 and a half years of prison.

The "interrogated for weeks without a lawyer for the alleged crimes in Denmarm" was in reality him spending time in jail with restrictions (which means that outside contact is limited but not 100% prohibited) pending the investigation on his alleged hacking of the Swedish Tax Authority (so nothing to do with Denmark). While jail with restrictions is a questionable thing to do with people it had nothing to do with Denmark.

#3 which would violate the UK High Court just as much, the UK would extradite Assange to Sweden under the explicit conditions that he would be sent there only to be tried for the particular case that Sweden requested him to be extradited for. If Sweden would have sent him to Australia or Ecuador they would violate the UK High Court and there would be a huge political issue between the UK and Sweden that would put the whole extradition rules in jeopardy and no politician in Sweden would want nor survive that politically.

#4 Why would the US care if Assange was a well known public figure? However they would get their hands on him he would still be well known so the shit would hit the fan equally regardless of which dirty tactic the CIA would use here.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Uberbah]

1) If Sweden has a Deep State or oligarchs like the US does, parties don't really care who trades positions of power in public as long as hegemony is maintained.

2) Not backwards...soon as Svartholm was in Sweden, he was interrogated for the alleged crimes in Denmark, which means it was their plan to do so all along. Just swapping Svartholm for Assange and the Americans for the Danes, as soon as Assange lands in Swedish custody, the only people he'll see for weeks are his interrogators. Interrogators who will probably consist of a Swedish official for proprieties sake, and some agents from the CIA and/or the FBI. Only after that will Sweden step back in for what he was arrested for, the alleged sexual assaults. After Assange is cleared of charges or serves a prison sentence, he'll be deported again and end up in US custody. Either because Sweden hands him directly over to the US, or goes through the motions of deporting him to his native Australia, who then hands him over to the United States.

3) Didn't you say that officials in Sweden don't have to worry about criminal consequences for their actions? They haven't cared much for domestic or international law in the past, nor have the other two countries involved. Besides, as it's been the UK that has been pressuring Sweden to keep this farce going, they're not likely to protest too much if some rules get broken. If Sweden really wants to make a show of it, they can skirt this issue by the aforementioned deportation to Australia. Then Australia arrests and deports him at the request of the United States.

4) Because the US has done many heinous things, from torture to deliberately bombing MSF hospitals, openly kidnapping a journalist from a first world country is still a bit far. Thus the psyop of the assault allegations and INTERPOL arrest warrant. If Assange had instead been taking refuge in, say Lebanon, they probably would have bagged him and blamed it on Hezbollah, or something. Little harder to do that in London or Stockholm.

In any case, if these reports are to believed, this stage of Assange's life is about to come to a close, and we'll see what the three countries do.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[Anonymous Coward]

I did not know that men also had rape fantasies. Good luck with that.

Re:Terrible - Assange is great

[F.Ultra]

just wanted to make a small remark to your #2 here, he was interrogated for the Denmark issue almost a whole year after he landed in Sweden. It was after he was put to trail for hacking the Swedish Tax Authority that the Danish understood that the hacking done in their country was similar and thus started to investigate his involvement which ultimately led to them asking for him to be extradited. The only reason he was deported from Kambodia was for him skipping prison in Sweden (over here you won't go to prison directly after your trail, instead you get a letter in your mail some months later with instructions to show up at prison XX. And when this happened Swartholm fled to Kambodia).

Good

[Anonymous Coward]

That’s for gifting us Trump.

Next stop

[Anonymous Coward]

Guantanamo Bay

Re:Next stop

[Anonymous Coward]

Guantanamo Bay

If he makes it that far.

Won't Make it to UK Authorities

[Anonymous Coward]

He'll be droned as soon as he steps foot outside of the doors.

Re:Won't Make it to UK Authorities

[Bing Tsher E]

They'll need to drone him, and fast. And take out his phone, too. Nobody needs to know Seth Rich is in his contacts list.

Re:Won't Make it to UK Authorities

[Anonymous Coward]

He also knows where Hillary hid the Pizzagate kids from Podesta's child prostitution ring.

Re:Won't Make it to UK Authorities

[Anonymous Coward]

Grow up.

Re:Won't Make it to UK Authorities

[Anonymous Coward]

People make fun of pizzagate. I get that it was a bit absurd but can you blame them? We had a a real international child prostitution ring incident swept under the rug that Clinton (along with many many other powerful families) was dangerously close to. Epstein got away with a slap on the wrist.

Re: Won't Make it to UK Authorities

[Anonymous Coward]

Trump is the pedo. He at a minimum hosted the party.

Also, apparently he wants to date his daughter.

Re:Won't Make it to UK Authorities

[Anonymous Coward]

When asked about Clinton and Trump , in regards to being around them with underage children, he took the 5th.

Re:Won't Make it to UK Authorities

[Anonymous Coward]

The US Deep State has no intention of droning him. They'll be grabbing him and sending him to a CIA black site as soon as he's outside the embassy. They want to know his contacts and sources, so they can start disappearing them as well.

Re:Won't Make it to UK Authorities

[Anonymous Coward]

Positions of power seem occupied by a disproportionate number of pedos. The prevailing theory is that they are allowed to rise to these positions because their secret allows others to maintain power over them through extortion, threats to expose them if they fail to do as they are told.

Look at that James Gunn guy. Worked for Disney and has posted seriously pedoy comments in public forums. These guys seem to be getting more brazen about it, they don't even hide it well anymore. Seems it's rampant in Hollywood circles.

Re:Won't Make it to UK Authorities

[PopeRatzo]

Nobody needs to know Seth Rich is in his contacts list.

Or that he has Vladimir Putin on speed dial (nickname, "Daddy")

Re:Won't Make it to UK Authorities

[Anonymous Coward]

I think many people are pedos or could possibly act as one. Like, are you a rapist?, obviously not. But did you ever want to rape someone or tell yourself, I could just rape her/him. This isn't something to discuss in public. But we're mammals, and mammals often rape mammals. Even male lions will kill another male lion, then murder the kittens, then mate with the lioness.
So let's say there are 5% pedos, in all strata of society. The powerful ones may have more opportunity to act on it and get away with it, or you'll hear of powerful and famous ones when they get caught while some stupid low class guy who fondled a 14-year-old near a non-notable town won't make the news.

About that James Gunn guy it's another person fired because of some twitter shit but it was old twitter shit this time. And it's because he wanted to weigh in in some pointless twitter shit storm then someone likely googled him and dug up old shit. This is all ridiculous

Re:Won't Make it to UK Authorities

[datavirtue]

Because sociopaths' reward system is only triggered by outrageous behavior such as inflicting violence or engaging in a sex act. Throw in an inordinate amount of drugs and they can't get off unless they get really creepy/freaky. Cocaine/meth makes people weird after prolonged use.

The deep state does prefer these people because they will perform as required and can be blackmailed.

https://billmoyers.com/2014/02...

Re:Won't Make it to UK Authorities

[Cederic]

Sure. America is going to attack their key NATO ally and create an international incident that effectively isolates the US and drastically reduces its national security.

Even Americans aren't that fucking stupid.

And of course the U.S. has nothing to do with it..

[Anonymous Coward]

The warrant is out in the UK because Assange was wanted for questioning in Sweden and he was jumping bail. Nothing to do with the U.S. Now he will be handed to the UK authorities for jumping bail, and this will have nothing to do with the U.S. And the U.S. pressuring Equador to hand Assange to the UK authorities is out of the U.S.' inherent respect for the UK authorities and has nothing whatsoever to do with any interests of the U.S.

Fscking lying hypocrites.

There is a God after all

[Anonymous Coward]

and he is living somewhere in New Jersey, I hear.

Oh, Assange getting the boot? Good for Equador! Bet he smelled up the place like stewing polk salad. Now that's Polk. Done. Salad. Done-done.

Will to Power

[Anonymous Coward]

Will Trump pardon Assange?

Re:Will to Power

[Anonymous Coward]

For what? Breaking UK bail conditions?

so much for rule of law

[Anonymous Coward]

there's no justice, there's no ethics, we're just tools for the powerful to use so they can live a life of luxury while the slaves do all the work, people are idiots and fools for supporting such an evil and corrupt system

geopolitical infantilization

[Anonymous Coward]

So like, when your parents withhold your allowance until you fall into line?

The real threat made by the US

[Anonymous Coward]

As I understand it, Assange is in the Ecuadorian embassy. The US threatened to send APK to the embassy if Assange wasn't handed over to the UK. Faced with the threat of that spamming asshole becoming Ecuador's problem, they gladly agreed to hand over Assange. Ecuadorian officials didn't want the spam or being called "ne'er-do-wells" and facing vicious personal attacks every time APK felt even mildly inconvenienced by something. They didn't want APK to demand that Ecuador prove they've written software for Slashdot users every time someone said to shut up. Nobody, absolutely nobody, wants APK around.

Just as Assange said

[Anonymous Coward]

He always said the US is after him for his journalistic works and people laughed it off, claiming he just wanted to evade prosecution for "rape" in Sweden. They ignored all the signs, including the fact that one of the women who accused him works pretty much directly for the CIA. (Were was she? Doing voluntary work for a CIA-near anti-Castro group. And then? Assange "raped" her. What does she do now? Doing voluntary "aid work" in Palestine. Or has she already moved somewhere else again? Who knows...)

The same people who denied anything could happen to him will now argue that he should be tortured, killed, imprisoned for life time, etc. Because they are assholes and bad persons.

Re:And of course the U.S. has nothing to do with i

[Anonymous Coward]

Bullshit!

Re:And of course the U.S. has nothing to do with i

[AHuxley]

AC "US prepares charges to seek arrest of WikiLeaks' Julian Assange" (April 21, 2017)
https://edition.cnn.com/2017/0...

Can't run and hide forever

[Anonymous Coward]

He should've known they'd give him up sooner or later.

Or another US concentration camp.

[Anonymous Coward]

Err, I mean "prison". On foreign soil.

USA. The only surviving fascist Nazi country. (Recruiting and giving asylum to all useful Nazis back then, still considering "race" a vaild 'scientific' concept, still having de-facto segregation in many areas of life (like housing), being nationalist nutjobs [even Jon Steward and similar "left" ones], warmongering and manipulating ALL the countries, having a corporate oligarchy council as "government", aka privatization aka actual definition of fascism, and Trump playing the same game Hiter did to us Germans back then.)

Let's see how bombs you to rubble and turns you into a puppet state like you did with us Germans back then ⦠Iâ(TM)m betting on BRICS, as soon as they manage to disable your nukes. (Which should be similar in difficulty, to Joe Bauer getting out of prison plus that hospital computer terminal in Idiocracy.)

Re:Or another US concentration camp.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is the US perfect? Hell no.
Are you a complete nut? Hell yes.

Re:Or another US concentration camp.

[b0s0z0ku]

He's a partial nut. You have to admit that the US incarcerates more of its population (%-wise) than even authoritarian countries. And has killed a lot of people in pointless wars. "Land of the free," etc is a nice marketing phrase.

Re:Or another US concentration camp.

[Applehu Akbar]

So there's a German version of Nye County, Nevada!

Re:Or another US concentration camp.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is the US perfect? Hell no.
Are you a complete nut? Hell yes.

He's speaking of powerful countries. The joke is on YOU.

Another Coward.

Re: Or another US concentration camp.

[c6gunner]

You have to admit that the US incarcerates more of its population (%-wise) than even authoritarian countries.

Two problems with this:

1. Truly bad authoritarian countries don't generally have to arrest that many people; the populace is scared shitless of doing anything to end up in prison. Furthermore ones like the USSR tend to have creative ways of solving prison overpopulation, such as using prisoners to perform slave labour in work environments which OSHA would have a few issues with.

2. While the US prison population may be high, this does not necessarily mean that more people are being arrested.

Example for that second point: country A arrests 1,000 people per year, with an average sentence length of 5 years. Country B arrests 1,000 people every year with an average sentence length of 10 years. The prison population in country A at any given time will be 5,000 people. The prison population in country B at any given time will be 10,000 people. The same percentage of the population is being incarcerated in both nations, yet the prison population in one is double that of the other.

And has killed a lot of people in pointless wars.

Agreed, WW2 was a total waste of time.

Re:Or another US concentration camp.

[PopeRatzo]

You have to admit that the US incarcerates more of its population (%-wise) than even authoritarian countries.

At least the US usually charges them with a crime before incarcerating them. In some countries, you just "accidentally" fall out of a 5th floor window, or mysteriously bump into some neurotoxin.

Re:Or another US concentration camp.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yet people don't usually get a trial in the US. They need to plead guilty and then : "oh, it's guilty? then you don't need a trial".
Yet it's the kind of country where you might earn $50 million after getting wrongly convicted then acquitted years after the fact.
But you get no millions if the cop beats you to a pulp and you lose your job and house, become a cripple and get bankrupt and the cop is not charged with anything.
I think it's not a legal system, it's a kind of weird board game!

Re:Or another US concentration camp.

[b0s0z0ku]

Nah, in the US, they're just bullied into killing themselves like Aaron Swartz or Kalief Browder. Different method, same result. Yay America.

Re: Or another US concentration camp.

[b0s0z0ku]

Speaking to (2), excessive jail time isn't a good thing either. Goal should be rehabilitation, not locking away people for life for anything short of murder.

Re:Or another US concentration camp.

[PopeRatzo]

Nah, in the US, they're just bullied into killing themselves like Aaron Swartz or Kalief Browder. Different method, same result. Yay America.

Here is a list of the journalists killed in Russia under Putin. I stopped counting at 100, and I had barely gotten to the Mevedev years. There were still a lot more to go. This isn't all of Putin's enemies who have been killed, just the journalists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re: Or another US concentration camp.

[c6gunner]

I tend to agree, but, remember that the US has a much higher murder rate than most western nations, and those generally do quite often receive life sentences, unlike in many other countries.

Also the US tends to be much harsher on those who comit violent crimes while using a firearm, regardless of whether or not anyone is killed. And, again, the US has a lot more firearms.

Lastly the US tends to be much harsher on repeat offenders, which I tend to agree with. Yes, we should be trying to rehabilitate people, but if they keep doing the same thing over and over again they're probably not prime candidates for rehabilitation.

Re: Or another US concentration camp.

[b0s0z0ku]

When you publish mugshots and names, making it difficult to get a job if you're arrested, let alone convicted, repeat crime will happen. Repeat offenses mean the US is doing a poor job at rehabilitation.

Re: Or another US concentration camp.

[c6gunner]

I've got no disagreement there ... but regardless of whether they're doing a shit job at rehabilitation, keeping the repeat offenders locked up still makes more sense than catch and release. It's not an either/or proposition though; they certainly should be trying to lower recidivism rates.

Re:Or another US concentration camp.

[AutodidactLabrat]

Sort of like Gitmo?
Over 80 prisoners have not been charged in 16 years.

Re:Or another US concentration camp.

[PopeRatzo]

Over 80 prisoners have not been charged in 16 years.

Therre are 40 prisoners in Gitmo.

Re:Or another US concentration camp.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately you're not one of them.

Clinton emails or not...

[b0s0z0ku]

Before the Clinton emails, remember that Assange did the world a big service by leaking civilian death logs in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as videos of war crimes by US troops. The world needed to know how disproportionate the US response after 9/11 was -- the US needs to know that the world is watching whenever it starts another military homicide spree.

Sad day if he's being railroaded at the US's request, though the source (RT) is somewhat suspect.

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[Anonymous Coward]

Potentates have zero tolerance for subordinates that blow the whistle on them. Even if the whistle is blown on a rival potentate, there is a natural agreement among them all that such behavior violates the natural shared law of the land. The better the evidence, the greater the offense.

It is simply improper for a subordinate to do anything other than follow orders. They all agree on this without conspiring about it because this belief is hardwired into our brains. We don't encounter this programming until after we become potentates, so those of us on the bottom never see the world this way and we never will.

We absolutize our moral position on the issue....well, so do they.

Assange will be punished. There was never any hope for him. Too many "strange bedfellows" are interested in seeing him properly punished (not for rape, of course, but for presenting evidence against authority).

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[Anonymous Coward]

What war crimes? Bad and terrible and regretful things happened, but what war crimes?

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[b0s0z0ku]

Abu Ghraib and other abuses of POWs. Massive civilian casualties. Apache helo pilots gunning for civilians and lying that they encountered a battle on the ground.

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[Anonymous Coward]

The world needed to know how disproportionate the US response after 9/11 was

The US was attacked in heart of its financial, military, and government centers. That was an act of war. With NATO behind the US, the war was fought and when you fight in wars, doing so asymmetrically in your favor is how you do it. No amount of complaining about it from the likes of you and your fellow Progressives will ever change good military strategy.

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[DNS-and-BIND]

When he was leaking things that made Bush look bad you loved Julian Assange so hard that Benedict Cumberbatch played him in the movie.

By reporting our government's fuckups, Wikileaks has taken a rather extreme pro-America attitude and is basically doing the job that our own media ought to be doing. Wikileaks is the enemy of America's enemy. Maybe he's not really our friend, but if you adopt the point of view of us American citizens, you'll see that he sure appears to be either a friend, or even one of us.

Whistle-blower site WikiLeaks has been nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize by a Norwegian politician who cited its role in freedom of speech, news agency NTB reported Wednesday. 'WikiLeaks is one of this century's most important contributors to freedom of speech and transparency,' parliamentarian Snorre Valen said in his nomination. Valen cited WikiLeaks' role in disclosing the assets of Tunisia's former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his nearest family, contributing to the protests that forced them into exile. http://www.thenewage.co.za/935...

WikiLeaks released the State Department cables in 2010, revealing that appeasing Russia was a motivator for canceling the plan with Poland.

Wikileaks published CIA espionage orders for the 2012 french presidential election. When Russia does it, it's an attack. When US does it, it's just mates havin' a go?

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[drnb]

Apache helo pilots gunning for civilians and lying that they encountered a battle on the ground.

Actually the lies were wikileaks. They edited the video to remove the parts showing that the journalists were walking around an active combat zone with insurgents, where ground forces were factually engaged with other insurgents nearby.

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually that is a complete lie. There was edits to get it to fit in but the full video shows nothing of conseuence was removed. YOU heard "It was edited!!!" and insisted it meant it was fake.Like any asshole flattard insisting that the photos of a globe earth are fake because photoshop.
"were walking around an active combat zone"
And how was it "active"? The apache morons were shooting.
" with insurgents,"
Nope.
"where ground forces were factually engaged with other insurgents nearby."
Nearby being 15 miles away...

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone is focusing on how bad this is for Assange but ignoring how bad this is for the common person and their right to transparency governance. This is another step towards the pacification and domestication of the human population.

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[PopeRatzo]

Wikileaks has taken a rather extreme pro-America attitude

He's got a lot of cozy contacts with the FSB for a guy with a "rather extreme pro-America attitude".

This is the new tack that the alt-right goofballs are taking: "Putin was trying the help the US when he installed Trump as president. Putin is really pro-American!"

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[Anonymous Coward]

Disproportionate? You don't go all proportional response when those who declare themselves your enemy attacks you. They thought it would lead to our downfall and didn't realize how outmatched they were. Someone attacks you, you end that threat completely.

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[c6gunner]

I watched the full video without the editing. It clearly indicated that insurgents in the area were engaged with US forces. It also contained radio chatter between the pilots which indicated that they believed that their targets were armed. From the video footage anyone who isn't an ideologically motivated asshole could see why they might have been confused; at least one of the reporters was carrying a long cylindrical object which could easily be mistaken for an RPG, and the cameras held by the rest could easily be mistaken for rifles with slings.

A more honest asshole might claim that the helicopter pilots were trigger happy, or that they weren't careful enough. It would still be debatable given the context, but at least it would be an honest argument. Only the previously mentioned ideologically motivated asshole would claim that the helicopter pilots knew they were firing on civilians / reporters.

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[owenferguson]

You can't commit an act of war if you're not a state actor. If any state committed an act of war on 9/11 it was Saudi Arabia.

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[orient]

You can also see the pilots shooting at unarmed civilians who tried to save a wounded man and you can see the pilots shooting at the van with two children in it. What kind of asshole do you have to be to justify that?

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[Anonymous Coward]

Al-Qaeda was responsible for the attack. The Taliban harbored, allowed them to flourish, and then after 9/11 protected them. Any reasonable person would say the Taliban and Al-Qaeda were allied.

From wikipedia:

From 1996 to 2001, the Taliban held power over roughly three quarters of Afghanistan, and enforced there a strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law.

I'd say they were state actors and got what they deserved.

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[c6gunner]

You can't see that they're unarmed civilians, nor can you see any children. You can also hear the pilots saying they think it's more insurgents coming to help their buddies. What kind of asshole do you have to be to lie about that?

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[Anonymous Coward]

Not exactly. Close though.There is support for an alliance to defeat the Jihadi hoarde, win WW3 and save Western Civilization. That's all.

Most likely the hacks, if from the Russians were
1 Business as usual
2 payback for HRC fucking with Putin in 2011
3 slanted at the Dems because the GOP systems were not vulnerable
*
PS for those not paying attention, we now know HRCs server was directing copies of everything to China.
A spicy plotline.

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[Anonymous Coward]

Lying is a cheap crime, but it is an extraordinary misfortune to lose anonymity and having your name on leaks like military leaks that are awful, and perhaps doubly also if there's upset women... like STD upset. How long has this military coverup or cleanup been running? How much has the US spent on Julian really for damage control (seems like)? Do they have to kill him? I hope not, but I think he has cause for paranoia. Can't we just have a public trial in absence and bill him... and forget about him? Let it go to collections. Debt destroys people. Shouldn't this President consider pardoning him, just in case Julian has something to reveal about him? Information is powerful whether the data is indeed true and factual or not. I just think the budget on this guy so far should be accounted, immediately, before it starts to get even more expensive.

How many long range NASA probes is he worth? I think that could be the new measure for assessing prosecutions and lawsuits, including expense of arrests and incarceration. And if it is too many NASA probes, they should just forget it and give the remaining budget to NASA.

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[Anonymous Coward]

Before the Clinton emails, remember that Assange did the world a big service by leaking civilian death logs in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as videos of war crimes by US troops. The world needed to know how disproportionate the US response after 9/11 was -- the US needs to know that the world is watching whenever it starts another military homicide spree.

Sad day if he's being railroaded at the US's request, though the source (RT) is somewhat suspect.

Regardless of what he did before 2016, his assistance in allowing Russia to interfere is the US election is inexcusable, and he should rightly be punished. That sentiment is further compounded by the fact that the DNC emails DID NOT show the "massive corruption" you are claiming, indeed the "massive corruption" was simply that the party preferred their own candidate over a non-party member, and that is not corruption of any kind, it is simply having a preference.

The "corruption" you are referring to is an alt-right/Russian social media attack on gullible Americans who wanted really badly to think Hillary was evil and was definitely doing something shady, but to this day, there was and is no evidence of any shadiness. Having a preference for one candidate over the other is not illegal and not a corrupt act.

In either case, this is coming from RT and my guess is they are trying to get ahead of it to protect Assange. It was in the works that his asylum was coming to an end over a year ago. With that in mind, if he wanted to continue his asylum, he could surely take refuge in Russia, I'm sure they would eagerly protect him.

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[Anonymous Coward]

he became a spurious source once he bought into russian propaganda and selective editorial of the leaks

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[rtb61]

Fucker, those cunts in the helicopter were not defending their own country, they were part of an invasion force slaughtering people trying to defend their country. This based upon a lie of weapons of mass destruction, when it was nothing more than a war for profit. Profit for the war machine and profit for the oil companies. You were the bad guys, the US was the evil empire, wake up to reality. You were the invasion force murdering for profit, killing men women and children, destroying a country, not the liberators, the murderous cunts pillaging a country for profit. No defence for that.

Be fucking careful what you wish for, Julian Assange and his supporters will cause much more trouble than they are worth. It will be a humorous spectacle and will feed the creation of much more powerful wikileaks. Honestly the smart move, legal speaking, deport Assange to Australia and try on an extradition from them, all legal and above board should you succeed (any other way will just blow right out of control, that hate it will generate for the US mind blowing, it will kill US exports).

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[datavirtue]

"We don't encounter this programming until after we become potentates, so those of us on the bottom never see the world this way and we never will."

100% agree. Most of the fucked up stuff that goes on in the world carries on because normal decent people just cannot fathom it--they simply don't believe half of this shit is going on.

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[c6gunner]

Fucker, those cunts in the helicopter were not defending their own country, they were part of an invasion force slaughtering people trying to defend their country.

kek. Thank you for that reading from the Big Kids Popup Book of Armed Conflicts. I greatly appreciate your input.

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[Uberbah]

You can't see that they're unarmed civilians

Yeah. You can. Well, someone might have had a pistol in a leg holster, but 1) that does jack shit to justify murdering them 2) it's their country that was being illegally occupied in an illegal war of aggression.

What kind of asshole do you have to be to lie about that?

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you hate the truth c6?
Well, apart from being a deluded right wing nut job.

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[c6gunner]

I love how you see a brown guy in grainy footage from a helicopter and imemedaitely know that Iraq is his country. Never mind the thousand of foregin fighters swarming into Iraq in order to start their new caliphate. Never mind the difference between the dozens of various factions of Iraqis fighting each other over control of the country. If they're brown they're all the same; just poor innocent Iraqi freedom fighters bravely resisting the foreign pigdogs!

If only the military hired racist cunts like you to do video analysis they would never have any problems!

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[Uberbah]

When in a racist hole, put down the Klan shovel. 1) You're ignoring the fact the people on the ground were minding their own business 2) as if you can tell nationality from a helicopter 3) it's still wasn't your business as it wasn't your country.

So like that old sketch on SNL, I gotta ask - is your head filled with human excrement, or dog excrement?

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[c6gunner]

I'm not the racust cunt who was claiming to be able to tell nationality from a helicopter; you were.

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[Anonymous Coward]

The kind of assholes that lie about Jessica Lynch's "rescue"?

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[Cederic]

People lying bleeding and dying in the street, and you think the rules of engagement permit attacking unarmed people that try to save their lives?

There was no military justification for that, no moral justification, no justification what so fucking ever.

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[c6gunner]

I think you meant to write "innocent angels begging desperately for their lives while a busload of nuns swoops in to shield them". If you're going to make up nonsense about what was actually visible and what they reasonably believed, you may as well go all out.

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[Cederic]

Ok, lets do this the hard way. Here are the things I stated, please tell me which of them is not true, and which of them is not fucking obvious to the murderers in the helicopter:

1 - people were lying bleeding and dying in the street
2 - unarmed people arrived
3 - the unarmed people attempted to provide assistance to the injured people
4 - the US military attacked those unarmed people
5 - you think that this is perfectly reasonable

I'll give you a hint: Number 5 is the only one that doesn't get the 'True' and 'Obvious' combination, and it still manages to get halfway there.

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[c6gunner]

please tell me which of them is not true

5

and which of them is not fucking obvious to the murderers in the helicopter

2, 3, 4, 5

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[Anonymous Coward]

9/11 was an inside job. Science FACT.

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[Uberbah]

Do you keep your head up your ass because it's a comfortable position, or for the the warmth, or what?

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[Anonymous Coward]

that the journalists were walking around an active combat zone with insurgents,

And how, pray tell, were the journalists supposed to get around in a war zone to get any war zone footage? Grow wings? Become Trans-dimensional? Oh, I know, "embed" themselves up the US troops' asses so that their "coverage" becomes wonderfully one sided, no?

The Apache crew knew they were journalists and still gleefully blew them away. They also blew away people trying to help.

Only a jackass in love with the idea of Exceptionalist US Supremacy and Total Worthlessness of Everyone Else could watch this and consider it within the bounds US Empire Standard (they should feel honoured to be blown away by Holy US Munitions! Its a privilege!)

Next thing you will tell us all how the Abu Ghraib prison was world-class and the inmates brought the shit on themselves for daring to stand up to their Glorious Imperial US Liberators!

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[c6gunner]

This is why I come to Slashdot; for the clever repartee. We have only the finest of people!

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[cold fjord]

The crew of the attack helicopter that engaged and killed the insurgent group, which was in the vicinity of recent active combat, was defending the government and people of Iraq just as they would have defended the governments and people of the NATO countries if war had broken out with the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact nations. There were primarily four types of armed groups that were subject to being shot up: Al Qaida terrorists and their associates, Saddam's regime "dead enders," extremist militias fighting against the Iraqi government for sectarian power, and criminal gangs. Which of those do you think was justified to fight against the democratically elected government of Iraq?

Iraq had and used Weapons of Mass Destruction in its war against Iran. It retained those weapons afterward, including some after the 1991 Gulf War.

Claiming the war in Iraq was driven by profit is nonsense. At some point for some people it did become a war about prophet. You're good with that?

If you want to claim it was about oil, you're missing the mark. There were some European oil companies that tried to get into the oil fields between 2003 - 2009, but US oil companies? Not so much.

Saddam's regime was based on mass murder, torture, secret police, violence, theft from the Iraqi people, war against its neighbors, attacks against innocent nations, and all manner of criminal behavior, including crimes against humanity. Why are you defending them? Because they are "socialist," or third world? Because you hate the US? You might be going off the deep end on this.

If Assange is pushed out of the embassy tomorrow he'll probably be in British prison for a long haul by the evening. He is a fugitive from British justice for jumping bail.

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[cold fjord]

Abu Ghraib and other abuses of POWs...

The guards at Abu Ghraib that abused the prisoners violated the US Unified Code of Military Justice. A number of them were prosecuted and sent to prison.

On the other hand, members of Al Qaida used electric drills and blow torches to torture people. Al Qaida encouraged them. Saddam's regime rewarded and promoted people for similar behavior.

Aren't you glad that Saddam is no longer in power? Or Saddam's sons, who were so evil that Saddam had to restrain them?

Massive civilian casualties

That would almost entirely be the work of Al Qaida, sectarian militias, and various criminal groups. The Iraqi government and Coalition Forces worked to end that and bring peace of Iraq. By 2011 or so they had basically succeeded.

Do you weep for Saddam's infliction of "massive civilian casualties" on his own people? It is hard to count the mass graves filled by Saddam's regime, not to mention the bodies.

Or do you weep that Saddam, his family, and the Baathist regime are no longer in power to inflict death and misery on the Iraqi people?

Apache helo pilots gunning for INSURGENTS CARRYING RPG ANT-TANK WEAPONS AND MACHINE GUNS and probably violating curfew

FTFY

lying that they encountered a battle on the ground.

The afore mentioned insurgent group was in the vicinity of recent battles with troops on the ground. That isn't hard to come by.

Re: Clinton emails or not...

[Uberbah]

Unless they're racist imperialist sacks of crap. Go wipe the spouge off your Bluray copy of Red Dawn and watch it again, this time noting how every person killed by the invading Soviets 'had it coming' because they 'were in a war zone'.

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[KingBenny]

shows how they let him in as a future investment ... just like the russians let him in simply as a thorn in they eye of the eagles ... there are no freebies with the legalist mafia so i guess the only thing to do is a global civilian embargo on equador now ... but sadly john pleb won't give a fuck despite what has been done for THEM ...

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[KingBenny]

sorry : russia -> snowden, ... tsch ...

Re:Clinton emails or not...

[terrycarlino]

I've always figured the Russians hacked both the DNC and the RNC.

The DNC emails contained information on Hillary manipulating the primary system to steal the nomination from Bernie.

The RNC emails contained information on a bunch of legal fund raising and election procedural stuff.

Which would you have leaked?

RT?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously? You are linking to the Russian state propaganda channel as legitimate news? I'll wait for a real news agency to report it.

Re:And of course the U.S. has nothing to do with i

[Anonymous Coward]

AC "US prepares charges to seek arrest of WikiLeaks' Julian Assange" (April 21, 2017)

https://edition.cnn.com/2017/0...

In 2017. Assuming that this issue is as important to them as they state, they could have prepared charges a whole lot earlier. It's sort of obvious that they were banking on disappearing Assange during his extradition to Sweden, not needing any charges before they had the chance to let their torturers flesh them out somewhat more and start giving him a bout of justice anyway in case they could not stick anything lasting legally on him.

In defense of Assange...

[Anonymous Coward]

...it was Sunday when he was skateboarding and playing soccer inside the Ecuadorian Embassy.

This is kind of the problem with Trump

[rsilvergun]

The folks who supported him get discarded. Paul Manafort (the architected Trump's campaign) comes to mind. Trump's famous for not paying his contractors, so much so that every contractor in Vegas had an agreement that they'd withhold work from him until he paid the last guy he hired.

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[geek]

The folks who supported him get discarded. Paul Manafort (the architected Trump's campaign) comes to mind. Trump's famous for not paying his contractors, so much so that every contractor in Vegas had an agreement that they'd withhold work from him until he paid the last guy he hired.

Discarded? The guy is under inditement. Do you expect Trump to pardon him if he's in fact done something illegal? As a Trump supporter myself hell no. I want the rule of the law to fucking mean something again. Manafort, Hillary, Bush, Obama, Kerry.... the whole criminal fucking lot of them belong behind bars. If you or I did even a fraction of the shit these people have we'd be away for life. Instead Jeff Sessions is asleep at the wheel with his thumb up his ass.

Discarded is hardly the word for this. Trump should not be protecting people who are obviously criminals and he isn't.

To your last point, you're going to need to cite some sources.

Re: This is kind of the problem with Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

It must be hard for you to type complete coherent sentences with that brown dick in your ass.

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't be the first person who was guilty whom Trump pardoned. But I don't expect Trump to pardon him. After all, he
could explain more about how he helped Trump beat Clinton.

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

He didn't help Trump beat Clinton. He was fired long before the general election really got underway.
He might be able to explain how Trump beat Jeb!, but I'm pretty sure anyone that ever saw Jeb! can understand how he lost.

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to mention that Manafort is under investigation and facing trial for being a tax cheat during the years he work at the Podesta lobbying firm - the same Podesta brothers that are long-time Clinton friends, who helped run Clinton's campaign, and who clicked on the phishing email at the DNC.

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

Everytime a trumptard opens his mouth. Everytime...

You want the "rule of law" to mean something again ? Is that why you elected a scammer, con-man, sexual predator and child-rapist who's collected more than 1300 civil lawsuits against him in his career to the White House ?

I used to think Trump supporters were simply dumb and guillible. But even stupidity cannot possibly explain this. I'm forced to consider that they're simply evil.

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[fafalone]

So were you this upset when Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio? Who was convicted of contempt of court for openly refusing a court order telling him to stop civil rights violations? And now you're telling me you wouldn't expect a Trump pardon here? And that you support Trump and the rule of law? And that Trump isn't protecting obviously criminal people? ffs dude, that's some reality you must be living in. I'm with you with all those names, but you've got a giant gaping blind spot if you think Trump shouldn't be on that list and are out of your damn mind if you think Trump would put the rule of law above protecting himself (A President can pardon himself, right guys??).

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you expect Trump to pardon him if he's in fact done something illegal?

Yes, it would be repeating the pattern he's already established.

I want the rule of the law to fucking mean something again

Then you are in a quandary, because you're supporting the wrong person. Trump is, at best, an immature bullying narcissist with no respect for democracy or the rule of law.

I'm not sure why you want to jail President Bush though (which one, BTW?)

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[fafalone]

Aww I got a "-1 The Truth Makes Me Mad" mod again. Oh noes. Like pardoning someone just convicted of contempt charge for refusing an order to stop civil rights violations by his department is respecting the rule of law, like talking about pardoning yourself. Not to mention the things Trump has said about pardons. The moderation around here really is going to shit.

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

Arpaio, like the Bundys, were very obviously political prisoners. He didn't violate any civil rights. That's just what the establishment at the time used as an excuse to get him out of their way. He was enforcing immigration law, and they were hell bent on their open borders agenda.

When those in power are doing wrong, and a little guy tries to do the right thing, they use a twisted interpretation of the law to go after that person in the name of revenge. When those in power are caught doing wrong (Fast 'n Furious Eric Holder), the law is ignored completely.

You got a -1 because you know this, yet you perpetuate the lie anyways because it fits with your politics. Imagine if Kathy Griffen and Madonna were hauled into court, given a rushed show trial, and convicted on terrorism charges for what they did. You'd be shitting yourself and screaming about how fascist the country is, instead of praising the courts for the result. And if another president pardoned them, you'd be praising them for doing the right thing.

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

"child-rapist"?

Excuse me? You have proof of this extremely serious claim? If not, you better stop throwing stones in your glass house calling others "evil", "dumb", or "gullible".

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

> Do you expect Trump to pardon him if he's in fact done something illegal?

Trump has already pardoned people who have "done something illegal". Obama did that too. I'm sure Bush did a least a little, and Clinton pardoned straight up cartoon villains right as he was leaving office. While I'm sure the presidential pardon has been used on people who were wrongly convicted at some point in history, it often comes up when someone has arguably received too harsh a sentence, or is arguably the victim of selective enforcement of the law. But they are almost always guilty of the crime they were found guilty of.

The case for pardoning Julian goes like this: breaking US law by doing journalism in another country while not even being a US citizen is not something the US should be able to punish you for. You can then get into the details about whether what he has done is good or not, etc. Also I'm still not even sure if Julian is actually under indictment in the US- for years we denied it, even while the UK had a huge team present around the embassy for years.

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[thegarbz]

Do you expect Trump to pardon him if he's in fact done something illegal?

Is that a trick question?

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[PopeRatzo]

Do you expect Trump to pardon him if he's in fact done something illegal?

Every living person that Trump has pardoned has done something illegal. That's why they call it a "pardon". Not because he was really innocent, but because he had been found guilty. By a judge and/or jury. And sentenced. To jail.

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[owenferguson]

Uh... didn't he just free those dipshits who took over a federal park?

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

No, he did not. Those guys had their case dismissed with prejudice after the judge found out that the feds were lying to him. Trump pardoned the Hammonds, who didn't participate in the crazy stand off (but some of those who did cited their case). The Hammonds had done a burn to prevent wildfires, and ended up scorching some of the federal lands.

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[Anonymous Coward]

Trump is variously Hitler, an Orange idiot, a Sap, a crook as convenient.
depending on which argument can not apply.

The Hitler shtick fails as it is noted he never uses the power of then office to slant things legally. Did not even fire all the D in the Executive branch on the first day, for example. A proper Hitler would have shot them all by now.

Has not ordered the release of documents, yet.
Has not pushed for special council, etc legal attacks on anyone
Keeps his distance from the whole sordid mess.

Because of this, he must have another, evil motive. Here, well its about the money, because of course, rich=greed.
But it does not hold up. He built mega properties worldwide, involving Billions
each time, tens of thousands of individuals and contractors.

So where are the complaints? It is not as if the MSM would ignore something, anything. Or Mueller etc too, desperately searching for a crime, any crime.

But they failed. All expected to hit paydirrt within 6 months. What happened? Turns out he really isn't a crook after all.

And Now, to even the most non objective hating observer, with a minimal amount of intellectual honesty has to see the offer of Immunity to the Podesta bro proves it is a slanted, politically driven effort by corrupt officials.
Podesta, guilty of the Exact Same Crime as a man they raided, guns drawn, raided his lawyers office, and now hold in solitary confinement.

It is an historic level of disgrace for this great nation, but we will survive.

What won't survive? Respect and credibility for the people who have cheered on Mueller, who cheer on the shadow government. Go CIA! Yay FBI! Fuck the ruile of law, throw them in jail. Or maybe, take them out and have them shotA?

Well, can't do that, so drum up the hate and loathing until anothe ballpark shooter materializes. Complete, utter disgrace. For what? For Hillary.

All sold out, nothing left to sell.

This is why the loss will be truly epic this year, historic.

The people see through it.

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[geek]

Thats a fair point but the pardons come to people remorseful or who've been made examples of or otherwise served some semblence of a sentence. Also one man (the dead boxer, forgot his name) was likely innocent. Pardons are exceptional, not the norm, and they should never be used to protect someone close to the president, as was done for Nixon by Ford (Ford should have been impeached for that IMO)

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[PopeRatzo]

and they should never be used to protect someone close to the president, as was done for Nixon by Ford

Oh, that's not the worst one. Are you old enough to remember George H.W. Bush pardoning the six convicted Iran/Contra criminals (including NRA official Oliver North)? It was done to prevent the imminent trial of Casper Weinberger, in which the president himself would have been implicated in crimes.

People are (quite rightly) shocked and amazed at the sheer level of corruption and conspiracy in the Trump Administration, but they forget just how bad the Reagan/Bush administrations were. They were so corrupt it would make a Chicago alderman blush.

Re:This is kind of the problem with Trump

[fafalone]

Sorry, stopping every Hispanic person you see and demanding proof of citizenship, all without cause, is not an acceptable way to enforce immigration law, to the extent that's even a local law enforcement issue by itself anyway. You're being intellectually dishonest, and not even to the right person as I'm not hot on letting illegals stay myself. Stopping Hispanic people just for being Hispanic IS a civil rights violation, and what he was convicted of.

"In a few weeks"

[hcs_$reboot]

I heard 5 months and 4 days.

Assange is a scumbag

[Anonymous Coward]

Wikileaks got innocent people killed with their data dumps. It all sounds edgy and libertarian while safe at home in the USA keyboard warring but death squads in Turkey and Afghanistan are no joke. There's a reason the original Wikileaks crew got away from Assange. I don't know or care whether he'll get done for the sex charge and it's not actionable that he coordinates with the Kremlin though annoying but there's enough blood on his hands that I hope he spends a bunch of years in Swedish lockup attempting and failing to withdraw consent.

Pick your heroes better in the future.

Re:Assange is a scumbag

[Anonymous Coward]

Pick your heroes better in the future.

We will when you start picking your presidents better. trumptard.

Re:Assange is a scumbag

[Anonymous Coward]

You know who also got innocent people killed with their bombs? The US government and military.

Posting RT links?

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF? Wow Slashdot is going down hill fast since it was bought out last year.
Posting Russia Today links? Sad. RT is not a news agency, it a Russian propaganda outlet, period. Doin't be useful idiots, don't post RT links, ever.

Re:Posting RT links?

[Anonymous Coward]

Those of us in other countries say the same thing when some fool posts a link to CNN.

Re:Posting RT links?

[ChrisMaple]

Many of us in the U.S. think the same thing.

He's been in jail for five years

[Anonymous Coward]

And neither England, Sweden nor the US had to pay a dime.

Nineteen Eighty-four

[Anonymous Coward]

I suggest that the commenters who are so narrowly interested in Assange's guilt/innocence (re)read Nineteen Eighty-four. The accusations are unimportant. It doesn't matter if they are true or not. They are mere vehicles for vilifying and discrediting the accused to justify all manner on unjust and inhumane acts that will be done to him. If you don't get this, you haven't understood the situation well enough.

Re:Nineteen Eighty-four

[VeryFluffyBunny]

The Russians have a term for this: Kompromat.

Is this reliable?

[Hutz]

RT is known as a propaganda outlet and is state-owned by Russia. This doesn't even rate to the level of published by RT, but is a tweet from the RT editor-in-chief saying anonymous sources told her.

Not sure this should rate comment at this point.

Re:Is this reliable?

[Anonymous Coward]

+1. RT is nothing more than a gussied up Pravda and a sock puppet for Putin.

Re:Is this reliable?

[Anonymous Coward]

It may well be true, even to a great extent. 'But it is interesting to listen to them from time to time as a source of news that isn't of the six corp mega-amalgamation mono-narrative (with the highly controlled opposition that is Fox, owned by of course by News Corporation of the same bunch) that passes for journalism in the anglo West:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksb3KD6DfSI

Re:Is this reliable?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's Russia's equivalent of CNN.

Re:Is this reliable?

[Anonymous Coward]

Pravda is much further out there than RT. There is an english version @ english.pravda.ru

Re:Is this reliable?

[Anonymous Coward]

Each state-owned media outlet is in particular a propaganda arm of that state. And private media are propaganda arms of their respective owners, and thus indirectly, usually, of the capitalist in that nation-state. Thus BBC is a UK propaganda arm and CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox are US capitalists' and US-to-a-certain-extent propaganda arms.

Re:Is this reliable?

[William Baric]

The irony is that you are only repeating the propaganda of American media.

RT is a very important source of information for me. I get news and opinions that are censored or manipulated everywhere else. Of course RT is not perfectly neutral, and because of its desire to publish as many opinions as possible it sometimes ends up publishing bullshit, but it is still far less driven by its political agenda and far less manipulative than Western media.

Re:Is this reliable?

[Anonymous Coward]

You misspelled "Fox News".

Re:Is this reliable?

[Hutz]

Thank you for making my point. You don't distinguish between news and opinion. So, no RT is not reliable. I welcome a broad platform for opinion. Not so much for facts.

Re:Is this reliable?

[William Baric]

I said "news and opinions".

Anyway, you are naive. The reality is the vast majority of "news" you get are a subset of facts which are selected, interpreted and put into a specific context by the media. They are not "raw" facts. This selection, interpretation and the context presented make that news, in effect, opinions.

If you compare different media, particularly if you compare different media from different countries, you will realize that the same event can look quite different. This difference is even more visible when you compare Western media with media like RT, Al Jazeera, or the China Daily. For example, the war in Syria as reported by Western media, and the war in Syria reported by RT looked like it was two completely different wars.

You claim RT is not reliable, maybe, but Western media are even less reliable. Between the dictatorship of the politically correct, the lack of critical thinking from Western journalists, and the political agenda of each media, Western media are now so biased that they don't really inform anymore..

Re:Is this reliable?

[RespekMyAthorati]

Thanks you Comrade!

disappointing

[Anonymous Coward]

Assange and Snowden are modern day heroes. We all know what happens next...

Re:disappointing

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Christians are famous for crucifying their heroes.

Freedom of expression.

[Anonymous Coward]

Freedom of expression has been useful to denounce tyrant governments.

Has been.

Thanks Ecuador for protecting such Freedom until now. Be sure it is appreciated. I wish other nations would share that load, but apparently you don't make lots of friends in Mr. Assange's line of work.

Frankly, I expected more of the UK, the creators of fair play and all...

Brexit

[hcs_$reboot]

These Brits, they put everything non-UK outside...

Block a loan?

[DontBeAMoran]

The sources claim that America has threatened to block a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if he is not removed from the embassy, based in Knightsbridge, west London.

Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Reddcoin, Monero, Dash, etc. to the rescue!

Re:Block a loan?

[VeryFluffyBunny]

I think you'll have a hard time convincing the IMF to make payments in Bitcoin. Christine Lagarde is essentially the USA's stooge within that organisation. She spent much of her formative life studying and working in the US and is very much of the Washington political ilk. BTW, she failed her entrance exam to study as a senior civil servant in France, which may explain a lot. It would seem it's easier to get away with bullshitting your way into power in Washington than in Paris.

Re:Block a loan?

[Anonymous Coward]

The entrance exam to study as a senior civil servant is probably very stringent, highly selective, and most people are likely to fail said exam.
It's like being denied to study at the Vulcan Science Academy. Spock then chose to go to Starfleet. So, in similar fashion, Lagarde went to study in a U.S school of higher education.

Coincidence

[hcs_$reboot]

This happening a few days after Trump visit to the UK, while May needs to find new friends for the post-brexit.

Re:Coincidence

[thegarbz]

Yes. Just because one political event happened somewhere in the world, doesn't mean the entire world politically stands still and has to wait to make some completely unrelated decision.

Re:Coincidence

[hcs_$reboot]

Yeah, but Trump is pressing the world to get quick results ( whatever the consequences ). Not a 100%, just some likeness.

Re:Coincidence

[thegarbz]

Yeah, but Trump is pressing the world to get quick results ( whatever the consequences ). Not a 100%, just some likeness.

At an event talking about the very people who have demonstrated to possess the least control over the situation at hand? You think the millions the UK has been spending trying to get at assange was just window dressing and Trump talking to May suddenly changed everything?

I'm sure that's it, and has nothing to do with Ecuador being fed up with Assange to the point of repeatedly cutting off his internet connection (most recently only a couple of months ago), repeatedly looking at ways to get him out of the embassy and going as far as to say on record that he keeps breaking the terms under which he was welcome in the first place.

I'm not an Assange fan

[rsilvergun]

he helped give us Trump after all and I'll be living with the damage done for the rest of my life (mostly to our healthcare system) but wasn't the woman in question tied to the American CIA?

Re:I'm not an Assange fan

[PopeRatzo]

but wasn't the woman in question tied to the American CIA?

No.

Re: I'm not an Assange fan

[Anonymous Coward]

You have every right to vote for what's In your best interests. But then again so does everyone else.

We lived through eight miserable years of the Obama administration. At the very least, you can live with four years (maybe eight) of a Trump administration. So quit your bitching and stop being a fucking pussy ass man-child!

Re: I'm not an Assange fan

[Anonymous Coward]

Those 'miserable' years when twenty million Americans no longer had to be afraid about getting bankrupt due to their health, or even giving birth to a child. If you didn't know yet, then ObamaCare is the ACA (Affordable Care Act). You might know someone who's on an ACA plan, because they can't afford anything more expensive.

These twenty million Americans are now more confident about their lives, and if they don't like an employer, they can quit more freely to seek better employment, and not worry about losing health care after they quit. Or after they get fired, or laid off.

Those on-so-'miserable' years when the President of the United States was respected by America's friends, and feared by America's enemies. Those eight years when the President was smart, eloquent, made great jokes, and supported the grieving and the berieved. Those eight years, when the President did not grab women by their genitals, and did not make derisive fun about disabled people. Those eight years, when the President had never once had a sex scandal, or even one mistress, much less a porn star lady of the night. When instead, the President loved his strong wife all those eight years and more.

Those eight years, when the President of the United States did not suborn himself to the dictator of Russia.

Re: I'm not an Assange fan

[Anonymous Coward]

I personally was turned away from a hospital while injured, for "financial reasons", under Obamacare.

Don't believe the lies. Obamacare is NOT national healthcare.

Obamacare is a crony capitalist giveaway to the insurance companies, and a cruel joke at the expense of the working poor.

Re: I'm not an Assange fan

[Anonymous Coward]

"feared by America's enemies"

Man, the bullshit flows so freely from you. If you can't see that, let me draw a red line for you. If you step over it, the view will be better, cause nothing else will happen.

Not a problem

[DNS-and-BIND]

Assange just told the Swedes he's a Syrian refugee. So naturally they dropped rape charges.

My fault

[Okian Warrior]

That's my fault, I think.

The eds corrected it in the summary, but used my submitted title verbatim.

Sorry about that. I sometimes get word confusion from studying various languages. And yes, I did study *that* language for awhile.

(For comparison, is it Brazil or Brasil?)

Re:My fault

[CaptainDork]

Thanks for clearing that up. I just entered the rabbit hole and, so far, I'm learning a lot about the viral Equador vs Ecuador controversy, and zip shit about anything else.

Wish me luck.

Re: My fault

[Anonymous Coward]

Itâ(TM)s âoeBrazilâ in English on both sides of the Atlantic, even if we differ over the spelling of âoerealiseâ.

Collateral murder

[Okian Warrior]

What war crimes? Bad and terrible and regretful things happened, but what war crimes?

Specifically, the "collateral murder" video, which shows the US indiscriminately murdering a dozen people, including two Reuters staff.

Re:Collateral murder

[drnb]

The full video, as opposed to the edited wikileaks video, show the journalists walking with armed insurgents. Its not indiscriminate when a guy near you has a RPG.

Re:Collateral murder

[Anonymous Coward]

" Its not indiscriminate when a guy near you has a RPG."
Yes it is indiscriminate, even when a guy near has an RPG. Go look up the fucking laws on it you retard.
And, no, they were not walking with armed insurgents. They had assault rifles. Against apache armour meant to stand to 30mm canon, and beyond the lethal range against humans for the rounds used in the assault rifles.
Fucking moron.

Re: Collateral murder

[c6gunner]

And, no, they were not walking with armed insurgents. They had assault rifles

You heard it here folks: people with assault rifles are not armed!

Re:Collateral murder

[ChrisMaple]

Excuse me, Mr. Soldier who's far away on the ground while I'm piloting a helicopter. What ammo are you using? Will you wait while I look it up in my reference book to see what the lethal range is?

Re: Collateral murder

[Anonymous Coward]

The local laws allow people to walk around with assault rifles.

Re: Collateral murder

[Cederic]

Only a malicious fuckwit would draw that interpretation from the quoted sentence.

The rest of us would acknowledge the point that having assault rifles does not make someone an insurgent.

Especially when it's common knowledge that journalists in conflict areas frequently have armed security details to help protect them from insurgents.

Yes, I did just call you a malicious fuckwit.

Re: Collateral murder

[c6gunner]

The rest of you are retarded, then, since the rest of his comment bangs on about assault rifles and not about the word "insurgent". Either he is really shit at communicating his point and you happen to be the same kind of stupid as him ("great minds" think alike), or he really was suggesting that having assault rifles doesn't make you armed because helicopters have armour. Either way, neither of you is taking home any Nobel prizes any time soon.

Oh, and as to your "armed security" idea, they also had RPGs, and were standing at a location from which US forces had received incoming fire. But I'm sure you're totally right; they couldn't be insurgents. They were just walking around with AKs and RPGs in an active battle area because they wanted to show them off. "Look my american friend! I cleaned them up real nice! You want buy? I give special deal!"

Re: Collateral murder

[Cederic]

What fucking RPGs? The cameraman had a camera.

Whatever happened to 'Confirm the target before murdering it'? Or were the US orders on the day to shoot journalists and civilians?

Re: Collateral murder

[c6gunner]

What fucking RPGs? The cameraman had a camera.

The camera was confused for a second RPG and initiated an immediate request to fire because it looked as if it was being aimed at the humvee down the road. There was a different RPG spotted much earlier; about a minute before the cameraman takes up his position you can see a different guy walking around with what appears to be an RPG. The followup army investigation claims that 2 RPGs were recovered at the scene, and the camera recovered from the photographer contained several pictures of a humvee positioned about 100 metres away. All of which, in an area of active ongoing combat operations, makes it pretty clear that the helicopter pilots had a legitimate reason to suspect their targets were insurgents preparing to engage American troops with AK and RPG fire.

Now, you're free to claim that the army is lying about what they recovered, as I'm sure you will, but if you're going to speak on the matter at least inform yourself about it first rather than just drawing asinine conclusions based on total ignorance. Even Assange later admitted that they were probably "armed with AKs and RPGs" but then said that he's "not sure that it matters".

Whatever happened to 'Confirm the target before murdering it'? Or were the US orders on the day to shoot journalists and civilians?

The initial target was confirmed as well as can be expected under the circumstances. Further delay would not have been reasonable. The van is a separate matter; if you were a reasonable person rather than a total jackass you might have made a distinction between the two attacks and argued that while the former was clearly justified the latter seems unnecessarily rushed. But that's far more nuance than I would expect from a nitwit running around screaming about murder.

Re: Collateral murder

[cold fjord]

What do the judges say?

LOL, A fine petard hoisting! :D

Amnesty to Be Granted in DPRK

[Anonymous Coward]

Jul. 17, Juche 107 (2018) Tuesday

Amnesty to Be Granted in DPRK

The DPRK will grant an amnesty to those who had been convicted of the crimes against the country and people on the occasion of the 70th founding anniversary of the DPRK.

The amnesty will take effect from Aug. 1.

The DPRK Cabinet and relevant organs will take practical measures to help the released people settle down to normal working life.

The Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK promulgated a decree in this regard on July 12.

The decree said it is the intrinsic demand of Korean-style socialist system and the consistent principle of state activities to protect the independent and creative life of the popular masses and make selfless, devoted efforts for them by thoroughly applying the people-first principle, the most vivid expression of the Juche-oriented view on the people and people-centered philosophy.

Rodong News Team

Assange was a god among men here

[Anonymous Coward]

When he started out going after rightists he was an unabashed hero here, speaking truth to power and the vanguard of a whole new era of transparent and open government and civil trust, blah blah blah... Until he showed that he stood by his word that all governments should have their secrets exposed, including leftist governments as well.

Then he became public enemy number 1.

You can see the hypocrisy oozing here in the comments too.

Re:Assange was a god among men here

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a European leftist and I like what Trump is doing sometimes. Like the US/Russia summit, that's pure gold ; Trump ranting about the deep state and publicly disavowing his intelligence services, which are peddling inane garbage indeed.
Shit like asking European countries to double their military budgets I can't agree with and I don't see how he would weaken the deep state by pouring more hundreds billions into it. Ditto the quality of the "press" : it's a result of 'deregulate everything' and ever more power and money for the rich.
He's against war when it comes to Russia, Syria and Korea but he's pro war against Iran, Venezuela and the Palestinian Untermensch. Well he's for or against war in Syria depending on the day of the week, I don't know.

It's all too incoherent but I see Trump preaching hatred against the corporate media, the "deep state", CIA/FBI as a good thing. Advocating peace between US and Russia is a good thing too.

dubious source to say the least

[Anonymous Coward]

This is Russia Today which basically the western propaganda arm of the Russian Gov't. So I have near zero faith in this.

Re:dubious source to say the least

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Yes, stories published by US news corporations and the US government aren't propaganda at all and are completely accurate, valid, and reliable.

Clinton emails were another service

[Uberbah]

They revealed massive corruption and election rigging at the DNC. To deflect from this, Democrats followed the model used by the Bush Administration (packed with draft dodgers) accused John Kerry of cowardice. Her own campaign staff saw Uranium One as a huge liability for her, so they engaged in an epic bout of Swiftboating and projected Clinton's corruption with Russia and election meddling onto Trump.

Re:Clinton emails were another service

[Anonymous Coward]

Cowardice?

And here I thought John Kerry was accused of, you know, coming back from Vietnam and declaring on national television (Meet the Press, April 18, 1971) that he participated in large-scale war crimes.

With the result that you can either believe that the young John Kerry was a dishonorable war criminal ("following orders" is not an actual defense to engaging in war crimes), or you can believe that the young John Kerry was a dishonorable slanderer of everybody he ever served with. But that either way that if presidential candidate John Kerry wanted to be judged on his actions in his youth, the correct judgment was that he shouldn't even feel free to show his face in public, much less hold high office.

The only available defense for John Kerry was a declaration that he disavowed what his younger self did, that he wasn't that man anymore, and so he shouldn't be held accountable for it. Which would be fine, except that in that case he would have to also disavow any credit for what that young man who he isn't anymore did in Vietnam, rather than constantly bringing up that younger self's service.

John Kerry started his political career by slandering those who served in Vietnam; that that thoroughly maculate origin rebounded on him when he made Vietnam service an issue in the campaign was utterly predictable and entirely just.

Re:Clinton emails were another service

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, what election rigging? Why do you americans not understand how your democracy works? Your political parties are free to use whatever process they want to choose their candidate. Your "primaries" are not, in fact, part of the election (although various states have very confused laws treating them as if they're actually part of a democratic process).

Re:Clinton emails were another service

[Uberbah]

Why do you write "you Americans" and then promptly vomit up a bunch of Hillbot talking points? The DNC's own charter mandates neutrality in primary elections, a mandate they fragrantly violated when they blatantly rigged a primary election for president. And not only are primaries part and parcel of the election, dumbass, they are as often as not far more important than the general election vote. Primary voters in 2016 could have chosen someone other than a racist, corrupt AF, warmongering, loudmouthed, incompetent, pathological liar. And the other party could have chosen someone other than Trump to represent them as well.

Re:Clinton emails were another service

[cold fjord]

They revealed massive corruption and election rigging at the DNC. . . . Her own campaign staff saw Uranium One as a huge liability for her, so they engaged in an epic bout of Swiftboating and projected Clinton's corruption with Russia and election meddling onto Trump.

I am happy to agree with you regarding this portion of your statement. Salud!

Now let's see how honest the UK psychopath gov is

[Anonymous Coward]

will they hand him to Sweden __WHO HAS A WARRANT FOR HIS ARREST__, or will they ignore that and send him to America, so the corrupt politicians and murderers in their government can make an example of him to anyone else who wishes to expose all the wrongs they do?

Re:And of course the U.S. has nothing to do with i

[Anonymous Coward]

So moron, you're still in denial. The asinine claim was that the USA was not interested. Now they have been shown to be, you whine "but that was BEFORE". Dumbass.

RT

[zufar]

Here comes the day when I read news from RT and Russian propaganda workforce on /.

Re:RT

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup. I'm sure they'll be crying crocodile tears (and probably mentioning Clinton for some unknown reason) in response to your post, but that doesn't make their presence any less obvious to those with a remaining brain cell or two.

Re:RT

[Anonymous Coward]

I grew up in the 90s and we liked French public TV back then for its relative independence. This was probably never entirely true but there was a rationale to public broadcasting. I think BBC used to have a good reputation?
With Sarkozy and his unabashed cronyism that went out the window (it became obvious at least) then followed the general break down of media and advertising which brought more private concentration. Now even if the public media wasn't the same pro-corporate, globalist, pro-war soup as everything else, the journalists themselves just have their careers in mind and want to jump to the private channels (where they may be coming from) and become millionaire entertainment anchors.

Mostly though, journalists don't bother even doing their fucking jobs. We have several 24/7 TV news channel and a 24/7 news radio that don't bother telling the news. There's a handful looping headlines, a talk show between self-appointed assholes and sometimes the weather. If there's a special event like a bombing or the pope being dead, we don't even get that. It's a "special edition" that means the entire country becomes news-free except for the fucking event. This has me thinking that France has become a dictatorship (one event was the death of Johnny Hallyday, a singer. This lasted for days).

I can visit newspaper websites where there's more news but still the same among all sites. War news is sparse and includes propaganda like "Assad used chemical weapons" and writing sad articles when jihadis are defeated but they report these defeats/victories infrequently, when they really have to.
So, I visit rt.com because I can get news there. I used not to, but still visited and visit other English-language sites where I can get news. One site I visit is an aggregator run by a single guy.
Slashdot itself is some kind of way above average news site.
almasdarnews is pro-Syrian, pro-Hezbollah and so on! but it's got lots of timely and real war news.

RT - Russia Today

[Torodung]

Hi. You should not listen to a thing RT has to say, and I wish Slashdot wouldn't okay articles sourced to them. They are a propaganda/disinformation outlet. I expect to be modded down by Russians now, so mods, I hope you're scanning at -1.

Re:RT - Russia Today

[Anonymous Coward]

You should not listen to a thing RT has to say,

Congratulations, you just found the recipe for the 100% air-tight, self-sealing world-view echo chamber!

If you start by defining any information that challenges your comfortable, ego-validating, unshakeable dogmas about the ways of the world as "enemy propaganda straight out of warmongering Eurasia and the mouth of hateful Emmanuel Goldberg" you are guaranteed to become one of the monsters you claim to fight.

In fact I suspect you already are one.

That the supposed believers in civil liberties, free press and compassionate governance are the first to form lynch-mobs, complete with pitchforks and torches to burn the heretic witches who would dare to use these same holy tenets to actually say something that contravenes the current Prevailing Orthodoxy, is quite telling also.

You phonies would be funny if you were not so devastatingly destructive to anything resembling enlightened society and in your self-righteous rage of narcissism also hell bent on paving the way into several totalitarian nightmares that will make China look like a human rights utopia.

Re:RT - Russia Today

[William Baric]

If you want real propaganda/disinformation outlet, look at all Western media.

Re:RT - Russia Today

[Anonymous Coward]

If you start by defining any information that challenges your comfortable, ego-validating, unshakeable dogmas about the ways of the world as "enemy propaganda straight out of warmongering Eurasia and the mouth of hateful Emmanuel Goldberg" you are guaranteed to become one of the monsters you claim to fight.

Let's just start by defining "propaganda" as the media outlets who consistently put out dubiously sourced information which just happens to align with the interests of the ruling party.

RT definitely fits that bill. Which one does on the US side is an exercise left to the reader.

Re:RT - Russia Today

[Anonymous Coward]

RT definitely fits that bill. Which one does on the US side is an exercise left to the reader.

All of the MSM. Pretty much no exceptions. I know your "wink,wink,hint,hint" answer was supposed to be "FOX" (if you are a Democratic Party cultist) or "CNN" (if you are the GOP or Trump religion follower) but the truth is far worse than childish partisan scapegoating.

And therein lies the rub. The force that was supposed to be the crucial element in keeping democratic governments to account is no more. And same goes for online "social" media because all of the major platforms are specifically designed for creating self-validation echo chambers for the members of the cults.

None of the possible outcomes of this is any good.

Re:RT - Russia Today

[Anonymous Coward]

But we SHOULD listen to Al Jazeera and BBC, which are totally trustworthy government run propaganda outlets.

LUL

Re:RT - Russia Today

[drewlake2000]

Hi Ivan bot

Trump should thank him

[MichaelSmith]

Wikileaks did so much to help the Russians and the Trump campaign, that he is hardly an enemy of the current US regime.

chain

[Anonymous Coward]

None of the slaves care about Assange.

Wakanda :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

n/t

Russia Today?

[BrianMarshall]

Also, Slashdot shouldn't post articles citing RT.com sources.

No kidding.

"though the source (RT) is somewhat suspect."

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, given that 17 intelligence agencies in America presented RT youtube views as the only "evidence" they had of Russian meddling in the elections, I'd say that's off base. They weren't even accused of wrongdoing. There's really nothing unusual about the RT, they simply report the news. I'd put them ahead of many organisations and far ahead of crap like CNN which simply instils hatred to push their agenda.

You got modded up..massively (foolishly)

[Anonymous Coward]

Liberals must be swarming all over youtube, and not real liberals - the brainwashed kind that thinks a criminal like Hillary Clinton would serve America well. The RT is just a news outlet, nothing more. They played zero, and I mean zero part in the elections. Post industrial America, the failure of Medicaid, and porous borders does not a Russian agent make.. You can commence calling mea Russian troll now in 5 ,4, 3 ..

Bastards.

[Anonymous Coward]

This sets a precedent for ejecting other undesirables.

Oh well, gives us a reason to toss out all those mohammedan rapefugees.

Willfull dumbfuckery?

[Uberbah]

The American war on Vietnam was an utterly unjustifiable series of war crimes in defense of racist colonialism. The only heroes there were the Viet Cong who drove foreign invaders from their country, along with the puppet government they set up.

However, the last group of people who get to point those facts out are war criminals from the Bush Administration, who lied their way into another unjustifiable invasion while committing massive amounts of war crimes: murder, torture, rape and kidnapping of civilians.

Re:Willfull dumbfuckery?

[cold fjord]

American assistance to the government of the Republic of Viet Name to repel the war of aggression waged by the brutal communist regime in the North and their puppets in the South was completely justified. The vile Viet Cong were heartless murderers oppressing the people using terrorism and mass murder as a deliberate strategy.

Just the tip of the ice berg:
Mass graves discovered in Hue
The Viet Cong Committed Atrocities, Too (Dak Son)

After the lying, murderous communist hegemons of the North violated the peace treaty, invaded and conquered the South, tens or hundreds of thousands of people fled the vicious treatment of the North.

Viet Nam, like China, is prospering today largely because they are moving away from Marxist economics.

Iraq is far better off without Saddam in power. Saddam's dead enders and Jihadis are responsible for the vast majority of people killed in Iraq.

Your understanding of both recent events and history is terribly distorted.

Re:Willfull dumbfuckery?

[Uberbah]

You don't get to colonize a country, set up a puppet government, and then whine when the occupied fight for their independence or how they do it.

Russiagate Dumbfuckery Over 9,000

[Uberbah]

but when he became a Russian puppet

Look, Russiagaters may have been born yesterday from the idiot tree, hitting every branch on the way down, but a former KGB man was not. Both the Democratic and Republican parties have hated Russia for over a hundred years now, and Putin is well aware of the fact that Trump is more of a moron than George W. Bush was. Which means that Trump would be brining in anti-Russian neocons left over from the Reagan Administration, same as Dubbya did.

So your entire premise is invalid before it begins.

and started one sided "leaks" in order to sway the elections to the candidate most likely to abuse human rights

You mean Hillary Clinton? It was Hillary that drove the USG to repeat it's "mistake" with Iraq in Libya and Syria, overthrew two democracies and tried damned hard for a third (Ukraine, Honduras & Venezuela). Trump is going to have to work long and hard just to catch up to Hillary's record, much less surpass her.

He's also apparently a likely rapist.

Apparently you're a gullible fool who's fallen for transparent western propaganda. Given the fact that the women in the "case" went to the state to ask for an STD test, not to press charges, that Assange was cleared to leave Sweden by prosecutors, that Sweden has refused to interview Assange abroad (which they've done with dozens of other suspects since 2011), and most importantly refused to promise Assange that they wouldn't hand him over to the U.S.

But more to the point, why would a "Putin Puppet" leak hundreds of thousands of documents on Russia, including details of Russia's own domestic spying apparatus a la NSA wiretapping of American citizens.

No reason but your willful dumbfuckery.

Re:Russiagate Dumbfuckery Over 9,000

[Anonymous Coward]

Look, Russiagaters may have been born yesterday from the idiot tree, hitting every branch on the way down, but a former KGB man was not. Both the Democratic and Republican parties have hated Russia for over a hundred years now, and Putin is well aware of the fact that Trump is more of a moron than George W. Bush was. Which means that Trump would be brining in anti-Russian neocons left over from the Reagan Administration, same as Dubbya did.

So, you have no idea what Russiagate is?

Or who Trump is and who he represents? (Clue: it's not neocons, they're the Republican establishment)

(Also exactly who are the anti-Russian neocons that Trump has brought in?)

So your entire premise is invalid before it begins.

Nope. You're just unable what's in front of your face, presumably 'cos you kinda like Trump, he says what you think and you're a big fan of putting the children of asylum seekers in torture camps 'cos you're a deeply repugnant human being) and so the idea that a foreign power might see an anti-establishment populist failed businessman as the perfect president for undermining America and its interests is something you really don't want to believe.

Interesting fact: there's evidence linking Russia's campaign to Bernie too.

Apparently you're a gullible fool who's fallen for transparent western propaganda. Given the fact that the women in the "case" went to the state to ask for an STD test, not to press charges, that Assange was cleared to leave Sweden by prosecutors, that Sweden has refused to interview Assange abroad (which they've done with dozens of other suspects since 2011), and most importantly refused to promise Assange that they wouldn't hand him over to the U.S.

All of which ignores the fact that Sweden has laws, and a legal system, and is required to investigate crimes, just like our's.

But sure, it's a conspiracy to hand over Assange even though it'd be far easier to get Britain to extradict Assange to the US because Britain is far, far, far, more friendly towards the US than Sweden ever has been.

You should probably not get your news from Infowars.

Re:Russiagate Dumbfuckery Over 9,000

[Uberbah]

No, I wont let you proceed with your regularly scheduled Gish Gallop - that's where a cultist (creationist, Birther, lunar conspiracy theorist) fires off a rapid series of facile talking points that fall apart faster than a fart in a hurricane when subjected to scrutiny.

Why would Russia interfere in an election between two parties in another country when both of those parties have hated Russia for over 100 years.

How is it that Putin is a master strategist that he knew years in advance that a game show host could be president of the United States, yet at the same time be so blind as to not anticipate any blowback to installing a manchurian candidate in the White House.

Explain why a former KGB man would be so dumb as to collude with someone as dumb as Trump, which would mean the FBI/CIA/NSA would have been aware of said collusion the entire time.

All of which ignores the fact that Sweden has laws, and a legal system, and is required to investigate crimes, just like our's.

A legal system that, again, has interviewed dozens of suspects abroad since Assange sought asylum in Ecuador's embassy. A legal system that would actually compel Sweden, as a signatory of the UN Convention Against Torture, to deny extradition to the United States as it is a country that employs torture. Including to sources such as Chelsea Manning. Sweden has pointedly refused to interview Assange abroad or promise not to hand him over to the United States.

Nope. You're just unable what's in front of your face, presumably 'cos you kinda like Trump

I'm a socialist, you dumb fat fuck. I also told Birther's to their face (who, btw have just as much evidence as you do) that they were full of shit on their batshit crazy theories that Obama's parents planted a fake birth announcement in a Hawaiian newspaper. Doesn't mean I supported Obama's murder of little children with drones or his attempts to cut Social Security.

It means I'm not an idiot, and I learned something from all the lies told about Iraq. Why didn't you?

RT better than any American source you can name

[Uberbah]

That includes National Pentagon Radio, which (gasp) is funded by the government. Or just ask Zombie Ed Shultz, as it wasn't the head of RT that called him up minutes before he was going to cover Bernie Sander's announcement that he was going to run for president in 2016 and ordered him to cover some shit irrelevant story from Tennessee instead.

Refusing to Take Sides, NPR Takes Sides With Torture Deniers

Re:RT better than any American source you can name

[Anonymous Coward]

Whatabout whatabout whatabout

Re:RT better than any American source you can name

[Uberbah]

Whatadumbfuck. As in 99.9999999% of cases, "whataboutism" is just the shrill cry of western exceptionalists whining when someone points out their hypocritical firing of cannons from within glass houses.

Gottfrid Svartholm says hi

[Uberbah]

Sweden couldn't legally do that: if they extradite him from the UK via a European Arrest Warrant, they can't then extradite him to anywhere without applying to the High Court in London.

Sweden has handed people over to the CIA who were promptly tortured. Sweden has also gone to great lengths to extradite people from non-extradition counties, interrogated them for weeks in solitary confinement without a lawyer, and then deported them to other countries to face unrelated charges.

Oh, do fuck off with that CIA propaganda

[Uberbah]

Yes. Through their support of Assad the butcher

The CIA was agitating for "regime change" in Syria long before the Arab Spring protests came along. CIA operations that armed and funded your "moderate" ISIS and Al Queda jihadists in invading that country to cause it's "civil war".

Re:Now let's see how honest the UK psychopath gov

[Anonymous Coward]

They have to get their slice of the pie from him breaking his bail conditions first.

"Not perfectly neutral"

[Anonymous Coward]

RT is "not perfectly neutral". This has be the funniest understatement I've had the whole month.

C'mon. Really. Jeez.

Every outlet out there has fake news from time to time. And every outlet out there has a "spin". Readers (and viewers) gotta be critical. Some of them have lots of fake news -- they pay after all. But RT is downright specialized in spewing fake news.

Whoever you are (the link to your account surely looks strange!) I can't believe you are so naive. You must be an RT sock puppet for sure. That's how they operate.

It's about time

[Anonymous Coward]

Great, That scofflaw has been able to evade responsibility for his actions far to long, and I am NOT talking about Wikileaks...

UK is not the USA

[minstrelmike]

When Obama was president, I expect the UK would hand over Julian no questions asked.
But with Trump in power and screaming like a baby at them, why would the UK actually give a shit what America wants?

The queen holds the right to grant a Royal pardon

[BrookSmith]

The queen holds the right to grant a Royal pardon - I hope she uses it wisely.

Ignorant?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am not sure if you are really this ignorant, or just trolling. So let's cover a few things:

"somehow this inquiry was turned into a rape case": Rape (and the variations of it) falls under public prosecution. So once the police know of the crime they will investigate and try to get it prosecuted. So someone calls in and says "well, he fucked me when I said no, and now I wonder..." that's pretty much it. She just described a rape. The victim doesn't have to want to press charges. Police are required by law to open an investigation.

The "next prosecutor" that you mention was a chief prosecutor, and it was well within her job to review cases normal prosecutors had worked on, and re-open cases if she thinks they were still worthy to bring to court. Now, I will not say that she may not had a political agenda in doing so, but in my opinion it is more likely it was a case of showing that JA doesn't get any special treatment than of any US influence.

Of course, by now we know that JA doesn't accept not getting special treatment, and that is why we are where we are now... No conspiracy needed.

Uh oh...

[iq145]

That means he'll be in U.S. custody very soon after...

Thought he had been kidnapped

[gottagimmick]

Well who can we believe? Or is it a fake Assange like faul. Wow, my head exploded.