Whether the women were actual agents, hired plants, or paid off/threatened/manipulated after-the-fact; I don't know. But I do know those charges are bullshit, and that SOMEONE (I would bet CIA, but there are other possibilities) was manipulating this situation pretty early on.
And I bet that if you had posted any of that on/. at the time it was actually happening, most posters would call you crazy for saying that the U.S. could be doing this kind of stuff. You would get several [citation needed] responses, several "But the EU doesn't answer to the U.S." responses, and several "You're just a conspiracy theorist" posts. Basically, you would get the same response that we're seeing here today.
This scummy stuff always comes out after-the-fact. But by then, of course, it's usually too late. One day, some reporter will do an expose on the campaign to discredit/imprison Assange (when some Deep Throat at the Pentagon or CIA gives leaks him the truth), or the relevant documents will be declassified (about 50 years from now, if we're lucky). But by then, Assange will be rotting in a prison (or dead) and Wikileaks will be long gone.
This isn't the ravings of some paranoid schizo screaming about aliens at Roswell. It's well known the Assange has a big target on his back. It's well-known that the CIA wants him stopped (that's their *job*, after all). It's well-known that discrediting/smearing is one of the most effective ways to silence a public figure (just ask the Church of Scientology, who regularly try to smear their opponents with charges of child molesting and mental problems). Add to that the fact that these "rapes" occurred just weeks after Assange released a huge trove of classified U.S. documents (and threatened to release more), and it doesn't take a conspiracy-theorist Fox Mulder type to smell something fishy going on.
The tinfoil hat is reserved for irrational nutballs who think that the government is hiding little green men at Roswell, or monitoring their brainwaves through their dog's flea collar. It doesn't mean that anyone who acknowledges that their government engages in secret intelligence and counter-intelligence operations is some batshit crazy Fox Mulder.
Or do you seriously think the CIA wouldn't take any action against foreign nationals who leak classified U.S. documents, when that is their fucking *explicit job*?
By 2013, Assange will be a convicted rapist rotting in a prison cell, and that is how the vast majority of the world will see him. The discrediting campaign is working wonderfully. Articles are already coming out about Wikileaks's demise, as if it's a foregone conclusion. The ending of the play is already written. Like I said, it was written before Assange even met his "victims."
Assange knew or should have known that the intelligence agencies of this world would use female agents to entrap him.
Assange is a civilian, not a trained agent. You can't fault him for being naive. He probably isn't screening his newer employees/friends well enough or covering his windows either.
Well, that's fine. But I would much rather the U.S. be open about Assange than to do this stupid round-about, pathetically obvious underground attempt at discrediting him. Prosecuting him openly on espionage charges and asking for extradition on that would at least allow for some sort of due process. Trumping up bullshit charges and strong-arming his old friends to bad-mouth him is another thing entirely.
Because it beats prison, and because Castro would be more than happy to allow him all the freedom he wanted--as long as he wasn't embarrassing Castro or one of his friends.
The U.S. wants him in prison. It serves their purposes even better if it's on rape charges (because those charges discredit him and tarnish his martyr status too). They don't just want him just taken out, they want him discredited. That's why they've been stirring up dissent among his former supporters too (some of whom were likely plants sent in for this very purpose).
After all, why make him a martyr by dragging him to the U.S. and charging him with dubious espionage charges when you can send him to prison as a rapist, with many of his "supporters" bad-mouthing him at the same time?
It's a smart move on the CIA's part. I'm actually surprised, as they have a very long history of fucking up these kinds of operations. Wouldn't surprise me to find out this wasn't their work, but some other U.S. agency (with some goddamn common sense).
In 50 years, when all the documents are declassified showing the scummy shit going on behind the scenes on this, I'll be sure and send them along.
But for now, you just keep believing it's a coincidence that a guy who hadn't had a single criminal offense in 39 years (aside from some minor hacking stuff) suddenly turned into a rapist a few weeks after embarrassing the most powerful government in the world. You keep believing that it was just chance that two women willing to press charges against him for unrelated crimes both met him within 24 hours of each other. You keep believing that Daniel Domscheit-Berg isn't a plant who's part of a larger effort to discredit Assange by any means necessary, or that these bullshit charges aren't a part of that effort either. You keep believing that some of us didn't see this discrediting campaign coming even as Assange was stepping off that plane in Sweden.
UK has a storied history of standing against US extradition requests
You mean like they did with Gary McKinnon? Give me a break, buddy. If Obama pulled his dick out, David Cameron would be on his knees so fast he'd probably break a leg.
The U.S. has a powerful influence over the whole EU (and much of the rest of the world). And Assange has no power. Guess who most governments will side with.
He would have been smarter to go to a country whose government was actively hostile to the U.S. and their edicts (like Cuba or Venezuela).
Is this for real (has Assange actually endorsed this?) or is this just a scam or another attempt to discredit/embarrass Wikileaks/Assange? I haven't seen anything about it on Wikileaks actual website.
Publishers want to make money. If they allowed libraries to have a "checkout as many copies of this book as you like" policy then popular books wouldn't sell any better than unpopular ones (since the library only would need one "copy" of everything). Likely, a library licenses the right to have X number of copies "out" at any given time. If they want to have more out at one time, they have to pay more. So popular books make more money that way, the same as they would if the libraries were buying actual physical copies.
Wow, that's just sad. I guess everyone is keeping their kids at home today (or they're staying in voluntarily). There is so much paranoia about molesters lurking around every corner and so much out-of-control protectionism (kids on bikes today wear more pads than I used to when I played football). I guess kid's gathering places like Chuck E. Cheese's have just went to hell as a result.
Slashdot Mirror
Who is this "John Adams," some sort of commie?
Actually, if this follows the pattern of Assange, Mastercard and Visa are next--making it all-but-impossible to accept online donations of any kind.
Sure you can sue them, but they'll freeze your and your lawyer's accounts if you do.
Actually, IIRC, he was assigned to the "Games and Theory" division (their equivalent of military intelligence, with a laughably misleading name).
Whether the women were actual agents, hired plants, or paid off/threatened/manipulated after-the-fact; I don't know. But I do know those charges are bullshit, and that SOMEONE (I would bet CIA, but there are other possibilities) was manipulating this situation pretty early on.
And I bet that if you had posted any of that on /. at the time it was actually happening, most posters would call you crazy for saying that the U.S. could be doing this kind of stuff. You would get several [citation needed] responses, several "But the EU doesn't answer to the U.S." responses, and several "You're just a conspiracy theorist" posts. Basically, you would get the same response that we're seeing here today.
This scummy stuff always comes out after-the-fact. But by then, of course, it's usually too late. One day, some reporter will do an expose on the campaign to discredit/imprison Assange (when some Deep Throat at the Pentagon or CIA gives leaks him the truth), or the relevant documents will be declassified (about 50 years from now, if we're lucky). But by then, Assange will be rotting in a prison (or dead) and Wikileaks will be long gone.
The bizarre thing is that rape accusations are made public before the accusation has been investigated and seen to have any merit.
It's not bizarre if one of the real goals is to publicly discredit him. Then it makes perfect sense.
This isn't the ravings of some paranoid schizo screaming about aliens at Roswell. It's well known the Assange has a big target on his back. It's well-known that the CIA wants him stopped (that's their *job*, after all). It's well-known that discrediting/smearing is one of the most effective ways to silence a public figure (just ask the Church of Scientology, who regularly try to smear their opponents with charges of child molesting and mental problems). Add to that the fact that these "rapes" occurred just weeks after Assange released a huge trove of classified U.S. documents (and threatened to release more), and it doesn't take a conspiracy-theorist Fox Mulder type to smell something fishy going on.
Leaping to conclusions doesn't help anyone.
Too bad you're not the Swedish prosecutor.
The tinfoil hat is reserved for irrational nutballs who think that the government is hiding little green men at Roswell, or monitoring their brainwaves through their dog's flea collar. It doesn't mean that anyone who acknowledges that their government engages in secret intelligence and counter-intelligence operations is some batshit crazy Fox Mulder.
Or do you seriously think the CIA wouldn't take any action against foreign nationals who leak classified U.S. documents, when that is their fucking *explicit job*?
By 2013, Assange will be a convicted rapist rotting in a prison cell, and that is how the vast majority of the world will see him. The discrediting campaign is working wonderfully. Articles are already coming out about Wikileaks's demise, as if it's a foregone conclusion. The ending of the play is already written. Like I said, it was written before Assange even met his "victims."
Assange knew or should have known that the intelligence agencies of this world would use female agents to entrap him.
Assange is a civilian, not a trained agent. You can't fault him for being naive. He probably isn't screening his newer employees/friends well enough or covering his windows either.
Well, that's fine. But I would much rather the U.S. be open about Assange than to do this stupid round-about, pathetically obvious underground attempt at discrediting him. Prosecuting him openly on espionage charges and asking for extradition on that would at least allow for some sort of due process. Trumping up bullshit charges and strong-arming his old friends to bad-mouth him is another thing entirely.
Because it beats prison, and because Castro would be more than happy to allow him all the freedom he wanted--as long as he wasn't embarrassing Castro or one of his friends.
The U.S. wants him in prison. It serves their purposes even better if it's on rape charges (because those charges discredit him and tarnish his martyr status too). They don't just want him just taken out, they want him discredited. That's why they've been stirring up dissent among his former supporters too (some of whom were likely plants sent in for this very purpose).
After all, why make him a martyr by dragging him to the U.S. and charging him with dubious espionage charges when you can send him to prison as a rapist, with many of his "supporters" bad-mouthing him at the same time?
It's a smart move on the CIA's part. I'm actually surprised, as they have a very long history of fucking up these kinds of operations. Wouldn't surprise me to find out this wasn't their work, but some other U.S. agency (with some goddamn common sense).
Doubleplus good response, citizen!
That's 10 stars, so you get to pick a toy out of the chest today!
In 50 years, when all the documents are declassified showing the scummy shit going on behind the scenes on this, I'll be sure and send them along.
But for now, you just keep believing it's a coincidence that a guy who hadn't had a single criminal offense in 39 years (aside from some minor hacking stuff) suddenly turned into a rapist a few weeks after embarrassing the most powerful government in the world. You keep believing that it was just chance that two women willing to press charges against him for unrelated crimes both met him within 24 hours of each other. You keep believing that Daniel Domscheit-Berg isn't a plant who's part of a larger effort to discredit Assange by any means necessary, or that these bullshit charges aren't a part of that effort either. You keep believing that some of us didn't see this discrediting campaign coming even as Assange was stepping off that plane in Sweden.
UK has a storied history of standing against US extradition requests
You mean like they did with Gary McKinnon? Give me a break, buddy. If Obama pulled his dick out, David Cameron would be on his knees so fast he'd probably break a leg.
The U.S. has a powerful influence over the whole EU (and much of the rest of the world). And Assange has no power. Guess who most governments will side with.
He would have been smarter to go to a country whose government was actively hostile to the U.S. and their edicts (like Cuba or Venezuela).
Won't matter. This whole play was written before he even met those women in Sweden.
Is this for real (has Assange actually endorsed this?) or is this just a scam or another attempt to discredit/embarrass Wikileaks/Assange? I haven't seen anything about it on Wikileaks actual website.
Publishers want to make money. If they allowed libraries to have a "checkout as many copies of this book as you like" policy then popular books wouldn't sell any better than unpopular ones (since the library only would need one "copy" of everything). Likely, a library licenses the right to have X number of copies "out" at any given time. If they want to have more out at one time, they have to pay more. So popular books make more money that way, the same as they would if the libraries were buying actual physical copies.
No Dave and Busters near where I live, or any other adult arcades (AFAIK). It would be nice, though.
Wow, that's just sad. I guess everyone is keeping their kids at home today (or they're staying in voluntarily). There is so much paranoia about molesters lurking around every corner and so much out-of-control protectionism (kids on bikes today wear more pads than I used to when I played football). I guess kid's gathering places like Chuck E. Cheese's have just went to hell as a result.
No, it's sad. Jay found Jesus, Bob left town. Quick Stop burned down.