Should Julian Assange be freed?

[msc545]

The US creates poverty and chaos in other countries and then sounds the alarm over a “migrant crisis” as people flee those conditions it created. It’s like flooding the basement and then crying when the people who live there try to come upstairs.

If you support the persecution of Julian Assange, that means you believe all media everywhere should function as US propaganda outlets. You believe all journalists everywhere have a responsibility to help the US empire keep its crimes hidden, and should be punished if they don’t.

[lightbulb27]

Just ask Biden to pardon him, problem solved.

probably should be free long ago.

I guess it's an improvement over dungeons of ages past... we haven't evolved far. And to think... our govt did the same when having social media companies mask stories they didn't want heard. That's the new solution... scrub the media outlets, lie.

Not sure about the "chreating chaos in other countries". Not so convinced that was all us creating a socialist mess in venezuela or cuba, or africa, haiti, mexico, etc..

but we will find out more as Iraq tries to move off the dollar...

[BoopBoopBeep]

I think the traditional U. S. media is horseshite, but the information he released en mass included the names of U. S. operatives overseas, and these individuals had to be immediately recalled or face death or imprisonment. I've known people who fell on the wrong side of governments knowing too much about them and sentenced to death. I'm not going to be a hypocrite, so I can't support him.

[msc545]

I didn't know he released names - that is NOT ok.

[BoopBoopBeep]

I don't think it was malicious. I think it was just "scan everything in the dump truck and make copies" sort of thing. Not that that excuses it, but yeah... yeah some people got F'ed on that one.

[msc545]

I think if one is going to do something like that they at least need to go through the information and find out exactly what the hell they are planning to release...

[RealMarek]

The USG could have prevented the release of agents at risk by simply letting Wikileaks know which people were at risk.

“Assange said WikiLeaks had tried to comply with a private White House request to redact the names of informants before publication, but the US authorities had refused to assist.”

amp.theguardian.com/.../afghanistan-war-logs-wikileaks-human-rights-groups

[BoopBoopBeep]

@RealMarek Yeah... let's trust the guy about to leak a bunch of stuff to keep his word and not leak some stuff? That's not how it works.

[BoopBoopBeep]

Plus that guardian piece is about him not leaking Afghan names. I'm talking about the U. S. names he leaked.

[RealMarek]

I understand that, but wikileaks had a track record of keeping individuals at risk anonymous during previous releases. So yes, they could have been trusted to do this. The government refused to assist and, mind you, the malfeasance and violations of law and meddling overseas committed by the government merited exposure in any case.

[BoopBoopBeep]

@RealMarek I am unfamilar with this history. Do you have anywhere you can point me so I can learn more about it? My google search wasn't productive.

The other complication is that anybody who gives those name without them being declassified is looking at 30 years per name... then now that these names are declassified, EVERYBODY can get them by simple FOIA request, and that's how some people get disallowed back into certain other countries or forcibly removed from them, and it's just a shiteshow.

[BootsLover94]

He should be freed. The government should not hold any secrets. Not be like Russia or North Korea

[BoopBoopBeep]

That's a wildly simplistic outlook. "The government should not hold any secrets"... so... we should give the codes to our power grid and nuclear arsenal to anyone who asks as well? What could go wrong?

[goaded]

... and he's free to go home to Australia.

"Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern and Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie who have been leading a bipartisan group of politicians on Capital Hill pushing for Assange's release have put out statements.

“I don’t think Julian Assange broke espionage laws. I don’t think he should have been charged in the first place,” McGovern wrote on X, in response to today's news.

“I worry this plea deal sets a bad precedent. But I’m glad this ordeal is over so he can finally return to Australia to be with his family & focus on his health,” he added.

Massie described Assange’s “liberation” as “great news” but said “it’s a travesty that he’s already spent so much time in jail. Obama, Trump, & Biden should have never pursued this prosecution.”"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-69145409

[RealMarek]

Yes, of course. Journalists in the 70s and 80s were rewarded for doing what he did. And you’re absolutely right about the consequences of US meddling overseas or, I would add, exporting our inflation through the petrodollar system.

[front2back]

He's a political prisoner because he exposed the lies.

[exitseven]

Assange is small potatoes. We need to concentrate on Biden, Obama and hillery and all of their minions. They need to be punished reform their crimes

[msc545]

What crimes other than disagreeing with Trump? List and prove them.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely, the man did nothing wrong.

[disgustingweebtrash]

Absolutely.