Stella Assange speaking to the Luxembourg Parliament on the persecution of Julian Assange

  • fishos@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I always love that people go on and on about “he shared government secrets!” and always convientantly leave out that those “secrets” included that we were “double tapping” targets and killing aid workers and reporters arriving on the scene after the first strike. Or the video of the Apache gunning down a reporter and laughing about it.

    But Julian is the evil one. Right…

    • SLfgb@feddit.nlOP
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      9 months ago

      A young and talented photo-journalist, Namir Noor-Eldeen, and his driver, Saeed Chmagh, both Reuters employees, were gunned down by a US Apache on 12 July 2007 in the Al-Amin neighbourhood of eastern Baghdad, along with a number of other people on the street. Saeed was wounded and tried to crawl away, only to be shot dead along with the passer-by who stopped his van to help him. Two children in the vehicle were severely wounded. WikiLeaks revealed what really happened that day when they published the Apache footage in 2010 under the name of Collateral Murder, along with the Rules of Engagement in use at the time. Julian is charged with publishing the Iraq RoE (count 14) but not the video. This means the video won’t be shown in court as evidence. It would presumably be too embarassing to the US government to show the footage in court.

      • fishos@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Please keep posting this stuff. I haven’t seen the video in years, but I can still clearly remember it. We need to not let the world forget about the atrocities committed and stop turning the issue into something else. The entire Assange saga has all been over someone embarrassing us and not about the crimes we happily committed. It’s crazy that we pay more attention to him than WAR CRIMES(oh right, it’s not an official “war” 🙄…)

      • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        That’s tragic but it doesn’t excuse what he did. The us was wrong to do that. Julian is a criminal as well for what he did. Exposing USA crimes does not absolve Julian of his own crimes.

  • SLfgb@feddit.nlOP
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    9 months ago

    Remember Julian Assange is in a high security prison without conviction awaiting extradition to the US where the conditions he will be incarcerated in will be even worse. He will be burried in the prison with no contact to his friends or family while being tried in the ‘espionage court’ where he is charged. The long-term threat of these conditions have amounted to psychological torture, resulting in a medical state that could end his life at any moment. Julian is literally hanging by a thread. His limited contact with his wife and 2 young children are literally his life line. He won’t have that in US prison. This is a matter of life and death. Torturers torture to intimidate. In Julian’s case it is to intimidate everyone else and in particular the press, so they won’t do what he did and expose serious state criminality to the world. The purpose is to avoid accountability and avoid facing justice.

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Huh? You think Julian Assange is Putin’s buddy?

      • MataVatnik@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        His editorial policy on the release of leaked information was, for lack of a better term, biased.

        • selokichtli@lemmy.ml
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          9 months ago

          Editorial policy is a blatant excuse. Have you scrutinized Fox News, CNN, DW and RT editorial policies? Want them tortured to death too? Nah, that’s just the USA state giving us a lesson to keep our heads down, nothing more, nothing less.

          • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            We want them all held responsible. That some aren’t isn’t a reason none should be. We have to start somewhere. We shouldn’t stop there.

            • selokichtli@lemmy.ml
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              9 months ago

              Use the right words, to “held him responsible” means to potentially murder him in the name of democracy. Add to this that the USA state is not going after all these people, nevertheless, they are crossing borders for Assange. They want to show him to the world as an example. Their efforts resemble those they took to get to Osama.

              • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                First. No realistically it doesn’t. Second, they should. I never said they shouldn’t. Specifically I said they should hold them all responsible. So I don’t know what you’re getting at. You’re not even addressing what I said.

          • Peaty@sh.itjust.works
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            9 months ago

            Are those organizations accused of directly being involved on an individual level in hacks against the USA? Because the allegations against Assange are that he directly was involved in the hack.

            • selokichtli@lemmy.ml
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              9 months ago

              You are missing the point. I’m not using the editorial bias as an excuse to put the man in a death row.

              • Peaty@sh.itjust.works
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                9 months ago

                "The superseding indictment alleges that Assange was complicit with Chelsea Manning, a former intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army, in unlawfully obtaining and disclosing classified documents related to the national defense. Specifically, the superseding indictment alleges that Assange conspired with Manning; obtained from Manning and aided and abetted her in obtaining classified information with reason to believe that the information was to be used to the injury of the United States or the advantage of a foreign nation; received and attempted to receive classified information having reason to believe that such materials would be obtained, taken, made, and disposed of by a person contrary to law; and aided and abetted Manning in communicating classified documents to Assange. "

                https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-charged-18-count-superseding-indictment

                Sounds like this is exactly what he is charged with.

                • SLfgb@feddit.nlOP
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                  9 months ago

                  Doesn’t sound like a hack at all. Sounds like they’re saying she gave him docs.

        • fishos@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          And who exactly do you expect to talk about the crimes the US commits? Their allies? Just because the information comes from a biased source doesn’t change the fact that all of the information is accurate. Doesn’t change the extrajudicial killings, illegal detentions, torture…

          Like, I’ll give you that he is biased. So what? Are you proud of the things he revealed the US is doing? We commit crimes and then hide behind “national security” when the only “security” being threatened is that of those on top commiting these henious acts and hoping to get away with it.

          The source doesn’t change the facts that were presented.

        • SLfgb@feddit.nlOP
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          9 months ago

          Do you have a copy of his editorial policy? I’d like to read it.

            • SLfgb@feddit.nlOP
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              9 months ago

              yea those large troves of archives sure do look cherry picked… (not) In any case, even if you’re right, editorial bias is not a crime. Every major (and minor) news outlet has editorial bias.

                • SLfgb@feddit.nlOP
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                  9 months ago

                  So an organisation (WikiLeaks) that collects primary documents from anonymous inside sources whose identity it protects, verifies the authenticity of the documents, analyses them, collaborates with major news outlets around the world in publishing them for maximum journalistic impact, is what, “not a news outlet”, just a “site”? Please.

                  The fact is, if not for WikiLeaks, Chelsea Manning would likely not have released those documents because every news outlet she contacted first had no secure communication and didn’t take her calls seriously. It was the secure dropbox WikiLeak pioneered that revolutionised journalism. Many of the legacy media have since adopted similar tech.

                  Julian has won numerous journalism awards. His publications helped end the Iraq war and enabled torture victims to get justice.

                  “The aim is justice, the method is transparancy.” - Julian Assange

            • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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              9 months ago

              TL;DL? At least, a little bit more detail, ie what they did and what they claimed the policy was.

              • MataVatnik@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                Essentially their policy of leaking everything and anything tended to mostly apply to the US and allies of the US. This would then expose collaborators in places like Belarus and place their lives in danger. Wikileaks would say this was in the name of transparency. However in cases where they were dealing with information being leaked from Russia they would be more careful to editorialize the leaks and protect identities.

                Then, aside from that, Assange partook in activities that completely deviated from journalistic protocol and entered the territory of espionage. In particular dealing with the case of chealsea manning, in her communications with Assange, Assange actively aided Chelsea in ways to access restricted information in a way that broke the law. Russian asset or not, that’s a big nono.

                • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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                  9 months ago

                  Manning’s account should reasonably be called into question, not least because she refused to testify against Assange in 2019 (and was subsequently jailed for 10 months and fined a quarter million).

                  WikiLeaks’ audience has always been primarily English-speaking, as such their focus is going to be on news related to English-speaking countries. While you’re drawing a difference between two different countries, that could just as easily be explained by a difference in time - people criticised them for their releases in Belarus as being careless and putting lives at risk, so with their later releases around Russia they were more careful.

                  I just feel like you never would have this impression if you’d just read WikiLeaks’ publications, press releases and social media posts, as well as any other sources on the topics they cover, rather than reading articles about WikiLeaks itself. You would only think WikiLeaks is pro-Russia if you follow a pre-constructed narrative and frame the evidence in a particular way. It’s very murky overall, but I don’t think that viewpoint lines up objectively.

        • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          Just like you know billionaires’ wealth will trickle down to you eventually? Both ideas came from the same source.

        • SLfgb@feddit.nlOP
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          9 months ago

          Did Vladimir come visit his buddy Julian in the embassy then? Hang on I’ve gotta look up those visitor logs UC Global kept.

          • chaogomu@kbin.social
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            9 months ago

            Is everyone forgetting how Assange had a TV show on RT, the Russian state propaganda network?

            And how every single leak about Russia was either heavily redacted, or just not released, when leaks about the US or US allies were not? Even when some of those US ally leaks put people in danger?

            Wikileaks showed clear favoritism to Russia, because Russia was footing the bills.

                • SLfgb@feddit.nlOP
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                  9 months ago

                  Yes, his independent show was licensed to air on RT, what’s your point. It was also hosted by Youtube, a US military contractor.

      • Peaty@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        Right after they moved servers to Russia he started echoing Kremlin talking points. He’s likely an asset at this point.

  • SLfgb@feddit.nlOP
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    9 months ago

    Remember: the indictment of Julian relates to 2010-2011 publications only: the Afghanistan War Logs, Iraq War Logs, Diplomatic Cables, Guantanamo Bay Detainee Briefs. The charges have nothing to do with the 2016 release of Podesta/Clinton’s emails, or with Russia.

  • DLSchichtl@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    He helped Russia and the Republicans trash our democracy. Idc how much good he’s done, he’s dead to me. Now me and mine are target numero uno, thanks to them getting the Turd Reich elected. So fuck Assange. May he forever be in the crosshairs he put us in.