1y ago

‘You can expect everything’: what next for Julian Assange and WikiLeaks?

www.theguardian.com

As Julian Assange enjoys his first weekend of freedom in years, there appeared to be no question in the mind of his wife, Stella, about what the family’s priorities were.

The WikiLeaks co-founder would need time to recover, she told reporters after they were reunited in his native Australia, after a deal with US authorities that allowed him to plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified defence documents.

What comes after that is one of the most intriguing questions for anyone familiar with how the site he founded in 2006 utterly changed the nature of whistleblowing. Will it return to its original mission?

James Harkin, the director of the London-based Centre for Investigative Journalism, (said) “In retrospect, it’s striking that everything WikiLeaks published was true – no small feat in the era of “disinformation” – but the tragedy is that much of its energy and ethos has now passed to blowhards and conspiracy theorists. Perhaps, in the light of our tepid new involvements in the Middle East and Ukraine, we need a new WikiLeaks.”

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I am not in any way going to defend what was done to Julian Assange, because it was abhorrent.
But, based on what he's done in the past, I'm guessing 'everything' will be far more Biden-focused than Trump-focused.
- It is fair to remember, however, that his biggest bombshells were from the Iraq war, which was a decidedly Republican endeavor. But I do agree that he looked more and more like a Russian asset as time went on.
  
  Those bombshells didn't end the war.
  His leak during the 2016 election changed the course of American history, and was directly coordinated with Russia. That was far more impactful.
- If I had dirt on someone that speculated about drone killing me, I would have no problem releasing that dirt. WikiLeaks has never had to retract a story or cables because of bad information, even the DNC couldn't refute the authenticity of the DNC cables.
  
  Except, as you would see in the link I pasted, Wikileaks turned down leaks on the Russian government but smeared Hillary.
  "America treated Assange badly" is not an excuse there. You can't claim it was just hating the U.S. and do you really think that's how Wikileaks should operate?
- The man has every reason to hate the USA. Helping getting Trump to power would surely be some sweet revenge, since another Trump presidency will be undoubtely be divisive and harmful
  
  That really is not an excuse for his relationship with Russia.
  https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/17/wikileaks-turned-down-leaks-on-russian-government-during-u-s-presidential-campaign/
  It sounds a lot less like it would be revenge a lot more like it would be marching orders he would be happy to comply with.
I just expect he'll do whatever Papa Putin tells him to do. That or rape someone again.
- Careful, some tankies are going to wail about torturous prison experience he went through while having to simultaneously ignore the emaciated Ukrainian POWs
  
  They've already started up the rape apologetics.
I don’t understand why Julian Assange gets any credit for Trump’s defeat of Hillary Clinton, because that should clearly go towards the mainstream media.
So much ink was wasted by the press over Hillary’s nothingburger email scandal. I think it’s something like 50 headlines in the New York Times over a single month?
Not to mention James Coney’s part to play, basically he hates Hillary Clinton so just took any opportunity to sink her election chances. He holds much more blame for Trump’s election than Julian Assange.
I wonder why, out of all the journalists who could be blamed for Trump, Assange gets so much more hate? I suspect a lot of it is because there’s already so much anti Assange propaganda because he damaged the hegemonic interests of the US.
- Liberals are unable to cope with their awfulness so their only retort is to blame anyone to the left of them.
So he's still going to be a Russian asset then
Edit: Downvote me all you want, it's not going to change the fact that he was a Russian asset whose statements and actions benefited Russia. You can dislike what was done to him without overlooking the facts of the matter.
The Russian SVR hacked both the DNC and RNC. Russia chose to release only the DNC files, to damage Hillary and support Trump. This is established fact per detailed indictments based on a mountain of technical evidence.
So just because what they released was authentic documents does NOT mean they're some sort of impartial source as they claim here. Julian Assange is and was a Russian asset, he contributed greatly to the damage of American democracy brought on by Trump, and I hope he rots in prison right next to Trump himself and every other traitor and foreign intelligence asset who supports him.
He's an Australian hero and all of you salty yanks can get fucked, you persecuted him for exposing your government and he's finally free.
- It takes surprisingly little for people who claim to support journalists to turn around and hate on a journalist for exposing corruption. The "national security" angle never seems to fail.
  
  Might have to do with him interfering with an election because Russia told him to.
- Enjoy your shitstain. He is your problem now.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The WikiLeaks co-founder would need time to recover, she told reporters after they were reunited in his native Australia, after a deal with US authorities that allowed him to plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified defence documents.
While it remains online – and would-be whistleblowers can theoretically use it to pass on secrets – to all intents and purposes the organisation around it has been repurposed in recent years to campaign for Assange’s freedom.
Assange himself told the Nation magazine in an interview inside Belmarsh prison, London, that it had not been possible to publish leaks due to his imprisonment, surveillance by the US government and funding restrictions.
The kind of cross-border, collaborative investigations into huge tranches of documents that WikiLeaks pioneered and its use of anonymous electronic information drops are now de rigueur – to a large extent passé.”
“In retrospect, it’s striking that everything WikiLeaks published was true – no small feat in the era of “disinformation” – but the tragedy is that much of its energy and ethos has now passed to blowhards and conspiracy theorists.
Before entering the Ecuadorian embassy, he had started hosting interview shows for RT, the Russian state media outlet, in a move that was relatively easier to defend at the time but which now takes on a different hue since the outbreak of the Ukraine war.
The original article contains 847 words, the summary contains 232 words. Saved 73%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Ah, celebrating the freedom of a rapist who escaped charges by playing on his fame.
Fucking wild.
- I don’t believe he was convicted of anything as the accusers recanted….
  https://medium.com/@njmelzer/response-to-open-letter-of-1-july-2019-7222083dafc8
  
  He wasn't convicted of anything because he fled the fucking country before a trial could be held, and one of the women involved explicitly contradicts and condemns Melzer's attempt at exonerating Assange
  The charges were eventually dropped due to the time passed, not because the victims 'recanted'.
- Fake rape charges dropped by the person claiming it happened.
  
  It's insane the lies people will tell to defend a rapist. I don't know why so many people are just fucking alright with rape if it's 'their guy' doing it.
  The rape charges literally were not dropped by the person claiming it happened, but any lie is acceptable to defend a rapist, it would seem.
  
  A proud moment for the leftwing everywhere. Downplaying rape to defend a russian spy.
I expect this ass to go to prison soon

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