
Assange arrested in London (BBC) - ebaysucks
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11937110
======
Sharlin
In other, rather ironic, news, two Irishmen brutally assaulted a Swedish
citizen on a ferryboat from Sweden to Finland. They were taken into custody on
arrival in Finland, but were later released because the crime occurred on
Swedish waters. The men subsequently returned to Ireland.

The Swedish police decided to drop the case irrespective of ample CCTV
evidence and both men having pleaded guilty. Quoting prosecutor Thomas Holst:
"Were we to try to get everyone suspected of a less serious crime extradited,
we would have to work around the clock."

~~~
etherael
Citation?

~~~
Sharlin
<http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article8031457.ab> (In Swedish)

------
bobds
Use the Guardian thread, it has the most comments.

Guardian <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978645>

MSNBC <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978690>

BBC <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978651>

TheNextWeb <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978656>

Sky <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978613>

CNN <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978636>

NY Times <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978692>

~~~
jeroen
Not anymore. This thread now has more comments.

~~~
ghostDancer
With Assange in the courtroom: <http://twitter.com/#!/newsbrooke>

------
Jamiecon
Am I just cynical, or does anyone else get the overall impression that this is
a bunch of geeks running around fantasising that they're in 'The Matrix' or
something. And doing it thanks to the efforts of a single confused 22 year old
(Manning), who is now screwed.

Some of the material I've read so far is interesting. Very little surprises
me. None shocks me.

There is no technological achievement here, either in the original leak, or
the distribution of the material. If anything, I get the impression that
Wikileaks is fairly inept.

I'm not really against the leak - I've enjoyed reading the material. One of
the things (genuinely) that I've found fascinating is the quality of the
writing - I wish some of the people I work with could write as well.

Irritating people do get to me though, and I'm beginning to lump Assange in
with Jimmy Wales. Wikipedia, and Wikileaks both have larger than life,
seemingly egocentric figureheads. Both services depend heavily on the efforts
and religious-level fervour of other people who often do things for free or
near-free.

Weird? I mean, if I ran a web site that distributed material which might get a
governmental back up, I would probably keep a low profile.

Looking forward to some robust comments on my thoughts!

~~~
getsat
Assange is 39, not 22 (though, admittedly, he does not look his age).

Assange explains why he is a figurehead in his Q&A session with CNN:
[http://articles.cnn.com/2010-12-03/world/wikileaks.assange.q...](http://articles.cnn.com/2010-12-03/world/wikileaks.assange.qanda_1_julian-
assange-bradley-manning-wikileaks)

~~~
dagw
I find it telling that the one actually interesting and critical question from
an actual diplomat, about to what extent he feels his leaks are undermining
the diplomatic process, is the one question he refuses to answer.

~~~
ebaysucks
Given that Assange wants to bring down secretive government, it's pretty
obvious he wants to undermine diplomacy.

~~~
dagw
If that was the case, then why doesn't he have balls to admit it?

~~~
steveklabnik
When hasn't he?

~~~
dagw
In the CNN interview that was linked to above.

------
bobds
Assange willingly showed up at a police station and was arrested by
appointment. He probably has a plan.

~~~
msy
I think the plan is fairly simple: to clear his name by showing these absurd
trumped-up charges for what they are, the machiavellian machinations of the US
via a disturbingly compliant Swedish legal system.

~~~
bobds
I read a good article on why the charges against Assange are absurd:
<http://rixstep.com/1/20101001,01.shtml>

And a more recent follow up: <http://rixstep.com/1/20101202,01.shtml>

~~~
alextgordon
Is there a better source? I'm not sure I'm inclined to believe anything
rixstep says.

~~~
bobds
I'm not inclined to believe anything regarding Wikileaks or Assange. I'm sure
more than a few people have seen those tweets and some Twitter
crawlers/indexers have them stored somewhere. We'll see how it plays out, no
need to speculate at this point.

------
tung
Despite my low level of contribution to this site, I must say I'm tired of
seeing WikiLeaks/Assange on the Hacker News front page. Granted, all this may
be newsworthy, but going by the Hacker News Guidelines, it feels more "Off-
Topic" than on, in that it's about politics and would be covered on TV news,
like the TSA submissions a while ago.

~~~
garply
I don't think this story is off-topic. Most of us are interested in how
technology is changing the world around us. That means something on-topic can
be about how new technology is affecting medical practice (for example,
potential advances against tooth decay) or about how it is affecting politics
(in this case, increasing governmental vulnerability to widespread
dissemination of secret information).

~~~
tung
It looks like more people agree with you than me, so I'll take the opportunity
to at least explain my point of view.

I come to Hacker News to see people talk about technology, innovation, trends,
start-ups and tiny projects that pop up that do things that seem so obvious in
hind-sight, but are in fact really clever. This recent news about WikiLeaks
and Assange I feel don't really fit in any of these categories.

The Hacker News Guidelines [1] may be open to interpretation, but it does
explicitly state:

> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics

and

> If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

There is a bit after the first quote that states "unless they're evidence of
some interesting new phenomenon," which I suppose is where we disagree.
Nonetheless, if you and others feel it fits here, I'll respect your opinions.

[1] <http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

~~~
jacquesm
You mean as opposed to say mountain climbing, dietary habits or aspirin ?

I don't see you complaining about things being 'off topic' in those threads.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Come off it, you expect him to comment in every thread that he believes is
off-topic?

This sort of argument should have a name (I'm sure it does) - "but gov, you
didn't complain last time I cleaned your windows badly".

~~~
jacquesm
No, it's just that those are _far_ more off-topic than this one.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Off-topic is largely subjective though and there were about a million
submitted posts on the same topic. One post can be ignored, multiple posts on
the same topic that one finds off-topic probably warrants a comment.

Oh and one more thing: topic, topic, topic topic.

------
InclinedPlane
Why this is important:

The world is changing, the definition of "journalist" is changing. In a
different time such leaks would have come from a spirited and lively free
press, but today our traditional forms of journalism (newpapers, radio, tv)
are utterly mainstream, moribund, and very much part of the establishment.
Wikileaks throws the new order into sharp contrast and raises questions about
what is journalism, what legal protections journalism deserves, etc. Some of
these questions _had_ been answered (especially in the US) but the question
now is to what degree and in what way do those decisions carry over to the
brave new world of the internet.

The worst case scenario is that courts, the public, etc. decide to keep an
antiquated cargo cult definition of journalism, restricted to newspapermen and
television reporters. The danger there is that the flourishing of journalism
on the internet in unfamiliar forms will lack the protections (legal and
societal) that traditional journalism has had.

This is all the more sensational because Assange and wikileaks have become the
poster boy / touchstone for these issues. This is troubling to me because
wikileaks is not the best archetype for nouveau journalism. Firstly he has a
very significant political ax to grind (though he has not been grinding it as
sharply as in the past such as with "Collateral Murder"). Secondly the
revelations that have come from wikileaks have tended to be comparatively
minor, especially when judged against the cost of obtaining the leaked
information. This sets him up as the perfect target for governments and
traditionalists to tar and feather him and use him as an archetypal example of
why new media is not journalism and does not deserve the same protections as
traditional journalism.

------
lhnz
<http://rixstep.com/1/20101202,01.shtml>

Is this correct?

~~~
jacquesm
It's a dubious source but it raises interesting points for independent
verification.

Someone in the mainstream media (one of those investigative journalists that
they have so many of there) should dig in and find out.

------
dgudkov
This can be better for him in terms of his safety now. Hope everything will
end safely for Assange.

------
bourdine
Sad. I really wanted to see the promised documents about UFOs. In my opinion,
it would raise much more noise in the society.

~~~
getsat
If you have the "insurance" file, you likely already have them on your
computer.

Why would Julian's arrest/conviction/disappearance affect whether or not you
see the documents? He has nothing to do with the leaking effort.

<http://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/12163859271917568>

------
ashutoshm
Under the spreading chestnut tree I sold you and you sold me There lie they,
and here lie we Under the spreading chestnut tree

------
nhangen
I'm enthralled by the world's obsession with this man. Sure, I get that some
people like that he plays reluctant hero up against the "evil" US, but come
on. The guy is charged with sexual assault. If there's any chance he did it,
then he should go to trial. Why would we treat him any differently than other
criminals?

If there was no misconduct, then we will find out, and the charges will be
dropped.

~~~
mike-cardwell
I keep reading that the sex was consensual and that it's the fact he didn't
use protection that made it a crime. I don't really understand how this can be
the case though, but it seems to be all over the place if you google it.
Sweden must have a very strange law.

~~~
nhangen
I scoured the web and read a bit about the case. It seems that one of the
"victims" isn't complaining, though the 2nd is.

I'm not going to play PI, but it seems to me that if a woman is that upset
after sex, then something went wrong. Maybe he refused to spoon.

~~~
mike-cardwell
Whatever it was, it doesn't sound like anything which could be classified as
an assault, sexual or otherwise.

~~~
nhangen
Isn't that what the trial is supposed to find out? I don't know a lot about
the UK justice system, but I imagine they wouldn't issue a warrant without
something to bring to the trial.

------
jyoti00
yawn...

