
Julian Assange's Barrister speaks out - jedwhite
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/swedens-justice-system-may-become-a-laughing-stock-over-the-rape-charges-against-wikileaks-figurehead-julian-assange/story-e6freon6-1225965652205
======
btilly
From what I've read about this elsewhere, Julian seems to be a bit of a slut.
But there is a _lot_ less meat than "rape allegations" would seem to imply.
Furthermore the whole thing seems to be politically motivated.

Somehow I'm very much not surprised.

Incidentally I prefer the version at
[http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/sex-by-surprise-at-
hear...](http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/sex-by-surprise-at-heart-of-
julian-assange-criminal-probe/19741444) because it has more detail about the
whole sordid affair.

------
jayzee
Are there similar articles written discussing the rape allegations in the US
press? I seem to have missed them...

~~~
vukk
Yes [http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/sex-by-surprise-at-
hear...](http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/sex-by-surprise-at-heart-of-
julian-assange-criminal-probe/19741444)

------
DanielBMarkham
Ok. I have officially heard enough about Julian Assange.

Unless there is considerably new information on this story -- charges filed,
some new tech angle, unforeseen reaction to the leaks -- I am flagging any new
posts I see.

I don't flag much at all, I have a very high threshold, but this is really
pushing the limits. At the very least let's agree that there are good people
on both sides of this issue. Some folks think Assange is a criminal. Others
don't.

It's fair to say that postings going on about possible sinister plots,
political action recommendations, and ways to get back at whomever opposes
wikileaks doesn't help me form a better startup, doesn't inform me on startup
or hacker-related issues, and can only serve to keep alive a constant
bickering argument. That's not why I'm here. I just can't see all of these
postings as anything more than emotional appeals to light the torches and go
storm the castle. Great political fodder, perhaps, but some of us like Dr.
Frankenstein and don't want the castle stormed.

So to all of you who are out there wanting to make a difference and change the
world, I feel your pain. Go organize, protest, and plot somewhere else please.
Godspeed.

~~~
forza
"I am flagging any new posts I see"

I agree with you that this particular story is somewhat inappropriate. The
Swedish prosecution obviously have done a terrible job, but "who did what and
when" is pure gossip.

On the other hand this is the one of the biggest technology related stories of
the year. Of the Swedish cables only 1% have been released publicly and
newspapers have been running "front page" stories about the leaks for a week
[1]. A majority of which is about the actual content of the leaks and not
meta. Swedish national television also ran a program about the content of the
leaks earlier tonight. I would imagine it's the same in many other countries.
In short: This story is huge.

What I don't get is why you have to post so many comments on a subject you
don't like or are interested in. You've been here long enough to know that
this is a community driven site and the posting guidelines are very loose.
Sometimes events like this creates a snowballing of votes. You yourself posted
a political story about the TSA just weeks ago for instance. I personally not
very interested or affected by the whole TSA deal. But guess what, I just
ignore those stories and read the other ones instead. Because if everyone
would start commenting on stories they didn't like or didn't feel was suited
for HN, almost every story would feature that kind of complaint.

So if you feel it's truly inappropriate for HN then flag it. If you disagree,
are not interested or feel you have read to many similar stories; then just
ignore it and maybe someone will return the favor when something you are
interested in goes into a vote "snowball".

[1] Biggest newspapers: <http://www.svd.se/> <http://www.dn.se/>
<http://aftonbladet.se/> <http://www.expressen.se/>

~~~
DanielBMarkham
_What I don't get is why you have to post so many comments on a subject you
don't like or are interested in._

I'm not going to play the game where you start questioning me personally, then
the whole conversation becomes about me. Let's agree that we don't need to go
there. If you'd like answers to your question, I'm more than happy to provide
them offline.

I think we actually agree. This IS the biggest tech story of the year, perhaps
the decade. I'm just asking folks to do a bit of self-censorship and cut back
on the activism and gossip posts. Like I said, if something truly breaks, I'm
all for posting and discussing it. But stuff like "take your PayPal business
elsewhere!" and "Wikileaks lawyers watched!" and others have this breathless
quality that's just a bit over the top. The only thing it invites -- the only
purpose it has that I can see -- is a bunch of guys to pile on with "hell
yeah!" posts and comments.

You guys want to keep posting them, I'll keep responding and flagging. Fair
enough. I just wanted to explain myself, because in the several years I've
been on here, I've probably flagged less than 20 stories. I hate flagging.

------
Mrdev4
Seems HN has turned into TMZ.

~~~
jedwhite
Hardly, this story is about the means by which established institutions and
government agencies will stretch the law to try to thwart the impact of
technological change. This is not about sex. It's about the disintermediation
of the traditional media and irreversible transparency of government and the
exposure of truth being enabled by distributed technology. Every hacker should
care deeply about what is happening to this particular hacker, and the
manipulative techniques being used to smash the technologically-driven freedom
of speech impact that the organization for which he has become a
personification represents.

~~~
sigzero
Or the charges could be totally right...and he is a douche.

~~~
jedwhite
He may well be a douche, or a bit creepy or strange, or any of the other
accusations smeared on him. But the point is that he isn't being pursued
because he's a douche. He's being pursued because of his involvement in
wikileaks and the technological disruption it represents. There is a deep
nexus between the changes being enabled by technology and issues of personal
liberty. That's why hackers on here care about technology and transparency -
whether it's the transparency of your body through a backscatter imaging
device, or the transparency of governments through wikileaks. Hackers are at
the vanguard of the changes in technology and freedom. And they care about the
liberty of their fellow citizens and democratic institutions. Technology holds
both the greatest threat to and the greatest promise for liberty and
democracy. How we handle it will determine if it's Big Brother keeping an eye
on the people, or the people keeping an eye on Big Brother.

~~~
jedwhite
PS all of this is not to say there aren't plenty of legitimate criticisms of
what wikileaks is doing. Clearly there is some stuff on there that does need
discretion if it's genuinely endangering lives and there are parts that should
be redacted for the public interest. But the coverage from The New York Times
and other traditional media as well as across the web shows there is genuine
public interest and public good served in exposure of where there is wrong
doing. There is clearly scope for sensible discourse about it. But I don't
believe in government assassination hit-lists or smear campaigns and trumped
up sex crime charges as a replacement for honest discourse over matters of
genuine and valid fourth estate purview.

