
Getting Julian Assange: The Untold Story - andy_ppp
http://johnpilger.com/articles/getting-julian-assange-the-untold-story
======
lhnz
This is an illuminating article but unfortunately I think the CIA's campaign
to smear and discredit Julian Assange has been highly successful on HN and
elsewhere. Many people already disliked him for his libertarian ideology and
saw his willingness to be a figurehead for Wikileaks as arrogance. Also, a lot
of people saw Wikileaks release of documents and their opinion journalism
during elections as giving an unfair advantage to Trump.

    
    
      > One of the SMS messages makes clear that one of the
      > women did not want any charges brought against Assange,
      > "but the police were keen on getting a hold on him".
      > She was "shocked" when they arrested him because she
      > only "wanted him to take [an HIV] test". She "did not 
      > want to accuse JA of anything" and "it was the police
      > who made up the charges". In a witness statement, she 
      > is quoted as saying that she had been "railroaded by
      > police and others around her".
    

This is utterly crazy. How is this not seen as wrongdoing by the police?

    
    
      > It is not over, but it is unravelling. The United
      > Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention - the
      > tribunal that adjudicates and decides whether
      > governments comply with their human rights obligations
      > - last year ruled that Assange had been detained 
      > unlawfully by Britain and Sweden. This is international
      > law at its apex.
    

Do powerful governments have to listen to the UN though?

~~~
youngtaff
Assange has done enough to discredit himself…

Look at how partisan WikiLeaks is - look at the countries that it doesn't
publish information on, look at the candidates it doesn't try to discredit

Listen to others who were a key part of Wikileaks talk about Assange's
behaviour towards others, look at the comments that his sexual behaviour was
going to get him into trouble long before this case blew up.

The CIA may have been after him but ultimately he discredited himself

~~~
lhnz
You shouldn't imprison someone for incorrect political opinions and
unsubstantiated gossip about non-criminal bad behaviour.

In any case, I think you're wrong that WikiLeaks doesn't publish information
on certain countries [0]. And, I agree that they do have political opinions
however it's impossible to avoid this: if you don't think something is
political, it's because you share its politics.

[0]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5n58sm/i_am_julian_as...](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5n58sm/i_am_julian_assange_founder_of_wikileaks_ask_me/dcamzf6/)

------
harry8
Just keep in mind whether you like Mr Assange's manner and or politics or
quite the opposite that his rights are your rights. Support the destruction of
his right by all means just be sure you know they'll be gone for you. Both
directly, when you need them and indirectly, when someone exposing crime
affecting your family needs them. Is it a price you can afford to pay? It's
not a one time payment.

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f_allwein
Makes several sweeping claims that I have not heard before (case against
Assange was corrupt, Hilary Clinton supports ISIS). Would be more convincing
if he would support these by evidence from neutral, trustworthy sources.

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jokoon
I wonder if Trump could just manage to find a way to get him by force, meaning
enter in the embassy with armed guys and capture him, at the cost of a
diplomatic incident, as long as there is no loss of life.

I mean that's exactly the kind of thing I would expect from Trump. I don't
know if it is technically possible, and if he would find people to do it.

~~~
adekok
Let's remove "Trump" from the equation.

You're wondering if one country could invade a second country, for the
purposes of invading a third countries embassy.

While that's physically possible, the international ramifications would be
immense. It's one thing to bomb weddings in Yemen. It's an entirely different
prospect to violate diplomatic immunity on an allies soil.

------
magicbuzz
Nothing in this comment to justify it being downvoted.

~~~
dang
That comment ended by being heavily upvoted. Please don't break the HN
guidelines by taking threads in this inevitably tedious and offtopic
direction.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14386533](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14386533)
and marked it off-topic.

