Julian Assange Could Be Turned Over To U.K. Authorities Soon

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Although the US empire is in decline, it is nice to know that the UK is still a vassal state.

What empire?

The first rule of the US empire is you do not talk about the US empire.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

WikiLeaks’ Assange arrested in London, accused by U.S. of conspiring in 2010 computer hacking attempt

London’s Metropolitan Police, who took Assange into custody after Ecuador rescinded his asylum, said that the 47-year-old was “arrested on behalf of the United States.” British authorities originally sought custody of Assange for jumping bail after Sweden requested his extradition in a separate case stemming from sexual assault allegations. The U.S. indictment was unsealed hours after Assange’s arrest.

Arrested on behalf of the United States.

 

[bilby]

WikiLeaks’ Assange arrested in London, accused by U.S. of conspiring in 2010 computer hacking attempt

London’s Metropolitan Police, who took Assange into custody after Ecuador rescinded his asylum, said that the 47-year-old was “arrested on behalf of the United States.” British authorities originally sought custody of Assange for jumping bail after Sweden requested his extradition in a separate case stemming from sexual assault allegations. The U.S. indictment was unsealed hours after Assange’s arrest.

Arrested on behalf of the United States.

I am quite surprised to discover that you were not previously aware that many countries have extradition treaties, whereby they arrest people who are wanted in another country, on behalf of that country's authorities.

The UK has had an extradition treaty with the USA since the 1870s, and have arrested a number of people wanted in the US since that time. Arrestees are entitled to a hearing in a UK court before extradition, with the authorities having to show probable cause, but not guilt - the question of guilt is then decided by the courts in the US.

There's nothing unusual or abnormally sinister about the Metropolitan Police arresting someone on behalf of a foreign power with whom the UK has an extradition treaty, and your apparent desire to make this routine sound nefarious or suspicious is just bizarre.

 

[Axulus]

Unsealed docs reveal new details on US case against Assange:

The U.S. is alleging that Assange sought to help Manning crack a password in order to access a Defense Department network where classified information was stored. They point to chat logs allegedly documenting communication between the two individuals as evidence of the conspiracy.

The affidavit released Monday states that U.S. authorities were able to identify Assange as the person Manning was communicating with through hints he dropped during the chats.

https://thehill.com/policy/cybersec...cs-reveal-new-details-in-case-against-assange

What is the objection to the US's allegation here and the eventual request to extradite Assange? Is it that helping someone hack into defense department computer systems should not be a crime? Is it that you believe the US is producing fake evidence in a conspiracy to take down Assange? Or what?

Question for those who think Assange should not be arrested:

Should helping someone hack into a department of defense computer system be a crime, or should it be legal?

 

[Axulus]

They are saying Assange attempted to crack an encryption code for Manning. That would be conspiracy and espionage.

It is being said that while we have an extradiction trety with the Brits they are distustful of our justice sysm, and it is a high bar to extradite.

it is not a given.

I watched a bio on PBS. Apparently it goes back to when he was a teen and his mother had some medical or other problems. He hacked some systems.

It's your legal system they distrust.

You don't have a justice system, which is why they don't trust your legal system.

In this case, where does the distrust stem from?

-Are they alleging that the US is producing fake evidence to frame Assange?
-Is it that he will not get a fair trail despite having a team of lawyers at hand to defend himself?

It seems more like they like what he did so think any potential crimes he committed should be looked over.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

This is wrong. If you approve of punching Nazis, these are the Nazis that need to be punched. In the US it is a bi-partisan effort. Yes, bi-partisan. Saint Obama could have done something about it, instead he doubled-down on it. Trump is following the lead set by BushObama.

Pray and Weep - Chemical Torture

There is great evil being perpetrated by Washington D.C. here and around the world.

A persistent terrible hate for life, liberty and humanity arrived on little cat feet and has taken over our country. This did not begin with Trump, but sadly it also is not going to end with him either.

Trump promised to drain the swamp, implying change, transparency and accountability.

Instead he brought in neoconservative king-makers and warmongers, and allowed their influence to grow disproportionately, while his co-dependents in the other party facilitate the agenda of death.

The criminal pursuit and indictment of Wikileak founder, Julian Assange is the proof in the pudding. The 40 page criminal complaint contains a lot of detail but not much crime. In fact, the “crimes” are more like descriptions of how journalism is done in the information age, if it is true that the job of journalism is to tell the stories, name the names, and state the facts that governments don’t want told, named or stated.

In a normal world, none of this is worth much energy or attention. There is very little legally here to work with, and success so far on the part of the US Government has been solely via a reliable judge in the Eastern District Court of Virginia, and other people’s money and other people’s governments, beholden or paid by the US.

But in the world that exists today, we see these overblown aggressive tactics and we can feel the excitement, the goosebumps and the hot necks of the FBI and CIA suits as they make their bones.

(edited)

 

[ZiprHead]

"Journalists" help people break into government computer systems now?

I wonder what we might find if we sneak a peek into Jason's computer. Midget porn? German poo porn videos? Puppies? Seems to me that doing so is all A-OK with Libertarians now.

They are a strange bunch.

 

[Gun Nut]

This is wrong. If you approve of punching Nazis, these are the Nazis that need to be punched. In the US it is a bi-partisan effort. Yes, bi-partisan. Saint Obama could have done something about it, instead he doubled-down on it. Trump is following the lead set by BushObama.

Pray and Weep - Chemical Torture

Why do you believe this story?

Here is another one: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/07/uk/pamela-anderson-julian-assange-prison-gbr-intl/index.html

Pamela Anderson, close friend of Assange, had been visiting him in the embassy for many years... she recently visited him in prison, along with someone from Wikileaks close to Assange. Funny, they didn't mention anything about him being tortured. Main issue they have is that he is being subjected to isolation 23 hours a day, and is in a location that houses the most dangerous people in the country. Not that he looked sick... not that he said anything... not anything in that Russian wikileaks employee conspiracy story you quoted.

 

[Axulus]

This is wrong. If you approve of punching Nazis, these are the Nazis that need to be punched. In the US it is a bi-partisan effort. Yes, bi-partisan. Saint Obama could have done something about it, instead he doubled-down on it. Trump is following the lead set by BushObama.

Pray and Weep - Chemical Torture

There is great evil being perpetrated by Washington D.C. here and around the world.

A persistent terrible hate for life, liberty and humanity arrived on little cat feet and has taken over our country. This did not begin with Trump, but sadly it also is not going to end with him either.

Trump promised to drain the swamp, implying change, transparency and accountability.

Instead he brought in neoconservative king-makers and warmongers, and allowed their influence to grow disproportionately, while his co-dependents in the other party facilitate the agenda of death.

The criminal pursuit and indictment of Wikileak founder, Julian Assange is the proof in the pudding. The 40 page criminal complaint contains a lot of detail but not much crime. In fact, the “crimes” are more like descriptions of how journalism is done in the information age, if it is true that the job of journalism is to tell the stories, name the names, and state the facts that governments don’t want told, named or stated.

In a normal world, none of this is worth much energy or attention. There is very little legally here to work with, and success so far on the part of the US Government has been solely via a reliable judge in the Eastern District Court of Virginia, and other people’s money and other people’s governments, beholden or paid by the US.

But in the world that exists today, we see these overblown aggressive tactics and we can feel the excitement, the goosebumps and the hot necks of the FBI and CIA suits as they make their bones.

Chelsea Manning is back in prison, ordered back into solitary. She is not the person she was after years of torture, isolation and chemical interrogation. Ironically, her cognitive function as a result of her previous treatment is likely to render any future interrogation useless in court, legally and practically. She received the Jose Padilla treatment, albeit refined by some years of USG practice. Her resultant mental malleability may have produced the ideal Soviet Amerikan Woman.

The US appears to be a nation of laws, and yet, we absolutely are not. One of many lessons and perspectives we gain from the study of Julian Assange is just that. US political influence and debt-funded largesse resulted in Assange’s ejection from the Ecuadorian Embassy into the UK prison for terrorists in Belmarsh. US domestic corruption and misreading of the Constitution produced his indictment.

Furthermore, US government employees, from the DoD, FBI and the CIA have been interviewing Assange in Belmarsh Prison, prior to any extradition decision.

Interviewing is the wrong word. I’d like to say doctoring him, because it would be more accurate, except that word implies some care for a positive outcome. Chemical Gina has her hands in this one, and we are being told that Assange is being “treated” with 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, known as BZ. What BZ does, from the New Yorker:

“Exposed soldiers exhibited bizarre symptoms: rapid mumbling, or picking obsessively at bedclothes and other objects, real or imaginary. “…The drug’s effect lasted for days. At its peak, volunteers were totally cut off in their own minds, jolting from one fragmented existence to the next. They saw visions: Lilliputian baseball players competing on a tabletop diamond; animals or people or objects that materialized and vanished. ….

Soldiers on BZ could remember only fragments of the experience afterward. As the drug wore off, and the subjects had trouble discerning what was real, many experienced anxiety, aggression, even terror. Ketchum [Dr. James Ketchum, DoD Edgewood Arsenal, MD] built padded cells to prevent injuries, but at times the subjects couldn’t be contained. One escaped, running from imagined murderers. Another, on a drug similar to BZ, saw “bugs, worms, one snake, a monkey and numerous rats,” and thought his skin was covered in blood. “Subject broke a wooden chair and smashed a hole in the wall after tearing down a 4-by-7-ft panel of padding,” his chart noted. Ketchum and three assistants piled on top of the soldier to subdue him. “He was clearly terrified and convinced we were intending to kill him,” his chart said.

One night, Ketchum rushed into a padded room to reassure a young African-American volunteer wrestling with the ebbing effects of BZ. The soldier, agitated, found the air-conditioner gravely threatening. After calming him down, Ketchum sat beside him. Attempting to see if he could hold a conversation, Ketchum asked, “Why do they have taxes, income taxes, things like that?”

The soldier thought for a minute. “You see, that would be difficult for me to answer, because I don’t like rice,” he said.”

BZ is an interesting drug, certainly not the only one used by the US government, but one of them.

Why give it to Assange? What do they want from him? Is it truth they seek, or more information, or is this whole farce something more like obsessive retaliatory rage at feeling powerless, as the world laughed at US State department memorandums and became angry at the idiocy and hate demonstrated by US soldiers 15 years ago. Or maybe something more sinister – that they need Julian Assange psychologically and physically drawn and quartered because he revealed state corruption and weakness? Is it because to the state this is the war, the real war it always fights, a war with the rest of the population for its very survival? [urhttps://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/05/no_author/unaccountable-media-faced-with-dilemma-in-next-phase-of-deep-state-gate/]Or is Ray McGovern on to the real reason[/url] the deep state wants to destroy him?

It is difficult to know if the state is more sociopathic or more psychopathic. What US government employees and/or contractors are currently doing to Julian Assange, and those who may have used Wikileaks as a journalistic avenue, may indicate it is the latter. Torture, isolation, brutality, and the use of psychotropic drugs during interrogations and hiding this from the defendant’s own lawyers by denying them access — this is Lubyanka in the 1950s, not London and DC in 2019.

Allow me to get to the point. The latest word I have received from England is as follows:

“[Julian Assange] is presently under close observation in prison hospital because he has suffered ‘severe transient psychotic episodes.’ My source(s) indicate these episodes occurred after two sessions of coercive interrogation at the hands of UK and US officials. The source(s) stated the HUMINT interrogators used psychotropic drugs in the course of the sessions.”

There are no words. Nothing can be said. 2 plus 2 does equal 5. The FBI is our own special Cheka. The CIA Director’s hands are wet and her organization does not serve American values. Rather than choosing to stay secretive for national security, the modern CIA must stay secretive in order to survive, because it has become functionally illegal. Our president, who puts America first, is putting American values last, even as he tweets his concern for freedom of speech.

The agenda is to destroy Assange as a human being, and they may well succeed. In doing this evil deed, in all of our names, America herself – whether we put her first, last, or somewhere in the middle – will have dug her own grave.

Why does the article you posted dance around the main allegation against Assange? He is accused of helping Chelsea Manning hack into secure DoD data. Is this how "normal" journalism works, as the article claims? Do you think helping someone hack DoD data should not be a crime?

Also, Manning is refusing to cooperate in the investigation. Do you think it should be legal to refuse to cooperate in a criminal investigation even if you have key evidence to the investigation? Right now, only refusal for self incrimination is protected by the constitution.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

The main claim is that he was a journalist. He encouraged his source to give him more. That was once normal journalism, but isn't anymore. Helping someone hack a system? Get real.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The main claim is that he was a journalist. He encouraged his source to give him more. That was once normal journalism, but isn't anymore. Helping someone hack a system? Get real.

When you know they are obtaining the stuff illegally encouraging them to give you more is being part of the crime.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Okay then, Journalism is now a crime.

 

[ZiprHead]

Okay then, Journalism is now a crime.

That's not journalism.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Reporting what our government is doing isn't journalism. Exposing crimes by government actors isn't journalism.

 

[Worldtraveller]

Reporting what our government is doing isn't journalism. Exposing crimes by government actors isn't journalism.

Like most libertarians, you think complex issues are simple. There is a vast gray area that delineates whistle blowing from (illegal) spying and hacking. It's not remotely as simple as you see it.

If anything, Assange is the criminal, and Manning is the whistle blower.

 

[Gun Nut]

Okay then, Journalism is now a crime.

That is so incredibly narrow minded that I find it hard to believe you express it in earnest. Not that I am calling you a troll. no, never.

They enacted a speed limit on highways. Now driving is a crime
Collecting child pornography is illegal. Now photography is a crime
It's assault to swing a blunt weapon at someone. Now baseball is a crime
Bank Robbery will get you 10-20 years. Now having money is a crime.

How anyone can conflate this is beyond... everything.

- - - Updated - - -

Reporting what our government is doing isn't journalism. Exposing crimes by government actors isn't journalism.

So a journalist is able to kidnap politicians, tie them up and torture them nearly to death, until they spill all the beans... wow, I didn;t know that.

Dumbest shit I've discussed since the great debate over who would win in a fight.. Superman or Mighty Mouse.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Okay then, Journalism is now a crime.

That is so incredibly narrow minded that I find it hard to believe you express it in earnest. Not that I am calling you a troll. no, never.

They enacted a speed limit on highways. Now driving is a crime
Collecting child pornography is illegal. Now photography is a crime
It's assault to swing a blunt weapon at someone. Now baseball is a crime
Bank Robbery will get you 10-20 years. Now having money is a crime.

False analogy.

How anyone can conflate this is beyond... everything.

Reporting what our government is doing isn't journalism. Exposing crimes by government actors isn't journalism.

So a journalist is able to kidnap politicians, tie them up and torture them nearly to death, until they spill all the beans... wow, I didn;t know that.

Dumbest shit I've discussed since the great debate over who would win in a fight.. Superman or Mighty Mouse.

Assange did that? Well, that creates an entirely different aspect to the case. You better show your evidence to the major media and the government.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Reporting what our government is doing isn't journalism. Exposing crimes by government actors isn't journalism.

So the means don't matter? And you're assuming they are on target, if you permit illegal acts in the name of reporting you'll have lot of innocents be victims of such illegal acts.

 

[ZiprHead]

New charges for Assange. (Sorry, I can't copy a link on this crappy POS tablet)

The Bonespurs DOJ is charging Assange with espionage for publishing top secret materials. These laws have been on the books since the cold war. The Obama administration considered them to the unconstitutional.

Considering Trump's attitude about the US news media, the media is fearing this could have a very chilling effect on the media if this prosecution is successful.

 

[blastula]

Good move, Assange, backing the amoral autocrats.