AIBU that I support Julian Assange‘s quest for asylum?

AngryAttackKittens

I meant Assange

Oh goodness yes, I know that. I didn't think you meant Andrew O' Hagan was a narcissistic.

I meant Assange.

O'Hagan is a serious and thoughtful journalist with sufficient integrity to admit he got it wrong. I was impressed by what he said.

Interesting indeed. The man is a raging narcissist. What's interesting, imo, is the way that actually draws some people (mostly men) to him and makes them admire him more, the same way it does for Trump.

Interesting interview with Andrew O'Hagan, former supporter of and ghost writer for Assange.

www.vox.com/conversations/2017/6/6/15729360/julian-assange-andrew-ohagan-secret-life

The weird coda to this in Australia is that our Prime Minister, who has the maturity of a teenage boy, made sleazy remarks about Pamela Anderson in response to her representations on Assange's behalf which hs made her angry.
I think Assange should have gone to Sweden right at the beginning. I don't respect him at all and I dont think you can cancel out rape with other 'right on' action.

Asante neglects his cat even though he has fuck all to do each and every day. For that alone, he's a piece of shit.

This. Plus. He’s a fucking twat who wants to sue the people who’ve given him asylum for all these years?

Narcissistic piece of shit. Fuck him.

spits

He’s a Russian stooge. The US RNC and DNC were hacked yet wiki leaks only publishes the latter? Dodgy as fuck. If it was all about releasing important political info like a journalist, why so one-sided?

Assange has asylum already. The UK authorities cannot enter the building because the embassy is a sanctuary.

Assange is asking for something more: he wants to leave the building and flee the country without having to face the charges of breaking his bail conditions and failing to appear at court.

I cannot think of any circumstances where a court would agree to this. I have, however, seen defendants and their solictors turn up to court, face the music and make a strong case with reasons why they ought not to be punished.

The sooner Assange realises that he is not immune from prosecution for bail offences, the quicker he can make plans to leave. He needs to put on his big boy pants and demonstrate some integrity.

The way that he treats that poor cat tells you everything you need to know about hm. Selfish arsehole.

YANBU. We should protect whistleblowers for the reason you mention in your OP, even if they're not upstanding citizens or nice people. If we allow an unsympathetic whistleblower to be secretly charged, or framed, as the Icelandic government says the US sent agents to do, we set a precedent for other whistleblowers.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't criticise their actions, but I despair at the regurgitated hate spewed because The Guardian and The Telegraph have picked out the silliest-sounding details from the report about the conditions Assange is being kept under and mocked him for them. It's that Orwellian thing again where the mainstream media trivialises the issues and tells us who we must hate. And we obey!

He's a snivelling pathetic little shit and I hope they take the cat off him

Is my view, too.

I think he's stupid. He's just spent several years inside a prison of his own making. Unsure why the Ecuadorians agreed to go along with it. The Wikileak stuff I read was really boring. I also think it's OK for countries to have secret documents. I have stuff I don't want published. Add that to the alleged rapes and I'm happy for him to stay locked in that embassy forever. Let any pets out and reduce the size of his room. Don't spend any tax payers money on him. Stop the security.

Serfisafleur the issue with the cat is not that it lives indoors (plenty of cats do that very happily), it's that he doesn't take care of it, so the embassy staff have to.

Melanippe Fri 16-Nov-18 18:05:55

Assange was always going to be indicted by the US, he put service personnel in immediate danger which makes the US a wee bit cross. How many US personnel were killed by Wikileaks, erm, leaks? Zero.

How many Saudi journalists were killed by the CIA not warning Jamal Khashoggi that he was a target of his own country? Only Jamal Khashoggi, who went into a consulate for a wedding licence and came out in pieces. Literally, as they dismembered him.

I don't defend what Assange has done, but telling the truth should never be the basis for sending anybody overseas to potentially spend the rest of their life in prison.

Unless it's Mohammed bin Salman for admitting to ordering the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

Call me cynical but it turned out all a little bit convenient for the American establishment that he had consensual sex with a woman but he then allegedly removed the condom during sex which is a claim that hasn't be proven or disproven.

I'd support Assange.

The kitten thing, well, sure he should give it to someone with an outdoor space, but DP had an "indoor" tabby cat and he is the biggest cat lover ever. Tabby cats can enjoy a very fulfilled life staying inside.

So, I'd like to broaden this (if anyone is listening) and ask: Suppose you think someone did something you consider supremely important, but that same person is shitty/misogynist on a personal level, what would you do?

A rapist? There's no excuse no. A serial cheating sleaze bag, maybe. Someone who groped women, or touched them without permission or anything like that, no.

What would happen if someone pulled a fire alarm? just askin

He's the only person that ensured he didn't have a fair trial for rape.

I feel sorry for the workers in the Embassy and also annoyed that him massively outstaying his welcome will make other embassies think twice before offering someone asylum in the future

I'm in the snivelling little shit camp.
He's living a pretty miserable existence and I have no sympathy.

I'm not saying he should be let off any crimes (or even bad behaviour)he truly committed, but it would be very easy indeed for powerful people he has annoyed with his leaks to smear him in this way and make him lose any public support so they can whisk him off for trial over his political actions. That is why I would want to see him have a 100% fair trial for each individual crime and not trust anything I had read about him online.

I feel for the Ecuadoran (ian?) embassy workers TBF

And his cat

There was a woman on MN ages ago who knew him and said he was creepy as all fuck so I also feel for lots of the women who have met him up to and incluidng the Swedish women who he is accused of attacking.

When it comes to sex offences, how famous does a man need to be before he can act with impunity? Happens all the time drives me mad.

He's taken the Polanski approach really. This idea that if you avoid arrest for long enough then it will "go away".

What was baffling was when ?the UN or someone said the UK was keepign him illegally imprisoned or something. They seemed to miss the bit where he was hiding so he woudn't be arrested.