Julian Assange - thoughts?

[fiddlesticksohyeah]

Anyone got a view on Julian Assange? I thought the women's call on him to be investigated was credible but seems like years ago now.

Others in my circle seem to think he's a hero who was set up. I'm lacking facts. Anyone any insights?

Found a timeline from BBC website www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-11949341

Just wondered what became of the women who went to the police.

He's an incredibly brave fighter for the freedoms of the people and for truth for the public. He has had a smear campaign set against him from the powers that be. Definitely do your research!

It's as black and white as the Boeing whistleblower who 'committed suicide' 🙄

So brave he doesn't GAF about revealing the names of sources leaving them in fear of their lives if not dead already.

Hugely popular with Q Anon wonks.

Also the rape allegations. And smearing shit all over his sanctuary at the Ecuadorian embassy.

Gets name checked in this though

@Lalgarh - the perfect example of someone who fell for the media spin!

This is outing but I've worked closely with several of the academic teachers of one of the victims. He's a rapey bastard all right, nothing in the least ambiguous about it. Unless you want to argue rape cases are dealt with so universally badly, his should have been overlooked as well were it not for overriding external motives on the part of the prosecutors. You might even be correct but really, is that something you want to argue on a feminist website?

The cases were ultimately dismissed because the creep ran out the statute of limitations on most of the charges while camping out in the embassy (I've noticed none of the media coverage right now mentions this inconvenient little fact.) The one remaining rape charge ended up getting dropped because the passage of time meant witness statements were more likely to be challenged in court.

A traitor, as was his colleague. He had no right, as a journalist to reveal the information that he did thus putting lives in the intelligence community in danger. His actions were illegal.

Who will guard the guards themselves?!

Assange v Sweden – Case Summary – IPSA LOQUITUR

Should have been tried for stealthing.

He’s a shyster and a self-confessed rapist. Nothing heroic about him.

The rape charge, which just happened to come to light when the USA were desperately trying to extradite him, was later dropped because the few extra years that had passed meant it couldn't succeed. Even though plenty of rape and sexual assault charges are prosecuted decades after the event. Maybe the DNA evidence faded in the bright Swedish sunlight or something.

Actually it was dropped and then later reopened again, then dropped. Now that the USA problem is over, he'd have no excuse for not going to face the music, so it would be the perfect time to reopen it and request his extradition from Australia.

But they're not going to do that, are they?

Well, that's what I'm thinking tbh

Journalists should sometimes leak stuff. But the Swedish women's testimony suggests he's not a great human. Conflicted.

I'm working it out too OP, such conflicting nuggets of info about him.
Heard an interview with someone who worked with him on PM (R4) this afternoon and it was damning by faint praise 'I think it's not giving much away to say he was an incredibly difficult person to work with' type of thing

dunno about bright swedish sunlight but at the time police was unable to extract dna sample from the condom anna ardin turned over to them. that was the condom he supposedly damaged for some reason.

@Overtheatlantic he, along with the (formerly) Bradley Manning, exposed horrific war crimes commited by the US. Have you even seen the 2007 Iraq helicopter video? Do you even know who Manning is.

No, I'm sure you haven't / don't. It's on YT btw..

Manning was subsequently arrested by the US as a traitor and incarcerated. He spent 7 years in a cell where he couldn't open out his arms.

The US soldiers making up stuff so that they can mercilessly slaughter and laugh while killing civilians were fine though. No one cared what they did.

All anyone cared about was that someone has the grit to call the US out - Assange.

Oh and he also exposed that both the US and British government were fully aware that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before they went ploughing in.

That's not what us public got told though is it? We got told we were going to war as we had to defend ourselves from the weapons of mass destruction.

OP, I really would implore you to look into this deeply. I'm a journalist and that's why my interests are so long enduring - I was in Uni when this all started kicking off and every decent journalist worth his salt was well aware Assange was a true advocate for the freedom of the press, and transparency to the public. But unfortunately the media is not owned by the interests of the public. It's owned by politicians.

All the shit that's been slung his away has purposefully been constructed to denounce him. It's been painful to witness.

more like a traitor, who's to say who he put at risk with his revealing of the information etc

at the same time there are many secret operations etc that happen, yes i dont agree with law breaking etc, but with our various intelligence agencies etc whos to say what part of the real reasons for wars are etc,

certainly not the public , how can they if they dont have access to all the worlds intelligence agencies files to make a more complete contextual understanding of different wars and events etc

@OperationGoldDawn any individual who has spent even a cursory amount of time studying the background to the case knows that more than a decade ago the Pentagon set up a review to identify any US agents killed or harmed as a result of the leaks.

And yet a team of 120 counter-intelligence officers could not find a SINGLE such case, as the head of the team, Brigadier-General Robert Carr, conceded this in court in 2013.

The rape allegations were pushed by Sir Kier Starmer back when he led the Crown prosecution service, and at this time he was frequently flying in and out of Washington - precisely when the US was trying to find a pretext to lock Assange away for political crimes, not sexual ones. The allegation suddenly raised it's head but got dropped at preliminary stages, but Kier kept peddling it. 'Mysteriously'
🙄all records of Kier's meetings in Washington at the time have been lost or destroyed.

The establishment media in the UK have spoon-fed the public a very damning narrative of Assange, at the orchestration of the US & our own government.

with reguards to the Pentagon , im sure there would be many unofficial ops or classified ones that even the pentagon would not have knowledge

He is a rapist. I read the documents published by his defence team, which were presumably designed to show him in a good light. They clearly describe the women being raped.

Is the US military guilty of war crimes? Yes. Did Assange rape those women? Also yes.

@Riva5784 if YOU managed to deduce that he is DEFINITELY a rapist from reading the defence documents, then why the hell didn't the crown court take it further than they did?

Because they couldn't, because there was no foundations for it.

That's your opinion Riva. But you don't know and you certainly can't say he is one for certain.

And here's proof that what the government did worked as were here debating if he's a rapist, but no one's talking about the raping of Iraq women and children by US soldiers.

That was leaked by Wikileaks too.

OP, I really would implore you to look into this deeply. I'm a journalist and that's why my interests are so long enduring - I was in Uni when this all started kicking off and every decent journalist worth his salt was well aware Assange was a true advocate for the freedom of the press, and transparency to the public. But unfortunately the media is not owned by the interests of the public. It's owned by politicians.

Every decent journalist definitely does not think that.
I worked at The Guardian at the time the Wikileaks stuff was published (I'm not a journalist). Leaking the documents was DEFINITELY in the public interest and it was incredible to do so. BUT there was always a need to redact the names and identifying information about individual military personnel. Assange wanted everything out there in the interests of 'transparency'. No 'decent' journalist would see individual lives put at risk in that way. It's not right or necessary.

Assange is and always was an arrogant asshole who has done some good things and some awful things.

And no the media (as if it's all one thing) is not owned by politicians. Again any decent journalist would know that.

Putting the lives of the intelligence community in danger is absolutely unacceptable, but war crimes against INNOCENT civilians, meh thats fine. The amount of ignorant people there are is unreal.

@Welshiegreen yes of course it's my opinion. This is a thread asking for opinions. Why didn't the courts take it further? Because most rapists are never tried, let alone convicted. It's normal in this patriarchal society and something feminists campaign against.

Assange is and always was an arrogant asshole who has done some good things and some awful things. Good summary @DanceTheDevilBackIntoHisHole