Julian Assange

[Purple Monkey]

If he wants to be a Martyr - why doesn't he go to Sweden? That way if he gets extradited and 'disappears' or whatever then that will only fan the flames of his cause. I can understand why people are scratching their heads about this.

Then again maybe the US don't want him extradited - they simply want him to be locked up in his own country for a crime he did or did not commit. The endgame is to shut him up. It's difficult to pinpoint where the paranoia ends and the truth begins.

Either way, the lack of transparency and the confusion shows it's absolutely vital that hasty actions aren't taken. This whole thing stinks.

Edited August 21, 2012 by Purple Monkey

[eFestivals]

While there's no legal reason why Assange needs to go to Sweden before he gets shipped to the USA, there is a very practical reason. And who knows, that might be the driver behind it all.

Because of course, if Assange were to be convicted of these sex offences, then a huge amount of potential support for him is undermined - after all, who is going to put themselves on the line to defend a sex offender as they would if Assange's integrity was fully wholesome?

Given that pursuit of this case was initially dropped, but was then taken up again later in unusual circumstances, it's certainly not beyond the possibilities that it's about destroying support for him, so that it's far less controversial to take him to the USA and then prosecute him.

[Winash]

On Assange

A man who began by spreading the truth about diplomacy without fully realizing the objective for which it is done. But you cannot say that he was not aware what diplomacy does, more so because he was in possession of a lot of materials. But he looked at the mirrored glass solely through the lenses of an investigative journalist.

Most of the material on what diplomats said and did was humorous and is more than often written in books by diplomats themselves after retirement.

Some material on Afghanistan and other places even though being highly eye-opening could have been used by extremists to raise their cause.

What he did not realize was that he was himself becoming a news topic .

At first he was attracting eye-balls for what was reader’s worth.

But later was a tool for selling news.

He is held up to the neck in a legal battle.

You could say “What he expected from the court, he got from the embassy.”

But he ran with the risk of getting into a ‘locked-in-syndrome’ when he essayed war-room data out on a public forum.

So is the case with Bradley Manning who should have realized that he was in uniform and could not become a part of the revelation.

He must have grown up with the flag in hand and after realizing, living and surviving the soldier’s patriotic dream, his wanting to do a mission keeping of truth proved to be misleading adventure.

Edited August 24, 2012 by Winash

[Purple Monkey]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/9498115/WikiLeaks-Met-police-embarrassed-as-Assange-arrest-plan-revealed.html

Oops.

[Spindles]

Someone fetch me 1000 identical black hoodies, 1000 identical pairs of black jeans, 1000 V masks.

Let us just get this done.

[Purple Monkey]

True. Either way I have this horrible feeling that regardless of the outcome we are going to get some serious clamping down on the old Internet. Forget Assange for a minute, this is just the start.

Like radio, like TV, like print - the Internet will get choked and fucked and choked and fucked until there is nothing left.

[Spartacus Mars]

perhaps in the case of the shooting of WPC Yvonne Fletcher

[eFestivals]

Her shooting was part of a terrorist spate from Libya that promoted the US missile attack on Tripoli, there was Lockerbie and a German night-club bombing. The German night-club bombing was even more strange. Reagan went on camera to tell the Germans that "proof" of Libyan involvement would be presented to the Germans. None ever came.

It was the Berlin nightclub bombing that was the given reason for the bombing of Libya.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, documents were found which proved that the bombing was carried out by Syrians (I forget which particular group) with the support of the East German Stasi.