WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange returned to his homeland Australia aboard a charter jet on Wednesday, hours after pleading guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that concludes a drawn-out legal saga.
The criminal case of international intrigue, which had played out for years, came to a surprise end in a most unusual setting with Assange, 52, entering his plea in a U.S. district court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands. The American commonwealth in the Pacific is relatively close to Assange’s native Australia and accommodated his desire to avoid entering the continental United States.
Assange was accused of receiving and publishing hundreds of thousands of war logs and diplomatic cables that included details of U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. His activities drew an outpouring of support from press freedom advocates, who heralded his role in bringing to light military conduct that might otherwise have been concealed from view and warned of a chilling effect on journalists. Among the files published by WikiLeaks was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.
Assange raised his right fist as he emerged for the plane and his supporters at the Canberra airport cheered from a distance. Dressed in the same suit and tie he wore during his earlier court appearance, he embraced his wife Stella Assange and father John Shipton who were waiting on the tarmac.
A real journalist would have redacted the names of Afghani informants so they wouldn’t run the risk of being killed by the Taliban
that doesn’t make him not a real journalist. sloppy, unprofessional, maybe, but he’s still a real journalist.
*who committed espionage.
I’m sorry if this is a bit too unrelated but would you say the same about Snowden?
I’m not as well informed on Assange but I tend to find the “espionage” criticism lacking, personally, since it seems to mainly favor the generally terrible foreign policy actions of the US empire and not so much the people of the US who are for the most part against those actions but have little recourse what with the 2 party system and having a plutocratic system of government
Yes. I applaud them both for whistleblowing. They really fucked up by not redacting names. It’s reckless and dangerous. Assange should’ve known better, having been a professional journalist.
https://www.businessinsider.com/snowdens-cache-of-secrets-likely-means-life-or-death-for-several-people-2013-11
Oh weird, that was not the impression I got from the many comments you made criticizing them for their brave actions.
I would tend to blame any negative fallout on the US government, personally. If they weren’t committing atrocities regular people wouldn’t have had to take the huge risk/be put at risk.
It’s like getting upset at a victim of police brutality for not working with the police
Their actions were brave until they became clouded by fame. Then both of them made it about leverage and made crucial mistakes that lead to threatened lives. I supported them in the past, prior to their dangerous missteps. I no longer comment in support of either of them.
A good example of responsible whistleblowing would be from the recent resignations from the Department of Defense. They gave very detailed accounts of information suppression while they were tasked with collecting information on civilian casualties in Gaza. None of the information they disclosed exposed confidential informants or put lives at risk.
It’s not just possible to be a responsible whistleblower, it’s imperative.
You’re saying they should’ve just resigned? How would we have learned about PRISM without evidence?
I don’t know what you’re referring to about info suppression. Did we learn anything or just that we don’t know everything? How is that more helpful? Or, for who is it more helpful?
No, I’m saying they shouldn’t have left the names unredacted in their leaks. That put people in danger.
Assange was a journalist. He wasn’t a government official.
some might call it espionage. others might just call it journalism.
He leaked unredacted confidential information that directly led to the assassination of Afghani informants.
That’s a little more than just “sloppy journalism.”
that’s your opinion.
He pled guilty. It’s his opinion too.
do you see another way for him to go home? i don’t believe any guilty pleas, given how malicious prosecution is used as a cudgel.
That’s your prerogative, and your opinion. If he were responsible in his duties as a journalist, and redacted the names of informants and agents, I’d have a different opinion. I think his actions were reckless and irresponsible.
Chelsea Manning faced trial was convicted, and has been free since 2017, and she got to cuck Elon Musk, that is a true hero. She didn’t handle leaking the information in the best way, and was given bad advice by Assange, but she didn’t get kicked out of an embassy for running an election interference campaign.
Should have thought of that before taking Putin’s side. Espionage is a messy business where the government that funds you will abandon you.
He helped a government get the candidate of their choice elected by manipulation of data dumps and spent a month before the election screaming how he had more dirt on one candidate.
Removed by mod
Don’t gaslight me. I remember that Russian agent in October 2016 yelling about Hillary Clinton and stuff he said he had on her. Literally every single time I heard, read, or watched the news his fucking face was there going on and on about the embassy bombing or the emails.
Sorry your boy sucks Putin off but I am willing to bet when he does the condom doesn’t mysteriously break.
it’s not gaslighting. you are making assumptions about motivations that directly contradict what he has said.
Did he or did he not repeatedly claim to have dirt on Hillary Clinton one month before the election?
No evasions, no reframing, answer the question please.
I object to the supposition that Russia wanted trump to win. I believe Russia wanted Americans divided and trump was simply a means to that end.
Ok you reject it. Let me know how that goes for you.
going great, thanks!
Really? In what way? Be exact
Sloppy would be missing some punctuation and grammar. The guy has blood on his hands just like the US government does. Also, he aided (some would say manipulated) Manning in her leak of the documents in a way that no journalist would or should do. Journalists report the story, Assange has repeatedly shown himself to be a self aggrandizer that is the story.
TIL that self-aggrandizement is a federal offense.
I never said it was. Aiding someone in exfiltrating classified documents on the other hand decidedly is. Not something journalists make a habit of doing, either.
but shouldn’t be if the goal is to expose wrongdoing in a journalistic publication.
Journalists do it all the time. That’s where they used unnamed sources and have gone to jail to protect those sources. Or maybe you’re too young to remember Deep Throat.
I know who deep throat is. There’s a big difference between refusing to cooperate with an investigation and name names of confidential sources that have provided information versus actively aiding a person in absconding with information. The courts agree with me too, considering John Lawrence was released after a day by an appellate court. Also notable that his charge was merely contempt whereas Assange’s was espionage.
Please explain how Assange ‘actively aided’ his source in getting the info.
I’ll wait.
You can read about “Nathaniel” here and how the relationship between Manning and WL started. Manning herself implies the relationship was manipulative.
In their chat logs Nathaniel assisted Manning in attempting to crack a password hash to attempt to cover up the source of the leaks. Thats where the journalistic line was crossed in my eyes.
because most are cowards
I’d say because most follow an ethics code, as much as I feel there was a public interest in those documents coming out, but with proper sanitation to protect lives.
how was he supposed to protect anyone against the greatest surveillance state ever?
I was talking about protecting the Afghani informants from the Taliban.
— Zabihullah Mujahid
— Julian Assange
Assange is so casual about the potential human cost of his actions. The guy is a prick.
As stated by ikidd above, it was up to the publishers to clean up the releases before printing/posting them.