from the Oh!-it's-not-over-yet-then? dept.
Julian Assange can ask Supreme Court to consider extradition case:
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has won the right to ask the Supreme Court to block his extradition to the US.
The High Court ruled on Monday he had an arguable point of law that Supreme Court justices may want to consider.
The ruling means Mr Assange can petition the UK's highest court for a hearing, stalling any extradition from the UK for now.
[...] But Mr Assange has no guarantee of a hearing despite being able to petition the Supreme Court. In practice this means his case may take many more months to come to a conclusion.
[...] Massimo Moratti, from Amnesty International, said while the organisation welcomed the High Court's decision on the matter of US assurances, it was "concerned" the court had "dodged its responsibility" on ensuring issues of public importance were fully considered by the judiciary.
He added: "The courts must ensure that people are not at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. This was at the heart of the two other issues the High Court has now effectively vetoed."
Mr Moratti added that the Supreme Court should have had the chance to consider and rule on all the points of law raised by Mr Assange, adding: "If the question of torture and other ill-treatment is not of general public importance, what is?
[...] Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists said although the ruling was "welcome" the case was "damaging media freedom" every day that it dragged on.
She added: "The US is seeking Assange on charges that relate to the very business of gathering and processing news.
"For so long as this is treated as a potentially indictable offence, reporters, doing important work, will be looking over their shoulders."
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 26 2022, @06:48AM (6 children)
Will he be absolved before aristarchus is? It is a fair question.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 26 2022, @07:10AM (3 children)
Assange will be sent to Guantanamo Bay to be gruesomely tortured to death, like Khashoggi, but much, much slower.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 26 2022, @03:27PM (2 children)
It seems cruel to cause unnecessary death. Isn't capital punishment prohibited?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 26 2022, @04:17PM (1 child)
In CA, maybe. On the federal level? Not at all.
Not that the USA cares much about law at all, it never really has during my short life here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @12:49AM
Careful, Citizen, or your life might be shorter than you expect!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 26 2022, @07:41PM (1 child)
No, it isn't. You don't get to declare you own question as fair
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @12:50AM
douche move is standard fare whenever ari wants to disrupt and hijack a conversation
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 26 2022, @08:08AM (18 children)
Yet those same reporters are very busy expressing all interpretations of the proverb: "silent as the grave" about the topic. It is easy to stop this nonsense and make it look very bad for the politicians. Just start every political interview in the West with the question to the politician "How do you stand on the legal persecution against my fellow reporter, mr. Assange? Already classified as torture by the U.N.?"
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 26 2022, @08:15AM (6 children)
Media is *part* of the establishment. Like most professional grifters, they don't like amateurs, especially amateurs that make them look bad.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bradley13 on Wednesday January 26 2022, @09:39AM (1 child)
Not sure why you were modded troll, because you are right. A lot of the media works with governments, because they depend on government money, and on government access. Want access to White House briefings? Better not ask too many embarrassing questions. Want a good relationship with Congressional staffers? Don't embarrass the Congresscritters.
The US government is determined to nail Assange. It doesn't matter how stupid that is, they want him. The press doesn't have the collective guts to stand up for the guy, and that is at least partially because he isn't one of the in crowd. He doesn't work for any recognized press organization, he's not politically connected, and frankly, he's just not a very pleasant guy. Take all of that together, and the press isn't willing to stick their collective neck out on his behalf.
Of course, when the time comes for other people to defend the MSM, well...they don't think that far.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday January 26 2022, @03:32PM
Year 2013. Snowden story breaks. CNN takes government side. Doesn't even pretend to be objective. There is the government's side of the story and that's it. No need to even hint that Snowden might have something to say and had said it out in the open. (no matter which POV you take on this) That's when I quit watching. It was obvious CNN needed access to "embedded reporters" deployed with the military.
I had almost quit watching a year earlier over the lack of any coverage of SOPA -- but all traditional media, other than online media, seemed to want to cover up the efforts of Congress to sneak SOPA into law.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday January 26 2022, @12:58PM (2 children)
I have to agree that 'media' is part of the establishment. I'll note that 'reporters', 'journalists', and especially 'investigative journalists' are not part of the establishment.
There are literally thousands of individuals worldwide whose livelihoods are at stake here. Possibly tens of thousands, not to mention unaffiliated citizen reporters. Suppose a reporter from Morocco happens to be in Bangladesh, and uncovers some embarrassing bit of news about the US, are we going to hunt him down, extradite him, and imprison him forever on trumped up charges? Like Assange, our imaginary reporter has never stepped foot into the US, or any US territory, possession, or even an embassy, but he is obviously guilty of something because he has embarrassed our government.
A lot of people who should be vocal in their support of Assange are remaining silent.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 26 2022, @03:36PM
Not going to happen unless said reporter is in Benghazi.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @01:39AM
Trump 'associates' offered Assange pardon in return for emails source, court hears [theguardian.com]
The U.S. says Julian Assange ‘is no journalist.’ Here’s why that shouldn’t matter. [washingtonpost.com]
Former FBI special agent explains why Julian Assange’s extradition to the US ‘should worry Trump and his allies’ [alternet.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday January 26 2022, @01:48PM
They are and they aren't: Most reporters think of themselves as part of the Big Club That Runs Things, but they're actually among the hangers-on that will be jettisoned by the Big Club members the moment that they become an inconvenience. And the #1 way a reporter can be an inconvenience is if they report something that their sources don't want the public to know about.
For a good example, look at Helen Thomas, who was jettisoned from the Washington press corps after a celebrated decades-long career, for saying that she didn't think Jews had the right to take over Palestine.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Informative) by khallow on Wednesday January 26 2022, @03:52PM (8 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 26 2022, @04:20PM (2 children)
The rape charges always were bullshit, and everyone knows that.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 27 2022, @12:55AM (1 child)
Unfortunately, you are wrong. Common non-techy luddites don't know shit about the issues involved in Wikileaks, or Assange's trial. Those who even recognize the name remember only the rape allegations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @05:01PM
Which is why those allegations were made. It wasn't enough to silence him, the CIA wanted to destroy him, and they have largely succeeded.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tangomargarine on Wednesday January 26 2022, @04:48PM (3 children)
This is the problem with our culture these days having to classify everybody as either wholly good or wholly bad.
JFK and MLKJ both cheated on their wives. At the time, Alan Turing was prosecuted for being a homosexual. Various military leaders, including Churchill and Andrew Jackson, can be pretty unambiguously said to have committed war crimes. Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. Etc., etc., etc.
Regardless of whether he's a rapist, Assange has still done good by exposing stuff.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 26 2022, @07:25PM (2 children)
Most country's laws and most people would not consider what he did 'Rape'.
Assuming it is true, he stealthed a woman one night.
A totally dickhead move and by all accounts he is a narcissistic piece of shit as well, but not a rapist by most people's definition of rape.
I am not defending his actions, they are a health hazard as well as totally unacceptable.
But I feel lumping that in with forced intercourse lessens the experience of those people who have been through it...
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 27 2022, @01:01AM (1 child)
According to the accounts I've read, you are near to right, but not quite there. In both cases, he used a condom as asked, both nights in question. It's the morning after, when he wanted to dip his wick again before leaving, and he had no condom at hand. In both cases, the lady in question agreed to the bare back ride. No stealth missiles involved, both women knew it was - uhhh - coming.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @05:03PM
And neither woman had a problem with it until the non-CIA-affiliated one found out about the other.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @01:51AM
The role played by right-wing feminists has been particularly filthy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 26 2022, @07:01PM (1 child)
Maybe you'd get more attention if you used a worthy example. Assange, despite some of the cultish devotion seen around here, is a very poor poster boy for your supposed cause (I say supposed, because there are already groups [cpj.org] who look out for journalists and press freedoms, of which you seem ignorant of, or don't care whether they are getting killed and dismembered, but at least they don't have to face the horrors of voluntarily sponging off of Ecuadorian embassies). Assange is a complete narcissistic asshat who only cares about himself and his image. He's fine encouraging people to commit crimes to get him material, he's an unapologetic Russian propagandist, and he's quite happy to cooperate with US political parties to try to influence their elections ("Get ready for some big news SOON!!!"). When given a pile of information, he up front admits that he withholds the juiciest stuff so that he can slowly drip it out over time to "maximize" the effect of the message (but yes, indeed, "MSM biased, hur hur hur"). There doesn't seem to be very many redeeming qualities about him when separated from the façade of himself he tries to sell. I'm not learned in the legal intricacies of this, but I don't think there is much to charge him with as long as he wasn't actually part of the stealing of information, but to put him on any kind of pedestal is as confusing to me as it is to see working-class Republicans keep voting in people who take away their health care and raise their taxes, just because they are told the opposite.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 27 2022, @02:24AM
*yawn*
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday January 26 2022, @03:49PM
He sure hasn't had much of that so far.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"