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Breaking News
posted by takyon on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the with-friends-like-these dept.

Assange associate Ola Bini has been arrested in Ecuador for alleged involvement in hacking government computer systems. A large quantity of electronic equipment and credit cards were allegedly found in his suitcase and during a raid of his home.

Assange's arrest was designed to make sure he didn't press a mysterious panic button he said would bring dire consequences for Ecuador

Julian Assange's arrest at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London was carried out in a specific way to prevent him from pressing a mysterious panic button he said could bring dire consequences for Ecuador, its foreign minister said.

[...] It is not clear exactly what form the "panic button" took: whether it was a physical device or a metaphor for some other easily activated insurance measure. It is also unclear what leverage Assange thought he had over Ecuador.

Assange's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on the nature of the button and whether it existed. According to Valencia, though, it was serious enough for Ecuador to warn British authorities and carry out the raid in such a way that Assange was not able to get back into his room after learning of his imminent arrest.

Julian Assange must face Swedish justice first - MPs and peers

More than 70 MPs and peers have signed a letter urging the home secretary to ensure Julian Assange faces authorities in Sweden if they want his extradition.

[...] In their letter to Sajid Javid, 70 parliamentarians - chiefly Labour MPs and peers - urged him to "stand with the victims of sexual violence" and ensure the rape claim against the Wikileaks founder could be "properly investigated". "We do not presume guilt, of course, but we believe due process should be followed and the complainant should see justice be done," the letter said. Labour's Stella Creasy tweeted a copy of the letter sent to Mr Javid. The same letter was also sent to shadow home secretary Diane Abbott.

See also: The U.S. Government's Indictment of Julian Assange Poses Grave Threats to Press Freedom
Sweden Considers Request to Reopen Rape Investigation of Julian Assange
Four theories about Julian Assange's cat (also at NPR)

Previously: Wikileaks Co-Founder Julian Assange Arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London


Original Submission

Related Stories

Wikileaks Co-Founder Julian Assange Arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London 243 comments

Breaking: Met police confirm that Julian Assange has been arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy.

Mr Assange took refuge in the embassy seven years ago to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault case that has since been dropped.

The Met Police said he was arrested for failing to surrender to the court.

Ecuador's president Lenin Moreno said it withdrew Mr Assange's asylum after his repeated violations to international conventions.

But WikiLeaks tweeted that Ecuador had acted illegally in terminating Mr Assange's political asylum "in violation of international law".

[...] Scotland Yard said it was invited into the embassy by the ambassador, following the Ecuadorian government's withdrawal of asylum.

After his arrest for failing to surrender to the court, police said he had been further arrested on behalf of US authorities under an extradition warrant.

He doesn't look happy, to say the least.

Update: As this is a breaking story, more information is coming out regularly - one source that updates their reports frequently is Zero Hedge - thanks boru!

Previously: New Analysis of Swedish Police Report Confirms Julian Assange's Version in Sweden's Case
Ecuador Reportedly Almost Ready to Hand Julian Assange Over to UK Authorities
UK Said Assange Would Not be Extradited If He Leaves Embassy Refuge
Inadvertent Court Filing Suggests that the U.S. DoJ is Preparing to Indict Julian Assange
U.S. Ramping Up Probe Against Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Says
Ecuador Denies That Julian Assange Will be Evicted From Embassy in London


Original Submission

Julian Assange Sentenced to 50 Weeks in Prison for Bail Breach 30 comments

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

Judge blasts Assange for jumping bail, sentences him to almost one year

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for fleeing to the Ecuadorian embassy in London while on bail in 2012. At the time, he was facing possible extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges.

Assange remained in the embassy until last month, when he was evicted by his Ecuadorian hosts and re-arrested by British authorities.

Wednesday's sentencing is unlikely to be the end of Assange's legal problems. Shortly after he was re-arrested last month, US authorities unsealed an indictment charging him with conspiring with Chelsea Manning to crack a hashed password belonging to a Pentagon computer in 2010. At the time, Manning was an Army private leaking confidential military documents to WikiLeaks. Assange was unable to learn the password, but the US argues that his attempt is sufficient to charge him with conspiracy.

In a letter to the court, Assange argued that he had fled to the embassy out of fear that he'd be extradited to the United States and wind up being held indefinitely at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Also at BBC, The Guardian, CNET, and The Register.

Previously: Inadvertent Court Filing Suggests that the U.S. DoJ is Preparing to Indict Julian Assange
U.S. Ramping Up Probe Against Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Says
Ecuador Denies That Julian Assange Will be Evicted From Embassy in London
Wikileaks Co-Founder Julian Assange Arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London
Julian Assange Associate Arrested In Ecuador


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2Original Submission #3

Ecuador Judge Frees Swedish Programmer Close to Assange; Probe Continues 2 comments

Ecuador Judge Frees Swedish Programmer Close to Assange; Probe Continues

An Ecuadorean judge on Thursday ordered that a Swedish citizen and personal friend of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange be freed, two months after he was detained for alleged participation in a hacking attempt on the government.

But Ola Bini, a 36-year-old software developer who has lived in Ecuador for five years, remains under investigation in the case and will be barred from leaving the country, according to the court ruling.

Bini was detained in April at the Quito airport before boarding a flight to Japan, hours after Ecuador withdrew asylum for Assange, who had lived at its London embassy for almost seven years while facing spying charges related to WikLeaks' 2010 publication of secret U.S. diplomatic cables.

Ecuador's Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo had accused him of seeking to destabilise the Andean country's government and compromising its national security. Bini has denied those allegations, but has acknowledged being close to Assange.

Previously: Julian Assange Associate Arrested In Ecuador


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:31PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:31PM (#829040)

    Criminals often work together in something called a "conspiracy". Once you arrest one, the others follow quickly enough. Expect more wikileaks conspirators to be arrested in coming days.

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by RandomFactor on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:34PM (3 children)

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:34PM (#829043) Journal

    The same letter was also sent to shadow home secretary Diane Abbott.

    I had to check this, it's a real thing, there's a whole shadow cabinet apparently. Crazy Brits.

    --
    В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:40PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:40PM (#829048)

      The same letter was also sent to shadow home secretary Diane Abbott.

      I had to check this, it's a real thing, there's a whole shadow cabinet apparently. Crazy Brits.

      They have a different system of government [wikipedia.org] than the US. In fact, most democracies in the world, including the UK, have shadow cabinets [wikipedia.org].

      • (Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @12:12AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @12:12AM (#829180)

        The USA has a most powerful shadow government, operating right out in the open, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs. They even put their names right there on the ballot, republican and democrat, and win every time! Americans welcome their shadow overlords. Any minute now they're gonna open the New York to L.A. nonstop Monorail! And feed the starving farmers... oh wait, that's Russia... they ever fix that shit? Now that they've gone all regular mafia an' stuff? Heh, Russians... anything but subtle...

      • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Tuesday April 16 2019, @12:13AM

        by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 16 2019, @12:13AM (#830183) Journal

        Sure, but does that mean they aren't crazy, or just that they have company?

        --
        В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:35PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:35PM (#829045)

    Apparently Assange isn't the computer mastermind he pretended to be. A simple command triggered if a timer is not reset would have worked. But if he understood timers, he would have known when to change his cat's litterbox and the SPCA wouldn't have issued a warrant for his arrest.

    • (Score: 1, Troll) by Nuke on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:49PM (1 child)

      by Nuke (3162) on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:49PM (#829055)

      A simple command triggered if a timer is not reset would have worked.

      Perhaps it will yet. What an arsehole the man is.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by RandomFactor on Saturday April 13 2019, @10:36PM

        by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 13 2019, @10:36PM (#829147) Journal

        That was my thought, any timer might take a day or two to trigger, or even a week (hey, he might get sick, better not to have to go all scorched earth on his hosts if he just gets a bout of the flu or his system crashes)

        --
        В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:59PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:59PM (#829064)

      Apparently this is a fake news snowjob, because Wikileaks and Assange knew for days that he was getting sold out imminently. Any "panic button" plan would doubtlessly have been put in motion days ago.

      One post here mentioned a $4.3b IMF loan that Ecuador closed on recently. Kinda pricy even for the Empire to only get one man. Throw in a couple more to bring down the unit price.

      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:11PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:11PM (#829074)

        I hear he sold his cat on Craigist just last week. Coincidence?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:13PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:13PM (#829075)

      Apparently Assange isn't the computer mastermind he pretended to be. A simple command triggered if a timer is not reset would have worked.

      I don't pay too much attention to him and his circus, but as I understood it from lots of mutterings online a few years ago, that is exactly what's in place, but at arms length (i.e. the release is under the control of a.n.others, if they don't get the 'safe' word from Assange within 'n' time units of him being incarcerated, this then triggers their release of the relevant decryption key(s) for files already distributed to interested parties).

      Any muppetry here is on the part of anyone who swallows the BS about it being a physical 'device' or the 'hero' of this amusing diversion being such a clueless twat it's a case of him having to log in and do something..

      (Ok, ok, in some aspects of his behaviour here he *is* a clueless twat and a muppet, he should have prepared a bit better for this, as his arrest was an on-the-cards-dead-certainty at least a month ago)

      ..when to change his cat's litterbox and the SPCA wouldn't have issued a warrant for his arrest.

      That's RSPCA laddie, and while you're laughably wrong about their ability to issue warrants, you still don't want to get on the wrong side of those fuckers...their pockets are deep and their propaganda machine is legendary, but, while they might like to play 'dress up' and make their 'inspectors' look like the police to intimidate, they've absolutely no special legal powers... [doglistener.co.uk]
       

    • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday April 14 2019, @12:05AM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday April 14 2019, @12:05AM (#829173) Homepage

      That was his shit smeared against the walls of the embassy, not cat shit.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @08:05AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @08:05AM (#829289)

      Assange was already banned from internet by embassy for long time after government change in Ecuador. That's how you can differentiate banana republics from stable governments. Banana republics change their entire posture on every government change. That's what makes doing business with them so pointless and why they remain banana republics... and now, America is close to joining these ranks.

  • (Score: 3, Troll) by Nuke on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:47PM (5 children)

    by Nuke (3162) on Saturday April 13 2019, @07:47PM (#829053)

    From the BBC news website :-

    friends and colleagues of Mr Bini expressed their concern on social media..... "I'm very concerned to hear that [he] has been arrested," Martin Fowler, a US-based computer programmer, tweeted. "He is a strong advocate and developer supporting privacy ..."

    Privacy? How ironic - the mission of Wikileaks has been to expose things.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:41PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:41PM (#829101)

      Privacy is for individuals, not institutions in the service to the public, no? For institutions, "privacy" is shorthand for "lack of transparency". I don't see the irony. Maybe I am missing some nuance, as I am not a native speaker of english.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:44PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:44PM (#829123)

        Privacy is for individuals, not institutions in the service to the public, no?

        HRC is an individual. An undesirable one, but an individual nonetheless.

        • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday April 14 2019, @12:05AM (1 child)

          by hemocyanin (186) on Sunday April 14 2019, @12:05AM (#829174) Journal

          Political figure. Fair game.

          • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @06:52PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @06:52PM (#829446)

            Political figure. Fair game.

            Wikileaks also exposed information on thousands of private individuals who had helped american diplomats in authoritarian countries. Translators, drivers, etc - exposing them and their families to violent retaliation. In fact, one of assange's friends took a document dump and handed it over to the dictator running Belarus months before wikileaks officially released it, [tabletmag.com] helping the dictator to crack down on dissidents.

            Wikileaks was a great idea. The mistake was letting a narcissistic sociopath like assange run it, because people like that are only ever about themselves - principles only matter as long as they further cause of their self-aggrandizement. The end result is going to be the worst possible outcome - crackdowns on the press and a discrediting of wikileaks's official goals.

            In particular, assange worked hard to get trump elected. And now trump has literally declared that the free press is the enemy of the people. Trump's first concrete action in his campaign to bring the press to heel is to go after wikileaks. Trump's just getting warmed up, going after the most vulnerable first. There is a lot of karmic irony that assange is first to the guillotine that he built himself, he literally got what he wished for. But in the long run we are all going to pay for his demagoguery and narcissism.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @12:58AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @12:58AM (#829193)

          Bzzzzzzzzt. He exposed DNC emails, not HRC's private yoga tapes.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:04PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:04PM (#829069)

    70 parliamentarians - chiefly Labour MPs and peers - urged him to "stand with the victims of sexual violence" and ensure the rape claim against the Wikileaks founder could be "properly investigated".

    Funny how British SJW grandstanding could add uncertainty to reaching the end goal the Useful Idiot REEEsisters are cheering for, getting Assange into an American government oubliette for the rest of his life.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:31PM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:31PM (#829089)

      Assange is a political hot potato.
      Neither the Tories nor Labour want to be the ones to have to hand him over to the tender mercies of the USian TLAs (though I don't really know why...the whole Brexit debacle has exposed the political system in the UK as the farce-masquerading-as-democracy it always has been, nobody would be surprised at anything the duplicitous weasels in Parliament get up to) , they know fine well what will happen to him (your oubliette being one of the least nastier things I can think of), so they're all busily looking for any old excuse to allow them to justify doing the good old 'Pontius Pilate' shuffle...give him to the Swedes and let them do the dirty work and hand him over to the US.

      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:49PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:49PM (#829130)

        Nothing bad is going to happen to Assange in the US*







        * that he doesn't deserve.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @10:01PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @10:01PM (#829138)

          Because we must never question our Masters but instead shut the fuck up and do as they order us.

          • (Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @10:20PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @10:20PM (#829142)

            Actually, once Assange arrives in the US his lawyers plan to tell the Trump administration that Assange is in the US illegally. When Trump hears that he will have ICE deport Assange back to Ecuador.

        • (Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday April 14 2019, @12:06AM

          by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday April 14 2019, @12:06AM (#829176) Homepage

          Now this is an excellent visual effect I wish I had thought of. I will steal it. And since this comment contributes nothing to this discussion, let me help nudge it into oblivion: niggers.

      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 14 2019, @06:36AM (1 child)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 14 2019, @06:36AM (#829280) Journal

        'Pontius Pilate' shuffle

        So, UK government is filled with shuffle girls? Do they make videos? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsu9W-yceeE [youtube.com]

        --
        “I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @09:30AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @09:30AM (#829303)

          Nah, the UK Government is indeed full of big tits and gargantuan arseholes but unfortunately (?) not the sort that star in the video you link to....though they would be just as effective in the job as the shower we currently have taking the piss there.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:44PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:44PM (#829124)

      70 parliamentarians - chiefly Labour MPs and peers - urged him to "stand with the victims of sexual violence" and ensure the rape claim [...] could be "properly investigated"

      They profess to "stand with the victims of sexual violence" ...

      Unless the victims are minors (e.g. white girls) and the perpetrators are rape gangs comprised of a specific demographic, in which case the minister "standing with the victims" is forced to resign. [bbc.co.uk]

  • (Score: 1) by fx_68 on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:42PM (11 children)

    by fx_68 (2719) on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:42PM (#829102) Homepage
    One of Wikileaks biggest releases of information came in 2010 from US Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, who later changed her name to Chelsea. Ms Manning leaked more than 250,000 diplomatic cables, including military logs that included footage of an Apache gunship crew shooting dead a group of men they thought had a rocket launcher. It turned out to be journalists for Reuters carrying a television camera. At the time, Ms Clinton, then Secretary of State, said the leaks “tore at the fabric of government” and pledged “aggressive steps to hold responsible those who stole this information”. Wikileaks later released a cache of diplomatic cables from US embassies, including embarrassing and personal assessments of international figures. So it seems some big players are very upset at the wrong person. Manning is the one being held right now. why is the original messenger not being delt with. it seems Bradley aka(Chelsea) should be the one being arrested and extradited to US.
    --
    Some where on the black vein highways of America......
    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:54PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:54PM (#829105)

      Au contraire, it seems Clinton is the one who should be arrested and extradited to the US.

      • (Score: 1) by fx_68 on Sunday April 14 2019, @07:33AM

        by fx_68 (2719) on Sunday April 14 2019, @07:33AM (#829285) Homepage
        Clinton for Prison 2020 Drain the swamp limit Congress Members to 2 yrs
        --
        Some where on the black vein highways of America......
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:54PM (7 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:54PM (#829106) Journal

      That reminds me:

      Hillary Clinton: Assange must 'answer for what he has done' in wake of arrest [theguardian.com]

      “I think it is clear from the indictment that came out it’s not about punishing journalism,” Clinton said at an event in New York.

      Clinton said the issue was not one of press freedom, but “about assisting the hacking of a military computer to steal information from the United States government”.

      [...] “Look, I’ll wait and see what happens with the charges and how it proceeds, but he skipped bail in the UK,” Clinton said. “The bottom line is he has to answer for what he has done, at least as it’s been charged.”

      Clinton also took a swipe at Donald Trump, stating of her former rival: “I do think it’s a little ironic that [Assange] may be the only foreigner that this administration would welcome to the United States.”

      Sore loser couldn't #resist taking a swipe at Assange.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by PinkyGigglebrain on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:06PM (6 children)

        by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:06PM (#829111)

        Had to chuckle at Hilary's comment from the article you linked.

        .. citing in particular the impact of hacked emails published on WikiLeaks at pivotal moments in the campaign.

        Assange and Wikileaks didn't hack her email server or fabricate the emails she is complaining about.

        And wasn't the timing of the releases more the newspapers doing than Wikileaks?

        Wikileaks et all just let the world see what a bitch she really is.

        --
        "Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
        • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:49PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:49PM (#829129)

          Wikileaks et all just let the world see what a bitch she really is.

          Once again you BernieBros miss the point. It was her turn to be president, and Wikileaks colluded to steal the election from her.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:53PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:53PM (#829134)

          Wikileaks et all just let the world see what a bitch she really is.

          She may be a bitch, but Assange and his associate are the ones being arrested. Since Assange has skipped bail in the UK he will never be granted bail again. So he's going to be in custody for a long time.

          • (Score: 3, Touché) by legont on Sunday April 14 2019, @12:05AM

            by legont (4179) on Sunday April 14 2019, @12:05AM (#829175)

            Well, our president Mr Trump promised us to put Hilary in prison. He either delivers or we have two bitches to do next time.

            --
            "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
        • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @07:10PM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @07:10PM (#829457)

          Wikileaks et all just let the world see what a bitch she really is.

          Except they didn't. Clinton's emails were never hacked. The entire fucking state department was hacked, [esecurityplanet.com] but because clinton's emails were on a privately managed server run by security professionals, her stuff was secure.

          Its the emails from the DNC and Podesta's gmail account that were hacked. And there was basically nothing there. If there had been something actually serious, the nutjobs wouldn't have had to resort to ridiculous bad-faith bullshittery like pizzagate, "spirit cooking" and a couple of randos in the DNC blowing off steam about bernie.

          And wasn't the timing of the releases more the newspapers doing than Wikileaks?

          Literally no. Wikileaks dumped the DNC emails one hour after the trump "grab'em by the pussy" video came out. They obviously had everything primed and ready to go for whenever trump needed a distraction.

          The irony is that despite assange's red-hot burning hate for clinton, she never actually did anything to him. Assange's favored candidate is the one who has literally declared that the press is the enemy of the people and his first move to put a member of the press in jail was to arrest Assange. Don't be fooled, Assange is the first because he's an easy target who alienated the half of the country that actually cares about freedom of the press - and #cult45 just believes whatever their naked emperor tells them to, so he's got no social capital anymore. But Assange won't be the last.

          • (Score: 2) by Mykl on Monday April 15 2019, @04:19AM (1 child)

            by Mykl (1112) on Monday April 15 2019, @04:19AM (#829631)

            The irony is that despite assange's red-hot burning hate for clinton, she never actually did anything to him

            Except to ask senior Defence representatives to murder him by drone.

            • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @12:58PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @12:58PM (#829786)

              Except she didn't. As with all the breathless hype of assange's constant victim-narrative, that's just a bad-faith reading of what actually happened - in this case dark humor used to vent frustration.

              But you go ahead, keep right on playing the sucker to assange's gaslighting and blame clinton. I'm sure stroking that hillary boner is great comfort to assange while he sits in prison.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @03:21AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @03:21AM (#829220)

      There's a purely speculation story to this, but it could have some credence.
      April 4th, Manning's twitter said he was getting out of detention, a few hours later, wikileaks' twitter said that high level info suggest Assange was about to get arrested.
      It's possible Manning got a deal to help Assange get arrested, but it's still possible it's a just a coincidence of time lining up.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by PinkyGigglebrain on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:55PM (7 children)

    by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Saturday April 13 2019, @08:55PM (#829107)

    I sincerely doubt Assange has set up any kind of "panic button" but in the eyes of various hacker groups around the world Ecuador now has a big sign on their back reading "Kick Me!!".

    Right or wrong those groups will cause as much trouble as they can for Ecuador. Not to mention that it will also be a great cover for any other governments to hack Ecuador as well.

    I hope their networks are ready for it.

    --
    "Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:02PM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:02PM (#829109)

      Who would hack Ecuador? They are the very definition of a banana republic since their GDP consists of banana plantations, two burros and $3.54 of telephone calling cards.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:38PM (5 children)

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:38PM (#829121) Journal

        Obviously a funny, but:

        Ecuador twists embarrassing INA Papers into pretext to oust Assange [wikileaks.org]

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuador#Economy [wikipedia.org]

        Ecuador has a developing economy that is highly dependent on commodities, namely petroleum and agricultural products. The country is classified as an upper-middle-income country. Ecuador's economy is the eighth largest in Latin America and experienced an average growth of 4.6% between 2000 and 2006. From 2007 to 2012 Ecuador's GDP grew at an annual average of 4.3 percent, above the average for Latin America and the Caribbean, which was 3.5%, according to the United Nations' Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Ecuador was able to maintain relatively superior growth during the crisis. In January 2009 the Central Bank of Ecuador (BCE) put the 2010 growth forecast at 6.88%. In 2011 its GDP grew at 8% and ranked 3rd highest in Latin America, behind Argentina (2nd) and Panama (1st). Between 1999 and 2007, GDP doubled, reaching $65,490 million according to BCE.

        --
        [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
        • (Score: 2) by legont on Sunday April 14 2019, @12:08AM (3 children)

          by legont (4179) on Sunday April 14 2019, @12:08AM (#829177)

          Nice grows. Is it because they have Lenin for a president?

          --
          "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
          • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @02:40AM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @02:40AM (#829211)

            No it's because Correa was President. He had a degree in economics and applied it while President. I lived there during this time. If he ever comes to the USA I'd vote for him, citizen or not, the man knows the right way to run a country.

            • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @03:17AM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @03:17AM (#829218)

              What was the relationship between Correa and Moreno? They were in the same party, Moreno was groomed by Correa for the office, but then once it was "his turn" to take the presidency, he sells the country out to the Empire?

        • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday April 14 2019, @12:10AM

          by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday April 14 2019, @12:10AM (#829179) Homepage

          The IMF has them now. They were offered 4 billion in high-fructose corn syrup loans to abandon socialism and release Assange to the globo-homos.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by lars on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:09PM (4 children)

    by lars (4376) on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:09PM (#829112)

    Wikileaks released a bunch of encrypted insurance file torrents. As far as I know none have been decrypted so far.

    • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:38PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:38PM (#829120)

      The decryption key was released a few hours ago and it turns out the first file was a collection of naked Jennifer Lawrence pictures plus a few shots of Assange's cat.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:55PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @09:55PM (#829137)

      Those are just the feeding schedule for his cat. There is no schedule for scooping the cat's litter box because Assange doesn't believe it's necessary.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @10:30PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @10:30PM (#829144)

      This was my thought too ... which means he's still potentially one sentence away from pushing that button (punn intended). However it may also explain why now and why this way .. maybe that new NSA Data Center has finally found the key and shown the contents to the .gov's involved. Australia is also notably quiet considering previous press.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @07:23PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @07:23PM (#829460)

      Wikileaks released a bunch of encrypted insurance file torrents. As far as I know none have been decrypted so far.

      I'll give 10:1 odds they are nothing. Its going to turn out to be exactly the same as Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. He never had any, he just talked tough to keep neighboring countries from attacking.

      Assange's personality disorder makes him an effortless liar. In fact, there is good reason to believe that the charge he's been indicted on is actually just more bullshitting. [threadreaderapp.com] That he lied to Manning in order to keep them on the hook, and that he neither had the ability nor intention to decrypt the password. Assange just wanted to make Manning think he was well-resourced and on top of shit, instead of just being a poser. Assange possibly going to jail for fake-conspiring to hack a DoD password is like a near-perfect mini-analog of the US invading Iraq for Sadam's fake weapons of mass destruction.

      So its a good bet all those encrypted "insurance" files are just assange's baby pictures.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @01:14PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @01:14PM (#829355)

    it'z amazing how much sh1t doesn't make it into regular so-called "news".
    it's amazing how much wiki "leaks" have pulled the veil from the "gleichschaltung" and "mass brain washing" agenda of all so-called poster child "democracies".
    shame on ALL so called free press and mass media for having "curious and concerned" mind having to rely on wiki leaks for a glimpse of what the fuck is really going on.
    vote where it hurts and stop giving your money to them misnomed "news outlets" already.

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