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Ecuador has granted citizenship to Julian Assange as its government attempts to find creative ways of getting Assange out of the Ecuadorean embassy in London:
Ecuador says it has granted citizenship to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, as officials try to find a way for him to leave the Ecuadorean embassy in London without risking legal action.
Assange, who is Australian, first sought refuge at the embassy more than five years ago to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced an investigation over rape allegations. He was granted asylum, and has been holed up in the embassy ever since.
The original case against him has been dropped, but Assange remains inside the embassy. "He is still subject to arrest in Britain for jumping bail," The Associated Press notes. "He also fears a possible U.S. extradition request based on his leaking of classified State Department documents."
"Earlier this week, Ecuador said the situation was unsustainable and requested diplomatic status for Assange in hopes of springing him," NPR's Frank Langfitt reports from London. "A British government spokesman responded: 'Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice.'"
Also at The Guardian.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 13 2018, @11:17PM (23 children)
Bradley Manning was a traitor. I would normally say that somebody like that deserved to have his balls chopped off, but in his case... maybe we ought to sew them back on!
His embassy cable leak led to that whole Syrian civil war. His embassy cable leak was a major factor in the rise of ISIS and in the creation of the refugee crisis. So many people have died because of him.
His gun camera video leak, the "collateral murder" video, got edited into a misleading story that was intended to paint American soldiers as wild blood-thirsty killers. It's clear if you view the full unedited video and have an understanding of the tactics being used on that battlefield, where unmarked vans were being used to support the non-American side, and where a GIGANTIC camera lens peeking from around a corner looks a damn lot like an RPG launcher.
Of course, we can blame Assange for editing that video to tell the fictional story he wanted to tell.
(Score: 5, Informative) by beckett on Saturday January 13 2018, @11:28PM (8 children)
Manning's leak occurred in 2013.
ISIS was founded in 1999, when Manning was 12 years old.
And the 'major factor' in the 'rise of ISIS' was the 2003 invasion of Iraq by US Forces and the toppling of Saddam Hussein regime.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @12:21AM (2 children)
ISIS couldn't control massive amounts of territory in Syria until the legit government found itself in trouble due to riots and rebels... that were set off by Bradley Manning's leak of the embassy cables to wikileaks.
I don't deny that the situation in Iraq was also a major factor. We also shouldn't deny that a certain religion is prone to such things. There can be multiple factors.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by beckett on Sunday January 14 2018, @08:05AM
...the Saddam Husein regime was toppled by US forces in and a power vacuum formed in Iraq.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @06:08PM
idk what stupid fuck is modding this brainwashed bastard as a troll but you are a dumb ass. the op is obviously not trolling.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Sunday January 14 2018, @12:23AM
Specifically, that invasion put most of the surviving military personnel in Iraq out of work. Who then proceeded across the border into Syria and into the waiting arms of ISIS. Which might be the reason ISIS was as successful militarily as they were - they had people who knew what they were doing, as opposed to the usual incompetence seen from terrorist groups trying to do larger-scale operations. It would not be unreasonable to see the ISIS invasion of Iraq as an attempted reconquest by the people who had been beaten by the US.
The good news now is that ISIS is pretty close to finished as an actual military threat: They've lost most of their former territory in both Iraq and Syria, and basically consist of a few pockets in places where the government control is lacking.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday January 14 2018, @12:52AM (3 children)
And the 'major factor' in the 'rise of ISIS' was the 2003 invasion of Iraq by US Forces and the toppling of Saddam Hussein regime.
And their financing and arming through Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Libya (the real Benghazi story). Make no mistake, all of ISIS and Al Qaeda arose from outside funding for other objectives. And I have to admit, they have been very successful so far. Business is booming, so to speak.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @06:34AM (2 children)
You seem to have missed out America from your funded by list. I'm sure that it is just a clerical error and will be corrected later.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday January 14 2018, @03:10PM
Goes without mentioning. Yes, 115 bil ain't chump change [reuters.com] (guess who is taking credit for that now [brookings.edu]) It's already understood that the US and Europe, and Russia, and China are the major players, and Brazil, India, Pakistan, etc certainly have a small piece of the action. But, if you read my post, it said that the terrorists are being funded through the Saudis, Turkey, Libya, Egypt (which I also left out), etc. Sorry if I can't remember them all.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @06:11PM
where not reading the op gets your commentardia modded insightful...
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anal Pumpernickel on Sunday January 14 2018, @12:48AM (11 children)
You make all these claims without presenting even a shred of evidence, just like a typical bootlicker. You see the same tactic used by government-worshiping media pundits, where they spew forth claims like this without evidence in the hopes that the foolish average person will believe it.
Of course, even if that were true, the blame would fall solely on those who committed war crimes and other sketchy actions, because without them there would be no need to blow the whistle on anything.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Sunday January 14 2018, @01:03AM (8 children)
they spew forth claims like this without evidence in the hopes that the foolish average person will believe it.
Well, you should notice by the people who are nominated and (re)elected to congress and the presidency that the *average person* does believe the bullshit. If the *average person* demanded evidence and acted accordingly, it would be a whole different world out there.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Informative) by Pav on Sunday January 14 2018, @02:28AM (7 children)
I'm not so negative on the "average person". When people are polled issue by issue the majority actually would be considered "far left" in the American context. Why do people still vote for mainstream parties when they outside of their catchments? Well, firstly, half don't. Also, actual voters take on the "spoiler" argument and don't vote for third parties ie. the "least worst" option which, along with money in politics, has lead to a slide to the right.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Sunday January 14 2018, @03:28AM (2 children)
Also, there's substantial evidence that even when a majority of voters want the candidate that's "far left", strings are pulled to ensure that a different candidate will represent the supposedly left-wing party.
For instance, 110,000 or so New Yorkers, who almost all just happened to be Sanders supporters, had their voter registrations destroyed or altered so they were no longer eligible to vote in the 2016 Democratic primary. There was a criminal case brought, which was settled with a very serious promise to never do that again, although doing this was a felony.
Or, in Florida, after substantial questions came up about Debbie Wasserman-Schultz winning the 2016 primary in a statistically unlikely fashion, the ballots were destroyed while a case was pending that would have allowed her opponent's campaign to examine them. So far, no criminal case has been brought even though doing this was a felony.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @04:21PM (1 child)
Hey, the democrats are good! They have the whole world convinced the the republicans did all the fraud, and all that was done was to expose DNC crimes that indeed should be prosecuted. Too bad we can't add 'projection' to that list...
Trump is a dick, but the democrats are damn thugs, and their history backs that up, first being the southern racists they still are, and also allying themselves with the worker gangs (union bosses) up north to shake down small mining, trucking, and drilling companies. They are true gangsters in every sense of the word. Their so-called 'civil rights' crusade from the 60s is as phony as a three dollar bill. But it keeps the dumbass 'liberals' and their cash in the barn, doesn't it? And if you show them a mirror, and they become even more tribal than a Trump supporter. But that's where the problem is... with the voters, hardly matters which party
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 15 2018, @01:31AM
Wow... way to miss the point.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @04:08PM (3 children)
ORLY? The polls done by the same pollsters that had polls predicting a Clinton win?
Maybe these pollsters were doing more polls where they could get their soy lattes than way out in the boondocks.
Or these polls were actually bullshit "polls" that were more about influencing voters than actually polling voters.
See: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/sam-wang-princeton-election-consortium-poll-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-victory-a7399671.html [independent.co.uk]
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/07/politics/political-prediction-market-hillary-clinton-donald-trump/index.html [cnn.com]
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-poll/clinton-has-90-percent-chance-of-winning-reuters-ipsos-states-of-the-nation-idUSKBN1322J1 [reuters.com]
https://www.thewrap.com/every-poll-that-got-election-wrong-donald-trump/ [thewrap.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 15 2018, @12:58AM
The data was not wrong, which is reflected in the popular vote. Their interpretation of the data was wrong, since most of them failed to account for the electoral college, which is what allowed Trump to win.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Monday January 15 2018, @01:15AM (1 child)
So a country who has had (under the neoliberal policies of of both the left and right) half of its population become ceither poor or in poverty isn't for shifting tax back up to the wealthy (ie. to "Happy Days" levels - eg. 90% for the top marginal rate)? Isn't for a $15 minimum wage? Isn't for ending the war on drugs? Isn't for medicare for all? Isn't for free college tuition? Isn't for curbing foreign wars?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 15 2018, @01:36AM
Nope, they aren't. They're too worried about identity politics, gay marriage, famous guys groping famous girls, merry fucking christmas, and just about every other irrelevant distraction one can imagine.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @03:45AM (1 child)
ISIS formed in the aftermath of the second US invasion of Iraq. They were a mere annoyance, not on the verge of being a country.
Bradley Manning comes along, leaks out diplomatic cables via wikileaks, and all Hell breaks loose all across the Middle East. Normal people got to see our unflattering descriptions of corrupt leaders. Numerous countries had riots, some of those turned into civil war or revolution, some of those resulted in new governments, and out of that... one country managed to get a clearly better government. Lots of people died.
One of the places with a failed revolution is Syria. The resulting mess gave ISIS room to grow. ISIS filled a power vacuum. ISIS started to take on attributes of a country. They probably would have become a full-fledged country if they hadn't threatened Saudi Arabia and others.
Without the leak, Syria wouldn't have collapsed. Without the available territory, ISIS would have remained a small group of annoying rebels running around in Iraq.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anal Pumpernickel on Sunday January 14 2018, @05:45AM
The post hoc fallacy, huh?
You can't even make a probability argument because you don't have enough data to even reach a conclusion about how probable this claiming being true actually is.
Once again, no evidence. Can you look into alternate dimensions or something?
And again, the government should not take actions that necessitate whistleblowing if it does not want people to blow the whistle on them. Not attacking civilians, not conducting mass surveillance on the populace, not fighting preemptive wars in the first place, etc. are all decent ways of avoiding this. Blaming the messengers is foolish, even generously assuming you're correct. Which, again, you have no evidence of.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 14 2018, @01:11AM (1 child)
I agree, in essence, but you give Manning more "credit" than he deserves. His actions contributed to all the evil you cite, but you can't really call Manning the "major factor".
But, your post does point up one of my difficulties with Assange. Julian did edit that gunship video, to make things look worse than reality. Basically, I support Assange, but he has his dishonest streak. I suspect some of that dishonesty stems from ignorance, and some of it stems from antipathy toward our government. But, journalists get away with that kind of shit all the time. Still - freedom of the press, and all of that.
Manning is a criminal, Assange is a political prisoner. I think we can agree on that.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @06:18PM
i think one of the main reasons manning is so well known is because it's a psyop. they picked the most minority/disagreeable to the masses person they could find out of their yearly corral of leakers/traitors/fuck ups/whatever and made sure we all learned the name and face. now when the normals think of "leakers" they think "bunch of freaks/subversives/traitors".