Path: ...!3.eu.feeder.erje.net!feeder.erje.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Adam H. Kerman" Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv Subject: Obama ends pursuit of Julian Assange Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2024 13:47:36 -0000 (UTC) Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 56 Message-ID: Injection-Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2024 15:47:37 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="971c47f6bca1cd19772910afa9f9e6ea"; logging-data="1662812"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18y3kgHkl9MScMfximPoDCs/hBdnh/vKOM=" Cancel-Lock: sha1:GEG2/rVSxmQptPXxfGhmxdnGff0= X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test77 (Sep 1, 2010) Bytes: 3833 Just heard on the news that the United States government has entered into a plea deal with Julian Assange. Assange is allowed to plead guilty to one count of violating the Espionage Act, that vile law written on behalf of the Wilson administration by Congress to silence critics of WW1 and America's involvement in that horrid European war, that has been used by subsequent administrations in all sorts of creative ways to silence critics of America's war policies and just generally to intimidate people into silence. Even though the Supreme Court's discredited opinion in Schenck is no longer law of the land, the Espionage Act has never been found to be unconstitutional. For reasons I'll never understand, the Obama administration was particularly harsh against government whistleblowers, always finding ways around whistleblower protection laws by prosecuting all leaks as theft of government property. Bradley Manning, who actually leaked the material to Assange, had his criminal charges resolved years ago, but Assange's were never resolved. In this matter, rather than leaving the shame of this as a historical embarassment and discredit to Obama, Trump did Obama's dirty work and actually filed criminal charges against Assange. The deal is "time served", which Assange had served in UK custody. In odd symbolism as Assange won't set foot in the Washington DC, the arrangement has been made to allow Assange to enter his plea before a federal magistrate in Saipan and then from there, proceed to Australia. This is totally meaningless as there are no issues with extradition to the United States from Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, which is not an independent nation. But it's as close to Australia as Assange can get in territory with United States jurisdiction, so it makes him feel better or something. He's still an arrogant prick, and those "removal of condom" charges with all those women in Sweden he had sex with but who didn't want to get pregnant with his child, were truly criminal acts. He was accused of re-initiating sex without a condom after she'd fallen asleep having had consensual sex with him, truly a rape charge. Yes, by publishing everything Manning leaked, Assange had put lives in danger, but no one believes Obama cared about that. It was strictly about embarassment. Americans have freedom to publish anything they like, except information embarassing to the government, despite the guarantee of this specific liberty as an enumerated right in the First Amendment. It's against the law to publish, even if our enemies already have the information, even if the information is known publicly, even if the information were classified for no other reason than conspiracy to cover up wrongdoing. The unconstitutional Espionage Act lives to put future whistleblowers in prison another day. https://apnews.com/article/assange-justice-department-plea-wikileaks-saipan-australia-00eb380879ff636cc9b916f82f82ed40