this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
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Today I Learned

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Two of us, Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky, testified for Assange at his extradition hearing last year. In Ellsberg's words then, the WikiLeaks publications that Assange is being charged for are "amongst the most important truthful revelations of hidden criminal state behavior that have been made public in U.S. history." The American public "needed urgently to know what was being done routinely in their name, and there was no other way for them to learn it than by unauthorized disclosure."

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[–] YaaAsantewaa@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Assange isn't an American citizen, it's disturbing to see so many psychopaths out for blood for the simple crime of telling the truth, especially when he's not even a citizen of said country which sets a very disturbing precedent.

the US is falling into the trap Russia wants, and if we had intelligent leaders, they would drop the charges and move on from it. We know Afghanistan was a failure and we know why, it's not a mystery anymore and the US doesn't even deny any of the wikileaks accusations so this entire witch-hunt is just disturbing at this point and does nothing to give anyone any confidence in this country

[–] gowan@reddthat.com 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The crime he is alleged to have committed isn't "telling the truth". He is being pursued for playing an active part in the crimes that Chelsea Manning was convicted of. The US government alleges he told her which files to get and might have actually played part in obtaining them.

The US government is not pursuing charges against Assange merely for speech but rather they allege he took part in the crimes directly.

[–] YaaAsantewaa@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

That's called "telling the truth"

Just because you attempt to hide crimes doesn't mean people have no right to expose them, it's simply a matter of being upset someone found out

And like I said, the US doesn't even deny any of the leaks, so the only reason they want to persecute an innocent person is an overtly authoritarian show of force. If we're going to simply abandon our principles willy-nilly whenever we feel like it then we're not a democratic country

[–] gowan@reddthat.com 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It isn't an act of speech when you directly hack government computers. It is not an act of protected speech to direct people in how to perpetrate crimes.

The notion that he is being charged for speech rather than taking an active role in the crimes is false. You can see it in the charges themselves.

He is being prosecuted for alleged acts he has allegedly taken not for sharing the information obtained from those hacks.

[–] YaaAsantewaa@lemmy.blahaj.zone -5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Then you either work for the government or you're a Trump voter, there's no other option here

[–] gowan@reddthat.com 5 points 1 year ago

Or you really bad at thinking. That's the third and almost certain option as Im neither of those things.

The charges are public. You can see what he has been accused of. It is not a secret.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

"Telling the truth" and "Asking someone to steal classified information to be selectively revealed in order to further the interests of Russia" aren't identical concepts.

[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's a matter of intimidating possible future leakers.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Dude dropped a bunch of stuff from well before that. What's more they caught him editing the stuff he dropped to make it look like war crimes were committed, interfere in our elections, and to damage US relations with other countries.

Then they managed to to track some of his material back to the GRU. This is not the Pentagon Papers