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© 2024 AFPAssange says he 'pleaded guilty to journalism' to gain freedom
By Adrien Vicente, Tom Barfield and Stuart Williams STRASBOURG/PARIS©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
32 Comments
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Hercolobus
There is your democracy, freedom, and liberty.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Better than the face of a country with clapping penguins, concentration camps, and bullying coast guard ships.
TokyoLiving
Little by little the world is waking up to the dark, criminal, globalist intentions of the self-proclaimed "champion" of freedom..
What a farce of country..
Fighto!
How can one be "kicked out of their home country"? Very curious.
bass4funk
I find that strange as well
TaiwanIsNotChina
I was referring to US territory but the UK is interested in preventing leaking as well.
albaleo
What about the governments of other countries? I'm not a great fan of Assange, but it seems weird to me that his actions in the UK have to abide by US law.
bass4funk
Absolutely!
What are you talking about?
Now ask me if I care. ROFL!
True
Sometimes
Wrong.
Kremlin? You’re really digging desperately now. But what does this have anything to do with Assange?
TaiwanIsNotChina
As a resident of a nonfree country, I'm not sure you have room to talk.
Zaphod
The persecution Assange is a huge stain on American promises of democray and freedom of speech. I am glad he survived it, and yes, uncontrolled journalism is a crime in the eyes of the Ministry of Truth.
Destin Skye
bass4funk, why the hapless futility? You know, like everyone here knows, that as soon as anyone sees your name, they downvote without even having to read your American Republican drivel.
You're not Japanese, you're not in Japan, you have shown you have absolutely no interest in anything Japan. And I am quite surprised the moderators at Japan Today have not simply banned you outright for being a brazen propagandist who takes money from the Kremlin as laid out in the Justice Department report.
Destin Skye
Assange is not a journalist, he has never worked as a journalist, he's never even pretended to be a journalist, he never went to journalism school or even college. He is, however, a career criminal who was kicked out of his home country of Australia and is what caused him further trouble on the lam in Sweden where he committed a string of further crimes before committing the crime of the century in assisting Rupert Murdoch, his mentor, to get Vladimir Putin to overturn the 2016 election. That's a fact, and another undeniable fact is that I'm a better hacker than Assange and Snowden combined.
Legion of Doom
TaiwanIsNotChina
So he is the only guy able to update his website? Not exactly a stunningly effective organization is it?
TokyoLiving
Thanks Mister Assange for showing to the world the dirty rotten pots of the good old US..
bass4funk
They have, let’s move on.
By that standard the msm doing it every 12 seconds.
theFu
Publishing non-validated files isn't journalism. The lack of fact checking is the issue. Of course, validating facts that are govt secrets is nearly impossible.
Embarrassing the USGovt isn't a bad thing, if it is true. We(the US) need some of that from time to time. The source of the data matters. It is easy to change the meaning of a file with just a few key word changes, so if every page isn't compared to the true sources, only people with access to both will know what is and isn't modified.
I have no belief that Assange altered any of the files. Rather, the people who provided them to him likely had motives that are suspect and good reason to slightly modify parts of the files for their own purposes.
I put wikileaks in the same grouping as Twitter or Facebook or other social networks. Journalists have a responsibility beyond dumping files.
Assange shouldn't have been hunted so hard, but he did need some penalty for irresponsible, cough, journalism. No way was he going to be assassinated. That's total bunk.
bass4funk
Patriots don't try to throw down democratic governments. Simple as.
Yes, and I wouldn’t, that’s why I’m so opposed to this admin and the swamp.
wallace
He was in prison.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Assange is such a great journalist his website hasn't been updated since 2021.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Patriots don't try to throw down democratic governments. Simple as.
sunfunbun
Assange is over the top and zealous, but he is not wrong.
The American government does a lot of terrible things ‘for the USA’ and to maintain their idea of freedom. It certainly isn’t clean, dirty, but necessary things happen.
I understand the government’s take on Assange, but Wikileaks brought forward many truths.
Opinion on this matter is polarizing, but Wikileaks was about transparency and, yes, true freedom of speech. I support Assange.
And I get the need for security of information due to human nature of POV good and bad.
We always need to be aware that no one plays by the rules in totality, and enemies are part of that nature, so fire for fire, an eye for an eye is a human weakness that will exist as long as humanity exists.
pragmatically, locking up Assange had to be done in the eyes of America, but as an idea, Assange is right. 100%.
sunfunbun
Oh boy is this a naive statement, or what? Go back to all the lies Fox News has said and not taken responsibility for.
It happens daily.
bass4funk
Ahhh, you don’t get to call me anything. I’m definitely a patriot and bleed red, white and blue, but I think our ruling establishment swamp rats deserve and should be exposed.
Yes, once the swamp is abolished we can have a functioning government again, but never when these American hating politicians undermine the American people and all laws and institutions
TaiwanIsNotChina
Cheering for failure is not the activity of a patriot. There will be no government but the one under the US Constitution.
bass4funk
I agree.
And that is the reason why they wanted to bury the guy. He had so much dirt on the government and exposing that would have embarrassed them as well as casted doubts about the competency and integrity of the U.S. government.
John
And also because he was guilty AF and couldn’t abide the possible consequences.
TaiwanIsNotChina
The world doesn't need more hackers and people abusing freedom of the press to target the US only.
Alfie Noakes
Strange article. Why does it not mention any of what Assange actually said yesterday? He said that the CIA tried to assassinate him within the Ecuadorian embassy, tried to attain DNA from his sixth-month-old son, had a CIA asset permanently track his wife, and attempted to hack and plant false information.
https://x.com/Ultrafrog17/status/1841154903537811492
"We revealed the CIA's vast production of malware and viruses, it's subversion of supply chains...CIA Director Pompeo launched a campaign of retribution… It is now a matter of public record that under Pompeo's explicit direction, the CIA drew up plans to kidnap and to assassinate me within the Ecuadorian embassy in London and authorize going after my European colleagues, subjecting us to theft, hacking attacks, and the planting of false information. My wife and my infant son were also targeted. A CIA asset…was permanently assigned to track my wife, and instructions were given to obtain DNA from my six month old son's Nappy… This is the testimony of more than thirty current and former US intelligence officials speaking to the US press, which has been additionally corroborated by record seized in a prosecution bought against some of the CIA agents involved… The CIA's targeting of myself my family, and my associates through aggressive extrajudicial and extraterritorial means provides a rare insight into how powerful intelligence organizations engage in transnational repression. Such repressions are not unique. What is unique is that we know so much about this one due to numerous whistleblowers and to judicial investigations in Spain."
Assange is an absolute hero, a true legend of journalism. The world needs more like him.
JJE
That's correct - the record shows him exposing shocking mass US war crimes against innocents, the coverup and corruption in general
Sanjinosebleed
Disgusting treatment for reporting the naked truth. More US hypocrisy on show!
Underworld
Assange was never a journalist. A journalist takes responsibility for what they publish.
TaiwanIsNotChina
That's not what the record shows and not what he did.