WikiLeaks founder Assange may be near end of long fight to stay out of US

[justaprogressive]

Assange and his supporters argue he acted as a journalist to expose U.S. military wrongdoing and is protected under press freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Among the files published by WikiLeaks was video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.

“Julian has been indicted for receiving, possessing and communicating information to the public of evidence of war crimes committed by the U.S. government,” Stella Assange said. “Reporting a crime is never a crime.”

U.S. lawyers say Assange is guilty of trying to hack the Pentagon computer and that WikiLeaks’ publications created a “grave and imminent risk” to U.S. intelligence sources in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[snip]

“The drafters of the Espionage Act did not intend for publishers to fall within its ambit,” Stella Assange wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Unchallenged expert evidence showed that receipt and publication of state secrets is routine, and that there was an ‘unbroken practice of non-prosecution’ of publishers. The prosecution ‘crosses a new legal frontier’ and ‘breaks all legal precedents.’”

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/19/wikileaks-founder-assange-may-be-near-end-of-long-fight-to-stay-out-of-us-00142084

[calguy]

1. Someone needs to tell Stella Assange....

Hacking into the Pentagon computer system to steal and disseminate US secrets is a serious crime with serious consequences. Julian Assange had his hour of fame, and now the bill has come due. I for one would like to see this traitor die in a prison cell many decades from now.

[JohnSJ]

3. Exactly. He is no journalist, he is just a hacker who has been skirting

the law for years

[justaprogressive]

5. Why do you consider

being locked up for years at the behest of the US Government

NOT PUNISHMENT?

[calguy]

6. Avoiding prosecution is not punishment for the accused crimes

It's Assange himself who has been avoiding prosecution for his crimes. I have no pity for the hacker.

[justaprogressive]

7. He's not a hacker

he's a reporter!...and how would you know what a hacker vs. cracker is?

"one failed attempt to crack a password really enough to embroil Assange in a felony hacking case? "

He couldn't even break into YOUR computer

[calguy]

9. His entire Wikileaks was a hacking operation.

He's such a pathetic coward that he hid out in embassies avoiding arrest rather than face the consequences of his actions.
He was obviously able to fool you, but the rest of us see him for the low-rent criminal he is.
May he rot in jail for the next twenty years.

[justaprogressive]

11. I can see you bought

the government line....too bad for you and all of us

[calguy]

13. Whatever you say...

Assange will be extradited, tried, and convicted. Perhaps you can visit him in jail and cheer him up.
Have a good day.

[justaprogressive]

14. his crime is only

receiving stolen goods....the rest is BS.

Clearly it's been so long since you saw a real journalist
that you don't recognize one when you see one...


We'll see.

[calguy]

15. Bullshit on....

No one really cares.

[justaprogressive]

16. Your FOUR responses

belie your statement....

I merely still care about a just outcome.

[calguy]

18. I get it that you love the guy

But most of us just don't care about that. He's charged with seventeen counts of espionage, and he'll face those charges in a US court.
Anything you have to say about it is your opinion, and nothing else.
Again, have a nice day.

[Emrys]

19. Why should Assange be allowed to blatantly flaunt the UK's bail laws?

He shafted many allies by not observing the terms of his bail while under investigation for sexual misdemeanours and landing them with forfeiture of their bonds. Maybe you think someone should be able to shuck that off without having to stand to account, but I think you'll find you're in a minority. And you pretend to give a damn about "justice"?

His extended confinement to the Ecuadorian embassy was entirely his own choice. Trying to warp reality to blame anyone else for that is ridiculous and desperate.

If he thinks he was justified in what he did in relation to the non-rape-related charges, then let him defend them in court. Since he's been a craven Putin shill for many years, maybe Vlad can chip in for his defence.

[justaprogressive]

22. Yes..intersting you bring that up

That's WRONG information...

the Swedish government tried to do a quid pro quo with those FALSE allegations.

[Emrys]

30. WRONG, says you. FALSE, says you.

We've had people try to peddle that bullshit here before now, a few years ago. It didn't fly then.

[justaprogressive]

48. Right says you True says you

I've heard your types' peddling that BS for years.

[Emrys]

51. You have nothing, so you're resorting to neenerneenerneener. Pathetic.

Maybe your time would be better occupied responding to my earlier post where I called out a repeated lie of yours:

Here, in case you need help finding your way around:

You said:

sigh. As I prvsly stated

Assange has NO HACKING SKILLS. He had lists of commonly used passwords.

He could NEVER have broken even a blowfish encrypted password let alone a military hash.

Go build something, instead of tearing something down.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=18706471

I replied:

Utter B.S. Why do you seem to think you can type just anything?

Hacking

By 1987, aged 16, Assange had become a skilled hacker[44][45] under the name Mendax,[30][46][47] taken from Horace's splendide mendax (from Latin, "nobly untruthful" ).[41][48][37] Around this time, the police raided his mother's home and confiscated his equipment. According to Assange, "it involved some dodgy character who was alleging that we had stolen five hundred thousand dollars from Citibank". Ultimately, no charges were raised and his equipment was returned, but Assange "decided that it might be wise to be a bit more discreet".[30]

In 1988, Assange used social engineering to get the password to Australia's Overseas Telecommunications Commission's mainframes.[42][37] Assange had a self-imposed set of ethics: he did not damage or crash systems or data he hacked, and he shared information.[37][49][42] The Sydney Morning Herald later opined that he had become one of Australia's "most notorious hackers",[50] and The Guardian said that by 1991 he was "probably Australia's most accomplished hacker".[47] Assange's official biography on WikiLeaks called him Australia's "most famous ethical computer hacker",[51] and the earliest version said he "hacked thousands of systems, including the Pentagon" when he was younger.[51][52][53]

He and two others, known as "Trax" and "Prime Suspect", formed a hacking group called "the International Subversives".[30][54][46][47] According to NPR, David Leigh, and Luke Harding, Assange may have been involved in the WANK hack at NASA in 1989, but this has never been proven.[55][4][27]: 42  Assange called it "the origin of hacktivism", and the Swedish television documentary WikiRebels, which was made with Assange's cooperation, also hinted he was involved.[29] The WANK worm was also discussed in the opening chapter of Underground, a book for which Assange was the researcher.

In mid-1991, the three hackers began targeting MILNET,[52] a secret data network used by the US military, where Assange found reports he said showed the US military was hacking other parts of itself.[37] Assange found a backdoor and later said they "had control over it for two years."[47][52] In 2012, Ken Day, the former head of the Australian Federal Police computer crime team, said that there had been no evidence the International Subversives had hacked MILNET. In response to Assange's statements about accessing MILNET, Day said that "Assange may still be liable to prosecution for that act — if it can be proved."[56]

Assange wrote a program called Sycophant that allowed the International Subversives to conduct "massive attacks on the US military".[29] The International Subversives regularly hacked into systems belonging to a "who's who of the U.S. military-industrial complex"[37][57][58] and the network of Australia National University.[47][30][52][59] At Hack in the Box Security Conference in Malaysia, Assange later said he had been "a famous teenage hacker in Australia, and I’ve been reading generals’ emails since I was 17". Assange has attributed his motivation to this experience with power.[60][61]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange

Follow the Wikipedia references and you'll see among the sources cited is his one-time ally The Guardian.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=18706853

Not only does Assange have a near-lifelong international reputation as a hacker, he's actually boasted about it!

You're out of your depth. I've followed Wikileaks' career since its humble beginnings as an unspectacular platform allowing whistleblowers the protection of some anonymity. It was worthy but boring. Then, as prior colleagues of Assange have reported, he took it over, embarked on his power-mad ego trip, and got warned off by the Russians, hence why Wikileaks has never mined the rich field of Russian covert transgressions. And in doing so, Assange compromised the anonymity of a number of informants, contrary to the very aim Wikileaks was originally set up to pursue, and left them to hang or literally die, and for some weird reason, he's supposed to be worthy of sympathy? Give me a break.

Let me be plain: I'd prefer that some of the US charges against him hadn't been levelled as they do raise important issues about investigative journalism. But that is Assange's doing as he self-servingly muddied the waters by claiming a status he's never earned and conducted himself in a way no serious journalist should. That may set precedents that will be far-reaching. That is one thing I'll never forgive him for. But the blame is his and his alone.

[justaprogressive]

53. uh-huh following from the outside

I stand by my informed statement by assuring you:


the eleet don't brag, you'll never see them coming.

[Emrys]

54. Assange is clearly on record as bragging. See above.

As for my being "outside", you have no idea of my history of activism, which didn't just consist of tapping away at a keyboard and did lead to my arrest on a few occasions. But then I do try not to brag.

Now, how about addressing the other issues I raised, or are they too uncomfortable for you in the corner into which you've managed to back yourself?

[Torchlight]

24. I'd think the corollary is true as well.

"I can see you bought the hipster conspiracy line....too bad for you and all of us"

I'd call that six of one, and half a dozen of the other... and each as lacking in supporting evidence as the other.

[BannonsLiver]

34. I consider it a good start.

[justaprogressive]

4. Really?

In a pretrial hearing in Manning's case, prosecutors presented evidence that Manning had asked Assange—who was instant messaging with Manning under the name Nathaniel Frank—if he had experience cracking hashes. Assange allegedly responded that he possessed rainbow tables for that, and Manning sent him a hashed password string. According to Thursday's unsealed indictment, Assange followed up two days later asking for more information about the password, and writing that he'd had "no luck so far." The indictment further alleges that Assange actively encouraged Manning to gather even more information, after Manning said she had given all she had.

It's not clear if Assange ever successfully cracked the password. According to the indictment, that password would have given Manning administrative privileges on SIPRNet, allowing her to pull more files from it while concealing the traces of her leaks from investigators.

Is one failed attempt to crack a password really enough to embroil Assange in a felony hacking case? "For the CFAA, unfortunately yes," says Jeffrey Vagle, a former University of Pennsylvania law professor and current affiliate scholar at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. He points to a long history of using the overly expansive wording of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to hit hackers accused of even trivial acts with serious charges. "The fact that his involvement is de minimus isn't enough to stop an indictment, because the CFAA is just so broad."

From April 2019:

https://www.wired.com/story/julian-assange-arrest-indictment-hacking-cfaa/

[comradebillyboy]

2. Lock him up.....

[justaprogressive]

8. has been locked up for years

[MarineCombatEngineer]

10. He needs to be extradicted, tried in a US court and if, convicted,

be sent to Florence ADX in Colorado for the rest of his life.

[justaprogressive]

12. Neither he, nor our country

Needs This!

Is one failed attempt to crack a password really enough to embroil Assange in a felony hacking case? "For the CFAA, unfortunately yes," says Jeffrey Vagle, a former University of Pennsylvania law professor and current affiliate scholar at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. He points to a long history of using the overly expansive wording of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to hit hackers accused of even trivial acts with serious charges. "The fact that his involvement is de minimus isn't enough to stop an indictment, because the CFAA is just so broad."

https://www.wired.com/story/julian-assange-arrest-indictment-hacking-cfaa/

[MarineCombatEngineer]

21. One failed attempt is one too many,

suppose he had managed to crack the password? What do you think he would've done with the highly sensitive and top secret information he now had at his fingertips?
He would have disseminated it all over the internet, thereby putting our intelligence agencies, and our humint sources in grave danger.

I have zero sympathy for him and his cohort.

[justaprogressive]

23. sigh. As I prvsly stated

Assange has NO HACKING SKILLS. He had lists of commonly used passwords.

He could NEVER have broken even a blowfish encrypted password let alone a military hash.

Go build something, instead of tearing something down.

[Emrys]

35. Utter B.S. Why do you seem to think you can type just anything?

Hacking

By 1987, aged 16, Assange had become a skilled hacker[44][45] under the name Mendax,[30][46][47] taken from Horace's splendide mendax (from Latin, "nobly untruthful&quot .[41][48][37] Around this time, the police raided his mother's home and confiscated his equipment. According to Assange, "it involved some dodgy character who was alleging that we had stolen five hundred thousand dollars from Citibank". Ultimately, no charges were raised and his equipment was returned, but Assange "decided that it might be wise to be a bit more discreet".[30]

In 1988, Assange used social engineering to get the password to Australia's Overseas Telecommunications Commission's mainframes.[42][37] Assange had a self-imposed set of ethics: he did not damage or crash systems or data he hacked, and he shared information.[37][49][42] The Sydney Morning Herald later opined that he had become one of Australia's "most notorious hackers",[50] and The Guardian said that by 1991 he was "probably Australia's most accomplished hacker".[47] Assange's official biography on WikiLeaks called him Australia's "most famous ethical computer hacker",[51] and the earliest version said he "hacked thousands of systems, including the Pentagon" when he was younger.[51][52][53]

He and two others, known as "Trax" and "Prime Suspect", formed a hacking group called "the International Subversives".[30][54][46][47] According to NPR, David Leigh, and Luke Harding, Assange may have been involved in the WANK hack at NASA in 1989, but this has never been proven.[55][4][27]: 42  Assange called it "the origin of hacktivism", and the Swedish television documentary WikiRebels, which was made with Assange's cooperation, also hinted he was involved.[29] The WANK worm was also discussed in the opening chapter of Underground, a book for which Assange was the researcher.

In mid-1991, the three hackers began targeting MILNET,[52] a secret data network used by the US military, where Assange found reports he said showed the US military was hacking other parts of itself.[37] Assange found a backdoor and later said they "had control over it for two years."[47][52] In 2012, Ken Day, the former head of the Australian Federal Police computer crime team, said that there had been no evidence the International Subversives had hacked MILNET. In response to Assange's statements about accessing MILNET, Day said that "Assange may still be liable to prosecution for that act — if it can be proved."[56]

Assange wrote a program called Sycophant that allowed the International Subversives to conduct "massive attacks on the US military".[29] The International Subversives regularly hacked into systems belonging to a "who's who of the U.S. military-industrial complex"[37][57][58] and the network of Australia National University.[47][30][52][59] At Hack in the Box Security Conference in Malaysia, Assange later said he had been "a famous teenage hacker in Australia, and I’ve been reading generals’ emails since I was 17". Assange has attributed his motivation to this experience with power.[60][61]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange

Follow the Wikipedia references and you'll see among the sources cited is his one-time ally The Guardian.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

43. Utter bullshit,

as shown below your post, Assange was a hacker, even if he wasn't, he was trying to get highly sensitive US Govt. information to disseminate on the internet, thereby doing grave damage to our intelligence agencies and our human sources, foreign and domestic.

Fuck him and the horse he and his partner in crime rode in on and if he's convicted, he should be remanded to the Supermax prison in Florence, CO. for the rest of his miserable life.
Can I be any clearer?

[Emrys]

20. He hid in the Ecuadorian embassy for years while failing to observe his bail conditions.

Then he was arrested and held to account for that crime, and now faces extradition on different charges.

As a Brit, I resent your seeming idea that he should be above my country's laws

[justaprogressive]

25. Do you have any idea

what asylum is?

[Emrys]

31. I do.

Do you?

[justaprogressive]

32. Julian requested and was granted political asylum by the country of Ecuador.

Former Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno terminated Julian’s rights of asylum as a political refugee, in violation of international law. He then authorized London Metropolitan Police to enter the Ecuadorian Embassy — diplomatically sanctioned sovereign territory — to arrest a naturalized citizen of Ecuador. Moreno’s government, which revoked Julian’s citizenship, was granted a large loan by the International Monetary Fund for its assistance. Donald Trump, by demanding Julian’s extradition under the Espionage Act, criminalized journalism, in much the same way Woodrow Wilson did when he shut down socialist publications such as The Masses.

https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/18/chris-hedges-the-imminent-extradition-of-julian-assange-and-the-death-of-journalism/

[Emrys]

33. And in April 2019, Ecuador rescinded Assange's asylum and revoked his Ecuadoran citizenship.

I'd describe that as a point, and a salient one.

We can go on like this all night, it won't persuade anyone.

[justaprogressive]

36. Payoff.

Former Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno terminated Julian’s rights of asylum as a political refugee, in violation of international law. He then authorized London Metropolitan Police to enter the Ecuadorian Embassy — diplomatically sanctioned sovereign territory — to arrest a naturalized citizen of Ecuador. Moreno’s government, which revoked Julian’s citizenship, was granted a large loan by the International Monetary Fund for its assistance. Donald Trump, by demanding Julian’s extradition under the Espionage Act, criminalized journalism, in much the same way Woodrow Wilson did when he shut down socialist publications such as The Masses.

https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/18/chris-hedges-the-imminent-extradition-of-julian-assange-and-the-death-of-journalism/

[Emrys]

37. The revoking and rescindment are facts.

Hedges chooses to sidestep, rather clumsily, his citizenship being revoked.

Start a legal case against Ecuador if you disapprove.

It's not generally the highest-regarded country in the world in terms of foreign relations and has some convoluted agendas, as your own link proves, but when it made decisions you approved of, it was just hunky-dory.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

44. And they rescinded it, which is Ecuador's absolute right to do so,

so your post is irrelevant.

[justaprogressive]

45. not exactly

Former Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno terminated Julian’s rights of asylum as a political refugee, in violation of international law. He then authorized London Metropolitan Police to enter the Ecuadorian Embassy — diplomatically sanctioned sovereign territory — to arrest a naturalized citizen of Ecuador. Moreno’s government, which revoked Julian’s citizenship, was granted a large loan by the International Monetary Fund for its assistance. Donald Trump, by demanding Julian’s extradition under the Espionage Act, criminalized journalism, in much the same way Woodrow Wilson did when he shut down socialist publications such as The Masses.

[LeftInTX]

58. Oh jeez... that's not true...

[LeftInTX]

65. Assange is an Australian citizen. He's not a political refugee. He's not being persecuted. He's being prosecuted.

Dual citizenship is a privilege, not a right.

Granting citizenship to avoid prosecution is does not make someone a political refugee. Let's say I decided to join a terrorist group, so I fled and became citizen of Iran. Would I be considered a political refugee or a fugitive using citizenship to avoid extradition ? Ecuador has a right to revoke his citizenship.

[NorseSaxonCelt]

66. Hopefully once he leaves prison,

He can be handed to the Australian authorities, and they can decide his future. He isn't British so he shouldn't be our problem, once he leaves prison.

[BannonsLiver]

17. Boo hoo

[justaprogressive]

26. For the

Fourth Estate

[BannonsLiver]

39. The fourth estate is just fine

Certainly better off than this pro Putin clown will be once he’s exterminated…I mean extradited.

[TheRickles]

27. Thanks for trying, justaprogressive. Here's an article that summarizes the case for freeing Assange:

It's long but worth a skim, as it shows the many holes in the case against him:

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/julian-assanges-final-appeal-read?utm_source=substack&publication_id=778851&post_id=141836346&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true&r=5hvu6|

[leftstreet]

29. +1

[Prairie Gates]

28. He should have requested extraction from his Russian handlers like Snowden did

Snooze ya lose!

[TakeItEasy]

38. Assange has proven to be a political hack

That being the case, I look forward to him getting what's coming to him.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

40. This asshole broke the law and needs to face justice

[joshcryer]

41. If he just faced his rape charge many years ago he would be in AU right now.

Cowardly rapist couldn't do the right thing and face the consequences of his actions and now the US is going to lock him away and throw away the key.

[justaprogressive]

47. You mean the FAKE

rape charges whose only intent was to force Assange to Sweden, that,
unlike the UK, would happily turn him over to the CIA.

Since there was no evidence, and it was just a not-too-subtle trick anyway,
the charges mysteriously disappeared.

Talk about not so subtle tricks...Who was it that sent a box of exploding cigars to Castro?

Assassination Archives:

http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/ir/html/ChurchIR_0052a.htm

[Emrys]

52. How the fuck dare you dismiss allegations of rape as "FAKE"?

There was indeed evidence, the testimony of two women. Assange could have agreed to an interview in the Ecuadorian embassy to help to clear up any possible doubt as the Swedish authorities eventually offered him, but he chose not to do so.

The charges didn't "mysteriously disappear" - Assange, by hiding in the embassy, ran out the Swedish statute of limitations. It's hard not to see that as part of his motivation for seeking refuge. Who do you think you're fooling with this insulting nonsensical attempted rewriting of history?

As for Sweden being more likely to hand Assange over than the UK, maybe you've never learned about the imbalances between the UK and US in terms of international legal considerations and how craven the UK generally is in the face of US pressure. Your proposition is laughable.

[justaprogressive]

55. I didn't dismiss them

— August 2010: Swedish prosecutors issue an arrest warrant for Assange based on one woman’s allegation of rape and another’s allegation of molestation. The warrant is withdrawn shortly afterward, with prosecutors citing insufficient evidence for the rape allegation. Assange denies the allegations.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/timeline-assange-legal-saga-makes-final-bid-avoid-107362165

It's true they reopened the case, presumably at the behest of the US, knowing his final destination,

Mr. Assange sought political asylum.

[Emrys]

56. Calling them "FAKE" is absolutely dismissing them, and is disgraceful.

To take just one case, Assange had non-consensual penetrative sex with a woman he was involved with. She went to the Swedish authorities because she was worried and wanted him to have an AIDS test to reassure her, but he had refused to do so and in fact never complied. That's pretty shitty conduct on his part.

The authorities applied Swedish law, which defines what she said happened as rape, then mounted an investigation. Your continual painting of the Swedes as being pawns of the US does your argument no favours, nor do your continual attempts to paint Assange as some sort of blameless victim while displaying no concern for those left in his selfish wake.

[TheRickles]

42. Here is The Guardian's editorial in support of Assange - short, and to the point.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/18/the-guardian-view-on-julian-assange-why-he-should-not-be-extradited|

[justaprogressive]

46. yes

I posted it earlier...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218706546

[TheRickles]

49. Sorry, I missed it. Oh well...

Gotta say that I'm surprised and disappointed to see how much negativity your comments have generated, esp. here on DU.

[justaprogressive]

50. truthfully...

I didn't expect it either, however I see that there are still guerillas here who rec
my posts.. even if they dare not comment.

no worries, the more people read it the better... :hu.g:

[MarineCombatEngineer]

57. LOL.

You got 4, count em, 4 recs., that alone should indicate that your thread is not very well received here on DU.
But hey, you just keep on defending someone who's purpose was to attempt to steal and disseminate highly classified information from the US Govt. for the purpose of damaging the US and it's allies along with human sources.

As I clearly stated earlier, fuck him and the horse he rode in on and AFAIC, if convicted, hopefully, he's sent to the federal SuperMax prison in Florence, CO. to spend the rest of his miserable life in solitary confinement.

[justaprogressive]

60. see you just don't notice things, do you?

Probably just as well....

[MarineCombatEngineer]

61. Please, don't kid yourself,

I see things quite clearly on what you're trying to do here, you're being very transparent.

I see it's still at 4, that should tell you something.

[Happy Hoosier]

64. And completely wrong. NT

[Xolodno]

59. Assanage is an egotistical asshole.

But an espionage case is going to be difficult as he wasn't working with any nation. And got a some of his info from a willing military intelligence officer. He probably broke some US law and will face the music for that, but he's not going to Super Max as some have clamored for. He'll do his time and then get sent back to Australia where he will be under a lot of watchful eyes.

[Happy Hoosier]

63. Coordinating with Foreign Adversaries....

while posing as a "publisher" is not protected.

Fuck Assange and his apologists. That man has caused immeasurable damage to this country and boosted Putin.