Oh wait, the article says the guy's name is Mark Stephens. But I'm still suspicious...
Posted on 12/16/2010 5:45:00 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
International man of intrigue Julian Assange barely had a moment to catch his breath from the last charges against him, but now is prepared for the US to have their crack at him. Assange tells Sky News “We have heard today from one of my US lawyers that there may be a US indictment for espionage for me coming from a secret grand jury investigation.” The fun never stops with Assange, stay tuned for more details.
Hang him first, try him later.
Australian citizen being passed secrets from an American serviceman and then released. So how is this spying or espionage? If someone here was passed secrets from France would France then charge you? I think they’re clutching at straws. Now the NYT, there’s an outfit that needs some slapping down.
Shemp Smith could hardly control his excitment about Julie being allowed to leave the jail. He wore that story out tonight.
Dog and pony show here. I am dubious about our countries ability to prosecute a foreign citizen on this. The military fag is our only solid case.
First the military man that collected the documents and provided them to Wikileaks should be tried for treason. This is an absolute.
However, I expect the media to leak anything that is truthful that is given to them. Whether it is the National Enquirer, Drudge, or the New York Times (barf!) and I don't consider the media publishing information as treason.
If Wikileaks is tried for treason, then the “Government” had better try for treason all the other “traditional media” and websites that have posted links to Wikileaks and/or summarized any of the cables that were part of the original tratorous act.
If the government doesn't do that, then they are going after Assange because they view him and his website as encouraging people to leak information, which I feel is stiferling “legitimate whistleblowers” who are not leaking classified information but information that powerful people or companies don't want distributed.
Again, the obtaining and turning over to a “media outlet” classified information is treason. A “media outlet” publishing information that is truthful and has been leaked to it, is a slippery slope against freedom of the press and a potential step in big brother censoring everything from what Monica Lewinski was doing in the Oval Office to what the Watergate burglars were doing.
That’s a tough case to prosecute.
What nation was he committing espionage for?
If they wanted to be consistent, they’d first indict the New York Times, The Washington Post and scale model manufacturers that somehow obtain plans of top secret aircraft and ships before anybody has even heard of them, never mind seen them.
In the same way that any foreign agency commits espionage by coercing citizens to give up secrets.
Behind every Aldrich Ames (for example) is a foreign agent who pays for or threatens to get the secrets and use them against our country.
Assange isn't just some innocent guy who has a website, he is a very famous hacker who goes by the handle Mendax. He had a history of breaking into the NSA in the 90s- a book was written about him and he had a mention in the movie Hackers 2. It is often asked how Manning was able to get the secrets he did- I have no doubt that he was just a conduit for Assange's hacking.
Ping 10 for information- don’t think for a second Assange is some innocent ‘journalist’.
Ping 10 for information- don’t think for a second Assange is some innocent ‘journalist’.
He’ll be brought before some Carter/Clinton/Obama appointee, it will turn in to a circus with the liberal media walking around lecturing us all about what “Freedom of the Press” is and isn’t, finally Assange will be found not guilty and get invited to a Hollywood party with a who’s who liberal morons.
Some other hackers including the Jester have speculated that Assange created WikiLeaks as a way to use the information he got from hacking in order to blackmail those he stole the information from. He may have been spying for himself, or maybe, working for someone like Soros as some have speculated. I think the blackmail idea has credibility although in his early emails and writings, it may just be ideological. His parents were communists and he has written often about wanting to take down the US.
Dog and pony show here. I am dubious about our countries ability to prosecute a foreign citizen on this.
This PFC Manning is not the only one involved on the US side
“Hang him first, try him later.”
Give him the medal of honor and have him release the rest of what he has!!!
Publication of secret government documents is absolutely legal. 1st amendment protects all publishers from the New York Times to this fellow. Espionage is an ambiguous joke that died at the Ellsburg trial. It is totally over. Move on.
This is not “spying?” Assange merely helped make public documents public available to the taxpayers that funded them. Every journalist and talk show, including Hannity and Beck, who have quoted these documents are just as guilty as he is (though less honest). Without Assange, this dirt would be hidden for decades.
What century are you from?
These aren’t top secret documents. They are embassy cables on a much lower level of classification. Documents like these are opportunistic quoted and leaked all the time by the favored elites in the MSM and “public notables” who have served, and are serving, in government. The only difference is that Assange is making these documents, such as those further implicating the federal government in climategate, to the taxpayers who funded them on a much less selective scale. In this, he is performing a great service.
Good post Captain!
Nonsense. If he was “spying” (these AREN’T top secret documents btw) for Soros, he would have not releaesed the damning informtion on the government cover-up in climategate. Our political masters, including Sarah Obama and Barak Palin, are sincere in their mutual hatred of Wikileaks for the unforgivable crime of ripping the facade off our corrupt system.
Ok, but you will also have to hang every reporter who publishes or broadcasts any government leaks.
Very much like they do in Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Red China.
He is an opportunist, he releases what he gets, but he is no journalist. He is a hacker. However, considering that some of the documents have been redacted after the fact shows that Assange also just isn’t about releasing information- he is selective in what he releases and what he protects.
I bet you would have cheered the Germans who encouraged Quisling to make sure that Norway had no secrets too wouldn’t you?
In the old days, we would have just put someone like Assange against a wall after the first time he cracked into the NSA.
Manning's own words would probably make you doubt it. Pretty interesting reading actually.
‘I Can’t Believe What I’m Confessing to You’: The Wikileaks Chats
The worst he’s gonna get from the U.S. will be a $5 mill book contract. The best could go into the teens!
The best we can hope for is that he is made Persona non grata in the US and a hundred other nations.
I'm sure there are good reasons to watch FOXNEWS, but Schlepper, BOR and Whoraldo ain't three of them.
The only question to be asked is: which country is going to get him first? The Israelis are not above snatching people off the streets of London, they’ve done it to renegade nuclear scientists before. Vegas isn’t taking odds on whether Julian is going to live to see 2012.
It doesn’t matter, he’ll be just as dead. He’s pissed off enough countries that somebody is going to nail him.
More interesting reading. Thanks for the information.
BTW. Two other things pop up. One is our secrets aren’t all that safe and two, how did he coerce the service guy to give up the info?
He'll be on the talk show circuit within 2 months...
“If someone here was passed secrets from France would France then charge you?”
Yes. Especially if you made them public.
Why should the responsibility stop with the thief and not also the fence?
In most US spy cases the recipient has claimed diplo immunity or never was found.
Well... this’ll make him a far easier target to get to. Hopefully somebody will.
Sorry... but I think people should not be able to freely conspire to divulge classified information— at any level of classification. Even these state dept. cables... while the subject matter has so far been fairly pedestrian, our diplomatic corps (like them or not) need to be able to conduct frank, honest and confidential communications with their various opposite numbers around the world. Now— they can’t do that. That’s a non-trivial problem.
He's notable now only because he's one of the first. Soon there will be many more like him and what he's doing will become a given.
I agree that he is doing a service. I was not aware that Saudi Arabia was funding al queda with impunity after they murdered 3000 Americans on 911. I was not aware that Russia was funding the terrorists in Venezuela. This guy is a hero.
Cue the ACLU.
Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.
Hrm... insofar as I know he’s not in the employ of any foreign government; doesn’t that put a crimp, legally speaking, in accusing him of espionage?
Ok, well not too sure about that. If someone fed me secret stuff about France and I posted it here in the US what are they going to do?
And prosecution is NOT the way to go in any case. Best way to deal with this is quietly in the dead of night a few months or even years from now. Piano wire? A car bomb? Ricin from an umbrella needle? Just hire one of those aging, outta work KGB agents and be done with Assange.
Anything that keeps Hillary from running her mouth off, is a good thing.
I believe that was/is a way on his website where you could send them info. Not sure if that would be specific enough for prosecution though.
WikiLeaks deserves our thanks for shining a huge spotlight on all this. But some in the corporate-owned press have dismissed the importance of WikiLeaks (”they’ve released little that’s new!”) or have painted them as simple anarchists (”WikiLeaks just releases everything without any editorial control!”). WikiLeaks exists, in part, because the mainstream media has failed to live up to its responsibility. The corporate owners have decimated newsrooms, making it impossible for good journalists to do their job. There’s no time or money anymore for investigative journalism. Simply put, investors don’t want those stories exposed. They like their secrets kept ... as secrets.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/why-im-posting-bail-money
How does it feel, Captain,to have the same opinion as Michael Moore?
DG
The case against Manuel Noriega was equally flimsy.
I doubt they’ll ever even charge him, much less request extradition to the US, but if they do, I also very seriously doubt it will ever come to trial.
Proving espionage by Assange will be difficult at best in a jury trial. Calling him some kind of enemy combatant is a stretch (and that’s putting it kindly)....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.