It seemed to be headed that direction. It is unfortunate. Assange has plenty of flaws but even flawed people can do worthy things. Over the years those in power and the vested interests supporting them, have done everything possible to blacken his name and reputation and many people will have forgotten the important work he did shining a light in dark places and holding the powerful to account. I am sorry he is now in the hands of his enemies. I wish him well and hope he gets through whatever is coming.

should have migrated to New Zealand or Russia

If he's unlucky enough to be extradited to the USA, it's a virtual certainty he'll spend the rest of his life in a super max prison.

NPCtom:

 

News coming in that Julian Assange has been arrested. Anyone have a hunch on why this might be?

 

Becuase, the Equadorian Government ( which is different to one which gave him "sanctuary") has kicked him out...

Rikkitic:

It seemed to be headed that direction. It is unfortunate. Assange has plenty of flaws but even flawed people can do worthy things. Over the years those in power and the vested interests supporting them, have done everything possible to blacken his name and reputation and many people will have forgotten the important work he did shining a light in dark places and holding the powerful to account. I am sorry he is now in the hands of his enemies. I wish him well and hope he gets through whatever is coming.

 

 

A work colleague watched a YouTube video last night which claims the Ecuadorians called Police because after 7 years effectively locked up, he's gone insane and among other things, he's been smearing faeces on the embassy walls. According to the video, it's not known whether it was his own faeces or someone else's.

Note however that at the time of writing, the video has had just 17 views, and this information has been reported in precisely zero other places, so take it with a grain of salt....

DarthKermit:

 

If he's unlucky enough to be extradited to the USA, it's a virtual certainty he'll spend the rest of his life in a super max prison.

 

Probably not. Unsealed indictment says it is for helping Manning on break into a network, with a max sentence of five years.

That might just be the charge for extradition and additional charges will be laid once they have him in the US. As others have said, its been the Julian show for some time now and nothing to do with doing right by the world, just look at the leaks he facilitated in the last US election - how'd that work out for the world.

Rikkitic:

 

It seemed to be headed that direction. It is unfortunate. Assange has plenty of flaws

 

Sadly, for Assange, it appears his biggest flaw was the narcissistic and erratic behaviour which, ultimately, was too much for the Ecuadorians to tolerate. An old saying about biting and a hand that feeds comes to mind.

dafman:

 

Sadly, for Assange, it appears his biggest flaw was his narcissistic and erratic behaviour which, ultimately, was too much for the Ecuadorians to tolerate. An old saying about biting and hand that feeds comes to mind.

 

It is hard to pass judgement on that without actually knowing the details. Seven years in a small room might be enough to drive anyone insane. Personally, I think Assange has already served his sentence. And yes, I know it was 'self-imposed'. He was free to walk into the arms of enraged Americans at any time. That is some choice.

Rikkitic:

 

dafman:

 

Sadly, for Assange, it appears his biggest flaw was his narcissistic and erratic behaviour which, ultimately, was too much for the Ecuadorians to tolerate. An old saying about biting and hand that feeds comes to mind.

 

 

It is hard to pass judgement on that without actually knowing the details. Seven years in a small room might be enough to drive anyone insane. Personally, I think Assange has already served his sentence. And yes, I know it was 'self-imposed'. He was free to walk into the arms of enraged Americans at any time. That is some choice.

 

He was also free to walk into, or front up to, what on the face appeared to be legitimate, two separate charges of rape in Sweden. Were the two women who made the rape allegations stooges in a plot to get him into the hands of the Americans? In a conspiracist world, maybe - but my first instinct, as it is with any claim of rape, is accept the claim as genuine and for due process of law to follow (which Assange chose to dodge).

Here is a link to an 2014 audio interview with author Andrew O'Hagan who was employed to write Assange's biography. It was several years ago I listened to it, but it is a great listen and a fascinating insight into the person that is Julian Assange.

This has all been hashed over many times and I don't really want to do it again. Assange always claimed his only objection to facing charges in Sweden was the fear of being passed on to America, which sounds reasonable to me in view of the politicians there in positions of influence who were calling for his death. Sweden wouldn't guarantee that he wouldn't be extradited. I also take rape allegations seriously but this case was about a lot more than that with the anti-Assange brigade doing everything it could to make him look as bad as possible. 

What I saw when he was arrested was a frail-appearing individual being roughly bundled out of the embassy by at least a half-dozen burly individuals in suits. Even if he was resisting, this was over the top. One single person is being crushed by the overwhelming naked might of entire nations out to get him. Even the judge who remanded him couldn't resist insulting him for being a 'narcissist'. So much for justice being blind, or even fair. He has angered a lot of powerful interests and now they want revenge. Assange may well be a narcissist, just like the president of the United States. He may be arrogant, demanding, unpleasant, manipulative. He may be a lot of things. But that is not what he is going to be railroaded for. He dared to piss off the wrong people and now they are going to hammer him into the ground. That is how things really work.

Assange is a criminal who has fled justice. His time is up and now the various justice systems can prove his guilt or innocence. 

In my view he has always been insane to a degree. Hacking into other peoples computers and stealing data for your own benefit is a shocker in my books and is no different to breaking into someones home and stealing.

I hope he gets what he deserves, whatever that maybe.

Yup, just like American military criminals yucking it up over a turkey shoot of unarmed civilians, undermining democratically elected governments, smuggling drugs, invading the privacy of law-abiding private citizens, kidnapping 'terror suspects' from all over the world with no hint of due process, sterilising its own 'inferior' citizens without their knowledge or permission, assassinating those they don't approve of on presidential whim, and on and on and on and on. No wonder they refuse to recognise the International Court. If they ever did half of Holland would have to be filled with prisons to accommodate them.

Hacking into government computers to reveal systematic abuses of legal and moral authority ranks pretty highly on my scale of forgivable misdeeds. People will think whatever they like of Assange and Wikileaks. They will point to his ego-driven excesses and use that as an excuse to throw out all the good he did. I am grateful he was willing to sacrifice his freedom and well-being in order to shine some light on some very major misdoing. The world needs more like him.