Nah, it’s simply exercising editorial judgment on what the public is interested in. Yeah we are talking about dumping or continuing to hide documents for public consumption free of charge, not deciding how many inches to give and placement of a story in a for profit business model, but same ****.

They're perfectly entitled to seek extradition on the charge stated. The question is whether they're keeping something up their sleeve, which we don't know. If the Swedes do re-file I'd rather see him go to Sweden first.

The UK and Sweden still wanted him (bail jumping for the UK, rape/sexual assault for Sweden) and he didn't trust that if one of them got him they wouldn't immediately give him to the US to be shipped to a black site.

You should feel bad that this could set a precedent that a journalist publishing confidential information is now a crime. Trump and other conservative presidents will have a ****ing field day with that ability if anything is leaked. Most likely, journalists will stop publishing any classified data, so corrupt operations of Trump that involve classified documentation will never see the light of day.

No, no one will feel sorry for Assagne if he goes to jail for rape in Sweden.

He’s not being charged with publishing classified information.

The extradition treaty is brutal. The government had to intervene in other cases because of political pressure and the lack of legal safeguards. That pressure may simply not exist for a non UK citizen unless assange can somehow generate a lot of public sympathy.

We shouldn't extradite anyone to the usa fullstop but I don't fancy his chances unless extradition to Sweden is viable. Evn then he may also need to rely on delaying things in the hope a Labour government is elected cos I can't see the tories not wanting to cooperate with trump over this.

I wonder about this, if that's true then why not hold it over their heads in exchange for Assange's freedom?

This would be a worthwhile exercise, provided they're actually not achieving anything. I think an argument might be made that they have and it's a question of degree.

If Trump does something bad - it's good because it seems to run counter to Russia.

Also I found a Democrat somewhere who cheered the bad thing Trump did which is really good because it goes after Russia - but still bad when a Democrat praises it. This is the real issue that needs to be called out.

/Greenwald

I doubt they handed that info over to Assange. They didn't want that released so no reason to give it to them. Much more useful as blackmail once they were in power.

Greenwald is such a ****ing halfwit.

No it isn't. That's a myth. Since the treaty has been in force the US hasn't refused a single UK request but the UK has refused about a dozen US requests.

Should the US seek to bring further charges at a later date, once Assange was hypothetically in US custody, they would have to argue new information -- information not known at the time of the request -- and they would require the consent of the UK as the extraditing authority.

No, that's protected speech, or at least it can be and you can argue public interest. It's the theft of documents that'll get you into trouble.

I don’t know but he himself said he did but it was not worth releasing.

That pressure may simply not exist for a non UK citizen unless assange can somehow generate a lot of public sympathy.

Yeah, that's the key, I think. He's not a Brit - just a squatter who got evicted. I doubt he's going to be able to generate much in the way of sympathy at this point, either. For the majority of the public, if they think of him at all it's along the lines of "that rapey guy with bad hair hiding in an Embassy for some reason I don't care about." His best bet is to get shipped to Sweden for a while and hope for a change in the political landscape that in some way helps him.

I'd argue that NO country that matters (US, GB, France, Germany, et al) is going to mind him being locked up for however long it is. Everyone is touchy about stuff in the files that they don't want getting out - he's useful as a reminder/warning as to what can happen if you're dumping secrets in public. I mean, if he was Russian he'd long be dead.

MM MD

I hope he goes to Sweden then eventually ends up in the US and I hope his total time in captivity is six and a half years.

The state wins. There's still a prosecution (regardless of the actual charge here) for exposing US military atrocities. The state gets to be magnanimous about it. Serious charges and then a big ugly trial with everyone's dirty laundry aired and then a slap on the wrist might not be so bad, but more likely a slap on the wrist means plea deal and the story doesn't go any deeper than what happens/doesn't happen to Assange.

We will see what this "helping to hack" charge, sounds dubious or quite a stretch. But the DOJ memo also pointed out how he made some metaphor to encourage Manning to look into more files, a publisher asking a source to get more info should absolutely not be a crime and if it is made one its a very dangerous precedent.

I was attacking folks ITT who were cheering the Trump DOJ's actions. Which of course is a perfectly reasonable thing to do if you're someone like myself who opposes the arrest of Assange by Trump's DOJ. These aren't at all contradictory positions.

Which part? If it's the part about Glem claiming that journalists "constantly" encourage and/or conspire with their sources to commit felonies so they can get scoops then my answer would be yes I disagree.

they already are having a field day. how much time did reality winner get?

assange is a pos who contributed to the downfall of society so eff him. this is a good day.

Uh, no. Encouraging someone to go commit a crime is often a thing you can get in trouble for.

Why yes, when Neil Sheehan got the Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg he really should have just said look Dan, you need to put these back. Real journalists aren't interested in this sort of thing, I'm off to go attend a White House press briefing, toodles.

I was about to point out that you and I are talking about two different things when it occurred to me that you already know that