Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/12/diplomatic-munity.html
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Assange is alleged to be a sexual predator, and has utterly evaded justice on the charges against him. He also interfered in our elections to the benefit of Donald Trump. I’m pleased that his citizenship and phony diplomatic status aren’t getting him anywhere.
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Totally untrue. [the OP, not hungryjoe’s comment!]
The UK government has been willing to “let him out of the embassy” since the day he went in. He’s always been more than welcome to leave.
And yes, be arrested. As is appropriate.
ETA: not that it’s a question for the UK Government anyway - its a matter for the police and legal system, which by definition are separated from Government.
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Well, there’s still the diplomatic (XL duffel) bag option for ol’ Julian, although it seems that the crate is the preferred form factor for situations like that. If the Ecuadoran government is this desperate to get him out of the building it’s only a matter of time before they try it with or without his co-operation.
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Absolute garbage headline.
As Ministry says, he is free to leave the embassy at any time. Assange skipped bail (put up by his friends rather than his own money), so he will be arrested for that offence which has a maximum penalty of up to 12 months in prison; followed in his case by a free trip to Heathrow and a bonus stamping of his passport that he is not entitled to return.
And good riddance to the malignant narcissist who had a great idea and turned it into a personality cult.
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He has scared fearmongers, and disrupted disruptors.
Surely ‘justice’ is what he was going to be provided, when this all began.
You heat up the tar, I’ll find some pillows we can rip open. That’s justice, right?
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I wonder if any of the people claiming the sexual assault charges against Assange are baseless have amended their stance since the #MeToo movement gained steam. I had heated debates with several people on this very forum who refused to even entertain the possibility that he is guilty of the sex crimes he’s been accused of.
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I don’t know enough about the facts that are available whether he actually sexually assaulted someone or not, so i can’t talk intelligently on that but about his role with Wikileaks… i have a problem with that. As you mentioned he’s used it for his own personal gain over the years even before the charges were brought up against him. He comes across as a scumbag, and that he leaked information to help Trump i have no sympathy for his plight.
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*raises hand
When Wikileaks and Assange first came into notoriety, I was absolutely enthralled with the man. I didn’t disbelieve the accusations against him, necessarily, I just thought they were “conveniently timed.” The moment he fled to the embassy and basically every action since then has made me realize more and more what a despicable, paranoid, and sociopathic person he is. Wikileaks is still a great idea, but they’d have to do a lot to rid themselves of Assange and I just don’t see that happening.
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I have assumed from the beginning that Assange did what he is accused of doing, and that the international manhunt was the result of American political machinations in an attempt to punish him for the Manning leaks. If you did what Assange did in Canada or the US, the chances you’d be arrested are very low, the chances you’d be convicted are almost zero. Not listening to the women who reported him is awful. The fact that women can’t expect sexual assault to be taken seriously unless their assailant happens to be on the US’s shitlist is disgusting.
On the main topic, I’m with the other headline naysayers at this point. He can leave whenever he wants. Being a foreign citizen doesn’t change whether he’s committed a crime or not.
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I like the idea that Wikileaks once seemed to aspire to. In practice it’s turned out to be just another tool appropriated by authoritarian interests like the Putin regime.
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I rather doubt people who are willing to ally themselves with a white supremacist and supporter of fascists are going to believe the women over their idol. If they haven’t stopped glorifying him by this point then nothing he could possibly do would cause them to. He’s shown the world his true nature. Any followers that stuck with him through those revelations either have no real moral compass beyond devotion to Assange, or they care more about not admitting they were wrong than any of the progressive values he once pretended to champion, or both. If it’s the former, they’re no more worth anyone’s time than the Nazis themselves. If it’s the latter, then all they deserve is pity.
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And the worst thing about all of this is that WikiLeaks could have been a powerful tool for transparency if its followers weren’t more invested in Assange than the thing he helped create. And that’s the other thing people forget. Assange didn’t single-highhandedly build WL despite wanting the world to think he did, and he’s alienated a lot of good and talented activist coders along his quest for his own apotheosis.
The ideal it once stood for shouldn’t be thrown out with the corruption of its most attention-seeking co-founder.
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Sadly, we’ll never know if he’s guilty or not, as he refused to even be questioned by Swedish authorities…
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that’s the whole story after all, i’m so foolish. My apologies.
He’s also reneged on previous statements of turning himself in
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He also helped put a rather disruptive fearmongerong fascist in the White House because he had a personal beef with Hillary Clinton.
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I wish the many valid reasons for hating him lined up with the charges he is truly being sought for.
Even if sex charges stick, and even if there is some personal beef with Sec Clinton, neither of those is why we know his name nor why he is one of the most wanted men in the world.
again, I wish the numerous and likely valid reasons for hating him (not knowing him personally it is hard to say, but there isn’t NO evidence he’s a douchebag and has shit boundaries) lined up with the charges he is truly being sought for by very powerful people using/subverting the ‘due process’ to crush a whistleblower.
loving that he is sticking it to the man who has done a lot of evil in my name, does not preclude me from recognizing Assange as a douche. He’s not the hero we need, but he sure as hell is the one we deserve. my 2c.
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Yes, he didn’t like that she was a woman, primarily.
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I did not understand the appalling cruelty of tarring and feathering until I watched this scene from the outstanding historical drama John Adams:
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