Just for the record, this is probably going to have some fallout for the US-German relationship, since German media reports that a branch of the offensive cyber warfare divison of the CIA is working undercover from within the largest US consulate wordlwide. Which happens to be in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Which is no surprise, given that the CIA had its European headquarters in Frankfurt. And given that Frankfurt is one of the major international hubs for internet traffic.
There are fun quotes of “recommendations” from the leaks: “Flying Lufthansa: Booze is free so enjoy (within reason)”. Oh, and related to my last post: “Do not leave anything electronic or sensitive unattended in your room. (Paranoid, yes but better safe than sorry.)”. Media is not exactly having a field day, but they are having fun.
FTR, wether or not this is new to the government or not, or even if it is true or not, this will put domestic political pressure on the German government parties during the election campaigns currently starting. (But I don’t think that the public cares enough to make this a big issue.)
Why do we actually care about Trump’s taxes, though? Like, is the jury still out on whether he’s a tax-dodging shitbag? Would leaked documents really move that debate in any meaningful direction? If Trump was going to be undone by an embarrassing scandal, it would’ve happened already.
There are far more interesting (and impactful) things about our government that could be leaked, I don’t think Wikileaks is remiss for not super-aggressively pursuing the tax docs.
He is gradually being undone by an embarrassing scandal; the Russia thing refuses to die no matter how much the administration tries to get away from it. Exposing how deep his financial ties go could be a critical turning point.
Watergate didn’t unfold overnight!
ETA: I don’t know exactly what’s in those tax returns, but I do know that Trump believes it would be even more damaging than the flack he continues to take for not releasing his tax returns. That’s telling in itself.
It’s global too. Wikileaks and Assange have been leaning in favor of Le Pen, but it doesn’t catch the viral heat of Trump/Clinton. Hell, they even try to tie the Clinton leaks to an editorialized opinion against Macron. Their days of being anything but partisan is far behind them.
Trouble is, all agendas aside, that NSA and CIA are two capable and ruthless players on the “we don’t give a flying fuck about your privacy concerns and your software security as long as we can get the information we want” market.
And we still haven’t got a clue, as societies, how to curb their enthusiasm.
Note that all their base now belongs to the sitting President of the USA.
FTR, Russia (China, North Korea, Iran… add some, e.g., from Freedom House lists?) we know, is not a free society and not a liberal democracy. Fuck that. We certainly need leaks what and how they do their spywork. And it does not seem as if we would get them from the Twitter acc you linked.
trial by jury vs trial by one to n judges is mostly a different legal tradition. the systems are not identical, but both have advantages and disadvantages without a clear winner
indefinite detention? do they mean Assange’s stay in the embassy? (maybe explained in the video I skipped)
torture is outlawed, Sweden is a signatory of the ECHR
personally I don’t think drafting is a Good Thing, but as approach imo outside of the liberal/conservative spectrum
Assange is Australian, so he probably is more interested in seeing Sweden implement the policies of the Australian Liberal Party, and not an abstract liberal ideal.
Most of the Liberal Party of Australia have spent years calling for Assange’s arrest and/or assassination. Their position on anything can usually be estimated by looking at what the US right were doing five years earlier.
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