Assange has been arrested

[blankslate]

Daniel Ellsberg on the new charges against Assange

Mr. Ellsberg believes that Trump having prosecutors go after Assange is itself an impeachable offense for the harm he thinks this will do to the First Amendment and the detrimental effect it will have on journalists


Listening to NPR's "Morning Edition" today Kevin Goldberg (legal counsel to the American Society of News Editors, specializing in First Amendment law) was interviewed about the new Assange charges and while he didn't consider Assange a Journalist Goldberg stated that this will still have a chilling affect on journalists

https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=726476040

GOLDBERG: Well, as I said, I don't believe Julian Assange is a journalist. I don't think this turns on whether he is a journalist. I do think that there are obvious implications for journalists. And I think there are obvious implications for any member of the public. We lose out, as members of the public, if journalists are chilled from engaging in newsgathering and publication. I really think that's going to happen.

Trump has called Journalists public enemies... and he's prosecuting Assange as the first step and people are just accepting it because they partially blame him for Hillary's loss.


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*edited for better grammar*

 

[sandorski]

Scahill nails the scope of the problem

 

[Fanatical Meat]

He's just a good old boy helping people be free.....

Oops he met with Russian agents while in the Embassy.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/15/politics/assange-embassy-exclusive-documents/index.html

The surveillance reports also describe how Assange turned the embassy into a command center and orchestrated a series of damaging disclosures that rocked the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States.
Read the Spanish-language version of this story at CNN en Español
Despite being confined to the embassy while seeking safe passage to Ecuador, Assange met with Russians and world-class hackers at critical moments, frequently for hours at a time. He also acquired powerful new computing and network hardware to facilitate data transfers just weeks before WikiLeaks received hacked materials from Russian operatives.
These stunning details come from hundreds of surveillance reports compiled for the Ecuadorian government by UC Global, a private Spanish security company, and obtained by CNN. They chronicle Assange's movements and provide an unprecedented window into his life at the embassy. They also add a new dimension to the Mueller report, which cataloged how WikiLeaks helped the Russians undermine the US election.

An Ecuadorian intelligence official told CNN that the surveillance reports are authentic.
The security logs noted that Assange personally managed some of the releases "directly from the embassy" where he lived for nearly seven years. After the election, the private security company prepared an assessment of Assange's allegiances. That report, which included open-source information, concluded there was "no doubt that there is evidence" that Assange had ties to Russian intelligence agencies.

• JUNE 14, 2016
  • Democratic National Committee announces it's been hacked and blames Russia.
• JUNE 19, 2016
  • Assange asks the Ecuadorian embassy to beef up his Internet connection.
  • Embassy staff give Assange technical support "for data transmission," according to the surveillance reports, and help install new equipment.
• JULY 6, 2016
  • WikiLeaks asks Russian hackers for materials about Clinton "because the (Democratic National Convention) is approaching and she will solidify bernie (Sanders) supporters behind her after."
• JULY 14, 2016
  • Russian hackers send encrypted files to WikiLeaks, titled "big archive."
  • Assange meets for hours with German hackers Andrew Müller-Maguhn and Bernd Fix.
• JULY 18, 2016
  • Republican National Convention kicks off in Cleveland.
  • At the embassy, an Ecuadorian security guard abandons his post to receive a package outside the embassy from a man in disguise.
  • WikiLeaks tells the Russian hackers they got the files.
• JULY 22, 2016
  • WikiLeaks releases more than 20,000 internal files from the Democratic National Committee.

Assange also had five meetings that month with senior staffers from RT, the Kremlin-controlled news organization.
US intelligence agencies have concluded that RT had "actively collaborated with WikiLeaks" in the past and played a significant role in Russia's effort to influence the 2016 election and help Trump win. For several months in 2012, Assange hosted a television show on RT.
In June 2016, RT's London bureau chief, Nikolay Bogachikhin, visited Assange twice, and gave him a USB drive on one occasion, according to the surveillance reports. That five-minute visit was hastily arranged and required last-minute approval from the Ecuadorian ambassador.