Discussion: Prosecutors Detail Computer Hacking Conspiracy Case Against Assange

It’s doubtful Barr can do anything. Everything is in process.

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I hear you. At the same time, does anyone believe that the Ecuadorian embassy is the equivalent of prison? I assume he still enjoys plenty of freedoms, does not have a cell mate, is able to use computers and television whenever he wants, purchase products online, have food delivered, etc.

Prison is about more than just being restricted in your movements. Prison is awful, all day every day.

@tena

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O yeah prison is much worse than an embassy ever thought of being. Prison is dehumanizing.

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I’m hearing that the only materials he released had to do with the US and not with China or Russia.
I can muster only a casual sympathy for him and Manning.

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I wonder if there are any state level charges at play?

I can only wish for NY and California…

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Yeah, I doubt the Ecuadorian staff conducted surprise full-cavity strip searches on Assange.

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No. I don’t think being confined was any fun - ask Salman Rushdie how much fun that is. But it isn’t prison and you’re right. Prison is so much more. For one thing there is no privacy in prison and I’m sure he had some in the embassy.

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Why now? Interesting timing, given the imminent release of (parts of) the Mueller report. Here is what the cynic in me cannot help but wonder: The Mueller report will say that the Wikileaks dumps were more or less the unilateral work of Assange, with the Trump campaign being just the lucky beneficiary but not acting as co-conspirator. Yet there is a risk that Assange would say, “Actually, I did conspire with the campaign, was promised $, etc.” This arrest gets him into US custody, which means his communications can be monitored and which means the current charges can be used as leverage to secure his promise to keep his mouth shut on his work with the campaign in 2016.

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Very suspicious timing. Did Barr conspire to get his hands on him in order to shut down any inquiry into the collaboration with Trump?

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Just something else people should have already known if they were paying attention at the time. Both Manning and Snowden got duped by anti-American activists posing as independent journalists who defend Russia while denouncing America. Even now Glenn Greenwald mocks anyone who thinks Russia hacked the Democrats and he and Assange helped lead Snowden and his laptop straight to the Russians.

They weren’t whistleblowers who found wrongdoing as part of their jobs and couldn’t find anyone to listen. They were tricked into being spies by people who led them directly into danger and were happy to use them as martyrs. They ended up throwing away their lives trying to show America how the sausage is made and learned that we didn’t care. Our enemies learned a lot more than we did.

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If Manning had access to materials revealing war crimes committed by China and Russia, it’s news to me.

Do you mean something like this?

Trump Jr. did not respond to these messages either, but WikiLeaks was undeterred. “Hi Don. Hope you’re doing well!” WikiLeaks wrote on December 16 to Trump Jr., who was by then the son of the president-elect. “In relation to Mr. Assange: Obama/Clinton placed pressure on Sweden, UK and Australia (his home country) to illicitly go after Mr. Assange. It would be real easy and helpful for your dad to suggest that Australia appoint Assange ambassador to [Washington,] DC.”

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Yeah, I wasn’t sure what this was about.

If /etc/passwd and shadow pswd file were not readable then one could take the root disk and mount it on a Linux box under one’s own control but then that raises other questions (like how is it possible to gain physical access to that root disk).

I also wondered if they meant “Dropbox” or if “drop box” is the new kleenex :smile:

After Manning sent Assange the password, the indictment reads, she downloaded the hundreds of thousands of State Department cables and transferred them to Assange via a cloud drop box service. WikiLeaks later released them.

Cc @josh_kovensky

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From the indictment…

“On or about March 10, 2010, Assange requested more information from Manning related to the password.”

I would think the details on that would be important to establishing whether Assange was more than a passive participant.

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No doubt, at least when the system is functioning normally.

Exactly, and thanks. Perhaps this arrest is insurance in case Stone flips. Stone, flipping, says: “I was the point person in a conspiracy between the campaign and Wiklleaks.” DOJ to Assange: “We own you now, and your testimony is that there was no such conspiracy.”

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“… war crimes…”

That’s a bit of a straw man. I’m hearing he revealed nothing about China or Russia – that he hacked only the US. If he’s a crusader, then why not Russia, China, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia? And I’m not defending anybody’s war crimes. We many never know what harm, if any, he and Manning did, but they both stepped into it when they went after classified info.

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I was referring to Manning only.

There are so many unexamined assumptions that were made, including by people who should know better, about the supposed risks of HRC’s email server. There is no inherent reason why email on a privately hosted server should be any less secure than, say, email on one of the common services like Gmail (as several previous SoS apparently did).

Having heard stories over the years of how State’s internal IT works (or doesn’t), yeah, the private server might actually be more secure.

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And?

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