President Trump will pardon Julian Assange

[The Albatross]

I will never understand why people want a pardon for Snowden.

Click to shrink...

If I were president, I wouldn't say dick about it, then I'd pardon Snowden, and never talk about it again. I think history is going to (or already has) vindicate Snowden, and condemn Assange. I may be naive, but I think that Snowden has benevolent intentions with revealing the depth of America's domestic spying program. Assange and Wikileaks, on the other hand, have basically operated as a non-government intelligence service that pursues a far right wing, fascist agenda but wraps itself in the flag of transparency.

 

[Equippedwithtowel]

2 wrongs don't make a right. You can bet that an American dictator will be completely unhinged, bombing foreign adversaries into oblivion. So you have that to look forward to if it ever comes to fruition.

Click to shrink...

2 wrongs don't make a right. You can bet that an American dictator will be completely unhinged, bombing foreign adversaries into oblivion. So you have that to look forward to if it ever comes to fruition.

Click to shrink...

I'm just confused that you don't get that the fact that he is dangerous scum changes nothing about the validity of the charges. Like fuck him, i hope he rots in Swedish jail.

 

[Captain_Vyse]

Not surprised. White supremacists stick together.

 

[Deleted member 44129]

Hell yes. Based as fuck.

for clarity fuck trump but fuck american empire is #1 on the list.

Click to shrink...

You do realise that leaked shit from the US benefits the likes of China and Russia, right?

 

[Deleted member 2620]

😂😂😂

Click to shrink...

it'd be a great bit if it weren't depressingly sincere!

Fantastic news, even though Trump almost certainly does it for petty, dumb reasons (probably because it will piss some people he hates).
The prosecution of Assange by America was fucking gross, and I think anyone who think it was about anything other than the fact that help exposed American war crimes is extremely extremely naïve.

Now do Snowden.

Click to shrink...

100%

 

[Muppet of a Man]

I'm just confused that you don't get that the fact that he is dangerous scum changes nothing about the validity of the charges. Like fuck him, i hope he rots in Swedish jail.

Click to shrink...

I'm not confused about the validity of what he's unveiled. But he's also provided foreign assistance in getting a wanna be dictator elected. He could have stopped at the first part and I would have been fine with what he's done previous. I'm totally fine with what Snowden has done. He seems like a person who is truly trying to do good instead of one cynically trying to install tyrant.

 

[Deleted member 431]

You do realise that leaked shit from the US benefits the likes of China and Russia, right?

Click to shrink...

Yes, and? All three are just as bad as each other.

 

[kradical]

You do realise that leaked shit from the US benefits the likes of China and Russia, right?

Click to shrink...

Whoa! Big if true.

 

[Chikor]

Assange is an actual white supremacist who wants to empower white supremacy

Click to shrink...

America didn't go after Assange because he's racist, we went after him because he helped exposed our war crimes.
I think cheering for America to go so aggressively against people who report on stuff that make our military looks bad is a bad idea, regardless of how nice those people are.

 

[excelsiorlef]

America didn't go after Assange because he's racist, we went after him because he helped exposed our war crimes.
I think cheering for America to go so aggressively against people who report on stuff that make our military looks bad is a bad idea, regardless of how nice those people are.

Click to shrink...

Assange is not a reporter.

He literally selectively uses what he gets to advance a white supremacist vision

 

[Hallucinations]

You do realise that leaked shit from the US benefits the likes of China and Russia, right?

Click to shrink...

Who cares? America is just as corrupt as any place on earth. Reveal it all.

 

[Kongroo]

No, neither of them do.

Click to shrink...

Hard disagree. I'm less informed on what Assange did but Snowden is a goddamn patriot.

The surveillance shit that Snowden and Greenwald exposed is one of the most important leaks of information in US history. Let's not undermine that achievement. The repercussions of mass surveillance go much farther than personally liking or disliking a single person.

 

[Beer Monkey]

Yes, and? All three are just as bad as each other.

Click to shrink...

Both sides, both sides.

The surveillance shit that Snowden and Greenwald exposed is one of the most important leaks of information in US history. Let's not undermine that achievement. The repercussions of mass surveillance go much farther than personally liking or disliking a single person.

Click to shrink...

Perhaps Trump will give Greenwald the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It has to be a possibility.

 

[Chikor]

Assange is not a reporter.

He literally selectively uses what he gets to advance a white supremacist vision

Click to shrink...

I didn't say he was, Chelsea Manning wasn't a reporter either and the US went after her for exactly the same reason - making America's wars looks bad.

I think you are ignoring why the US went after him, and I think that's a mistake.

 

[Daphne]

Fantastic news, even though Trump almost certainly does it for petty, dumb reasons (probably because it will piss some people he hates).
The prosecution of Assange by America was fucking gross, and I think anyone who think it was about anything other than the fact that help exposed American war crimes is extremely extremely naïve.

Now do Snowden.

Click to shrink...

I agree on him being pardoned for exposing US war crimes like the collatoral murder video. The reason I dislike Assange so much is because he betrayed the cause of whistleblowing that he and Wikileaks purported to stand for. They really fucked things up for everyone being the most visible in that fight. They became nothing more than a partisan hack organisation that withheld inconvenient information and worked hard to get Trump elected. Assange is a racist too, and supports Trumpian white supremacy. This is before getting into his Ukraine fuckery. He is clearly a Russian stooge at this point and anything from Wikileaks can no longer be trusted.

The greatest blow to the cause of transparency and whistleblowing was from Wikileaks and Assange who discredit it.

Trump is pardoning him because, through Stone, who he also pardoned, he worked with Assange to criminally influence his own election in cooperation with Russia (who hacked the material Assange handled in the first place).

 

[excelsiorlef]

I didn't say he was, Chelsea Manning wasn't a reporter either and the US went after her for exactly the same reason - making America's wars looks bad.

I think you are ignoring why the US went after him, and I think that's a mistake.

Click to shrink...

No I'm aware

I just don't think he's worth cheering for

 

[Deleted member 82064]

Can somebody explain if the US charges against him actually had any merit? Everything I have read about the issue makes the case against him seem total horse shit. He might be useful idiot for Putin and his army of hackers but doesn't deserve to spend rest of his life in jail for it.

Now Trump should do Manning and Snowden.

 

[Deleted member 9932]

Fucking great. Do Snowden next you fucking piece of shit. Do something right for once.

 

[Deleted member 44129]

Yes, and? All three are just as bad as each other.

Click to shrink...

Who cares? America is just as corrupt as any place on earth. Reveal it all.

Click to shrink...

OK, cool. Trump gets rid of his team to combat hackers, then the US gets hacked, then he pardons a hacker. Come on in, Russia, woooo!!!

 

[arcadepc]

Hopefully Snowden next

Click to shrink...

Unfortunately it was too late for him because whether governments, universities or companies, they are in the same pot

Aaron Swartz - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Tamanon]

Assange's charging was super iffy to begin with, and I honestly think it wouldn't have happened under any other President/AG.

Snowden isn't getting pardoned by Trump, because he didn't help Trump.

 

[Kongroo]

Both sides, both sides.

Perhaps Trump will give Greenwald the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It has to be a possibility.

Click to shrink...

For what he did, he 100% deserves it.

I must admit that I'm not a fan of some of the shit he peddles nowadays but that doesn't take away from the good he did from helping Snowden.

 

[Hallucinations]

OK, cool. Trump gets rid of his team to combat hackers, then the US gets hacked, then he pardons a hacker. Come on in, Russia, woooo!!!

Click to shrink...

Not sure what you mean here. If you're talking about countries hacking each other.... you do realise that happens all the time right? Both ways. If anything the United States is probably the most sophisticated and malicious of them all.

 

[krazen]

Fuck Trump and Assange, but I'm not exactly rooting for the CIA/FBI either

Click to shrink...

Oh absolutely not. Just like, damn, gotta figure ya running around unchecked and secretly rooting for a Trump like figure and all he's done these past 4 years has been him shitting on you and making you heel to his will. Hate to see it.

 

[Chikor]

Assange's charging was super iffy to begin with, and I honestly think it wouldn't have happened under any other President/AG.

Click to shrink...

It was iffy but also scary.
They went after him with the Espionage Act, and people can say "he's not a journalist" all they want, but a conviction could have set an extremely scary legal precedent (depending on how it's worded obviously).

I am happy to not worry about that shit, especially with the courts filled with Trump clowns, we got some bad bad precedents in recent years going after whistleblowers already.

 

[JJD]

It wasn't just that. Because he could've leaked files pertaining or relating to that.

He didn't sort organize or filter.

He dumped everything he had access to, including things not remotely related to the spying. endangering western operatives world wide, and giving access to sources and methods.

Then he fled to Russia.

He isn't reality winner. Reality winner owned what she did, leaked things specifically pertaining to the subject.

Snowden is a traitor. Yes he revealed the spying, good. But he revealed way more than just that program. And fled to a hostile power.

Click to shrink...

Bullshit. He tried to go to South America, but the US government strong armed and straight out threatened many countries that he asked asylum.

The only country that didn't gave a shit about the state department threats was Russia making it his only choice.

Snowden being on Russia wasn't his choice.

I'm not happy about the Assange pardon but if that gets Snowden one I'm OK with it. Guy is a hero.

 

[BossAttack]

Hard disagree. I'm less informed on what Assange did but Snowden is a goddamn patriot.

The surveillance shit that Snowden and Greenwald exposed is one of the most important leaks of information in US history. Let's not undermine that achievement. The repercussions of mass surveillance go much farther than personally liking or disliking a single person.

Click to shrink...

He's not. But, that's a whole other topic.

 

[The Albatross]

Any other corroboration of this yet? It's been an hour or so, still not seeing it out of WaPo or NYT. Usually Haberman or someone at the Post would be on this first.

 

[Baji Boxer]

Who cares? America is just as corrupt as any place on earth. Reveal it all.

Click to shrink...

Assange made it worse though by helping Trump. Our bombing campaigns expanded, and civilian deaths from the U.S. skyrocketed. Assange directly helped the Trump campaign as Trump talked about how he wanted to kill more civilians.

 

[RocketKiss]

You do realise that leaked shit from the US benefits the likes of China and Russia, right?

Click to shrink...

We're gonna get nuked any second now! 🥺

 

[Kongroo]

He's not. But, that's a whole other topic.

Click to shrink...

This isn't a thing where there are two sides to a situation. The way the US conducted Mass Surveillance was wrong and Snowden was right to expose it.

There's nothing more patriotic than exposing a government's abuse of power.

 

[Deleted member 82064]

Bullshit. He tried to go to South America, but the US government strong armed and straight out threatened many countries that he asked asylum.

The only country that didn't gave a shit about the state department threats was Russia making it his only choice.

Snowden being on Russia wasn't his choice.

I'm not happy about the Assange pardon but if that gets Snowden one I'm OK with it. Guy is a hero.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, people forget that US forced Evo Morale's plane to land in Austria so they could search it.

 

[De-mon]

 

[EnlightenedMint]

Burns is such an idiot lol

 

[Tamanon]

LOL

 

[PMS341]

Oh wow.

 

[excelsiorlef]

AHAHAHAHA

 

[Baji Boxer]

It was iffy but also scary.
They went after him with the Espionage Act, and people can say "he's not a journalist" all they want, but a conviction could have set an extremely scary legal precedent (depending on how it's worded obviously).

I am happy to not worry about that shit, especially with the courts filled with Trump clowns, we got some bad bad precedents in recent years going after whistleblowers already.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, Assange being a horrible fake journalist doesn't mean we don't have severe systemic problems that need fixed. We shouldn't even be torturing and doing what we do to the worst of the worst murderers. I'm totally fine with him not being extradited here for trial, let Sweden have him if they wish to push on with the rape case. I just don't think he should get a permanant "get out of jail free" card for his crimes.

 

[BossAttack]

This isn't a thing where there are two sides to a situation. The way the US conducted Mass Surveillance was wrong and Snowden was right to expose it.

There's nothing more patriotic than exposing a government's abuse of power.

Click to shrink...

Snowden didn't just leak the mass surveillance program. Had the idiot simply done that then we could throw around "patriot" labels. His dumbass did more than that, he basically leaked anything and everything he could get his hands on including US spying operations on foreign governments. You know, the very thing intelligence agencies are supposed to be doing. He exposed and compromised many of those intelligence efforts because he's an idiot libertarian who admitted that he took the contracting job specifically to find things he thought were interesting from these intelligence agencies to leak.

Somehow this popular belief took hold that he was some noble contractor who stumbled upon the spying program and as a true patriot leaked it to the press when the government refused to listen. The reality is that he always intended to leak to the press, he was merely looking for things he thought would be most juicy and came upon the surveillance. He then leaked it along with every other possible thing he could get his hands on.

 

[Baji Boxer]

Click to shrink...

Lol

 

[DorkLord54]

He left to Russia who does the same thing

Click to shrink...

He's only in Russia because the govt revoked his passport, he was originally going to settle in Ecuador.

 

[Deleted member 5359]

AFAIK this is not a confirmed report


edit - I see it is indeed BS

 

[Amnixia]

Click to shrink...

Well, that ends the threat I guess

Oh absolutely not. Just like, damn, gotta figure ya running around unchecked and secretly rooting for a Trump like figure and all he's done these past 4 years has been him shitting on you and making you heel to his will. Hate to see it.

Click to shrink...

Exactly, these agencies have fucked shit up around the world. Killed civil leaders and flooded the streets with drugs to fuel their illegal wars.

 

[Tamanon]

He's only in Russia because the govt revoked his passport, he was originally going to settle in Ecuador.

Click to shrink...

Ecuador's government isn't.....really angels on that front either, but yeah.

 

[Chikor]

Snowden didn't just leak the mass surveillance program. Had the idiot simply done that then we could throw around "patriot" labels. His dumbass did more than that, he basically leaked anything and everything he could get his hands on including US spying operations on foreign governments. You know, the very thing intelligence agencies are supposed to be doing. He exposed and compromised many of those intelligence efforts because he's an idiot libertarian who admitted that he took the contracting job specifically to find things he thought were interesting from these intelligence agencies to leak.

Somehow this popular belief took hold that he was some noble contractor who stumbled upon the spying program and as a true patriot leaked it to the press when the government refused to listen. The reality is that he always intended to leak to the press, he was merely looking for things he thought would be most juicy and came upon the surveillance. He then leaked it along with every other possible thing he could get his hands on.

Click to shrink...

Every single time one of our spy agencies got caught blatantly breaking the law (and the NSA did, in grotesque ways) they swear that the the real problem is that they got exposed rather than the crimes they did, and that this will now cause irreparable harm to the security of the nation and will cost lives. And they always just ask us to believe them, because classified.

If you look historically, those claims are pretty much never true.
I suspect in 30 years it will be very very hard to point to Americans who lost their lives because of Snowden.

 

[Hellwarden]

Trump isn't going to do any of the shit he's threatening to do. He's just throwing a tantrum.

I was hoping he would pardon Snowden tho.

 

[FliX]

Let's wait for a proper source next time. Thanks all!