Two of us, Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky, testified for Assange at his extradition hearing last year. In Ellsberg’s words then, the WikiLeaks publications that Assange is being charged for are “amongst the most important truthful revelations of hidden criminal state behavior that have been made public in U.S. history.” The American public “needed urgently to know what was being done routinely in their name, and there was no other way for them to learn it than by unauthorized disclosure.”

  • YaaAsantewaa@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    That’s called “telling the truth”

    Just because you attempt to hide crimes doesn’t mean people have no right to expose them, it’s simply a matter of being upset someone found out

    And like I said, the US doesn’t even deny any of the leaks, so the only reason they want to persecute an innocent person is an overtly authoritarian show of force. If we’re going to simply abandon our principles willy-nilly whenever we feel like it then we’re not a democratic country

      • davi
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        1 year ago

        you’re misinformed and making a silly argument based on your misinformation.

          • flint5436@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            That the US law forbids such acts is a no brainer. But it’s still “Telling the truth”. imho this qualifies him for the nobel peace price rather than incarceration.

              • flint5436@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                He isn’t being pursued for sharing the info but rather in directly committing crimes to get the info.

                Debatable. But even if he did, that means he helped uncover the human rights abuses of the US and it’s allies and their unbelievable collateral damage(~60% of deaths in Irak where civilians). Again maybe legally wrong, but ethically it was the right thing to do.

                He’s also now a Russian stooge so probably

                I don’t know where you get that info from, but if I had messed with the largest military industrial complex on the planet, I’d be looking for friends in other contries aswell. Snowden understadably did the same.

                probably deserves nothing other than what the US prison system will give him.

                I wouldn’t even want my worst enemy to experience US prisons. They are inhumane and they torture prisoners (extended solitary confinement) on a daily basis as a form of coercion. How could you wish this on anyone?

        • rdeets@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Assange is a rapist (alleged) narcissistic psychopath. He uses everyone and throws them away. Chelsea. The women he raped (cough ‘allegedly raped’), his own Wikileaks team. You name it, he’s pumped it and dumped it.

          Assange is a Putin puppet piece of shit who deserves to rot in a cell for the rest of his miserable life.

          Assange gave us Trump. Trump gave us COVID disinformation. COVID disinformation gave us over one million American deaths.

          So fuck Assange and fuck everyone and everything associated with him.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      “Telling the truth” and “Asking someone to steal classified information to be selectively revealed in order to further the interests of Russia” aren’t identical concepts.