- Tue Feb 20, 2024 7:33 pm
#62931
The discussion thread on the Australian alleged journalist, Julian Assange, that we had before would seem to have perished in the Great Mailwatch Server Fire, so I thought I’d start up a new one, since the bugger seems to be back in the news, still trying to avoid the long arm of the law in the UK’s court of appeal.
I am instinctively very skeptical about Assange’s claims of political persecution. I’m hearing echoes of the similar “infamy, they’ve all got it infamy” grievances voiced by the likes of, say, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, or even Russell Brand -none of which cut much mustard with me, either.
I certainly don’t buy the notion that Assange is a principled crusading journalist, boldly and fearlessly exposing misdeeds by the powerful wherever he may find them. I’ll freely admit that Jeremy Corbyn’s full-throated support of Assange may just colour my judgement slightly on this, but the bottom line seems to me to be that if you perpetrate actions that place the lives of American field operatives at risk, then the Americans are going to come after you -in this case in the entirely legitimate execution of a valid extradition treaty with the UK to face espionage charges.
If Assange thinks he is being “cancelled”, to use the modern popular vernacular, he really ought to look to the late Alexei Navalny, who really has been cancelled. I don’t think that Joe Biden is in any way comparable to Vladimir Putin (though Donald Trump may be).
I am instinctively very skeptical about Assange’s claims of political persecution. I’m hearing echoes of the similar “infamy, they’ve all got it infamy” grievances voiced by the likes of, say, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, or even Russell Brand -none of which cut much mustard with me, either.
I certainly don’t buy the notion that Assange is a principled crusading journalist, boldly and fearlessly exposing misdeeds by the powerful wherever he may find them. I’ll freely admit that Jeremy Corbyn’s full-throated support of Assange may just colour my judgement slightly on this, but the bottom line seems to me to be that if you perpetrate actions that place the lives of American field operatives at risk, then the Americans are going to come after you -in this case in the entirely legitimate execution of a valid extradition treaty with the UK to face espionage charges.
If Assange thinks he is being “cancelled”, to use the modern popular vernacular, he really ought to look to the late Alexei Navalny, who really has been cancelled. I don’t think that Joe Biden is in any way comparable to Vladimir Putin (though Donald Trump may be).
davidjay liked this
"The opportunity to serve our country: that is all we ask.” John Smith, May 11, 1994.
