Gabbard: Assange arrest is a threat to journalists

[left-of-center2012]

Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) condemned the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday, calling the arrest a threat to journalists.

"The arrest of #JulianAssange is meant to send a message to all Americans and journalists: be quiet, behave, toe the line. Or you will pay the price," Gabbard tweeted.

The Democrat's remark came hours after police in London arrested Assange, citing charges he is facing in the U.S. Assange is accused of conspiring to hack into computers in connection with WikiLeaks's release of classified documents from former Army private and intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

The indictment filed under seal last year in Virginia and released Thursday alleges that Assange helped Manning crack a password stored on a Defense Department computer, which was connected to a government system that stored classified information. U.S. intelligence officials and lawmakers have also voiced concerns about WikiLeaks's actions during the 2016 election, when they published troves of hacked emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/438542-gabbard-assange-arrest-is-a-threat-to-journalists

[Hassler]

1. He's indicted for hacking. This isn't about press freedom.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

33. Jamal Khashoggi's murder was a threat to freedom of the press.

Assange is not a reporter. He does not seek the unbiased truth. He is an agent of chaos, groomed by the Russians to help dismantle western democracies via cyber mechanisms.

Comparing his arrest to an attack on freedom of the press is disrespectful, laughable and insulting to intelligent people everywhere.

Jamal Khashoggi was a reporter.

[Lithos]

106. And Tulsi was silent about Jamal Khashoggi

Am hoping she doesn't get her 65K donations and drops out early.

L-

[BlueFlorida]

2. Assange is a Russian agent

This is not about journalism.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Add that to the list of reasons why there's no way in Hell I'd support her in the primaries.

I'm not worrying about the general because she won't get that far.

[woodsprite]

4. Exactly! She falls into the Trump/Duke camp. nt

[Hortensis]

24. Yes, +1 to the many other reasons.

They all come down to character problems and strange, unfathomable attitudes, though.

[revmclaren]

5. He stopped being a journalist

when he made himself the story by committing rape, hacking, and blackmail.



ONLY!!! 2019 and beyond.

[2naSalit]

131. When was he ever a journalist?

As far as I ever knew anything about him, he's always been a hacker.

[Gretto]

6. She also said "move forward" after the Barr Letter

Link to tweet

[uponit7771]

17. FAUX News calls Gabbard after she goes down in flames in dem primary

[oasis]

75. Nothing to see here folks, now let's build the infrastructure.

[pangaia]

126. jesus !!!

Is that OK? For me to say that??:?
She is a DEM candidate for pres.. but.. jiminy crickets....

[Gretto]

8. Have you read the indictment?

Or not.

[DURHAM D]

10. So all Russian hackers should be called journalists? nt

[uponit7771]

16. The indictment against him says he attempted helped with some of the cracking and that's

... not just publishing documents recieved.

We'll see

[BannonsLiver]

18. So you cheered his role in the 2016 election?

And don’t mind that he is in league with the likes of Roger Stone? Wow, you know there’s a lot of things I don’t like about America but I’ve never become so hate filled I’m cheering for our enemies. Fascinating (and deeply misguided) perspective you have there.

[BannonsLiver]

26. Wow!

You seem to live in an alternate reality to most folks here (and the DOJ and Democratic members of Congress on the house intelligence committee, Robert Mueller, among others).

Enjoy your stay.

[BannonsLiver]

39. I'm sorry you feel that way.

Maybe you can send Julián some money for his prison cantine account.

[Bradshaw3]

89. The charge is that he conspired with Manning to do the hacking

So if true then it wasn't just "receiving documents" but actually conspiring to break the law. Read mroe about Assange and his upbringing. He is a Russian asset.

[Bradshaw3]

98. It's always good to read and comprehend another's post before posting

I said "if true" so yeah I (and everyone else on here) knows that a charge is not a conviction. Most of us also know that evidence for a charge will be brought out in court. So your statement that he just "received documents" is as factually unknown by the public at the current time as is the charge that he conspired to break the law.

[Bradshaw3]

110. I so, so hope my post is the one that did it

[rzemanfl]

57. Bookmarking. n/t

[BannonsLiver]

105. A merciful quick hook

But a good lesson on what we will see more of going forward.

[rzemanfl]

133. Indeed. One new person yesterday posted to a lounge thread from 2012. n/t

[WeekiWater]

22. That is not all he published.

It goes much deeper than that. If that was all it was I would call Snowden a whistleblower and Assange courageous. Reality tells a different story. The story of a traitor and an enemy of the US.

[NastyRiffraff]

53. Ah, yes, the good old days

when Assange was a hero to certain people, who seem to like hackers, especially when they release emails of their enemies. Assange is not a folk hero. He doesn't care about truth. He cares about Julian Assange.

Also, he's a slob, a deadbeat, and a rapist.

[NastyRiffraff]

58. LOL

Okay. But the problem is, he's not now a journalist, if he ever was. He's a hacker. He has absolutely no interest in the truth. He is interested in the well-being of Julian Assange. I do agree with you, however, when you say "we" loved him back then. However, not all Democrats, or even most, "loved" him. Some Democrats saw right through his bullshit from the beginning.

[Lefta Dissenter]

87. We? Nope

He's a danger to our country - certainly to the diplomatic corps, including my family members who were working in the Middle East at the time of the Wikileaks releases.

Never a hero in my eyes. That's MY principled position that hasn't changed since day one.

[Lefta Dissenter]

101. I'm not exactly sure

how I was defending the war crimes of the military-industrial complex, but that's ok. You don't need to explain it to me. I'll just be content to live with that mystery in my life.

Welcome to DU, by the way.

[Lefta Dissenter]

114. Darn it!

I at least wanted to read the response before s/he "took leave" of DU.

[NastyRiffraff]

139. You have more patience than I have

I got tired of he/she/it pretty quickly!

[BannonsLiver]

59. They dropped the charges because Assange ran out the clock

The statute of limitations expired. It was a technicality, not something based on his innocence.

Is that fact not in your script and talking points?

[BannonsLiver]

66. Well thank God you parachuted in to enlighten all of us.

[defacto7]

116. And thank the deity of your choice it's over!

[BannonsLiver]

117. Yeah for sure!

I’d like to also thank the others who helped get the intruder talking which in turn helped make it a short stay. That part is often overlooked. MIRT has to have some info to make a decision.

[BannonsLiver]

11. Assange is a spy and a Russian asset

He hates everything about our country, some of it for good reason. That doesn’t excuse the fact he is not a journalist in any way shape or form and never has been. Hard to believe people still believe the bullshit after all that has transpired in the last 3 years.

[BannonsLiver]

21. So you deny his role in the 2016 election interference?

How lovely.

[BannonsLiver]

34. You'd think on a Democratic forum

Which you have been a member of for about five minutes, people would push back at an Assange fanboy given all that has transpired in the last few years. Assange is deeply unpopular here, and for good reason. Given that fact, you probably won’t have much luck trying to run a rehabilitation campaign for him.

Personally I would have read the room and left it alone, but I realize some folks just can’t do that, or don’t have the ability to do that.

Also I never said Assange was a “hacker”. I said he was a spy and a Russian asset which he most assuredly is.

[BannonsLiver]

43. And who are you helping?

[irisblue]

76. Welcome to DU Always_Progress

Enjoy your time here

[Cha]

121. Yeah, ASS wanted the GOP to win and

that idiot was on here promoting the enemy to our Democracy. Not for long for he wasn't.

MIRT!

[fleabiscuit]

12. Her statement is also the official Russian state propaganda line. I love a good irony.

Didn't BS honeymoon in Russia too?

[BannonsLiver]

27. Did you vote for Clinton in the 2016 general election?

[mcar]

45. Good question

[BannonsLiver]

46. It's actually not

20 minutes ago it was. Now, I think the answer is pretty clear, don’t you?

[mcar]

49. Yes, I do

but I'm just getting familiar with it all.

[BannonsLiver]

79. Notice they still haven't answered.

[fleabiscuit]

42. Perhaps you were never a member of the Hillary group here. nt

[BannonsLiver]

44. The poster just signed up today to aggressively tell us all how wonderful Assange is.

And that we’re all red baiting McCarthyites. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say they have never been a member of the Hillary group. At any rate, I hope the appropriate DU moderating personnel are watching.

[BannonsLiver]

51. ...

?itemid=10294651

[lapucelle]

81. Have a donut on your way out.

[lapucelle]

109. Did you take your donut?

[BannonsLiver]

112. If they did I hope it was as stale as the pro Putin talking points they were spewing.

The trolling was second rate, tbh. But entertaining just the same.

[Gothmog]

136. Hillary Clinton says Assange must "answer for what he has done" after arrest

Link to tweet

[uponit7771]

15. ACLU is wrong here "Criminally prosecuting a publisher for the publication of truthful information"

... and "The government did not cross that Rubicon with today’s indictment" ...

Have nothing to do with why Assange was charged

[fleabiscuit]

67. BINGO, spot on. nt

[NastyRiffraff]

140. Rachel did a good segment on that aspect last night.

She said that News Business 101 says that if a reporter or media outlet receives information that has been stolen, hacked, etc. it's legal to publish it. However, if the reporter or media outlet is party to the theft, hack, etc. that is a crime. In this case, Assange was criminally charged for helping Chelsea Manning illegally obtain passwords by hacking. He wasn't acting as a reporter (and hasn't been for a long time).

[WeekiWater]

20. I think this is an important topic that needs to be seriously discussed.

But this goes a bit too far. Greenwald has no concerns of being arrested by the US and he started a media outlet for the sole purpose of releasing Snowden docs.

I think those like Gabbard who are pushing the line on this need to be heard. Gabbard is simply the wrong person to speak on it.

Again, I don’t agree with her. I also don’t think a whistleblower is someone who indiscriminately hands over classified information. I just think we need the Gabbards to counter others.

[DarthDem]

28. Is She Just Completely Wrong on Every Issue Under the Sun?

Just asking before I trash this thread (no offense meant whatsoever to the threadstarter).

[jcgoldie]

63. Yes she is

Sides with Trump and Assad why would it be a surprise she supports Russian spy Assange?

[jcgoldie]

71. Disagree on both points...

... and interesting that the one you chose not to contest was her affinity for Trump.

[jcgoldie]

80. verifiable facts

Assange is a tool of Putin who calculated the release of information to get Trump elected. Another fact is that Assad is a mass murderer who dropped dirty bombs on his own people and killed women and children and Gabbard publicly supported him somehow because she had seen the horrors of war. Another fact is that she has repeatedly voiced her backhanded support for Trump and shot back as his critics and somehow she was one of Obama's most vocal critics in the Democratic Party. She's an even worse Democrat than your boy Bernie.

[BannonsLiver]

88. Honest question: How do you feel about Putin?

Do you think he’s all bad, or has he done some positive things?

[BannonsLiver]

97. But how do you feel about him?

I ask because you seem to have a passion for journalists and the profession itself and Putin has murdered a lot of journalists. I’m assuming you acknowledge that fact, right?

[BannonsLiver]

86. He also assisted and advised Manning on how to get access to information.

A real journalist doesn’t rob a bank so they can then go and write about it. That’s why the journalist ruse is so laughable. He was an active participant in a crime. That makes him a criminal.

[BeckyDem]

30. Exactly right.

[tymorial]

32. Lol

[BeckyDem]

38. Back at ya. lol

Daniel Ellsberg. (Christopher Michael / Wikimedia Commons)

Editor’s Note: In light of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange’s recent arrest, Truthdig is re-posting a timely conversation between Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer and legendary whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, both of whom have been vocal defenders of Assange and his work. A letter that Ellsberg co-signed outlines the Pentagon Papers author’s position on the attacks on Assange:

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/daniel-ellsberg-why-there-arent-more-whistleblowers_julian_assange/

[tymorial]

41. Wikileaks engaged in cooperation with Russians to screw Clinton

I quite frankly do not understand anyone that supports him especially someone claiming to be a Democrat. If that gets me flag so be it

[BeckyDem]

47. uh huh

“The problem the department has always had in investigating Julian Assange is there is no way to prosecute him for publishing information without the same theory being applied to journalists,” said former Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller. “And if you are not going to prosecute journalists for publishing classified information, which the department is not, then there is no way to prosecute Assange.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/julian-assange-unlikely-to-face-us-charges-over-publishing-classified-documents/2013/11/25/dd27decc-55f1-11e3-8304-caf30787c0a9_story.html?utm_term=.0e153a410539

[kcr]

120. uh huh Except that's not what they're charging him with.

[BeckyDem]

141. The reluctance of the Obama administration to prosecute him is the point and as to your current

fixation, there is no legal merit.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) cautioned that the Trump administration’s persecution of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange presented a “dangerous precedent” for cherished liberties in the United States.

As Law&Crime previously reported, London police arrested Assange after he was expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy on charges of skipping bail in 2012 and in line with an extradition request filed by federal prosecutors in Virginia.

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/aclu-blasts-trump-dojs-prosecution-of-assange-as-unconstitutional/

[tymorial]

90. I stand behind my statement.

If you support Assange then you are part of the problem.

[BannonsLiver]

99. Didn't Trump say "the US has killed a lot of people too" during the campaign?

You just more or less regurgitated that talking point in this thread. So it sounds like you don’t have much of a problem siding with Donnie on some things either.

[BannonsLiver]

104. its Interesting how a lot of your points here mirror Putin's messaging.

But hey different strokes and all that.

[Cha]

123. Gabbard's not the brightest candidate..

and she's wrong on this, too.

Link to tweet

Tulsi Gabbard: Trump indictment might have 'led to civil war'

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/435780-tulsi-gabbard-trump-indictment-might-have-led-to-civil-war

[fleabiscuit]

127. She's in the wrong party.

Cha!

[Cha]

129. I know.. I can't believe

she tried to push Barr's rendition of the Mueller report as Fait Accompli!

Aloha, flea!

[BeckyDem]

142. I don't see how she is wrong on this issue.

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/aclu-blasts-trump-dojs-prosecution-of-assange-as-unconstitutional/

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) cautioned that the Trump administration’s persecution of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange presented a “dangerous precedent” for cherished liberties in the United States.

As Law&Crime previously reported, London police arrested Assange after he was expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy on charges of skipping bail in 2012 and in line with an extradition request filed by federal prosecutors in Virginia.

[tymorial]

31. Hell would need to freeze over before I support her in the primaries

I would need double clothes pins to vote for her in the general. Sorry folks but she is...

[EveHammond13]

36. same

[OhZone]

74. Agreed!

She's off my list.

[EveHammond13]

35. bad facts make bad law

[BeckyDem]

50. Ro Khanna:

Tonight on @HardballChris I will argue that the over-broad indictment of Assange is a chilling suppression of speech. The indictiment criminalizes journalists asking a source for info or deleting chat logs. I detest that Assange helped Trump. But this violates the 1st Amendment.

Link to tweet

[applegrove]

52. Assange a journalist? She loves herself some narcissists. Isn't she a fan of Assad?

She's from a cult. Russia loves her. What! Do they all know each other?

[Gretto]

78. And doubted he gassed his own people

You forgot that part.

[Gretto]

84. Guess who disagrees with you?

Link to tweet

[Gretto]

108. She doubted Assad gassed his own people

The fact that she flip flopped doesn't give you the right to deny that she doubted Assad gassed his own people.
And you didn't address your weak argument that Tulsi's initial position was "because" the USA had doubts.
This explains your bizarre suggestion that Gabbard didn't really mean it when she flip flopped, because corporate TV somehow made her do it.

[Cha]

122. Gabbard can't flip-Flop on this gaslighting..

Link to tweet

Tulsi Gabbard: Trump indictment might have 'led to civil war'

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/435780-tulsi-gabbard-trump-indictment-might-have-led-to-civil-war

[dawg day]

128. "Well, isn't that... nice."

I wonder who she is. I just don't get it. But no matter what, there's too much weird and tricky with her. There are so many solid candidates who don't constantly support what Putin would want. So fortunately, I can just ignore her and her weird Putinesque perspective.

[Cha]

145. Kick

[Cha]

124. Chalk this up to Gabbard's growing list of

not fooling anybody who's paid/paying attention.

Link to tweet

Tulsi Gabbard: Trump indictment might have 'led to civil war'

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/435780-tulsi-gabbard-trump-indictment-might-have-led-to-civil-war

[Pope George Ringo II]

54. I do have one piece of good news about her position here

It didn't cost her my vote.

[happybird]

92. ...

Mine, either.

[stonecutter357]

55. fuck putin!

[customerserviceguy]

107. Good old Tulsi

trying to grab a headline from current events by giving a different spin than the common wisdom.

[Cha]

125. Right.. than reality.

Link to tweet

Tulsi Gabbard: Trump indictment might have 'led to civil war'

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/435780-tulsi-gabbard-trump-indictment-might-have-led-to-civil-war

[defacto7]

111. Thanks MIRT

[BannonsLiver]

113. YES!

[Historic NY]

115. Worthless.....she needs a primany

[Gothmog]

137. It is my understanding the Gabbard will be primaried

[Dream Girl]

118. Is she supported by Russian? I think so.

And I called it on Russian trolls being all over DU was mercilessly ridiculed until the Election Day hacking

[Indygram]

119. I'm starting to think she fell out of the silly tree

And hit every single branch on the way down.

Bless her heart...

[ucrdem]

130. Just another willing cog in the VRWC disinfo machine

And now that the nutjobs are back in the saddle they have no use for their patsies so under the bus he goes. No tears for Jules.

[ehrnst]

132. What "Journalist" releases unedited information on LGBTQs in countries

where they could be executed for being such?

[MineralMan]

134. Well, that was ill-advised on Gabbard's part.

Perhaps she thought that would attract a certain element to her. Folks like Name Removed. And perhaps it will, but it's not going to help much. I'm afraid she's not going to gain much traction in this primary race, somehow...

[Gothmog]

135. Hillary Clinton: "I do think it's a little ironic that [Julian Assange] may be the only foreigner th

Link to tweet

[Gothmog]

138. Hillary Clinton reacts to the arrest of Julian Assange https://

Link to tweet

[peggysue2]

143. For God's sake

Is Gabbard always on the wrong side of things?? Or are journalists all hacking into computers now?

Curious, too, that Assange's journalistic creds are all in items against the diabolical West. Not so much, Pooty. For whom Assange and others seem to have a warm spot. Because a mob-run state is so more preferable, doncha know.

Many (myself included) were snowed on Snowden. Assange? Don't think so.

[Cha]

144. Overriding issue above it all though, to everyone who witnessed the whole cowardly affair seven year

Link to tweet

Julian Assange: Sweden considers reviving rape inquiry

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47910820