# Julian Assange (remember him?) update **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 5, 2016, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julian-assange-remember-him-update/745210 "2016-02-05T07:20:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 26
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julian-assange-remember-him-update/745210/501 "2024-06-26T13:45:03Z")
> **[WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange returns to Australia a free man after US...](https://apnews.com/article/julian-assange-wikileaks-australia-7daeb8f54c0604fb0e78c0b171046013)** > > WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has returned to his homeland Australia aboard a charter jet hours after pleading guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets. OP, you might request the mods to change the title. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julian-assange-remember-him-update/745210/502 "2024-06-26T17:54:04Z")
Post mortem. Starting with Doug Saunders, international affairs columnist: > **[Opinion: Julian Assange was never a journalist or a whistle-blower. But...](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-julian-assange-was-never-a-journalist-or-a-whistleblower-but-theyre/)** > > The WikiLeaks founder’s guilty plea for stealing government secrets gives him too much credit for his middleman role > Julian Assange is a fraud who called himself a journalist and a whistle-blower while greatly hindering and inconveniencing the cause of journalism and making life much harder for actual whistle-blowers. He is a tool of dictators whose greatest offence, for which he has not been charged, was to help Russian president Vladimir Putin throw the 2016 U.S. election. > I had the experience of attempting to deal with WikiLeaks during those years, and saw Mr. Assange in action. Beneath his blustering speeches about bringing down governments, he was, in practice, a rather crude broker who retailed other people’s leaks for his own benefit. Assange evolved into a tool for bad actors. Assange offered bounties for stolen information. Disinformation reporter Jenny Cohn notes that he persuaded sources _not_ to leak their information to reputable news agencies saying, “Send any new material here for us to review and it will have a much higher impact than what you are doing”. > **[Thread by @jennycohn1 on Thread Reader App](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1805668121933660270.html)** > > @jennycohn1: When Julian Assange “tried to distance himself from Guccifer by scapegoating Seth Rich, freelance journalist Emma Best gave him a dose of his own medicine by sending Buzzfeed News some of his private Tw...… In the end, Assange was prosecuted for publishing leaked materials that, “ **contained the unredacted names of human sources** who provided information to United States forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to U.S. State Department diplomats around the world.” Kevin Drum: “What exactly did Julian Assange plead guilty to?” > **[What exactly did Julian Assange plead guilty to? - Kevin Drum](https://jabberwocking.com/what-exactly-did-julian-assange-plead-guilty-to/)** > > The Julian Assange plea deal is a little more interesting than I initially thought. To simplify considerably, there were basically two things Assange was charged with: > > Obtaining and distributing classified national defense material. > Actively... I can imagine a more legitimate NGO, that would offer bounties for leaked material, hand them over to real reporters, and commit itself to the highest possible operational security. That frankly would still be bad IMO. But it wouldn’t be as obviously bad. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julian-assange-remember-him-update/745210/503 "2024-06-26T17:58:15Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > [WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange returns to Australia a free man after US legal battle ends | AP News](https://apnews.com/article/julian-assange-wikileaks-australia-7daeb8f54c0604fb0e78c0b171046013) > > OP, you might request the mods to change the title. Why? The current title seems good. General enough to not need a lot of attention, and descriptive of the thread. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julian-assange-remember-him-update/745210/504 "2024-06-26T18:05:14Z")
Because the thread has been running for eight years with almost nothing happening–just more and more legal battles–so I expect very few people are clicking to read new posts. Changing the title indicates that something new is happening. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2024, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julian-assange-remember-him-update/745210/505 "2024-06-28T13:19:01Z")
Non-paywalled repost of Washington Post article: **Assange plea came after warning that U.S. would lose extradition fight** [https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/assange-plea-came-after-warning-that-us-would-lose-extradition-fight/ar-BB1p1oy5?ocid=BingNewsVerp](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/assange-plea-came-after-warning-that-us-would-lose-extradition-fight/ar-BB1p1oy5?ocid=BingNewsVerp) So it wasn’t because of compassion–that he had suffered enough with the 7 years in the Ecuador embassy and 5 years in a British prison; instead lawyers thought there was a very good chance the U.S. would lose. ---
**Author:** ![Skypist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skypist/32/169_2.png) [@Skypist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skypist)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2024, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julian-assange-remember-him-update/745210/506 "2024-06-28T13:49:16Z")
I don’t understand it. Now he’s free to run around causing more chaos to the US. I’m not arguing that the US is always right, but IMO Assange interfered in our elections and helped get us trump. And he’s not a journalist. Just IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julian-assange-remember-him-update/745210/507 "2024-06-29T10:24:34Z")
I’m sure the CIA will be keeping a very close eye on him. In fact, they may be hoping that now that he’s free, some of his erstwhile sources will surface, attempt to make contact, and be exposed. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julian-assange-remember-him-update/745210/508 "2024-06-29T14:15:04Z")
FWIW, I look at the Latest tab, which is where I saw this thread reappear. A title change wouldn’t have made a difference (other than that this title is familiar and a new one might not attract me to click). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/julian-assange-remember-him-update/745210.md?page=25)