What will happen to Assange, Snowden?

mr_fegelien

I would have thought that during the Trump administration, he'd seek to extradite Snowden from Russia given the cozy relationship he has with Putin, but that didn't happen in the last 4 years.

Some say Snowden will live out the rest of his days in Russia until he gets pardoned.

What about Julian Assange? Will he be released from prison?

Gregor Samsa

The “cosy relationship” is strict one way. Putin gave Snowden asylum. There is no way Russia would extradite him to the US (unless there was something in it for Russia).

In September, Trump said he’d think about pardoning Snowden.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/15/us/politics/trump-snowden-esper.html

Assange is hoping for a pardon from Trump too:

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-london-julian-assange-espionage-ed32979c5201ca97d26066604381b2ce

Muahahaha

Id be surprised if Trump pardons either of them, especially Assange who isnt even American. Doubt Biden would pardon Snowden either,he is in Russia for a good while yet.

Cheerful Spring2

What’s this cozy relationship? Putin has favored Biden over the Ukraine narrative, and very few seem to have acknowledged it. Single out a few facts, incidents, or whatnot Putin has helped Trump with in 4 years? I struggle to find areas where Russia has advanced economically and militarily in the last 4 years under Trump. This narrative now rooted in some people online and elsewhere.

Assange shamefully was combined with the Russiagate affair too. Not a chance, least its narrow one, he’s getting out of prison. The news channels showed how inept they are over this. Whistleblowers are now less expected to come forward with their unpleasant stories in a job, or detail a war crime or scandal. British police dragging Assange from the Embassy would have received more traction pre Russia gate. The ruling class and the security state in England and US has done a good job of making others doubt their true intentions.

Gatling

Muahahaha wrote: »

Id be surprised if Trump pardons either of them, especially Assange who isnt even American. Doubt Biden would pardon Snowden either,he is in Russia for a good while yet.

Why would he pardon assange ,he's nothing but a one sided ego , while he's only happy to post what America is doing he's awfully silent about other countries ,
he's like snowden are nothing more than self serving tools ,

CtevenSrowder

Gatling wrote: »

Why would he pardon assange ,he's nothing but a one sided ego , while he's only happy to post what America is doing he's awfully silent about other countries ,
he's like snowden are nothing more than self serving tools ,

How is Snowden self-serving exactly? The self-serving option would've been to do nothing about what he knew.

AMKC

Gatling wrote: »

Why would he pardon assange ,he's nothing but a one sided ego , while he's only happy to post what America is doing he's awfully silent about other countries ,
he's like snowden are nothing more than self serving tools ,

Yep agree totally and both of them made the world a lot less safe. I say let them both rot where they are. They made there choices. Maybe they should have thought more about it before doing it.

Gatling

CtevenSrowder wrote: »

How is Snowden self-serving exactly? The self-serving option would've been to do nothing about what he knew.

He could have stayed and pled his case and stood up in front on congressional committees .

Instead he's known as a low level Contractor who stole **** that didn't belong to him and legged to to Russia of all places ,for all we know he is a double agent ,

America is spying on people ,so the **** are every other major nation ,it's bread and butter stuff ,

Gruffalux

https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1338525680615690240?s=20

I wonder if this could be true.
It would be great if so. (In my opinion.)

Henryq.

Gatling wrote: »

He could have stayed and pled his case and stood up in front on congressional committees .

Instead he's known as a low level Contractor who stole **** that didn't belong to him and legged to to Russia of all places ,for all we know he is a double agent ,

America is spying on people ,so the **** are every other major nation ,it's bread and butter stuff ,

He'd have been mothballed or jailed if he tried that on home soil

Ultimately were better off with these whistleblowers

Gruffalux

Henryq. wrote: »

He'd have been mothballed or jailed if he tried that on home soil

Ultimately were better off with these whistleblowers

That's the thing - it's the balance of better or worse. Whistleblowers need to be protected from vested interests, even if those interests are countries. Assange did not reveal much about certain countries, that's true, but what he did do was better than doing nothing. And in the past I read a lot about the rape story and was unconvinced by it. He may not be the nicest guy in the world but it seems on balance to have been mostly about a partner thwarted. That's just my opinion.

Edit - meh, seems it was a false source, the first guy has said so.

silverharp

that particular rumour doesn't appear to be true, if it happens it would probably be in the new year

Sir Oxman

British court rules Julian Assange should not be extradited to the US.

"At a hearing at London's Old Bailey, Judge Vanessa Baraitser rejected nearly all his legal team's arguments but said she could not extradite him, citing concerns over his mental health, and ordered his discharge"

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2021/0104/1187570-julian-assange-uk-us-extradition/

I can imagine this will be challenged immediately or will he be walking today?

AMKC

Sir Oxman wrote: »

British court rules Julian Assange should not be extradited to the US.

"At a hearing at London's Old Bailey, Judge Vanessa Baraitser rejected nearly all his legal team's arguments but said she could not extradite him, citing concerns over his mental health, and ordered his discharge"

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2021/0104/1187570-julian-assange-uk-us-extradition/

I can imagine this will be challenged immediately or will he be walking today?

Hopefully it is challenged immediately and he does not walk away. His mental health is no ones fault but his own. As said earlier in this thread he made the world less safe and so did that other one Snowdon. I hope he rots in Russia.

BattleCorp

AMKC wrote: »

Hopefully it is challenged immediately and he does not walk away. His mental health is no ones fault but his own. As said earlier in this thread he made the world less safe and so did that other one Snowdon. I hope he rots in Russia.

Ah yeah. I suppose you'd be in favour of keeping quiet and covering up US war crimes etc.?

Muahahaha

Its expected the US will appeal and he will apply for bail in the meantime, be interesting to see if he is granted it