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2019-11-09 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Will Julian Assange Die in Prison? Is that why a "dead man" data dump just took place?
[THEAMERICANCONSERVATIVE] Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is suffering significant “psychological torture” and abuse in the London prison where he is being held, and his life is now “at risk,” according to an independent UN rights expert. A senior member of his legal team believes Assange may not live until the end of the extradition process.

Assange mumbled, stuttered, and struggled to say his own name and date of birth when he appeared in court on October 21. The Wikileaks founder is being subjected to long drawn-out “psychological torture” as he battles to prevent his extradition to the United States where he faces a slew of espionage charges, warns Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.

“Unless the UK urgently changes course and alleviates his inhumane situation, Mr. Assange’s continued exposure to arbitrariness and abuse may soon end up costing his life,” Melzer said in a statement on Friday.

“His physical appearance was not as shocking as his mental deterioration,” writes former British ambassador Craig Murray, who was present at the October hearing. “When asked to give his name and date of birth, he struggled visibly over several seconds to recall both… his difficulty in making it was very evident; it was a real struggle for him to articulate the words and focus his train of thought… Until yesterday I had always been quietly skeptical of those who claimed that Julian’s treatment amounted to torture… and skeptical of those who suggested he may be subject to debilitating drug treatments. But having attended the trials in Uzbekistan of several victims of extreme torture, and having worked with survivors from Sierra Leone and elsewhere, I can tell you that … Julian exhibited exactly the symptoms of a torture victim brought blinking into the light, particularly in terms of disorientation, confusion, and the real struggle to assert free will through the fog of learned helplessness.”

“One of the greatest journalists and most important dissidents of our times is being tortured to death by the state, before our eyes. To see my friend, the most articulate man, the fastest thinker, I have ever known, reduced to that shambling and incoherent wreck, was unbearable,” writes Murray.
Situations like this are why we very properly have two separate criminal justice tracks. Run-of-the-mill knuckle dragger criminals can be tossed into the clink and left to rot for a few years with no harm done. Sensitive, articulate members of the non-short bus Special Class shouldn't be imprisoned longer than overnight because of the Loss to the World® when their delicate psyches are damaged.

WikiLeaks just dropped their databomb
[Dropbox] Wikileaks Dead Man data dump here
Posted by Fred 2019-11-09 00:00|| || Front Page|| [26 views ]  Top

#1 I guess he found out he was about to be found to
have strangled himself to death with his bedsheet in his solitary cell with broken cameras and sleeping guards.
Posted by Glenmore 2019-11-09 01:56||   2019-11-09 01:56|| Front Page Top

#2 Someone doesn't know what a dead man switch is.

Assange has to periodically reset the timer. If he's not around to do so, the information will be automatically released. Has nothing to do with him dying in prison.

Which he will certainly do. If he survives British prison he's going to get a kangaroo court trial and then ADX Florence Supermax, where the US government keeps its personal enemies.
Posted by Herb McCoy  2019-11-09 02:14||   2019-11-09 02:14|| Front Page Top

#3 I was hoping Trump would have him freed, and make some sort of deal with him. Through indirect means of course. What we, the right, need is a network of unconnected but cause-oriented high net worth individuals and lawfare financiers. Even if the Trump wants, he can't give him assist in this time of scrutiny.
Posted by Dron66046 2019-11-09 03:10||   2019-11-09 03:10|| Front Page Top

#4 Okay. All very well. Where"s Epstein's long=fuse IED?
Posted by Richard Aubrey 2019-11-09 07:07||   2019-11-09 07:07|| Front Page Top

#5 The drop was a fake BTW.
Posted by Bright Pebbles 2019-11-09 08:23||   2019-11-09 08:23|| Front Page Top

#6 If he's as gaga as the article claims, maybe he just forgot to reset the deadman switch.
Posted by Mercutio 2019-11-09 08:27||   2019-11-09 08:27|| Front Page Top

#7 How do you reset the deadman switch when you're in prison? That's what a deadman switch IS.
Posted by Herb McCoy  2019-11-09 08:42||   2019-11-09 08:42|| Front Page Top

#8 What we, the right, need is a network of unconnected but cause-oriented high net worth individuals and lawfare financiers

Start with Peter Thiel and Robert Mercer. Maybe Ron Unz.
Posted by Lex 2019-11-09 09:00||   2019-11-09 09:00|| Front Page Top

#9 Deadman Switches, eh?
Compare and contrast the 'Old Man of the Mountains', the head of the Assassins and Julian Assange. Both use illegal means to get what they want and hardly care who gets trampled in the process. Let. Him. Rot.
Posted by magpie 2019-11-09 11:27||   2019-11-09 11:27|| Front Page Top

#10 How do you reset the deadman switch when you're in prison? That's what a deadman switch IS.

That would explain the cable running from his cell to the wiring closet down the hall.

Tune in next week when we discuss what a metaphor is.
Posted by SteveS 2019-11-09 11:45||   2019-11-09 11:45|| Front Page Top

#11 ^ Heh
Posted by Frank G 2019-11-09 12:30||   2019-11-09 12:30|| Front Page Top

#12 Snark o' the Day
Posted by Lex 2019-11-09 12:49||   2019-11-09 12:49|| Front Page Top

#13 Most of the docs look like nothing and the file count is nowhere near the numbers claimed.
If its a faked dump that is fine.
If its a real dump it is lame.
Posted by 3dc 2019-11-09 13:23||   2019-11-09 13:23|| Front Page Top

#14 Harsh words for a man whose only crime was telling us the truth of how corrupt and criminal our own government was.

Remember Clapper swearing before Congress that the NSA wasn't spying on Americans illegally? You know how we know he was lying? We were told the truth.
Posted by Herb McCoy  2019-11-09 14:21||   2019-11-09 14:21|| Front Page Top

#15 It's a rare occurrence, but I agree completely with Herb. Julian Assange's "crimes" amount to exposing the bad behavior of the governments and elites all around the Western world, and their connections with many shady organizations. I don't care if he broke laws that protect the government and criminalize informing citizens of what their governments were up to. Those laws carry no moral weight.

Also, the Old Man on the Mountain metaphor is ridiculous. Assange hasn't killed anybody, much less wracked up the extremely impressive kill count of the Assassins. The closest one could come to making such a claim is that he might have recklessly endangered his sources. Which indicates little more than the evil he was working against.
Posted by Vernal Hatrick 2019-11-09 16:26||   2019-11-09 16:26|| Front Page Top

#16 Have y’all forgotten the Afghan war documents dump in July 2010? Wikileaks did not black out the names and contact info of local Afghans, nor of American troops. People were murdered over ther, families were threatened at home... and the release to major news organizations was arranged to do the most harm possible. Not the actions of merely mischievous chaotic-good sprites.
Posted by trailing wife 2019-11-09 17:15||   2019-11-09 17:15|| Front Page Top

#17 ^ Assange is not our (or anyone's) friend
Snowden is not a(n American) patriot
Gabbard is not wise or intelligent
Posted by Lex 2019-11-09 18:00||   2019-11-09 18:00|| Front Page Top

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