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Comment by vonklaus | Hacker News Reader

I believe that a nation state did use wikileaks to influence the election. I just think it was the U.S. Also, Assange hasn't been seen publicly in ~42 days. You can see the timeline on assange.net (not Julians personal site). It doesn't speculate, just provides facts. Very concerning.

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Um... he's just completed a two day interview over rape allegations and issued statements about it. I doubt that the Ecuadorean embassy, Swedish prosecutors, Assange's legal team and the @Wikileaks Twitter account are working together on this one...

no. his last confirmed public appearance was early october. The checksums of the evidence files don't match post his internet going down. The questions were relayed to him and his lawyer was not present. Do your own research, don't take my word for it, however the "wikileakstaskforce" account was made in October. There is significant skepticism he is alive and the embassy has a bay window which his cat was seen at yesterday. He could simply pull back the curtain or sign a document with the private key to quell skeptics who have become increasingly vocal since his internet was severed over a month ago.

edit: it is nearly 7pm local time in London. Do you not find it odd wikileaks has been rather silent that it's founder has likely completed giving a full days deposition to exonerate him of the crime he is seeking asylum for...in that vbery embassy. A half-decade or greater ordeal. They posted an infographic yesterday, an NEA Bill Clinton leak, and appeal for pardoing Chelsea Manning. No mention that this is day 2 of a major fight for Assange.

edit 2: In fact, according to google[0] there has been NO news about it. There are ~5 stories and none of them relating to todays depo.

[0]https://www.google.com/#q=assange+sweden+interview&tbm=nws&t...

He could simply pull back the curtain or sign a document with the private key to quell skeptics who have become increasingly vocal since his internet was severed over a month ago. But that assumes that calming paranoid people down is high on Assange's list of priorities, and that assumption alone is pretty heroic.

If your conspiracy theory involves Swedish prosecutors, Ecuadorean embassy staff and Assange's legal team all conspiring not to notice that he's not around to take their interviews or phone calls and doesn't involve public statements released in Assange's name looking any different to his usual output, it's not a very good one

I am simply stating that there is no proof he is alive, and hasn't been for ~40 days. The checksums don't match-- which is a bit odd as they have consistently matched pre-comitments until now. That said, I would assume that if Assange is alive (and hasn't escaped the embassy somehow) that he would want people to know he was alive. If very powerful people were trying to kill you, you would likely not want to make it a habit to disappear for >1 month to elicit shock value. In the event someone actually does kidnap/threaten/kill you no one would think it odd for 40 days.

Again, I am not really speculating. There is no proof he is alive. Many have asked for it. The twitter poll vote was for a video, the pilger interview was a pre-recorded video and his spokesperson said he was "very ill and his condition had deteriorated" and the prosecutor relayed the info to him via 3rd party and barred his lawyer Samuelson from being present. So IDK what is going on, but something feels very strange about this.

> I am simply stating that there is no proof he is alive

rolls eyes

Apart from the fact that his hosts, his own legal team, and Swedish prosecutors have all publicly vouched for having interacted with him in the past couple of days and even Pamela bloody Anderson has met him since his last "proof of life", none whatsoever.

Also, there is not cryptographically sound proof that I am alive, so it is not really speculating to suggest that you are interacting with a ghost.

This particular ghost finds it pretty hilarious that anybody could consider it plausible that powerful people wanting to kill Assange would form the largest and unlikeliest group of conspirators ever and then drip feed as much information drawing as much attention to his situation as possible to the press after doing the deed, and consider it unlikely that Assange might do something to elicit shock value.

> Apart from the fact that his hosts, his own legal team, and Swedish prosecutors have all publicly vouched for having interacted with him in the past couple of days and even Pamela bloody Anderson has met him since his last "proof of life", none whatsoever.

Links? PA met him over a month ago. I have not seen the prosecutor state she has met with him.

> there is not cryptographically sound proof that I am alive

Well, to my knowledge you aren't being hunted by state government. You also didn't publicly state, build, and confirm a contingency plan and take pains to cryptographically verify most of your disclosures.

I am again not speculating further. I am stating that despite his extremely precarious situation and his quarters being in a major city literally surrounded by reporters and with a balcony and windows he has not made an appearance despite tripping of his deadmans switch. Further, he is a pretty arrogant guy so I would be surprised he wouldn't be not only commenting on his successful influence of the election, his potential to exfiltrate himself from this legal mess or just generally make some statements, it is seeming as if he is no longer able to do so.

When your dead man switch goes off, and you have encouraged people to verify your identity in this scenario, it is pretty fucking weird there has not been cryptographic proof. Believe what you want, but clearly something is amiss.

Pamela Anderson met him twice since October 4th, most recently this week. As did a Swedish prosecutor, who just might have had something to say and not gone back the following day if she'd been interviewing a mannequin. His legal team issued a statement over the interview saying that he was "very happy" and had "prepared himself very carefully". His website issued a statement in his name about the elections on November 8th. Another press release in his name issued November 14th complained that only his Ecuadorean counsel and not his Swedish counsel were there but said he was cooperating with prosecutors anyway.

But yeah, I'm sure none of these people really interacted with him in any way because he hasn't reactivated his dead mans switch since October 4th. Your evidential standards and blind faith in Assange's desire to quell rumours about conspiracies against him are totally reasonable here.

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