Comment by calhoun137 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by calhoun137 | Hacker News Reader

The attempt of the US government to prosecute Assange is the gravest possible threat to press freedom imaginable.

People are talking about a hashed password like its something new, but this is not new information at all. The Obama justice department had all the same chat logs - no new evidence has been discovered since then - and knew all about this but decided they couldn't prosecute without endangering press freedom.[1]

So if you don't think this is a major assault on press freedom, you should at least realize you are disagreeing not only with me but literally the Obama justice department which looked at this for years. Why is it that they came to this conclusion and never moved forward with the case, but now the TRUMP administration is pursuing it anyway?

It's not just american journalists that are at risk, but this is meant to send a chilling message to anyone anywhere on earth that you better not report on the US government negatively or else we will have you extradited, prosecuted as a spy, and thrown in solitary.

Anyone cheering on the US government as they try to set a precedent for prosecuting journalists as spies needs to think more carefully about this issue.

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/julia...

The article you posted highlights exactly what's happening here, he's being charged with hacking, not publishing.

> One former law enforcement official said the U.S. government could bring charges against Assange if it discovered a crime, such as evidence that he directly hacked into a U.S. government computer. But the Justice officials said he would almost certainly not be prosecuted for receiving classified material from Manning.

The indictment is not only about hacking, but about aiding the source in avoiding detection, and encouraging them for more documents.

There is zero allegation of hacking. Rather they are saying Manning sent a hashed password and Julian said in the chat he sent it to his team and then it never went anywhere. Calling this hacking is a big stretch.

This article from 2011 shows the Obama justice department knew all about this[1], check out the last two paragraphs which I will post here:

"In the exchange prosecutors showed in the courtroom, Manning appeared to have sent Assange a “hash,” or encrypted, password. Assange said he’d passed it on to members of his team, but the exchange prosecutors showed did not indicate whether WikiLeaks ever actually helped Manning with the password.

That chat could be a critical one for the parallel criminal investigation the Justice Department is pursuing into Assange and WikiLeaks. If Assange gave Manning advice or assistance in breaking into computer systems, that could transform Assange’s role from a mere recipient of secret data to a conspirator in efforts to steal it."

I am curious why you think the Trump administration is pursuing this now whereas the Obama DOJ declined to prosecute sighting the "new york times problem" as described in the previous link.

[1] https://www.politico.com/story/2011/12/defense-manning-was-o...

I've always assumed Obama's DOJ would act once they were able to, and that the DOJ itself was always intent on pursuing. He finally wore out his Ecuador welcome and so it's happening now. Had Clinton won, I think the outcome would be the same, if not far more aggressive (due the DNC email leak).

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