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Comment by goerz | Hacker News Reader

> Mr. Assange’s health has been seriously affected by the extremely hostile and arbitrary environment he has been exposed to for many years

Let me correct that: Mr Assange’s health has been seriously affected by the environment that he exposed himself to

(Edit: I’m talking about the embassy episode here, not his more recent incarceration)

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It's not like he had any better choice here.

He could have just faced the charges in Sweden. He'd be out by now if he was found guilty. His behavior and streams of lies about extradition, etc. suggest the whole episode was a guilty man hiding and foolishly digging in. His best option was always to just face the charges instead of fleeing justice.

> and streams of lies about extradition

What lies about extradition? Just as they forced him out of the embassy the US published an extradition request. There were also past cases such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repatriation_of_Ahmed_Agiza_an...

But.... He literally has an extradition order out for him right now.

He was right. His opinions on extradition were proven correct.

How can you ignore the literal evidence, right here, right now, of everything that he had predicted, to be coming true?

There is no evidence of an extradition order from the US at the point when Assange first claimed it, and the extradition now is based on Assange being very directly involved with and directing hacks on targets, which is a valid legal justification for extradition.

Even if he hadn't lied in claims re: extradition, the current extradition is for credible and serious charges and he should face justice.

But isn't this a bit of a catch 22 though? Do you honestly believe that this situation could have ended any other way, other than him being extradited to the USA?

I am saying, that no matter what happened, whether there was a secret order, or not, or whether an extradition order would have been sent, the moment he stepped out of the embassy (but otherwise did not "exist" prior to him stepping out of the embassy), what was going to happen is that he was going to be extradited to the USA.

And this prediction was proven correct. And the people who disagreed with this idea, owe the world an apology, for being entirely, completely, 100% wrong.

If you disagree, you are basically holding an unfalsifiable position. Because by doing so, you are saying that no matter if he actually gets extradite, like what just happened!, you are going to ignore the actual evidence of this prediction coming true!

It seems like there is no possible evidence or situation that I could show you, which would change your mind, because your argument is always going to be "Well, the order didn't exist before... but it does now".

I can't argue with this kind of unfalsifiable position.

If someone had predicted "this person is going to be extradited to the USA, at some point in the future", then this person was correct, and if you disagree with this person, and called them a conspiracy theorist, then you were wrong.

There are no known extradition orders from the Obama DoJ, and the feds have claimed they didn't want to bother with him in the Holder era. To believe he would be extradited to the US requires Assange's claimed extradition threat to have been real, but there's not only no evidence, but some evidence that suggests there never was one.

The position that there never was a sealed extradition request can be falsified with evidence of one, it's just that there currently is no evidence.

Ok, but imagine an alternate universe where, if during the Holder era, there was a secret extradition order.

Would you imagine that what we are observing right now, would be any different than this hypothetical universe where a secret extradition order did indeed exist?

Is it really so hard to believe that such a hypothetical universe would almost certainly look exactly like the universe that we are in right now?

> Mr Assange’s health has been seriously affected by the environment that he exposed himself to

Fuck you.

We've banned this account for repeatedly breaking the site guidelines. Would you please stop creating accounts to do that with?

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Please don't do that.

>he exposed himself to

Did you miss what happened to him when he was arrested? He's now being tortured even more. He put himself there, for his safety, and to think he did it 'just because' is wildly ridiculous.

No, and I do in fact think his most recent incarceration at least borders on torture. But I also think claiming that someone is torturing you while you’ve locked yourself in a room trying to evade questioning in a criminal investigation is ridiculous.

To be fair, he wasn't just evading "questioning", the fact that he isn't being extradited to Sweden and they are dropping the case makes this more obvious in my opinion

He locked himself in a room trying to evade exactly the treatment he is receiving right now. Is there any precedent in the UK for solitary confinement in Belmarsh for skipping bail on a rape charge in another country?

His treatment in Sweden if he'd complied rather than fleeing justice in the UK would likely have been far better. His dissembling about extradition and all of his actions suggest he was guilty of the rapes and hiding from justice.

Yeah but Sweden is a US ally and was just going to turn around and extradite him to the USA after they were done with him. I don't think you've been following the story closely enough. This is what he said for like the past decade. He know that Federal prison will probably end up with him beaten to death, shanked to death, or in solitary confinement for the rest of his life.

"Sweden is a US ally and was just going to turn around and extradite him to the USA"

Sweden's actual extradition agreement is much more limited than Assange claimed. The UK's is much friendlier to the UK, so if he was honestly worried about extradition his behavior was strange and is more plausibly explained by him trying to cover up his rape. His account was mostly false and deeply misleading about what Sweden did and did not extradite for, which would make sense if it was just a pretext. I believe he tried to dodge real and credible charges in Sweden, and all of his behavior, esp the narcissistic levels of dishonesty point to a rapist who was caught and got trapped by their lies.

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