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The Obama DOJ concluded that prosecuting WikiLeaks and Assange for publishing documents would pose a grave threat to press freedom theintercept.com/2018/11/16/as-… - Dems who spent 2 years feigning concerns over press freedom but who now cheer the Trump DOJ for this are beneath contempt:
Arresting Assange and destroying WikiLeaks was a top priority for the most reactionary elements of the Trump administration from the start. Both Jeff Sessions & Mike Pompeo vowed do this to put an end to *reporting*. They were explicit about this: theintercept.com/2017/04/14/tru…
If you're cheering Assange's arrest based on a US extradition request, your allies in your celebration are the most extremist elements of the Trump administration, whose primary and explicit goal is to criminalize reporting on classified docs & punish WL for exposing war crimes.
Obama DOJ tried to concoct a theory to justify arresting Assange for more than merely publishing docs: such as claiming he aided Manning in the the theft of docs. They found no evidence for it. Trump DOJ will likely manufacture some falsehood to claim it's more than publishing.
Here's a 2013 WPost article explaining why Obama DOJ - not exactly a vigorous defender of press freedoms - concluded that prosecuting WL & Assange would pose a serious threat to press freedom. How could you also not prosecute NYT & Guardian for the same? washingtonpost.com/world/national…
This is Assange's lawyer, confirming he was arrested not just for bail-jumping in the UK (a minor offense) but also on a US extradition warrant issued by Trump DOJ in 2017 alleging a conspiracy with Chelsea Manning: it's about pre-2016 publication of docs
The UK police also confirm that they've arrested Assange "in relation to an extradition warrant on behalf of the United States authorities." Dems cheering this are united with the Trump DOJ in an extremist action that the Obama DOJ refused to take:
If you're a US media star who has spent 2 years claiming to be so concerned about press freedoms over Trump's mean tweets about your friends, but don't raise your voice in protest over this grave attack on press freedom, take a hard look in the mirror theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
The @ACLU warns the attempt to prosecute Julian Assange in connection with publishing "would be unprecedented and unconstitutional, and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations" & "set an especially dangerous precedent" aclu.org/news/aclu-comm…
The @ACLU's point is vital: if the US can force the arrest and then extradite foreigners like Assange on foreign soil for publishing docs, what prevents China or Iran or, you know, Russia for doing the same to US journalists who publish secrets about them? aclu.org/news/aclu-comm…
For anyone who has been moronically repeating & believing Mike Pompeo's claim that WikiLeaks is "an arm of Russian intelligence," the attempt by the Trump Admin to prosecute Assange is yet another data point in a long list of Trump acting *directly contrary* to Putin's interests.
The belief that Assange is a Russian agent has always been painfully stupid (and, I should note, completely without evidence). But if you're someone who decided to believe that, then you'd have to see this as another case of Trump taking actions directly harmful to the Kremlin.
Here's the Trump DOJ announcement about its indictment of Assange. It relates *only* to the 2010 classified docs about the Iraq & Afghanistan War logs & diplomatic cables. It has nothing to do with the 2016 election. This is huge attack on press freedom justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/w…
The DOJ says part of what Assange did to justify his prosecution - beyond allegedly helping Manning get the documents - is he encouraged Manning to get more docs for him to publish. Journalists do this with sources constantly: it's the criminalization of journalism 
The security state agents for NBC/MSNBC cheering the Trump administration for arresting Assange because they're authoritarians who only pretend to care about press freedom when it advances their partisan interests.This is what happens when news outlets merge with the US Govt
NBC News made the decision to hire a team of former military & intelligence officials to "report" & "analyze" the news - starting with the highly compromised ex-CIA DIrector now on its payroll - and as a result the have full-on fascists & authoritarians saying things like this:
NBC is the official organ of whatever you call it: the military-industrial complex, the Deep State, the Blob. I'm glad they made it official by putting CIA & intel officials on their payroll. The above psychopathic tweet is what you'd expect to hear at Langley, not a news outlet.
