Talk of Assange pardon worries intelligence community

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill




BY JOE UCHILL - 09/01/17 06:00 AM EDT

A GOP lawmaker's suggestion that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange could be pardoned by President Trump is being eyed warily by people in the intelligence community.

While a pardon for Assange seems unlikely, it's hardly impossible considering Trump's praise for Wikileaks and Assange's own efforts to question U.S. intelligence that Russia sought to influence last year's election. As such, the idea is being taken seriously in intelligence quarters.

“It would send a terrible message to the intelligence community,” said Robert Deitz, a former senior counselor to the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and general counsel at the National Security Agency.

Deitz currently works as a Professor at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government. “What moral are people supposed to draw from that? Why on earth would you believe Julian Assange before the intelligence community?”


Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/technology/348773-could-trump-pardon-assange

[JonLP24]

1. I think Julian Assange is an asshole

but why on earth would I believe the intelligence community? I have no doubt they're telling the truth about the Russia thing because there is so much evidence, evidence they're largely keeping classified even though the Russians already know what they did.

[Docreed2003]

2. Why on earth would you believe Julian Assange

Because he's a russian asset just like Trump!

[FairWinds]

3. There are a lot of name-calling and assumptions of guilt going on . .

but I have yet to see a shred of evidence that any leaks from
Wikileaks were anything other than what the global citizenry
have every right to know.

The "Collateral Murder" video, for example, should have been
released, and I am glad that it was.

Maybe you folks are being manipulated by the right wing - you
should be very skeptical of anything that comes out of George Mason U..
According to sourcewatch, it is a "magnet for right-wing money" and heavily
Koch-funded, it is notable for hosting over 40 libertarian research centers
and affiliates . ."



Veterans For Peace

[MrsCoffee]

8. Fuck Assange.

And all the other Russian stooges out there. Wikileaks is nothing but an extended Putin propaganda machine at this point.

There are a lot of useful idiots being manipulated by the right wing, but it's not those skeptical of Assange.

“What moral are people supposed to draw from that? Why on Earth would you believe Julian Assange before the intelligence community?”

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who has come under scrutiny for his own ties to Russia, is behind the Assange pardon push.

The deal Rohrabacher is trying to cut: pardon Assange in exchange for information he claims proves Russia did not collude with the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential race.

I'm not skeptical of those statements at all. I am skeptical of those who think Wikileaks is some asset to global citizenry.

[FairWinds]

9. Your post is a great example of the . .

zero evidence and name calling to which I referred in my comment above.

Do you imagine that your use of obscenity is somehow persuasive or
intimidating? I can assure you that it is neither.

[MrsCoffee]

12. I have no interest in intimidating anyone.

My use of profanity is a personal preference. Period.

I've read enough here to know that anyone who was snowed by Assange can't be persuaded.

[LiberalLovinLug]

11. I think Assange gets an unfair rap in here

Do I like that he released those DNC emails? No of course not.

But that's what Wikileaks does. If they are handed information that politicians want to keep hidden, he wants to share it. When he released Chelsea Manning's leak of the Colateral Murder video, many on the left, including myself, cheered. But when what he releases embarrasses OUR party, he's the devil.

He has a simple mandate, that is not beholden to any one party. To promote freedom of information and that the public has been denied much more information than they should rightfully see. His beef is with the entrenched and increasingly hidden back room shenanigans going on in governments around the world.

But I also think he has been a 'useful idiot' to Putin and Trump and the GOP because of this. COULD he have, upon receiving these hacks, refuse to release them because he didn't want to turn over the apple cart? Sure. But again, that is not his mandate. He has no loyalties other than distributing information that would otherwise be denied to the public. I have no doubt that if he were handed inside emails of the GOP instead, he would have also released those.

He's arrogant, maybe misogynistic, but as far as Wikileaks? IMO its an important organization.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. Quid pro quo.

[Me.]

5. Of Course Rohrbacher, Russia's Best Friend, After 45

Would suggest this

[NCjack]

6. JA could be inline for a pardon. He is in the position to have collected

some damaging stuff that Trump wants destroyed.

[Sunlei]

7. pardoned for what crime he was charged with? Republicans want to hide their fence for hacked files.

[Historic NY]

10. For Christ's sakes he's not even a US Citizen........

Rohrabacher said he had information he planned to carry back to Trump when he returned to the United States, including a request that the WikiLeaks organization be given a news media seat inside the White House press room.

Rohrabacher said the meeting occurred with Assange, his lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, and Chuck Johnson, a conservative activist and right-wing provocateur, in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.


http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/346904-assange-meets-us-congressman-vows-to-prove-russia-did-not-leak-him