Assange's Case

[John Young]

Worth remembering that not a few cypherpunks have 
died, suicided, homocided, gone to jail, 
disappeared, were exiled, were prosecuted and 
persecuted, became informers, testified against 
other cpunks, stole code, planted malware, ran 
ransomware, lied, cheated, abused trusted friends 
and list postings, established other lists for 
prim and proper discourse, and just about 
whatever the villainous digital era fostered 
while braying about encryption, freedom, privacy, 
corrupt governments and corporations and media and list subscribers.

Hooting about injustice is a venerable cover-up 
of complicity with authorities to fuck other 
people for money, for reputation, for cowardice, 
for damaged brains and diseased morals.

This list is where that shit is promulgated and 
allowed to persist, no matter that a few angels 
pretend they would never do that.

At 01:41 PM 10/25/2021, zeynepaydogan wrote:
>BREAKING: Amnesty International demands release 
>of Julian Assange: “Drop the charges, stop the 
>extradition and free Julian Assange
>
><https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/news-news/2021/10/us-uk-drop-the-charges-stop-the-extradition-and-free-julian-assange-says-amnesty-head/>https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/news-news/2021/10/us-uk-drop-the-charges-stop-the-extradition-and-free-julian-assange-says-amnesty-head/
>
>
>
>
>
>US/UK: “Drop the charges, stop the extradition 
>and free Julian Assange,” says Amnesty head
>
>
>
>Ahead of an appeal hearing against the decision 
>by a UK court not to extradite Julian Assange to 
>the USA, Amnesty International’s Secretary 
>General has called on US authorities to drop the 
>charges against him and the UK authorities not 
>to extradite him but release him immediately.
>
>The call by Agnès Callamard follows an 
>investigation by Yahoo News revealing that US 
>security services considered kidnapping or 
>killing Julian Assange when he was resident in 
>the Ecuadorian embassy in London. These reports 
>further weaken already unreliable US diplomatic 
>assurances that Assange will not be placed in 
>conditions that could amount to ill-treatment if extradited.
>
>“Assurances by the US government that they 
>would not put Julian Assange in a maximum 
>security prison or subject him to abusive 
>Special Administrative Measures were discredited 
>by their admission that they reserved the right 
>to reverse those guarantees. Now, reports that 
>the CIA considered kidnapping or killing Assange 
>have cast even more doubt on the reliability of 
>US promises and further expose the political 
>motivation behind this case,” said Amnesty 
>Secretary General, Agnès Callamard.
>
>“It is a damning indictment that nearly 20 
>years on, virtually no one responsible for 
>alleged US war crimes committed in the course of 
>the Afghanistan and Iraq wars has been held 
>accountable, let alone prosecuted, and yet a 
>publisher who exposed such crimes is potentially facing a lifetime in jail.”
>
>The appeal hearing, scheduled for 27-28 October, 
>is expected to consider five grounds of appeal 
>by the US, including the reliability of 
>assurances offered by the US after a lower UK 
>court ruled against Assange’s extradition in 
>January 2021. Amnesty International has 
>concluded that the assurances are unreliable.
>
>The US charges allege that Assange conspired 
>with a whistleblower – army intelligence analyst 
>Chelsea Mannning – to illegally obtain 
>classified information. Theyy want him to stand 
>trial on charges under the Espionage Act and the 
>Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in the US where he 
>could face a prison sentence of up to 175 years.
>
>The US government’s indictment poses a grave 
>threat to press freedom both in the United 
>States and abroad. The conduct it describes 
>includes professional activities undertaken by 
>investigative journalists and publishers on a 
>daily basis. Were Julian Assange’s extradition 
>to be allowed it would criminalize common 
>journalistic practices and permit the US and 
>possibly other countries to target publishers 
>and journalists outside their jurisdictions for 
>exposing governmental wrongdoing.
>
>“The US government’s unrelenting pursuit of 
>Julian Assange makes it clear that this 
>prosecution is a punitive measure, but the case 
>involves concerns which go far beyond the fate 
>of one man and put media freedom and freedom of 
>expression in peril,” said Agnès Callamard.
>
>“Journalists and publishers are of vital 
>importance in scrutinizing governments, exposing 
>their misdeeds and holding perpetrators of human 
>rights violations to account. This disingenuous 
>appeal should be denied, the charges should be 
>dropped, and Julian Assange should be released.”
>
>For more information or to arrange an interview 
>contact at the court: 
>press at amnesty.orgstefan.simanowitz@amnesty.org +44 2030365599
>
>BACKGROUND
>The US extradition request is based on charges 
>directly related to the publication of leaked 
>classified documents as part of Julian 
>Assange’s work with Wikileaks. Publishing 
>information that is in the public interest is a 
>cornerstone of media freedom and the public’s 
>right to information about government 
>wrongdoing. Publishing information in the public 
>interest is protected under international human 
>rights law and should not be criminalized.
>
>If extradited to the US, Julian Assange could 
>face trial on charges under the Espionage Act 
>and under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He 
>would also face a real risk of serious human 
>rights violations due to detention conditions 
>that could amount to torture or other 
>ill-treatment, including prolonged solitary 
>confinement. Julian Assange is the first 
>publisher to face charges under the Espionage Act.
>
>For further information see
>https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur45/4450/2021/en/
>https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/07/the-us-diplomatic-assurances-are-inherently-unreliable-julian-assange-must-be-released/
>
>
>
>Sent from ProtonMail for iOS
>
>
>Açık Pzt, Eki 25, 2021 12:22, zeynepaydogan 
><<mailto:zeynepaydogan at protonmail.com>zeynepaydogan at protonmail.com> yazdı:
>>I don't have a connection to WL. The future of 
>>journalism,war crimes
.CClamour for humanity. Not for donor.
>>
>>that's for the ex answers you wrote me
>>
>>
>>Sent from ProtonMail for iOS
>>
>>
>>Açık Pzt, Eki 25, 2021 11:24, Digitalfolklore 
>><<mailto:digitalfolklore at protonmail.ch>digitalfolklore at protonmail.ch> yazdı:
>>>you seen those riots in Eucadorian jails? brutal stuff..
>>>
>>>VH
>>>
>>>
>>>‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>>>On Thursday, October 21st, 2021 at 8:15 AM, 
>>>zeynepaydogan <zeynepaydogan at protonmail.com> wrote:
>>>>#FreeOlaBini
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Ola Bini’s trial this week. Ola Bini’s 
>>>>trial is set for Thursday and Friday this 
>>>>week, despite a series of recognized due 
>>>>process violations in the free software 
>>>>developer criminal’s prosecution and flimsy 
>>>>evidences presented to support the charges.
>>>>
>>>>Ola Bini’s pretrial hearing was suspended 
>>>>at least five times during 2020 and again in 
>>>>2021 until its conclusion in June. Now, 
>>>>there’s a risk the trial keep on the same slow-motion tragedy.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>><https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/10/after-years-delays-and-alarmingly-flimsy-evidence-security-expert-ola-binis-trial>https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/10/after-years-delays-and-alarmingly-flimsy-evidence-security-expert-ola-binis-trial
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>After Years of Delays and Alarmingly Flimsy 
>>>>Evidence, Security Expert Ola Bini’s Trial Set for This Week
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>For over two years EFF has been following the 
>>>>case of Swedish computer security expert Ola 
>>>>Bini, who was arrested in April, 2019, in 
>>>>Ecuador, following Julian Assange's ejection 
>>>>from that country’s London Embassy. 
>>>>Bini’s pre-trial hearing, which was 
>>>>suspended and rescheduled at least five times 
>>>>during 2020, was concluded on June 29, 2021. 
>>>>Despite the cloud that has hung over the 
>>>>case—political ramifications 
>>>><https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/08/ecuador-political-actors-must-step-away-ola-binis-case>have 
>>>>seemed to drive the allegations, and Bini has 
>>>>been subjected to 
>>>><https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/12/slow-motion-tragedy-trial-ola-bini>numerous 
>>>>due process and human rights violations—we 
>>>>are hopeful that the securiity expert will be 
>>>>afforded a transparent and fair trial and that due process will prevail.
>>>>
>>>>Ola Bini is known globally as a computer 
>>>>security expert; he is someone who builds 
>>>>secure tools and contributes to free software 
>>>>projects. Ola’s team at ThoughtWorks 
>>>>contributed to Certbot, the EFF-managed tool 
>>>>that has provided strong encryption for 
>>>>millions of websites around the world, and in 
>>>>2018, Ola co-founded a non-profit 
>>>>organization devoted to creating user-friendly security tools.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> From the very outset of Bini’s arrest at 
>>>> the Quito airport there have been 
>>>> significant concerns about the legitimacy of 
>>>> the allegations against him. In our visit to 
>>>> Ecuador in July, 2019, shortly after his 
>>>> arrest, it became clear that the political 
>>>> consequences of Bini’s arrest overshadowed 
>>>> the prosecution’s actual evidence. In 
>>>> brief, based on the interviews that we 
>>>> conducted, our conclusion was that Bini's 
>>>> prosecution is a political case, not a 
>>>> criminal one. His arrest occurred shortly 
>>>> after Maria Paula Romo, then Ecuador’s 
>>>> Interior Minister, held a press conference 
>>>> to claim (without evidence) that a group of 
>>>> Russians and Wikileaks-connected hackers 
>>>> were in the country, planning a cyber-attack 
>>>> in retaliation for the government's eviction 
>>>> of Assange; a recent investigation by 
>>>> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch3sd6-Hbq4&feature=youtu.be>La 
>>>> Posta revealed that the former Minister knew 
>>>> that Ola Bini was not the "Russian hacker" 
>>>> the government was looking for when Bini was 
>>>> detained in Quito's airport. (Romo 
>>>> <https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/ecuador-s-interior-minister-dismissed/2054980>was 
>>>> dismissed as minister in 2020 for ordering 
>>>> the use of tear gas against anti-government protestors).
>>>>
>>>>A so-called piece of evidence against Bini 
>>>>was leaked to the press and taken to court: a 
>>>>photo of a screenshot, supposedly taken by 
>>>>Bini himself and sent to a colleague, showing 
>>>>the telnet login screen of a router. The 
>>>>image is consistent with someone who connects 
>>>>to an open telnet service, receives a warning 
>>>>not to log on without authorization, and does 
>>>>not proceed—respecting the warning. Ass for 
>>>>the portion of a message exchange attributed 
>>>>to Bini and a colleague, leaked with the 
>>>>photo, it shows their concern with the router 
>>>>being insecurely open to telnet access on the wider Internet, with no firewall.
>>>>
>>>>Bini’s arrest and detention were fraught 
>>>>with due process violations. Bini faced 70 
>>>>days of imprisonment until a Habeas Corpus 
>>>>decision considered his detention illegal (a 
>>>>decision that confirmed the weakness of the 
>>>>initial detention). He was released from 
>>>>jail, but the investigation continued, 
>>>>seeking evidence to back the alleged 
>>>>accusations against him. After his release 
>>>>the problems continued, and as the delays 
>>>>dragged on, the Office of the Inter-American 
>>>>Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) Special 
>>>>Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression included 
>>>>its concern with the delay in Bini’s trial 
>>>>in its 2020's annual report. At the time of 
>>>>our visit, Bini's lawyers told us that they 
>>>>counted 65 violations of due process, and 
>>>>journalists told us that no one was able to 
>>>>provide them with concrete descriptions of what he had done.
>>>>
>>>>In April 2021, Ola Bini’s Habeas Data 
>>>>recourse, filed in October 2020 against the 
>>>>National Police, the Ministry of Government, 
>>>>and the Strategic Intelligence Center (CIES), 
>>>>was partially granted by the Judge. According 
>>>>to Bini's defense, he had been facing 
>>>>continuous monitoring by members of the 
>>>>National Police and unidentified persons. The 
>>>>decision requested CIES to provide 
>>>>information related to whether the agency has 
>>>>conducted surveillance activities against the 
>>>>security expert. The ruling concluded that 
>>>>CIES unduly denied such information to Ola 
>>>>Bini, failing to offer a timely response to his previous information request.
>>>>
>>>>Though the judge decided in June’s 
>>>>pre-trial hearing to proceed with the 
>>>>criminal prosecution against Bini, observers 
>>>>indicated 
>>>><https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/213067>a 
>>>>lack of a solid motivation in the judge's 
>>>>decision. The judge was later 
>>>>"<https://inredh.org/la-jueza-yadira-proano-fue-separada-del-caso-que-investiga-a-ola-bini/>separated" 
>>>>from the case in a ruling that admitted the 
>>>>wrongdoing of successive pretrial suspensions 
>>>>and the violation of due process.
>>>>
>>>>It is alarming, but perhaps not surprising, 
>>>>that the case will proceed after all these 
>>>>well-documented irregularities. While Ola 
>>>>Bini’s behavior and contacts in the 
>>>>security world may look strange to 
>>>>authorities, his computer security expertise 
>>>>is not a crime. Since EFF's founding in 1990, 
>>>>we have become all-too familiar with overly 
>>>>politicized "hacker panic" cases, which 
>>>>encourage unjust prosecutions when the 
>>>>political and social atmosphere demands it. 
>>>>EFF was founded in part due to a notorious, 
>>>>and similar, case pursued in the United 
>>>>States by the Secret Service. Our Coder’s 
>>>>Rights Project has 
>>>><https://www.eff.org/issues/coders>worked for 
>>>>decades to protect the security and 
>>>>encryption researchers that help build a 
>>>>safer future for all of us using digital 
>>>>technologies, and who far too often face 
>>>>serious legal challenges that prevent or 
>>>>inhibit their work. This case is, 
>>>>unfortunately, part of a longstanding history 
>>>>of countering the unfair criminal persecution 
>>>>of security experts, who have unfortunately 
>>>>been the subject of the same types of 
>>>>harassment as those they work to protect, 
>>>>such as human rights defenders and activists.
>>>>
>>>>In June of this year, EFF called upon 
>>>>Ecuadors’ Human Rights Secretariat to give 
>>>>special attention to Ola Bini’s upcoming 
>>>>hearing and prosecution. As we stressed 
>>>><https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/06/eff-ecuadors-human-rights-secretariat-protecting-security-experts-vital-safeguard>in 
>>>>our letter,
>>>>
>>>>Mr. Bini's case has profound implications 
>>>>for, and sits at the center of, the 
>>>>application of human rights and due process, 
>>>>a landmark case in the context of arbitrarily 
>>>>applying overbroad criminal laws to security 
>>>>experts. Mr. Bini's case represents a unique 
>>>>opportunity for the Human Rights Secretariat 
>>>>Cabinet to consider and guard the rights of 
>>>>security experts in the digital 
>>>>age.  Security experts protect the computers 
>>>>upon which we all depend and protect the 
>>>>people who have integrated electronic devices 
>>>>into their daily lives, such as human rights 
>>>>defenders, journalists, activists, 
>>>>dissidents, among many others. To conduct 
>>>>security research, we need to protect the 
>>>>security experts, and ensure they have the tools to do their work.
>>>>
>>>>The circumstances around Ola Bini's detention 
>>>>have sparked 
>>>><https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/03/ecuador-authorities-must-monitor-trial-digital-defender-ola-bini/>international 
>>>>attention and indicate the growing 
>>>>seriousness of 
>>>><https://www.accessnow.org/latin-america-information-security-researchers/>security 
>>>>experts' harassment in Latin America. The 
>>>>flimsy allegations against Ola Bini, the 
>>>>series of irregularities and human rights 
>>>>violations in his case, as well as its 
>>>>international resonance, situate it squarely 
>>>>among other cases we have seen of 
>>>><https://www.eff.org/pt-br/deeplinks/2018/10/canada-chile-security-researchers-have-rights-our-new-report>politicized 
>>>>and misguided allegationsagainst technologists and security researchers.
>>>>
>>>>We hope that justice will prevail during Ola 
>>>>Bini’s trial this week, and that he will 
>>>>finally be given the fair treatment and due 
>>>>process that the proper respect of his fundamental rights requires.
>>>>>
>>>>>‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>>>>>On Wednesday, August 11th, 2021 at 8:09 AM, 
>>>>>zeynepaydogan <zeynepaydogan at protonmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>He has a case tomorrow.Amnesty issued this statement
>>>>>>
>>>>>><https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/08/usa-uk-president-biden-must-drop-politically-motivated-charges-against-assange/>https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/08/usa-uk-president-biden-must-drop-politically-motivated-charges-against-assange/
>>>>>>
>>>>>>ProtonMail mobil ile gönderildi
>>>>>>
>>>>
>>
>
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