Is Assange a Journalist?

Originally posted by PsychoPawn
Well, now we have it from a real authority.

yeah you're prolly right the Swedes love the CIA and their justice department does whatever they say

Originally posted by Sam The Sham
yeah you're prolly right the Swedes love the CIA and their justice department does whatever they say

I actually don't think the charges necessarily have anything to do with the CIA. I don't know.

I do think that the timing and circumstances surrounding the charges are suspicious, but that doesn't require the CIA.

Originally posted by PsychoPawn
I actually don't think the charges necessarily have anything to do with the CIA. I don't know.

I do think that the timing and circumstances surrounding the charges are suspicious, but that doesn't require the CIA.

Then why the smart mouth comment?

Assange is no journalist. He recieved private communiques and posted them on the internet. It's no different then if someone hacked your email and posted that on the internet.

Originally posted by dryhump
Assange is no journalist. He recieved private communiques and posted them on the internet. It's no different then if someone hacked your email and posted that on the internet.

Yeah that's my thought, cutting and pasting does not a journalist make, although he's written some stuff all by himself, it's not what he's in trouble for.

Originally posted by Sam The Sham
Then why the smart mouth comment?

Why not?

Just because I don't think it's necessarily the cia doesn't mean you (or anyone here really) can authoritatively say that the CIA wasn't involved.

Originally posted by dryhump
Assange is no journalist. He recieved private communiques and posted them on the internet. It's no different then if someone hacked your email and posted that on the internet.

Actually, it's very different. He didn't hack anything.

So what makes someone a journalist in your view?

Originally posted by dryhump
Assange is no journalist. He recieved private communiques and posted them on the internet. It's no different then if someone hacked your email and posted that on the internet.

...by that criteria, what does that make Woodward and Bernstein?

Originally posted by kmax87
...by that criteria, what does that make Woodward and Bernstein?

They were reporters for the Washington Post...or didn't you know that?

Originally posted by Sam The Sham
They were reporters for the Washington Post...or didn't you know that?

Do you have to be hired by a newspaper or news organization to be a journalist?

Originally posted by Sam The Sham
They were reporters for the Washington Post...or didn't you know that?

I did know that, but the nature of investigative journalism meant that they did a lot of digging and did not stop short because it might embarrass someone. The 'truth' is all that mattered.

Originally posted by sh76
He's probably not subject to US law. In theory he could be if he, for example, used a computer to hack into American databases to steal information. But, of course, there's no suggestion that this occurred.

He could be subject to US law under a "shooting from Canada" theory.

Originally posted by dryhump
I heard a discussion about assange on the Diane Rehm show recently with a NY Times foreign correspondent named John Burns. He said assange was not a journalist. 3 other folks on the panel agreed with him.

Assange is basically doing the job that the NY Times used to do... spilling as much classified info as possible, in hopes of harming the United States.

Originally posted by TheBloop
Assange is basically doing the job that the NY Times used to do... spilling as much classified info as possible, in hopes of harming the United States.

The NY Times was trying to "harm the United States"?

Originally posted by Sam The Sham
yeah you're prolly right the Swedes love the CIA and their justice department does whatever they say

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_%E2%80%93_United_States_relations


sarcasm will get you into trouble...!

"In the Statement of Government Policy presented to the Swedish parliament on October 6, 2006, the new centre-right Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt declared that the new government will work for a "strengthening of the transatlantic link".[6] Reinfeldt's party, the Moderate Party, is more pro-American than the social democrats and supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq and Swedish membership of NATO. It has some ties with the Republican Party. Reinfeldt visited President Bush at the White House on May 15, 2007."

and this:-

"The United States and Sweden have strong economic relations. The United States is currently the third largest Swedish export trade partner,[7] and US companies are the most represented foreign companies in Sweden."

and this:-

" Although Sweden has a longstanding policy of political neutrality in international affairs, Sweden is a participant in the NATO affiliated Partnership for Peace and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. Sweden currently participates with around 500 troops in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), under the command of NATO, in Afghanistan. Two of the four parties in the ruling coalition supports NATO membership.

During the Cold War, the Swedish government secretly made preparations to receive military aid from the United States in case of Soviet aggression.[8]

AND YOU THINK THE CIA DOES NOT HAVE THEIR NUMBER...???