Ask HN: What are your thoughts on /r/whereisassange?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12975150

by RikNieu • 10 years ago

19 11 10 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'm a bit of a contrarian, so stories like this tend to fascinate me endlessly.

Do you think the evidence these redditors present have merit? What would the implications be?

ebcode• 10 years ago

I for one am very concerned about the fate of Julian Assange, and would like to see evidence that he is still alive. If he is in fact not alive, that fact would trouble me greatly. I live in the USA, and while I am considering fleeing now, his death would be yet another reason.

thecupisblue• 10 years ago

I usually am the first to make fun of conspiracy theorists, but this one kinda makes sense. I am worried about him and about what this means for the world we live in. Hope he is well and he appears soon.

Kepler-327b2• 10 years ago

I don't believe he's been assassinated, no. I believe it's just that his internet access has been cut.

It's simply not their style (to assassinate him). You can think of Western oppression as being snake-like, while Chinese or Russian oppression is dragon-like. If someone speaks out against the establishment in China or Russia, the response will be brute-force - the dissident will be assassinated. If someone speaks out against the establishment in the West, the response is far more insidious, they will run smear campaigns against you, call you a rapist etc, try to control information. Not unlike Scientology. An assassination is typically the last resort because of the extra paperwork involved.

rahrahrah4• 10 years ago

You can think of Western oppression as being snake-like, while Chinese or Russian oppression is dragon-like. If someone speaks out against the establishment in China or Russia, the response will be brute-force - the dissident will be assassinated.

Well, I think this is bollocks. I think what you described is what the western media would like you to believe: Russia and China assassinate, whereas the USA "only" makes up bogus charges against you and encarcerate you.

I don't know much about China, but there are endless examples of Russia making up bogus charges, and endless examples of US assassinations. These two are closer than most westerners are comfortable thinking.

Kepler-327b2• 10 years ago

I'm sure you can find counter-examples, but there are qualitative and quantitative differences in the oppression styles

List of journalists killed in Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_...

List of assassinated American politicians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassinated_American_...

In America, they have to at least keep up the pre-text that you are free. Because of the statue of liberty etc. The idea is that if people believe (falsely) that they are free, they are less likely to resist. It's definitely a different style.

Also don't worry I'm not a shill for mainstream media :)

rahrahrah4• 10 years ago

What makes me a bit skeptical is that he's inside the Ecuador embassy, supposedly. Surely if he had been assassinated we would have heard from the embassy?

mcintyre1994• 10 years ago

Also: that embassy is in central London, not far from Harrods. Busy area.

rahrahrah4• 10 years ago

Oh yeah, I was already discounting the far-tinfoil type like special ops breaking into the embassy. Those ones are all but impossible.

I was thinking something more like polonium type ideas. Surely in this case the Embassy would've made a comment.

throwaway420• 10 years ago

This supposedly is a brief timeline of events copied from that sub reddit. I have not verified this information, and there's a lot of misinformation out there so don't take anything at face value.

Here is a brief timeline of events:

Apr 16th: John Jones QC, Assange's U.N. Lawyer dies jumping in front of a train.

May 11th: Michael Ratner, WikiLeaks' chief counsel, dies of cancer.

Jul 10th: Seth Rich, DNC staffer who supposedly leaked DNC documents to Wikileaks, is shot in the back and dies. Nothing is stolen from his body.

Aug 5th: Edward Snowden (source of leaks on surveillance by the NSA) tweets 64 bit code (potential dead man's switch) note: there is much speculation regarding the actual intent of this tweet.

Aug 10th: Wikileaks offers $20k reward for information on murder of Seth Rich.

Oct 7th: Podestamails leaks first batch.

Oct 14th: John Podesta tweets "I bet the lobster risotto is better than the food at the Ecuadorian Embassy”.

Oct 15th: Pamela Anderson visits Assange and feeds him a vegan sandwich.

Oct 16th/17th: John Kerry visits the UK, personally pressures Equador to stop Assange from publishing documents about Clinton.

Oct 16th: Equadorian Embassy cuts off Assange's internet access.

Oct 16th: Wikileaks tweets SHA-256 prerelease keys.

Oct 18th: Witnesses photograph and report heavily armed police and vans outside Equadorian Embassy, are barred from approaching and have cellphones confiscated. Live feeds are cut off.

Oct 18th: Fox News reports Assange will be arrested in a matter of hours.

Oct 18th: https://file.wikileaks.org/file made publicly visible, file dates/timestamps changed to 1984 (Orwell reference).

Oct 20th: /r/wikileaks, /r/dncleaks, /r/wikileakstaskforce and /r/nsaleaks add 21 new moderators and remove previous mods, all threads about Assange going missing deleted since.

Oct 20th/21st: Wikileaks tweets 5 tweets with misspelled words. The Wikileaks twitter has never rarely made a spelling error, let alone 5 in two days.

Oct 21st: Massive DDoS attack on US internet. Wikileaks tweets to imply the attack originates from its supporters, asking them to stop, no evidence supports claim.

Oct 21st: London Airport evacuated due to "chemical attack", potentially used as cover to fly Assange out of country.

Oct 22nd: Gavin MacFadyen (mentor to Assange and key player in Wikileaks) dies of lung cancer.

Oct 23rd: Wikileaks Tweets poll asking how best to prove Assange is alive (he still hasn't appeared on video or at the window since).

Oct 24th: Wikileaks Tweets video of Assange and Michael Moore recorded in June.

Oct 26th: 4chan users successfully successfully decode their first message in Wikileak's blockchain. Threads are instantly flooded by shills saying that it's not worth looking into. The blockchain is blocked with fees and 43000 unconfirmed transactions appear in the mempool.

Nov 6th: Huge DDoS takes down Wikileaks for first time in years.

Nov 7th: Various entities notice hundreds of Podesta and DNC emails are missing from recent leaks, accessed with direct entry.

Nov 8th: Trump wins.

Nov 12th: Assange meets with Swedish prosecutor regarding rape allegations, lawyers barred from attending, meeting conducted via an Equadorian ambassador (not face to face)

Nov 14th: Wikileaks releases insurance files, SHA-256 hashes do not match those tweeted in October.

Andrenid• 10 years ago

I shrugged it off as a conspiracy theory for a while, but I'm pretty convinced he's MIA now. I don't quite believe he's been assassinated, but I think they could've struck a deal and extradited him secretly, and plan on now just not confirming or denying anything, so his story gets lost in the confusion/arguments/doubt.

Ask HN: What are your thoughts on /r/whereisassange?

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