Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he is considering a request from Australia to drop the decade-long US push to prosecute the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for publishing a trove of American classified documents.

    • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Assange is different from the other two.

      Agree with what Snowden and Manning did on whatever level you like but their actions aren’t the same unfortunately.

      Of the 3 Snowden is feasible.

    • Pelicanen@sopuli.xyz
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      3 months ago

      I have a slight worry that pardoning Snowden would result in his disappearance/death since Putin would no longer have any use for him. Right now they are protecting someone who is considered an enemy of the US government and has embarrassed the US intelligence apparatus, if that changes then he no longer fills a purpose for the Russian government.

      I want Snowden to be home free but right now I think he’s in a precarious situation.

      • bitwaba@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        If the options are “pardon” and “not pardon”, “not pardon” just means he stays in that exact same precarious situation. At least a pardon stands to change it, with the added benefit of being morally correct.

        • Pelicanen@sopuli.xyz
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          3 months ago

          Even if the change is that he gets sent to a Siberian prison and/or executed? As long as the war in Ukraine is ongoing, I sincerely doubt he has any chance of getting out of Russia.

          • bitwaba@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            He’s not doing much inside Russia one way or another. At least a pardon gives him a way out. And if he gets sent to a gulag, that’s not on whoever pardoned him. That’s on whoever sent him to the gulag.

            • Pelicanen@sopuli.xyz
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              3 months ago

              But he’d still be in a gulag, I think that part is more important than a clean conscience.

    • livus@kbin.social
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      3 months ago

      Assange is not an American citizen.

      These days it’s a public issue in Australia that their ally the US is doing this instead of handing him to them. It makes their politicians look weak.

      So there’s political pressure on Biden from Australia on this.

      • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
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        3 months ago

        He was literally extradited to the US? Of course he can be pardoned, the US is the country hunting him