While I agree that the actions made towards Assange deplorable, how he has acted is critical as well. Whereas Snowden did everything he could to ensure that classified and personal information was protected when revealing illegal government activity to authorities, Assange took no such precautions.
That is another smear the messenger point.
In fact it was Assange that begged to not release one of the involved jourmalists that a certain headline was the passphrase for the full file that was already out in the while.
The Journalist said he would not. And did it.
Nothing I have seen or read supports this. Do you have some sources you care to share?
It's still not clear to me why collection release of personal and non-incriminating communications should be considered a good thing. Nor what safeguards Assange took.
Out of my head only German video from a regular TV show that so far has won every lawsuit about incorrectness/libel. (The show "Die Anstalt" is officially satire, but they are more investigative journalism than most newspaper.)
The accusations of rape and sexual assault were "mostly hot air"? Oh please. I guess you think that the Swedish police and Swedish courts and UK police and UK courts all worked together to manufacture rape and assault charges to please the US goverment? I mean, wow, that's quite a conspiracy theory you've got going there on fuck all evidence. I guess the Me Too movement has passed you by as well, so a word in your ear: credible rape and assault accusations by women against men need to be taken seriously.
No, there were allegations. Charges, however, were not, according to Wikipedia. Most likely because of lack of evidence, since even the women said that the sex started in mutual agreement. What happened during it...
It is possible the accusations are correct, but the timing and irregularities around them make it highly suspicious. That is why I wrote what I did - it looks like made up to slander Assange.
And if Assange had traveled to e.g. Sweden (and yes, there has been illegal stuff been done there because of US pressure) he would have faced deportation to the US to
at least lifelong sentence.
And I would not have counted on the promise of "no death sentence" from a country which has a special law allowing it to invade a EU city if an international court there dares to go after a US soldier for war crimes (the so-called Den Hague Law).