Conspiracy! The Show The Extradition of Julian Assange (2024 Update Version)

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Hey everybody, this is Adam,
host of the podcast you’re about

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to listen to.
Please don’t skip this.

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It is not an ad.
I am just dropping in to let you

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know that the episode you’re
about to listen to was

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originally recorded and released
in late 2022.

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I believe it was December of
2022 and the topic is the

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extradition of Julian Assange,
which is a thing the United

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States has been fighting for
ever since British authorities

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plucked him out of the
Ecuadorian embassy and put him

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in British prison, which
probably isn’t quite as bad as

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US prison.
We are re releasing this episode

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because there is quite an update
to this story and you’re not

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going to believe what it is
unless you’ve seen or heard or

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just ingested any sort of news
in the past couple days, in

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which case you know exactly what
we’re going to talk about.

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So as usual, when you hear this
sound, that’s the Purge siren.

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That means an update is
forthcoming.

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So stay tuned for that.
And until then, enjoy this trip

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down memory lane where we recap
the Julian Assange story up to

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this point.
And thanks, we love you.

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Let’s get to the pod.
Welcome to Conspiracy the Show,

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the world’s most trusted
conspiracy theory podcast with

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your host Adam Todd Brown and
Olivia Hydar.

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Hey everybody.
Welcome to Conspiracy the Show.

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I’m Adam Todd Brown.
And I’m Olivia Hydar.

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And that makes us your hosts,
Olivia, how’s it going?

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It’s going well.
It’s going well.

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I I actually kind of mean that
for once.

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Nice.
That’s good to hear.

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Yeah.
I’m fine, and I mean that, you

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know, I’m just fine.
We are talking about some ripped

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from the headlines stuff.
If I had a sound board in reach,

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it would play the Law and Order
sting right now.

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Yeah, you know the one.
Yeah, the real, the quick one.

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Not the whole, not the jazzy
bass line intro.

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Oh sure, I mean I love the the
law and order theme.

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The classic law and order theme.
Have you ever seen Will Arnett

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play Air Law and Order theme?
No, it is.

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I don’t think so.
If you can find video of it, it

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is one of the funniest fucking
things you’ll ever see.

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Yeah, it’s so.
Good, I love that.

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We’re talking about Julian
Assange.

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We haven’t talked about him much
because I think, like myself,

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you don’t like Julian Assange
that much.

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I don’t like him personally,
have complicated feelings about

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his legal status, but as a dude
I don’t like him.

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Yeah, I can tell he’s someone I
wouldn’t want to hang out with.

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And the thing about Julian
Assange as it relates to

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WikiLeaks, it’s kind of a
separate the artist from the art

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kind of thing.
And Julian Assange himself has

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said, well, I’m like the face of
WikiLeaks.

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I’m the one who, when there’s a
controversy about something

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we’ve done, I’m the one who kind
of takes that on, right?

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And that means he gets a lot of
heat for the things WikiLeaks

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does, but it also means he gets
a lot more credit for what

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WikiLeaks does than he might
necessarily deserve.

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Yeah.
So he’s kind of become this

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celebrity just because of his
role in the company, whereas

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there are so many other people
working behind the scenes to

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actually pull this work off.
Yeah, he’s a figurehead.

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He’s a very toxic figurehead.
I don’t know.

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If I were wiki leaks I would
probably not want him to be the

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face of my organization.
Yeah, he stepped down, didn’t

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he?
I’m pretty sure he’s not with

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the head of Wiki Leaks.
Any yeah, I feel like it would

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be tough living at the
Ecuadorian embassy and doing

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that at the same time.
Yeah.

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Yeah, no, he is not anymore.
He hasn’t been for a while.

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Yeah, we’re mostly talking about
the controversy surrounding the

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US wanting to extradite Julian
Assange.

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And it’s one of those things
where sometimes the cost of an

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actual Free Press and
legitimately free speech is

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sometimes you got to stick up
for a guy who was accused of

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spreading shit on the walls
inside the Ecuadorian Embassy,

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among other crimes.
And like skateboarding in the

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halls.
And also a guy who was credibly

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accused of sexual assault by
multiple women in Sweden that we

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cannot talk about Julian Assange
without.

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Was it multiple multiple women?
I thought it was just one.

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Really.
Certain it was two women?

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Oh, at least yeah.
Yeah, so all of that obviously

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complicates matters.
Julian Assange just kind of

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sucks.
Right, but all of that, the shit

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on the walls and the rape and
all that stuff is separate from

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why governments want to hunt
him, and that makes it so

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annoying and complicated.
Right, so before we dive into

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the extradition saga, let’s just
get everyone up to speed on the

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Julian Assange story up to this
point.

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Like really high level overview
stuff.

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There’s like movies about this.
It’s very complicated.

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I can’t believe are you, you’re,
you’re going to pass by the

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Julie, the Julian Asaga that was
in the notes just for the people

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at home.
Yeah, I said Julian Assange saga

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in the notes, and then I put in
parentheses Julian Asaga.

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I couldn’t believe you would
want to drop skip by it.

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That’s great.
Well, hey, thanks.

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I appreciate it.
Yeah, I just put it in there

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hoping you would reference it
and notice it in the course of

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the podcast.
He helped establish WikiLeaks

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back in 2006.
That was a long time ago.

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That was when Bush, when Bush
was still in office.

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And a lot of their more
inflammatory material early on

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had a lot to do with the Bush
administration and our

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excursions in the Middle East.
Excursions.

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Yeah, that’s one way to put it.
That just makes it sound so much

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more light hearted.
Yeah, it’s a Tribe Called Quest

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song.
That’s all that is.

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They made headlines not long
after when they uploaded

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documents that were supplied by
U.S.

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Army intelligence analyst
Chelsea Manning.

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Yeah, I have a very interesting
relationship to this story that

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we will talk about at the end.
Yeah, I can’t wait, because

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yeah, you told me about this.
In that, I knew that hacker who

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turned Chelsea Manning in.
That’s just that it.

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That blows my mind.
Yeah, but not at the time.

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It was like years and years
later and at a weird point in my

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life where I was like, how are
you showing up in my life right

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now?
This is weird.

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We’ll talk about it.
Yeah, but it’s kind of a bad

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sign.
In 2010, WikiLeaks released what

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has come to be known as the
Collateral Murder Video.

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You ever watch this video?
I did.

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It is.
When it came out.

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Yeah, it’s harrowing.
It is basically a video of U.S.

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soldiers shooting civilians in
Iraq from a helicopter,

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including a Reuters journalist
and his assistant.

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Yeah, purposely they meant to
kill these civilians, Yeah.

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Like Sarah Palin hunting wolves
from a fucking helicopter.

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Wait, did that happen?
Oh yeah, Yeah, you don’t.

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You don’t, was that?
During the.

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Controversy.
Yeah.

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I don’t remember that, but that
just.

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It came up.
Makes me think of the thing

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like.
Came up back when she was

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campaigning with John McCain.
Yeah, no, sure.

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But what if she was trying to
stop a shape shift?

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Again, we don’t know.
You’d never know.

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We don’t know.
Yeah, Reuters had previously

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requested that video, as you
might expect, Sure, under a

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Freedom of Information Act
request.

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And the government said, no, I
cannot imagine what their

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reasoning was.
Probably something like, it’s

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not in the public interest.
It’s like, sure, yeah, sure.

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It’s not.
National security blah blah.

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It was so easy for them to just
hide shit under the terrorism

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banner, especially during this
time.

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Yeah, and still all, they
really, still all they really

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ever have to say is national
security.

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And of course, shit just stays
locked away for another 25

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years.
Release the Elvis files.

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I want to know what part of
Argentina he lived in with the

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Nazis.
Right.

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It’s hard to remember that
mindset of what it was like back

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in like 2006, 2007, when this
was happening.

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Like it was just everywhere.
It was just all in the air.

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This like terrorism bullshit and
like fear mongering.

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It was awful.
Yeah, so later that same year,

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2010, WikiLeaks released the
Iraq War Logs, which was a

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collection of more than 300,000
U.S.

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Army field reports from the war,
covering 2004 to 2009 whole

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franchise.
This was they they dropped 2

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sequels in rapid succession, The
Afghanistan War Logs, which was

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Part 2, and the Guantanamo Bay
Files which was part three,

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released in July 2010 and April
2011 respectively.

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And they also at one point
released a bunch of US

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diplomatic cables that were
referred to as the Cablegate

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Files.
Cablegate files are arguably the

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most important thing they
released, right?

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For one thing, at least in part,
it leads to the Arab Spring

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because the diplomatic cables
were just exactly what it sounds

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like, US diplomats from all
around the world reporting back

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to probably the CIA about what
they’re learning in their

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respective countries.
And it was just basically

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everyone’s corrupt.
There isn’t there are no good

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governments.
Thankfully, the diplomatic

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cables changed that and now
there’s several just fantastic

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governments operating on the
world stage.

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Look, the Arab Spring was a
great thing and can’t all last

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forever.
What is crazy about these files?

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And I didn’t put all of this in
the notes, but I don’t know why

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that matters to people
listening.

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But at one point, unredacted
versions of all of these cables

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got leaked, which is an
obviously huge problem.

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And the way it happened, Julian
Assange had given these files to

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a journalist and gave him an
encryption key that he could

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read them with.
And that journalist used these

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files in part to write a book.
And for reasons I will never

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understand, apparently he put
that encryption key in the book,

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assuming it was a thing that
would have just expired after a

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day or two when Julian Assange
gave it to him.

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And no, it had not expired and
people were able to use that

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encryption key to unredact these
cables.

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And at one point, Julian Assange
is like, what do I do?

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What do I do?
What do I do?

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I got it.
I’m just going to release the

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unredacted files myself.
And it’s like, that is a that’s

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a weird course of action, bud.
That might have been the wrong

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turn to take.
Personally, sure, I kind of like

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that’s, but like that’s the sort
of thing where I’m like, I, I

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kind of have to be like, OK,
that’s.

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Well, his argument was basically
that everyone who might be

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targeted because of these files
needs to know also.

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So it it can’t just be a thing
where those people are walking

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around unaware that they’re
named in these files that have

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been unredacted by the fucking
intelligence community.

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So.
And that makes sense.

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His argument was, you know,
everyone should know about it

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and adjust their lives
accordingly.

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But him uploading those
unredacted, the CIA, him

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uploading those unredacted files
is what really got him on the

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government’s radar.
I mean, they were obviously he

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was on the radar before that.
Of course, of course.

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And so that’s all the Chelsea
Manning stuff that is, I don’t

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know if the, I don’t remember
the, I don’t think the

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diplomatic cables came from
Chelsea Manning, but all of the

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like the Guantanamo files, the
Afghanistan files, Iraq files,

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those combined with him
unreleased, him releasing those

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unredacted cables.
That’s what gets the government

219
00:13:51,560 –> 00:13:57,560
after Julian Assange, right?
And they start investigating

220
00:13:57,640 –> 00:14:02,560
Julian Assange around that time.
That was 2010, 2011.

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00:14:02,720 –> 00:14:06,880
But it comes up at one point.
I always talk about how when

222
00:14:07,280 –> 00:14:09,600
several different
administrations all kind of

223
00:14:09,600 –> 00:14:13,360
agree on one thing, buckle up,
something is afoot.

224
00:14:13,480 –> 00:14:18,120
And that’s obviously the case,
Julian Assange, where Obama,

225
00:14:18,120 –> 00:14:23,040
Trump, Biden have all kind of
been in lockstep when it comes

226
00:14:23,040 –> 00:14:26,680
to Julian Assange, even though
Trump, you know, publicly was

227
00:14:26,680 –> 00:14:30,520
like, hey, I love WikiLeaks.
I hope they find those emails.

228
00:14:30,920 –> 00:14:33,520
But that’s Trump being a fucking
idiot.

229
00:14:33,920 –> 00:14:37,720
But also the Obama
administration, they were the

230
00:14:37,720 –> 00:14:41,080
first ones to start
investigating Julian Assange.

231
00:14:41,080 –> 00:14:45,320
But fair is fair.
In their case, they argued they

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00:14:45,320 –> 00:14:48,040
could not indict Julian Assange
because then they would have to

233
00:14:48,040 –> 00:14:52,000
indict the journalists who
published this material.

234
00:14:52,120 –> 00:14:58,280
Also, it was Trump who changed
course on that and in 2017

235
00:14:58,360 –> 00:15:02,320
started investigating Julian
Assange with the intent to

236
00:15:02,320 –> 00:15:07,040
prosecute him under the 1917
Espionage Act, which was meant

237
00:15:07,040 –> 00:15:10,640
to fight spies in World War One.
But what’s interesting is Biden

238
00:15:10,640 –> 00:15:13,120
hasn’t backed away from that
either.

239
00:15:14,280 –> 00:15:18,760
That is interesting.
And I know we have our hearts

240
00:15:18,760 –> 00:15:22,280
set on the idea that because a
Democrat is in office, the US

241
00:15:22,280 –> 00:15:25,800
government is good now, but of.
Course, I mean, that’s my

242
00:15:25,800 –> 00:15:27,680
belief.
Are you going to shatter my

243
00:15:27,680 –> 00:15:31,200
belief right now?
But just flashback to what I

244
00:15:31,200 –> 00:15:33,960
just said about the Obama
administration being like, well,

245
00:15:33,960 –> 00:15:37,040
if we indict Julian Assange.
Right.

246
00:15:37,120 –> 00:15:39,560
Yeah.
We have to indict the

247
00:15:39,560 –> 00:15:41,800
journalists who published that
material.

248
00:15:41,880 –> 00:15:47,080
So now if Biden indicts Julian
Assange, are they going to

249
00:15:47,160 –> 00:15:49,520
indict the journalists who
published that material ’cause

250
00:15:49,520 –> 00:15:52,560
we are talking about the same
administration that just

251
00:15:52,560 –> 00:15:55,920
disappeared, an ABC News
producer?

252
00:15:56,320 –> 00:16:01,480
Did it disappear him?
He just vanished from public

253
00:16:01,480 –> 00:16:06,320
life and lost his job and
refuses to talk to anybody about

254
00:16:06,320 –> 00:16:08,400
it.
Yeah, it’s like that episode of

255
00:16:08,400 –> 00:16:11,600
Black Mirror where you get
blocked, but you you’re still

256
00:16:11,600 –> 00:16:13,560
alive.
You just can’t see faces and

257
00:16:13,560 –> 00:16:16,960
they can’t recognize you.
He’s still alive, but like, is

258
00:16:16,960 –> 00:16:18,960
he?
That might happen.

259
00:16:19,280 –> 00:16:23,240
Of all of the Black Mirror
things that might happen, yeah,

260
00:16:23,240 –> 00:16:25,280
I could.
See that they just put contacts

261
00:16:25,280 –> 00:16:27,320
in your eyes but a little.
Yeah, or something.

262
00:16:27,440 –> 00:16:31,400
Yeah.
So around this same time though,

263
00:16:31,400 –> 00:16:38,000
2010, 2011, that is when the
Sweden charges come up, where

264
00:16:38,360 –> 00:16:43,360
two separate charges, rape and
molestation, are lodged against

265
00:16:43,360 –> 00:16:46,520
Julian Assange after a speaking
trip to Sweden.

266
00:16:47,000 –> 00:16:52,240
And that’s what eventually
compels him to seek refuge in

267
00:16:52,240 –> 00:16:56,200
the Ecuadorian embassy.
Not so much the WikiLeaks stuff,

268
00:16:56,400 –> 00:17:00,640
at least not at first, because
he was in London and it was

269
00:17:00,640 –> 00:17:03,640
going back and forth in the
courts, and the courts finally

270
00:17:03,640 –> 00:17:06,880
decided, yes, you can be
extradited to Sweden.

271
00:17:06,960 –> 00:17:10,119
That’s when he holds up in the
Ecuadorian Embassy.

272
00:17:10,119 –> 00:17:14,599
Imagine being Ecuador and just
having that fall into your lap,

273
00:17:14,800 –> 00:17:19,319
like, Oh yeah, man, Why us?
Why?

274
00:17:20,599 –> 00:17:23,839
You can only imagine the store.
Now that we know the stories of

275
00:17:23,839 –> 00:17:28,000
what he was doing in Ecuador, we
can only imagine the stories

276
00:17:28,000 –> 00:17:31,840
that they had heard before he
got there of like him in fucking

277
00:17:31,840 –> 00:17:36,360
London or whatever.
Julian Assange has alleged that

278
00:17:36,640 –> 00:17:40,480
some of the crazier stories
about his behavior in the

279
00:17:41,080 –> 00:17:46,320
embassy in Ecuador were
embellished at best.

280
00:17:46,440 –> 00:17:50,160
Because Ecuador just wanted him
out of there and we’ll get to

281
00:17:50,160 –> 00:17:51,640
why they wanted him out of
there.

282
00:17:51,640 –> 00:17:53,640
They definitely wanted him out
of there.

283
00:17:54,320 –> 00:17:57,560
That’s not even me hinting that
we’re going to get to Ecuador

284
00:17:57,560 –> 00:18:00,160
being not justified in wanting
them out of there.

285
00:18:00,280 –> 00:18:02,440
They sure as shit should have
wanted him out.

286
00:18:03,240 –> 00:18:08,240
Julian Assange got kicked out of
the Ecuadorian embassy for the

287
00:18:08,240 –> 00:18:12,120
same reason a lot of comedians
bomb on stage.

288
00:18:12,520 –> 00:18:15,920
He failed to read the room
exactly.

289
00:18:15,920 –> 00:18:20,120
He did the wrong material in
front of the wrong crowd.

290
00:18:20,480 –> 00:18:23,720
That’s it.
Absolutely, Absolutely.

291
00:18:23,720 –> 00:18:27,760
Up to that point, Ecuador, up to
that point, Ecuador was doing

292
00:18:27,920 –> 00:18:31,120
everything you would want them
to do in a case like this.

293
00:18:31,320 –> 00:18:34,520
Yeah, like they were following
the fucking law and Julian

294
00:18:34,520 –> 00:18:37,880
Assange fucked it up.
Yeah, well, that’s the thing.

295
00:18:37,920 –> 00:18:41,240
And that’s the thing with this
stuff in Sweden where I’m like,

296
00:18:41,400 –> 00:18:44,360
obviously when you’ve got
governments and shit coming

297
00:18:44,360 –> 00:18:48,640
after you, any personal shit is
bound to get dragged up and

298
00:18:48,720 –> 00:18:51,560
thrown at you.
And so it doesn’t matter if you

299
00:18:51,560 –> 00:18:55,360
could be squeaky clean and with
one mistake and they’ll find it

300
00:18:55,360 –> 00:18:59,800
and they’ll use it against you.
But still, Julian, if you’re on

301
00:18:59,800 –> 00:19:02,040
the run from the, you should
know that they’re going to look

302
00:19:02,040 –> 00:19:04,560
for this stuff.
So why are you fucking doing it?

303
00:19:04,600 –> 00:19:06,400
Yeah.
Insane.

304
00:19:06,400 –> 00:19:09,960
Because all of the sexual
assault charges are from a

305
00:19:09,960 –> 00:19:12,960
speaking trip after he’s
already, Yeah, like you’re

306
00:19:12,960 –> 00:19:15,120
saying, like on the run,
basically.

307
00:19:15,480 –> 00:19:22,360
Yeah, so that was June 2012 when
he checked into his room at the

308
00:19:22,400 –> 00:19:26,440
Ecuadorian embassy.
He was there for a long time.

309
00:19:26,440 –> 00:19:29,480
You can see pictures and videos
of his living quarters.

310
00:19:29,480 –> 00:19:34,080
They just converted an office
into a studio apartment.

311
00:19:34,120 –> 00:19:38,280
And if he did go crazy in there,
I’m not surprised because.

312
00:19:38,360 –> 00:19:44,240
Yeah, he treated that Ecuadorian
embassy office like my high

313
00:19:44,240 –> 00:19:46,600
school bedroom.
He did.

314
00:19:47,760 –> 00:19:50,440
He’s doing fucking kick flips.
Jesus.

315
00:19:50,760 –> 00:19:55,800
Slamming Mountain Dew.
So he checks in.

316
00:19:55,800 –> 00:20:00,880
In June 2012, for more than
three years after he entered the

317
00:20:00,880 –> 00:20:06,880
embassy, the Metropolitan Police
kept a 24 hour in person guard

318
00:20:07,000 –> 00:20:10,600
around the building on the off
chance he might try to, I don’t

319
00:20:10,600 –> 00:20:14,400
know, sneak out for a scone or
fish and chips or something.

320
00:20:14,440 –> 00:20:17,840
OK, you you’re thinking it’s to
keep him in, not to keep other

321
00:20:17,840 –> 00:20:21,680
people out.
No, because he went to the

322
00:20:21,720 –> 00:20:27,840
embassy and when he did that, he
was out on bail, I think for the

323
00:20:27,840 –> 00:20:31,560
rape charges, sure.
But either way, whatever he was

324
00:20:31,560 –> 00:20:36,400
out on bail for, he violated his
bail by seeking asylum at the

325
00:20:36,480 –> 00:20:39,040
embassy.
That was the Metropolitan

326
00:20:39,040 –> 00:20:42,760
Police’s argument.
So they thought just because he

327
00:20:42,760 –> 00:20:46,040
checked into the Ecuadorian
embassy, they should be able to

328
00:20:46,040 –> 00:20:49,720
arrest him because of that.
And they eventually gave up on

329
00:20:49,720 –> 00:20:54,960
that and just installed security
cameras, which this is London,

330
00:20:54,960 –> 00:20:58,640
where they’re not 2500 security
cameras pointed at this place

331
00:20:58,640 –> 00:21:00,440
already.
Right.

332
00:21:00,840 –> 00:21:03,000
I’ve seen the TV shows.
I know what’s up.

333
00:21:03,000 –> 00:21:05,280
What do you mean you installed
security cameras?

334
00:21:05,280 –> 00:21:08,880
I think you mean you turned one
of the dozens that were in the

335
00:21:08,880 –> 00:21:14,240
area toward that door.
There were some points where it

336
00:21:14,240 –> 00:21:18,120
seemed like things were maybe
going to go his way.

337
00:21:18,240 –> 00:21:22,640
Like when Obama pardoned Chelsea
Manning, I think a lot of people

338
00:21:22,640 –> 00:21:24,480
thought, well, is Julian Assange
next?

339
00:21:24,600 –> 00:21:27,280
And it’s like, they would have
announced Julian Assange first,

340
00:21:28,080 –> 00:21:30,120
right?
He is definitely not next.

341
00:21:30,640 –> 00:21:35,520
And Obama did that on the way
out in January 2017.

342
00:21:35,520 –> 00:21:40,120
In April 2017, Jeff Sessions was
like, no, we’re still definitely

343
00:21:40,120 –> 00:21:42,160
trying to arrest that guy, don’t
you worry.

344
00:21:42,240 –> 00:21:48,360
And by December of 2017, there
were rumors that unnamed US

345
00:21:48,360 –> 00:21:52,440
figures were planning to either
kidnap or poison Julian Assange

346
00:21:52,440 –> 00:21:58,000
if this carried on much longer.
And at first, he did have a lot

347
00:21:58,000 –> 00:22:03,080
of support from Ecuador, and
that probably had a lot to do

348
00:22:03,080 –> 00:22:07,880
with the UK.
When he sought asylum in that

349
00:22:07,880 –> 00:22:12,600
embassy, the UK government
reached out to the government of

350
00:22:12,600 –> 00:22:15,480
Ecuador and was like, hey, you
know, we have the right to come

351
00:22:15,480 –> 00:22:16,560
in there and arrest him.
Huh.

352
00:22:16,560 –> 00:22:20,680
And they were like, do you?
That sounds like a threat.

353
00:22:21,680 –> 00:22:22,960
Yeah, you sure you want to try
that?

354
00:22:23,640 –> 00:22:27,120
And so for a long time, Ecuador
was like, man, Julian Assange

355
00:22:27,120 –> 00:22:31,200
can stay as long as he wants.
Yeah, absolutely.

356
00:22:31,320 –> 00:22:36,880
They gave him citizenship and I
think that was the next concern

357
00:22:37,240 –> 00:22:40,920
in the UK was that, well, next
they’re going to try and smuggle

358
00:22:40,920 –> 00:22:45,240
him out and get him to Ecuador
so he can just live there

359
00:22:45,280 –> 00:22:49,520
instead of fucking making people
clean up after his cat shit in

360
00:22:49,520 –> 00:22:53,480
the embassy in London.
It seems like what got him in

361
00:22:53,480 –> 00:22:57,960
trouble, and this is where him
not reading the room comes up,

362
00:22:58,520 –> 00:23:02,240
is when he started getting
involved in the Catalan

363
00:23:02,360 –> 00:23:04,280
separatist movement.
Yeah.

364
00:23:04,440 –> 00:23:09,560
In Spain, it’s Twitter.
People need to fucking stay off

365
00:23:09,560 –> 00:23:13,400
of Twitter.
Yeah, he had been tweeting about

366
00:23:13,400 –> 00:23:18,440
it and Spain was like Ecuador,
get your boy you.

367
00:23:18,960 –> 00:23:20,880
Yeah.
You, you, you need to.

368
00:23:20,920 –> 00:23:23,640
He’s taking shelter in your
embassy.

369
00:23:23,640 –> 00:23:28,000
You got to tell him to tone this
down or there’s going to be

370
00:23:28,000 –> 00:23:31,160
problems.
And he did not tone it down.

371
00:23:31,400 –> 00:23:33,840
Ecuador was just like, come on,
bro.

372
00:23:34,920 –> 00:23:38,720
You got to understand, Spain’s
not cool like we are.

373
00:23:39,800 –> 00:23:44,680
Again, like Julian, put your God
damn phone away.

374
00:23:45,200 –> 00:23:50,000
Like why are you’re on the run?
You are haunted by multiple

375
00:23:50,080 –> 00:23:53,920
superpowers.
Like why are you fucking?

376
00:23:54,240 –> 00:23:56,440
Why are you tweeting brother?
Come on.

377
00:23:56,920 –> 00:24:01,960
Yeah, it just, I understand you
still kind of have a job to do,

378
00:24:02,040 –> 00:24:03,240
but.
Kind of.

379
00:24:03,480 –> 00:24:07,880
There were also stories that
there were some countries that

380
00:24:07,880 –> 00:24:11,280
were able to kind of talk him
out of reporting on stuff.

381
00:24:11,440 –> 00:24:13,040
And it’s like, oh, what was that
about?

382
00:24:13,320 –> 00:24:18,680
But the Ecuadorian government
can’t get the same leeway.

383
00:24:18,760 –> 00:24:23,000
It wasn’t just that he got
involved in that separatist

384
00:24:23,000 –> 00:24:27,200
movement, which made Spain
obviously very angry.

385
00:24:28,240 –> 00:24:32,200
But even after all that, at
first Ecuador goes in and cuts

386
00:24:32,200 –> 00:24:37,320
his Internet access after he
tweeted about that separatist

387
00:24:37,320 –> 00:24:41,120
movement.
But eventually he was able to

388
00:24:41,120 –> 00:24:45,520
smooth things out enough to
where he got Internet access

389
00:24:45,640 –> 00:24:49,280
again and was able to
communicate with the outside

390
00:24:49,280 –> 00:24:51,880
world and it seemed like.
Well, he agreed to do the dishes

391
00:24:51,880 –> 00:24:53,760
for a week.
Yeah, exactly.

392
00:24:54,040 –> 00:24:58,640
He bought the groceries and then
WikiLeaks reports on some

393
00:24:58,640 –> 00:25:04,280
scandal involving the president
of Ecuador while Julian Assange

394
00:25:04,760 –> 00:25:07,480
is still living in the embassy.
And at that point Ecuador’s

395
00:25:07,480 –> 00:25:12,880
like, dude, fuck you.
Yeah, yeah, I would say if

396
00:25:12,880 –> 00:25:17,800
you’re going to compromise your
journalistic or whatever ethics

397
00:25:18,000 –> 00:25:25,520
in any case, it might be to not
anger the one country on earth

398
00:25:25,520 –> 00:25:27,880
that will put up with your
crusty ass.

399
00:25:28,720 –> 00:25:31,280
Yeah, they were going so hard in
the paint for him.

400
00:25:31,400 –> 00:25:33,840
Yeah.
And he’s like, I’m a journalist.

401
00:25:33,880 –> 00:25:35,280
And it’s like, no, you’re really
not.

402
00:25:35,280 –> 00:25:37,760
That’s kind of why the US is
trying to extradite you.

403
00:25:37,920 –> 00:25:41,960
Yeah, I mean, but I mean, yeah.
But regardless, you know, you’re

404
00:25:41,960 –> 00:25:45,360
also a person and you’re staying
in these in this countries.

405
00:25:45,360 –> 00:25:48,880
Goddamn place you got.
What do you expect, man?

406
00:25:49,040 –> 00:25:53,600
He also sued the Ecuadorian
government while living inside

407
00:25:53,600 –> 00:25:56,840
the embassy, which was probably
not a step in the right

408
00:25:56,840 –> 00:25:59,160
direction.
This is one of those things.

409
00:25:59,160 –> 00:26:03,280
It always blows my mind when
people file lawsuits like this

410
00:26:03,280 –> 00:26:07,720
knowing it means every detail of
this story is going to come out.

411
00:26:08,000 –> 00:26:11,200
There was.
Did you read about this Q Anon

412
00:26:11,200 –> 00:26:16,160
Fuck who just bought a fucking
mansion with the money he makes

413
00:26:16,160 –> 00:26:20,840
spouting Q Anon shit on YouTube?
And Q Anon, of course, very

414
00:26:20,840 –> 00:26:27,280
opposed to pedophilia and child
sex trafficking, was accused of

415
00:26:27,280 –> 00:26:31,840
having a relationship with a 15
year old girl when he was 25.

416
00:26:31,960 –> 00:26:35,400
And instead of just being like,
my bad, that’s actually why I

417
00:26:35,400 –> 00:26:38,920
hate child sex trafficking, he
doubled down and was like, she’s

418
00:26:38,920 –> 00:26:41,080
a fucking liar and I’m going to
sue her.

419
00:26:41,600 –> 00:26:45,000
And they were like, oh.
OK, Sue.

420
00:26:45,040 –> 00:26:50,480
Us And when the when he sued all
of these police records and

421
00:26:50,480 –> 00:26:55,000
documents from that underage
relationship became public and

422
00:26:55,000 –> 00:26:58,360
he had to be like, Oh yeah, I
did actually do that.

423
00:26:58,360 –> 00:27:01,840
Here’s his tactical error.
OK, two tactical errors in this

424
00:27:01,840 –> 00:27:06,080
guy’s defense of himself.
One, like you said, could’ve,

425
00:27:06,320 –> 00:27:08,120
could’ve used it as an origin
story.

426
00:27:08,120 –> 00:27:10,000
This is why I’m after his sex
trafficking.

427
00:27:10,560 –> 00:27:12,680
Exactly.
Which would all another one

428
00:27:12,680 –> 00:27:16,400
which would also work for the
right wing libertarian chud

429
00:27:16,400 –> 00:27:18,400
market that he’s trying to win
over.

430
00:27:18,520 –> 00:27:22,960
He could pull the aphebophilia
fig, say she, you know, age of

431
00:27:22,960 –> 00:27:24,520
consent, blah blah blah blah
blah.

432
00:27:24,800 –> 00:27:28,360
You know that’s an easy PR play
for that crowd.

433
00:27:28,360 –> 00:27:31,240
There are a bunch of fucking
creepy dinguses.

434
00:27:31,520 –> 00:27:33,440
Yeah, but instead he filed a
lawsuit.

435
00:27:33,680 –> 00:27:37,600
And Julian Assange filed a
lawsuit against the Ecuadorian

436
00:27:37,600 –> 00:27:42,920
government, and that is where
all the stories about Julian

437
00:27:42,920 –> 00:27:47,080
Assange’s behavior in the
embassy come from.

438
00:27:47,200 –> 00:27:51,960
The judge, I think it’s an
actual quote from his ruling,

439
00:27:52,200 –> 00:27:56,760
was that your rights have not
been violated because the

440
00:27:56,760 –> 00:27:59,960
Ecuadorian Embassy doesn’t want
to clean up after your cat.

441
00:28:00,120 –> 00:28:01,880
Because that was one of his
arguments.

442
00:28:01,880 –> 00:28:04,480
They were like, fucking will you
at least clean up after your

443
00:28:04,480 –> 00:28:07,160
pets?
And he was like, no, Julian

444
00:28:07,160 –> 00:28:08,480
Assange.
Yeah.

445
00:28:08,760 –> 00:28:11,920
I love the smell of Kapus I.
Don’t clean up cats.

446
00:28:11,920 –> 00:28:14,160
Shit.
I report on corruption within

447
00:28:14,160 –> 00:28:18,160
your government.
So it wasn’t going well there?

448
00:28:18,520 –> 00:28:21,760
No, it was turning into an
episode of Fear Thy Roommate,

449
00:28:21,960 –> 00:28:25,080
which is an Investigation
Discovery show about roommates

450
00:28:25,080 –> 00:28:27,880
who eventually one of them
murders the other.

451
00:28:28,720 –> 00:28:31,320
Sure, I love it so much, it’s so
good.

452
00:28:33,040 –> 00:28:38,280
So this was late 2018.
And it’s also weirdly the point

453
00:28:38,280 –> 00:28:40,480
where he starts getting a lot of
celebrity support.

454
00:28:41,360 –> 00:28:45,280
And most notably, I don’t know
if most notably, but probably

455
00:28:45,280 –> 00:28:49,000
the weirdest, Pamela Anderson
starts showing up at the

456
00:28:49,000 –> 00:28:54,840
Ecuadorian Embassy and cool
publicly professing her support

457
00:28:55,000 –> 00:28:59,320
for Julian Assange.
And at one point she reached out

458
00:28:59,440 –> 00:29:03,080
to the Australian Prime
Minister, Scott Morrison at the

459
00:29:03,080 –> 00:29:06,920
time to urge him to protect
Assange.

460
00:29:07,080 –> 00:29:12,880
And she says she just got a
quote smutty reply back, which

461
00:29:12,880 –> 00:29:14,880
stands to reason.
From what I remember, Scott

462
00:29:14,880 –> 00:29:17,760
Morrison was a piece of shit.
And also, I’m sorry but you

463
00:29:17,760 –> 00:29:21,040
can’t be a world leader and be
named Scott like you.

464
00:29:21,040 –> 00:29:25,040
Your last name can be Scott, but
your first name can’t be Scott.

465
00:29:25,400 –> 00:29:29,280
Come on, you know what?
Yeah, I I agree with you.

466
00:29:29,480 –> 00:29:32,800
It’s not a politician name, it’s
like a it’s a sporting name.

467
00:29:33,200 –> 00:29:35,520
Play sports?
What if it was scattered?

468
00:29:35,560 –> 00:29:39,920
What?
Scotty campaign song Scotty does

469
00:29:39,920 –> 00:29:44,440
know Scotty does.
I mean, look, I think yes, we

470
00:29:44,440 –> 00:29:50,080
should have Montgomery Scott of
the USS Enterprise as a

471
00:29:50,080 –> 00:29:52,880
president anyway.
That’s sure, that’s fine.

472
00:29:53,000 –> 00:29:56,200
Scott Morrison sucks ass.
He’s an asshole, he was a piece

473
00:29:56,200 –> 00:30:00,000
of shit, and Pamela Anderson
issued a statement about

474
00:30:00,000 –> 00:30:02,360
reaching out to Scott Morrison
and his reply?

475
00:30:02,360 –> 00:30:04,280
Here goes.
Rather than making lewd

476
00:30:04,280 –> 00:30:07,920
suggestions about me, perhaps
you should instead think about

477
00:30:07,920 –> 00:30:11,120
what you are going to say to
millions of Australians when one

478
00:30:11,120 –> 00:30:14,680
of their own is marched in an
orange jumpsuit to Guantanamo

479
00:30:14,680 –> 00:30:19,560
Bay for publishing the truth.
You can prevent this.

480
00:30:19,680 –> 00:30:24,360
More like Damela Anderson
fucking get em.

481
00:30:24,600 –> 00:30:26,760
Yeah, that, that’s a, it’s a
good statement.

482
00:30:26,800 –> 00:30:29,600
I mean, she has a point.
Yeah, yeah, it’s a solid quote

483
00:30:29,720 –> 00:30:32,200
and good for her.
Like, I know there were other

484
00:30:32,200 –> 00:30:35,440
celebrities kind of speaking up
for Julian Assange, but she was

485
00:30:35,480 –> 00:30:37,280
going for it.
Absolutely.

486
00:30:37,400 –> 00:30:42,680
But also, none of that helped.
On April 2nd, 2019, Ecuadorian

487
00:30:42,680 –> 00:30:46,120
President Lenin Moreno announced
that Assange had violated the

488
00:30:46,120 –> 00:30:49,720
terms of his asylum.
On April 4th, they invited

489
00:30:49,720 –> 00:30:53,800
Metropolitan Police inside the
embassy to arrest Julian

490
00:30:53,800 –> 00:30:56,240
Assange.
And of course to have a spot of

491
00:30:56,240 –> 00:31:00,080
tea because you can’t invite
someone in in England and not

492
00:31:00,080 –> 00:31:04,360
have fucking tea again.
I’ve seen the TV shows, right?

493
00:31:04,560 –> 00:31:09,320
So Julian Assange has basically
been fighting extradition ever

494
00:31:09,320 –> 00:31:13,440
since, and that fight is still
ongoing.

495
00:31:13,760 –> 00:31:16,440
There have been some interesting
developments, for one thing.

496
00:31:16,600 –> 00:31:19,040
Olivia, are you sitting down?
Should I be?

497
00:31:19,080 –> 00:31:21,720
I guess I can.
I just, I don’t know, yeah,

498
00:31:21,720 –> 00:31:24,640
’cause I, we’re both very up and
active when we record this,

499
00:31:24,640 –> 00:31:28,560
pacing around the room full of
nervous energy, you know, just

500
00:31:28,560 –> 00:31:30,440
to get the truth out there to
the people.

501
00:31:30,880 –> 00:31:32,920
Absolutely.
So here goes.

502
00:31:33,280 –> 00:31:37,280
I’m just going to say it.
In August 2022, a group of

503
00:31:37,280 –> 00:31:42,800
journalists and lawyers sued the
CIA and Mike Pompeo, alleging

504
00:31:42,800 –> 00:31:46,840
that they were put under
surveillance by the CIA after

505
00:31:46,840 –> 00:31:50,680
visiting Julian Assange in the
Ecuadorian embassy.

506
00:31:50,960 –> 00:31:52,640
There’s no way that’s true,
right?

507
00:31:52,880 –> 00:31:54,840
Sorry, my jaw just hit the
ground.

508
00:31:56,800 –> 00:31:59,520
I can’t.
That doesn’t sound like my CIA.

509
00:31:59,640 –> 00:32:03,600
No, that is not my CIA, not my
America.

510
00:32:04,160 –> 00:32:07,880
I think I would sue the CIA if
they didn’t start surveilling me

511
00:32:07,880 –> 00:32:12,000
after I visited Julian Assange
in the Ecuadorian Embassy.

512
00:32:12,520 –> 00:32:14,520
Yeah, Come on, man.
Person Two.

513
00:32:14,520 –> 00:32:16,640
I have feelings.
I deserve to be.

514
00:32:16,680 –> 00:32:20,680
Defamation of character.
Oh, you think I’m not a threat?

515
00:32:20,720 –> 00:32:23,920
Wait till this podcast goes up.
Yeah, yeah.

516
00:32:25,480 –> 00:32:28,880
The lawsuit was filed in a New
York District Court, claims the

517
00:32:28,880 –> 00:32:32,280
CIA had conversations recorded
and data from phones and

518
00:32:32,280 –> 00:32:34,800
computers copied.
No word on whether Pamela

519
00:32:34,800 –> 00:32:38,960
Anderson is part of the lawsuit,
but it does include journalists

520
00:32:38,960 –> 00:32:43,960
Charles Glass and John Getz.
This is a quote from Richard

521
00:32:43,960 –> 00:32:47,400
Roth, a lawyer representing the
group. the United States

522
00:32:47,400 –> 00:32:50,760
Constitution Shields American
citizens from U.S. government

523
00:32:50,760 –> 00:32:54,040
overreach, even when the
activities take place in a

524
00:32:54,040 –> 00:32:57,000
foreign embassy in a foreign
country.

525
00:32:57,520 –> 00:33:02,000
And that’s important because, as
John Ramirez reminded us on the

526
00:33:02,000 –> 00:33:05,160
episode about UFOs and the
intelligence community, the CIA

527
00:33:05,160 –> 00:33:07,160
does not.
Absolutely.

528
00:33:07,160 –> 00:33:10,240
Spy on Americans.
No, not ever.

529
00:33:10,320 –> 00:33:12,720
Never once, except for these
times.

530
00:33:12,840 –> 00:33:15,160
Don’t even suggest it.
Yeah, except for all these times

531
00:33:15,160 –> 00:33:17,560
that Americans showed up to talk
to Julian Assange.

532
00:33:17,720 –> 00:33:19,840
Right.
But that’s not like indicative

533
00:33:19,840 –> 00:33:23,480
of a larger trend.
No, no, This is an isolated.

534
00:33:23,480 –> 00:33:25,320
This is an oopsie, you know,
right?

535
00:33:25,520 –> 00:33:29,480
Yeah, whoops.
Sorry we left the microphones on

536
00:33:29,480 –> 00:33:33,200
or something.
It’s also important because, as

537
00:33:33,200 –> 00:33:37,000
Julian Assange’s lawyers have
rightly argued, how do you get a

538
00:33:37,000 –> 00:33:41,200
fair trial when the people
accusing you, we’re also

539
00:33:41,200 –> 00:33:44,240
recording every conversation you
had with your lawyers.

540
00:33:44,320 –> 00:33:49,760
Yeah, it’s literally no longer
possible for him to have a fair

541
00:33:49,760 –> 00:33:52,560
trial.
Yep, that’s true. the United

542
00:33:52,560 –> 00:33:56,520
States should give this up.
This is a fool’s errand.

543
00:33:57,040 –> 00:34:01,400
And it really is going to set
such a bad precedent because I

544
00:34:01,400 –> 00:34:05,480
think that Obama administration
policy still stands if you

545
00:34:05,480 –> 00:34:08,040
indict Julian Assange.
Who’s next?

546
00:34:08,199 –> 00:34:11,679
Like what news outlets broke
this story?

547
00:34:12,120 –> 00:34:15,239
Right, it’s a snowball.
And it’s the kind of thing,

548
00:34:15,719 –> 00:34:18,920
again, it’s one of those things
where I know if you’re a

549
00:34:18,920 –> 00:34:23,800
hardcore Democrat and you don’t
want to criticize Joe Biden,

550
00:34:23,920 –> 00:34:27,719
you’re going to be content to
just kind of let this happen

551
00:34:27,920 –> 00:34:30,920
without saying much about it
because Julian Assange is a

552
00:34:30,920 –> 00:34:33,639
shitty person.
But also it sets a precedent

553
00:34:33,760 –> 00:34:37,400
that whoever wins in 2024 can
build on.

554
00:34:37,719 –> 00:34:40,639
Yes.
And if that’s Trump or DeSantis,

555
00:34:40,639 –> 00:34:44,400
one of these people who is very
vocal about wanting to punish

556
00:34:44,400 –> 00:34:47,840
journalists, this is the shit
they’re going to point to when

557
00:34:47,840 –> 00:34:50,199
they say they have the grounds
to do it.

558
00:34:50,280 –> 00:34:53,040
And that fucking Supreme Court
we got in place right now isn’t

559
00:34:53,040 –> 00:34:54,800
going to say a God damn thing
about it.

560
00:34:55,000 –> 00:34:59,560
No, and there wouldn’t really be
an argument against that other

561
00:34:59,560 –> 00:35:03,440
than a basic, you know, moral
ethical one.

562
00:35:03,560 –> 00:35:05,520
But that doesn’t work on
fascists.

563
00:35:05,560 –> 00:35:09,720
But from a legal like this, it
would set a precedent.

564
00:35:09,760 –> 00:35:11,840
This is it.
We can’t do that.

565
00:35:11,960 –> 00:35:17,360
And by not saying more about IT,
people are, you know, you’re

566
00:35:17,360 –> 00:35:20,760
kind of complicit in it because,
you know, you get what you ask

567
00:35:20,760 –> 00:35:24,040
for a lot of times.
It reminds me of the hot coffee

568
00:35:24,040 –> 00:35:29,280
lawsuit from the 1980s where
that woman got third degree

569
00:35:29,280 –> 00:35:32,880
burns and had to have skin
grafts because McDonald’s wanted

570
00:35:32,880 –> 00:35:36,960
their coffee hot enough for
truck drivers and she was just

571
00:35:37,600 –> 00:35:43,560
made a mockery of on late night
talk shows for months and

572
00:35:43,560 –> 00:35:46,480
months, probably years on end.
Years.

573
00:35:47,120 –> 00:35:53,000
I remember people in my life
making jokes about that case and

574
00:35:53,000 –> 00:35:58,360
I definitely didn’t hear it like
at the time, so it had to have

575
00:35:58,360 –> 00:36:00,960
been years later.
There’s a documentary called Hot

576
00:36:00,960 –> 00:36:04,760
Coffee, and what’s really great
about it is it covers that

577
00:36:04,760 –> 00:36:07,280
story.
And what happened around that

578
00:36:07,280 –> 00:36:12,120
story was all this demand for
tort reform so people couldn’t

579
00:36:12,120 –> 00:36:15,640
file frivolous lawsuits and put
these poor, innocent businesses

580
00:36:16,240 –> 00:36:21,040
out of operation forever.
And so it covers three other

581
00:36:21,040 –> 00:36:24,080
stories that are all the result
of that.

582
00:36:24,120 –> 00:36:29,000
And one of them, these parents,
their child was injured during

583
00:36:29,040 –> 00:36:32,600
childbirth by obvious negligence
by this doctor.

584
00:36:32,680 –> 00:36:35,840
And because of all the tort
reform laws we passed, the

585
00:36:36,400 –> 00:36:39,600
financial award they could be
given was capped at like

586
00:36:39,600 –> 00:36:42,080
$5,000,000.
And they were like, that’s cool,

587
00:36:42,080 –> 00:36:44,800
We’re going to have to take care
of this kid his entire life.

588
00:36:44,800 –> 00:36:47,440
That 5 million will probably.
Probably get us until he’s like

589
00:36:47,440 –> 00:36:50,640
5.
But hot coffee.

590
00:36:51,120 –> 00:36:53,480
It’s like, this is kind of the
same thing.

591
00:36:53,480 –> 00:36:58,000
Like we’re going to be really
pissed when Trump is literally

592
00:36:58,000 –> 00:37:03,080
locking up journalists in 2025.
But it’s going to have a lot to

593
00:37:03,080 –> 00:37:06,760
do with us not being that angry
that Julian Assange got locked

594
00:37:06,760 –> 00:37:10,080
up in 2023.
Probably.

595
00:37:10,080 –> 00:37:11,400
I doubt they’ll get him this
month.

596
00:37:11,560 –> 00:37:14,320
Yeah, no, right.
No, don’t let him have

597
00:37:14,320 –> 00:37:18,360
Christmas.
Yeah, we are nothing if not just

598
00:37:18,960 –> 00:37:21,560
right.
This is a God fearing nation.

599
00:37:21,560 –> 00:37:25,720
We will not deny Julian Assange
of his Christmas.

600
00:37:26,040 –> 00:37:27,320
There’s no.
Absolutely.

601
00:37:27,360 –> 00:37:29,080
No way.
He’s not an atheist, right?

602
00:37:29,280 –> 00:37:31,080
There’s no way.
Julian Assange.

603
00:37:31,080 –> 00:37:32,800
Yeah.
Yeah, he’s he.

604
00:37:32,800 –> 00:37:35,360
He must be.
He just reminds me so much of

605
00:37:35,360 –> 00:37:40,640
that era of Internet atheism.
So apparently the CIA thing, the

606
00:37:40,640 –> 00:37:44,760
way it worked, when people would
show up to visit with Julian

607
00:37:44,760 –> 00:37:49,160
Assange, there was this security
contractor who was at the door

608
00:37:49,200 –> 00:37:52,680
and made people turn over their
electronic devices like it was

609
00:37:53,600 –> 00:37:56,680
Dave Chappelle and John Mayer
touring together.

610
00:37:57,080 –> 00:38:01,080
And which fucking both of you
get over yourselves?

611
00:38:02,000 –> 00:38:06,400
Yeah, that just sounds like an
extraordinarily unappealing

612
00:38:06,720 –> 00:38:08,280
show.
No, it happened, though.

613
00:38:08,280 –> 00:38:11,920
John Mayer and Dave Chappelle
did tour together at one point

614
00:38:11,920 –> 00:38:14,080
and did this joint fucking thing
and we’re like.

615
00:38:14,080 –> 00:38:18,000
No, I I don’t.
I don’t doubt that, but it

616
00:38:18,000 –> 00:38:20,760
sounds extremely.
Unpleasant.

617
00:38:21,040 –> 00:38:23,080
Yeah.
I would hate every minute of it

618
00:38:23,400 –> 00:38:27,080
except John Mayer can shred a
guitar a little bit.

619
00:38:27,240 –> 00:38:30,200
Better guitar player than people
expected, no?

620
00:38:30,200 –> 00:38:32,760
I know, I know that.
I know all of the guitar nerd

621
00:38:32,760 –> 00:38:34,680
shit about him being a good
guitar player.

622
00:38:34,880 –> 00:38:37,440
I don’t like his music so it
doesn’t matter.

623
00:38:39,120 –> 00:38:42,440
He plays bad music well.
So when they would hand their

624
00:38:42,440 –> 00:38:47,640
devices over this company, which
was called Undercover Global SI,

625
00:38:48,000 –> 00:38:51,960
which come on, just say CIA
affiliated security, yeah.

626
00:38:52,760 –> 00:38:54,320
I mean.
Just call yourself bad.

627
00:38:55,400 –> 00:38:59,760
They have the more generic, the
more sinister the names sound.

628
00:39:00,440 –> 00:39:02,680
And these people are like, oh,
sure, I trust you.

629
00:39:02,680 –> 00:39:05,200
Here, take my device.
And of course, they just went

630
00:39:05,200 –> 00:39:09,840
and copied the contents of these
devices and sent all of that to

631
00:39:09,840 –> 00:39:12,000
the CIA, according to the
lawsuit.

632
00:39:12,920 –> 00:39:18,280
Think if they’re not working for
the CIA, they probably love the

633
00:39:18,280 –> 00:39:19,520
CIA.
Oh hell.

634
00:39:19,600 –> 00:39:23,880
Get into fucking security and
shit if you don’t fetishize law

635
00:39:23,880 –> 00:39:26,200
enforcement.
Yeah, they work there because

636
00:39:26,200 –> 00:39:29,320
they failed the test that gets
you into the CIA.

637
00:39:29,760 –> 00:39:34,200
The psych test.
So the claims in that lawsuit

638
00:39:34,200 –> 00:39:38,760
kind of mirror the media’s
reaction to the Assange case in

639
00:39:38,920 –> 00:39:42,760
general.
In December 2021, The Nation

640
00:39:42,760 –> 00:39:46,440
published an op-ed by John
Nichols titled The Prosecution

641
00:39:46,440 –> 00:39:49,920
of Julian Assange Absolutely
Threatens Freedom of the Press.

642
00:39:50,040 –> 00:39:54,640
And it absolutely does.
And what I found out in

643
00:39:54,640 –> 00:40:00,200
researching this is it turns out
the sticking point here is the

644
00:40:00,480 –> 00:40:03,560
US government’s argument is that
Julian Assange is not a

645
00:40:03,800 –> 00:40:08,200
journalist.
Because if he was, then what he

646
00:40:08,200 –> 00:40:11,720
did is it’s like Watergate shit.
It’s just reporting.

647
00:40:11,800 –> 00:40:14,480
It’s reporting on.
Government corruption.

648
00:40:14,480 –> 00:40:17,840
And you cannot, under the
current Constitution, you can’t

649
00:40:18,160 –> 00:40:21,320
be prosecuted for that.
That’s not a crime, right?

650
00:40:21,360 –> 00:40:24,280
But the government’s argument
is, well, he’s not a journalist,

651
00:40:24,440 –> 00:40:26,160
he’s just a guy.
Just some guy.

652
00:40:26,760 –> 00:40:29,920
And The thing is, the Bill of
Rights doesn’t say that.

653
00:40:29,960 –> 00:40:32,720
The Bill of Rights isn’t, But
we’re only talking about

654
00:40:32,720 –> 00:40:36,000
journalists like it doesn’t
reference journalists.

655
00:40:36,280 –> 00:40:41,360
Yeah, it’s, it’s freedom of the
people who have a Bachelor of

656
00:40:41,360 –> 00:40:46,440
Arts in journalism from an
accredited college, from an

657
00:40:46,440 –> 00:40:49,920
accredited college.
None of this online bullshit.

658
00:40:49,960 –> 00:40:55,720
With a 3.0.
Send us an essay tell us about

659
00:40:55,720 –> 00:40:58,720
what groups you’ve been involved
in will decide.

660
00:40:58,720 –> 00:41:03,480
It’s all in the Bill of Rights.
But that is kind of the

661
00:41:03,480 –> 00:41:06,520
government’s argument is, well,
we get to decide who’s a

662
00:41:06,520 –> 00:41:09,960
journalist, like, and it’s like,
no, you don’t.

663
00:41:10,000 –> 00:41:13,360
That’s not what the point of the
Bill of Rights was.

664
00:41:13,360 –> 00:41:17,800
It wasn’t to protect the
profession of journalist.

665
00:41:17,960 –> 00:41:23,560
It was to protect the free flow
of information, as John Nichols

666
00:41:23,560 –> 00:41:28,240
puts it in his op-ed.
So it’s an absurd argument, but

667
00:41:28,280 –> 00:41:32,680
it’s one that if Julian Assange
is extradited, where’s it going

668
00:41:32,680 –> 00:41:34,120
to go?
It’s going to go to the Supreme

669
00:41:34,120 –> 00:41:37,240
Court.
And what is this Supreme Court

670
00:41:37,240 –> 00:41:39,800
going to do when this case is in
front of them?

671
00:41:40,120 –> 00:41:43,160
I would argue it doesn’t matter
if Biden is in office.

672
00:41:43,160 –> 00:41:44,640
It doesn’t matter who’s in
office.

673
00:41:44,640 –> 00:41:49,480
Like they’re going to side with
the authoritarian view of

674
00:41:49,480 –> 00:41:50,720
things.
Right.

675
00:41:50,840 –> 00:41:54,200
The court transcripts will just
be sixty straight minutes of

676
00:41:54,200 –> 00:41:55,720
laughter.
Yeah.

677
00:41:57,080 –> 00:42:00,600
Fucking doodles and shit.
Garfield Drawings I.

678
00:42:01,880 –> 00:42:04,840
Love this country.
Yeah, it’s, this is.

679
00:42:06,480 –> 00:42:10,080
Oh, really?
Yeah.

680
00:42:10,080 –> 00:42:14,880
The only US politician who has
really said anything of note

681
00:42:14,920 –> 00:42:20,120
about This Is Us Representative
Roe Khanna, a Democrat from

682
00:42:20,120 –> 00:42:23,360
California, who said I oppose
the criminal prosecution of

683
00:42:23,360 –> 00:42:25,760
Assange.
The prosecution of Assange will

684
00:42:25,760 –> 00:42:29,640
have a chilling impact on any
journalist who publishes

685
00:42:29,640 –> 00:42:33,560
information and is a violation
of the 1st Amendment.

686
00:42:33,600 –> 00:42:38,120
Assange did many morally suspect
things by failing to redact the

687
00:42:38,120 –> 00:42:40,800
personal information of
civilians and putting them in

688
00:42:40,800 –> 00:42:44,600
harm’s way and also coordinating
the timing of his releases to

689
00:42:44,600 –> 00:42:46,960
wreak havoc in the 2016
election.

690
00:42:47,040 –> 00:42:52,120
But one can condemn Assange’s
actions while not setting a

691
00:42:52,120 –> 00:42:56,640
precedent of criminalizing the
publication of material that

692
00:42:56,640 –> 00:42:59,400
challenges state power.
End Quote.

693
00:42:59,440 –> 00:43:01,920
And there it fucking is.
Well said.

694
00:43:02,360 –> 00:43:06,120
It doesn’t really matter who
this is happening to.

695
00:43:06,520 –> 00:43:11,640
This is actually a very serious
moment in American history.

696
00:43:11,720 –> 00:43:16,080
At least if it goes that way it
will be looked back on as very

697
00:43:16,080 –> 00:43:18,560
serious.
Absolutely, 100%.

698
00:43:18,640 –> 00:43:21,600
And again, you know, separate
the artist from the art.

699
00:43:21,600 –> 00:43:23,560
Right.
Yeah, This is just like tar.

700
00:43:23,840 –> 00:43:26,960
That’s basically the same moral.
It’s exactly like TAR.

701
00:43:27,200 –> 00:43:30,040
I feel like this episode is
going to be in contention for

702
00:43:30,040 –> 00:43:32,960
all the same awards that that
movie will be.

703
00:43:33,240 –> 00:43:36,920
I’m up for best actress.
Yeah.

704
00:43:37,120 –> 00:43:40,000
No, I mean, you know, and Julian
Assange is eventually going to

705
00:43:40,000 –> 00:43:43,400
end up composing music for
Monster Hunter Worlds.

706
00:43:44,960 –> 00:43:50,520
So not only is that one op-ed
writer at The Nation up in arms

707
00:43:50,520 –> 00:43:54,240
about this, the most recent
development happened just this

708
00:43:54,240 –> 00:43:57,880
past week.
The list of names opposing the

709
00:43:57,880 –> 00:44:02,400
extradition of Julian Assange
just became a whole lot more

710
00:44:02,400 –> 00:44:04,960
prominent.
The editors and publishers of

711
00:44:04,960 –> 00:44:09,040
five different media outlets,
The New York Times, The

712
00:44:09,040 –> 00:44:15,320
Guardian, LeMond, Der Spiegel
and El Pais, published an open

713
00:44:15,320 –> 00:44:18,400
letter calling for the United
States government to end its

714
00:44:18,440 –> 00:44:21,800
extradition and prosecution of
Julian Assange.

715
00:44:21,920 –> 00:44:25,440
That’s actually what got this
story back on my radar.

716
00:44:25,520 –> 00:44:28,720
I was scrolling through
headlines and saw that and was

717
00:44:28,720 –> 00:44:30,880
like that’s.
Big, yeah.

718
00:44:30,880 –> 00:44:33,760
That’s interesting.
It’s especially interesting

719
00:44:33,760 –> 00:44:38,960
because this is at the same time
a story that you would think

720
00:44:39,400 –> 00:44:42,160
mainstream media outlets like
The New York Times would be a

721
00:44:42,160 –> 00:44:46,600
little angrier about, or it’d be
a little more vocal about, but

722
00:44:46,600 –> 00:44:49,120
you’re not hearing a whole lot
about it.

723
00:44:49,520 –> 00:44:54,200
It’s mostly overseas press.
And you’ll notice that every

724
00:44:54,200 –> 00:44:57,400
other outlet that signed that
letter is from a different

725
00:44:57,520 –> 00:44:59,720
country, not the New York Times,
but.

726
00:44:59,960 –> 00:45:01,920
Well, I mean.
Good on the New York Times for

727
00:45:01,920 –> 00:45:05,400
doing this still.
But like, collectively, they are

728
00:45:05,400 –> 00:45:07,520
all from different countries,
right?

729
00:45:07,560 –> 00:45:09,880
Then you know, ’cause the New
York Times and it’s from

730
00:45:09,880 –> 00:45:12,280
America.
Anyway, I was just including the

731
00:45:12,280 –> 00:45:14,600
New York Times within what you
were saying.

732
00:45:14,880 –> 00:45:15,520
Right.
Yeah.

733
00:45:15,840 –> 00:45:18,960
But also it’s the United States
doing this.

734
00:45:19,160 –> 00:45:22,880
So you, well, sure you would
prefer if, I don’t know, maybe

735
00:45:22,880 –> 00:45:26,800
the Washington Post signed on
the Wall Street Journal, maybe,

736
00:45:26,920 –> 00:45:30,480
you know, like that would also
be pretty great.

737
00:45:30,800 –> 00:45:33,000
Yeah, I mean, I would.
No way.

738
00:45:33,000 –> 00:45:36,240
The Wall Street Journal is no
anything like that.

739
00:45:36,440 –> 00:45:39,280
No and.
Watching the post, maybe we’ll

740
00:45:39,440 –> 00:45:41,840
see.
And yeah, it was again, I

741
00:45:41,840 –> 00:45:46,480
brought up earlier, the Obama
administration didn’t decided

742
00:45:46,480 –> 00:45:50,000
not to indict Julian Assange on
the grounds that they would also

743
00:45:50,000 –> 00:45:52,760
have to indict the publishers of
that material.

744
00:45:52,960 –> 00:45:56,680
Yeah, and so it’s easy to go, Oh
yeah, Trump, he’s the

745
00:45:56,680 –> 00:45:58,600
authoritarian.
He’s bringing it back now.

746
00:45:58,600 –> 00:46:01,880
He wants to indict Julian
Assange, but so does Obamas.

747
00:46:01,880 –> 00:46:06,760
VP Joe Biden is not scaling any
of that Trump shit back.

748
00:46:06,880 –> 00:46:10,320
And when you couple that with
that Obama administration quote,

749
00:46:10,480 –> 00:46:15,200
it’s kind of easy math that Joe
Biden does kind of intend this

750
00:46:15,200 –> 00:46:19,720
to be a means of prosecuting
journalists for reporting on

751
00:46:19,720 –> 00:46:21,800
your errors.
Because it’s not like he doesn’t

752
00:46:21,800 –> 00:46:25,280
have anything that people can
report on.

753
00:46:25,560 –> 00:46:29,520
Like, right, The withdrawal from
Afghanistan was pretty fucking

754
00:46:29,520 –> 00:46:31,440
ugly.
Granted, it’s a thing we were

755
00:46:31,440 –> 00:46:35,080
begging Obama to just do.
I mean, it needed to happen.

756
00:46:35,080 –> 00:46:36,760
The entire time, yeah, it needed
to happen.

757
00:46:36,800 –> 00:46:40,160
We just really fucked it up, if
you can believe it.

758
00:46:40,360 –> 00:46:42,280
So.
Wait, wait, you’re saying the

759
00:46:42,280 –> 00:46:46,200
American armed forces fucked
something up in the Middle East?

760
00:46:46,400 –> 00:46:48,920
I know, yes, it’s called the
Middle East.

761
00:46:50,600 –> 00:46:52,520
That’s what we fucked up in the
Middle East.

762
00:46:53,080 –> 00:46:55,400
Yeah.
So this isn’t really a bright

763
00:46:55,400 –> 00:46:58,320
side.
But there has been a change of

764
00:46:58,320 –> 00:47:01,680
course within the Australian
government also because Julian

765
00:47:01,680 –> 00:47:04,320
Assange is Australian, he’s an
Australian citizen.

766
00:47:04,800 –> 00:47:08,240
While Scott Morrison was
convinced that this was a matter

767
00:47:08,680 –> 00:47:13,760
for the US to worry about and no
one else, current Prime Minister

768
00:47:13,760 –> 00:47:16,080
Anthony Albanese sees it
differently.

769
00:47:16,240 –> 00:47:18,800
A few days after that open
letter was released, he said

770
00:47:18,800 –> 00:47:22,240
he’d raised the issue of Assange
with US representatives recently

771
00:47:22,400 –> 00:47:25,880
and would continue to do so
until the US government drops

772
00:47:25,880 –> 00:47:28,280
the matter.
He also acknowledged that the

773
00:47:28,280 –> 00:47:31,760
Assange case is an issue of
great interest to many

774
00:47:31,760 –> 00:47:35,360
Australians and of interest to
people across this chamber.

775
00:47:35,440 –> 00:47:37,960
And that’s an important
statement because Scott Morrison

776
00:47:37,960 –> 00:47:41,920
really did, when asked, when he
was asked about this, he really

777
00:47:41,920 –> 00:47:45,160
did say that’s for the US to
worry about.

778
00:47:45,280 –> 00:47:47,120
And it’s.
Like he was just like man I want

779
00:47:47,120 –> 00:47:49,680
to fuck Pamela Anderson or
something.

780
00:47:50,080 –> 00:47:52,920
Apparently that was his go to
when she asked him about it.

781
00:47:53,360 –> 00:47:56,960
So it is important that this
Prime Minister came out and said

782
00:47:56,960 –> 00:48:00,880
that because at least he’s
concerned about his citizens

783
00:48:01,560 –> 00:48:04,320
’cause that’s the thing, at the
end of the day, you, you’re the

784
00:48:04,320 –> 00:48:07,520
Prime Minister, you have to at
least be like, well, yeah, he’s,

785
00:48:07,520 –> 00:48:09,680
he’s Australian, of course we
care, we don’t want him.

786
00:48:10,520 –> 00:48:12,680
But Scott Morrison was a piece
of shit.

787
00:48:12,960 –> 00:48:15,920
Yeah, I mean, it’s similar, you
know, it’s this whole Coalition

788
00:48:15,920 –> 00:48:18,840
thing, especially with some
right wing asshole like Scott

789
00:48:18,840 –> 00:48:20,760
Morrison.
And look, I don’t know much

790
00:48:20,920 –> 00:48:24,640
about Anthony Albanese.
I don’t know what his politics

791
00:48:24,640 –> 00:48:29,440
are particularly, but I’m sure
Morrison was much more willing,

792
00:48:29,440 –> 00:48:34,920
it seems to suckle at the UST.
Yeah, I don’t know much about

793
00:48:34,920 –> 00:48:38,080
the current state of Australian
politics.

794
00:48:38,480 –> 00:48:40,320
Yeah, me neither.
I’m sure they’ve really come

795
00:48:40,320 –> 00:48:44,200
around on immigration.
Oh sure, yeah, absolutely.

796
00:48:44,200 –> 00:48:47,360
I bet there’s no racism in
Australian politics at all

797
00:48:47,360 –> 00:48:50,240
anymore.
So that’s kind of where the

798
00:48:50,400 –> 00:48:54,080
Julian Assange story is.
We’re still waiting to see if

799
00:48:54,080 –> 00:48:58,680
he’s going to be extradited.
It seems like kind of the global

800
00:48:58,680 –> 00:49:02,840
feeling on it is that he should
not be like that part is also

801
00:49:02,840 –> 00:49:07,680
crossing some boundaries, just
like the side that wants to have

802
00:49:07,680 –> 00:49:12,040
him extradited and prosecuted,
that crosses several US, U.S.

803
00:49:12,040 –> 00:49:15,720
government administrations.
But there are all sorts of

804
00:49:15,720 –> 00:49:19,800
sectors of the world outside of
that that are calling for the

805
00:49:19,800 –> 00:49:22,360
opposite.
And I think it’s a perfectly

806
00:49:22,360 –> 00:49:24,880
valid point.
I do think this is kind of an

807
00:49:24,880 –> 00:49:28,760
important moment that we got to
hope goes our way.

808
00:49:28,840 –> 00:49:40,360
Yeah, fingers crossed.
So as I mentioned up top, that

809
00:49:40,360 –> 00:49:45,240
sound means we have an update.
A huge update as it turns out.

810
00:49:45,280 –> 00:49:50,480
I’m sure you’ve already heard or
already seen Julian Assange has

811
00:49:50,480 –> 00:49:53,560
been released.
The case in the US has been

812
00:49:53,560 –> 00:49:58,520
settled and he is a free man.
And back in Australia this is a

813
00:49:58,520 –> 00:50:03,440
legal battle that carried on for
14 years.

814
00:50:03,560 –> 00:50:08,360
He did plead guilty to violating
US espionage law, but as part of

815
00:50:08,360 –> 00:50:12,600
a deal that allowed him to avoid
additional jail time, he was

816
00:50:12,600 –> 00:50:15,320
sentenced to five years in
prison.

817
00:50:15,320 –> 00:50:19,480
But as time served, he’s already
done five years in prison in

818
00:50:19,480 –> 00:50:22,200
England.
Since being pulled out of the

819
00:50:22,600 –> 00:50:26,760
embassy, the United States has
repeatedly claimed that what

820
00:50:26,760 –> 00:50:31,200
Julian Assange did was reckless
and put lives at risk.

821
00:50:31,240 –> 00:50:35,840
But when pressed by reporters
even after this verdict, State

822
00:50:35,840 –> 00:50:39,880
Department officials weren’t
able to specify anyone who was

823
00:50:39,880 –> 00:50:43,760
actually harmed.
It was also noted by the judge

824
00:50:43,800 –> 00:50:48,480
who presided over the case,
Ramona V Manglona, Chief U.S.

825
00:50:48,480 –> 00:50:52,560
District Judge in the US
Territory of the Northern

826
00:50:52,640 –> 00:50:56,120
Mariana Islands.
More on that later, that there

827
00:50:56,120 –> 00:50:58,440
were no actual victims.
Here’s a quote.

828
00:50:58,440 –> 00:51:00,200
There’s another significant
fact.

829
00:51:00,640 –> 00:51:03,520
The government has indicated
there is no personal victim

830
00:51:03,520 –> 00:51:05,520
here.
That tells me the dissemination

831
00:51:05,520 –> 00:51:09,480
of this information did not
result in any known physical

832
00:51:09,480 –> 00:51:10,800
injury.
End Quote.

833
00:51:10,920 –> 00:51:13,880
For their part, the State
Department claims there were no

834
00:51:13,880 –> 00:51:17,080
victims because they knew these
cables were going to be

835
00:51:17,080 –> 00:51:21,040
published and they acted
accordingly to move people out

836
00:51:21,040 –> 00:51:22,800
of harm’s way.
Here’s the exact quote.

837
00:51:23,080 –> 00:51:26,360
The State Department did an
extraordinary amount of work

838
00:51:26,360 –> 00:51:29,280
when we found out that these
cables were going to be

839
00:51:29,280 –> 00:51:31,920
published to get people out of
harm’s way.

840
00:51:32,280 –> 00:51:34,800
And that is a State Department
spokesperson.

841
00:51:34,920 –> 00:51:38,160
They also said the Justice
Department acted independently

842
00:51:38,320 –> 00:51:40,280
of the State Department in this
case.

843
00:51:40,800 –> 00:51:43,960
Another quote, there was some
small coordination role between

844
00:51:43,960 –> 00:51:47,760
our embassy and the Australian
government just in the past few

845
00:51:47,760 –> 00:51:51,720
days, but this was other than
that, a law enforcement matter

846
00:51:52,120 –> 00:51:54,480
handled through law enforcement
channels.

847
00:51:54,600 –> 00:51:59,600
Now Australia has been pushing
for Assange’s release for a

848
00:51:59,600 –> 00:52:04,200
while now on account of how he
is an Australian citizen, and it

849
00:52:04,200 –> 00:52:07,560
finally worked.
He was accompanied on his flight

850
00:52:07,560 –> 00:52:12,840
back to Canberra, Australia by
Australian Ambassador to the

851
00:52:12,840 –> 00:52:17,200
United States Kevin Rudd and
High Commissioner to the United

852
00:52:17,200 –> 00:52:21,800
Kingdom Stephen Smith.
Oh La La, so not Stephen A

853
00:52:21,920 –> 00:52:26,640
Smith, just a Stephen Smith.
That’s a joke for sports fans.

854
00:52:26,760 –> 00:52:30,280
There are pictures of Assange
landing in Australia all over

855
00:52:30,280 –> 00:52:35,040
the World Wide Web, showing him
raising a celebratory fist upon

856
00:52:35,040 –> 00:52:39,200
touching down in the land of
Crocodile Dundee and horse sized

857
00:52:39,200 –> 00:52:41,760
spiders.
He called Prime Minister Anthony

858
00:52:41,760 –> 00:52:45,560
Albanese from the tarmac and
told him the Australian

859
00:52:45,560 –> 00:52:48,440
government intervention saved
his life.

860
00:52:48,840 –> 00:52:50,680
This is a quote from Anthony
Albanese.

861
00:52:50,760 –> 00:52:54,680
He described it as a surreal and
happy moment, his landing here

862
00:52:54,680 –> 00:52:56,800
in our national capital,
Canberra.

863
00:52:56,840 –> 00:52:59,600
I had a very warm discussion
with him this evening.

864
00:52:59,840 –> 00:53:03,400
He was very generous in his
praise of the Australian

865
00:53:03,400 –> 00:53:07,520
Government’s efforts.
Assange’s wife, Stella Assange,

866
00:53:07,560 –> 00:53:11,160
and his father John Shipton,
were waiting for him when he

867
00:53:11,160 –> 00:53:15,680
landed, and despite a huge media
presence at the landing, he

868
00:53:15,680 –> 00:53:18,360
managed to not talk to the
press.

869
00:53:18,720 –> 00:53:21,800
But his wife did give a
statement at a press conference

870
00:53:21,880 –> 00:53:25,040
a couple hours later, she said.
Julian wanted me to sincerely

871
00:53:25,040 –> 00:53:27,560
thank everyone.
He wanted to be here.

872
00:53:27,880 –> 00:53:30,040
But you have to understand what
he’s been through.

873
00:53:30,360 –> 00:53:33,360
He needs time.
He needs to recuperate, and this

874
00:53:33,360 –> 00:53:36,520
is a process.
And, quote, another of his

875
00:53:36,520 –> 00:53:41,200
lawyers, Barry Pollak, did
assure people that Julian

876
00:53:41,200 –> 00:53:44,560
Assange’s work with WikiLeaks
will carry on.

877
00:53:44,560 –> 00:53:48,080
But there are some tweaks and
quirks to that, which we’ll get

878
00:53:48,160 –> 00:53:51,000
to in a second.
But there’s one obvious question

879
00:53:51,080 –> 00:53:53,680
I’m sure people have right off
the bat.

880
00:53:53,720 –> 00:53:57,920
Why did this happen in the
Northern Mariana Islands,

881
00:53:58,040 –> 00:54:01,040
specifically in its capital
city, Saipan?

882
00:54:01,160 –> 00:54:04,960
There are hundreds of U.S.
District courts all throughout

883
00:54:04,960 –> 00:54:08,920
the country, and the one Assange
pleaded guilty in is the

884
00:54:08,920 –> 00:54:13,600
smallest, the newest, and the
furthest from Washington, DC.

885
00:54:13,640 –> 00:54:17,840
And the answer to why he ended
up pleading guilty in this

886
00:54:17,840 –> 00:54:22,160
particular court won’t surprise
anyone one bit.

887
00:54:22,160 –> 00:54:26,360
It’s that he refuses to set foot
in the continental United

888
00:54:26,360 –> 00:54:29,440
States, which makes a whole lot
of sense.

889
00:54:29,560 –> 00:54:34,080
Also, the Northern Mariana
Islands are much, much, much

890
00:54:34,080 –> 00:54:37,840
closer to Australia, which is
where he was going immediately

891
00:54:37,840 –> 00:54:40,720
after pleading guilty.
If you’re wondering, the

892
00:54:40,720 –> 00:54:44,880
Northern Mariana Islands are
similar to territories like Guam

893
00:54:44,880 –> 00:54:48,440
or Puerto Rico where we just
kind of own the place but don’t

894
00:54:48,440 –> 00:54:51,800
do anything for the people,
which it’s cool that we’re still

895
00:54:51,800 –> 00:54:54,600
doing that kind of stuff in
2K24.

896
00:54:54,680 –> 00:54:57,840
We took the islands over during
World War Two, if you’ve ever

897
00:54:57,840 –> 00:55:01,680
heard of that, after the aptly
named Battle of Saipan.

898
00:55:01,840 –> 00:55:06,560
It is, according to the BBC, a
popular destination for tourists

899
00:55:06,560 –> 00:55:10,680
from Korea and China.
But interesting note there, some

900
00:55:10,680 –> 00:55:14,240
of that has to do with the fact
that it’s the only place in the

901
00:55:14,680 –> 00:55:18,480
US that Chinese citizens can
enter without a visa.

902
00:55:18,560 –> 00:55:20,800
I thought that was interesting.
And of course, there are people

903
00:55:20,800 –> 00:55:24,280
trying to change that.
So what’s Julian Assange going

904
00:55:24,280 –> 00:55:26,800
to do now?
Aside from maybe keeping up his

905
00:55:27,040 –> 00:55:31,320
WikiLeaks work, it seems like
the rest of his plans are pretty

906
00:55:31,320 –> 00:55:33,200
chill.
This is another quote from

907
00:55:33,200 –> 00:55:35,800
Stella Assange.
He is just savoring freedom for

908
00:55:35,800 –> 00:55:39,400
the first time in 14 years.
Julian plans to swim in the

909
00:55:39,400 –> 00:55:43,520
ocean every day, he plans to
sleep in a real bed, he plans to

910
00:55:43,520 –> 00:55:48,280
taste real food, and he plans to
enjoy his freedom and quote

911
00:55:48,440 –> 00:55:52,480
interesting detail about the
flight Julian Assange took to

912
00:55:52,480 –> 00:55:56,040
get to Saipan.
He and his team had to pay for

913
00:55:56,040 –> 00:55:58,320
it.
His wife set up a crowdfunding

914
00:55:58,320 –> 00:56:05,760
page to raise the necessary Are
you ready for This 520 1000

915
00:56:05,760 –> 00:56:10,440
United States dollars to pay for
the flight, which seems like a.

916
00:56:10,480 –> 00:56:12,640
Whole.
Lot of money for one chartered

917
00:56:12,640 –> 00:56:15,800
flight, but how would I know I
don’t fly private.

918
00:56:15,880 –> 00:56:18,200
This is a quote from the
crowdfunding page.

919
00:56:18,280 –> 00:56:21,240
Julian’s travel to freedom comes
at a massive cost.

920
00:56:21,400 –> 00:56:27,720
Julian will owe USD 520,000,
which he is obligated to pay

921
00:56:27,720 –> 00:56:31,400
back to the Australian
government for charter flight VJ

922
00:56:31,400 –> 00:56:33,960
199.
He was not permitted to fly

923
00:56:33,960 –> 00:56:37,280
commercial airlines.
More routes to Saipan and onward

924
00:56:37,280 –> 00:56:40,600
to Australia.
Any contribution, big or small

925
00:56:40,960 –> 00:56:44,080
is much appreciated.
End Quote.

926
00:56:44,120 –> 00:56:48,720
That is a lot of money again,
but they were able to raise it

927
00:56:48,720 –> 00:56:54,840
pretty easily on account of how
one single donor chipped in

928
00:56:55,200 –> 00:57:00,080
eight Bitcoin, which as it turns
out is worth right around

929
00:57:00,080 –> 00:57:03,800
$500,000.
So that part ended up being

930
00:57:03,800 –> 00:57:08,240
pretty easy, at least.
What’s likely to be far less

931
00:57:08,240 –> 00:57:13,320
easy is finding out the details
of the government’s case against

932
00:57:13,400 –> 00:57:16,360
Julian Assange.
Now that it’s not an active

933
00:57:16,360 –> 00:57:21,000
case, we should, in theory, be
able to see all of that stuff,

934
00:57:21,120 –> 00:57:24,120
and maybe we will.
But someone’s going to have to

935
00:57:24,120 –> 00:57:26,880
ask for it.
And as part of his plea deal,

936
00:57:26,920 –> 00:57:32,120
Julian Assange is not allowed to
Freedom of Information Act the

937
00:57:32,120 –> 00:57:35,720
government for those details.
This is another quote from

938
00:57:35,720 –> 00:57:39,200
Stella Assange speaking to
Australian media.

939
00:57:39,280 –> 00:57:43,040
Julian isn’t allowed to request
Freedom of Information, make

940
00:57:43,040 –> 00:57:45,360
information request to the US
government.

941
00:57:45,400 –> 00:57:49,160
But you can, and I encourage you
to, so please do.

942
00:57:49,240 –> 00:57:51,440
End Quote.
Part of the plea deal also

943
00:57:51,440 –> 00:57:55,520
required Assange to delete any
unpublished information he had

944
00:57:55,840 –> 00:57:59,800
about the United States, along
with anything still in the

945
00:57:59,800 –> 00:58:03,680
possession of Wiki Leaks.
This is one last quote from his

946
00:58:03,680 –> 00:58:06,400
lawyer, Barry Pollock. the
United States, in court in

947
00:58:06,400 –> 00:58:10,640
Saipan yesterday conceded and
the judge found, that there is

948
00:58:10,640 –> 00:58:15,880
no evidence that any harm has
befallen any individual anywhere

949
00:58:15,880 –> 00:58:19,840
in the world as a result of Mr.
Assange’s publications.

950
00:58:19,920 –> 00:58:23,880
That being said, they did insist
that he issue an instruction to

951
00:58:23,880 –> 00:58:27,840
the editor of Wiki Leaks to
destroy any materials they might

952
00:58:27,840 –> 00:58:31,800
have that were not published,
and Julian has complied with

953
00:58:31,800 –> 00:58:33,800
that provision.
End Quote.

954
00:58:33,840 –> 00:58:38,920
So rest easy America.
We are forever more safe from

955
00:58:38,920 –> 00:58:43,920
the tyranny of Julian Assange.
No longer will we lose sleep

956
00:58:44,000 –> 00:58:48,440
worrying that the enemies of
America will tell people about

957
00:58:48,440 –> 00:58:52,320
all the war crimes we do US.
Hey.

958
00:58:52,480 –> 00:58:54,080
And hey, that’s the end of the
update.

959
00:58:54,160 –> 00:58:56,800
Thanks for listening.
Let’s drive this pod back to its

960
00:58:56,800 –> 00:58:59,280
home in the Northern Mariana
Islands.

961
00:59:05,960 –> 00:59:09,880
The last part I want to talk
about is I, I mentioned it

962
00:59:09,880 –> 00:59:14,840
earlier, but the Chelsea Manning
case, what happened there is

963
00:59:14,840 –> 00:59:19,240
Chelsea Manning was dealing with
WikiLeaks, but also reached out

964
00:59:19,280 –> 00:59:23,040
to a hacker named Adrian Lamo at
the time.

965
00:59:23,120 –> 00:59:27,040
And if you read the transcripts,
it’s like, Hey, how what would

966
00:59:27,040 –> 00:59:30,680
you think if I could tell you?
Like it was like the active

967
00:59:30,680 –> 00:59:33,160
locations of troops in the
Middle East and shit.

968
00:59:33,200 –> 00:59:37,920
And Adrian Lamo turned Chelsea
Manning in reported to the

969
00:59:37,920 –> 00:59:40,440
authorities and.
What a Dick.

970
00:59:40,960 –> 00:59:42,520
How?
How can you call yourself a

971
00:59:42,560 –> 00:59:45,080
hacker?
Well, his shit like that.

972
00:59:45,480 –> 00:59:49,880
The argument, and I never really
talked to him about this

973
00:59:49,880 –> 00:59:53,760
specifically, but I do know his
argument was that he

974
00:59:53,800 –> 00:59:57,840
legitimately thought people were
going to be killed if that

975
00:59:57,840 –> 01:00:01,840
information was released in the
way they wanted to release it.

976
01:00:02,200 –> 01:00:05,560
So he I mean.
I guess to put your yourself in

977
01:00:05,560 –> 01:00:09,240
his shoes, he kind of felt like,
well, yeah, I’m going to be an

978
01:00:09,240 –> 01:00:12,560
asshole if I report this, but
I’m also kind of an asshole if I

979
01:00:12,560 –> 01:00:13,200
don’t.
I.

980
01:00:13,440 –> 01:00:17,960
Guess yeah.
And I didn’t know who Adrian

981
01:00:17,960 –> 01:00:22,200
Limo was, right?
And then he just kind of showed

982
01:00:22,200 –> 01:00:26,320
up as a fan of my writing at
Cracked.

983
01:00:27,120 –> 01:00:33,280
And what’s weird is in 2015,
when almost no one was willing

984
01:00:33,280 –> 01:00:36,400
to say they even thought Trump
could win the Republican

985
01:00:36,400 –> 01:00:39,920
nomination, much less win the
presidency.

986
01:00:40,080 –> 01:00:42,000
You did.
The people didn’t want to jinx

987
01:00:42,000 –> 01:00:46,000
it.
Well, I remember in 2015, Norm

988
01:00:46,000 –> 01:00:49,240
McDonald was actually one of the
first people to come out in an

989
01:00:49,240 –> 01:00:52,200
interview and was like, oh, this
Trump’s kind of like Hitler,

990
01:00:52,200 –> 01:00:55,960
right?
And people are like, OK, OK, the

991
01:00:56,400 –> 01:00:59,440
has Trump committed genocide?
And it’s like, it took Hitler a

992
01:00:59,440 –> 01:01:01,000
while to get there, you dip
shits.

993
01:01:01,720 –> 01:01:04,600
But I remember seeing all the
uproar around that and I was

994
01:01:04,600 –> 01:01:05,640
like, what are you talking
about?

995
01:01:05,640 –> 01:01:10,440
Of course Trump is like Hitler.
And I wrote a Cracked article

996
01:01:10,440 –> 01:01:14,800
about it, and it got something
like 6,000,000 page views.

997
01:01:15,720 –> 01:01:19,160
And this is like in the thick of
Trump announcing that he’s going

998
01:01:19,160 –> 01:01:21,200
to run.
And I wrote this article and was

999
01:01:21,200 –> 01:01:24,400
like, of course Trump could win
after I wrote that article,

1000
01:01:24,400 –> 01:01:28,040
which that’s a lot of people to
read one article a lot.

1001
01:01:28,360 –> 01:01:30,960
Of people.
Started showing up in my life

1002
01:01:31,320 –> 01:01:34,280
after that.
And Adrian Lamo was one of those

1003
01:01:34,280 –> 01:01:38,840
people who just kind of
befriended me after that Cracked

1004
01:01:38,840 –> 01:01:41,760
article out of the blue.
Like I had never gotten ’cause

1005
01:01:41,760 –> 01:01:43,800
there’s like people who are fans
of my work.

1006
01:01:43,800 –> 01:01:46,040
But I like, heard from them
before that.

1007
01:01:46,520 –> 01:01:50,080
Like they, they showed up when I
wasn’t doing political, like,

1008
01:01:50,280 –> 01:01:53,520
I’ve done political stuff for a
long time, but that’s when I

1009
01:01:53,720 –> 01:01:56,120
like this.
My podcast and my writing got

1010
01:01:56,120 –> 01:01:58,120
really political when Trump was
running.

1011
01:01:58,400 –> 01:02:01,520
And that’s also when people like
Adrian Lemo showed up.

1012
01:02:01,520 –> 01:02:03,480
And it’s like, dude, you’re
being nice.

1013
01:02:03,480 –> 01:02:06,440
And I get I I appreciate if you
are a fan.

1014
01:02:06,440 –> 01:02:08,800
I appreciate it.
But also you turned a

1015
01:02:08,800 –> 01:02:10,120
motherfucker into the
government.

1016
01:02:10,160 –> 01:02:12,280
Yeah.
And that’s tough.

1017
01:02:12,320 –> 01:02:14,760
I’m sitting here criticizing the
government.

1018
01:02:14,920 –> 01:02:19,840
So like, fortunately we never
really talked about anything

1019
01:02:19,840 –> 01:02:24,520
that important because he would
always like, he would want to

1020
01:02:24,520 –> 01:02:27,560
like, send you an encryption key
to be able to talk to him on

1021
01:02:27,560 –> 01:02:30,560
some strange platform.
And it’s like, don’t trust that

1022
01:02:30,600 –> 01:02:31,960
either.
Sorry, I don’t.

1023
01:02:32,360 –> 01:02:35,760
He’s like, it needs to be more
secure than like Signal or

1024
01:02:35,760 –> 01:02:37,400
whatever.
Yeah, or WhatsApp.

1025
01:02:37,720 –> 01:02:42,280
Yeah, he’s like, open the global
undercover SI app on your phone,

1026
01:02:42,800 –> 01:02:45,560
the same people that you give
your phone to at the Ecuadorian

1027
01:02:45,560 –> 01:02:50,560
embassy.
And yeah, so I I knew that guy

1028
01:02:50,560 –> 01:02:51,960
and it was.
That’s crazy.

1029
01:02:52,080 –> 01:02:56,760
It was weird.
And then he died in 2019 in

1030
01:02:56,760 –> 01:03:01,920
Wichita, KS, like 3 months
before my first and only ever

1031
01:03:01,920 –> 01:03:05,920
trip to Wichita, KS.
And we didn’t stay in touch

1032
01:03:05,920 –> 01:03:08,680
enough for me to know that he
was going to Wichita.

1033
01:03:08,680 –> 01:03:10,200
Apparently his family is from
there.

1034
01:03:11,320 –> 01:03:15,000
And I didn’t find out that he
had died until months and months

1035
01:03:15,000 –> 01:03:19,520
and months later, because it
wasn’t like a huge I, I still

1036
01:03:19,520 –> 01:03:21,240
don’t really know how I found
out.

1037
01:03:21,320 –> 01:03:23,680
I think like a fucking tweet
probably.

1038
01:03:24,560 –> 01:03:28,040
But yeah, that’s, that’s my
weird side note to the Julian

1039
01:03:28,040 –> 01:03:30,680
Assange story.
I knew Adrian Lamoe.

1040
01:03:30,680 –> 01:03:34,840
I mean, he seemed like a nice
enough guy, but also, you can’t

1041
01:03:34,880 –> 01:03:38,720
go infiltrate upstart young
political writers and be an

1042
01:03:38,720 –> 01:03:40,840
asshole about it.
Like, hey, fuck, face the

1043
01:03:40,840 –> 01:03:43,320
government sent me here.
Yeah.

1044
01:03:43,560 –> 01:03:45,560
Tell me who you are.
Yeah.

1045
01:03:45,800 –> 01:03:48,400
Follow me on signal.
It’s like you have signal

1046
01:03:48,400 –> 01:03:52,000
already.
It must be hard to build trust

1047
01:03:52,360 –> 01:03:55,560
at a certain point.
Yeah, I would argue we never

1048
01:03:55,560 –> 01:03:58,800
really built trust.
Well, sure.

1049
01:03:58,800 –> 01:04:02,960
We Facebook messaged and again,
he was nice, but it was weird.

1050
01:04:03,080 –> 01:04:07,920
It was it was really of all the
people to have show up like

1051
01:04:07,920 –> 01:04:10,720
having that guy.
It’s like our this, this, this

1052
01:04:10,720 –> 01:04:12,640
would be bad for my reputation,
right?

1053
01:04:15,520 –> 01:04:18,080
What’s happening here?
But also rest in peace.

1054
01:04:18,240 –> 01:04:19,720
They still don’t know how he
died.

1055
01:04:20,240 –> 01:04:25,680
He died under very mysterious
conditions.

1056
01:04:25,760 –> 01:04:29,360
He I think is younger than or
was younger than me.

1057
01:04:29,360 –> 01:04:32,280
And I think his cause of death
was like natural causes.

1058
01:04:32,320 –> 01:04:35,760
They just don’t really know.
They think he might have had a

1059
01:04:35,760 –> 01:04:38,680
drug interaction with kratom
but.

1060
01:04:39,040 –> 01:04:44,880
He he fell in his head, fell
into a sheet of Saran wrap and

1061
01:04:44,880 –> 01:04:48,640
it got tangled.
Yeah, exactly.

1062
01:04:48,640 –> 01:04:50,960
Natural causes.
He took acid and got too

1063
01:04:50,960 –> 01:04:56,240
hysterical and jumped out a
window, right.

1064
01:04:56,240 –> 01:04:59,760
Oh man, the government, right?
Right, the government.

1065
01:05:00,320 –> 01:05:03,280
Oh, we have fun.
We love to Gov.

1066
01:05:04,440 –> 01:05:08,080
We are fascists.
The government, not us.

1067
01:05:08,520 –> 01:05:14,320
I know, not us, not you and me.
So unless you have any questions

1068
01:05:14,320 –> 01:05:16,840
about Adrian Lemot or any final
thoughts.

1069
01:05:18,080 –> 01:05:19,120
Julie I.
Don’t.

1070
01:05:20,040 –> 01:05:22,040
Yeah, I’m just kind of
flabbergasted about that.

1071
01:05:22,040 –> 01:05:25,920
I mean, it’s a crazy thing, and
it’s crazy that he died.

1072
01:05:25,920 –> 01:05:28,560
Other than that, I don’t really.
Yeah, I don’t know.

1073
01:05:28,640 –> 01:05:31,720
Yeah, it was strange.
It was very strange, Yeah.

1074
01:05:32,800 –> 01:05:35,240
Do we have anything to plug
before we get out of here?

1075
01:05:35,240 –> 01:05:36,840
I think that’s our episode,
right?

1076
01:05:36,920 –> 01:05:38,960
Yeah, yeah.
Don’t arrest Julian.

1077
01:05:39,320 –> 01:05:40,920
Don’t.
Don’t arrest Julian Assange.

1078
01:05:41,120 –> 01:05:45,600
No, yeah, that fuck that sucks
that I mean, or like maybe like

1079
01:05:45,600 –> 01:05:48,720
Sweden should arrest him for the
sexual assault stuff, but like,

1080
01:05:48,960 –> 01:05:51,240
right, all this other stuff,
whatever.

1081
01:05:51,680 –> 01:05:59,160
But As for plugs going back our
Our Lost Rewatch podcast nearing

1082
01:05:59,160 –> 01:06:01,680
the end of season one, having a
good time.

1083
01:06:01,840 –> 01:06:07,720
Yeah, yeah, I’m on the dying
social media platform Twitter.

1084
01:06:07,720 –> 01:06:12,360
I don’t tweet very often unless
something insane happens.

1085
01:06:12,800 –> 01:06:17,200
I don’t know, like the sitting
president breaking up a union

1086
01:06:17,680 –> 01:06:19,200
strike.
That did happen, yeah.

1087
01:06:20,200 –> 01:06:22,000
Yeah, I didn’t know about that
until the day.

1088
01:06:22,920 –> 01:06:25,680
And other than that, nothing,
No, no plugs.

1089
01:06:26,080 –> 01:06:30,840
I would like to plug Adam
toddbrown.substack.com where you

1090
01:06:30,840 –> 01:06:34,960
can read my writings.
If you would follow me there, I

1091
01:06:34,960 –> 01:06:39,160
would appreciate it.
Also follow me on Hive Social at

1092
01:06:39,160 –> 01:06:42,400
Adam Todd Brown.
That’s Todd with 1D trying it

1093
01:06:42,400 –> 01:06:44,560
out, trying out the Twitter
alternative.

1094
01:06:44,920 –> 01:06:48,200
I took the leap, tweeted about
it, said follow me on Hive

1095
01:06:48,200 –> 01:06:50,760
social and a bunch of people
tweeted back and said the

1096
01:06:50,760 –> 01:06:54,200
servers are down for maintenance
and that is a situation that

1097
01:06:54,200 –> 01:06:57,960
lasted about two days.
So that tweet was pointless, but

1098
01:06:58,560 –> 01:07:00,800
you know, you can follow me
there now anyway.

1099
01:07:02,000 –> 01:07:04,520
And I think that’s it.
That’s good enough.

1100
01:07:04,520 –> 01:07:06,680
Let’s get the fuck out of here.
Olivia say goodbye.

1101
01:07:06,760 –> 01:07:08,640
Bye.
Goodbye everybody, we love you.

1102
01:07:08,800 –> 01:07:10,880
Also.
Rest in peace, Christine Mcvee.

1103
01:07:11,000 –> 01:07:19,960
Yes, rest in peace.
People of Earth, your planet

1104
01:07:20,280 –> 01:07:21,200
just has to be destroyed.