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    DearthAdrian Chen
    6/24/13 4:18pm

    Chen joins the hordes who perpetuate the worst, most nauseating brand of armchair commentary on the Snowden affair. "We think the information he disclosed is important, and that the NSA shouldn't be doing these things," these critics claim. "But we, from the cushy confines of our reflexively hipster-progressive (cough-profit-driven-cough) media outlets — we who risk absolutely nothing in saying so — believe that Snowden has no right to be pragmatic when it comes to avoiding being put in solitary confinement for three years a la Bradley Manning. Did we mention that we think what Snowden did was a good thing?"

    The rest of us would be forgiven if we speculated that these critics don't actually think the NSA thing is as much of a scandal as they say they do. And then Chen goes a step further by claiming he's against WikiLeaks "sucking up all the oxygen" of the Snowden disclosures — as if writing lazy, pedestrian non-commentary isn't doing the sucking.

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      gilbertkittensDearth
      6/24/13 4:38pm

      So, noble anonymous internet commenter, what are you doing to take down the NSA?

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      MsxHDearth
      6/24/13 4:44pm

      Julian Assange is SMELLY, case closed. That's about as deep as most gossip journalists wanna go.

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    Governor McCheeseAdrian Chen
    6/24/13 4:05pm

    The world would be a much better place if there were no government secrets. Complete transparency of government will never be accomplished by the governments themselves, or their puppets in the mainstream media. Like it or not, it will have to be accomplished by private actors because no one else is even trying. Wikileaks may be obnoxious (haughty, arrogant, etc) in their execution, but their purpose is a noble one.

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      Aunt PeeGovernor McCheese
      6/24/13 4:26pm

      You must be joking. Let me guess ... you also post naked pictures of your weekend parties on Facebook, text naked pictures to your friends and share every shred of your life 24 hours a day for the entire world. Governments are not social media addicts. Governments need secrets, security, intelligence, and privacy. Assange is a creep and a criminal, and Snowden deserves to stand trial for treason. NO WAY should any government give up its privacy to satisfy a culture of thieves.

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      ZestyPiquanteAunt Pee
      6/24/13 7:32pm

      Precisely.

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    nomanousAdrian Chen
    6/24/13 5:24pm

    Hi Adrian!

    I see you've announced your genuine mea culpa here, great job! You've managed to admit you were wrong about wikileaks being, like, so last week while maintaining an extreme bias that paints every actual fact (the very few of them that you provide) that you discuss with your preconceived skew. I've known bullshitters on your level that stick to their self-delusions even in the face of facts and, although it doesn't impress me, I just wanted to congratulate you on doing something that you think is impressive even though it is not in the least.

    You managed to pepper your recent shit-smeared essay with deceptive phrases like:

    • "Assange has successfully leveraged the connections he's made while attempting to avoid his Swedish rape case" - Not so much avoiding "the case" (where no actual rape charges have been filed) as avoiding the country that will ship him to gitmo, but nice try. Keep fuckin' that chicken, Chen!
    • "next phase of Wikileaks' evolution, from whistle-blowing outlet to a full-service travel agency" - Oh my WORD that's high-larious!!! When's your comedy album coming out, Addie?
    • "Wikileak's biggest asset remains Assange's gift for publicity—his ability to turn any story into a thrilling tale of Wikileaks-Versus-The-World" - omgz! inorite?!? Telling the truth is such a confusing method of "publicity" that it's rarely even used. The US has absolutely no interest in having Assange over to Cuba for a 50-year-long brunch.
    • "For his lack of transparency, he offered this dramatic explanation:" - Right? I mean, pointing out proof that spying programs in countries all over the world could be used to spy on countries all over the world, including the one he's in?!? Drrrraaaaamaaaa Queeeeeeeen!
    • "Assange would not rule out the possibility that Snowden, who is reportedly travelling with four laptops replete with NSA secrets, might have provided Wikileaks with some of his unpublished material. (The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald told BuzzFeed he doubted this.)" - got'm! Assange says he doesn't know exactly what Snowden has WHICH WE ALL KNOW IS JUST GOOD'OL ASSANGE PLAYING TO THE MEDIA (and not the fact that he genuinely can't know) and is then embarassed when Greenwald gives his best guess. Take THAT, Julian!
    • "As far as comebacks go, Wikileaks' is about as useful as Anthony Weiner's" SERIOUSLY, WHEN IS YOUR COMEDY ALBUM DROPPING! I CAN'T FUCKING WAIT!!!!!!!11!!
    • "Assange is a creepy fugitive from a sex crimes investigation" - What do you call a fugitive who is fully willing to answer the questions for which he is a fugitive BUT the authorities wanting to question him refuse to? Is this an "inverse fugitive?" a "reverse fugitive?" Don't you love how "fugitive" has such a wide range of meanings that you can apply it to someone sought for questioning and have people hear the typical meaning for someone who's been charged? You would love it if you were a bullshitter. Apropos of nothing, Adrian Chen loves it!
    • "blah blah blah bullshit horseshit chenshit blah assange pure evil blah"

    I only wish that Mr. Chen would finally tell us how he really feels about julian assange and wikileaks, the suspense is maddening.

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      ASnowdenofYesteryearnomanous
      6/24/13 5:59pm

      Let me clue you in on a little something— not all legal systems work the exact same way. Assange has an arrest warrant out. In Sweden, you must be arrested and questioned before official charges can be filed. Why is this so hard for people to understand?

      http://www.newstatesman.com/david-allen-gr…

      Just read #4.

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      nomanousASnowdenofYesteryear
      6/24/13 6:11pm

      Oh for fuck's sake, how many fucking times do I have to address this.

      First of all, everyone who brings these "facts" to my attention always links to some source that then links to the UK documents. I'm sorry, is UK prosecuting this case? I've NEVER been presented with doc's from swedish courts. Run off and tell the rest of you to stop wasting time. How hard is it for YOU to understand?

      Secondly, I DO understand and have many times written myself that Assange does have an "arrest warrant" out against him. But the issue is that "warrant for questioning" is not how most people think "warrant" is defined. So on one hand you people say "hey, the systems are different so you can't compare the language one-to-one across different legal systems" when it's not in your favour, but when it IS in your favour you say "yeah, Assange has a warrant out against him!" I'm just here to remind you that you can't have it both ways.

      At the end of the day, a very simple question remains: Why don't they just question him in the embassy like he says he's willing to do? Yes, I fucking get it that "their system doesn't allow for that" but I also know that countries will do what they're going to do if they want to do it and just tell the public later. Right now the swedish legal system doesn't have Assange in custody OR on record. if they walk into the embassy they'll have one of those two AND as a bonus, they might not need to put him in custody if they find out something that allows the case to be dismissed. If you don't believe that Sweden could do this if they really wanted to, you're the one who's massively clueless.

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    thuggyBearAdrian Chen
    6/24/13 6:17pm

    Oh my god, will there ever be an end to the bullshit ad hominem attacks against Wikileaks and Assange?

    I especially love the mea culpa, non-apology apology before launching back into the same groundless attacks a couple of graphs later.

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      SweetTeathuggyBear
      6/24/13 11:13pm

      If he returns to irrelevancy, probably.

      Or, if he stops acting like an asshat.

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      thuggyBearSweetTea
      6/27/13 12:03pm

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_homine…

      An ad hominem (Latin for "to the man" or "to the person"[1]), short for argumentum ad hominem, is an argument made personally against an opponent instead of against their argument.[2] Ad hominem reasoning is normally described as an informal fallacy,[3][4][5] more precisely an irrelevance.[6]

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    ArdenAdrian Chen
    6/24/13 4:14pm

    It's always unfortunate no one remembers the other things Wikileaks has exposed across the globe. Election rigging, corporate espionage and sabotage, illegal banking practices, collusion of governments and big business, etc etc.

    It's not that Wikileaks targets America unfairly, it's just that America is really really good at doing those things.

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      SweetTeaArden
      6/24/13 11:12pm

      Yes, it's not like Russia does those things. Oh, wait. They do, but they let Julian have a TV show!

      Also, Wikileaks really hasn't done anything relevant since the cables.

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    lobstrAdrian Chen
    6/24/13 5:06pm

    The greatest thing about this whole escapade thus far is that all these yenta journo-photographers boarded the Aeroflot Moscow-to-Havanna flight that Snowden was supposed to be on only to find out he wasn't, and so not only do they have to endure a 6000 mile journey for nothing, but they'll be turned away in Havanna for not having the proper visa credentials — meaning they'll be forced to leave, likely from where they came. And by the way, they don't serve booze on Havanna-bound flights, lolz. Serves these fuckers right, what were they hoping to do, sit there and flashbulb the shit out of him the entire flight?

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-5…

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      Chosun_Worldlobstr
      6/24/13 5:47pm

      Snowden trolled the journalists....

      1 - Journalists probably don't have a journalist visa for Cuba, thus face deportation.

      2 - No booze is served

      3 - One must at least stay 3 days in Cuba

      4 - A visa is needed to re-enter Russia.

      So they will probably get deported from Cuba, only to get deported from Russia for not having an entry visa.

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    Flm3454Adrian Chen
    6/24/13 4:33pm

    All this shit's confusing. I'm not ever sure at this point if I'm supposed to be upset about the government potentially spying on me. I am so boring so do your worst. But anyway, what's his deal with saying he wouldn't be able to get a fair trial in the US? Because it's very obvious that he did it because he said he did? Also Julian Assange is gross and I almost feel like Snowden will sadly be exploited by him because he's probably extremely desperate for help at this point (I imagine I would be too if I was running away from the US government). Wouldn't it be a better situation to just face the music and come back to the US instead of getting caught up with whatever Assange is planning on doing? I have no idea what the consequences would be for a conviction of espionage but I imagine it would be at least a bit better than running around the world and hiding for the rest of your life.

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      sui_generisAdrian Chen
      6/24/13 10:36pm

      So, Mea Culpa: I was premature in dismissing Wikileaks' attempts to insert themselves into Snowden's NSA leak despite having nothing to do with it

      No. No, you really weren't. What's premature is this wall-to-wall coverage of someone guilty of espionage who was "whistleblowing" on nothing but standard intelligence secrets. He's shown himself to be a giant hypocrite, braying about privacy and freedom, then fleeing via China and Moscow, both of whom he's aided tremendously on the geopolitical stage.

      Quite "an hero".

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        Clutchman83Adrian Chen
        6/24/13 4:16pm

        Can someone explain to me how Wikileaks makes money to fund anything. I imagine they could raise funds via donations but could that keep them going for this long?

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          effdotClutchman83
          6/24/13 5:09pm

          Donations. The best way for them to keep donations coming is by remaining relevant.

          The best way would be by attaching themselves to an exciting media package, like a story about a 29-yr old NSA contractor who fled to China.

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          GregorMendeleffdot
          6/24/13 5:17pm

          Will I get blocked for commenting +1?

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        ZestyPiquanteAdrian Chen
        6/24/13 4:01pm

        Oh, Assange. So desperate to stay in the spotlight. You know what would REALLY get him some publicity, is if he acted like a man and went back to Sweden to address those rape allegations. But I guess transparency doesn't apply to him.

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          takarisZestyPiquante
          6/24/13 8:57pm

          Do you actually believe that it is something as simple as a rape charge. (have you actually read the allegations?) You don't think he will end up under the jail and in chains the moment he steps out into the light? Are you living in reality? Do you think he can honestly sit in court (in his orange jump suit) and assault these charges or be swooped up by the US government to face charges? (or just die in a fiery car crash.)

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          ZestyPiquantetakaris
          6/24/13 9:13pm

          I believe that if he raped those women, they deserve justice; that if he didn't rape them, he has nothing to hide; and that he deserves whatever else he gets for exposing information that had no business being made public when he gets so desperately stir-crazy inside that embassy that he runs out the front door screaming like a madman for a breath of fresh air.

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