Both Assange and Manning are free today

It had to happen eventually.

Prosecutors in Sweden said on Friday that they would drop their rape investigation into Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who sought refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London five years ago.
The announcement represents a victory for Mr. Assange, 45, an Australian, who became a persistent problem for the Obama administration after he released classified and embarrassing documents from the United States and other countries. But the prosecutors’ decision does not mean that Mr. Assange is in the clear.
...
Marianne Ny, the chief prosecutor in Sweden, made clear that the authorities were not pronouncing Mr. Assange innocent. “I can conclude, based on the evidence, that probable cause for this crime still exists,” she said at a news conference on Friday, which was a court-ordered deadline for prosecutors to respond on the case.
Ms. Ny said that proceeding with the case would require Mr. Assange to be served notice of the charges against him and for him to be present in a Swedish court, both of which were impossible.

Actually you could have interrogated him in the Ecuador Embassy at any time, as Assange requested, but you decided not to.
As for free. Well, maybe not totally free.

In Britain, he still faces a warrant for failing to appear in court, and the Metropolitan Police in London said on Friday that they would arrest Mr. Assange, who has maintained his innocence, if he were to try to leave the embassy.
Moreover, the Justice Department in Washington was reconsidering last month whether to charge Mr. Assange for his role in the disclosure of highly classified information. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on whether it planned to take any action regarding Mr. Assange, and the British government declined to say whether it had received an extradition request from the United States.

A few days ago Chelsea Manning walked free after seven years in prison, much of them in solitary.
It's only a matter of time before attention turns back to Snowden.

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boriscleto's picture

That if Assange walked out of that embassy he wouldn't be disappeared to some unplace...

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

gulfgal98's picture

will never be free. He has angered the powers that be too much. They would make sure he "disappeared" forever. These are very sociopathic people who believe heavily in revenge against those who may cross them up. Remember Hillary Clinton wanted to drone him. They have no moral values about the sanctity of human life. The only things they value are money and power.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Amanda Matthews's picture

Don't doubt that for a minute. He committed the one unforgivable sin. He showed their corruption to the world.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

gave them to the New York Times got prosecuted, as did Manning, but not the New York Times, which published them. The govt did try to prevent publication, but lost that battle in the SCOTUS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._United_States

However, the government still could have tried to prosecute the NYT after the fact. It never did. There is no rational justification for treating wikileaks any differently than the NYT was treated in the Pentagon Papers matter.

The case against Ellsberg was dismissed because of prosecutorial misconduct, which Ellsberg said would never happen today. So, he thought Snowden was right to flee.

It's singular: the U.S. Congress modified an abusive law changed because of information that Snowden revealed. But, he's not entitled to whistleblower protection? The Obama administration truly sucked on this issue.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

to the US National Security establishment. That Swedish prosecutors have somewhat eased off on Assange, doesn't signify much IMO. Anyway, not enough to lure him from the relative safety of his Embassy confinement. He's still probably safer there than he would be anywhere else.

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native