If the press of the US is unable to tell us about US war crimes that actually happened, that is the only thing to get.
It might be wise to consider that knowing your own government is not that strict about the rule of law when it comes to horrible crimes is also in your interest if you live inside of the US. The US is an absolute behemoth of power and utterly unable to police itself. If it was, Assange wouldn't have had to do anything at all.
I am not a supporter of whatever Russia Today is, but when the truth is that my job as a citizen of a democracy is to not vote for people whose lack of care for the Rule of Law endagers that very system.
Now ideally the media of my own state would be doing a good job on all things own government fucks up. But it turns out, sometimes journalists from elsewhere whose news organizations don't have to care so much about getting exclusive access do a better job on that front — especially if they have an incentive to find things. Even if that means I have to now try to figure out what is complete fiction and which grain of truth (of any) can be found.
So yeah, sue me if I differenciate between the Russian state, a news source financed by the Russian state and a whistleblower financed by a news source financed by the Russian state after the news outlet in Western nations with which he first had contact somehow felt they can't report on their own governments involvment in a human rights violation anymore.
I am not a fan of Assange and I don't think he is a sympatic person, but I think we all owe it to the world to differenciate and see the chain of events instead of lumping together everything ins simplistic answers.
Being prosecuted, even unfairly, does not necessarily imply you suddenly go and work for a dictatorship -- unless you were already working for them.
People who know Russia well know it wasn't that different in 2012. It had already invaded Georgia and was helping Assad crush a popular movement in Syria.
I do not know the second site, so search and check for yourself. Britain also took gas via the Nordstream network that had a pipeline through Northern Germany to England.
I would direct such criticisms towards Blair and not towards someone who was under tremendous pressure and frankly fearing for his life.
Going to RT did not help Assange's legal case in any way.
I'm against double standards. It was wrong from both Assange, Blair and other Western leaders and activists who claimed to care about democracy and human rights to deal with Putin's Russia the way they did.
No Persian government agents have ever come to my country to try and fraudulently steal a passport from a man with cerebal palsy. Israeli ones have though.
Not to mention you sidestepped the entire conversation. It sucks for their own people. Their own govt is their enemy - we should be standing next to them, not going "oh yeah you're oppressors of your own people but in my book you're cool because I dislike my own country/Israel/West" or whatever the new excuse is.
While NZ currently doesn't do much of that sort of thing, the European settlers of NZ simply couldn't get enough of telling other countries what to do and were fairly instrumental in drawing up and imposing borders after the fall of the Ottoman empire.
If "we" is taken to include the core HN user base (the USofA) then that horse has bolted given the the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, the U.S.- and British-instigated, Iranian army-led overthrow of the elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh that more or less kick started the arc toward where Iran-West relations are today.
While NZ currently doesn't do much of that sort of thing, the European settlers of NZ simply couldn't get enough of telling other countries what to do and were fairly instrumental in drawing up and imposing borders after the fall of the Ottoman empire.
Did that work well? Should the west keep following a similar course of action?
I am also keenly aware that British Empire involvement started with conquering Palestine & The Balfour Declaration, and ended in the Sergeant's Affair. We have spilled more than enough blood for Zionism and (when we were no longer useful) had our blood spilled by Zionism.
Therefore I reiterate - do not make Iran your enemy on behalf of people who have historically used us as tools to get what they want.
