Posts by John 170

Swedish appeals court upholds arrest warrant for Julian Assange

Re: @John... Very few commenters seem to know the facts of this case...

1. He can jump into a pot of boiling water if he wanted too, but that doesn't make it a sensible or even legal.

2. It is not illegal to abscond. You abscond if you are kidnapped, sick, or for any other reason incapable of returning from bail. In the case of Assange, whether you agree or not, there is a very good reason to abscond - the possibility of ending up in a situation similar to Chelsea Manning. He has even said he will go freely if only the Swedes promise not to send him to the USA. And, furthermore, this is a *very* unusual form of absconding, since his location is known to absolutely everyone.

3. The version of events are absolutely nothing like what you say. He is wanted to give his account for this new case of rape (the previous case was dropped by the prosecutor, and in fact one of the 'defendants' refused to sign the new version of events from the new case, even texting her friend to say 'they are making things up in order to get their hands on him'. That's from Sofia Wilen. Not Anna Ardin, the defendant who produced an unused ripped condom as evidence of aggravated sexual assault (with no chromosomal DNA whatsoever on it). Not Anna Ardin, the author of '7 legal ways to get back at a man who dumped you'. Not Anna Ardin, the alleged victim who refused offers from others for Assange to live with someone else for up to 5 days after the alleged rape, but rather choosing to continue to sleep with and engage in sexual activity with Assange. Ardin has the credibility of a banana. Sofia is the only person with a reasonable testimony, but it is not one of rape, rather, she had never had sex with a man without a condom before (ex-boyfriends confirm) and wanted Assange to take an STD test because she was frightened she might have HIV. That, was all. Furthermore, she didn't go to the police on her own accord, she was prompted by Anna to go with her to create a charge of rape. This is Sofia's words, not mine.

4. When Assange left Sweden, it was with the explicit permission of Swedish prosecutors as the original case against him had been dropped. He stayed in Sweden for weeks after his initial visit to the police station to answer the allegations. It was only after he was in the UK on work-related business that the second case of rape spun up.

You know, in these circumstances it's totally normal (and common) for Swedish police to take a statement over the phone, e-mail, or even go and see the un-charged not-even-defendant. But while the allegations are all rather mundane, this is a political issue. The UK even writing to Sweden in a leaked e-mail that they should not come to the UK to interview him, but rather wait for them to deliver him to Sweden.

I can't go on point by point because I have much better things to do, and you will call them 'old arguments' as that is likely the best defense you have, so instead I will leave you with a quote from one of the lawyers at the UN Working Group for Arbitrary Detention. It's from 7 months ago, if that is acceptable (https://soundcloud.com/user-348328179/defamed-whistleblowers-need-protection-interview-with-alfred-de-zayas)

"Some people will not like this decision. But I am a lawyer. The experts have spoken. I think it is now out of due respect for the countries concerned to take a big swallow and accept that they are subject to criticism, and cannot act with impunity."

Very few commenters seem to know the facts of this case...

1. The UN formally found in February 2016 that Julian Assange is unlawfully detained by Sweden and the UK.

2. Assange has not been charged and he is not wanted for trial.

3. Assange does not "believe" there is an ’espionage’ case in the US against him, it is fact.

4. Assange has not "refused to come to trial or indeed be questioned".

5. Assange did not "flee".

6. Assange has already been cleared and the woman says the police made it up in order to ’get him’.

If you wish to see my sources on the above, visit https://justice4assange.com/assange-case-fact-checker.html

Although it is a pro-julian website, everything listed there can be independently verified if the nay-sayers only chose to do so.

Australia Post says use blockchain for voting. Expert: you're kidding

Re: Loophole?

Well my mother is encased inside a transparent crystal, frozen in time for all eternity. How is *she* going to vote?

Clearly we need to have a voting system that works for absolutely everybody, or no voting at all.

Firefox-based attack wreaks havoc on IRC users

Not so simple

Security researcher is right Jake and Teoh - a web-browser should be used for web-browsing, and FTP client for FTP'ing, etc etc.

The blend of multiple protocols into one unit is the problem. It make it too ripe a target for exploitation.

Obviously their are perks in ease-of-use... - i can click on a link and bam, here i am in an IRC chatroom (on Opera). I didn't have to set anything up or understand how i got here, but here i am getting support in real-time from the site i was just browsing.

But Security is always at odds with ease-of-use, and that's exactly what's going on here.

A script sends all the commands required to log in to an IRC chatroom and then spew URLs of the script again. This wouldn't be possible if a web-browser was a distinct entity to the IRC client.

And patching this isn't so easy Gerhard. The script makes the victim to auth just like a real client - replying to all the pings, etc.

Try joining Freenode using Telnet and you'll see how simple the process is.

This is what IRC clients expect - deviate from it and they won't work either.

Cops and ISP in paedophile data mix up

Computers have feelings too!

The reason this has happened, is because people - especially people who have no technical experience with computers - make assumptions that computers are always right.

Somehow, we are less likely to believe a bank teller who tells us we don't have enough money in our account for a withdrawal, than a computer which simply says 'insufficient funds', printed on a small screen in the street.

In reality, computers are designed by people, as is the software that runs on it.

Sometimes, coders are lazy, and forget to properly sanitize dates into a proper, universal format.

To be honest - it's the coder who should be fined/sued. Not the police for assuming he did his job properly.

If you can't assume people have done their job properly, you would have to build your own house, so it didn't fall down on you - or build your car by hand to ensure it doesn't burst into flames on your way to work.

As for this guy's permanent record - records are very useful..

If your going to abuse children then you can expect a record of that to be linked to your name for the rest of your life. As pedophilia is very much a psychological issue, much like being an alcoholic or drug addict, you are never truly 'reformed'. You are always at a higher risk of an incident.

However, this man was accused due to a technical error.

In an ideal world, his record should show that he was accused of pedophilia, but the charges where dropped because he was accessed due to technical error.

But this is where the problems start - as proper criminals with good lawyers will also push for these sorts of resolutions.

Seeing as the majority of crimes do go unpunished - keeping a record of accused crimes really is just as important as guilty verdicts.