
Assange, Manning and Snowden Nominated for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize - fsflover
https://defend.wikileaks.org/2020/02/06/julian-assange-chelsea-manning-and-edward-snowden-nominated-for-the-2020-nobel-peace-prize/
======
perardi
And so was Rush Limbaugh back in 2007.

[https://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/nobel-
nominatio...](https://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/nobel-nominations-
left-and-right/)

A nomination is meaningless.

~~~
Grakel
With Obama's absurd win at the very beginning of his presidency, before he
could even do anything, the whole thing is pretty meaningless.

~~~
liability
Obama is far from the most absurd example. The notorious war criminal Henry
Kissinger got it years before Obama did.

~~~
dehrmann
_Alleged_ war criminal. He's also an incredibly successful and accomplished
diplomat.

~~~
liability
Only 'alleged' because he's politically connected and aligned with America,
and will therefore never go to trial.

Or do you also object with _' allegedly'_ when people call Bush the Younger a
war criminal as well? He'll never see a trial either for the same reason, but
he is nevertheless a war criminal.

~~~
hoot
'In your opinion'

~~~
sebmellen
This is an interesting piece from Chomsky on that matter: "Noam Chomsky - The
Crimes of U.S. Presidents" \-
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BXtgq0Nhsc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BXtgq0Nhsc).

------
dragonwriter
Being nominated is essentially meaningless; it means you have the support of
at least _one_ person, other than themself, from this group:

\---

Members of national assemblies and national governments (cabinet
members/ministers) of sovereign states as well as current heads of states

Members of The International Court of Justice in The Hague and The Permanent
Court of Arbitration in The Hague

Members of l’Institut de Droit International

Members of the international board of the Women’s International League for
Peace and Freedom

University professors, professors emeriti and associate professors of history,
social sciences, law, philosophy, theology, and religion; university rectors
and university directors (or their equivalents); directors of peace research
institutes and foreign policy institutes

Persons who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Members of the main board of directors or its equivalent of organizations that
have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Current and former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee

Former advisers to the Norwegian Nobel Committee

\---

It's also prohibited to reveal nominations for 50 years; so if someone is
trumpeting a nomination they are either lying for propaganda purposes or
someone involved is breaking the rules for propaganda purposes, and the only
thing it proves is that the people involved have no respect for the prize.

~~~
smegger001
couldn't one of the people nominating them say they will in the future
nominate someone before they are actually nominated to get around such a rule?

------
imglorp
Binney should stand with them. He was one of the first whistleblowers and has
felt the wrath of the state.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Binney_%28U.S._intelli...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Binney_%28U.S._intelligence_official%29)

------
mayankkaizen
Although I'm outsider to US politics and I kind of liked Obama, Obama winning
Nobel was an absurdity.

And Malala winning Nobel was also a joke. Don't get me wrong. I don't like
Pakistan's regressive religion oriented politics and I actually hate Taliban.
I concur that Malala might have done something courageous, but I always felt
awarding her Nobel prize was mostly a propaganda. But now I kind of hate
Malala.

Obama and Malala cases made me think that Nobel peace prizes are joke.

~~~
monocasa
For me it was Kissinger's Nobel Peace Prize that showed me that it's pure
propaganda.

------
monocasa
Just about anyone can be nominated for what it's worth. University professors
are among the people able to nominate someone.

~~~
boomboomsubban
The nomination came from members of the German Bundestag representing The Left
party (based on the few I checked, more parties may be represented.)

Not that you're wrong, just pointing out who this nomination comes from.

------
Johnjonjoan
Can we give it to the coronavirus instead? I feel like a reminder of the human
races mortality is just what world peace needed.

~~~
fastball
I feel like coronavirus has had the opposite effect. More tribalism than ever.
"My country is doing better than your country", "Sweden is doing it wrong",
"Chinese virus" and all that.

~~~
Johnjonjoan
I did think of that before I posted. I think though long term (once we are out
of this) we will now take threats to humanity much more seriously.

I can only speak for myself:

Personally I've always seen myself as an observer to humanity. I know what's
right and I'd like to make it happen but there's so many people trying to get
ahead there's no point. The cards are stacked against me and I was scared to
fail.

Covid for all its badness has made me realise I can't just observe. Whilst
there are people who don't want what's best in power we are in this precarious
position where humanity could fail. My hope however optimistic it is, is that
people who are good will also realise they have to act and they can't just
watch.

As the old saying goes all it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do
nothing.

That saying has always meant a lot to me and I've always stood by the fact I
would stand up and be counted when I was needed; this coronavirus made me
realise I was needed right now.

~~~
kube-system
I doubt that this pandemic will make the world take threats to humanity any
more seriously than any of the other pandemics we’ve had. I can’t think of any
reason why this one would be different.

If anything, we all lucked out with how mild it was, and people are going to
be _less_ cautious when a much deadlier virus makes the rounds next time.

~~~
Johnjonjoan
The way I see it this kind of global threat has been unprecedented since ww2
and I am also of the belief ww2 did a lot for world peace. We are indeed lucky
it's not been more serious.

I am not pertaining to know the future and I do admit there is a very high
chance I'm being overly optimistic - basically I accept your appraisal of the
situation is sadly more probable.

------
pif
What did they do in order to promote peace?

~~~
fsflover
Read Snowden's book
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_Record_(autobiograph...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_Record_\(autobiography\))

------
pvaldes
I wouldn't expect Assange going voluntarily to Swedden. I can be wrong, of
course

~~~
belorn
The same time that the US made official that they were charging Assange,
Sweden dropped their accusations.

Assange can go to Sweden and except for a swift plane to the US there is
nothing he need to fear.

------
billfruit
I do hope some day, Project Gutenberg is nominated, may be Wikipedia too.

------
phenkdo
To paraphrase Steve Martin from LA story: "the peace prize nominees might not
be the truth of life, they are what we wish were true".

------
seesawtron
The 17 people who sent this letter in Jan 2020 to the Nobel Committee of Oslo
are all from the German Bundestag. I am not sure how these nominations work
but I would hope to be positively surprised when more governments show support
with their nominations to indirectly support transparency in governments.

~~~
luckylion
They are members of parliament (legislative), but not of the government
(executive). Their party is the merged & renamed descendant of the SED, East
Germany's One-Party-State ruling party. For a variety of reasons, they look to
be cast as opposition for the foreseeable future on the federal level, but are
part of state governments in Germany's eastern states.

~~~
ta455634
I see confusion crop up here around the term government every now and then. In
America, we have our 3 branches (executive, legislative, and judicial) and we
call the collection of all 3 the "government" whereas in general I think
Europe uses the word "state" for that.

~~~
luckylion
Yeah, for general use, EU "government" is best translated as US
"administration", I believe.

A lot of people don't include the judiciary when they say "the state", I
believe as the courts are independent and serve as a controlling instance that
should (in theory) reign in the state when it oversteps.

------
luminadiffusion
Uhhh... last time I checked, Assange colluded with Russia to give us Trump.
Whoever nominated him, probably himself, is a deranged motherfucker. They
actually think his actions resulted in peace?!?

We are wildly less safe worldwide in every possible way. Climate change was
neglected. All environmental standards became toilet paper. Iran now has
nukes. North Korea has nukes. Russia is seizing neighboring countries with the
blessing of Trump. China has gone rogue. And the US is locking up children in
cages. Which part of that sounds like resounding peace?

If Assange were American, I’d nominate him for treason.

------
Traster
Seems a bit funny for German politicians to be nominating US whistleblowers
(and Assange). Shall we get some US Congressman to nominate those bloggers who
investigated Wirecard?

~~~
erdos4d
Germany is still very troubled from the Stasi times, I can see how this issue
would receive a special place in the hearts and minds of the German people.
Also, the US surveillance state is so overwhelming and oppressive, literally
intended to collect all signal intel and store it for eternity for future
decryption attempts, that they probably feel it is especially onerous and in
violation of human rights. My 2 cents, but that's why I think they did this.

~~~
kspacewalk2
>Germany is still very troubled from the Stasi times, I can see how this issue
would receive a special place in the hearts and minds of the German people.

Ironic that the Bundestag MPs who nominated them are from Die Linke, a
successor to East Germany's ruling party that _ran_ the Stasi.

------
gigatexal
Assange? Isn't he in limbo over a rape charge? Not sure what his accusers
would think about that in terms of "peace"....

~~~
imgabe
Weird how when you expose government corruption, rape charges just happen to
show up.

~~~
hartator
And when they get dropped, everybody act as if the charges were real.

~~~
Traster
We'll never know if the charges could be proven because Assange fled to an
embassy for many years, denying us all the right to see what would happen at
trial.

~~~
hartator
One of the accusers dropped her charges. She says she was pushed by the
Swedish authorities to make a case. The other withdraws he consent after the
facts as she says Assange didn't tell her that he was seeing other girls.

~~~
kristopolous
Scandalizing someone's vices to discredit their message is millenniums old.
It's kinda disturbing that people weren't immediately on to it as a smear job.

