Assange and Manning

 

If what follows offends you, I am definitely not sorry.

Julian Assange has been arrested in London and will be extradited to the United States to stand trial for... well, I'm not actually sure, to tell the truth.  Assange, an Australian, published via Wikileaks material he got (allegedly) from Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning.  Mull that for a moment.  Our 'intelligence services' are so incompetent at keeping secrets that secret stuff got out, and Assange is going to be punished for... somebody else's incompetence.

Assange, as an Australian, had no obligation of loyalty or citizenship to keep what he learned secret.  No obligation, period.

Further, the stuff that got leaked was not 'national security' stuff, it was evidence of war crimes, crimes perpetrated by U.S. military personnel and contractors.  Mull that for a moment.  You can choose either to defend Assange for making evidence of a crime public, or you can defend the criminals.  There aren't any other choices; pick one.  Warning: picking the wrong one makes you an accessory after the fact.

What he publicized is almost exactly the kind of stuff that got Woodward and Bernstein (and the Washington Post) their Pulitzer prizes.  How very odd that the Post is campaigning to put Assange in the federal pokey.  I guess they only stand up for their own employees.  Too bad he was a free-lancer.

Oh, yes, he also publicized the fact that the Democratic Party rigged their own party primaries in 2016 to ensure Hillary Clinton would beat Bernie Sanders.  He's the reason Debbie Wasserman Schultz had to step down — in disgrace — as party chairwoman.  If you're a Democrat, you should be mad at your own party leaders, not Julian Assange.  If you're a Republican, you should be happy Assange blew the whistle on what, more and more each and every day, looks like a criminal enterprise.  If, like me, you shun both major parties, you should be grateful to Assange for his entertainment value.

By no means should Assange be considered a criminal himself.  He is, in fact, a hero.  He should get the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  He won't, because that would require we first admit that all of our military adventures in third-world hell-holes are crimes.

His trial, if he gets one, is going to be very educational.  Let's hope he doesn't commit suicide by two shots to the back of his head while in custody.