Julien Assange did not steal the documents, he received them from those who did. Thus he is not a spy. He has chosen to publish some of them — OK, a lot of them. That makes him a journalist, like someone who reports for the NY Times, the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal, all of which have dealt with classified information given to them. Thus, to prosecute Assange is to criminalize journalism, undermining the first amendment and free speech.
What is disturbing to me is not that he has published these diplomatic documents, but what some of the documents contain — characterizations of officials of other countries that are inconsistent with what our government acknowledges, trite and mean spirited personality profiles that should never have been dignified in official documents, and admissions of guilt of what amounts to war crimes or at least violations of public standards and treaties.
The persecution and prosecution should not be focused on the whistleblower, Assange, but on the officials and our and other governments who have not acted ethically or legally, as revealed in these documents.
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December 8, 2010 at 09:01
Janis Hartley
I agree that the criminalization of journalism is not a road on which we should journey; however, there is also something called common sense which I believe Assange is strongly lacking. Using the mantle of journalism or, in the case of an American, free speech, as a cover for the dissemination of information that may undermine the concerted attempts of people or governments to affect positive change is, I think, blatantly wrong. It is also, I would add, wrong for the U.S. and other governments to utilize the means they have in order to achieve their own agendas. As my mother would say, “Two wrongs never made a right.”