Julian Assange's moment of truth has arrived – and the stakes are high
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
Assange's efforts through WikiLeaks to bring to light uncomfortable truths of our times should be seen through the lens of the cypherpunk ethos - advocating for privacy, freedom of speech, and the use of cryptography as a route to social and political change (or preservation of previously entrenched liberties). These trends have all come off the boil significantly in the last 10 years I think at great detriment to society at large.
The pursuit of truth should not be a crime, nor should it be met with life-ending punishment. Assange's work is a testament to the belief that information should be free and accessible, and those who dare to reveal the hidden should be protected, not persecuted.
In Oscar Wildes "The Happy Prince", who, from his high perch, saw the suffering and injustices of the city below and used his position to alleviate them, sacrificing his own life. In a similar vein, Assange has endeavored to expose injustices and bring to light the truths that many would prefer remain hidden. As the Happy Prince said to the little swallow, 'I am covered with fine gold,' but chose to strip away his gold leaf by leaf to help those in need. Assange's actions, much like the Prince's, ask us to consider what is truly valuable: comfort and safety, or truth and justice? Let us not forget those who, like Assange, have made life altering or ending sacrifices in the pursuit of truth and justice.
It’s really the past 7 years, during which we assumed the Espionage Act would not be weaponized:
> “All through the [Barack] Obama years, those assumptions held good. It took [Donald] Trump – immoral and indecent – to overturn them. It’s just shameful that [Joe] Biden’s people are using Trump as their guide.”
Remember the rape acuzations from Sweden ? That's where democracy and transparency died.
So something is definitely fishy with the Sweden connection.
I don’t even like Assange, but the way he’s been treated is shameful. Plus, I don’t even understand how the US can extradite a non US citizens, but there’s probably something legal I don’t understand.
It’s a very disturbing precedent. If we allow this to happen, where do we go from here?
But we've already allowed it to happen. He's been in jail for years now. For something he may or may not have done. He's on the verge of being deported to the US, where he will most likely be imprisoned for journalism. Something he shouldn't have had to think about. If we wouldn't have allowed this to happen in the first place, he could have stand trial for the other things he's been accused of.
So it's already happened. It's why Snowden is in Russia, instead of living his life in the US.
Assange does no such thing and leaks for political reasons.
“I would only add that the attempt to punish Assange for exposing the truth is an attack on journalism itself.
I notice that none of those mainstream collaborators who published his material – the New York Times, the Guardian, and Der Spiegel – are being pursued, which demonstrates that a generational bias against internet-based journalism is at the heart of the case ...
If Julian goes to the US, Britain will have failed to protect one of the first principles of democracy.”
The US put more people at risk by their sudden exit out of Afghanistan than Assange and WikiLeaks did.
Snowden released some information which was within the realm of reasonable activities for the organisations he worked with, an he was in fact American, so was not quite loyal.
Meanwhile, everything Assange did was appropriate. He has no duties to the US, not being a US citizen or permanent resident, and political bias is very common with journalists. Maybe there is one or two unbiased journalist in all of America, probably people with very extreme pro-truth and consequences-can't-be-allowed-to-matter mindsets, but there's not going to be many of them.
As i remember from American movies: _You have a right_: to remain silent.