General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Assange has requested political asylum & is in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London [View all]ljm2002
(10,751 posts)...why was Assange held without bail when he has even now not been charged with any crime? and why was Sweden unwilling to question him via telephone, a routine procedure for the kind of crime he was supposedly suspected of? and why was this misdemeanor-level crime enough to get him high on the list of the Interpol network -- higher even than many suspected terrorists? Normally, an issue such as the one claimed, would not even get on the radar of international law enforcement, and they would be unwilling to expend their time and resources on it.
We all know the answer: because the United States wants to make an example of him. In that, our country is behaving as any imperial power behaves: show anyone who dares to actually question them, how tough you can make it for them, thereby having a chilling effect on others who might be so inclined.
Yes, Wikileaks revealed secret information, some of which was arguably evidence of war crimes (in my mind, it is unarguable, but whatever). So why, again, is it a crime for a journalist to reveal secrets that have been revealed to him? Answer: it isn't, but our country's government would LIKE for it to be one, so we have conspired with authoritarian elements in Sweden and the UK to make life hard on the man. Because we can't have people going around and revealing secrets to the Great Unwashed, egad man! They might get ideas...
It is very easy to smear someone, and this is an excellent study in how it's done. Go against the most powerful state in the world, and the state will retaliate. Even though Assange is not a citizen of the U.S., and therefore one might think he would be out of reach for the U.S. for merely plying his trade. But he had the audacity to set up a system using (gasp!) encryption, for the purpose of (double gasp!!) allowing people to reveal secret information that otherwise would go unreported. For that he must be punished.
He doesn't have to be a "nice" man in order for anyone with a brain and a conscience to see how bent this is.