Wall Street Journal columnist Louis Gordon Crovitz claims Julian Assange, editor in chief and spokesperson for WikiLeaks, is acting in accordance with two 2006 essays he wrote: State and Terrorist Conspiracies and Conspiracy of Governance. The goal of the ongoing United States diplomatic cables leak is to get the government to “to shrink its computational network in response, thereby making itself dumber and slower and smaller.” Does anyone know what Assange has written in the past?
Crovitz compared Assange to Ted Kaczynski “, another math-obsessed anarchist,”, yet I have not seen evidence that Assange is an anarchist.
Crovitz explained how an Iranian who fled Iran was mentioned by name and his escape method was detailed in one of the cables. The escaped Iranian fears his family will be targeted in Iran.
Crovitz concludes, “It’s hard being collateral damage in the world of WikiLeaks.”
I wonder if he has said that about civilians killed in pursuit of U.S. foreign policy. Regardless of possible differing moral standards, WikiLeaks offered to let the U.S. redact the cables to protect people who would be at risk if published. The U.S. declined. Thus, the U.S. put people at risk.
The strongest charges against Assange are rape and endangering lives. Assuming all that is true, his crimes are comparatively minor compared to that of the U.S. government.
Jacob Hornberger, founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation, said, “It’s all about the federal government’s imperialist foreign policy, the policy that statists have come to revere — the invasions, occupations, regime-change operations, foreign aid, foreign manipulations, secret prison camps, torture operations, kidnapping and rendition, assassinations, and, of course, the much-vaunted “war on terrorism” — that is, the war on those who have the temerity to resist the Empire — or reveal its horrors. How can the Empire continue to torture, kill, and brutalize people overseas effectively and efficiently if its policies and practices aren’t kept secret?”