I would like to point everyone to the last paragraph of the introductory part of Assange’s Wikipedia page and if you are really that lazy, I will paste it for you:
On 30 November 2010, Interpol placed Assange on its red notice list of wanted persons;[13] at the same time, a European Arrest Warrant was issued for him.[14] He was wanted for questioning on suspicion of “sex crimes”; it is alleged that while having consensual sex his condom broke and he either did not disclose the breakage to his partner or continued after his partner asked him to stop. He has not been formally charged with any crime.[15] He was arrested by the London Metropolitan Police on 7 December by appointment, after a voluntary meeting with the police.[16]
This is clearly a smear campaign. If you don’t believe me, read the full details on the sex crimes case. Assange has become the victim of a character assassination, and it’s been quite successful. Now as if that isn’t enough, he has been arrested by police outside his country for questioning about an alleged crime for which there are no formal charges. If this sounds like justice to you, just wait until he is imprisoned by the US or another superpower—again, Assange is an Australian national—for something totally unrelated to the “sex crimes” for which he was originally detained.
I can’t imagine the legal basis upon which a law would be established in the US making Wikileaks illegal, but let’s say it succeeds: will the US be powerful enough to enforce this law, clearly violating the 1st Amendment, in other countries, where Wikileaks actually exists?
Now I would like to bring your attention to the nature of the Wikileaks organization. Other members have noted that the only detriment to Wikileaks itself in the event of Assange’s imprisonment or assassination is that their public face is gone. They will have to choose another. Now will this person, who likely had no part in the original creation of Wikileaks, also be held responsible by foreign governments for the existence of a website for which he is merely the public face?
In any case, it should be obvious that the real reasons for Assange’s arrest have little to do with condom breakage. Humanity will be lucky if Assange gets out of this situation alive. As soon as it is okay—and indeed, many members of the general public have expressed their support for this “solution”—to label a “terrorist”, imprison, or assassinate a foreign national who has embarrassed our country (a country fully deserving of embarrassment) then we are in for a great deal of strife. Wikileaks itself is mirrored on hundreds of hosts distributed across the globe. There are surely hundreds, if not thousands or hundreds of thousands, of anonymous members of Wikileaks who will carry on the organization if an ill fate befalls Asssange. If Assange is imprisoned or assassinated, the ONLY affect will be that it has become acceptable, in the public mind and the political sphere, to imprison or assassinate foreign nationals who do things that a government doesn’t like, and that this judgement can be based on unrelated allegations, or legally untenable charges.
Sounds fair and just to me.
