I support Julian Assange and his Wikileaks project. More transparency in government is a good thing, and it appears that Wikileaks was not conducting its document dumps willy-nilly. Wikileaks seems to have vetted the content with responsible journalism organizations (source), and it has done more good than harm. Those who call him a “terrorist” are either stupid, servile statists, or just politicians who are desperate to appear to be tough-on-albinos.
That said, I agree that Assange might not be the most sympathetic boy in the world. Yeah, he’s egotistical. Yeah, he’s narcissistic. But, as Jessica Christensen said, “Assange may be a narcissistic freak show, but so was MLK Jr. and Ghandi and Larry Flynt and … you name it. In fact, one might argue that perhaps it takes being a bit of a narcissistic freak show to have the cajones and the lack of good judgement and well-crafted strategy to act, to stand up and do the thing that everyone else is too sheepish to do.”
I also agree that it seems like the “rape” charges against him are a combination of some pissed off leftist clowns running amok with the weapons that a feminist dystopian legal system puts in the hands of scorned women. (source) And Julian Assange has a right to be pissed off at those two fetid clams as well.
But Assange is making a caricature of himself now. He’s pissed off that the documents from his case have been leaked to the press.
Of course, the man has a right to a fair trial. As rabid of a First Amendment warrior as I try to be, I recognize that the Sixth Amendment provides equally compelling rights. Despite the fact that neither Amendment applies to this case or this trial, the values inherent in them are universal values in civilized countries. If Mr. Assange were anyone else, I would be a bit more outraged at the leak as a slap against his right to a fair trial.
But he isn’t anyone else.
Assange needs to fire the fool who is advising him on his public relations strategy. The correct message for Mr. Assange to toss out there is “while this is an unfortunate attack on my right to a fair trial, I stand for the proposition that sunlight is the best antiseptic. Let the documents fly as they may, for the truth will float to the surface.”
