Julian Assange’s case has nothing to do with the law and everything to do with revenge and intimidating anyone interested in exposing the U.S. government’s many depredations and crimes. From Paul Craig Roberts at paulcraigroberts.org:
The most extraordinary thing about Julian Assange is that he is being treated as if he were an American citizen. “Treason” was the original cry, now converted to “espionage.”
There was no espionage. Wikileaks published, and made available to the New York Times, The Guardian, and other media organizations leaked information. The media organizations published the information, just as did Wikileaks, but they are not charged. Neither is Wikileaks charged. Only Julian Assange is charged.
Nothing is any different from Ellsberg releasing the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times. The US government wanted to prosecute both, but was prevented by the First Amendment and long-accepted duty of media organizations to hold government accountable. The stark deterioration in the protective power of the First Amendment and journalistic freedom since 1971 demonstrates the rise in tyranny. Tyranny is what Julian Assange is experiencing, not a legitimate prosecution.
Would the world even know about certain WAR crime atrocities, off the books torture sites, exclusion of wrongthink political candidates, bribes and extortions of the powerful, bleached out bathroom email servers, without Julian Assange?
(h/t-JA)