Ian wrote:It's not necessarily illegal, especially considering he's not a US citizen. However, that does not make it ethical, or moral. More like reckless and naive.Chinaski wrote:It was consensual sex, for chrissakes. And someone remind me how distributing information released by a third party over the internet is illegal.
Wikileaks should have left well enough (the Iraq and Afghanistan messages) alone. Ever since the State Department cables dump, Assange supporters have had to fall back on theories about why the site should exist at all. "Well, he's making a stand for transparency." Bullshit he is. Yesterday a report was leaked listing a bunch of sites around the world that the US considers vital for its security, from the Panama canal down to vaccine factories in Holland. Does making this list public do any good for the world? Any at all? This website is blowing a ton of hot air in hopes that a few whistles will sound off in the process. And they clearly don't give a damn about the damage they're doing. A tiny portion of those cables can actually be construed as whistle-blowing; the rest are just gratuitous, because Assange could do it.
But the greatest threat to Wikileaks is Assange himself. Maybe his successor will be someone who'll actually be selective about what he or she publishes, and limit it to those things which actually constitute whistle-blowing. Transparency for transparency's sake is just as dumb as secrecy for secrecy's sake. Way too much collateral damage to try and prove a point.
(As for the Swedish sex charges: I couldn't give a damn. I hope he gets acquitted. Having him busted for sex crimes in Sweden is like seeing Al Capone get tossed in jail by some local cops for drunk driving. But I don't for a minute think the charges are part of some "smear campaign", unless it's his. What do the two Swedish girls have to say about their CIA connection?! Sheesh, Assange is so full of shit.)

What gets me is that when there's stuff that should come out, people will be much less likely to pay attention to it and the authorities will have an easier time prosecuting the real whistle-blowers.