Regarding Julian Assange

I posted this at the beginning of 2011 after Assange had been publicly condemned by the Vice President of the USA and the Prime Minister of Australia.  I'm re-posting it now because, strange as it may seem, I don't know many people who take an interest in his case and it seems to me that it affects all of us.  There's no doubt that history will be very unkind to those who condemned Assange before he had been charged with any crime.  The issue is, how many others are going to share his fate before the public realises what has happened. 

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If you believe that it is inappropriate for the state to threaten people with imprisonment when they have committed no crime, then you ought to be concerned about Julian Assange. 

On January 6 2011 newspapers of record reported that the US Congress is setting up a Congressional Inquiry to investigate Assange's activities with the objective of prosecuting suspects for publishing leaked documents. The Congress has every right to set up inquiries of this nature and it remains to be seen how its investigative powers will be used. If retrospective legislation is adopted to make charges against Assange and others who did not leak the documents, but published them, this would not be unprecedented in the course of history but it would be most unusual.

It’s been widely reported that the US Attorney General has for several weeks been seeking grounds to prosecute Assange and has yet failed to find any. Regardless, the Vice President of the USA went on television on December 19 and called Assange “a high tech terrorist.”

Photo: Macdiarmid/Getty

Previously, on December 7, the Australian Prime Minister declared on television that Assange, who is an Australian citizen, was "guilty of criminality." Unlike the US Attorney General, who is seeking a crime with which to charge Assange, the Australian Attorney General has distanced himself from the matter by insisting on leaving it in the hands of the police. After a month of investigations the Australian Federal Police have been unable to find any basis on which Assange could be charged with a crime. On the other hand, Assange’s supporters believe they have a solid case against the Prime Minister for slander.

The failure of the US Government to find a charge to file against Assange is significant, considering the sweeping powers to detain suspects of terrorism which were introduced by the Bush administration, and which have been endorsed in practice by the Obama administration.

Julian Assange published information which was leaked by US government officials. He was under no legal or moral obligation not to do so. In the USA and in some other countries freedom of the press is a constitutional right. To this day WikiLeaks, which Assange leads, works in collaboration with major newspapers including the New York Times and the Guardian. Almost all the world’s newspapers have published the WikiLeaks revelations. The question arises, “why single out Julian Assange?” The answer may be that Assange is vulnerable whereas pursuing the newspapers would cause political uproar and, maybe even social unrest.

In 1971 the Daniel Ellsberg Pentagon Papers saga led to massive loss of public support in the USA for the Vietnam War. WikiLeaks is having a similar impact on public support for various military activities by various countries around the world. It is not surprising that the US Government is responding to WikiLeaks as strongly as it responded to the Ellsberg affair, but it is interesting to observe the heavy focus on Assange while almost nothing has been said about the newspapers. Is this because trying to censor newspapers would cause public outrage? Is it assumed that pursuing Assange will cause less fuss?

If the US or Australian governments wish to punish someone for publishing leaked information they should pursue the people who leaked it, especially those who are government employees bound by the relevant secrecy legislation.

Considering the extent of prejudicial remarks made by heads of government in Australia and the USA, no less, it seems trite to mention the assumption of innocence until proven guilty. In this case Assange is publicly presumed to be guilty by the Vice President of the USA and the Prime Minister of Australia even as they acknowledge that he has been charged with no crime.