Yesterday, British authorities were allowed into the Ecuadorian embassy by Ecuador and they arrested Julian Assange on an American warrant. On the surface it looks like a simple case of America violating freedom of speech by targeting Assange for his journalistic activism. Focusing on journalistic activism misses the whole point of why Assange is under arrest today. Julian Assange put himself under arrest because of his ego.
Assange is an egomaniac.
For better or for worse, Julian Assange was a guest of Ecuador for about seven years. In that time, Julian Assange was not a humble guest, thankful for the hospitality Ecuador was offering him, but rather an arrogant entitled individual demanding his host kowtows to his every whim. Julian Assange went so far as to sue his host for their demand that he cleans up after his cat. Wikileaks even “threatened” the government of Ecuador.
That is not a guest, but rather an entitled person demanding that he be treated like the king that he is not.
Julian Assange stopped being a journalistic activist and became what he railed against by choosing to involve himself in the 2016 elections. Whether Assange intended to help Donald Trump by dumping the Hillary Clinton emails when he did, or just because Assange hated Clinton and wanted to derail her campaign is immaterial because in the end, Assange’s actions help to put Trump into office.
Many immigrants and Americans are paying the price for that today.
Julian Assange stopped being a journalist the moment he decided to affect the outcome of the presidential elections. At that moment, Assange lost all credibility.
The United States issued an arrest warrant against Assange on a conspiracy charge to hack government computers that led to Chelsea Manning to be prosecuted. According to the news media, he faces up to five years in prison.
Julian Assange deserves his future because it is his actions, and those of Wikileaks, that led him to be expelled from Ecuador’s embassy. As the Ecuadorian government said, “hospitality has its limits.” Assange didn’t know how to be a guest and today he is prison for his lack of common human decency.
Ecuador had every right to end his asylum. Though I wonder how much “influence” the US had in this decision. US wants to extradite and castigate Assange for the publication of information about government’s shenanigans.
Immigrants/refugees are “paying the price” not because of dumped Clinton e-mails but because the “two wings of the same bird of prey” (W.E.B. DuBois?) are at battle for power. As usual immigrants/refugees serve as their political pawns, especially the brown ones. La Clinton lost because she was rejected by voters where votes mattered. It was not the Russians and not the e-mails.
El trompas happened because previous administrations paved his way. His actions and policies are of those before him. El trompas is just openly more brutal, more extreme; he is unabashed about his racism and bigotry.
The self-censuring media take sides and report what they are told instead of investigating. Many in the media benefitted from WikiLeaks information and now they cheer for prosecution; how hypocritical is that? It sets precedent, facilitates the prosecution of true journalism.
Does it matter if we get our information from hackers, leakers, or whistleblowers about our government’s crimes and lies?