The Other McCain

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Julian Assange Arrested in London

Posted on | December 7, 2010 | 5 Comments

BBC:

The founder of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has been arrested by police in London.
The 39-year-old Australian, who was the subject of a European arrest warrant, denies allegations he sexually assaulted two women in Sweden. . . .
Scotland Yard said Mr Assange was arrested by appointment at a London police station at 0930 GMT.

The Guardian: “A group calling itself Justice for Assange is planning a protest outside City of Wesminster magistrates court at 1.30pm.”

Well, of course they are. Take notes, guys: If you ever get accused of date-rape and want to rally a bunch of leftists to your defense, make sure you leak a lot of damaging U.S. national-security secrets first.

UPDATE: Christopher Hitchens has weighed in:

As for the public’s right to know and the accountability of our covert or confidential agencies, it is only a short time since the entire American liberal consensus was witlessly applauding a clumsy and fruitless prosecution, directed entirely at the hopelessly overdramatized exposure of a relatively minor CIA official, married to a monster of conceit who makes Assange look bashful. It then turned out that Valerie Plame’s job description had been made public by Robert Novak and Richard Armitage, who also had in common with Assange a rooted opposition to the administration’s Iraq policy. Elements of the left and the right appear to have switched positions on full disclosure since then. . . .

But Hitchens here glosses over a crucial distinction: Novak wasn’t publishing national security documents hacked (or leaked) from the State Department. He was merely reporting what he had been told by an administration official in answer to a fairly obvious question, to wit: How the hell had the CIA decided on Joseph Wilson, of all people, as the man to investigate reports that Saddam had attempted to obtain uranium ore from Niger? And the answer was: His wife works at the agency.

Valerie Plame wasn’t “outed.” She wasn’t a covert agent, and her public identification created no risk to her or (so far as we know) to anyone else.

As for Hitchens’ conclusion that Assange “is plainly a micro-megalomaniac with few if any scruples and an undisguised agenda,” who could argue? It remains to be seen whether Assange is also guilty of “rape-rape.”

Much more news and commentary at Memeorandum.

Category: Crime, Great Britain, WikiLeaks

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