Contrary to popular belief Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder and fugitive, did not challenge “the system” US gov’t authority. He suckerpunched them, and then….When his moment had come!!…..he failed to seize the day and ran away from them. Then he inexplicably sentenced himself to years of confinement in the embassy and ruined his health. If Assange was really the defiant maverick journalist he would have turned himself in and been a defendant on the side of right, moral authority and the 1st Amendment. He was primed to challenge the empire in an open forum before the world.
Someone should have advised him a long time ago to surrender and make a big public deal out of it. (Maybe he’s narcissistic and nobody tells him what to do?)
His campaign withered up with him in the embassy. The USA dark-side never had to show their hand or lift a finger.
The hero and martyr of the gunship video was Bradley Manning and he went to prison. Assange became famous and rich. That’s always troubled me.
I also find it ironic indeed that Assange (and others) use the vast freedoms guaranteed them in the western democracies to make sensational revelations for money and heroic famous images of themselves.
Freedom of the press, freedom of movement, freedom of speech, freedom of anonymity…. Perhaps that’s why Assange doesn’t deliver on Top Secret dumps from the Russian state department or Chinese secret service?
