Frank Ball, Tweed Heads
Julian Assange has been arrested for exposing war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. If extradited to the US he will be subject to intense interrogation, sleep derivation, and all the niceties that Gitmo-style incarceration has to offer.
No-one has died because of WikiLeaks’ disclosures. In fact the major cause of death in Iraq and Afghanistan was a US helicopter that massacred unarmed civilians in Baghdad during the Iraqi war. See Collateral Murder. This was a war crime as was the attempted coverup.
Since his arrest Assange has been subjected to a number of attacks on his character and has been held up to ridicule for his behaviour in the embassy, this is all a diversion and part of an effort to discredit him to erode public support.
At issue here is freedom of the press and the duty of journalists to protect whistleblowers as their informants. We ignore this at our peril.
