Assange on Interpol most wanted: reality check

Stan Beer
Thursday, 02 December 2010 09:43

Opinion and Analysis

OPINION Rape is a heinous crime and if Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is proven guilty then he should do serious time in a Swedish prison. That said, it must be asked when was the last time a person was made Interpol's most wanted criminal for alleged non-consensual sex - or are there other factors at play?

After the release of 250,000 US diplomatic cables on the Wikileaks website has embarrassed people in high places, governments, politicians and commentators all over the Western world have called for Mr Assange's head.

In fact, some of the utterances issuing from the mouths of otherwise responsible leaders of the "free world" are at the very least disturbing, if not downright frightening.

For instance, Tom Flanagan, a former advisor to Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, has openly declared on TV that Julian Assange should be assassinated. If the names and context were removed, it would be easy to imagine that this was the utterance of a representative of a totalitarian dictatorship.

In the US, Republican congressman Peter King, the incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has demanded that Wikileaks be declared a foreign terrorist organisation and there are growing calls from both sides of US politics for Mr Assange to be prosecuted under the so-called Espionage Act.

There are also calls from high places, even from conservative Fox media commentator Bill O'Reilly, for whoever leaked the cables to Wikileaks - alleged to be a conflicted and perhaps mentally unstable lowly US Army private named Bradley Manning - to be executed as a traitor. The same sentiments have been expressed by key conservative Republicans Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, who said Mr Assange should be hunted down and treated like the Taliban.

Whether you believe it was wrong or not to publish these classified documents, there appears to be more than a little hysteria being drummed up by people in the corridors of power over this matter. Even more scary, however, is that these politicians appear to be at least partially successful in enlisting the help of some sections of the free press and law enforcement agencies in their cause to make Mr Assange an international pariah.

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