National Security Reporting, A New Career Choice
Listening to Julian Assange as he Skyped around the world from the Ecuadorian embassy in London Saturday, one might believe a new career choice has emerged in the field of national security reporting. http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/8/5484784/julian-assange-at-sxsw-wikileaks
The WikiLeaks founder, now fleeing Swedish charges of sexual assault, has holed up in the embassy to avoid what he maintains is a plot to extradite him to the US for prosecution because he broadcast hundreds of thousands of national security documents and refuses to name sources. http://news.yahoo.com/wikileaks-assange-talks-nsa-hints-more-leaks-214516768.html
For about an hour marked by sound outages, Assange described how a new refugee status has emerged as national security reporters become more significant influencers on the world scene. To Assange, the NSA has become a rogue government agency. http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/mar/08/julian-assange-wikileaks-nsa-sxsw The world’s reaction to government overreaching is the new job called ‘national security reporter.’
However, Assange warns that even now the US fails to take Edward Snowden and similar reporters seriously. He says: “We know what happens when the government is serious. Someone is fired, someone is forced to resign, someone is prosecuted, an investigation (is launched), a budget is cut. None of that has happened in the last eight months since the Edward Snowden revelations.”
Analysts at http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com (HFS) argue that to take Snowden and similar leakers seriously would raise them to a new political status due to the importance of changes being made as the result of ongoing court cases, previously report by HFS, that have arisen within the past 6 months. US security service leaders remains indignant and self-righteous, and they will probably stay that way until the US Supreme Court bites them where it hurts, say HFS analysts.
What do you think?
I don’t take anything Assange says in a serious vein. I don’t trust the man nor do I respect him. He can spout off all he wants. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just more noise in a sea of the same.
The chief reason I pay attention to Julian Assange, aside from the interesting stuff that comes out on WikiLeaks, is that the US government has pushed so hard through allies to shut him up. If his enemies were not so powerful, I, too, might easily dismiss everything he says. But as it now stands, I judge him by the status of his enemies.
I see your point and it makes a good deal of sense. My view is that Assange needs to provide reasonable answers for the accusations made against him in Sweden. If I remember correctly, two women have accused him of sexual misconduct. Two women making the same claim make it hard for me to dismiss. I’m afraid I can’t see beyond that issue to the “interesting stuff coming out of WikiLeaks”.