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Trying to neutralise Assange a bad strategy for authorities

Tory Maguire

by Tory Maguire

08 Dec 11:55am

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Filed under: Diplomatic Cables, Julia Gillard, Julian Assange, Kevin Rudd, Politics, Wikileaks

145 comments

Here’s something ironic. Kevin Rudd seems to be the only one keeping Wikileaks in perspective.

They've got him right where they want him, but it won't work. Illustration: AP

Who knows whats going on behind closed doors, but this morning the foreign minister was channeling Rhett Butler. “I don’t, frankly, give a damn about this sort of thing,” Rudd told Sunrise. Perhaps he’s of the view there was nothing in this morning’s Wikileaks cable reports we couldn’t have read in any Australian newspaper late last year or early this year.

Everyone else, however, including Julia Gillard, Swedish authorities and most of the political figures in the United States, is at risk of losing the rhetorical war with Julian Assange that’s been set off by the latest round of leaks.

The Australian Government has not covered itself in glory in its reaction to Assange. Julia Gillard has toned down her initial attack somewhat but her first reaction was to talk tough about cancelling his passport and that what he’d done was “illegal.”

Yesterday she was like a deer in the headlights when pressed to explain exactly which laws Assange had broken. Just minutes after reminding journalists at a press conference that she used to be a lawyer (in the context of an announcement about funding for asbestos compensation), she engaged in this exchange, which veered into the “vibe” territory of The Castle.

Journalist: Thank you, Prime Minister. Following on from Friday, your comments when you said the WikiLeaks case was illegal, what Australian laws do you think Julian Assange has broken?

PM: Look, the foundation stone of this WikiLeaks issue is an illegal act. The foundation stone of it is an illegal act. Information was taken and that was illegal, so let’s not try and put any glosses on this. It would not happen, information would not be on WikiLeaks, if there had not been an illegal act undertaken.

And then:

PM: I haven’t received advice yet and obviously our Federal Police go through thorough processes before providing such advice, but I’ve been asked about this matter a number of times and I want to be clear about my attitude to it: the foundation stone is an illegal act that certainly breached the laws of the United States of America. The individual involved, there are potential matters arising from Sweden and the warrant there. Then, of course, we’ve got the Australian Federal Police looking to see whether Australian laws have been broken and then we’ve got the common sense test about the gross irresponsibility of this conduct.

Now, after an open letter demanding Assange be afforded the same consular assistance as any other Australian citizen, Kevin Rudd and Attorney-General Robert McClelland are spending half their day assuring us that indeed the Wikileaks founder won’t be abandoned now he’s in UK police custody.

Debate rages over the Swedish charges that led to Assange’s arrest in London overnight. In the US Asssange supporters, including Naomi Wolf, have called them a trumped up attempt to neutralise him, while his opponents have jumped on them for blaming the two alleged victims.

Which ever side of that debate you sit on, the details of the case against Assange are highly unusual. Assange supporters have been given the ammunition to claim they’re like going after Al Capone on tax avoidance.

And as for the US political reaction to the leaks of the American diplomatic cables - it’s been completely ridiculous. Senior politicians have called for Assange’s execution. He’s been called a terrorist. Corporations such as Visa and Mastercard have bowed to enormous pressure to cut off the ability to donate to Wikileaks.

All of this is hysteria after the horse has bolted. Even, God forbid, genuine threats to Assange’s personal safety would do nothing to stem the flood of information, which is now stored on servers all over the world.

Nor is it likely to put off other potential leakers. All this official knee-jerk reaction to the Wikileaks figure head will achieve is to gather support for his cause.

Governments have behaved so badly they’ve taken any nuance out of the legitimate public interest argument over Wikileaks’ actions and turned it into a with-us-or-against-us stoush.

Genuine questions over Assange’s motives and methods, and the potential damage or not of the different bits of information coming out, have been swept aside in the mayhem.

And world leaders who think the argument can be won by beating down Assange, instead of addressing the issues he’s uncovered, are going to lose in the end.

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145 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Shane says:

      11:20am | 08/12/10

      The Open Letter linked in this article puts it more succinctly than I am able to. Assange, as an Australian citizen, should be afforded every protection under Australian and International Law. If there is a case for extradition, let it be made properly and through the right channels. At this stage, not even the legal and governmental machinations of the US and Australia combined have been able to point to a single law this man has broken. Calls for violence against him and his family reflect shockingly on the United States, and (because of their silence on the matter) they Australian government.

      Gillard, I expect and demand that you publicly denounce Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck et al for their public threats against the safety of an Australian citizen.

      Reply

    • Macca says:

      11:49am | 08/12/10

      @Shane, I don’t get this.

      Why should a person, charged with a crime in another country, receive protection from the Australian Government?

      It should not be the responsibility of a government to babysit its citizens.

      However, I would support Gillard publicy opposing some of the views from the US, particularly the terrorist calls etc.

    • Shane says:

      12:20pm | 08/12/10

      Protection under our law. As I stated, if the US wants Assange, they should have to present evidence of a crime to the Australian government. As in any other case, the Australian government then has a right to refuse if the evidence is not forthcoming. By all accounts, there is no evidence of a crime related to Wikileaks. The US is just angry.

      Of course you or I will never know for sure, but by all accounts the Swedish rape allegation is a blatant attempt at character assasination, and are totally unsubstantiated.

      My main point is that our ambassador and PM should not be kowtowing to the US at the expense of a citizen. As an Australian, he has rights. Regardless of whether you think him the Messiah or a Very Naughty Boy, he has expressed his dismay at the Australian government’s actions (and inaction) , and he is right. He was effectively abandoned by our government without a shred of evidence ever being produced. Gillard and McClelland may as well have been reading from the US script. That is not on.

    • marley says:

      12:28pm | 08/12/10

      I agree that the calls for violence against Assange and his family need to be condemned. 

      And I agree that he doesn’t appear to have violated any Australian law.  From what I’ve read, he hasn’t violated any American law either (though his “source” certainly has.) 

      So the only law he may have violated is the Swedish one relating to sexual misconduct.  And that’s purely a matter of Swedish domestic law.  It is not our role to intervene in that, other than to ensure that, if he does get extradited to Sweden, he has the rights of anyone tried in Swedish courts.  We certainly can’t “protect” him from Swedish justice, nor should we.

    • Christopher says:

      12:36pm | 08/12/10

      @Macca
      Because “charged” does not equal “guilty”. Because everyone has the right to a fair trial. Because many nations, including Australia and some of our allies, have been known to ignore the proper, fair processes of law when it suits the government’s agenda; we need to make it clear as a nation that we expect our citizens to be treated, and if necessary, tried, fairly.
      One of the roles of Australian embassies is to help ensure that Australian citizens are safe, even if - no, ESPECIALLY - if they are in trouble.

    • Macca says:

      02:38pm | 08/12/10

      @Christopher, I’m with Marley on this one.

    • Jane says:

      03:55pm | 08/12/10

      I agree with you Shane. The presumption of innocence and the right to a defence needs to be reiterated.

    • Tom says:

      05:37pm | 08/12/10

      @Christopher, Marley and Macca are correct. You can’t dick around with other countries’ sovereignty.

      Has anyone read Zeta’s contribution to the Open Thread? Not that it contradicts TomBowler’s synopsis below but it sure ramps up the intrigue.

    • acotrel says:

      06:42am | 09/12/10

      Even if Assange is hung, drawn and quartered, he’s achieved the goal of showing us how manipulation of the masses, can be exposed!  He’s opened a Pandora’s box!

    • LC says:

      10:12am | 10/12/10

      Shane, Juila Gillard cannot and should not be expected to protect anyone, even fellow Australian citizens, from being charged with crimes in other countries. I know the sexual assault charges are a steaming load of sh*t , but if they protect him it would set a bad precedent and make others demand they receive protection from foreign laws (could you imagine the whining from a certain drug-dealing bogan imprisoned in Indonesia if they protect him but not her), Obviously exemptions should be made in cases like prosecution under Sharia law, but this does not warrant an exemption. Besides, if we extradite him we are bound under our treaties with the US to hand him over.

      Though having said that I agree with Macca: There is no reason at all that the government shouldn’t publicly condemn the US government’s behavior, including, but not limited to, it’s call for violence against Assange and his family (especially considering the latter didn’t have anything to do with wikileaks).

    • Tombowler says:

      11:22am | 08/12/10

      Remembering that Gillard worked at Slater Gordon as a ‘sore-back’ lawyer the intricate international legal norms at play here are probably beyond her nasaly grasp…

      Here’s what will happen with Assange:

      1) He will be supported as the saviour of the free-world for standing up to the corruption of the establishment. This act is his “Beer Hall Putsch”- That much lauded uprising of a young and phenomenally popular Adolf Hitler who stood up to the corrupt conspiracy of the Weimar Govt and landed up in a Munich prison cell.

      2)His popularity will continue to rise until his megalomania feeds off the hero worship of the moronic sycophants to such an extent that it reaches critical mass and he goes too far.

      3)Eventually some of the stuff he releases will cause someone to die (if not many) somewhere in the world in a manner in which a direct causal link can be established. The moronic sycophant will, much like the Germans in 42/43 will be too invested in their hero-worship to divorce themselves at this point and argue about ‘the greater good’ and whatnot.

      4) Assange will collapse and become universally hated. His supporters, as the Germans did post world war 2, will begin to claim victimization. False divides will be drawn (Like “Nazi” and “German” could be distinguished…) The moronic sycophants will try to divorces themselves frantically of responsibility for their part in the orgy of stupid, sycophantic self-righteousness.

      5) The morons will be successful. History will condemn Assange.

      You don’t think that History will look unfavourably upon this hero of freedom and transperancy?

      In ‘38 who would conceive of history condemning Time Man of Year Adolf Hitler?

      In short- the majority of people are terminally retarded sycophants consistently looking for a new savior/messiah from a system that they, through irrationality, selective reasoning and twisted logic, perceive to be malign and evil. The true fact is it actually benign and merely plagued with the inefficiency, incompetence and stupidity that is reflected from the general populace. Napolean, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao Ze Dong… They come and go…

      Reply

    • Trjn says:

      11:35am | 08/12/10

      From zero to Godwin in record time. Congratulations.

    • Joel B1 says:

      11:37am | 08/12/10

      Your argument although compelling is well flawed. Assange is not person of the year. Nor will he be.

    • BT says:

      12:03pm | 08/12/10

      So what, we should just all give up because “that’s life”? Rather lazy and defeated attitude there. “Eventually some of the stuff will cause someone to die” - well hey, the American and Australian governments have been killing people in Iraq and Afghanistan for a decade - their policies are causing thousands of people to die on a daily basis. That’s the point.

    • Paul Prentice says:

      12:06pm | 08/12/10

      Assange is not a Government or even a politician,i don’t think he will be remembered the same as Hitler that is ridiculous,lets hope he educates a lot of Australians on what a one world Government is all about and the consequences of it…why a global warming scare is such a necessary instrument of achieving this one world government….a real insight to the reality of the 1992 treaty agenda 21 signed by Labor Joan Kelly…..

    • David LD says:

      12:18pm | 08/12/10

      You know, Tom, I used to think you were serious, but after that incredible Godwin, I’ve come to understand that you’re actually a conservative performance artist.

      Everyone should be reminded that Assange isn’t some sort of super-spy breaking into these closed systems and accessing files. People are providing them to him. People on the inside that are sick of the rot and want the world to know what’s going on.

      Assange should be given the full protection of the law afforded to an Australian citizen by the Australian government, and somebody should nominate him for Australian of the Year for being brave enough to be the figurehead for an organisation trying to hold governments to account for their actions.

    • Chris L says:

      12:51pm | 08/12/10

      Quite a preditction there Tom. Who would have thought Julian’s ultimate goal was racial purity?

      Well, you must be correct because everyone else is a “terminally retarded sycophant”. Must be lonely up there on that pedestal.

      Got next Saturday’s lotto numbers while you’re at it?

    • Heath Karl says:

      01:08pm | 08/12/10

      TomBowlers comment is a defence of Hitler! very brave!

    • Ben81 says:

      01:41pm | 08/12/10

      David LD, “People on the inside that are sick of the rot and want the world to know what’s going on.”

      That’s all well and good, but when do you suppose we’ll start seeing some of that instead of masses of cables that have nothing even slightly at all to do with anything rotten?  How is it a legitimate defence of Wikileaks by its supporters to continually lie about what’s actually being released?

    • Tombowler says:

      02:44pm | 08/12/10

      Kids, kids, kids…..

      Settle down… I merely point out the pertinent fact that Assange has been hailed by many as some sort of hero, a saviour if you will, for the people against the evil establishment.

      The point is rather that the establishment is not an evilly geared empire with the ultimate goal of being deceptive bastards- it is merely reality (and a reflection of the population from which these govts. are drawn) that they are inefficient, bumbling, wasteful and f#% up constantly.

      I also point out further that history has proven the mass hero-worship of many figures to be completely wrong and warn against not learning from history through blind and selective adulation.

      The wiki-leaks cables have been mildly embarrassing but totally understandable. I do not resent my diplomats offering genuine views to the government any bit. I support the war in Afghanistan and despite the lack of any predilection on my part to throw shoes at ex-prime ministers; one vote is still one vote.

      If any of the idiots who harp on about Glorious Julian the Alleged Sex Offender proving the lie about WMD’s had actually read the relevant leak they would realise that the leak actually suggests rather demonstrably that the U.S.A truly believed their (f#$ing sh#thouse) intelligence to that effect.

      *cue the “rabid, evil. pro-establishment bastard baby-eater” thingy now… I’ll just continue to develop my own thoughts pragmatically without applying the typical USA=Bad crap…


      (For the record IF Assange ends up in Australia then of course he deserves the protection of the Australian Law. In Sweden he should be provided with ordinary consular assistance as requisite to a national charged with a sex offense overseas. IF he ends up in the U.S.A the same must apply. No more. No less.)

    • Dan says:

      03:08pm | 08/12/10

      Ha Tombowler - you lose! You mentioned Hitler - automatic disqualification from the argument.

    • wally the worker says:

      03:47pm | 08/12/10

      @ Tom, (bowler or bingo player) whichever, maaaaaaate, 11.22am is too early for a drink, sorry, I’ll take that back, I’ve been guilty too. If you want to be believed as having a serious intellect, don’t start with a drink. It’s a dead give away, by the end of your piece.  Your first paragraph was good. Most people I suggest, know Ms Gillard is only ‘Aunty Eileen’, incapable of being a leader of a nation. From the second paragraph, it’s all down hill son. There’s no room here to display your historical knowledge and apply it to a current situation. It just dosen’t work! Wait ‘till there’s a subject where you can do that. Savvy? Good. Let’s hear no more of Stalin, and ‘the other guys’.  Don’t worry, your verbage will be recognised next tuesday, or, friday,......or…...

    • barmaley says:

      05:20pm | 08/12/10

      Hundred thousands innocent people have already been killed by US and allies for no apparent reason other than establishments profits. How about that mate

    • VickiPS says:

      12:32am | 09/12/10

      Don’t pick too hard at the analogies, Tom-tom, they leave a nasty scab.  I’ve yet to hear of Julian Assange haranguing a mass rally, recruiting and arming a militia, attempting a coup d’etat, fomenting revolution, preaching Left Wing sociopolitical theory or even saying he hates McDonalds.  I think you need to find another straw man to immolate, Tommy Tantrum me old knockabout, or at least occupy yourself more fruitfully—perhaps by dashing off yet another plaintive application to MENSA?.

    • acotrel says:

      07:55am | 09/12/10

      Macca, why should Assange be treated differently to Schapelle Corby?: The obvious answer is that he’s upset the conservatives!

    • Aaron says:

      09:13am | 09/12/10

      Great post. I don’t think the parallel with Hitler is correct, but obviously Tom was talking more about the way Assange is worshiped by “moronic sycophants”.

    • LC says:

      10:20am | 10/12/10

      The slippery slope is still a fallacy, Glenn Beck (aka Tombowler).

    • GeoffM says:

      11:22am | 08/12/10

      It has been clear from the outset that all Assange has done is repeat what we have been hearing/reading in our media for years -  the BS uttered by even the most senior politicians, about all sorts of things and people.
      Nothing new about any of it, just that this time we get a lot of the comments in the one sitting.
      The answer is simple:  if you are thinking of saying/writing something of this nature about someone you clearly distrust/dislike, DON’T DO IT !!

      Reply

    • Ben81 says:

      01:00pm | 08/12/10

      “The answer is simple:  if you are thinking of saying/writing something of this nature about someone you clearly distrust/dislike, DON’T DO IT !! “

      Oh yes I can see it now, hundreds of diplomatic cables that say things like “Hello sir, the negotiations were finally a success but I can’t tell you why in case this ends up on the internet and hurts someones feelings. There are still some serious concerns over their attitudes and approach towards our goals but you’ll just have to pick up the vibe of that from the media, man would my face be red if they found out what I really think lol”

    • Miles Heffernan says:

      11:23am | 08/12/10

      I have not read a single word on a wikileaks web page. Everything I have learned has been from reports from online sources, like, The Oz, The Punch and The Age.

      So, if calls from credit card companies and others to not enable wikileaks, does this mean the same for all publishers?

      If laws have been broken, give this bloke and his legal entity natural justice. By having his hands tied behind his back, we validate his cause, irrespective of its alleged irresponsibility or morality.

      The strategy to suffocate his liberty and financial means is not novel or thought through. It is exactly what bullies do everyday, to keep their those that they intimidate in line.

      I expect that this will only enable a world of sympathisers and “troups” who may up the ante.

      And on that not, I shall be backing two condoms when I am in Scandanavia, just in case one breaks.

      Reply

    • Joel B1 says:

      11:27am | 08/12/10

      I strongly disagree with your wild statement that “Rudd’s the only one with some perspective on the wikileaks saga”.

      He’s actually reinforcing his international image of being a big-headed, self-centred, micro-managing, arrogant, ineffectual, less-than-one-term ex-PM. And his local image too.

      Gillard’s strident “I was a lawyer too!” seems to merely highlight how rubbish she was at it. “Guilty before convicted” is so very, very ALP. Just ask the ETU in QLD.

      Reply

    • Wal says:

      12:40pm | 08/12/10

      And then there is Hicks…...Cretin!

    • Joel B1 says:

      04:13pm | 08/12/10

      Wow, we had the Hitler Rule and the Godwin rule but now thanks to the loony left we have the Hicks Rule.

      Actually I saw him last week in the local newsagent, buying a copy of “Soldier of Fortune” FFS.

    • Kole says:

      11:30am | 08/12/10

      If Australia had it’s Net Filter we wouldnt even know who JA is. and wikileaks would be blocked obviously. Truth is illegal in Australia it seems. The media must make a choice for thier own validity.  As the mainstream media and government propaganda is now homogenous. We the people dont vote for liars. Gillard is gone if she keeps preaching against JA. Assange motives are irrelevent, he is a hero of the people all over the world sacrificing his quality of life so that we may know the Truth.

      Reply

    • Super D says:

      11:34am | 08/12/10

      I must say I’m looking forward to seeing the cables dealing with the East Timor solution.

      Kevin Rudd is hadling the fact that there is now documented eveidence that the entire world thinks he’s a prize pillock remarkably well.  If Gillard had one mre vote up her sleeve he’d be sent to the back bench faster than you could say detailed programatic specificity but she doesn’t so he won’t.

      Reply

    • Bruce says:

      06:43pm | 08/12/10

      Now I understand why Obama kept avoiding Rudd !!

    • Macca says:

      11:40am | 08/12/10

      Julian Assange seems a bit hypocritical to be asking for protection from the Australian government when he continues to release information that may put Soldiers and Undercover agents in danger.

      However, he is far from the monster that he is currently being portrayed as (pending the outcome of the swedish court case).

      The responses from some of The Right in the US have been ridiculous, and Julia Gillard has completelty mis-read the situation. International politics may not be her thing, but somehow, Rudd has come out smelling pretty rosey, less than 24 hours after he was rubbished, again, in the media (because of the Wikileaks release). It’s concerning for The ALP to see JG be out-classed by an out-of-touch, zero party support nerd, whose job she took mere months ago.

      Reply

    • iansand says:

      12:25pm | 08/12/10

      The only Undercover agents in danger are the CIA operatives who engineered the Gillard coup against Rudd the big-headed, self-centred, micro-managing, arrogant, ineffectual, less-than-one-term ex-PM.

      You read it here first.  We have not had a proper Wikileaks conspiracy theory yet.

    • Macca says:

      12:39pm | 08/12/10

      Afghani and Pakistani nationals providing information to the US Government regarding the Taliban and Al Qaeda? I’m fairly certain they are in danger now.

    • so you think your smart says:

      11:45am | 08/12/10

      @Tombowler,

      Yes he is exactly like Hitler, didnt take too long for the nutters to envoke godwins law.  Hitler wrote mein kampf after the beer hall putsch and obviously before 38, now that document is seen to be obviously and quite rightly so, full of hatred. Comparing the two is a feeble attempt at demonising somebody who has yet to break any laws (Pending Trial).

      Nothing you has said has yet occured, so by comparing the “possibility” of what JA and the “sycophants” might do to what has already been done by one of the worst monsters in the history of mankind, is with out doubt, cowardly, untrue, unpleasant and lowest form of social commentary known in human existence.

      To further prove my point, Lets condemn you as a character by the possibility of how you may act in the future. I can do it quite succinctly too. Here we go.

      I dont know you, what you have done in the past and cannot possibly conceive what you may do in the future, but i do know i do not like you. There fore you sir are like Hitler.

      Wow, i amaze my self with my debating abilities sometimes.

      Reply

    • nosthow says:

      11:52am | 08/12/10

      Rudds only going on like a turkey because Wikileaks has caught him out too. The best present Rudd can give the ALP is his resignation from politics and poq asap like all deposed PM’s have done in the past. Fair shake of the sauce bottle Kevin !

      Reply

    • TimB says:

      01:42pm | 08/12/10

      Notshow, what happened? You used to have quite the little man-crush on Rudd.

    • nosthow says:

      03:31pm | 08/12/10

      @TimB - yesterdays man Timmy - time for him to go - nothing worse than ex PMs loitering around like they still mean something. Notice we Labor supporters are prepared to be critical of our own Tim ?

    • Rosie says:

      04:30pm | 08/12/10

      Sorry nosthow as much as we would love to get rid of cometh the hour, cometh the man to never never land, it is an impossible task. The female with red hair that stabbed him in the back for his job is the only one that can do that or should I say the “faceless men.”

      Rudd knows like the Greens he has the Gillard Govt under siezed and Gillard won’t dare get rid of him for if he goes she also goes. The same applies to Peter Gareth.

      Rudd believes that the public will have to put up with him because of his greatness.

    • Steve_of_Cornubia says:

      04:47pm | 08/12/10

      @nosthow

      Methinks only those of us who recognised him for what he is from the start have any bragging rights. That would include me, and everybody else with two functioning eyes.

      Oh, and he isn’t just an ex-PM, he still holds an executive position in your beloved government. I guess that means you don’t agree with Joolya’s choice of Foreign Minister then? Crikey, first Rudd lets you down, then Gillard can’t even deal with the poisonous little rat effectively. You must be thinking of voting Green, eh?

    • TimB says:

      06:07pm | 08/12/10

      @ Notshow- Only after they’re dumped. You love them right up until that point. Very fickle. And like Steve says, the more perceptive among us knew Rudd was a disaster going way back to the Sunrise days.

      Also I never rated Nelson or Turnbull. Even Abbott didn’t really make much of a blip on my radar until the stand he took against Turnbull’s ETS deal with Labor.

    • Ask a few stupid questions says:

      06:29pm | 08/12/10

      Can’t politicians retire, Rosie ? Or do they have to wait until the voters throw them out, as happened to John Howard ? And is there some new convention we haven’t heard about that if a Minister retires then the Prime Minister also has to ? I think you’ll find Gareth Evans retired from politics in 1999 and is currently Chancellor of the Australian National University.

    • TimB says:

      06:36am | 09/12/10

      @ Ask a stupid question- You miss the point by a mile. If Rudd retires, it forces a bi-election.
      Given Julia’s razor thin majority, it’s the last thing she needs. That’s why all her energy is going into keeping as many Labor MP’s happy as she can- that includes Rudd and Peter Garret.
      (Which incidently is obviously who Rosie meant, although I think you knew that. It takes a hell of a deductive leap to go from “Peter Gareth” to Garret Evans & only a tiny one to figure out the correct name.)

    • marley says:

      07:25am | 09/12/10

      Well, if Rudd goes, so does Julia’s slender hold on power.  One less seat, a byelection and no guarantee of an ALP win.  She’s got to let him stay.

    • Rosie says:

      08:48am | 09/12/10

      Thanks Tim B for explaning to “Ask a few stupid questions.” I think the problem here is there is a competition going on between “Ask a few stupid questions” and myself as to whom is smarter than the other.

      Yes I did make a mistake - Peter Garret instead of Peter Gareth. However, I would have thought smart people when reading my comments would have known what I was on about.

    • Ask a stupid question says:

      10:08am | 09/12/10

      Thanks Tim, Marley and Rosie. Hook, line, and sinker.

      Your crocodile tears for Kevin Rudd belie that you still haven’t gotten over the fact that while you were stabbing away at him daily, you lost your chance to finish him off.

    • NicoleG says:

      10:36am | 09/12/10

      @TimB, may I suggest you use finger puppets for AAFSQ? Some people need a little extra help.

    • majid says:

      11:58am | 08/12/10

      Julian Assange is a HEATING HOT potato with an almost certain destiny to burn at the end… The question is how many politicians are going to be burnt along the road by this hot burning potato? One thing is sure, politicians are good at creating rules as they go… but still, I can see only burns and smokes along the road…

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      08:04am | 09/12/10

      You want to hope it happens before Wikileaks gets to John Howard!

    • /b/rother in arms says:

      12:05pm | 08/12/10

      The argument will not be won by any dictatorships masking themselves as democracies. People like Assange have their supporters and we will not be silenced. We are here. We are watching. And there will be retribution.

      Reply

    • Ben81 says:

      12:53pm | 08/12/10

      Oh god, you failchan kids really need to make an effort to sound a bit less tryhard and lame sometimes.  It got old years ago.  You’re not a representative of some kind of super-secret righteous superhero organisation you know. Yes, I think governments everywhere are well aware that there’s millions of idealistic teenagers ready to get noisy and slightly bothersome, they’re shaking in their boots.

    • sneakers says:

      01:27pm | 08/12/10

      Is that you, Primus?

    • St. Michael says:

      05:29pm | 08/12/10

      Sounds more like Green Arrow by way of Frank Miller, actually…

    • xyz says:

      05:42pm | 08/12/10

      Ben81, you don’t have to be a 4chan addicted teenager to support Wikileaks…. I do and I’m much older than you !!!

      btw… Julian Assange is just the current face of Wikileaks… his fate will in no way impact on the ability of Wiileaks to function and he will be easily replaced by someone else if the need arises.

    • Shane says:

      12:13pm | 08/12/10

      I for one would like to see our leaders come out in defense of the crazy things that many Americans are saying. Sarah Palin has said that JA needs to be “hunted down like Osama Bin Laden”, what a fear mongering, ill-informed, idiotic statement.

      Actually, come to think of it, if you were JA, and heard that America were coming to “hunt you down like Bin Laden”, well, you probably wouldn’t lose much sleep grin

      The truth of the matter is that America thinks it rules the world. If JA was publishing leaked documents from China, Russia or North Korea, the USA would be hailing him a hero. Further evidence of their hypocrisy.

      Reply

    • marley says:

      08:46pm | 08/12/10

      Or possibly further evidence of JA’s hypocrisy?  Why isn’t he leaking documents from China, Russia or North Korea, by the way?

    • Tom says:

      07:02am | 09/12/10

      @Shane,
      1. Your speculation of what the yanks “would” be doing is not evidence of anything. It is just your speculation.
      2. Your opinion “America thinks it rules the world” is not evidence of anything. It is just your opinion.

      “His Marvellessnous” Obama would probably be saying the same “crazy” thing as Palin. How’s that for an opinion?

      BTW: If you hate Americans so much, I suggest you refuse to use the PC and the internet. They did after all foister it on us noble savages.

    • Catching up says:

      12:20pm | 08/12/10

      It is very revealing in this week WikiLeaks that political wisdom here and the USA appear to be saying that people who receive leaks as well as those who make the leak, have committed an illegal act.  That would mean that any party that receives leaks from any department should be charged.  I still do not know why there was no outcry against any charges being laid against Mr.  Godwin Grech was not made.  I know that the excuse was that he was not well and it was likely that he would not have been convicted.  In this case, I believe that decision should have been left to the court to decide.  I also believe that the Opposition at the time left them open to be accused of conspiracy to defraud the public with a false document.  It was no secret at the time that Mr. Grech had been leaking to the Opposition for years.  By not charging Mr. Grech, we will never know the full story of what occurred and what part the Opposition played in the fraudulent incident.  What we do know is that the Opposition took advantage of a man who at the very least was vulnerable if not ill. What I am trying to say is that Mr. Turnbull and co should be treated the same as Mr. Assange.

      Reply

    • Grumpy says:

      12:39pm | 08/12/10

      I didn’t like Julian Assange when i first heard of him, not for any real reason other than i didnt really care. I still dont really care what is on the site and i still haven’t` bothered enough to look but after the way these governments have acted towards him, the things politicians have said about having him killed or executed, i respect him more than any political leader and hope there is some real dirt on them that will turn the world upside down and those who wish Julian suffering and to be killed, i hope they rot for their comments and the obvious manipulative way they are trying to bring him down. Its disgusting.

      Reply

    • Shane From Melbourne says:

      12:40pm | 08/12/10

      Personally I don’t see the point, Wikileaks is more than one person, it will continue even if it’s founder is taken out of the picture. Creating a martyr of the founder is the sort of counter-intelligent tactics that I’ve come to expect from western governments. Study psychological warfare 101. About a year ago Intelligence Agencies should have been attempting to filter false propaganda through wikileaks in order to discredit the site (either that, or incorporate it into their own operations against other countries) The rather amateurish attempts to intimidate wikileaks and the founder such as DoS attacks, refusal of hosting, extradition warrants, closing of bank accounts have backfired spectacularly and made it a news item even if it was initially not such a big deal.

      Reply

    • Internet fights back says:

      12:44pm | 08/12/10

      What the governments fail to realise is that they are now attempting to fight against an Internet community with resources far superior to their own.  Groups like Anonymous will be chomping at the bit to take up the mantle with millions of internet opportunist waiting in the wings to help.  Rightly or wrongly, these governments have already lost.

      Reply

    • Drew(Darlinghurst) says:

      12:50pm | 08/12/10

      Why attack Mr Assange. Let us not forget he is not “leaking” the information public servants are. Mr Assange via his website “Wiki-Leaks” is simply publishing them online.

      Whats the difference between putting the leaked cables on Wikleaks or publishing them in the New York Times , The Washington Post, The Sydney Morning Herald or even a tacky tabloid like the Daily Telegraph.

      There is NO DIFFERENCE.

      Mr Assange has been made a scapegoat.


      LEAVE HIM ALONE.

      Reply

    • Louis says:

      12:53pm | 08/12/10

      Yet again the left fall over themselves and their ‘morals’ in order to jump on the anti-US/western band wagon. He broke a law in Sweden. A legitmate Swedish law no matter what you or I might think of it. He has to answer for that. He may well be acquitted but he is not above the law simply because he’s out there giving the finger to the establishement.

      Let’s remember that he is to stand trial for a sexual assault, it’s amusing to see the left twist itself inside out to side step what would normally be a huge issue for it. If this was some figure of the right the left would trumpeting the need for the law to be obeyed, and the female victims to be given the respect they deserve (remember most ‘rapes’ world wide still go unreported). How hard must it be for these women to have such personal details all over the world news.

      As for people calling for the Australian government to interviene I can only imagine how happy those same people would be if the US did the same thing in Australia when one of it’s citizens broke one of our laws.

      This illustrates why the left have no creditibility. Assange is not being made to answer for what he has done with Wikileaks the left (and himself) are simply trying to defend him now on that basis.

      BTW I note that Wikileaks isn’t so anti-secrets that they give the information to everyone. They pick and choose what they leak and who they give it to. Notice a trend there. I’d like to see how many of you would react if it were your personal files being leaked.

      Reply

    • Shano79 says:

      01:58pm | 08/12/10

      How is it hard for the so-called victims - their identities have been hidden, so they can make whatever allegations with impunity, whilst JA’s name is dragged through the mud.

      Also Louis, if a US citizen breaks an Australian law I can assure you that they are given access to consular assistance from the US government - that is all people were asking. Our gutless government were willing to hang him out to dry, before any evidence was given that he had even committed a crime!

      You sir, are a goose.

    • Ask a stupid question says:

      02:04pm | 08/12/10

      Wow, Louis, that was fast ! Which Swedish law exactly has Julian Assange been convicted of breaking ? Or did you mean to write charged, with the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, of course ?

    • iansand says:

      02:07pm | 08/12/10

      Mr Assange was arrested and imprisoned in the UK and faces extradition to Sweden.  Any Australian would be provided wit consular assistance in those circumstances.  As I understand it, consular assistance is quite limited - the phone number of a lawyer, a blankie and a stuffed wombat would cover it for most western democracies.

    • Wayne Cant says:

      02:42pm | 08/12/10

      Louis… don’t be such a tool!
      The issue here is much wider than a trumped-up sexual misconduct charge (that’s been pretty widely publicised since the Afghan/Iraq document drop in WL and, as far as I’ve read, Mr Assange has already answered for this once in the Swedish court system and it was thrown out) or Julian Assange… that’s just a distraction from the main game and you’ve swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
      The issue here is that governments, so-called western democracies at that, are trying to undermine their employers (the shareholders of the company if you will) by keeping them in the dark and feeding them BS on issues and decisions they have every right to now about.
      Our Prime Minister’s shameful display of disrespect for the processes of law and natural justice to curry favour with the American bullies renders her, in my humble opinion, unworthy of the office she holds and she should show cause why we, her employers, should not demand she and her kow-towing government stand aside.
      You show your ingnorance by denigrating those who would defend Mr Assange as being of a homogenous political persuasion against which you are obviously seriously predjudiced. That our Prime Minister is also of the political persuasion that you denigrate repeatedly throughout your ill-conceived contribution to this debate exposes an obvious and fatal flaw in what you might erroniously call logic. 
      Mr Assange has has done no more than any journalist worth his/her salt (and there’s precious few of them left these days) in publishing information that people all over the world are keen and have every right to know… however trivial this may be.
      Allegations of illegality, and even terrorism (how did we know this little chestnut would raise its ugly head one day?), and calls for Mr Assange to be assasinated by the US Government show them to be no better than the communist regimes they’ve bickered with for the past 65 years and call into question their very legitimacy.
      The truth is that, until now, most people have been willing to accept the lies, share in the spoils of unjust wars and get on with life because the alternative was too horrible to contemplate.
      It seems many of the general populace are beginning to form the view that the alternative fringe dwellers may well have a point and enough is enough. Governments the world over are turning our treasuries, power and soveriegnty over to wealthy and corrupt cartels and expect their shareholders to accept these actions with thanks and pay them bonusses beyond the comprehension of the masses.
      Quite frankly, most people are pretty sick of it and its beginning to show.
      Our mindless politicians simply can’t see that the game is up and neither can you you dill.
      We seem to be coming to the climax of a very dangerous game.

    • Rupert Pupkin says:

      03:03pm | 08/12/10

      Louis mate, you are such as paranoid right-wing muppet. It seems to you that any threat to your darlings on the lunatic fringe has to come from the ‘left’ doesn’t it? Lets not forget the US (or even the Swedes) are above the law, and neither are they world’s police either. And I had to laugh when you stated that Wikileaks was selective about who they ‘give’ the information to - it’s called the internet, accessible to all, left and right alike, for the moment anyway. It’s the 21st century, the so called ‘Information Age’, where corrupt governments, left right up and down cannot hide their lies as they had before. The truth belongs to the people and the geeks will make sure this will be upheld.

    • Bass says:

      03:05pm | 08/12/10

      Oh please Louis. This has got nothing to do with being left, right, centrist or anarchist.

      Also, just please don’t comment if your that ill informed;

      Firstly, these ‘poor’ women sent him cordial texts after the fact, met up with him later at a party and one even made him breakfast after the ‘rape’. Both admitted the sex was consensual. The case was thrown out, only to be mysteriously reinstated again 24-hours later because of ‘new evidence’. He still has not seen the evidence against him and he still hasn’t been given the allegations in a language he understands.

      Secondly, no-one is calling for the Australian government to ‘interviene’ in the legal proceedings. People are calling for the Australian government to extend the help that every Australian citizen is entitled to by law, instead of berating him and prejudicing any possible future trials by claiming he performed an illegal act, while he clearly did no such thing. Worse, when it comes to condemning the calls for his assassination, the silence of the Australian government is deafening. Whether you’re left or right, that’s just wrong, plain and simple.

      Thirdly, Wikileaks don’t ‘pick and choose’. They’re a responsible media outlet that has to go though each of the cables, making sure they’re fit for publication, redacting information that could put persons in direct danger (e.g. concrete real names). They have even approached the US government to help them in this process, but they refused to deal with Wikileaks. They have over 250,000 of these cables, which will all be released in time. As a matter of fact, they’re even more transparent than traditional media in that they release every single bit of source information, so you can see and verify the source yourself. No other media outlet does this.

      Do your homework first and get your facts straight, then by all means go ‘lefty bashing’.

    • Chris L says:

      05:56pm | 08/12/10

      I bet you still think Haneef was a dirty terrorist, eh Louis?

    • Nafe says:

      08:10am | 09/12/10

      I wouldn’t call myself a leftist. Those who know me would say i am more on the right wing, far right almost and i support JA. Free speach needs to be protected, no matter who says it. No matter if I disagree what is being said, Free speach needs to be protected at all costs otherwise we may as well be living under a comunist ruler told what to do, when to do it and how to do everything we do. 

      The world is becoming more and more like a nanny state under the guise of Terrorism, We need to break the shackles and fight once again for our freedom before it’s all eroded.

      BTW i haven’t heard much from Stephen Conroy regarding his internet filter. Come on Stephen, isn’t wikileaks one of the sites you want to censor?

    • Tom says:

      08:38am | 09/12/10

      @ Wayne Cant “calls for Mr Assange to be assasinated by the US Government show them to be no better than the communist regimes they’ve bickered with for the past 65 years and call into question their very legitimacy.”

      This must be the mother of all vaccuous post modern “equivalence” rants. Both countries have cars too. Does that make USA as bad as Russia?

    • Aaron says:

      09:26am | 09/12/10

      Louis, actually right and well informed unlike some winging leftists here. Just wanted to add to silly claims about US pushing Sweden to prosecute Assange. This appears some sort of argument. To those who believe this is the case, I’m just trying to help you not to look so foolish, go read something about Polansky or Fischer, this lost can go on and on.

    • coin says:

      11:05am | 15/02/11

      Im glad we have you to tell us who is and isnt guilty, who needs courts and a fair trial right?

      BTW would you care to enlighten us all as the the what crimes he has to answer for via wikileaks?

    • Jerry says:

      01:03pm | 08/12/10

      I was amazed the other day to see the Liberal Party almost endorsing Wikileaks (after the first released cable about K-Rudd). Can you imagine what the reaction would have been from John Howard’s government. They would have wanted Assange arrested as a terrorist, under their draconian legislation.

      Also, in all the leaks I have read from Wikileaks, and all the extrenal reports and informed comments, there has not been anything released that actually puts lives at risk.

      As for Sarah Palin’s comments, it further shows her amazing ability for rational and informed decision - let’s pray she never gets to the White House!

      The US is angry at being caught out at being naughty, and like most bullies, wants to take revenge.

      I personally feel there has been pressure applied to the Swedish govt to use the charges against him (did they really deserve an Interpol “red”) to get him behind bars. Maybe I am just paranoid!

      Reply

    • Tom Jones says:

      01:03pm | 08/12/10

      Another situation where people get caught up in in micro details and not the macro. The biggest question is “How did he get hold of the cables?” Anybody? The answer is they were obtained from a compromised router. How may you ask did they hack a router and obtained the files going past? Answer, They didnt. They piggy backed onto the Chinese State hackers what were taking the files. Therefore, the BIGGER problem is that everything that he releases has already been view by China. They aren’t seeing the cables for the first time. The reason why the world govts are in panic mode, is not what he has released, or going to release, They are panicking because they’ve just realized the Chinese have been accessing classified information (Up to Secret) for the last few years. They are also crapping their pants because I’m sure they have worked out whats been taken and the political consequences of it by the Chinese. Thats the real story, all this stuff Assange is just noise.

      Reply

    • Don't Like bully's says:

      01:06pm | 08/12/10

      If the leaking of government information along with it’s publication is an illegal act as miss Gillard puts it then why isn’t Mr Rudd in jail along with the entire Australian journalism industry and almost every other politician and senior bureaucrat???
      Or is it, that it is OK for politicians to leak information for political gain along with the harm it does to others cause they make the rules.
      They are behaving like bully’s in a playground, when they start to loose the games they change the rules

      Reply

    • Mark says:

      01:07pm | 08/12/10

      I everything I have read about this, the one thing that jumps out to me is why no-one is talking about investigating or arresting the people who released the documents to Wikileaks.

      After all, Mr Assange is only the recipient,

      Reply

    • RGG says:

      01:44pm | 08/12/10

      The suspect was arrested months ago after he also leaked the Afghan war logs. Both were leaked at the same time, only these cables have been held onto for longer to allow them to be scrutinised.

    • Tom Jones says:

      02:03pm | 08/12/10

      Direct quote from a source
      “He got his content the old fashioned way—by stealing it from thieves. To be more precise, Assange/Wikileaks noticed that a server they had access to was being used as a node for the transmission of various governments’ data—and this node was being hacked by Chinese hackers. Therefore, Assange/Wikileaks leached on to the Chinese, and hacked what they were hacking”

      Hope this helps and is a little eye opener for a few people.

    • michael says:

      02:09pm | 08/12/10

      They are.  Like real investigations, they are done beyond the public’s eye which is part of getting a fair trial and avoiding legal problems.

      All this public fluff is just to give them an enemy to keep people scared and justify more anti-democratic laws.  Let’s see what draconian internet laws come in to play next which I suspect may well make China proud for being so ‘right’ all along.

    • Tom Jones says:

      02:26pm | 08/12/10

      @RGG. True Manning was arrested over the first lot, BUT the second lot wasn’t his working.  Think about it. How can 1 person, if he did both, download over 370,000 documents? U think they would have safeguards in place that X is downloading every cable from 1966 to 2010 without setting off any alarms. He did the first lot, thats confirmed.  The second lot, (My View) Somebody at Wikileaks worked out the nodes/routers used (Or was given by Manning), and were trying to get the cables out when they discovered, other parties were also accessing the information and they piggybacked off them. Re other post above.

    • Simon says:

      01:41pm | 08/12/10

      I would like to know why the Israeli Govt is supporting and financing Wikileaks? Are we simply being managed again? Why the inclusion of “hearsay”  documents concerning Iranian Nuclear weapons?

      Reply

    • Grant says:

      01:42pm | 08/12/10

      This is a good article. I agree that he has ‘won already’. I think really authorities are missing the point. Any of these leaks individually wouldn’t worry them but lots embarrass them. The fact is if one leak is not illegal then 250,000 aren’t illegal either and journalists have been publishing leaked documents from the beginning of time and this is accepted by governments unless it really is ‘top secret’.
      I think that the US and Australian governments should think before they speak, their ill considered rhetoric has just dug a hole for themselves to fall in.
      This issue is a very big deal. Last night on CNN it was given lots of coverage and you could see the presenters thought that this was new and exciting.
      Julian will be a hero in the eyes of many and has secured a place in history already. I think if he is jailed in the US (the Swedish case is bullshit and he would never be found guilty anyway in a trial by jury), it would just add to his appeal and could cause a very big backlash from various groups.

      Reply

    • Robert Alker says:

      01:43pm | 08/12/10

      Whether or not Wikileaks is good or bad or right or wrong, it pales into utter insignifcance when compared with what the supposed champions and protectors of democracy in the U.S., Europe and Australia have done to debase our democracy.

      It is these so-called protectors who should be brought to account and whose actions (in the likes of Iraq, Guantonomo, Afghanistan, the Haneef case, the Nicaraguan Contra Affair, the secret bombing of Cambodia and Laos, et al) are almost too dispicable to recount, much less their gargantuan efforts to then hide or, at best , subvert and dilute the truth.

      As a footnote, and while penning this blog, I was shocked to see that Kevin Andrews features as a contributor to Punching On Today, as he was a key player in the in the Haneef case and a supposedly avid supporter of democracy that I alluded to earlier in my blog.  I’m sure he’d love a piece of Assange.

      Reply

    • Vaunted says:

      01:52pm | 08/12/10

      Personally I don’t like what Wikileaks has done, but only because their leaks favour just the one side; the side (ourselves included) that incidentally stands up most for personal freedom and justice in the world, and nothing from North Korea, Iran, China, Zimbabwe, Myanmar etc. But is Wikileaks really the culprit? After all they’re in the business of publishing leaks and that’s never been a secret. Those nations that are embarrassed by the leaks should be directing their annoyance only partly at the Private Noddy Nobody who took it on himself to provide the leaks, but mostly at the sheer amateurish ineptitude of the organisation that selected, employed, vetted and supervised him.

      Reply

    • Barny says:

      02:16pm | 08/12/10

      Well the thing about the eastern countries you mentioned is they don’t pretend to the world that they are a haven for freedom and justice unlike all the smiles and handshakes western Governments portray in front of the media while stabbing each other and the people that vote them into office in the back. 

      If you really look at what is happening in western countries over the years we don’t have as much personal freedom and justice as many people think.  Western Governments know their illusions of democracies are falling apart thus why they have attacked Wikileaks. 

      As for the real culprit over these leaks it wouldn’t surprise me if the U.S Government orchestrated this themselves and is using Assange as a patsy to introduce laws to censor the internet; only time will tell if they are successful with this.

    • Shama says:

      03:51pm | 08/12/10

      Actually wikileaks has also exposed the hollowness of governments like the Saudis with their Satan US stance and the back room dealings.  In fact every one including Kev it would appear seems happy to fire a gun from the shoulder of the US. And really a man googles himself and tries to shut down Google China?

      If anything the US is coming out better off than any one else from the cables per se-apart from the fact that it may affect their relationships. Their diplomats at least seem to be doing their job, I bet most others don’t even bother to document their jobs. Their reaction is another matter.

      And it may not affect relationships too. Clearly there is a reason why Iran is still blustering away inspite of the fact that it is aware that its neighbours don’t wish it well and the cables also indicate this.

    • joseph says:

      02:06pm | 08/12/10

      Diplomacy, an essential tool of statecraft requires a degree of short and medium term secrecy to operate effectively in the interests of its citizens. I think that needs strong protections. I see the US as having decent motivations and cause to protect the interests of the US, and of the people.
      This wide eyed twit has shallow regard for the pragmatic implications of his actions bar some vague ideological drive.
      He won’t be affected by his leaks.

      Reply

    • Cat says:

      02:20pm | 08/12/10

      I do not condone what Assange has done but, to date, nobody has been able to show how he has broken the law. (No, receiving stolen goods will not work in this instance.)
      On the other hand the US is using considerable pressure to prevent Assange from operating - Paypal, Google, a Swiss postal account and the reinstatement of charges in Sweden.
      It is the last one which has the potential to have the biggest impact of all. If that is allowed and Assange is returned to Sweden and then handed over to the US then the legal system will have been dealt a blow from which it can never recover.
      Whatever people may think of Assange it is far more necessary to think of the potential damage to the legal systems of Western Europe and the US. That is why this has to be fought.

      Reply

    • dancan says:

      02:22pm | 08/12/10

      If the various governments and organisations around the world continue on this quest to silence Assange, What will happen is that Assange will become a martyr and wikileaks will become a symbol.  It’s already happening, a few weeks ago no one really cared about Assange and wikileaks was only one website.  Now everyone is talking about him and tens (maybe hundreds) of wikileaks websites have appeared across the world

      Reply

    • Johnny Sweetbread says:

      02:24pm | 08/12/10

      Rudd is just worried that wikileaks might post some leaked cables detailing his blow up over being served midflight cold sandwiches.

      Reply

    • democracyIthinknot says:

      02:33pm | 08/12/10

      so this all boils down to a broken condom and Julian failing to phone his date the following day, no wonder Interpol is involved.

      Reply

    • Martin says:

      02:49pm | 08/12/10

      Thanks to the pollies and there crooked ways, Julian Assange and Wikileaks have just become the hero of the people of the world. Everything the governments do now just makes them look worse than they already did. Only eighteen months and we can remove labor from power and the likes of the Governer General, its a slow process changing the world for the better and veering us out of the darkness that these current untrustworthy brown nosers seem to be steering us into.

      Reply

    • Shane From Melbourne says:

      04:23pm | 08/12/10

      Liberal or Labor, they both brown nose to the U.S. I don’t see how an election is going to make any difference…...

    • wally the worker says:

      03:09pm | 08/12/10

      Just heard on ABC Local Radio from the PM, “We are not going to be drawn to comments on Wikileaks”. Really!  One can imagine a Barker moment, from a Rudd /Gillard duo;  “Well folks, It’s goodbye from me, and it’s goodbye from her.” Nudge, wink, say no more.

      Reply

    • DaisyMae says:

      03:22pm | 08/12/10

      So he leaked Kevin Rudd was controlling..oh boy what a surprise!! That really is such big and new news to us. Kevin Rudd is not the PM anymore, so what hes giving us is yesterdays news.Assange knew when he started leaking this stuff he was not going to have an easy time of it. So now hes in trouble we are supposed to bail him out Whatever happend to people being responsible for their own actions? We seem to expect our Government to drop everything and run babysit us. Are any of these leaks helping Australia or Australian’s? Do they affect our everyday lives? If the answer is no then let stew in his own juice

      Reply

    • john says:

      03:34pm | 08/12/10

      when 9/11 happened we lost the illusion of safety in the western world and wondered long and hard why so many would want to kill US citizens.  Julian Assange The wizard of Oz has now blasted away any illusions we had that we in the west actually live in democracies, its is illusion and just the appearance of a democracy.  both hilary and obama were recently spouting off about how important freedom of the internet is clearly until anyone in the world says something they disagree with .. Their response to the situation has done more damage than anything Wikileaks has revealed.  their response should frighten everyone on this planet at the level they will go to silence a citizen that publicizes the truth.

      Reply

    • mary wide bay says:

      03:53pm | 08/12/10

      Here’s a guy who has done nothing illegal other than making available to the public some of the ‘truths’ going on behind the scenes. If he had done anything illegal, the US and Australian governments would have said so. And they haven’t.
      Sweden appears to have trumped up some charges and credit card companies, paypal, HIS OWN BANK refuse to have anything to do with him after pressure no doubt from these governments. These very same governments however don’t seem to have a problem with any of the newspapers publishing the same material.

      Does anyone care about the innocent civilian lives lost in this insane war of terror?
      Does anyone care about this ludicrous invasion of privacy at airports perpetrated by our governments all in the name of the war against terror?

      What I don’t get is that there possibly could be a soul alive not understanding what a huge favour Wikileaks is doing humanity.

      If one can’t see the signs when governments and all call for the assassination of an innocent man, may God help us all.

      Reply

    • Craig says:

      03:55pm | 08/12/10

      The thing that matters here is that the rule of law is enforced and honoured,  that Assange has the proper representation to ensure that occurs and that the law enforcement bodies and the judiciary act properly, which they almost always do. The garbage coming from Gillard and the various US demagouges is just that. What matters is that queer birds like Assange who see themselves as outside of civilisation (and if he didn’t the Afghan informant’s names would have been deleted) get the full protection of civilisation. That includes the Australian Government providing the usual consular assistance no more or less.

      Reply

    • Rosie says:

      03:55pm | 08/12/10

      I can’t believe I felt sorry for this egotistical arrogant sook when he cried on TV. This is the same buffoon that was going to give us what he vowed he truely believed in, the ETS “greatest moral challenge of our time.” It was going to be some kind of progress but ended up in oblivion because he was too “gutless” to keep fighting for it.

      Rudd knows he is “nothing” to the majority of Australians, but as Foreign Minister like the Greens he keeps the Gillard Minority Labor Govt under siege and can act accordingly. His reponse to the Wikileaks as “water off a duck’s back and I don’t give a damm” is typical of Rudd trying to look tough and in control. He puts himself in neutral gear about Julian Assange even though his leader, another Labor buffoon who is otherwise politically kowtowing to the US. What’s happened to “innoncence before proven guilty” or “presumption of innocence before proven guilty??????

      Neutralization is Rudd’s technique of rationalizing or justifying his actions. He is in denial of tact in pragmatic diplomacy because he is always trying to “big note” himself by saying that it is to be excepted in the diplomatic world.

      The man has no credibility and the back stabbing Julia Gillard can’t get rid of him and because we live a democratic society we have to live with these buffoons governing us! While this useless party is in power Democracy sulks!

      Reply

    • Sven Gali says:

      09:10pm | 08/12/10

      You’re the one sulking, Rosie. Democracy’s fine. Congratulations on having reached the depression stage.

    • VickiPS says:

      12:35am | 09/12/10

      Good on you, Rosie luv—keep the blue flag flying.  Who knows, perhaps one day a real Tory leader will stick his/her head above the parapets.

    • Sam says:

      04:03pm | 08/12/10

      Oh please.. who cares about Labor and Liberal… this is much bigger than that. This is testing democracy itself. No one can ever cast a vote again without feeling sick while doing so. I mean we always thought they lied to us… but now there is no doubt. 911 - allowed to happen. Osama - 10 years in a cave? Iraq - invaded upon demanding to be paid for their oil in EURO instead of USD. Afghanistan - invaded upon having second thoughts of building an oil pipeline (a deal they’d previously made with the Taliban). North Korea - also wanted to use Euro to buy oil. Iran - been talking about using Euro instead of USD for Oil transactions for years. If the Euro is allowed to gain momentum towards becoming a quasi reserve currency - the USD will collapse… sending the whole world into a depression. That’s not good for anyone, but stopping it from happening by creating a “War on Terror” (death toll approaching half a million and still no outrage!) is an abuse of power. Something I thought democracy should protect us from. I can see the smiles in Beijing from here. Watch out for Neil Patrick Harris in the WikiLeaks movie.

      Reply

    • MarK says:

      04:03pm | 08/12/10

      Julia has an awful habit of opening her mouth and putting her foot firmly in it then using repetition and politik-speak to attempt to rescue the situation.


      Lack of competence on display yet again.

      Level 84 - will ding tonight.

      Oh

      No private home will ever need a gig of bandwidth. Ever.

      Reply

    • Crystal Balls says:

      05:44pm | 08/12/10

      mark has an awful habit of opening his mouth and putting his foot firmly in it.

      “No One Will Ever Need More Than 640K Ram”
      Bill Gates, 1981

    • Bill Gates says:

      06:15pm | 08/12/10

      640k ought to be enough for anybody.

      p.s. Sorry. I have no idea what this has to do with the article either.

    • MarK says:

      07:34am | 09/12/10

      Oh hi Billy. It is an in joke. You see Badger follows me around like a puppy dropping the same quote over and over.

      I just like getting in first.

      Just to confirm for you it has NOTHING to do with the article.

    • Sam says:

      04:06pm | 08/12/10

      Swedish chicks are so over-rated.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      06:43pm | 08/12/10

      No they’re not.

    • Rupert Pupkin says:

      08:43am | 09/12/10

      No, Swedish chefs are over-rated.

    • MC says:

      04:54pm | 08/12/10

      Does anyone actually know where Wikileaks sourced their information from?? Has Wikileaks published that information?? Did they acquire it directly from PFC Bradley Manning?? Manning, 22, of Potomac, Maryland, who was stationed at Forward Operating Base Hammer, now charged with the unauthorized use and disclosure of U.S. classified information- where is the evidence that he supplied the info directly to WikiLeaks? @TomJones, your source claiming that WikiLeaks hacked Chinese servers to acquire information they stole from the US is likewise weak.  This highlights the reasons why the US and Australia cannot substantiate the case for making charges against Assange at this stage. The actions of our government in particular are reprehensible.

      Reply

    • Jamie says:

      04:56pm | 08/12/10

      So now when Al’Qaeda realizes they can put a bullet in this guys head, and everyone will assume it was the US Special Forces and it rips the US governenment and Australian Government to shreds then we… oh that would really suck.

      Reply

    • Daniel says:

      05:03pm | 08/12/10

      Noone has been physically hurt by this guy and his site. This is another media witchhunt as usual. Media needs to get real.

      Reply

    • Andrew says:

      05:33pm | 08/12/10

      Government reactions to Wikileaks powerfully demonstrate the need for it. How those on the receiving end of Wikileaks’ whisleblowing hate to have the balance of power shifted in favour of the person on the street, in favour of a purer form of democracy. Wikileaks will go on with or without Julian, but I sincerely hope the Swedish authorities are humiliated in the light of their own foolishness and toadying and that the prosecutor responsible spends the rest of her life unemployed.

      Reply

    • michael j says:

      05:43pm | 08/12/10

      Julian Assange WAS GOING TO BE THE CAUSE OF WORLD WAR 111 and i for 1 do not want to live through a nuclear winter
      now he is safley locked up i can go to sleep at night without
      worrying about TITAN missiles landing in my back yard,ahh
      hang on OUR side makes them,,,,,,,

      Reply

    • The Badger says:

      05:45pm | 08/12/10

      When the Swedes are done with him, he should be sent to Gitmo via Afghanistan and treated as an enemy combatant.

      Reply

    • Andrew says:

      07:06am | 09/12/10

      How we do hate the whistleblower airing our s**t-covered laundry. Once more, the US has shown how ready they are to disregard their own legal system when it serves their purposes.

    • Sam says:

      12:51pm | 09/12/10

      There is no enemy you halfwit. It was all made up to justify controlling Iraq’s oil exports after Saddam demanded to be paid in Euros for Iraqi oil… and Afghanistan was only invaded to mitigate the chances of the Taliban renegging on a deal to build an oil pipeline. In the 10 years since 911, Muslims have been getting slaughtered willy nilly (“oh well we didn’t know that” - Homer Simpson moment). There are no WOMD and no Osama… and we still don’t have peace. Either the US army is incompetent (which I don’t believe) or the real objective has nothing to do with peace.

      I want peace, so my enemies are your ignorance and the facade of “democracy” being practiced in the US. Maybe you don’t want peace, you just want to “win”.. well guess what, you’re not on the winning team anyway, they’re just using you like a dispensible pawn… grow a brain.. for your children’s sake.

    • LC says:

      11:12am | 10/12/10

      The Badger, you are asking for the messenger to be shot. He isn’t a wannabe 007 sneaking into secret buildings, stealing classified documents and publishing them on the net; he just runs a website. Other people, who are sick of the spin, the secrecy and the bullshit, are providing the classified documents. If anyone has committed a crime it is them..

    • Against the Man says:

      05:52pm | 08/12/10

      Rudd has become toxic to Australia’s foreign affairs future. Gillard has to sack him stat. This whole situation will show us if Rudd does right by Australia and resigns or if Gillard has what it takes to fire him for Australia’s sake. Either way we know that history will never be kind to theses 2 hopeless causes.

      Reply

    • Richard says:

      08:33pm | 08/12/10

      Julian Assange is stands firm against greedy barons like Paul Atreides, and his wikileak cables are like the spice that we need. The Spice Must Folow.

      Information must Flow!!
      Assange has been tried to be silenced because he also has leaks on the Banks!
      The whole ugly edifice of the evil Plutarchy is being exposed.
      We must move rapidly to Crash JP Morgan Buy Silver~!!!

      If everyone buys 1 pure ounce of physical silver and donates it in person to a Wikileaks representative (*organise street volunteers), we can provide funds to promote the fight for our civil freedoms, without it having to pass through the Bankster’s corrupt institutions. We can wield JP Morgan’s own market manipulation as a weapon against it and crash it to its knees.

      A silver coin donation appeal please, like a simple sausage-sizzle.
      In numbers we have power to defeat financial qua fraud, scheme and tyranny.

      Reply

    • Dobbo says:

      09:52pm | 08/12/10

      Ironic in a way…in the end the WikiLeaks man may be taken out over a leaky wick.

      Reply

    • Marilyn Shepherd says:

      12:42am | 09/12/10

      Kevin Rudd was right.  As for being criticised by Dubya’s stupid mates who the hell would care?

      Dubya’s mates saying Rudd made foreign policy blunders - what a hoot.

      I do like the hypocrisy of Downer chiming in, he who reads no cables even when they outline a major crime.

      Reply

    • John GW says:

      07:41am | 09/12/10

      Howard was Bush’s Deputy Sheriff.  Is Gillard wearing that badge now?
      Before Sarah Palin and her ilk say another word about Assange, they should indict George Bush.  His administration leaked and betrayed a serving CIA operative, seriously endangering her life and the lives of her contacts, destroying her loyal career.  One petty official was indicted and Bush commuted his sentence, a clear admission of guilt.

      Reply

    • Jon says:

      08:51am | 09/12/10

      He’s only publishing information from America, because it seems to be all he’s got. Regardless it’s many failings America is still one of the few countries whose constitution protects free speech, which can’t be said of the others. By publishing these stolen documents he made a private decision to sabotage U.S. foreign policy.  Similar information is not forth coming from the Chinese, Russians, Syrians, Iranians, Turks and North Koreans etc. My guess is that he knows that if he was to have similar information on them, the likely hood of him suddenly disappearing is very high.  So this one-sided communication is a cheap shot, and with no meaty tomes detailing the other countries communications, he comes across as an unscrupulous megalomaniac. As soon as Assange gives us something on them, then he can talk about ending wars.

      Reply

    • Balance says:

      09:53am | 09/12/10

      yep Jon agree…

      Plus let’s face it, whether we like it or not, on various levels we are at war.

      If all of us were to accept this, or if war was to break out with say China,  bet the attitude to Assange would change. His tag would quickly go from hero to traitor.

    • Sam says:

      12:34pm | 09/12/10

      Wrong, go to the wikileaks website, there’s info from a variety of geographical locations and pertaining to several countries, not just the US.

      “ending wars” you say? why end it? if 100,000 deaths hasn’t raised any alarms in your conscience, why should anything Assange does? Keep on killing people for oil. Long live democracy!

    • Bliss bomb says:

      09:52am | 09/12/10

      Maybe we’ll finally find out the truth about aliens and who shot JFK? Bliss.

      Reply

    • Sam says:

      01:16pm | 09/12/10

      illegal? who cares about the law if the law is killing people? only the morally depraved.

      Every law has to stand up to the BS meter. Law is not sacred, people are sacred. Truth is sacred, US foreign policy is just an ugly chess game that kills people… that makes it the automatic enemy of billions of people from all races and nationalities. The people are sick and tired of being lied to by the people we vote for. Either be honest or be our enemy. We also reserve the right to classify cow-towing politicians as enemy combatants. I won’t be voting until there is peace in the Middle East, until then go to hell with your democracy you murderers… and you have the nerve to lecture China.. what a joke your “democracy” has become.

      Reply

    • The Badger says:

      07:04pm | 09/12/10

      Looks like you’ll go to your grave without voting sam.
      There will never be peace in the middle east.

      I reckon a little water-boarding will loosen his tongue.

    • Sam says:

      03:48pm | 10/12/10

      “There will never be peace in the Middle East”

      Yes there will. One way or another. There is a plan, and it is in motion. Choose peace while you still have a choice to make.

    • Lorraine says:

      04:17pm | 09/12/10

      For the first time ever I admire Kevin Rudd… he lays the blame for the leaked cables back on the governments who produced them. Bravo!
      As for Gillard’s reply to questions they sounded almost as knowledgable as Tony Abbots grasp of computing.
      If governments don’t want to be “caught with their pants down.. be open and honest then there will be nothing to leak.
      Embarrassed governments are tenacious enemies… Poor Julian

      Reply

    • DaveinPerth says:

      04:53pm | 10/12/10

      The Chinese, Russians, Iranians, North Koreans etc must be overjoyed at the performances of the Huckabee, Palin, Fox crowd. They have just greenlighted state sanctioned assassinations for anyone they don’t like.

      Don’t like this person? Can’t get em legally? Call in the wet team.

      Reply

    • Johor says:

      07:00am | 14/12/10

      Sweden was a good place for easy sex as I found out when I lived and worked there for three years - a lifetime ago. They loved variety and entered into the spirit of the game with enthusiasm. There was a saying going at the time that after the first act,  she would say “Now it is my turn on top”. It is hard to believe that things have changed away from that disposition and that is why I believe Assange’s Swedish lawyer that there is no case for him to answer, that it is a charge dreamed up by two women who vied for his sole attention. While I once greatly admired so many things about the Swedish way of life when I lived there, I do not believe it is the same country today. If I returned to the land of my birth - the UK, It would not be the same as it was when I left. Ditto Sweden. But sexual jealousy can prove to be a very slippery assailant to deal with, especially in courts of law, The evidence for this is not hidden. May I refer readers to the following article: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-12-13/the-bogus-julian-assange-rape-case-hurts-women/

      Reply

    • louis vuitton wallet says:

      12:24pm | 21/04/12

      certainly like your web site but you have to take a look at the spelling on several of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling problems and I in finding it very troublesome to inform the reality on the other hand I’ll surely come again again.

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