2010-12-09, 11:10 PM
MasPan Wrote:As for Assange's rape charges, I could care less. The real issue is and will always be that he illegally received classified US government documents and illegally published them on his website. There is no deep, mysterious truth revealed in the documents, but rather things already known or suspected that are commonplace for all nations. Maybe if he was releasing documents pertaining to Area 51, or the JFK assasination, or something of the like I'd be remotely interested beyond the simple fact that he's a criminal. But all he's published in the most recent batch is diplomats poo-poo'ing each other behind the others' backs. Get over it.
He did not illegally publish the documents. Court decisions have already upheld the rights of journalists to publish things like this. WikiLeaks has put forth the message that if they get informationt hey feel is worth publishing then they will publish it. They did nto steal anything. They were just given information and they published it.
Technically, if Manning was the leaker, he did break a law. He was given access to the documents under the presumption that he would keep them secret. If he was the leaker, then his actions were illegal, but that also doesn't necessarily make it wrong.