What do you think of wikileaks?

[fordy]

trashleg said:

fordy said:

 

And let's be clear here. Assange has yet to be charged by Sweden. They wish to question him against sexual allegations. Those are two completely different things. In fact:

- Assange's lawyers offered Swedish authorities to question him in London about the alleged rape. They refused.

There is nothing wrong with this. Someone under charge has the obligation to be tried under the jurisdiction in which the alleged offence was committed, 

- Ecuadrian officials stated that they would not grant Assange asylum if Sweden cold assure them that they would not extradite Assange to the US. Sweden could not make that assurance.

- British officials seem rather intent to storm a a foreign embassy, all in the name of sending some guy to Sweden for QUESTIONING (once again, not charges).

 

So yeah, anyone who has been keeping up with this story can see that this is not just some simple "he's running away" thing. Foreign countries are deeply interested in getting him to Sweden for mere questioning.

Why shouldn't he be questioned under the jurisdiction - and in the same country - that the alleged offence took place? Now it just looks like he's running away from that situation as well as everything else. Not promising.

As for Wikileaks, I'm all for transparacy but I think anyone leaking official documents should do so with tact. 

Didn't you read my reply? Ecuador were willing to work with Sweden in this matter, but the fact that Sweden could not assure anyone that Assange would not be extradited to a 3rd country such as the US was the reason why Ecuador granted Assange political asylum. If they could have assured Ecuador otherwise, then they would have had the opportunity to question him.

You can't be "all for transparency" and attach conditions. The reason why the leaked documents came as a shock were the sheer quantity and nature of them. No amount of diplomacy would have lightened the blow, but had the US government did it's job towards transparency in the first place, they could have set the conditions as to what way these documents were released. Let's not forget, this is a failure to act by the government, so journalism had to play the role. Yes, that does make people think that the government betrayed them, as all journalistic discoveries do.