Yes, Julian Assange actually is a criminal (Salon)

[struggle4progress]

Wednesday, Dec 22, 2010 13:01 ET
By Michael Lind

... I denounced the Iraq War in advance in print, on the radio and on TV, and after it began in two books. I favor rapid disengagement from Afghanistan and a far more modest American military role in the world. And I agree with the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan that much, perhaps most, government secrecy is unnecessary and counterproductive. But everyone other than anarchists who oppose government of any kind must acknowledge the need for diplomats and military officers, as well as civilian officials, to be able to engage in confidential communications among themselves and with foreign governments without fear of unauthorized publicity ...

There is little resemblance between a media organization that summarizes leaked information from a Pentagon or State Department official, following elaborate precautions and internal discussions among the publisher and the editors, and a sect of anarchists who dump stolen documents from more than a hundred countries into cyberspace.

Legitimate news organizations do not withhold stolen government secrets so that their publishers or editors can blackmail government prosecutors ...

http://www.salon.com/news/wikileaks/?story=/politics/war_room/2010/12/22/lind_wikileaks

Article is a bit of a mishmash

[Mimosa]

1. That's one man's opinion

I'm assuming the author is not a lawyer.

Wikileaks has withheld the vast amounts of info they've received until they have time to carefully go through it.

[struggle4progress]

2. Lind has a 1988 JD from U Texas

[Mimosa]

3. That doesn't make Assange a criminal.

Just calling Emmanuuel Goldstein (just to grab a random name ) a criminal does not make him convicted of any crime, does it?

[struggle4progress]

5. I simply replied to your assertion "I'm assuming the author is not a lawyer"

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. Lind is a bit of a mishmash.

[PSPS]

6. "blackmail government prosecutors"

Legitimate news organizations do not withhold stolen government secrets so that their publishers or editors can blackmail government prosecutors...

I presume this is where Lind is hanging his hat. If so, the argument falls apart because the US has become a pariah in the civilized world. It is now, officially, a torture nation complete with "indefinite detention" rules freshly signed by the "constitutional scholar" Obama himself. Needing to shield one's self from such a threat is complete understandable. In fact, it was de rigueur in our own dealings with the old Soviet Union -- a relic whose standards have now taken root in our own country.

It isn't "blackmail." It's life insurance.