Wikileaks Founder To Release Doomsday File If Punished

Originally, I wrote that using “terrorist” to describe Julian Assange was hyperbole. Of course, this was before he double-downed. After this stunt, it’s difficult to argue that he’s not behaving like a terrorist:

The founder of WikiLeaks has warned that his supporters are primed to publish a ‘deluge’ of leaked government documents should his activities be curtailed by any country.

Julian Assange has distributed to fellow hackers an encrypted ‘poison pill’ of damaging secrets, thought to include details on BP and Guantanamo Bay.

He believes the file is his ‘insurance’ in case he is killed, arrested or the whistleblowing website is removed permanently from the internet.

This seems like a priss move.

One of the files identified this weekend by The (London) Sunday Times — called the “insurance” file — has been downloaded from the WikiLeaks website by tens of thousands of supporters, from America to Australia.

Assange warns that any government that tries to curtail his activities risks triggering a new deluge of state and commercial secrets.

Hmm.

ter ror ism

[ter-uh-riz-uhm]

-noun

1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.

2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.

3. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

And

blackmail

[ˈblækˌmeɪl]

n

1. (Law) the act of attempting to obtain money by intimidation, as by threats to disclose discreditable information

2. the exertion of pressure or threats, esp unfairly, in an attempt to influence someone’s actions

vb (tr)

1. (Law) to exact or attempt to exact (money or anything of value) from (a person) by threats or intimidation; extort

2. to attempt to influence the actions of (a person), esp by unfair pressure or threats

Sure, I was entertained to read that Hillary Clinton has bigger brass than Barack Obama when it came to dealing with the war lords and other despots at the U.N., or how all the Middle East applied more pressure than Israel to stop Iran. I was also entertained by the boiled-down response of Italy’s PM, Silvio Berlusconi, the the not-secret revelations that he whores around: “And?” This is a panicked, desperate move of a cornered individual.

The best defense Assange has is to drop the data all at once. He removes the need to silence him if he’s all out of information. His refusal to do so, his strategy of regular leaks, is more to buy him and his website attention than it is to reveal anything for the greater good. Forgive me if I’m quasi-analogizing this to Steve Martin’s skit about all the children singing on SNL, but perhaps “greater good” is low on Assange’s list of priorities. Because he’s dedicated to the “greater good,” I’m sure we’ll see the same careful attention to China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the Fed, et al., that we’re seeing with the United States. Don’t laugh.

If he’s doing all of this for transparency, then why the need to withhold for self-preservation? This implies that he values himself above all else. This is the difference between patriots and non-patriots, lovers of liberty and slacktivists: only one of these two sides figures sacrifice into the fight for liberty. The other will withhold for self-preservation. Were I the United States, I’d double-dog-dare him to release all the information. If he’s going to do it, do it. Dealing’s done, time to show your cards.