In an op-ed in The Washington Post Julian Assange, Wikileaks’ “editor,” cites the U.S. Bill of Rights as he condemns a speech from Mike Pompeo, director of the CIA. After Wikileaks somehow obtained and then released secret hacking tools (“Vault 7”) and much more created and perhaps used by the U.S. government, Pompeo called Wikileaks a “non-state hostile intelligence service.” The U.S. government is now considering charging Assange with theft of government property and with violating the Espionage Act.
Before getting to what Assange is right about in this war over state secrets, let’s just admit right up front that, whatever you think of Wikileaks’ document releases, Assange, is one of the creepiest dudes on the planet. It’s not just the allegations of rape or the fact that he has been hiding from possible prosecution in Ecuador’s embassy in London for years, or even that Ecuador is a country with a president that Human Rights Watch says intimidates journalists and subjects them to “public denunciation and retaliatory litigation.” Assange also acts the part of the creepy, Hollywood super-villain.
As the media covers this weird battle of privacy versus security between an international super-villain and the U.S. government—a plot that includes an impact on the last U.S. presidential election—they inevitably split the debate into pro and con camps. Either you’re for Wikileaks’ big reveals or you’re against them.
Interestingly, even Pompeo has been on both sides of this debate. In a tweet last summer (which Assange uses as evidence) Pompeo seemed to approve of what Wikileaks did to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, but he is condemning what Wikileaks has done to the U.S. government’s covert online abilities.
Assange, of course, is correct that in the U.S. the First Amendment protects the right to publish classified materials (you can, however, be prosecuted for hacking or otherwise stealing classified materials). This right was solidified in 1971 by the U.S. Supreme Court in New York Times Co. v. United States after The New York Times published parts of the “Pentagon Papers.”
The big thing Assange, creepy as he is, is right about isn’t the robust American freedom much of the rest of the world doesn’t enjoy. Sure, if he is extradited to the U.S., he will also enjoy the protections safeguarded in the U.S. Bill of Rights.
But, despite the media’s bi-polar treatment of this issue, what’s really important isn’t whether it’s good or bad that Wikileaks or anyone else has published classified materials. What is important—and this is the big thing Assange is right about—is that the war between government secrecy and journalists who want to get to the truth is allowed to go on.
This is a healthy war. And it’s unique. Most countries (including Ecuador) shut down dissent and even jail journalists. In America, we’ve decided that this ongoing battle is a healthy thing. Neither side should ever be allowed to completely win. If either did, freedom would lose. If government won, we might soon find ourselves in country more like China or Russia. If all state secrets were somehow let free, we’d be much less safe.
Many will point out that this recent “Vault 7” release has made us less safe. True. I just hope it taught our government a lesson Edward Snowden evidently didn’t, because if Wikileaks could get this information then theoretically so could China, Russia or Iran.
