Assange Saga Exposes Hypocrisy

After fourteen years of torment—five of them in jail—WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange is finally free. In an apparent understanding behind the curtains, the Australia-born journalist, 52, last week pleaded guilty to violating the US espionage law in exchange for getting credit for the years already served in high security prison. He faced 18 criminal charges in the United States, whose government sought his extradition from the United Kingdom. A section of the global society doggedly supported the living martyr of active free speech in an exposure of the dark side of an extremely questionable legal approach to the case. One has no hesitation in saying he is to free speech champions today what Socrates was in ancient Athens, when he preferred to take the hamlock rather than to wilt to an intolerant ruling class’s pressures.