Two of us, Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky, testified for Assange at his extradition hearing last year. In Ellsberg’s words then, the WikiLeaks publications that Assange is being charged for are “amongst the most important truthful revelations of hidden criminal state behavior that have been made public in U.S. history.” The American public “needed urgently to know what was being done routinely in their name, and there was no other way for them to learn it than by unauthorized disclosure.”
Comey announcing the Clinton investigation is in no way similar to Assange, despite having a similar effect. Comey was (and is) a boy-scout. He did what he thought was right when being stuck between two bad decisions. I maintain most ethical people, if put in his position, would have done the same thing. Assange is completely different.
I mean, disagree on fuck him. Poor dude has been unfairly villified and I don’t envy the guilt he probably lives with, especially because I think he did the right thing (without the benefit of hindsight, anyway).
As a government worker myself, I know what it’s like to work for shit pay for the mission and to read in popular media about what a terrible job you’re doing. I want to see someone do it better when they understand all the nuances, or are faced with tough decisions. People are always ready to make snap decisions when they lack the whole picture or have to actually think about the consequences. Can you imagine the hue and cry if Clinton were elected and it came out she was under investigation later, and that on top of that the investigation was now dropped (because nothing was found)? For all we know we could’ve had January 6th 4 years earlier! It’s an impossible counterfactual.
