Ethics of Julian Assange

Julian Assange is the founder of Wikileaks. Wikileaks has leaked million s of government documents, videos, and emails from around the world to the public. After spending 7 years in asylum in Ecuador, he was arrested this April by british police for missing a court date in 2012. He is also being charge with conspiracy for assisting US Soldier Chelsea Manning in unearthing 750,000 pages of classified documents surrounding the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars.

I don’t think it was ethical to release the documents even though the Defense Department said that there was no significant damage to the US strategically if he had hacked to obtain them. If he was given the documents to be published, it would be okay. Even though there wasn’t definitive damage, it still could have affected how many people, including other world governments, view the US Military. There was a reason the documents were classified, even if some of the info that came out proved to be beneficial.

Manning was originally sentence for 35 years in prison, but was let free in 2016. Because of this, Assange should not be charged with anything involving that case. A verdict was already reached for Manning and she is now free, so anything Assange assisted with shouldn’t be charged.

I think it is fine that Ecuador provided shelter for him for 7 years, and equally fine that the new regime gave him up. The old regime saw the benefits his leaks were giving, and decided to keep him safe, while the new regime saw didn’t want to overlook the hacking he has done. He wasn’t promised to be kept safe forever.