The Arrest of Julian Assange
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, was arrested by British police on April 11, 2019. The event has led to many wondering as to if he is a champion of free speech who is being silenced, or a cyber-war terrorist who is receiving his due justice.
In 2010, Assange released sensitive material through WikiLeaks from the war in Iraq which had been given to him from former US soldier Chelsea Manning. This led to the United States Department of Defense opening an investigation into Assange and his WikiLeaks platform. Julian Assange found refuge in the United Kingdom’s Ecuadorean embassy, where he could avoid the numerous arrest charges from multiple countries. Last month, Assange was denied a remained stay from Ecuador, and was quickly arrested after being removed from the embassy.
After the Manning documents were released, the Defense Department for the United States released a report detailing the damages that the leak had caused. Somewhat surprisingly, 20 federal agencies agreed that the leaked documents would have “no significant impact” on US-Afghanistan war operations. I believe Assange did the right thing in this case, he received information that showed that war crimes were being committed in Afghanistan, and he revealed it to the public. The US is also claiming that it was Assange himself who “hacked” the documents, which is their reason for arrest. I don’t think this changes the ethical question, Assange is using his time and abilities to expose war-crimes at the sake of his freedom, which I believe is the right thing to do.
The United States Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, has stated that arresting Assange is a “priority”. I think it would make sense for the US to arrest Assange, due to his involvement with the Russian-coordinated hacks that led to an interference with the US presidential elections. These arrest charges aren’t related to Assange’s warrants in the UK where he broke bail conditions, or in Sweden where charges were dropped against him in a sexual assault case. However, the United States has already stated that filing charges against Julian Assange would be a difficult task.
The Ecuadorean embassy housed Assange for the past 7 years, was that the right, ethical thing to do? I believe that each nation should be allowed to retain their own rules and regulations on foreign grounds as long as they’re maintaining basic human rights. Ecuador stated that they helped shelter Assange because they believed his rights to freedom of speech were being violated, which I believe is a perfectly fine thing to do. I also think Ecuador was within their ethical bounds to release Assange and deny him stay at the embassy, it’s their embassy and they are permitted to allow and deny access to anyone for whatever reason they see fit.
