

How the Wikileaks founder alienated his allies - rweba
http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/02/assange-alone-jemima-khan-how-wikileaks-founder-alienated-his-allies

======
mh_
I see lots of Assange dislike from people, and i'm constantly reminded of
misappropriated quote: "You want someone who does what i do, but you want him
to behave like you."

It takes a certain type of personality (and a certain type of mania/insanity)
to run against the odds/world like he did.. We should accept that if it comes
with some rough edges, thats kinda the price for it.

Even if there are arguments over wether or not he is "a great man", it is
clear that he has achieved great things, and sometimes the people who do also
have great flaws..

~~~
gaius
If behaving like us includes abstaining from sexual assault, sure, I want him
to behave like us.

~~~
redthrowaway
For all the legitimate shots you could take at Assange, the rape charges are
some of the weakest and least-founded in fact. When the prosecutor says
"there's no reason to believe he's guilty of rape" and drops the charges, then
10 days later the charges are re-filed by a woman who's made it her mission to
change Sweden's laws to classify many things that very clearly aren't rape as
rape, that sets off my bullshit detector. I'm not one who buys into the US
conspiracy angle, and I do think he should suck it up and go have his day in
court, but I also don't think there's any evidence to suggest he did anything
wrong.

------
richardjordan
One of the best ways to maintain the ability to shut down leaks is an
effective campaign to isolate and persecute anyone who steps out of line. The
media image of Assange has been built up by the same media who rang the
drumbeats for the Iraq war and who will do the establishment's bidding. The
same media who told us that Scott Ritter was not a reliable source on WMD and
was probably a sex offender anyway (sound familiar?), when the former weapons
inspector was dead on right.

The smear campaign against him has been eagerly joined by the same newspapers
(notably the Guardian whose behavior has been disgraceful) that profited from
publishing the leaks in the first place.

If Assange is put down, as the US government and certain allies wish, don't
expect us to have someone else, whose personality you find more agreeable
stepping into his place and doing the high-risk, low reward job of sticking
their neck out on this stuff.

~~~
MrScruff
By your own argument Assange has elevated himself above criticism by putting
himself in the firing line. Any reported failing, minor or serious, can be
attributed to media bias/conspiracy and safely ignored.

Isn't that exactly what the article was getting at? That the wikileaks
movement has turned into a personality cult where it is forbidden to express
any form of doubt about dear leader?

You call the job high risk, low reward. For someone that appears to exhibit
strong narcissistic tendencies I would say the 'reward' has been anything but
low.

~~~
richardjordan
No that doesn't follow at all. However a skepticism of attacks on whistle
blowers is necessary, given the risks they take.

The idea that it's a reward to be living under effective house arrest despite
having no charges leveled against him because he faces the real threat of
being handed over to the custody of a nation which has demonstrated its
willingness to ignore laws and intern without trial for years on end its
enemies, is facile.

~~~
MrScruff
I have no problem with some level of scepticism.

However having read a number of articles from both sides regarding his alleged
offences, I see no evidence of conspiracy. The fact that he is a celebrity
cannot deter the Swedish authorities from pursuing the allegations against
him.

~~~
richardjordan
I think the article linked to below is about as good as there is about the
Sweden nonsense. He has been charged with nothing for good reason and the case
was dropped for good reason. The idea that he is under no risk of extradition
to the US if he goes to Sweden is nonsense, their track record is clear. If it
were about the case then remote questioning would have been fine and if there
were charges to be filed they could have done. But it's clearly about getting
him to the US and muddying his name with vague allegations that resonate with
his core constituency on the left.

~~~
MrScruff
We can all find articles supporting one view or another. I'm not sure if this
discussion is headed anywhere useful though. You may regard the proceedings
against him as 'nonsense', and 'clearly' an attempt at mudslinging. But in
reality neither of us can know either way, it's all supposition.

~~~
richardjordan
Which is the intention of mudslinging. It's not to settle anything. It's to
make the target lose support without ever really being able to do anything
about it. It's been very effective in this case.

------
dmix
After reading "This Machine Kills Secrets" [1] I have to agree with the
sentiment in this blog post (although maybe not the tone):
<https://eeqj.com/20110113/wikileaks/>

Assange should have followed the philosophy of the cypherpunk mailing list he
spent so much time on in the 1990s that was all about with protecting your
identity, using cryptography, being anonymous and affecting change through
technology.

Wikileaks used that methodology well for their whistleblowers but Assange did
the opposite by being so public... and I'm not sure it was all for the best.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/This-Machine-Kills-Secrets-
WikiLeakers...](http://www.amazon.com/This-Machine-Kills-Secrets-
WikiLeakers/dp/0525953205/)

~~~
kiba
Like Satoshi Nakamoto and Bitcoin?

~~~
dmix
Also the founder of Truecrypt apparently.

[http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1895vl/creator_o...](http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1895vl/creator_of_cryptocat_the_web_app_that_uses/c8ctb80)

------
ajays
It is a shame, really, that Assange is such an attention whore. His being
locked up in the Ecuadorian embassy is probably the best outcome that the US
could have hoped for (aside from him being in a US jail). He has no one to
blame but himself; power is the strongest aphrodisiac, and he let the power
and attention get to him.

WikiLeaks should try to just distance themselves from him and try to continue
the work of being a conduit for safely exposing corruption and lies.

------
kevinh
I lost respect for Wikileaks when they started editorializing their releases.
Most notably the "Collateral Murder" video. I want to be able to form
conclusions for myself without being told what I should think every step of
the way. Assange admitted that they spun it in such a way to maximize the
political impact.

------
belorn
Many interesting points, but I have no sympathy for Daniel Domscheit-Berg
who's action destroyed document given to Wikileaks for publications. Who know
what dangers and effort the source went through to get the documents, only to
have everything destroyed by one individual who was trusted with the files.

------
DanielBMarkham
I've reluctantly flagged a few Assange stories on HN over the past few months.
I'm a libertarian and I absolutely believe that we have too many secrets in
the west.

But at some point the story became about Assange and not about the issues. It
was at this point that I realized that he was part of the problem and not part
of the solution. You don't fix the security state with hero worship and self-
promotion. You just create a different set of problems.

~~~
stfu
_You don't fix the security state with hero worship and self-promotion._

True, but I think that is is often very strong/odd characters, who are willing
to dedicate their life for "big" fights. Those causes need someone who is
willing to go out, and promote the hell out of a leak. Otherwise it goes down
as just another internet-only phenomenon.

If you are leaking information to a 3rd party, you want the information out
there and create the biggest possible effect. Otherwise you could just post it
on your blog. So far only Assange has shown repeatedly, that he can deliver
this exposure - and to withstand the heat.

Case and point: Not a single relevant leak has reached my attention from all
the split-up groups that aimed to do better than Wikileaks. The only
acceptable alternative seems Cryptome who benefit for their long-time legacy.

~~~
illuminate
"True, but I think that is is often very strong/odd characters, who are
willing to dedicate their life for "big" fights"

At what point does one's narcissism become more than the cause?

"Case and point: Not a single relevant leak has reached my attention from all
the split-up groups that aimed to do better than Wikileaks"

I don't think many of Assange's sincere critics wish for Wikileaks to
collapse, they want him to step down from its operations.

~~~
richardjordan
...so is the alleged narcissism a worse wrong doing than what's being exposed?

The only thing protecting Assange from having been bundled into a jet and
whisked off to Guantanamo by now is his rather high personal profile. It's not
like his enemies don't have a track record here...

~~~
illuminate
"...so is the alleged narcissism a worse wrong doing than what's being
exposed?"

No, and that's not what was stated. What he was alleged to have done would be
a wrong, as are many things Wikileaks covers. Does Wikileaks require Assange
to do exactly what they're doing? They don't need such a figurehead.

"The only thing protecting Assange from having been bundled into a jet and
whisked off to Guantanamo by now is his rather high personal profile. It's not
like his enemies don't have a track record here..."

The second contradicts the first, there is nothing about his high profile that
protects him from being whisked off. Those forces aren't particularly
concerned about the media operating independently from the governmental
interests.

~~~
richardjordan
Assange became a cause célèbre in the UK long enough to make it difficult to
get him extradited quickly. Doesn't mean he can hold those pressures off
forever.

The same media which profited from his leaks is the media whose portrait of
him you're choosing to accept unless you know him personally. The arguments on
here are pretty much exclusively about this alleged personality.

~~~
illuminate
"The same media which profited from his leaks is the media whose portrait of
him you're choosing to accept unless you know him personally"

I really have no interest in "media" portrayal, and I certainly don't want to
enable their continued "successes", as dim as they are, but I do take sexual
assault charges and evasion seriously. The profile makes it easier for him to
avoid them and find supporters to fund/house him, but I don't see how it would
stop a government from whisking him off if they were able to.

------
Tichy
That article doesn't seem contain much meat besides Assange not liking the
film the author of the article made, and a list of people who fell out with
him. Bad article...

------
teeja
_WikiLeaks ... guilty ... obfuscation ... misinformation ... blinkered
...cultish_

Considering that story lede immediately tried to sway my opinion with a swath
of negative adjectives, "Jemima Can" do without me reading her screed.

