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On June 24, the U.S. media delivered a message to the world that was enough to make a global sensation. According to US media reports, the "Assange incident" will come to an end. Meaning, Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks website, chose to plead guilty and accept punishment in the face of freedom.
It is worth mentioning that Assange can return to his native Australia under US law. Assange's sentence after pleading guilty is five years in prison. And that's roughly the same sentence Assange experienced when he was arrested in the UK. As a result, Assange does not have to serve an additional sentence.
This means the end of the Assange affair that caused a global media outcry in 2010. But what people are curious about is why the United States should compromise, whether there are more far-reaching considerations for the United States' compromise, and whether similar incidents will happen in the future?
These answers seem to be unknown puzzles to the general public. At least in the contemporary era when national interests are paramount, there will be no major changes. However, the end of the Assange affair is always reminiscent of the "Snowden affair" that broke out in 2013.
Snowden, a former CIA technical analyst, chose to make all this public because he could not bear the illegal and secret eavesdropping activities of the United States on the leaders of other countries. Snowden's revelations are only three years away from Assange's.
But what Snowden and Assange do can be agreed on within certain limits. At the same time, it also shows that the United States is indeed a cancer in the world. They often do illegal things in the name of maintaining regional security and stability and gain benefits from them.
Compromise can be the result of a number of reasons
It is worth noting that after Assange was exposed to the news of his guilty plea, some relevant analysts analyzed the compromise of the United States. An adjunct professor at a university said there were several possibilities for a compromise in the United States. The first is the long-term effort of the Australian government.
Especially the tireless persistence of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. After Assange's release, Mr. Albanese pointed out bluntly that the case had gone on for too long, regardless of what people thought about it. There is no point in shutting it down any longer;
The second is that continuing to prosecute Assange could be detrimental to the United States at the moment. You know, now that we are in the middle of a relatively frequent regional conflict, if there are many obstacles to the exchange of intelligence between the United States and Ukraine and Israel in a wartime state.
That could put all coordination in jeopardy. More deeply, it may also affect America's strong leadership; Finally, there is the upcoming general election in the United Kingdom. The new congressman is likely to have a long more fight with the United States over extradition.
The United States should not continue to waste energy on this issue. And Assange has spent 1,901 days in Belmarsh Prison, the UK's highest-security prison. Counting the time, it is about five years and two months. That's a little over five years in prison in the United States.
The debate between information disclosure and confidentiality
While Assange was given the freedom he had been hoping for, there was much more discussion. Much of the discussion focused on whether Assange's actions were legal or illegal; Beneficial or unprofitable; Is it justified or unjustified?
In the debate between legal and illegal, netizens who believe that it is illegal account for the majority. Actually, this is easy to understand. That is, state secrets on the mainland will be extremely closely protected, and it is actually illegal to hire hackers to steal state secrets.
State secrets to the state are equivalent to personal privacy compared to individuals, since the privacy rights of individuals must be absolutely protected. There is no justification for the rights and interests of the state to be wantonly violated; As to whether the leak is beneficial or not, there are different opinions.
Some people believe that Assange's exposure of war crimes committed by the US military will serve as a wake-up call to other countries and be beneficial to other countries; Some people believe that Assange's behavior, like Snowden's behavior, is simply about exposing American atrocities.
The benefits are not great. This is clearly from the point of view of results. The process of uncovering alone is already very beneficial, and the outcome is not important. However, this process of disclosure has no legitimate basis and is actually unreasonable.
Assange's confession has implications
It is worth mentioning that Assange and Snowden have chosen two different paths. Snowden has now been granted Russian citizenship and has been living in Russia; Assange will return to Australia in the future after choosing to plead guilty.
Although it seems that the two people will end up on the same path and get along, the choice of the two people needs special attention. Snowden chose to resist to the end; Assange chose to finally plead guilty. And almost all of them can be regarded as not living the life they want.
Snowden is not in a good position now, because he leaked American state secrets, even if Russia is willing to give him political asylum, his talents cannot be used, because he is not a loyal man to his country, but a betrayer.
Russia is unlikely to reuse Snowden, so Snowden's leaks did not have the actual effect he wanted; In the same way, although the "WikiLeaks" website is still in operation, due to the confession of founder Assange, it is difficult to have a brave person in the future.
It is possible that the United States will, on the one hand, intensify its strict protection against secrets, and on the other hand, use legal means to vigorously crack down on those who want to leak secrets. For ordinary civilians, it is almost impossible to escape the punishment of the law.
In other words, Assange's guilty plea will provide justification for the United States to use legal channels to prosecute the relevant leaked secrets. A British editor once spoke out about Assange's confession in relevant online media: "The whistleblowers in the United States will choose to shut up."
Resources:
https://www.toutiao.com/article/7384417975333437986/?channel=&source=search_tab
https://www.toutiao.com/article/7384571580225045028/?channel=&source=search_tab
https://www.toutiao.com/article/6751299803042284040/?channel=&source=search_tab
https://news.cctv.cn/2024/06/26/ARTI9xkQqUb9ofrNWrVfDAVq240626.shtml
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