WSJ: 'Assange Has Done Much Harm to American Interests'

The Wall Street Journal, taking aim at Julian Assange’s “many apologists,” says the WikiLeaks founder “has never been a hero of transparency of democratic accountability.”

The Journal’s comments came in an editorial posted on the newspaper’s website.

“Julian Assange has done much harm to American interests over the last decade, and on Thursday the WikiLeaks founder moved a large step closer to accountability in a U.S. court,” the Journal said.

The newspaper noted the U.S. indictment unsealed after his arrest accused him with conspiring to commit computer intrusion by offering to help crack a password stored on the Defense Department computer system. The Journal welcomed the fact that he was not charged under the Espionage Act.

“Journalists including those at the Wall Street Journal sometimes feel the duty to disclose information in the public interest that governments would rather keep secret,” the newspaper noted. “Indicting Mr. Assange merely for releasing classified information could have set a precedent that prosecutors might have used in the future against journalists."

The Journal maintained that if Assange is truly a “defender of transparency, he should have no fear of a trial to defend his methods.”

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