Re: @Aberglas The rape charges were always bogus
My own personal view is he did it. I don't believe the spy crap for one second. Why? Because it's public. By going down the trial route, they run the risk that whatever Assange was involved in would be exposed, which risks exposure of various intelligence services. Generally, Intelligence services like to avoid this. They also run the risk that any extradition request would fail, so they would be running the risk of being exposed during an action that failed to achieve the desired result.
It's far more likely he'd vanish at some point, then either be killed or questioned. Totally illegal, but totally in secret. I normally dismiss conspiracy theories (as, in my experience, most are at best questionable, and at worst, downright wrong), but I do think that most intelligence agencies are perfectly capable of making someone disappear without anyone being aware, and I know that the bulk of what they do is done in total secrecy.
Assange is a prat. As noted above, Wikileaks have done good work exposing what they did, but from what I have read, Assange has actually worked against that a little, because he insisted on releasing the unredacted paperwork. This likely has got some of the whistleblowers in some countries killed, or at the very least, tortured. It's also likely to silence other whistleblowers (they may be less likely to release documentation to Wikileaks if they think Wikileaks will publish their names). Now, I can see his point, after all, if they are removing the names, what else are they removing, but I don't think he actually thought his position through.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
