If Dick Cheney and his crew
were hiding out in a embassy, I could get into the bail-jumping-is-bad discussion, but that is far from the case.
The important issues here are the United States committing war crimes, the NSA exceeding its constitutional limits when collecting data on citizens, backroom deals keeping Bernie Sanders off of the ballot, and the CIA stockpiling hacking tools. One case of bail jumping simply does not compare.
All the arguments about extradition procedure don't hold water either. It has been an extremely dark decade and a half for the United States, and legal norms do not necessarily apply. We had legislators calling for the execution of Chelsea Manning, a New York Times reporter in jail for contempt of court, at least one prisoner dying of hypothermia at a dark site, torture around the world, and during this whole period, we have had prisoners at Guantánamo Bay who have yet to receive due process. Anyone who truly jeopardizes this power structure can legitimately fear extrajudicial retaliation by Washington. That is why an embassy shielded this particular bail jumper.
As many have said before, you don't have to like Julian Assange. He may not have the style of a Gandhi or Mandela; he may be more of a self-promoter than a Manning, Snowden, or Aaron Swartz. But recognize that what little social progress we make every decade, we owe that progress to the misfits, the fed-up, the brave, and the difficult -- and we punish them severely for it.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
