The wrong target

Friday, Dec. 10, 2010 | 2:06 a.m.

Since it started publishing thousands of secret State Department cables last month, the website WikiLeaks and its controversial leader, Julian Assange, have been polarizing. The U.S. government decried the release of information illegally released, and some members of Congress have called for Assange’s arrest on espionage charges. Meanwhile, many Internet activists have defended the site and claimed Assange to be a journalist and a champion of free speech.

The recent actions taken by Assange and his supporters have undercut any sense of Assange as some sort of noble free-speech advocate fighting against big government.

He has shown himself to be little more than a bully, a man with an ax to grind against the United States. Assange announced this week that he had released encrypted “doomsday files” throughout the Internet, which are believed to be uncensored documents that could damage the United States’ national security and endanger people. He threatened to release the code to unlock the files if he were arrested by the United States for espionage or harmed. He called his threat “insurance.”

The Australian-born Assange was arrested this week in London on a warrant from Sweden, alleging he sexually assaulted two women. A WikiLeaks spokeswoman said the site was still operational and said the code to unlock the files had not been released.

Assange’s supporters have taken his bullying ways further. An anonymous group of computer hackers this week unveiled “Operation Payback,” pledging “vengeance” for Assange after PayPal, MasterCard and Visa stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks. The members are systematically working to bring down those companies’ sites, as well as others, by overloading them. The group claims it is against anyone who stymies free speech and a free Internet, and Assange is their apostle.

That’s unfortunate, particularly because Assange has a poor message. He acts as if the State Department cables, allegedly leaked by an Army private, are the crown jewels of the United States and suggested they show ugly dealings by our government. But the cables haven’t provided any real groundbreaking revelations or shown any nefarious activity by the U.S. government. The cables detail the daily work of American diplomats and their frank opinions on the situations in foreign countries. The only thing the release of the cables has done is embarrass the United States and damage our country’s relationships with other nations.

WikiLeaks’ campaign against alleged wrongdoing by America, based on paltry, inflated evidence, is frustrating, particularly given its stated belief in free speech. Our country isn’t perfect, but since its founding, the United States has been the world’s light of freedom and free speech, and it has spread that light around the globe.

If Assange and WikiLeaks were sincere in their belief about openness and free speech, they would be focused on countries where freedoms are often curtailed and ignored. But perhaps they can’t because repressive and totalitarian governments are too closed to allow anyone to leak anything of value.