Assange has no duty to U.S. security

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theQuestion: Is it hypocritical to believe Edward Snowden is a traitor, while at the same time believing Julian Assange is a hero for leaking Hillary Clinton’s emails?*

Hillary has a big problem and it’s got nothing to do with the alleged state of her ill-health and everything to do with the growing scandal over an unsecured private email server, deleted emails and accusations of pay-for-play during her tenure as U.S. Secretary of State. It must keep her and Bill awake at night, since the Clintons wrote the book on evasion and obfuscation.

Hillary is not likely to wriggle out of this current mess. The FBI just revealed it has unearthed another 15,000 previously undisclosed emails from Clinton’s private server, which she used exclusively while Secretary of State. We also learned that Clinton’s tech team used a powerful data deletion tool to wipe the server clean before releasing it to the FBI — deleted were 30,000 emails Clinton says were of a personal nature.

I believe the Clintons are corrupt. Otherwise, how else could the couple have possibly made a reported $153 million from paid speeches in the last 15 years without peddling access and political favour to some of the most deplorable foreign governments in the world? The Associated Press reported that more than half of the private-sector people Clinton met while secretary of state gave money to the Clinton Foundation. Finding the proof of pay-for-play may come down to an unlikely hero — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

I’m suffering from cognitive dissonance as I believe Julian Assange could be the hero of the 2016 election. He’s promising to follow up WikiLeaks’ devastating release of Democratic Party emails with a new batch hacked from Clinton’s private server before being wiped clean. Assange says these emails would be significant in turning the tide of the election. I hope he’s right — despite the fact for years I have publicly called for those who hack and leak classified government documents to be captured and jailed.

I argue my position is impervious to charges of hypocrisy. Traitors like Edward Snowden swore an oath to protect secrets vital to his country’s national security. He violated that oath when he stole thousands of classified U.S. national security documents, revealed them to the press and then fled to Russia. Assange has sworn no such oath to the United States, therefore he cannot be a traitor.

Surely, it’s easy to see the difference. Edward Snowden betrayed his country, while Assange could very well save the democratic process. I am in anxious wait for anything to keep Hillary out of the White House.

*First published in 24hrs Vancouver ‘theDuel’

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