You can make a case for Edward Snowden, even though I’m not completely convinced by it. I would agree with him that revealing the details of the domestic surveillance program sparked an important and necessary debate, and that the debate could not have occurred without his leaks. My issue with him is that some of his leaks about intelligence activities with impacts overseas damaged our national security and embarrassed our government; I can’t see anything positive about those leaks. The bottom line is that I would be willing to listen to a whistleblower defense from him if he came home. Of course, that isn’t up to me.
I feel no such ambivalence about Julian Assange, who, to use Clinton’s words, is his very own basket of deplorables. He promises to afflict the powerful, but focuses his attention on the West, and not Russia or China. He promises transparency and accountability, but runs his organization as a personal fiefdom. His hacking activities don’t just impact governments; he has no respect for the privacy of private individuals. And that doesn’t even include his little legal problem in Sweden.
The bottom line with Assange is that he shares an agenda with Putin; he hates the United States and wants to diminish its power throughout the world. As a result, it is fair to call him Putin’s stooge.