I must be upfront to start with. I have never been able to warm to Mr Assange. Perhaps it’s the smooth silky soft spoken delivery or the ghost of a perpetual half smirk as he piously intones about the moral failings of those allegedly ranged against him. Perhaps it's when he tries to explain why he should not face those who accuse him of rape.
Mr Assange is the great exposer. He is Mr Wikileaks who allowed the bright light of day to shine on the dark and murky goings on in those vast and sinister organisations like the CIA and the US military.
Having riveted and bolted himself to the moral high ground, Mr Assange has successfully cast himself as the champion of openness who is now being persecuted for daring to allow the truth to emerge and for taking on institutions vastly more powerful than he. For him, nothing is more important that exposing the truth for all to see. No one expected Mr Assange to have any caveats around that, after all, as a result of the leaks he orchestrated, people lost their lives, some in very unpleasant circumstances. But Mr Assange could not be shaken from the rock of his self-righteousness, someone else was to blame for that, not him.
And then, slowly, it started going wrong. Two Swedish women claimed he sexually assaulted them when in Stockholm. Most reasonable people would have assumed that, facing such clearly outrageous accusations, Saint Assange would have rushed back to Sweden to clear his name so unfairly impugned by these wicked, deluded hussies. But no, Mr Assange was having none of that. It was obviously a put-up job. Taking on a view shared by the mullahs in Iran, Saint Assange claimed this was all a plot by the evil empire otherwise known as America. The US wants to extradite him, put him on trial and then execute him for leaking all their secrets, so he would have us believe. I am not sure if he thinks aliens are involved, but clearly he wants us to think very dark forces are moving against him.
Nope, said the Swedes, it’s not a put up job…we want you to answer these accusations of sexual assault. But, whilst transparency is evidently good for everyone else, Mr Assange believes he is exempt from this annoying provision of justice. He has tried every legal trick in the book to avoid the UK extraditing him to Sweden where he will have to face his accusers. A long list of suitably outraged and high profile backers posted bail for their man, none evidently too concerned about the actual accusations of assault against their hero…that it was all an American inspired plot was an easy explanation to soothe away any doubts that the angelic Mr Assange might not be quite and pure as he makes out.
The wheels of British justice grind very slow…but they grind. They drew the completely unsurprising conclusion that Mr Assange’s mortality, not to mention his human rights, were not being put at risk by sending him to Sweden to answer sex assault charges. Dark legions from the US were not about to descend upon him…and anyway, even if they were, he would be just as well off in calm, civilised Sweden as he would be in London.
But Mr Assange is remarkably reluctant to leave the UK. Perhaps it’s because he has tickets for the beach volleyball event at the London Olympics, but somehow I doubt that’s foremost in his mind at the moment. He has now fled to the Ecuadorian embassy….seeking political asylum. From exactly what is not too clear, but presumably allegations of sexual assault don’t qualify. Some of his highest profile backers are now having second thoughts too. Jemima Khan wants him to face the accusations of rape now saying that his accusers also have a right to a response. Apparently Assange thinks otherwise.
Perhaps the US is still simmering with rage and does want to get its hands on him. No doubt they were humiliated by the leaks. Perhaps, notwithstanding that he is entering a bitter presidential re-election campaign, the naughty behaviour of Mr Assange is preoccupying Barack Obama’s thoughts to such an extent he wishes to divert the forces at his disposal to capturing our warrior of truth (er…that’s others’ truth, not his own of course). Perhaps Mr Assange genuinely believes he is the victim of a global manhunt and that he is only safe in London (or Ecuador). Perhaps he believes Sweden is in the back pocket of the US, perhaps he read it in the stars or heard it from an alien…perhaps this, perhaps that…perhaps those two women in Sweden making those “outrageous accusations” are actually telling the truth.
