week 12 Editorial on Assange & Whistleblowers

Editorial discussing Assange & American Whistleblowers

American history boasts of jailing journalists for as long as they have existed, Assange being the most famous of our time.

Assange was said to be suffering psychologically.

Loosely defined, a whistleblower is a person, usually an employee, that willingly exposes information or activity within a private, public, or government that is deemed legal, illicit, unsafe, or fraud.

The story of Assange begins when he founded Wikileaks in 2006 but comes into international attention in 2010 when Wikileaks published a series of secrets, basically, about U.S. Army Intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. The leaks, containing significant military content, caused Wikileaks to be placed under United States Criminal investigation.

Now, Assange has been dragged through years of political refugee and defamation of character while trying to find asylum in other countries.

Most recently, Assange was denied bail pending an appeal by the United States on January 6, 2021. Assange currently resides in a Belmarsh prison, located in Thamesmead, London since April of 2019.

During his ongoing, long period of political strife, Assange was accused of much more than the 17 accounts of publishing classified material under the Espionage Act of 1917. Assange was dragged into the world's eye again with accusations in Sweden of Assange committing sexual offenses. Those proceedings began in in 2012, and were dropped by the Swedish authorities in August of 2015 due to the expiration od the statute of limitations.

The man accused of it all. via: CNN

Nevertheless, Assange's 18 federal charges in the US could result in a sentence of up to 175 years in prison.

Julain Assange will be on the run for the rest of his life. The only other way he will not be jumping from country to country seeking asylum, is when he is in jail.

Assange is the most famous American whistleblower of our era, if not will go down in history as the most famous American whistleblower.

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