I’m not defending Assange or his actions, but these are some thoughts to consider on calls for his prosecution:
He’s not a US citizen, nor were his crimes committed in the US, so he can’t be tried for treason.
The foreign agent handlers who recruited and received US classified information from US spies [e.g., Robert Hanson, Jonathon Pollard, etc.] were never prosecuted as they were not US citizens.
Hillary Clinton was never prosecuted for stealing classified US personnel files on US politicians and keeping them in her White House bedroom. [Is it odd that State Department files should find their way into the public domain on her watch?]
He received the documents outside the US, and distributed them via the internet and to news organizations; he did not provide them directly to enemies of the US.5) News organizations, e.g., the NYT, published the cables — which would theoretically make them as culpable as Assange. If Assange receives and publishes classified documents, he’s a criminal; if the NYT receives and publishes classified documents, it’s news.
Bottom Line:
We continue to look at the wrong people for this travesty. Who granted Manning the clearance to access this information?
Will this embroglio serve as a means to shut down Wikileaks, which does serve a purpose in publishing inside information about government and corporate scandals — which the news media routinely fails to publish?
Does anyone find it strange that Assange has been arrested on a Swedish charge of rape, considering he is gay?