Julian Assange: Hero or Traitor?

[AgnosticBoy]

The US has considered Julian Assange to be a threat, perhaps even a traitor to the West, and deserving of imprisonment. Others have looked at Assange like some type of activist exposing corruption and abuses committed by the US and others.

Mr Assange ran Wikileaks, a website that published many confidential or restricted official reports related to war, spying and corruption.

In 2010, it released a video from a US military helicopter which showed civilians being killed in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
It also published thousands of confidential documents supplied by former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. These suggested that the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents during the war in Afghanistan.

The US said the leaks had endangered the lives of American personnel.
Mr Assange was accused of conspiring to break into its military databases to acquire sensitive information, and was charged with 18 offences.

Source: BBC news

Personally, I didn't like Assange's methods but I do like the information he uncovered, assuming it is all true.


For discussion:
1.What's your view on Julian Assange?
2. Is there a illegal way he could have obtained and/or disclosed the top secret information that he did?
3. Was he wrong or is the US upset because it got caught?