Julian Assange - Hero or Fool?

In the mid 1980's - before the Internet and the state of the art computer was an 8286 processor with about 40 Mb hard drive - I used to attend computer swap meets where we brought our machines to a central place and swapped hardware and software.

One of our number was a blond headed, lanky teenager who became affectionately named "The Kid". He had an uncanny ability to break the license code of any proprietary software presented to him. He was already fluent in encryption mehods and was hacking into international network computers using a 1200 baud modem illegally connected to the Telecom phone system. At that time, there were no laws to be broken and it all seemed pretty harmless as he and his mates were not destructive of others networks - although they always left a message to say that they had been there to let them know that their security had been breached. I believe that kid grew up to become Julian Assange.

I have been a WikiLeaks reader for about three years and have referenced their revelations in my blog in particular the leak of the proposed banned web sites of the Australian government's Internet filtering system.

When 'Cablegate' began, I wondered if 'The Kid' was indeed Julian Assange and embarked on a research effort delving into his past.

First, I uncovered the archive of his web postings from 2001 to 2007 which give an insight into how he has developed the philosophies he espouses with WikiLeaks. Then came 'The Assange Essays' of 2006 where he searches for a way to break down conspiracies. But the daddy of them all is his development of Rubberhose an encryption method designed to withstand the torture often afforded to human rights workers who carry sensitive information on their laptops. Assange delves into the metits of the sytem when someone is being 'Rubber Hosed" or beaten into submission.

Early in the release of 'Cablegate', I suspected that Julian Assange had underestimated the might of the United States and that he will unwittingly suffer the worst of consequences. However, after researching his background, I am convinced that his life has been devoted to his cause and that he is the truest of freedom fighters. I challenge you to explore the above links. There is another good background piece, on the man himself, here.

Finally, having read No Secrets, Julian Assange’s mission for total transparency, I am totally convinced that this story parallels my own experience of 'The Kid'.