The Auction of the Sacred

Thanks, ArtA. The odd thing about the second link is, no matter how many times you go back to the rez and take pics or listen to the people there, you will still never know the real story. It's that protected.

Were Mr Assange not so cowardly, [my emphasis] he would recognise his best interests would be served not by pompously pursuing the role of martyr but by going to Sweden so sex-assault charges he strenuously denies can be tested.

Beginning the essay with the unsupported premise the Assange is a coward, and that his cowardice explains his actions, taints the entire piece as far as I am concerned and reveals an attitude demonstrated through its entire length. Then, pretending that answering to the sexual assault charges in Sweden is the reason he is afraid to go to Sweden is an obvious diversion and a further attempt at demonization. It is a hit piece which does not make any attempt to present fair analysis.

"Mr Assange has painted himself into a corner. If he believes in his innocence, the only viable option is to have the allegations tested in the Swedish courts. Skulking in a London embassy backroom, the guest of a regime with dodgy human rights credentials, does no good for his case or his reputation"

Assange has been driven into a corner and is hoping to escape. Who, in Assange's situation, considering recent history and facing the prospect of incarceration in the U.S, military prison system, would not attempt to find a safe haven? I imagine that if he had the chance he might pick some other country and I do not believe that taking his only option, Ecuador, sheds any accusatory light on either his character or the facts of his different cases.  

The other links go to articles which are even weaker, IMO, [especially the third] and which have been refuted many times already. I am packing for a trip and will not [probably] find the time to look up and link to any of the rebuttals but I will ask you: Do you consider any of the articles you offer here to be making strong cases that over-ride the counter arguments? Do you offer these links to support your own conclusions? Do you think that Assange is wrong to fear extradition to the U.S.? Do you think that his Wikileaks actions legitimately count as wrong and legitimately punishable under U.S. law? Would you give any of your linked opinion articles a passing grade?