Wikileaks: A geek gets the new Watergate

As the diplomatic documents spill onto our front pages day after day, writers furiously fuel the debate about whether the Wikileaks release was right, and what to do with Julian Assange.

Is he a hero? Or is he a criminal? Is he a journalist? Or is he a geek and a freak? Should he be celebrated? Or should he be jailed?

This all conflates the two issues of whether the Wikileaks release was justified and whether he is a rapist. It does so on the assumption the charges are trumped up or were the result of a honey trap. Who knows.

But do many men who fail to use a condom end up on Interpol’s red list? More to Interpol’s shame, do many rapists? No. Western governments are pursuing him with remarkable zeal. And by doing so, they throw up all sorts of “delicious ironies”. Hillary Clinton’s statement on the issue reads, as John Naughton points out, like a “satirical masterpiece”.

Of course, the comedy has been helpfully highlighted by America’s rivals. Russian President Vladimir Putin has noted the hypocrisy of a nation which superficially champions freedom of speech but also pathologically pursues a man who has asserted the people’s freedom of information.

U.S. duality in its dealings with free speech are clear to see. And in the cables, a similar hypocrisy is unveiled. A nation notionally concerned with human rights asking the Ugandan army not to commit war crimes using its intelligence is a shocking example. The message: if you’re going to rape and pillage and worse, fine, but don’t implicate us, OK?

While it shocks, it might not surprise. The U.S. has sought to capitalise on that, insisting these leaks are ‘no big deal’. But that itself is inconsistent with the angry pursuit of Assange. And if it’s no big deal, why is the CIA is checking out the cables so much.

Aside from governments’ aggressive response, I have been surprised by how many journalists have turned on Assange. Some – like the Washington Times - have called for his assassination. Many say he has been reckless, churning out a tonne of data without interpreting it or redacting it. That it not true. He fed it through ‘professional’ journalists who have gone through the cables and crafted articles to accompany them. And he has removed many of the names.

But there is one uncomfortable fact that I am yet to see any journalist point out. As far as I can tell, this is the biggest exposé since Watergate.

It might not bring down the U.S. President, like Watergate, or expose criminal wrongdoing (depending on your opinion), but many politicians and civil servants' heads may roll.

The U.S. has had many cards stolen from its hand. Suddenly, other countries are holding the aces. They know what the Americans are thinking, and they can use it to their advantage. Power has been shifted.

But unlike Watergate, this didn’t come from journalists and their hard work and research. It came from a geek. Hundreds of thousands of journalists all over the world, and it is a reclusive nerd who gets the biggest scoop for decades.

Assange managed to cultivate a contact who gave him access and insight to the workings of the U.S. State Department. He used his knowledge of technology to expose it. He shone a floodlight into the dark corridors of power.

And journalists had barely managed to light a candle.