His strangely assorted fan club of ageing hippies, libertarians, and Putinists have greeted Julian Assange as a hero today, after the Wikileaks founder was released from prison following a plea bargain with US authorities.
Assange admitted breaching the Espionage Act, but having already spent five years in an English prison awaiting extradition, was allowed to fly home to Australia.
Due to Hillary Clinton being among the most famous victims of data published by Wikileaks, some H&D readers will be tempted to see Assange as “our enemy’s enemy” – but he is no friend of British nationalists, and he is no hero. Nor is he any sort of champion of “free speech”. There are many people in Europe (including in the UK) who, unlike Assange, are imprisoned solely because of expressing their opinions, but neither Assange nor his fan club ever lifted a finger to defend the likes of Sam Melia, Vincent Reynouard, or Ursula Haverbeck.
We should never forget that Assange eagerly published the home addresses of British National Party members, thus putting their families at risk from physical attack or intimidation from “anti-fascists”.
No doubt this (like his other “leaks”) had the blessing of Assange’s allies in the Russian intelligence service.
Wikileaks acted for years as the de facto partner of Putin’s espionage network. It was entirely fitting that Assange faced conviction and imprisonment under the Espionage Act.
At no time did Assange act as a bona fide investigative journalist. His method was simply to obtain vast quantities of data (sometimes with the help of Russian intelligence) and then publish it, without any assessment of its value, and without any consideration of those whose lives he turned upside down.
Unfortunately the “dissident right” in the UK and US contains many who would fit Lenin’s appraisal as “useful idiots” – useful that is for “anti-fascists” and for the Kremlin. They are certainly no use to nationalism.
The rational nationalist response to Julian Assange would be to say: good riddance to bad rubbish. Let us hope that he never sets foot in the UK again, and that we hear no more of this cynical, irresponsible opportunist.