Assange wants guarantees he will not be sent to the US

[reorg]

25. typical, baseless smear

Wikileaks did not publish the names of Belarusian dissidents. Someone put this rumor into the world when some cables concerning Belarus were made available to a newspaper in that country. Just like all the other cables were made available to news organizations which Wikileaks entrusted with editing them, if necessary, to protect those who might be put in harm's way by their publication.

It is perhaps no accident that the smear merchant you quote works for the newspaper which published the only cable (to my knowledge) that was specifically cited as having put someone at risk. The cable showed that the Zimbabwean prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, had been privately urging the Americans to maintain sanctions against Zimbabwe, while taking the opposite position in public.

When this became public, the Zimbabwean Attorney General did indeed set up a team of lawyers to investigate whether Tsvangirai may be charged with conspiracy or treason. He was never prosecuted, though.

Ironically, the same newspaper that had published this cable later accused WIKILEAKS of putting the prime minister at risk ... although this would have been, of course, their own fault and responsibility.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/insideguardian/2011/jan/13/wikileaks-morgan-tsvangirai-inside-guardian
http://wlcentral.org/node/2054