Julian Assange Facts: He Has Driven Political Establishment Figures Insane
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You’re bound to make enemies when your job is exposing powerful people’s secrets, but Julian Assange has motivated some of the most powerful people in the world to make blood-curdling statements about what they’d like to do to him.
Democratic strategist and former Fox News host Bob Beckel, for example, has said: “The way to deal with this is pretty simple. We’ve got special-op forces. I mean, a dead man can’t leak stuff. This guy’s a traitor, a treasonous. . . and he has broken every law of the United States. The guy ought to be — and I am not for the death penalty, so if I am not for the death penalty, their is only one way to do it – illegally shoot the son of a bitch.”
This sentiment isn’t unique. Pundits, politicians, and public figures across the spectrum, from Eric Holder to Sarah Palin, have accused Assange (who is not an American citizen) of treason and called for active measures up to and including his death.
Starting in 2010, with the infamous release of secret State Department cables, Julian Assange has had no bigger enemy than Hillary Clinton. The 2010 leak embarrassed Clinton in several ways. Among other things, the cables contained US ambassadors’ private opinions of the people they worked with, as well as high-level gossip about foreign politicians.
The documents, some of which dated back to 1966, revealed that the United States still supports dictatorships and violates international law when it suits. In 2002, for example, the State Department arranged to spy on the private communications of Kofi Annan during the lead up to the war in Iraq.
According to WikiLeaks, it was around this time that Clinton “joked” about killing Assange by asking, “can’t we just drone strike this guy?” People in the room laughed nervously, but Clinton kept talking in a serious tone about Assange being a “soft target” who was “thumbing his nose” at America.
Fascinated by these Julian Assange facts? Next, learn more about contentious political figures like Muammar Gaddafi and Osama Bin Laden.
