WikiLeaks boss - Obama's villain, Trump's hero

The WikiLeaks boss, who was once criticized for publishing top secret US government documents, is now being hailed as a hero by President-elect Donald Trump.

On January 3, US President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter to lavish praise on a man that most Republicans do not want to mention: Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, a website that publishes secret information related to foreign governments.

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks. Photo: AP

"Julian Assange said 'a 14-year-old could have hacked Podesta,'" Trump wrote, referring to John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's former campaign chairman. "Why was the DNC so careless?"

This is not the first time Trump has praised WikiLeaks. During the campaign, the New York tycoon repeatedly expressed his joy at WikiLeaks’ release of emails stolen from the DNC and Clinton’s campaign. Trump supporters often cheered and applauded enthusiastically when WikiLeaks was mentioned.

Since then, Mr. Trump has continued to praise the transparency that WikiLeaks brings, while US President Barack Obama and other top officials have criticized WikiLeaks, saying that it is harmful because it leaks important national secrets.

Trump also defended the WikiLeaks founder, who has been granted asylum in Ecuador’s London embassy after a British court ordered his extradition to Sweden to face sexual harassment charges involving two women. The New York tycoon’s comments echoed conservative media that once denounced WikiLeaks but now tends to celebrate Assange as a hero.

Still, some Republicans are increasingly taking a different view. In interviews, members of congressional intelligence agencies either declined to comment or insisted they still wanted WikiLeaks shut down.

“Julian Assange is no hero,” said Oklahoma Republican Representative James Lankford. “A thief cannot bring transparency. He has no right to publish such information.”

In a statement, Texas Republican Congressman Will Hurd, a former CIA official, stressed that Assange is not "a reliable source" for President-elect Trump or anyone else.

"Those who condemn former Secretary Clinton for using a private server to handle highly classified and sensitive information should also be outraged by Assange's continued reckless leaking of sensitive documents," Hurd said.

Appearing on CNN, Republican Senator Lindsey O. Graham of South Carolina called on the future US president to more carefully assess the motives and ambitions behind Assange's moves.

"Today it's the Democrats, tomorrow it might be the Republicans," he said.

However, some conservative media outlets in the US do not share the views of the above Republican politicians. In an interview conducted in Assange's office in London, Fox News correspondent Sean Hannity used many positive words to describe the WikiLeaks founder, such as a source of truth, representative of honest journalism, and a person who attacks the political elite. Hannity said on January 3 that he believes "every word" of what Assange says.

With a little prodding from Hannity, Assange claimed that Russian hackers had nothing to do with the leak of Democratic Party emails. Assange added that he was surprised that the US “political elite” failed to elect Clinton president. Trump “wasn’t allowed” to win, Assange said.

The Fox News interview received support from many fans. Sarah Palin, who once compared Assange to an al-Qaeda magazine editor, apologized to the WikiLeaks founder on Facebook and praised him for revealing "important information that opened the public's eyes."

Sinner

Julian Assange in an interview with Fox News. Photo: Fox News

WikiLeaks shocked the world in 2010 when it published thousands of classified Pentagon documents detailing US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The most famous of these included a cockpit video of a US helicopter pilot opening fire on two Reuters reporters after mistaking them for insurgents.

That same year, WikiLeaks went on to release more than 250,000 US State Department documents containing sensitive assessments of foreign governments and politicians. Since then, WikiLeaks has continued to release top secret documents.

Conservative media at the time called for Assange to be prosecuted. Commentator Jeffrey Kuhner, in an article in the Washington Times, even suggested that the US government should assassinate Assange.

“Julian Assange poses a clear and present threat to US national security,” Kuhner wrote. “The WikiLeaks founder is nothing more than a reckless provocateur. He is aiding and abetting terrorists in their war against the United States. The government should address this problem, immediately and once and for all.”

The National Review Online news site questioned why Assange was still alive. He should have been “strangled in his hotel room.” The New York tycoon himself called WikiLeaks a “disgrace” at the time.

Lawmakers and national security officials were less harsh. Arizona Senator John McCain described WikiLeaks' release of classified documents as "the largest and most damaging breach of national security in American history." Representative Peter T. King, who later became chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said WikiLeaks should be designated a terrorist organization.

US Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. accused Assange of endangering many human lives, especially those of US intelligence officers working abroad.

Most recently, in late 2015, Texas Republican Congressman Mac Thornberry, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, stressed that WikiLeaks had "aided America's top enemy" and caused "enormous" damage to the country.

According to VNE