Leakers of government secrets tend to be, well, weirdos

*   I have no sympathy for Julian Assange - a deeply eccentric and narcissistic man who played politics* as he thought they should be played with gathering and releasing hacked secrets and information.   As I recall, he had massive fallings out with those who were initially on side in his organisation, and was, at the very least, recklessly careless of the ruin or danger his releases could cause to the lives of those who had tried to help Western governments.   I guess his life has been ruined enough by the steps he took to avoid going to prison in the US.   But I'm never going to think he was really hard done by.   Hack and leak State and other secrets knowing it's wildly illegal, and take the punishment like a man (or woman - see below), is my view.

*  Similarly, I was amazed at the eccentricity and strangeness of Australia whistleblower David McBride as shown on the recent-ish Four Corners show about him.   The allegation, the truth of which I am uncertain, is that his initial reaction to events in Afghanistan was to complain about SAS being treated too harshly for their dubious tactics in the field.   Only later, it seems, did his leaks feed into the investigations that - for reasons no one seems to be able to explain - have led to the huge cloud over the SAS members for having likely committed serious war crimes, yet still not being prosecuted for it.   

I have no doubt that the Australian Army and its legal service has been making bad management decisions for many decades - I have some peripheral knowledge of them.  And seeing McBride just confirmed all my prejudices about this.   

* Let's not forget Chelsea Manning, who (I see from Wikipedia) came from a very, very troubled family background (as did Assange - you pretty much couldn't have a more unsettled upbringing if you tried), should never have joined the military, and ended up transexual.   Not all transexuals are crazy, I guess, but it's not a great sign of mental stability.   Anyway, I'm not sure why Obama commuted the sentence.

 

* He helped feed MAGA conspiracy mongering and was clearly a Putin apologist and effectively a Trump supporter.   As someone said, he more like a self-involved political anarchist than someone with well thought out principles.   There are those saying "yeah, he's a jerk, but I still think he was hounded too far."   I have trouble accepting that, or having sympathy, since a lot of his self imposed confinement was far from the same conditions as a prison sentence.     

Update:  

I know, I know:  complete idiots can sometimes be right on some issues, but geez, if you find yourself on side with MTG on any issue:

as well the Australian Greens, surely you've got to have some doubts.   (I'm thinking Bernard Keane, and the [long absent from the internet] Jason Soon.)