Julian Assange, Espionage, and Spies Like Us

There is a strong possibility of an attempt for extradition of Julian Assange from Switzerland to the United States for prosecution, possibly under the Espionage Act.

Therefore an examination of the very definition of what the espionage act is and the repercussions for violation might be interesting.

Espionage Definition #1

The act of obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage carries the possibility of prosecution with penalties ranging from several years imprisonment up to execution.

But the CIA and various other organizations spy on countries and corporations other than the United States all the time at government expense. Billions of dollars each year are budgeted for the CIA, NSA, spy satellites, encryption, etc so it must actually be legal in some form. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even requested that diplomats spy on fellow diplomats, going so far as to request DNA samples. It must be part of a sanctioned government policy, deemed important for continued operation.

Therefore, the true definition of espionage must be changed if it’s to be accurate as defined under the umbrella of a criminal act.

Revised Espionage definition #1

The act of obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of a country or corporation OTHER than your own. If caught by another country or corporation, espionage carries the possibility of prosecution with penalties ranging from several years imprisonment up to execution.

But wasn’t there a Russian spy, Anna Chapman, who was just released and now is going to be in Playboy magazine? Here is a person who has admitted to being a spy, a person that has committed espionage, and she’s going to be in Playboy magazine after being turned over WITHOUT prosecution!

Clearly, the definition of espionage must be further refined to allow for some subjective nature as to it’s prosecution and penalties.

Revised Espionage definition #2

The act of obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of a country or corporation other than your own. If caught by another country or corporation, espionage carries the possibility of prosecution contingent on the amount of information passed, the quality of information passed,and the amount of embarrassment the information produces for the government.

So let’s look at some other cases of espionage to get an idea of the range of possibilities concerning extent of damage caused.

John Walker was a spy of the worst sort. Caught after spying for the Soviets for money, his espionage actions are unimaginable in the extent of damage they caused.

So great was the amount of information that he gave and the damage it produced that it would have tipped the balance of power during a war.

He gave the Soviets over 1 million messages over his 18 years of spying. During those years of spying he gave the key cards for enciphering messages to the location and strength of ALL our nuclear submarine forces at all times.

In other words, he handed the equivalent of the Nazi Enigma machine to the enemy.

Just the cost of replacing all those machines that used those compromised keylists? Over 1 billion dollars over several years time.

He also recruited his son and his best friend into being a spy as well. His ring of spies gave up the names of 25 deep undercover spies that we had embedded in the Soviet Union causing their immediate execution typical Soviet style, bullet to the back of the head.

Walker’s spy ring revealed information to the Soviets that we could track their submarines by the sonic cavitation signature that their submarine propellers produced.

This allowed them to steal machining technology through Toshiba to eliminate this signature and prevent tracking of Soviet sub position.

The damage that John Walker caused cannot possibly be measured! But he only got a life sentence and his son, Micheal Walker, only got a 25 year sentence.

Micheal Walker was released February 17th, 2000 after only serving 15 of those 25 years without any public outcry from any Republican politician in Congress whatsoever! Absolute silence!

Julian Assange has so far only published mid-level diplomatic documents GIVEN to him, not stolen BY him, from a whistle-blower that was concerned about moral crimes.

Several of those documents are showing contradictions in US policy, causing embarrassment or possible violations of international law.

But there is NOTHING nearing a fraction of a fraction of the amount of information given up by the Walker spy ring.

By the governments own admittance, no informant so far has been harmed based on these publications. The same information has been published as well by several international news outlets like the New York Times, Der Spiegel, and the London Times without a charge of any sort.

But Republicans political leaders such as Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin have called for execution of Julian Assange. Several conservative “Talking Heads” have cried…”Where is the CIA? How come they cannot take care of things like this with a hit squad?”

This discrepancy indicates that further revision of the definition of the espionage act is in order.

Revised Espionage definition #3

The act of obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of a country or corporation other than your own. If caught by another country or corporation, espionage carries the possibility of prosecution based on the amount of information passed, the quality of information passed, and the amount of embarrassment the information produces for the government.

So there you have it. The final definition of the espionage act as to how it applies to Julian Assange.

The penalty of the act of espionage is determined by the amount of embarrassment that it causes. (or possibly the amount of hypocrisy that it exposes?)

But I put forth the possibility that any penalty that we can inflict upon Julian will cause one thousand times MORE actual harm to whatever credibility that we have left in saying that the United States stands for Freedom of the Press.