Julian Assange Does Robert Mugabe a Solid

The prime minister openly admitted the incongruity between his private support for the sanctions and his public statements in opposition. If his political adversaries knew [he] secretly supported the sanctions, deeply unpopular with Zimbabweans, they would have a powerful weapon to attack and discredit the democratic reformer.

Later that day, the U.S. embassy in Zimbabwe dutifully reported the details of the meeting to Washington in a confidential U.S. State Department diplomatic cable. And slightly less than one year later, WikiLeaks released it to the world.

The reaction in Zimbabwe was swift. Zimbabwe's Mugabe-appointed attorney general announced he was investigating the Prime Minister on treason charges based exclusively on the contents of the leaked cable.

There will always be government secrets that the public needs to know. And we will always depend on the bravery of the people who work for the government to blow the whistle and face the consequences. But releasing a whole cache of documents, without regard to their purpose or the potential damage of what secrets they contain, leads to stuff like this. (And also it leads to stuff like Julian Assange hooking up with the hott Swedish laaaaaaadies who suddenly love him. And then him being gross and weird.)

Would Julian Assange prefer Robert Mugabe to be in power, rather than a democratic leader who embodies the liberal values like those WikiLeaks seems to be about? Hmm. Tough question. His brain may not like tyrants, but his dick sure acts like one. [ Atlantic ]