What do you feel should be done with this Australian?

Julian Assange cannot be seen as a journalist.  Journalists have a very strong code of ethics ...and they don't put lives at risk.

Assange displayed no code of ethics ... and indeed put lives at risk.

However, enough is enough.  I think he should be returned to Australia and serve out whatever punishment he attracts.

I agree, Assange is a narcisist, reckless and very stupid.  A horrible little man.

What do you feel should be done with this Australian?

I don't care. Let the law take its course.

Assange has essentially done nothing wrong by publishing secret documents leaked to him by an activist American soldier who felt that the truth needed to be told about the war in Afghanistan. Assange printed the documents and embarrassed America and now America wants to show the world what happens to people who embarrass it. Assange may be sentenced to 175 years in gaol merely to cover that embarrassment. The soldier who leaked the documents was freed after 7 years in gaol. 

It must be a solstice or a stellar event because I'm in agreement with Horace Cope.  Another rare event I also agree with the Chinese foreign affairs spokesman who pointed out the hypocrisy of the USA which would happily spy on and reveal the secrets of other countries but takes serious action when it was similarly embarrassed. 

I find it totally hypocritical of the Australian government which has gone to great lengths and expense to free and defend Australian drug mules imprisoned overseas who put thousands of people's lives at risk at home but have so far refused to defend Assange for blowing the whistle on US government criminality.

Viking and Horace Cope,

May I assume that you admire Julian Assange ... and condone what he did?

Professional journalists have a strong code of ethics and whilst adhering to "freedom of information" are careful how this is presented. Many journalists report from war-zones.  They are careful not to report in a way that endangers lives.

Julian Assange named sources ... they subsequently disappeared ...!!

Journalists never reveal their sources.  Some have even been incarcerated for this.

"Mr Lewis said the dissemination of specific classified documents unredacted put dissidents in Afghanistan and Iraq at "risk of serious harm, torture or even death".

The US identified hundreds of "at risk and potentially at risk people" around the world, he said, and made efforts to warn them."

Assange released material without any care about the consequences.  Just riding high on ego.

No, I don't believe war crimes should be covered up.  But there are due processes to investigate these.

Assange is a dangerous, deluded and nasty character . Whether this has to do with his early growing environment or a mad gene, who knows. In all seriousness, the man needs to be confined. He’s not a journalist, he’s an accomplished hacker, been doing it since his teens.

In 1987, aged 16, he began hacking under the name Mendax which in Latin means “liar” and that is what he is in reality, a liar. He and two others known as Trax and Prime Suspect formed a hacking group called “the International Subversives.” Let this man out of prison and he will do even more damage. Why should Australia trying to build good relations with the US and other countries, defend him, that would be madness.

Lucca,

I was unaware of Assange's history.   Thank you for providing this man's background.

I hope others on this forum read it.

I cannot understand why people support him.