Paul Buchanan: Security Intelligence Analyst on the release and guilty plea of Julian Assange

A security intelligence analyst says the US has got what it needed from Julian Assange.  

The Wikileaks founder has struck a deal with the US and will soon plead guilty to an espionage charge before being sentenced to time already served.  

Paul Buchanan told Mike Hosking that Assange has spent the last 14 years in some sort of confinement.  

He says the US has won its pound of flesh out of him, adding that he's a broken guy and this sounds like a fair way to end the entire thing.  

Buchanan doubts Assange will get the pardon he is seeking. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Juliana San Sager. As you well, Nizoba, he struck a deal,
hasn't actually signed it, I don't think yet, but wilted
and then on his way to Australia struck a deal
with the United States. He will plead guilty to an
espionage charge at a hearing in Saipan. The judge will
sentence him to sixty two months. Those sixty two months
have already been served. Then he's on the private jet
to Australia. Security Intelligent analyst Paul V. Kinnon's with us. Paul,

(00:20):
very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Goodmorrow, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
I found the whole thing deeply fascinating. I think he's
a crook, But nevertheless, who wins do you think ultimately
out of this?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, actually the decision was rather solemnnic because you know,
he's been confined one way or another since twenty twelve,
so he's spent a lot of time by himself. And
the charge that he pleaded guilty to, as it turned out,
was the lesser of eighteen charges. He played guilty to
unlawfully obtaining and disseminating classified information related to the national

(00:53):
defense of the United States. It's who he shared that
information with and what I would say this, it was
Chelsea Manning who provided him with the videotapes of the
helicopter attack on civilians and journalists and Baghdad in twenty ten,
and that was a war crime. But what happened after that?

(01:16):
The information in the first instance of Wiki leaks put
out went to investigative journalists like Nicky Hager and that
sort of folk, But subsequent leaks went to the Russians.
The Hillary Clinton emails that basically upended the twenty sixth
campaign were obtained by Wiki leaks and then sent to

(01:40):
Russian intelligence. Now that was after Assange was arrested, while
he was actually in the Ecuadorian industry hiding out there.
But I would say that Assange was very careless with
his dissemination of the sensitive information as a tatred of
the United States. Now the US has gone this pound

(02:03):
of flesh out of him. He's a broken guy again.
He's been confined for what fourteen years or one way
or another. So to me, this sounds like, you know,
a fair way to end the entire thing. Now he
wants to pardon from this charge down the road. I

(02:24):
don't think he's going to get that, But the president
is twofold one, we still have the case where the
United States has gone after a working journalist for obtaining
information about war crimes. I guess it comes down to this, Mike.
You either think he's a whistle blower or you think

(02:47):
he's a trader. Now he's not a US citizen, so
he can't be a trader to the United States. I
tend to think that he's a whistleblower who's gone rogue,
unlike Edward Snowden, who deliberately took very sensitive stuff and
gave it to the bad guys, not just investigative journalists,
and went way beyond what he claimed was his reasons,

(03:09):
which was that they were on Americans un lawfully. I
separate the two out. I think that just assange because
of this abiding hatred of the United States. And there's
many people in the journalistic community who have this sort
of states for the United States for various sins committed
over their history, who I won't say they deliberately tried

(03:33):
to hurt the US, but they are very careless with
their journalist ethics.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Exactly good on your Poul Listener. I apologized with the
quality of that line, but we've got to get insult
and appreciate it very much. Is regards the role of
the Australian government to be fascinating to see what's the
process to say to write thirty This Morning, seven twenty.
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