“When asked if the founder of WikiLeaks should be prosecuted as a terrorist for publishing over 250,000 diplomatic cables, by 48 percent to 22 percent the sample of all Americans said yes compared to 49 percent of D.C. elites who agreed and 36 percent who disagreed. In other words, roughly the same percentages of both said Assange should face prosecution, though 30 percent of the general population remains undecided.

“America’s desire for a tough response to the leaks crossed every party and demographic line. Assange lifted the veil on one of our most cherished self-conceptions — that America remains the most sophisticated and canny player on the international stage — and left us all feeling astonishingly exposed.”

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“There are different means by which you can be attacked. I mean it doesnt have to be a bomb or an airplane flying into a building. It doesn’t have to be a shooting. It can be through cyber attacks, it could be through leaking of very sensitive classified information. Regardless of whether you think it causes any harm, the fact that here is an individual that is not an American citizen first and foremost, for whatever reason gotten his hands on classified American material and put it out there in the public domain. And I think that we also should be censoring the American news agencies which enabled him to do this and also supported him and applauding him for the efforts. So that’s kind of aiding and abetting of a serious crime.”

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“So, this is where Julian Assange will be vacationing from prison. It’s Ellingham Hall in Suffolk, England, an estate owned by the independently wealthy journalist Vaughan Smith (and his parents, according to the UK title).

“In 1879, it was described as ‘a handsome modern erection’ that had ‘clayey loam’ soil on which you could grow mean wheat, barley, and turnip crops.

“Is there any way that this could get more surreal? Perhaps the next court hearing will be conducted exclusively in iambic pentameter and all members of the proceeding will have to wear tights and codpieces.”

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