Irony alert: Julian Assange complains about leaked police report

The irony: Julian Assange, who orchestrated the leaking of thousands of embarrassing diplomatic cables to the press via his WikiLeaks website, has received a taste of his own medicine — and he doesn't like it. After police reports on his alleged sex crimes in Sweden were leaked to The Guardian over the weekend, Assange's lawyers demanded an official investigation, saying they can only imagine one motive behind the leaks: "Trying to make Julian look bad." In one of the leaked reports, Assange's sexual performance is described as "the world's worst screw." In a further ironic twist, The Guardian was one of the few newspapers given exclusive access to WikiLeaks' trove of diplomatic cables.

The reaction: "It would be hard to imagine a richer irony," says an unsigned editorial in The New York Sun, than the "founder of a Web site dedicated to the leaking of classified government documents" complaining about the leak of a confidential report. That old saying about glass houses and throwing stones comes to mind. Uh, not exactly, says Jeremy Sapienza at AntiWar.com. WikiLeaks aims to expose the misdeeds of the "nearly invincible elites," not betray the confidences of "accused and assumed innocent individuals" like Assange. The WikiLeaks founder "is not now, in any way, hoist by his own petard, thank you."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up