Not that I needed that particular hint to be suspicious of Avaaz.org which has piously proclaimed its support for Wikileaks  (or as a CBC radio announcer intoned on the 5:00 p.m. News the Licky Weaks – he did, really):

The massive campaign of intimidation against WikiLeaks is sending a chill through free press advocates everywhere.

Legal experts say WikiLeaks has likely broken no laws. Yet top US politicians have called it a terrorist group and commentators have urged assassination of its staff. The organization has come under massive government and corporate attack, but WikiLeaks is only publishing information provided by a whistleblower. And it has partnered with the world’s leading newspapers (NYT, Guardian, Spiegel etc) to carefully vet the information it publishes.

This is all nonsense: it has next to nothing to do with freedom of the press and everything to do with Assange’s contempt for the West and his desire to undermine it.

The information he has published may or may not be damaging in itself; what, without doubt, is damaging is the fact that he has published it, destroying any lingering doubts over whether the US is prepared to do what it takes to keep its secrets – secret.

It is too late to stop the information spreading, but it is not too late to send the message that anyone else tempted to indulge in similar informational espionage will suffer the same fate as Assange  – and be “partnered” with the Guardian.