I agree that the US Government is deceitful both to it's allies and enemies as well as it's people.
I can't agree that what Assange has done is espionage. The material was provided to him by a "public servant", (I categorise soldiers as servants of the public of their country), Assange's organisation is diseminating the material as are other media outlets.
If Assange has any case to answer then the US courts needs to revoke the judgement made in
New York Times v United States. The Pentagon Papers case set a precedent which also protected Woodward and Bernstein with their publication of the Watergate tapes.
I don't give a rats clacker what the US politicians (remember these are the ones doing a lot of the lying that is at issue here, WMD's anyone?), bleat about bringing Wikileaks down and extraditing Assange to either the US or Gitmo.
Unless a US prosecutor can bring a case leading to a warrant for his arrest to the British or Swedish courts AND get that warrant accepted as an offence for which Assange should be extradited to the US to stand trial for, then he's going to Sweden only to stand trial for the sexual assault charges.
I won't be surprised if the US attempts it, however I have doubts over whether they will succeed in bringing him to trial or convicting him based on the fact that as the US law currently stands, he's not actually committed a crime. You can't have it both ways, either you get freedom of speech or you get speech control ala China. Which would you prefer?
Interesting comments from KRudd:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010...hes-kevin-rudd