Julian Assange on rioters: they've assisted 'Big Brother'

ASSANGE ON RIOTERS: A surprising perspective on the matter, perhaps, but one with which I agree nonetheless. It strikes me as a rather accurate statement: the looters on the streets of Britain over the past week have done 'Big Brother' a favour by giving the government more latitude to invade the privacy and destroy the rights of its citizens – that is, according to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been accused of 'digital terrorism' on a number of occasions; I'm inclined to agree, despite the obvious ironies of Julian Assange making a comparison to Big Brother. Assange, of course, being a man whose organisation has done more in terms of privacy invasion than most. (His modus operandi has always struck me as something of a moral dilemma. Is the invasion of someone's privacy justified because they are a high-ranking government official? A perpetrator of corruption? Is that sort of behaviour ever justified? Not to mention the highest irony of all: how can an organisation so secretive create the impression of being one promoting the cause of transparency?)