Alex Gibney's new documentary traces the rise and fall of WikiLeaks and its prickly founder.
—By Dave Gilson
Thu May. 23, 2013 3:00 AM PDT
... Assange's preemptive attack one of the film's main themes: What happens when an admirable cause is headed by a thin-skinned, combative prick? ...
Gibney gives Assange and WikiLeaks plenty of credit for their greatest hits ... But in its second hour, We Steal Secrets sinks a knife into its subject as a series of disillusioned allies steps up to testify against him. Former Wikileaks staffer James Ball diagnoses Assange with a case of "noble cause corruption"—unable to recognize when he does things that he would deplore in others. Manne qualifies his earlier praise, asserting that Assange is "a natural fabulist and storyteller and lives intensely in his imagination." Nick Davies, a Guardian reporter who worked closely with Assange, recalls his callous attitude toward sources named in American military documents whose lives might be jeopardized if their identities were not redacted: "I raised this with Julian and he said, 'If an Afghan civilian helps coalition forces, he deserves to die' ...
... The wiki part of WikiLeaks is history: The site's dropbox for leaks has been shuttered for more than two years. And the leaks have gone cold: Its biggest recent coups have been security-firm emails lifted by Anonymous and the re-release of 40-year-old documents that confirm the horribleness of Henry Kissinger ...
http://www.motherjones.com/media/2013/05/we-steal-secrets-wikileaks-assange-gibney-review
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