"This story continues to be more and more about Assange and less and less about principles. Assange goes out and makes great speeches about freedom and openness

"This story continues to be more and more about Assange and less and less about principles. Assange goes out and makes great speeches about freedom and openness and all of that, but these ideas don't require him to carry them around. He's a little speck of dust somewhere." If that was you camped out in the Ecuadorean embassy with cops standing out in the lobby you wouldn't be saying that. I'll also note that if you were in Bradley Manning's shoes sitting in a supermax somewhere with 23 hours a day to do nothing but stare at the walls you wouldn't be saying that either. Principles don't mean shit without people standing behind them and putting everything on the line. And contrary to your naive view, less dedicated people will rally around a "comrade" in need long before they will even begin to give credence to anybody sitting behind their computer lecturing them on principles coughDanielBMarkhamcough.