SYDNEY — Hero hacker or the world's most dangerous tattletale? No Australian has been so applauded and reviled as Julian Assange. Holed up in a London jail awaiting charges for extradition to Stockholm, then to a likely one-way trip to a ghastly fate in Washington, Assange has burst onto the world stage as the shadowy figure behind revelations of what politicians in all countries try to hide from electors.
In the age of instant communication the telltale whistle-blower, sitting at a computer, has morphed into a force for good and evil. WikiLeaks, founded by Assange, is that new force.
His revelations of U.S. stuff-ups in Afghanistan and Iraq are bad enough. Now it seems WikiLeaks is ready to embarrass Big Business. Already it has revealed that BHP Billiton, a major Australian-based resources supplier, orchestrated the collapse of a $21 billion deal between rival Rio Tinto and the Chinese government-owned Chinalco. Stand by for the inside story on the real origin of the recent global financial crisis — how Wall Street almost tipped the world into depression.