A prominent Swedish political commentator dismissed as unpersuasive my column last week suggesting that Karl Rove’s Swedish consulting work might play a role in ongoing law enforcement probes of WikiLeaks on both sides of the Atlantic.
Timbro Media Institute Executive Director Roland P. Martinsson, at left, called also for the United States government to prosecute WikiLeaks for hurting Western security and embarrassing government officials.
Further, he expressed confidence that the Swedish justice system is investigating WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange fairly for potential misconduct in unprotected sex with two women. Critics describe the manhunt as a gimmick to smear the defendant and bring him to Sweden for extradition to the United States.
The Connecticut Watchdog column published last week, “Rove Suspected of Role In Swedish WikiLeaks Probe,” attracted a large number of domestic and international readers as well as several conservative critics. I provided the conservative author and commentator Martinsson the opportunity on my “Washington Update” radio show Jan. 6 to respond.
But other national security and WikiLeaks-related developments have exploded worldwide since then, capturing public attention and holding potentially important implications for voters and Internet consumers.
Most dramatic and horrifying, a gunman shot Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords during a rampage that killed Bush-appointed federal trial judge John Roll and five others at the congresswoman’s voter forum in Arizona. The shooting already is raising fears that members of Congress will curtail public access. Rightists had opposed Giffords and 19 other Democrats during this year’s mid-term elections with some printed materials suggesting them as “targets.”