We’ve had some debate around here on LGF about the political motivation behind Wikileaks. Assange considers himself to be inspired American style Libertarians.
Assange: I’m Influenced by “American libertarianism, market libertarianism”

It’s not correct to put me in any one philosophical or economic camp, because I’ve learned from many. But one is American libertarianism, market libertarianism. So as far as markets are concerned I’m a libertarian, but I have enough expertise in politics and history to understand that a free market ends up as monopoly unless you force them to be free.

WikiLeaks is designed to make capitalism more free and ethical.

This upsets a lot of people. Those on the left who want to hold him up as a free speech whistle blower don’t like to hear that he shares some philosophy with the Tea Party and the Tea Partiers don’t like it because they don’t want to be associated with a vile creep like Assange. Glenn Beck laid out an absurd conspiracy blaming George Soros based on support from far left groups like World Can’t Wait. But this is nothing new. Libertarian extremists like Ron Paul and Alex Jones have always had a certain amount of support from Code Pink and other far left organizations.

So what is Julian Assange really up to? What is he trying to do and why? I highly suggest reading this: Julian Assange and the Computer Conspiracy; “To destroy this invisible government

…… the most effective way to attack this kind of organization would be to make “leaks” a fundamental part of the conspiracy’s information environment. Which is why the point is not that particular leaks are specifically effective. Wikileaks does not leak something like the “Collateral Murder” video as a way of putting an end to that particular military tactic; that would be to target a specific leg of the hydra even as it grows two more. Instead, the idea is that increasing the porousness of the conspiracy’s information system will impede its functioning, that the conspiracy will turn against itself in self-defense, clamping down on its own information flows in ways that will then impede its own cognitive function. You destroy the conspiracy, in other words, by making it so paranoid of itself that it can no longer conspire

So basically what he’s doing is leaking documents, not to expose anything in particular, but to create havoc by leaking anything. It’s a pretty good analysis of Assange’s world view and methods but I do take issue with this part…

If Wikileaks is a different kind of organization than anything we’ve ever seen before, it’s interesting to see him put himself in line with more conventional progressivism. Assange isn’t off base, after all, when he quotes Theodore Roosevelt’s words from his 1912 Progressive party presidential platform as the epigraph to the first essay; Roosevelt realized a hundred years ago that “Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people,” and it was true, then too, that “To destroy this invisible government, to befoul this unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of statesmanship.” Assange is trying to shit all over this unholy alliance in ways that the later and more radical Roosevelt would likely have commended.

Assange simply used the quote from Roosevelt as a reputable source for the concept of the “shadow government” which is a favorite among modern libertarian extremists from Alex Jones to Andrew Napolitano who happens to be a big fan of Wikileaks.

Fox News on Wikileaks - Judge Napolitano

Youtube Video