Assange case exposes the double standard practiced by US

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will fight his possible extradition to the United States in a British court. The US Department of Justice has accused Assange of helping former intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to break into a Pentagon computer system, and the US administration has filed an official request with Britain for Assange's extradition.

A British court has already sentenced Assange to 50 weeks in prison for jumping bail following his arrest by London police from the Ecuadorian embassy on April 11 after the Ecuadorian government withdrew the political asylum granted to him in 2012.

Many consider the Wikileaks founder a hero for defying Washington, and releasing thousands of confidential US documents related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which severely damaged the US' image. The US administration has accused Assange of "invading" its cyberspace, mainly due to the Vault 7 leaks that revealed the details of the CIA's works. No wonder many see the US Justice Department's attempts to arrest Assange as a crackdown on whistleblowers.