Is anyone else actually kind of wanting Assange to release the key, just to see the fallout? I mean, if it's the content he deems worthy to use to basically blackmail some of the world's most powerful people, you can bet it would be pretty damn juicy. Getting people fired from office juicy, possibly even complete government overhaul juicy.
Mostly, I just want to know what that douche thinks counts as "hot" enough to bet his life on. Not that the stuff already leaked wasn't worth the attention. But that is exactly the idea, the lynchpin of Assange's safety-plan is the world's insatiable curiosity. He's quite the showman; this whole business with the rape charges is a testament to just what kind of tizzy he has the political community spinning to. One way or another though, it will be released - either because of the legal doomsday scenario coming true, or because Assange just can't resist releasing it any long. Probably if and when he gets something even better to hold hostage.
As I said a few pages back, if he had been caught outside of the public eye, they could have done anything they wanted to him and made up any kind of story to justify it. Sure, people would be highly suspicious to outright condemning of the disappearance, but the damage control would be completely in the hands of authorities who are quite capable and experienced in dealing with such things.
Yeah, I just wound up reiterating your analysis. The nature of the encryption key and possession thereof adds a new, possibly unprecedented metric to how the law will approach him.
Not to sound bombastic, but this is literally history in the making. Information, the release of it, and the legal and technological apparatus have never created a situation like this before, and it will definitely set a huge precedent, in thought if not in any particular law, of how governments in the future will respond to info leaks.
I wonder if Nic Cage is playing the good guy or the bad guy in this role. Good thing he does moral ambiguity so well.