Unless it's some kind of whistleblower story, the normal response from normal journalists to someone passing classified information to them is 'get it the hell away from me.'

This was Sharyl Attkisson's response in her book, 'Stonewalled,' when likely Obama political operatives either planted or attempted to plant classified documents onto her computer as a means of having something on her, either to faciliate her arrest or silence her.

Get it the hell away from me.

It's not just the legal risk, it's the simple fact that even very effective investigative reporters such as Attkisson, virtually never need classified information to do their jobs properly. There's an amazing amount of open-source information that can present a very clear picture of reality and keep the public informed.

But then there's guys like Julian Assange.

Far from doing the hard work of digging up and assembling relevants facts as Attkisson does, he trafficks in wholesale classified information, indiscriminately releasing scads of secrets for the ape-like glee of throwing a coconut bomb to see it go boom. After that, he cloaks himself in the phony armor of 'anti-secrecy activist' (even though he's quite secret about who's giving him his stolen information, as well as selective about whose information he releases - ours), and claims to be a whistleblower.

He's nothing more than a two-bit fence. He trafficks in stolen information, he benefits from it, and not a bit of it is his to own. Lives and property are placed at risk, our enemies benefit, and he sits back and giggles. Billions of dollars of U.S. investment goes into the collection of information, but he gets it, releases it, and renders it null. He's a stolen merchandise retailer, no better than the lowlife the LAPD pick up on Skid Row. As taxpayers who paid for this information, we get stiffed. We make a big deal about copyright infringement and stolen trade secrets, why shouldn't we make a bigger deal about stolen national security secrets and those who profit from them?

And as an irritating coda, Assange puts on a sniveling little cloak of arrogance, convinced he knows better than the professionals and the people who produced the intelligence information what's good for us. Who died and made him God? 

With this disgusting picture, it's a welcome development to see the Trump administration clamping down on this sorry show, issuing an arrest warrant for Assange to shut him and his fencing operation down.

The new CIA director under President Trump, Mike Pompeo, summed it up very well last week:

CIA Director Mike Pompeo, in his first speech since taking over the agency, lambasted WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange -- calling the group a "non-state hostile intelligence service" that is often abetted by "state actors like Russia."

Speaking Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Pompeo called Assange a "fraud," someone with no “moral compass” and a “narcissist who has created nothing of value.”

He asserted that Assange and former National Security Agency staffer and famed leaker Edward Snowden “seek to use that information to make a name for themselves” and they “care nothing about the lives they put at risk or the damage they cause to national security.”

and if you haven't already, be sure to listen to Pompeo's speech made last week in full.

The speech was a warning shot and the announcement by Attorney General Jeff Sessions about prepared charges for this trafficker in stolen information is the welcome consequence. The question it raises is why President Obama didn't do this earlier. Even Obama seemed to be somewhat irritated by the embarrassing Wikileaks exposes which pockmarked his administration. But he did nothing. Trump's willingness to do something about this punk is a necessary and welcome change of course.