well i hope this is not the end for assange: one scenario now has him gulaged: extradited here and there, never quite emerging from the international legal twilight. on the other hand if he's actually a rapist...the charges are still beyond vague and puzzling. but what assange has actually done with wikileaks does not require charismatic leadership, and if there could be fifty mannings, there could be fifty assanges. this is a critical moment. states will band together to institute a global system of information control. within a few years, and even a few months, we'll have a better sense of whether they can assert authority over global information flow. if so, then the state/international system bids fair to dominate the century. if not...maybe not.