Carl Court/Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/Insider
Not long ago, I received a mysterious invitation to attend a briefing in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Reading between blocks of redacted text, I saw that it concerned the ongoing saga of Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who is being held in a London prison while the British authorities decide what to do about an order that Assange be extradited to the US to face charges of hacking and espionage. "Your attendance will not be recorded," it promised.