WikiLeaks: Terrorism???
Congressman Peter King (R—Tinfoil Hat) has asked Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder to declare WikiLeaks a foreign terrorist organization. This would make the WikiLeaks founder a terrorist ringleader.
Lindsey Graham and Liz Cheney have also jumped on the bandwagon.
Either these “leaders” are too dense to tell the difference between “national security” and just plain embarrassment, or they think the public can’t tell the difference. The Nixon Administration yelped “National Security!” when Daniel Ellsberg embarrassed them with The Pentagon Papers. The more things change…
Labels: Daniel Ellsberg, Lindsey Graham, Liz Cheney, Pentagon Papers, Peter King WikiLeaks, WikiLeaks terrorism
posted by Tom Harper @ 7:01 PM
14 Comments:
Yes. To my mind the leaking of sensitive and secret gov documents is a form of terrorism, and act, if you will of cyber warfare against the United States.
Yeah,the nazis are pissed.
And they've effectively put a price on his (Assange) head with the so called rape charges,hoping some patriot will save them the trouble of finding and prosecuting him.
Can't help but laugh when they say they're warning their 'allies' about what might be exposed in dip cables.
Yeah,that they'er typical duplicious dipshits that talk behind their backs out of both sides of their mouth.
We've surely come a long way since the Pentagon Papers.
Truth?! You can't handle the truth!
Oooh, now here is a surprise, diplomats dogging each other. Wow, who could have seen that one coming.
Anyone else read?
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/11/28/wikileaks-cable-dump-goes-live/#comments
As always the action is in the comments.
What Demeur said + 1
..Oh, I see someone drank more "terrorist" swill. About what I'd expect from a "marketing","lobbyist".
The stupid,it STILL burns.
Really, Hillblogger? And the fact that the US Government does nothing but lie, lie, LIE to get its way-what do you call THAT? Whether or not the blind want to admit it, the present climate makes WikiLeaks almost a necessity. Or do you think that it is a good thing for this Government to get thousands of its soldiers killed based on some made-up bullshit?
Really.... the empire apologists ought to just STFU. You're wrong, it's been proven, and you simply do not have an argument to make anymore.
J.R., with all due respect, I'd like to see you try to operate a government without secrecy. You'd get farther trying to run a McDonald's without french fries.
The fact that Bush & Co. lied us into an unnecessary war, evil and costly as that was, doesn't negate the need for and usefulness of the government being able to hold some things confidential and other things secret.
You say secrecy can get people wrongfully killed? Well, lack of secrecy can get people wrongfully killed too, along with creating lots of other vulnerabilities and problems.
SW, with all due respect, this government bought and paid for the trouble they're having now. the "secrecy" argument has been used to fig-leaf everything from McCarthy's witch-hunting to Iraq, and any Government that willingly lies to get its people killed can, and indeed must, be exposed at every turn.
Using your McDonald's analogy.... if Mickey D was grinding up stray cats and using them for Big Macs, would you consider it wrong to make that known?
What if there was a way to scare everyone into giving up their constitutional rights to prevent further instances of complaining? No doubt complaining would be called an act of terrorism; and complainers would be classified as enemy combatants. Fortunately, for the thugs wanting to pull this off most of the public seems to be completely unaware of the historic role of the press as the primary safety mechanism to keep the government honest.
We can speculate about whether leaking the documents in the first place was right or wrong. Personally I think it was beyond right – it was heroic. But even if leaking the documents was a crime, blaming WikiLeaks for reporting their contents demonstrates either a complete lack of understanding of the role of the press in a free society or a complete lack of respect for that role. After years of being lied to about the difference between an act of war (historically one nation attacking another) and a crime of violence (some dirt bag killing innocent people to make a point or for some other sick reason), many can no longer see the difference.
Jaywalking in NOT terrorism! Terrorism is the act of murdering or torturing innocent people to draw attention to your perverted cause. What Dick Cheney did when he outed a CIA agent to punish her husband for telling on him for lying to the public was vicious and despicable. It may very well have put others’ lives in danger. That may have been treason - but even that was not terrorism. If we care about protecting the remnants of freedom we have left here, we will not let them get away with calling everything that threatens their power an act of war.
Not personally being a big fan of secrecy, SWA, you're my homeslice and all that, but c'mon. Work for The Man, you might get offed. Hazard of the gig.
I'm still wondering how the Pentagon Papers got through back then.
If it's damage they are worried about refer to the Walker(?) spy ring who stole hundreds of sensitive defense secrets for ...Israel.
I mean we're talking real secrets, not just private communications.
They went to jail for a long, long, time. What ever happened to Israel?
Erik
I also want to remind everybody that there is a litmus test that needs to be applied to this - though it isn't official.
If I think it makes the other side look bad, it isn't terrorism.
If it shows the Government lied, it isn't terrorism.
If it hurts or embarrasses me, or my party - not only is it terrorism but I will bomb the place that leaked it!
If our enemies did it, it's terrorism.
If our allies did it, may be embarrassing, but it's not terrorism.
Hope that clears it up
Erik
Nothing Assange did will result in anywhere near the blodshed from Bush's war in Iraq and Obama's war in Afghanistan. Perhaps no blood will be shed at all. Nothing Top Secret was leaked.
If DC "Patriots" are so concerned about this kind of thing, Cheney Libby and Rove would be in prison for exposing Valerie Wilson. There would have been investigations of the lead up to war in Iraq. They are hypocrites.
But it's ok if you're a Republican. That's the message.
Post a Comment
<< Home