I’d hoped that with the demise of the Bush administration we would leave the realm of Really Bad Ideas like the Patriot Act, Guantanamo, criminalizing free speech and being Muslim, etc. Yes, I know that the Obama presidency has a pretty sordid record of maintaining some of the worst of these laws. But until now, it hadn’t done much to add to the damage by creating new Really Bad Ideas. Until this report in today’s NY Times, saying the government was contemplating charging Julian Assange with some form of espionage for releasing the hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables which have so embarrassed our government.
I admit that if I were a senior government official, this development would be making me tear my hair out. And I understand when human beings are deeply frustrated they contemplate doing really extreme things. But not this, please not this.
Julian Assange may be a lot of things. He may not be a pleasant person. He may be self-righteous. He may think he’s God’s gift to Man (and women). But prosecuting him is a Really Bad Idea. First, it will be almost impossible to win a conviction. Second, it will turn him into even more of a martyr than he is now. Third, it will turn the civil liberties community against Obama even more forcefully than it already is. Fourth, it will motivate Wikileaks supporters and potential whistleblowers to dig even deeper and expose even more secrets. This can only end badly for the government.
As to how difficult this prosecution would be: remember one of the last people charged under the 1917 espionage statute? That would be Daniel Ellsberg. That didn’t end so well for the government. Nor did the prosecution of Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman under that same statute.
Whistleblowers like Assange, imperfect as they and their motivations may be, perform a benefit for society. They cleanse the system. They reveal secrets that often are better seen in the light of day. These secrets allow us to understand our world better and be better citizens for it. This is also true of Shammai Leibowitz, the Israeli-American who last spring began serving a federal prison sentence for leaking government secrets to a blogger. Ellsberg invokes Shammai, Bradley Manning and Julian Assange as courageous souls for puncturing the shroud of government secrecy. That sounds about right.
So Pres. Obama and AG Holder–don’t make this Really Big Mistake, if you know what’s good for you.
Oh, you mean they gave up trying to murder to the guy?
When Jean Val Jean stole a piece of bread for his starving children in Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables”, was that wrong?
For treason, 90%+ of America sure doesn’t feel betrayed. Heck, half the people are confused and think they can even charge the Australian WITH treason (I was referring to whoever leaked it above). You have people like Mike Huckabee, consistent pro-lifer, calling for the execution of a 19 year old (smiling in the pic they use) on television.
WikiLeaks has released Classified documentation revealing for the first time impeachable offenses by the entire administration. The difference between this and other acts of the administration, in my humble opinion, is that this is a party admission, which is non-hearsay and therefore admissible nearly universally.
There’s a video on Fox News that sheds some light about the Pentagon’s reluctance to shut down WikiLeaks.
I’m pretty sure they have everything backed up offline, in any case. Can’t stop the boulder once it starts rolling downhill.
haha to face the brunt of the US government coming after you, you better have some reason for them to keep you alive…just sayin… world politics is a game for people without parents.
Every person, family, organization, company and country has secrets.
Giving them away by a family member, an employee or a public servant is a bad thing – it’s a breach of confidence. In case of families it breaks trust. In case of companies it hurts them commercially. In case of countries it might even amount to treason.
When is this OK, moral and indeed required? In extreme cases, when the secret is something so bad that it should be brought to light: Parents molesting their children, Wall Street banks not up to standards, Nazi Germany exterminating Jews, Iran building a nuclear bomb.
The Wiki Leaks so far seems to have bought just damage, no such benefit.
So bring him to Justice – both criminally and maybe even seek financial damages.
That’s a highly naive & unrealistic view of the way familiies, companies & nations work. Their have been whistleblowers since the beginning of time & will be till the end of it. As for treason, it depends on whose ox is being gored. The Nazis hung & shot a lot of wonderful, courageous souls who were doing God’s work. They thought they were traitors too. The U.S. gov’t thought Dan Ellsberg was a traitor. He wasn’t. He was on a moral mission to expose an immoral war. Anat Kamm is the same. She’s on the side of the angels as far as I’m concerned.
I think Wikileaks brought lots of positive developments. We’ve been able to see even more clearly the duplicitiousness of Israeli leaders.
I disagree w. you in the strongest terms. And what financial damages are there? That the U.S. must develop new security procedures to fix the holes exploited by Bradley Manning? Balderdash. If the gaps hadn’t existed Manning couldn’t have done what he did. The IDF too is to blame for Kamm’s leak. Naveh’s security procedures were laughable & he should’ve been reprimanded severely. Instead, he gets a promotion. That’s the IDF for you.
So far Bradley Manning is still suspected, not proven of having leaked the Baghdad video.
Yes, I didn’t mean to say he was guilty, only that he would be more liable under a prosecution if proven guilty since he would be the original source & also a serving soldier in the U.S. military.
Compilation of Wikileaks relating to Israel and the Palestinians:
http://imeu.net/news/article0020113.shtml
If the govt losing the case was the worst that could happen, I’d simply quote the shrub: bring it on.
I agree that both Wikileaks and whistleblowers, by and large, are assets, not enemies to a democratic republic, but Wikileaks is not a whistleblower. Whistleblowers are the persons who had authorised access to the classified material and passed it on. Wikileaks now is comparable to the MSM back in Ellsberg’s days: they are on the receiving end, and, as probably opposed to the actual leaker, they never had any contractual obligation to keep those documents secret. Journalists are not govt employees (although these days many seem to do their damndest to pretend they are), Julien Assange is not even an US citizen.
The real danger of an even partially successful prosecution of Assange is that to criminalise receipt of classified documents will render most investigative journalism impossible. Just ask Uri Blau.
The MSM sneering at Assange may be explained by a particularly bad case of penis envy; what’s truly bizarre is how they’re berating the govt for not taking better care of their supposed secrets. They’re practically begging the govt to prevent them from doing their jobs.
RE: “this report in today’s NY Times, saying the government was contemplating charging Julian Assange with some form of espionage” – R.S.
FROM GLENN GREENWALD’S BLOG, Joe Lieberman emulates Chinese dictators, 12/02/10:
GREENWALD’S ENTIRE, EXCELLENT POST – http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/01/lieberman/index.html