US declairs Wikileaks to be an enemy of the state.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/us-calls-assange-enemy-of-state-20120927-26m7s.html

I know Wikileaks has embarrassed the US. But that's quite a dramatic step to take is it not? An enemy of the state? Something is going very badly wrong in the US today.

 

Indeed. But on a broader note, this sets a very dangerous precedent. Basically any media organisation publishing information the US government doesn't like can now be declared an enemy of the USA. Which places them in the same category as Al Qaeda for example. Which basically means if you're a journalist publishing information that may be in the public interest to be published but considered top secrete by the US administration. The US military now considers you fair game for assassination or military detention etc.

It would seem free speech now only exists in the west so long as you don't annoy the authorities too much.

 

I think the US us going a bit over board.

Though I would say in the case of Bradley manning he signed agreements and took oaths saying he would not do what he went and did , my sympathy for him is limited. If he had been a journalist fair one but this wasn't the case.

Though his treatment seems to be not up to par.

 

The charge against Bradley Manning now is that he helped Al Qaeda by leaking information to Wikileaks. As I understand it, if he's found guilty he could face the death penalty.

 

There is supposed to be room for descenting voices and whistle-blowers. Obama stated he would support whistle-blowers and then in the same breath turned around and prosecuted more of them than any other president combined. Including George W. Bush.

This is a very worrying development for free speech in the western world. Where America goes, the rest tend to follow. In the UK protests can already be banned if the government doesn't like them. The trade union PCS wanted to hold a demonstration in George Square in Glasgow to protest against the cuts. They were reportedly declined "permission" by the police. Who were given that power by a Labour government.

Think about that for a minute. To stay on the right side of the law, we need "permission" to protest against things the government are doing that they have no mandate to do.

 

The oath taken by US military personel is to "protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, forign and domestic". I once took the same oath myself. If some part of the government is violating the constitution, telling others about it is not violating that oath. To me, not doing anything at all about such violations is breaking that oath. I am a proud American, but things like this make me ashamed to be a US citizen.

 

That's unfair, do you really think a guy who has mentally committed to embarking on a military career will stop at something so innocently drafted by a lawyer.

Lets not be distracted by manipulation of law and remember what is right and wrong.

 

America has the best advisor's in the world they must know what they are doing, someone once told me you have to see the bigger picture and look outside the box.

( Just in case i am going to be taken literately this is sarcasm)

 

Do members of the US military sign something like a secrets act?

Raz

 

It may seem petty but what was shown in that video wasn't friendly fire, that's when you mistakenly fire on your own or allied armed forces. What was shown in that video was either, very generously, collateral damage (hard to really argue the term is applicable though because that refers to killing civilians as well as a legitimate target) or either murder or manslaughter.

 

Yeah if you had witnessed a massacre and a war crime, would you sit and do nothing. Sometimes the right thing to do is treason.

The Bear.

 

Well off course under the genres convention you would be bound to report massacres or war Crimes. But these leaks were not about that the stuff that Bradley manning handed over was diplomatic cables and some other communications.

Raz

 

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. ... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion; what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms." -- Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1787

 

If government is doing something it is not supposed to be doing then it's fair game to be exposed. The NSA in the US was caught illegally spying on US citizens. Their excuse? George W. Bush signed a bit of paper saying they could in blatant violation of the law.

http://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/nsa-spying-americans-illegal