Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has called for WikiLeaks to be officially designated as a terrorist organization. This would, of course, allow the same designation for The New York Times and other organizations to be declared terrorists for publishing leaked stories on torture, secret prisons, or the Pentagon Papers.
King has asked for the Administration “determine whether WikiLeaks could be designated a foreign terrorist organization.” He noted “WikiLeaks appears to meet the legal criteria . . . WikiLeaks presents a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States.” King also demanded that Attorney General Eric Holder “criminally charge WikiLeaks activist Julian Assange under the Espionage Act” for conspiracy to disclose classified information.
I previously testified at a House Intelligence Committee hearing where members pushed for new laws to criminalize publishing classified material by journalists. King appears intent on restarting that effort. With Democrats like Claire McCaskill calling for prosecutions, we could be entering a very dangerous period for press freedom in our country. Democrats are still smarting over the leaking of embarrassing stories showing that their leadership knew about the torture program and other abuses during the Bush Administration. As noted by Sen. Rockefeller, many members long for the period when the public had less coverage and were not so critical of their conduct in office.
The Bush Administration showed that Congress failed miserably in its oversight of intelligence programs. It was the media (and whistleblowers) who told the public of crimes committed by our government and revealed violations of international and domestic laws. Members in Congress have an obvious interest in chilling such disclosures and asserting their own control of information going to the public.
According to the Senator Graham, any disclosures of national security material must be prosecuted as a threat to national security “at a time of war.” The use of espionage and terrorism laws in such cases would move us squarely in the same camp as such countries as China, which routinely use such prosecutions to punish people for embarrassing stories.
As the incoming Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, one cannot dismiss these statements are coming from the fringe of American politics despite King’s past controversial statements (here, here).
Source: CNET
Since Congress is aiding and abetting torturers by refusing to do their Constitutional duty, they are aiding and abetting treason.
Perhaps Congress should be declared a terrorist organization.
Rep. Peter T. King (R-NY):
“WikiLeaks presents a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States. I strongly urge you to work within the Administration to use every offensive capability of the U.S. government to prevent further damaging releases by WikiLeaks.”
===================
Domestic operations, in progress, present “a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States.”
And to be crystal clear: There are state-sponsored domestic operations, in progress, that present “a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States.”
Rep. King,
We the undersigned wish to let you know that words have meanings. These meanings are especially important when discussing legal terms. If you’re unsure of the meaning of a word, it’s perfectly o.k. to ask your parents, teacher or other trusted adults.
Signed,
Justice, The English Language
True colors shining through.
Rep King,
You are the terrorist because you are claiming to be fighting for a higher cause in your efforts to stop freedom of speech under the almighty pretext of protecting national security. What would you, Rep. King, have done if these “cables” had been leaked to Fox News? Would you be calling for Fox News to be labeled a terrorist organization? How about going after China who has hijacked our entire internet traffic on at least one occasion and according to the leaked cables has failed to stop North Korea from sending missiles to Iran? I know that following the law and actually honoring the Constitution is a lot to ask of you. Give it a try. Doing the right thing may be hard, but it feels good after awhile. You might enjoy the experience.
By the way, Amen to what Buddha and Anon and Gyges said!
I hate to see this type of grandstanding over security since our public are operating out of fear anyway, but you can’t get a politician to act as a statesman and care about the general welfare of the people, but you can always find them playing on man’s lowest common frailties. Well done again to Mr. King…never surprised by how low they will go.
When I first read Munro Leaf’s “The Story of Ferdinand” (The Viking Press, New York, 1936), I was, as best I remember, four years of age, and my family lived on Ferdinand Street, in Seattle, Washington, about a block and a half east of Rainier Avenue.
World War II was “raging,” and searchlights scanned the Seattle sky at night, supposedly to identify any Japanese airplanes which got to Seattle.
It bothered me that I was supposed to “grow up” to be a good soldier and want to kill people to save people. I could not understand, at age four, how killing people would save people, and I could not understand why some people needed to be killed so other people could live. More than 65 years later, my understanding is unimproved.
Perhaps Eric Berne, M.D., described war as well as anyone ever will. It is a transactional game, “Let’s you and him fight.”\
Nein, danke. Es tut mir leid. Sieg nicht heil.
I suppose that my objections to child abuse, in any and every form, define me inextricably and ineluctably as a terrorist by default?
Mein Gott nicht in Himmel?
Ich spreche und Ich schreibe kein Deutsch. Sehr schade?
Some poetry simply cannot be translated meaningfully.
I am a terrorist because I abhor terrorism?
Mea ultima culpa?
There are no words, not even these.
This same question is being asked on MSNBC:
“Should WikiLeaks be designated a ‘terrorist’ organization?”
So far…
Yes: 64.8% (11,986 votes)
No: 31.7% ( 5,868 votes)
Not Sure: 3.5% (657 votes)
Its truly scary how knee jerk the American population is.
I have a crisp, never-circulated $2 bill of REAL American currency that I’ll bet on Rep. King pr Rep. Pete Hoekstra being THE LEAKERS of internal State Department materials.. Wikileaks is just the conduit… there is NO guilt on their part…NONE..
Sunday, October 17, 2010 09:47 AM
How propaganda is disseminated: WikiLeaks Edition
by Glenn Greenwald
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/10/17/wikileaks/index.html
What’s the big deal? If the government isn’t doing anything wrong, it should have nothing to fear.
Is that what the government always tells us?
I am waiting on the Southern Poverty Law Center to declare the Republican Party a hate group. Come to think of it, they can lump Congress into that as well if this movement to punish the press goes through.
Mark Twain once said, “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”
He also said, “I never can think of Judas Iscariot without losing my temper. To my mind Judas Iscariot was nothing but a low, mean, premature, Congressman.”
What Buddha said, most representatives like mister King here commit high treason against the public on a daily basis.
Otteray Scribe,
Thanks for the Twain “Judas” quote. That was a new one for me (or I’d forgotten it). Got to love ol’ Samuel. He was as sharp as he was funny.
When fascist speak, fools listen.
definition of fascist:
a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.
Since when does the government of the people have the right to pull the wool over the eyes of the people and the people are criminalized for repeating the truth.
I guess I am cynical to the nth degree, but I believe that the machinations of our government are truly Byzantine. It seems fortuitous that all the Arab countries around Iran think the US should attack her according to these leaks. It reminds me of the drumbeat for the Gulf War in the nineties when there was a huge international consensus for invading Iraq. How fortunate for the US and Israel that the Muslims are in agreement with attacking another Muslim country. Incidentally, if you look at a current map of the region, Iran is surrounded with countries hosting US bases with the exception of Turkmenistan and Georgia. If Georgia joins NATO, she will host US troops also.
What I can’t figure out is the release of the bit of information that, as we all suspected, Saudi Arabia is the biggest sponsor of Al Quaeda. Why on earth are we such good friends with THEM?
I heard a report that the soldier who supposedly downloaded this information told his fellow soldiers that he was listening to “Lady Gaga”if so I would imagine he was dwelling on one of her qoutes.
“”Peace. it does not mean to be in a place where there is no trouble, noise, or hard work. it means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.”
— Lady Gaga”
I’m sure Cheney will be the first to be arrested under the new “law”, correct?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/28/how-us-embassy-cables-leaked
How 250,000 US embassy cables were leaked from a fake Lady Gaga CD to a thumb drive that is a pocket-sized bombshell – the biggest intelligence leak in history
David Leigh
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 28 November 2010 18.14 GMT
“It was childishly easy, according to the published chatlog of a conversation Manning had with a fellow-hacker. “I would come in with music on a CD-RW labelled with something like ‘Lady Gaga’ … erase the music … then write a compressed split file. No one suspected a thing … [I] listened and lip-synched to Lady Gaga’s Telephone while exfiltrating possibly the largest data spillage in American history.” He said that he “had unprecedented access to classified networks 14 hours a day 7 days a week for 8+ months”.”
Great Lady G. quote, eniobob.
This hasn’t been working for me… Trying to post the following:
Well, I’ll be darned. Maybe there’s hope afterall, folks.
And to think we gave these idiots billions in tax dollars to straighten out our security after their dismal failure that resulted in 9/11. One loan guy with a CD-RW …
THWACK … that’s the sound of another barn door closing
The truthiness shall set you free.
But more importantly it has kept this a free country for 200 years why stop now?
anon nurse 1, November 29, 2010 at 5:43 pm
“Well, I’ll be darned. Maybe there’s hope afterall, folks.”
:=)
Yep, Blouise… the old proverbial cannons pointed in the wrong direction, at least at times…
“Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package.”
-”Londo Mollari”
(Marnie,
)
Blouise,
The beautiful thing about engineered solutions is there is no such thing as a perfect engineered solution. There are always flaws to be exploited or work arounds to be found.
Ain’t it the truth, Buddha… A “beautiful thing” indeed.
anon nurse,
If you keep quoting the Centauri ambassador, I might get a crush. The full quote though is “h, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you!”
I have my own Earth Force insignia badge thus through validation of my geek credentials. I will have to say though that one of my favorite Babylon 5 quotes comes from his assistant, Vir, when asked “What do YOU want?” by Mr. Morden:
“I’d like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I want to look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this. (waves) Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?”
But good god, Buddha, they are such morons … if one changes one’s point of viewing for just a moment … these clowns are incompetent. Before 9/11 none of them could read the signs or be bothered to read the reports. Now we have a supposed new crew … reorganized intelligence and security agencies … people who claim to be experts in protecting us all … one lone guy thwarts them with a simple idea and a simple CD-RW … not just once but over and over.
They can all jump up and down till they’re red in the face, cry foul till their voice-boxes crack … they were asleep at the switch … again. Morons.
Buddha: The omission was worth the response.
I think we need a voice of reason and clarity right now:
Sarah Palin blasts Obama administration for WikiLeaks ‘fiasco’
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45686.html#ixzz16iip1UYe
eniobob,
Regarding “a voice of reason and clarity”, it’s good to know that I can still laugh.. Thanks. (And I haven’t even read the article yet…)
Sarah Palin:
“Inexplicable: I recently won in court to stop my book ‘America by Heart’ from being leaked,” she wrote, “but US Govt can’t stop Wikileaks’ treasonous act?
Where’s a grizzly bear “gone wild” when you need it?
I think his name has gone to his head.
Very, very funny, mespo…
Pretty soon, there will be misdemeanor “terrorist” offenders. “He terrorized my lawn with his dog!” “She terrorized my ears with her loud hip-hop!” At what point do we draw the line?
Now, of course, the WikiLeaks affair is far more significant than dog poo and bad music, but the point here is that we can’t just throw the “terrorist” tag at every issue of every kind. The law, with regards to this sort of reporting, is vague and complex. We don’t have simple, standardized, legal parameters for dealing with WikiLeaks.
Perhaps Peter King has some novel way of dealing with this, but he certainly hasn’t revealed it (or any other novel idea, for that matter) here.
JMJ
U.S. Pressured Germany Not To Prosecute CIA Officers For Torture And Rendition
November 29, 2010
Wikileaks Release Reveals Meeting About ACLU Client Khaled El-Masri
http://www.aclu.org/national-security/us-pressured-germany-not-prosecute-cia-officers-torture-and-rendition
NEW YORK – The Bush administration pressured Germany not to prosecute CIA officers responsible for the kidnapping, extraordinary rendition and torture of German national Khaled El-Masri, according to a document made public Sunday night by Wikileaks. The document, a 2007 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, describes a meeting during which the then-deputy chief of the U.S. mission to Germany, John M. Koenig, urged German officials to “weigh carefully at every step of the way the implications for relations with the U.S.” of issuing international arrest warrants in the El-Masri case. (end excerpt)
It’s hard not to suspect Rep. King AND Rep. Hoekstra of Michigan as the people who actually GAVE the government secrets to Wikileaks.. THEY should be prosecuted for TREASON!!
I cannot believe that he has not been shot yet…..
Shame on the mindless stooges around NY who elect reactionary goons like Rep. King.
The following sums up the Wikileaks situation pretty well, IMHO…
http://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech-national-security/wikileaks-doc-us-tried-stop-accountability-abroad
“Democracy, after all, depends on transparency. The American public has a right to know what the government is doing in its name.” (Hina Shamsi, National Security Project)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11874911
30 November 2010
Ecuador offers Wikileaks founder Assange residency
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/live/wikileaks_wire/wikileaks_wire.html#78 Mike Huckabee calls for execution of wikileaks source.
Thanks for that link, Swarthmore mom… The video was worth watching, IMO — the part about Wikileaks, that is. From the same link:
I couldn’t agree more that it’s not about the leaks but, rather, “the silence and the lies”…
From the BBC: (Rachel Slajda)
The man who leaked the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam war in 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, has given his backing to Wikileaks.
Speaking to BBC World Service, Mr Ellsberg disagreed with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement that the latest leaks could endanger lives.
“That’s a script that they role out every time there’s a leak of any sort,” he said.
It is not leaks, but “silences and lies” that put peoples’ lives in danger, he believes.
I suspect that now that Wikileaks has targeted Bank of America, the demise of Julian Assange will be hastened to a great degree.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/flashback-wikileaks-chief-5gb-dirt-bank-america/
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-11-30/john-mccain-blames-new-york-times-for-wikileaks-document-dump/?cid=hp:mainpromo1 McCain blames the NYT. Says national security was harmed.
“The international police organization Interpol has issued a Red Notice for the arrest of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, in connection with a sex crime investigation in Sweden.”
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/11/interpol-issues-red-notice-for-arrest-of-wikileaks-julian-assange.ars
REMINDER: Here Are The “Sex Crimes” Interpol Wants Julian Assange Arrested For
Henry Blodget Nov. 30, 2010, 9:06 PM
http://www.businessinsider.com/reminder-here-are-the-sex-crimes-interpol-wants-julian-assange-arrested-for-2010-11
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/world/americas/30gitmo.html
By CHARLIE SAVAGE and ANDREW W. LEHREN Published: November 29, 2010
WikiLeaks and the Diplomats (November 30, 2010)
The king told a top White House aide, John O. Brennan, that the United States should implant an electronic chip in each detainee to track his movements, as is sometimes done with horses and falcons.
“Horses don’t have good lawyers,” Mr. Brennan replied.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/how_lieberman_got_amazon_to_drop_wikileaks.php?ref=fpblg
Thanks for posting the TPM link, Swarthmore mom.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/01/wikileaks-website-loses-h_n_790526.html
“Amazon.com Inc. forced WikiLeaks to stop using the U.S. company’s computers to distribute embarrassing State Department communications and other documents, WikiLeaks said Wednesday.”
“The ouster came after congressional staff questioned Amazon about its relationship with WikiLeaks, said Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut.”
Tweets from WikiLeaks regarding the “ouster”:
“WikiLeaks servers at Amazon ousted. Free speech the land of the free–fine our $ are now spent to employ people in Europe,” the organization said Wednesday in a posting on the Twitter messaging service.”
“If Amazon are so uncomfortable with the first amendment, they should get out of the business of selling books,” WikiLeaks said in another tweet.”
It’s long, but compelling, IMO…
We’ve got senators and others calling for arrest as a terrorist, presumably with torture to follow, and even for execution with out trial.
Reminds me of the fatwa against Salmon Rushdie for the “Satanic Verses” which of course Rill Amurkans along with real Americans denounced as barbaric and contrary or the rights of free speech.
Why are they so offended by the truth?
Marnie, The following article might interest you, if you haven’t already seen it…
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/01/wikileaks/index.html
Wednesday, Dec 1, 2010
The moral standards of WikiLeaks critics
By Glenn Greenwald
(begin excerpt)
I want again to really encourage everyone to read this great analysis by The Economist’s Democracy in America, which includes this:
I suspect that there is no scheme of government oversight that will not eventually come under the indirect control of the generals, spies, and foreign-service officers it is meant to oversee. Organisations such as WikiLeaks, which are philosophically opposed to state secrecy and which operate as much as is possible outside the global nation-state system, may be the best we can hope for in the way of promoting the climate of transparency and accountability necessary for authentically liberal democracy. Some folks ask, “Who elected Julian Assange?” The answer is nobody did, which is, ironically, why WikiLeaks is able to improve the quality of our democracy. Of course, those jealously protective of the privileges of unaccountable state power will tell us that people will die if we can read their email, but so what? Different people, maybe more people, will die if we can’t.
(end excerpt)
More Wikileaks revelations . . .
Obama and GOPers Worked Together to Kill Bush Torture Probe
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/12/wikileaks-cable-obama-quashed-torture-investigation
Proof of aiding and abetting torture and treason.
Assange isn’t a terrorist.
He’s a hero doing more to defend the Constitution than either Congress or the Obama Administration.
Thanks for that, Buddha… (And well said.)
Bradley Manning deserves credit, as well, of course. As it is, he’s behind bars in Quantico — at least he’s being “detained” in some fashion. Meanwhile George Bush, Dick Cheney and the others are doing just fine. For now.
Hah Buddah.
I should have known from your perspicacious comments that you also are a Babylon 5 fan. I recently went out and bought the DVDs for all 5 seasons, and watched them all. There are so many current (at the time) culture references. My favourite is the one where a slavic psychiatrist who looked just like Serb psychiatrist and ethnic cleaner Radovan Karadzic was explaining that people who don’t hate and fear aliens are suffering from a inferiority complex related to their despising their own species.
Are you also a fan of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and The Wire?
Anon Nurse.
Glen Greenwald’s comments on the double standards of US politicians and media types are in my opinion obligitory daily reading.
CM,
Not much of a Whedon/Buffy fan although the original film was okay. I thought “Firefly” had potential though. I’ve never seen “The Wire”.