WikiLeaks should be declared 'enemy combatants', says Fox News contributor

[sabra]

Source: Guardian UK

Christian Whiton says whistleblowing website presents serious challenge to national security after leak of Iraq war logs

A Fox News contributor and former state department adviser has accused WikiLeaks of conducting "political warfare against the US" and called for those behind the whistleblowing website to be declared "enemy combatants" so they can be subjected to "non-judicial actions".

In an opinion piece on the Fox News site, Christian Whiton lambasts Congress and the White House for failing to tackle the leaking of hundreds of thousands of files about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and demands action.

"First and foremost, it is important to understand that this is a serious challenge to our national security," he writes. "It's not about government transparency or free speech, which is the claim WikiLeaks and its leader, a certain Julian Assange, are making. Rather, this is an act of political warfare against the United States.

"WikiLeaks is a foreign organisation that obtained these documents as a result of espionage and it means to use the information to thwart and alter US policy. Mr Assange said as much himself."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/oct/26/wikileaks-fox-iraq-war-logs

[PSPS]

1. "Political warfare?" For that, talk to the 'US' Chamber of Commerce

[MineralMan]

2. Hmm...I'm thinking that Fok Snus should be declared an enemy

combatant. Foreign ownership, and that sort of thing. Attempting to undermine American elections. Yeah...I think that's a helluva good idea.

[kgnu_fan]

3. FOX is enemy within operating to destroy American democracy

[liberation]

4. Not surprising, with projection being what it is....

[ixion]

5. which clearly illustrates the problem with the whole (bogus) idea of "enemy combatant"

Thank you FAUX Nazis for illustrating that point.

[14thColony]

8. Actually the idea of "enemy combatants" is enshrined in Geneva Law

at least as far back as the 1949 conventions -- not that Wikileaks staff would even remotely fit the definition.

The actual problem here is these idiots have no idea that "combatant" - whether of the "enemy" or "lawful" type - is carefully defined in Geneva Law and is the catagory you WANT to be in if captured.

[ixion]

10. Not since the neocons where in office. They expanded the definition and changed the context:

To Wit:

Prior to 2008, the definition was: "Any person in an armed conflict who could be properly detained under the laws and customs of war." In the case of a civil war or an insurrection the term "enemy state" may be replaced by the more general term "Party to the conflict" (as described in the 1949 Geneva Conventions Article 3).<3>

In the United States the use of the phrase "enemy combatant" may also mean an alleged member of al Qaeda or the Taliban being held in detention by the U.S. government as part of the war on terror. In this sense, "enemy combatant" actually refers to persons the United States regards as unlawful combatants, a category of persons who do not qualify for prisoner-of-war status under the Geneva Conventions. Thus, the term "enemy combatant" has to be read in context to determine whether it means any combatant belonging to an enemy state, whether lawful or unlawful, or if it means an alleged member of al Qaeda or of the Taliban being detained as an unlawful combatant by the United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_combatant

[14thColony]

26. Oh I know. That's the problem

They weren't happy with legal Geneva terms like "lawful combatant" or "priveleged combatant" because they had a hint of legitimacy to them. And while "unlawful combatant" doesn't exist as a GC term, the idea dates back to the 1950s in one form or another. But this whole "enemy combatant" notion, as your excerpt so well points out, is both stupid and meaningless, unless you want to use a farcical term as a means to further farcical prosecutions, which we did.

It seems from a law of armed conflict standpoint the US is on the verge of the greatest "streamlining" of Geneva law in over a century. The new US version seems to be "Whosoever shall oppose American will in any way, either in word or deed, shall be deemed unprivileged enemy combatants." There, that would sure make the Third Geneva Convention way less wordy...

[Blue_Tires]

20. I still remember in 2003 when the term was applied to

journalists who were not following the cheerleading storyline....

[ixion]

22. With us or against us, was the phrase du jour

and to speak out in those days was to risk a quick ride to GITMO.

I'd rather we go back to the traditional usage, as appropriated by the Geneva Conventions.

[Moostache]

6. And Christian Whiton should be labelled a "war criminal".

If he wants to carry water for those who are responsible then he should share in their ultimate fate. While we may suffer through a lack of justice now for these atrocities, the verdict of history will not be kind to these bastards. Get in line with them Mr. Whiton...

[obxhead]

7. Pot calls kettle black.

Fox has done far more to endanger American lives here and abroad than WikiLeaks ever possibly could.

[Gman]

9. Maybe we'll consider it when

Bush, Cheney, et al are tried and convicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity because of this war.

Maybe, but I doubt it.

[saigon68]

11. "BRING EM ON" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

[Doctor_J]

24. Fox is ramping up their threats lately

think we'll ever fight back?

[ProudDad]

12. If we're talking about the fucked up USAmerikan Empire

and it's permanent war economy and national security state...

Under the loose definition pertaining in the corporate states of america...

I'm also an enemy combatant -- since 1964!

And I'm not the only one...

[ProudDad]

13. It ain't just faux-noise...the entire M$M is in on the hitjob...

Media Does Hit Job on WikiLeaks Founder After Iraq War Leak
Posted by Lauren Kelley on @ 11:14 am
Article printed from speakeasy: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy
URL to article: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/10/25/media-does-hit-job-on-wikileaks-founder-after-iraq-war-leak/

WikiLeaks released some 400,000 classified government documents over the weekend that shed light on many atrocities committed during our nation’s war with Iraq — widespread civilian death, torture and misleading body counts.

Naturally, WikiLeaks’ founder, Julian Assange, has been feeling the heat in the wake of the release — but not from the government, as you might think. No, this time Assange is being smeared by the media, with various “establishment” outlets raising doubts about his mental health status and spreading tabloid-style rumors.

...

Intelligence community reporter Tim Shorrock took to his Twitter feed to astutely contrast Assange’s situation with that of Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in the early 1970s and was subsequently dragged through the mud by President Nixon and Henry Kissinger: “When Dan Ellsberg leaked Pentagon Papers, Nixon’s henchmen tried to destroy his reputation. Today w/Wikileaks & Assange, media does the job.”


http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/10/25/media-does-hit-job-on-wikileaks-founder-after-iraq-war-leak/#

[ProudDad]

14. Aw, what kind of mental defective is unrec'ing this thread? (n/t)

Kick...

[MX96391]

15. WikiLeaks is not a good organization.

I agree with Fox on this one.

[Nostradammit]

16. Pray, do tell -

Is it the fact that they are uncovering war crimes that disturbs you
or the fact that they are laying to waste the argument that we needed
to invade Iraq? Are those bad things in your estimation?

[LanternWaste]

17. I do not doubt that..

"I agree with Fox on this one."

I do not doubt that.

[MX96391]

25. I don't like Fox though.

[fascisthunter]

19. lol

[Doctor_J]

23. Duly noted

good-bye

[fascisthunter]

18. lol... Fox News is now the Nazi Channel

making their pathetic hit lists so whackos can do their dirty work, like stomping on defenseless women's heads.

[kgnu_fan]

21. USA is in the bubble of FOX and you can see how bad it is only when you go outside the US

People in the US should travel to foreign countries more often.... We need to know the world better....isolation is not good thing

[Nossida]

27. WikiLeaks should be declared 'enemy combatants', says Fox News contributor

Faux would declare Mother Teresa an enemy combatant for feeding the poor.
With a viewership of 2 million or so, that leaves 300million+ that won't
be bothered with such utter drivel. If all liberals, Progressive, would
turn them off and stop engaging in the constant baiting from them, and
just get on with rebuilding the Nation, the creature would shrivel and
vanish. Consider them a Non Issue, and set yourself free from the glockenspiel.