Where did the "What Assange did is the same as what Cheney did to Valerie Plame" meme start?

[Ken Burch]

Everyone knows the comparison is bullshit.

What Cheney did was to deliberately endanger an innocent person to punish her husband for bringing out the truth on the yellowcake issue.

Wikileaks did nothing of the sort.

None of the secrecy protected heroes, progressives, or whistleblowers.

And if you're going to take the "Wikileaks=Cheney Outing Plame" line you'd also have to argue that what Daniel Ellsberg did was the same thing.

Does anybody REALLY want to go there?

[Duer 157099]

1. Furthermore, Cheney had clearance

It's only a crime to release classified info if you have the clearance to view them. Assange has not committed any crime because he was never cleared to view the documents.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

2. I'm guilty, sort of.

When talk started about prosecuting Assange for these document dumps, I suggested that Cheney was never going to be prosecuted for outing Plame, so Assange wouldn't be prosecuted either. I admit it was a flimsy association, but I was never trying to equate Assange with Cheney. The former may be a grandstander, but he's a grandstander with Thomas Jefferson's quote in mind ("Information is the currency of Democracy."), and the latter is a fascist, itinerant drunk filled with paranoia and power-lust.

[Ken Burch]

4. Thanks for your post.

n/t.

[robinlynne]

3. Cheney released LIES. Wikileaks released the truth.

[stray cat]

9. She was a CIA agent- that WAS the problem with the leak

[robinlynne]

11. Yes but do not forget their prior "intelligence" release: Iraq making a nuclear bomb, the mushroom

cloud is coming; they bought uranium in NIger, the leak of an "intelligence" lie.

Which in turn prompted Joe Wilson to tell the truth.

which is why Cheney outed Plame.

It all started with an information "leak" about yellowcake in Niger which was a LIE and resulted in the deaths of over 100,000 people..

[cascadiance]

5. Actually endangering more than just her but all of hers and Brewster Jennings' contacts...

who were integral to finding and stopping WMD trafficking. What Wikileaks is doing is trying to stop this sort of crap (seriously criminal "secret" acts) by exposing them, not stopping legitimate intelligence work that didn't support an "agenda" like Cheney and the other *criminals* in the State Department wanted.

[spanone]

6. cheney is the criminal. cheney was entrusted with security. criminal.

[mmonk]

7. What Cheney did was treason.

What Assange is doing is publishing material given to him by whistleblowers. He isn't a US citizen nor does he have any security clearance or constraints.

[bobthedrummer]

13. I concur that Richard Bruce Cheney committed treason, among many other crimes-he really harmed US

and made all Americans vunerable as a result of the reaction to his crimes that were carried out in our name.

WikiLeaks has my support in restoring the right to know (an informed citizenry) that is part of democracy, a part that Richard Bruce Cheney et al. took from US in his treason.

[stray cat]

8. That all secrets are bad and leaking makes one heroic no matter what you leak

As long as the gov calls it secret?

[Ken Burch]

12. That isn't actually a direct response to the OP.

The question is, how can anyone seriously argue that what wikileaks did is just the same as what Cheney did?

Obviously, they were for entirely opposite motives and had opposite effects.

[bemildred]

10. Cheney/Libby outed a working CIA agent, working on nuclear non-proliferation.

What they did is much more illegal/unethical than anything Wikileaks could do.

[MilesColtrane]

14. Assange's actions are the same despite the different motivation.

He exposed the names of intelligence assets, just as Cheney did.

"Asset" defined as an agent or informer.

Afghan (Wiki)leaks Dangerously Expose Informants' Identities

The leaking of 90,000 U.S. intelligence documents has put hundreds of Afghan lives at risk because the files identify informants working with NATO forces, The Times of London reported on Wednesday.

In just two hours of searching the WikiLeaks archive, reporters found the names, villages, and fathers' names of dozens of Afghans credited with providing intelligence to U.S. forces, the paper said,

(Assange disputes this.)

Despite his claim, The Times of London gave examples of informants named in the released documents.

There will be deadly reprisals against the informers if the Taliban can find them.

We shouldn't be in Afghanistan, but since we are, we have an obligation to try to protect the locals who are aiding us.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. It's hilarious. Cheney tried to shut down a whistleblower and now this admin is doing the same.

[phleshdef]

16. I don't think Assange has actually done it YET. But he is threatening to.

Apparently their "insurance" document has names of covert operatives on it. He is threatening to release the password in retaliation for various governments attempting to frame him. I don't blame him for retaliating, but I do blame him for doing it at the expense of operatives in the field. If he does that, then he pretty much throws any rights to claim the moral highground out the window.