Glenn Greenwald: The lawless Wild West attacks WikiLeaks

[FourScore]

Monday, Dec 6, 2010 12:07 ET
Glenn Greenwald
The lawless Wild West attacks WikiLeaks

...Just look at what the U.S. Government and its friends are willing to do and capable of doing to someone who challenges or defies them -- all without any charges being filed or a shred of legal authority. They've blocked access to their assets, tried to remove them from the Internet, bullied most everyone out of doing any business with them, froze the funds marked for Assange's legal defense at exactly the time that they prepare a strange international arrest warrant to be executed, repeatedly threatened him with murder, had their Australian vassals openly threaten to revoke his passport, and declared them "Terrorists" even though -- unlike the authorities who are doing all of these things -- neither Assange nor WikiLeaks ever engaged in violence, advocated violence, or caused the slaughter of civilians.

This is all grounded in the toxic mindset expressed yesterday on Meet the Press (without challenge, naturally) by GOP Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said of Assange: "I think the man is a high-tech terrorist. He’s done an enormous damage to our country, and I think he needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And if that becomes a problem, we need to change the law." As usual, when wielded by American authorities, the term "terrorist" means nothing more than: "those who impede or defy the will of the U.S. Government with any degree of efficacy." Anyone who does that is, by definition, a Terrorist. And note McConnell's typical, highly representative view that if someone he wants to punish isn't a criminal under the law, then you just "change the law" to make him one.

But that sort of legal scheming isn't even necessary. The U.S. and its "friends" in the Western and business worlds are more than able and happy to severely punish anyone they want without the slightest basis in "law." That's what the lawless, Wild Western World is: political leaders punishing whomever they want without any limits, certainly without regard to bothersome concepts of "law." Anyone who doubts that should just look at what has been done to Wikileaks and Assange over the last week. In this series of events, there are indeed genuine and pernicious threats to basic freedom and security; they most assuredly aren't coming from WikiLeaks or Julian Assange.

People often have a hard time believing that the terms "authoritarian" and "tyranny" apply to their own government, but that's because those who meekly stay in line and remain unthreatening are never targeted by such forces. The face of authoritarianism and tyranny reveals itself with how it responds to those who meaningfully dissent from and effectively challenge its authority: do they act within the law or solely through the use of unconstrained force?...

http://www.salon.com/news/wikileaks/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks

[Better Believe It]

1. K & R

[Lucinda]

2. TY!

[PufPuf23]

3. Who are criminals exposed or protected from USA or international laws? nt

[Grey]

4. Protected; bush, cheney?

Rumsfeld? Powell? Rice? Take your pick.....

[kgnu_fan]

5. kick

[kgnu_fan]

6. Be the best rebel you can be!

[EFerrari]

7. Glen gets it. n/t

[me b zola]

8. K&R

[sabrina 1]

9. Excellent article by Greenwald.

The persecution of Julian Assange will go down in history as one of the darkest moments in the history of journalism.

They are desperate. The Global Capitalists who have managed to silence so many in the press never counted on ordinary citizens growing tired of the lies and the secrets and the cries of 'National Security' to cover their nefarious and often criminal activities.

As Greenwald states so well, there are NO charges, because they cannot find a statute under which to prosecute him. If they could, they would have done so long ago.

I truly believe that when he let it be known that the Banks are the next to be exposed, that's when they went into high gear to try to silence him.

Mostly this pursuit of Assange by the U.S. with help from other countries, along with the documents themselves, has made it so clear that the U.S. actually does run the world. But only the governments, NOT the people.

I hope Glenn is aware that by taking the principled stand he has taken on this issue, he may find himself the target of the Empire and its lackies himself. Julian Assange certainly understood the danger of exposing them.

I wonder if this government will declare him an 'enemy combatant' as I'm sure they are thinking of doing, making it illegal for any American to help him? They are certainly treating him like a terrorist, cutting off funding, influencing other governments to try to silence or capture him.

He has exposed far more about this government than any of the documents he leaked or will leak could have ever done, and it is pretty damn ugly.

[glinda]

10. K & R

[Gravel Democrat]

11. Sparka och Rekommenderar

[Catherina]

12. Rec'd. Greenwald nails it again. n/t

[Vinnie From Indy]

13. He is correct

It's not so much that we have abandoned the rule of law in this country, it is the nakedness of the fact. Our leaders are not even trying to hide their complete abandonment of due process.

[sabrina 1]

14. Yes, that is so true. They used to try to hide it.

But now, they have complete control over the news media and the people are sufficiently indoctrinated that they really don't have to worry.

Look how many people even on democratic boards defend them now? You would not have seen that ten years ago.

[FourScore]

15. And they're getting away with it. n/t