Assange turns America into banana republic

[thesquanderer]

From the http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/world/16wiki.html">New York Times:

Federal prosecutors, seeking to build a case against the WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange...are looking for evidence of any collusion in his early contacts with an Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking the information.
...
Since WikiLeaks began making public large caches of classified United States government documents this year, Justice Department officials have been struggling to come up with a way to charge Mr. Assange with a crime.
...
Justice Department officials have declined to discuss any grand jury activity. But in interviews, people familiar with the case said the department appeared to be attracted to the possibility of prosecuting Mr. Assange as a co-conspirator to the leaking because it is under intense pressure to make an example of him as a deterrent to further mass leaking of electronic documents over the Internet.

By bringing a case against Mr. Assange as a conspirator to Private Manning’s leak, the government would not have to confront awkward questions about why it is not also prosecuting traditional news organizations or investigative journalists who also disclose information the government says should be kept secret — including The Times, which also published some documents originally obtained by WikiLeaks.

“I suspect there is a real desire on the part of the government to avoid pursuing the publication aspect if it can pursue the leak aspect,” said Daniel C. Richman, a Columbia law professor and former federal prosecutor. “It would be so much neater and raise fewer constitutional issues.”

It's official. Instead of going after someone who broke a law, the U.S. is simply going after someone they want to go after, and trying to figure out what law they can use to do it, in such a way that they don't also ensnare people they don't want to go after.

If this doesn't sound like some stereotypical third world corrupt government, I don't know what does.

[Raschel]

1. Yes, that making an example of people really works. Look how Wall Street and the banks have cleaned

up their act after they sent Madoff to prison.

[Cal33]

28. Hardly! Corporations with their endless greed and corruption are turning America into

a Banana Republic. We are already half-way there. And if the
Repubs. should win the White House in 2012, we could be
completely there before long.

[Raschel]

54. Okay, I didn't think I needed to put a sarcasm after that.

[Divernan]

48. Assange has revealed the US to have already become a banana republic

[breadandwine]

50. Julian Assange is a pervert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here is the PROOF!!!!!!!----

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x12561



Save our children!!!!!!!!!

[defendandprotect]

52. Exactly.... GOP's "third world America" -- right wing rule and destruction -- !!

[sinkingfeeling]

56. +1000

[phasma ex machina]

2. The powers-that-be use conspiracy as a weapon against the people.

In a truly just nation, talking to Private Manning doesn't make Assange guilty of Manning's crime.

Department of Justice?!?!?! :rofl: They make a mockery of justice.

[Webster Green]

6. Manning's crime being exposing war crimes?

Okay then.

[phasma ex machina]

9. Manning's crime being whatever the powers-that-be proclaim it to be.

Recursive Orwellianism.

A unjust Department of Justice charging Manning with the crime of revealing war crimes.

[molly77]

16. Only democrats in DC are prosecuted

Only democratic governors and state office holders are prosecuted. With the exception of Tom DeLay. But he may appeal for the rest of his life. Don't think anything happened to Ted Stevens.

Private Manning should not be in solitary confinement until he goes to trial. Isn't a speedy trial in our Bill of Rights? Holding people forever without charges is fascist.

[tblue37]

21. Tom Delay went on _Dancing with the Stars_ while he was waiting. Don

Siegelman was put into solitary confinement and moved around so that he couldn't have contact with the outside--even with his own lawyers.

Even when a Republican is brought to court on corruption charges, he is given very, very gentle treatment compared to what happens to a Democrat accused of corruption.

[midnight]

3. Not sure if this is the Bush stay behind DOJ?

[DirkGently]

4. We couldn't really look more like the buffoons people call us if we tried, could we?

[Jamastiene]

14. Nope. n/t

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. things have got rather transparent lately!

[EFerrari]

7. They really have. n/t

[katandmoon]

8. Yes, it's clear that Obama's DOJ blesses crimes of the powerful while prosecuting the whistleblowers

[MsLeopard]

27. Yes,

Even though Obama campaigned on protecting whistleblowers. Now he has his Justice Dept go after them with a vengence. I'm so shocked - NOT.

[gateley]

40. I am, shocked that is. And really disappointed. And sickened. nt

[kgnu_fan]

20. Wikileaks helped a lot to show the true status of this country

[tblue37]

22. Yep. In that sense WikiLeaks has already achieved its goal of revealing

the corruption of the government!

[sabrina 1]

10. Well, Joe Lieberman has no problem going after traditional

news organizations, so what's the problem? What are they worried about? Aren't we officially a country that tortures what we want out of people now? I thought about this when I read that Manning is being tortured. They are probably trying to get him to say he met with Assange or at least talked to him and that Assange put him up to stealing the documents.

'Corrupt Government'. Everyone around the world sees it that way. And so do many Americans. I imagine if they try to charge him with colluding with Manning, the world will just laugh at them. And human rights groups around the world will do all that they can to prevent an extradition of Assange to the U.S. because it is against the treaties signed by EU nations, to turn someone over to a country that tortures.

[Odin2005]

11. Zappa was right.

The brick wall at the back of the theater is being exposed.

[gateley]

41. Who?

Kidding. :evilgrin:

[awoke_in_2003]

44. Yep...

I am shocked by what this country has become the last 10 years. The PTB used to camoflauge themselves and at least put up the appearance of a democracy, but once Bush took office it was like the curtain fell. It is blatant, but they don't care anymore.

[Wednesdays]

53. That's because most Americans still see a curtain

because Faux Lies tells 'em so.

[awoke_in_2003]

55. great movie...

you reference in your sig pic

[Poll_Blind]

12. Thank you so much for posting this, TheSquanderer. IMO, this is key to understanding...

...what the government's game plan is at the moment and the best indication of how they will proceed. Which is to say: They will continue to make it up as they go along.

PB

[glinda]

13. This is why Assange should not be allowed here for trial of any sort. It is now

clear and painfully apparent that our Government, including our President, has become the opposite of what America stands for.It has become and shown its face as a corrupt cabal.

[kgnu_fan]

15. America HAS BEEN a banana republic for awhile, didn't you notice?

[thesquanderer]

24. Headline correction

I guess maybe the headline should have been:

"Justice department treatment of Assange exposes America as banana republic"

Maybe a little long. :-)

[City Lights]

17. America turned into a banana republic on December 12, 2000.

Assange had nothing to do with it. The NYT has been part of the problem for the last decade. Nice to see at least someone over there has opened their eyes.

[abelenkpe]

31. +1000 nt

[HEyHEY]

18. Yeah, ASSANGE did that

[Ganja Ninja]

19. If the shoe fits.

[GoCubsGo]

23. No...

He just exposed it as a banana republic to those who hadn't already figured out that it's been a banana republic for nearly the last three decades.

[MindPilot]

25. I recall the president making a big deal about protecting whistle-blowers

Don't remember what speech...maybe I just dreamed it.

[krabigirl]

29. Yeah, he is a puppet.

[awoke_in_2003]

45. That was candidate Obama...

not President Obama.

[avaistheone1]

26. k&r

[blackspade]

30. Big K&R.

Totally ridiculous and shameful.

[polichick]

32. He's just exposing the U.S. as a banana republic. nt

[JDPriestly]

33. Will this chill speech?

Think about it.

If Assange is guilty of conspiracy for whatever he did to get the information he has leaked, what does that mean in other similar situations? What if you know somebody who works at city hall who tells you about corruption going on. He gets ahold of e-mails and documents that prove the corruption and asks you to give them to a local eager-beaver reporter? Are you participating in a conspiracy?

You can argue that this is different because the documents from City Hall are not protected as secrets by a federal law. But what if the corruption your neighbor uncovers is in the local Homeland Security agency or the police department or some illicit wiretapping or some CIA involvement in something? Bring this principle that a person who elicits or accepts (we don't yet know what really happened) secret or confidential information for purposes of publication in the press close to home and down to the level of your local community and the potential damage that could be done to the fight against corruption and the existence of a free press become apparent.

Remember, once a legal precedent is established in one case, it becomes a rule that applies in all similar cases.

I personally am very troubled by what the Justice Department is doing here. I don't think that the intention is to attack our First Amendment, but that could be the result. I don't think that the Justice Department wants to protect corruption from press scrutiny, but that could easily be the result.

This is a BIG, BIG DEAL. It is a small step for Eric Holder, but a huge step for future of the First Amendment in our country.

[AlbertCat]

34. Assange turns America into banana republic

No, Reagan did that ages ago!

[BrklynLiberal]

35. Assange certainly has brought to the fore all the Banana Republic tendencies of the US

[TBF]

36. You're blaming Assange for this country being a banana republic?

Seems there are quite a few republicans (and a few noteworthy dems) to put on that list, but I wouldn't put Julian on it.

[me b zola]

37. +10000K

My thoughts exactly.

[truedelphi]

38. The Stolen Election of 2004, the TSA "pat downs," the banks taking homes away

From people even though a fifty billion dollar program is in place to help homeowners keep their homes, and now this - yes, we really are a third world nation.

The fact that informed citizens need to defend Assange in order to have Wikileaks reveal improtant truths to us, which just ain't happening in today's world of "journalistic feats" (such as 24/7 coverage of Lindsay Lohen), well, that pretty much indicates how far we have fallen.

[phasma ex machina]

49. The powers-that-be use the word "homeowners" as a euphemism for banksters.

Bankster names appear on the title, which makes banksters the legal homeowners.

[truedelphi]

57. Eew - I didn't know that. Thanks for letting me know

How far these monsters have sunk.

[gateley]

39. They should be ashamed - their actions are so transparent. They don't deserve

to call themselves Americans. :grr:

[Cronus Protagonist]

42. Sounds like Standard Operating Practice for the police here in the US

A cop decides he wants to "get" you, figures out what to charge you with, frames, alters or plants evidence to make the allegations appear legit and BOOM! You're either lucky, bankrupt and free or more often than not, just plan old bankrupt and in jail.

That happens every day here in America, land of the free.

[mdmc]

43. r

[Uncle Joe]

46. Kicked and recommended with one quibble, Assange isn't doing it, they're doing it to them selves and

and they could stop anytime, they wanted to.

Thanks for the thread, thesquanderer.

[northzax]

47. but you can't prosecute the Times

there's that little First Amendment thingy that gets in the way. (See: New York Times V. US 1971) earlier in the century, the Supreme Court has ruled that only a 'grave and irreperable danger' allowed an injunction against publication of classified material. the question, as detailed in the Espionage Act, is how the documents were obtained. the Government cannot stop the publication of classified documents, but the possession of classified documents without the appropriate clearance is a crime, a catch-22.

[Stevenmarc]

51. Could he do us a favor and change us into a Nordstrom's instead