What is your feeling about the “Joint statement about Wikileaks” :
UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection
the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression
December 21, 2010 –
In light of ongoing developments related to the release of diplomatic cables by the organization Wikileaks, and the publication of information contained in those cables by mainstream news organizations, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression see fit to recall a number of international legal principles. The rapporteurs call upon States and other relevant actors to keep these principles in mind when responding to the aforementioned developments.

1. The right to access information held by public authorities is a fundamental human right subject to a strict regime of exceptions. The right to access to information protects the right of every person to access public information and to know what governments are doing on their behalf. It is a right that has received particular attention from the international community, given its importance to the consolidation, functioning and preservation of democratic regimes. Without the protection of this right, it is impossible for citizens to know the truth, demand accountability and fully exercise their right to political participation. ....
2. At the same time, the right of access to information should be subject to a narrowly tailored system of exceptions to protect overriding public and private interests such as national security and the rights and security of other persons. (...) Exceptions to access to information on national security or other grounds should apply only where there is a risk of substantial harm to the protected interest and where that harm is greater than the overall public interest in having access to the information. In accordance with international standards, information regarding human rights violations should not be considered secret or classified.

3. Public authorities and their staff bear sole responsibility for protecting the confidentiality of legitimately classified information under their control. Other individuals, including journalists, media workers and civil society representatives, who receive and disseminate classified information because they believe it is in the public interest, should not be subject to liability unless they committed fraud or another crime to obtain the information. In addition, government “whistleblowers” releasing information on violations of the law, on wrongdoing by public bodies, on a serious threat to health, safety or the environment, or on a breach of human rights or humanitarian law should be protected against legal, administrative or employment-related sanctions if they act in good faith. Any attempt to impose subsequent liability on those who disseminate classified information should be grounded in previously established laws enforced by impartial and independent legal systems with full respect for due process guarantees, including the right to appeal.

4. Direct or indirect government interference in or pressure exerted upon any expression or information transmitted through any means (...) must be prohibited by law when it is aimed at influencing content. Such illegitimate interference includes politically motivated legal cases brought against journalists and independent media, and blocking of websites and web domains on political grounds. Calls by public officials for illegitimate retributive action are not acceptable.
etc etc
Catalina Botero Marino
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression
Frank LaRue
UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression

Republicans have redefined “hypocrisy”: on the way to the conservative code of deception, lies, greed and immorality to achieve power and control, your actions are irrelevant. Only the results of power are the goal. Thus being hypocritical doesn’t matter, and, in fact, is not noticed by pleasure-seeking voters.

RE: Bradley Manning is being held in solitary confinement and on the basis
of military law as regards espionage…

let’s consider Pfc. Manning; e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MQXeIm4kd4
scroll to 11:30 for commentary on Manning’s access to files
scroll back to 11:00 to hear of other leaks (not from Manning)
clearly this operation is bigger than these players
- probably useful tools - perhaps useful fools

there’s much more here than meets the eye, so to speak
look deeper - avoid the desperate lemming urge

Rise of McCarthyism in a new avatar?
One has been witness to the dance of talking heads with a mob mentality that derides and threatens what Wikileaks has done, is doing and hopefully will continue to do. Yes, we are talking about the hysteria in USA generated by the exposure of secret documents.

The dirty linen keeps coming out in regular intervals much to the chagrin of these folk. Apparently there is an ongoing discussion about using the Espionage Act of 1917 as a weapon to corral Julian Assange. It is rumoured that a Grand Jury is meeting to discuss this issue.  There appears to be a general political consensus with this method of imposing the American Will on an Australian citizen for crimes against the homeland.

The ground swell of antipathy towards Wikileaks in government/private circles gives the distinct impression that McCarthyism in an insidious avatar is returning to haunt the freedom loving people of America. All the signs are there. Pseudo-nationalism spiced by the desire to reach out and incarcerate anyone that is perceived as a threat to America’s security…the us and them syndrome.

So what will the Real America do?
Will self respecting citizens challenge this upsurge?
Will lawsuits and protest rallies emerge from the woodwork of its society?
Or will apathy take its toll?

I suppose Time and its rancid cousin, history will tell us in due course.

In the mean time, May God Save America from these
people.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Om

Things are never what they seem to be.

I defend Assange’s right to publish material which comes into his posession and is not copyrighted.

But is there a larger motive?

http://rense.com/general92/wikisrael.htm

Regarding “Sweden,” two questions come to mind-
1. How many of its infamous suitcases of 100 dollar bills did the CIA have to deliver to Swedes before they capitulated ?
2. Some Swedish women have a quite wierd method of demanding a second round of something they liked. In the past, Swedish females have not called on the police for assistance in obtaining a repeat performance.

How many people have been locked up for a broken condom?  His bail is how much?  What a sick world we live in.

dr. o.p. sudrania; 1898

Bradley Manning is being held in solitary confinement and on the basis of military law as regards espionage he will be a very old man when and if he is ever released.  He can only hope for a commutation of his sentence by a future president.  As a matter of fact Assange could very well be cell mate.  In a few days the extradition request will be forwarded to the British authorities.  Assange’s only chance is to get out of lock-up through bail and then escape via private jet to a neutral country.  Once in the hands of US authorities he is toast!

Since when US law has become the “Global Law”? Or is it some new kind of US style jihad that we are learning?
God bless
Dr. O. P. Sudrania

Turn over a rock and all kinds of disgusting things crawl out.  Now they want to kill Assange for turning over a lot of rocks.

“The problem is that the Republicans believe only in
power and fear;  they don’t question the need for so
many classified documents.” by commonwealth

The criteria, for separating alleged “Republicans”
from alleged “Democrats” in their addiction to power
and their misuse of fear, would be interesting to
review. However, I have not located the criteria.  In
their support of the Patriot Act, how are “Democrats”
separable from “Republicans” ?

As for so many classified documents - - .  Documents
are only the written version of communications.
Hiding these written versions removes the truth from
the vision of the citizenry.  WIKIleaks has brought
numerous of these treasonous “exchanges” into the
view of the citizenry.  Which violates the code of
the ruling class, sparking its habit of “killing the
messenger.”

The various persons who have sprung up, claiming that
WIKI leaks is a CIA or Israeli function, are
typically functionaires of these two groups. 
Attempting to demean the value of the “secretive”
communications released by WIKIleaks, is a function
of the “Disinformation Program” of the CIA and its
partner, the Israeli MOSSAD.  That public-media-
pimpery seized on topics to support the idea of
attacking Iran, is only logical, over which WIKIleaks
had no control.

As far as the idea of Assange being an agent of the
CIA, this idea can be dispelled with one simple
question:  When did you last read of inside
information having been leaked by CIA operatives ? 
CIA operatives are trained to do the opposite, and to
punish whistle-blowers.  The leaks about Mrs. Valerie
Plame-Wilson were done not by CIA operatives, but
rather by NAZI-types in the employ of “Junior” Bush.

I think the response of the United States government and elected officials to this whole wikileaks situation has been more telling and illuminating than anything released in the cables.  It has shown that the lies and manipulation carried on by our government is rampant, incredulous, and extreme.  The calls for assassination reveal a country that is insecure, paranoid, and histrionic.  Statements that Assange “has broken every law of the United States,” or committed and act “worse than a military attack,” are so ludicrous I would laugh if it were not so real.  It instead makes me want to cry for how far this country has slipped into lala land, and how brash and incredulous the propaganda has become.  They don’t even try to act like adults anymore, its become like high-school gossip.

The only ones responsible for keeping information secret were those in charge of
doing that job. Nobody broke into government offices to steal anything—the
information simply flowed out.  The government doesn’t really care about the
leaks but they feel compelled to say and do something to shift the blame for their
own blunders and justify their salaries.  And the public, who seems always eager
to blame outsiders for our problems, will probably support the necessity to pursue
this as if it were a big threat to our security. The Wikileaks “revelations” can’t
possibly do any more damage than all the decades of US foreign policy have
already done.

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Suggestion of a much-needed action:

If you support Assange and Manning and Wikileaks, please try writing a brief, noninflammatory letter to your local newspaper editor telling reasons why these two men must not be judged guilty before they have had a fair trial—if you think they even ought to be arrested and charged.

Point out the relation of the internet to freedom of speech. Or the bravery it took to “leak” documents. Or the fact that all “leaks”  have been vetted at least twice before publication to eliminate dangers. Or the significance of the net as an instrument to prevent secrecy in government/business domination of ordinary citizens. 

But don’t try to say it all in one letter!  Use discretion. Whether or not the paper will publish the letters will be revealing of “what’s up” with the “establishment” in your locality.  And if published, it could help a lot.  People have to speak up publicly, IMO, so that people who are afraid, will become less fearful.

In a country where millions believe that Jesus is going to return in their lifetime,
Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11, and Obama is a Muslim, character
assassination is the obvious go-to tool for damage control. It worked beautifully,
as the rape charge meme has received far more press attention that the latest doc
dump.

At the same time, Assange himself has become Exhibit A in the case against
secrecy and Authoritarianism in gov’t. The more they crack down on him, the more
undeniable the charges of corruption and conspiracy in politics becomes.

Assange is the victim of the ancient “kill the messenger” syndrome.  It is caused by raw, blind fear, and is used to further the rule of mobs.

Why?  In order to bury the truth.  In this case, revealing and supporting that truth is vital to freedom and democracy.  People can’t govern themselves if they don’t know what their government is doing.

What is at risk?  More, even, than the lives of the heroic “leakers” and publishers, the risk lies in the destruction of internet abilities to reveal the truth that enables citizens to understand how politics and business have taken control of our lives.  And to learn how to use freedom of communication to support democracy.

This is quite likely the “battle of the 21st Century.

This is the U.S. version of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie.  Rushdie was pilloried
and threatened by Muslim fundamentalists for caricaturing the Prophet
Muhammad.  Little did those fundamentalists realize that their angry and violent
reaction was a far greater and more dangerous caricature of Islam than Rushdie’s. 
Now U.S. nationalist fundamentalists are trying to issue a fatwa against Assange
and in the process perverting real national interests.  The problem is that the
Republicans believe only in power and fear;  they don’t question the need for so
many classified documents.  Their hypocrisy is that they have no problem
criticizing and demanding an end to what they don’t like, but they do not want
anyone else to have the same right.  This hypocrisy ought, however, to be
challenged.

Wikileaks Julian Assange is the cure.
The disease is the puerile politicians who create wars so that corporations can hawk their death dealing hardware…and the warped sections of media that have become rancid with warped patriotism and skewered motives.

The fact that it’s been years since we’ve had a ‘free press’ to dig through the daily fibs (and occasionally bring down a corrupt government) has made WikiLeaks both necessary and inevitable.

“‘You’ll risk lives! National Security! You’ll endanger troops!’ by releasing information, and ‘then they say there is nothing of importance in what WikiLeaks publishes.”

Well yes, it can not be both.  But the American public is pretty dumb.  Strategically, all these propagandist do to sufficiently bamboozle the public with this self contradictory message is to have different people say each point.  I guess that way the knee jerk USA USA USA types get to pick their favorite lie.

How can he be a traitor or treasonous? He’s not an American. There’s the rub. I know there are idiots in the military/industrial complex who think everyone’s an American now - but it ain’t so. Some of the leaks have come from the military and some have come from within the US government but how is that any different to what Daniel Ellsberg did? And in that case the judge threw the case out and said the public was entitled to know the information in the Pentagon Papers. A real eye opener to me that Richard Holbrooke was the author of at least part of the Pentagon Papers. Daniel Ellsberg was an analyst - a US government employee - who photocopied ‘top secret’ documents that told the truth about the Vietnam War and gave them to the ‘New York Times - the truth being that everyone in the MIC knew the war couldn’t be won and had known it for years but kept it secret and lied about it to the American public.

In Ellsberg’s case Nixon sent some CIA operatives called ‘the plumbers’ (because guess what, they plugged leaks)to break into Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office where he had been (unsurprisingly) treated for depression. The plan was to steal his private medical information and smear him as a nutcase so that the revelations could be discredited and he could then be charged with ‘treason’ and put away for life. Fortunately the judge held the line and the bad guys lost. Beckel is not only a vicious and vindictive moron he’s simply wrong in law. Not that you can expect a moron to understand the law. No true democrat would spout this crap so he’s a Democrat in name only. Like so many other people I could mention. The US government is now officially criminal and as feral as a dog with rabies.