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Ron Paul Defends Wikileaks and Julian Assange

katrina

Well-known member
Government
Ron Paul Defends Wikileaks and Julian Assange in House Floor Speech
Posted on December 10, 2010 at 10:47am by Jonathon M. Seidl Print » Email » One thing is for certain about Wikileaks and Julian Assange: there is not a consensus view on what to think about him and his release of secret documents. Traitor? Journalist? “New” whistleblower? Good? Bad? Messenger?

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) seems to think the latter. In a speech on the House floor Thursday, Paul wondered aloud if the anger toward Assange mirrors “killing the messenger for bringing bad news.“ He then attacks the ”neo-conservatives in charge” who don’t want to lose a grip on the “empire” (an odd charge considering there aren’t any neo-cons currently in power).

He does, however, settle down and begin asking a series of important questions such as, how can the U.S. government charge an Australian citizen with treason for publishing information that he himself did not steal?

He ends his speech with more questions (via Mediaite):

Number 1: Do the America People deserve know the truth regarding the ongoing wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen?

Number 2: Could a larger question be how can an army private access so much secret information?

Number 3: Why is the hostility directed at Assange, the publisher, and not at our governments failure to protect classified information?

Number 4: Are we getting our moneys worth of the 80 Billion dollars per year spent on intelligence gathering?

Number 5: Which has resulted in the greatest number of deaths: lying us into war or Wikileaks revelations or the release of the Pentagon Papers?

Number 6: If Assange can be convicted of a crime for publishing information that he did not steal, what does this say about the future of the first amendment and the independence of the internet?

Number 7: Could it be that the real reason for the near universal attacks on Wikileaks is more about secretly maintaining a seriously flawed foreign policy of empire than it is about national security?

Number 8: Is there not a huge difference between releasing secret information to help the enemy in a time of declared war, which is treason, and the releasing of information to expose our government lies that promote secret wars, death and corruption?

Number 9: Was it not once considered patriotic to stand up to our government when it is wrong?



(H/T: Mediaite)
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
The writer says no NEOCONS IN POWER? are you kidding me? Obama is just as much a Neocon as Bush when it comes to assisting the Military industrial complex. Gates as the defense head under bush and obama changed nothing. we have not gotten out of either war in iraq or afghanistan. nothing has changed. the neocons are still running the show and obama is just a bankster puppet....he is not even a citizen...
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
shaumei said:
The writer says no NEOCONS IN POWER? are you kidding me? Obama is just as much a Neocon as Bush when it comes to assisting the Military industrial complex. Gates as the defense head under bush and obama changed nothing. we have not gotten out of either war in iraq or afghanistan. nothing has changed. the neocons are still running the show and obama is just a bankster puppet....he is not even a citizen...

You still haven't figured out the definition of NEOCON, have you?


As far as this Wikileaks thing, I was thinking about this last night and how true the statement, "to shut down Wikileaks, you'll need to shutdown the internet" is.

When you look at the purpose of the internet, as far as the Government is concerned, they will not want to shut it down. They may want to control it more, but not shut it down.

The Government gleans as much from the internet about citizens or enemies, as citizens and enemies glean from the Government. The Internet is a very useful tool for "the powers that be" to keep tabs on everyone. Think of the information they can obtain on individuals, groups etc. through social media sites, credit card sites etc. It saves them quite a bit of resources by being able to have on intelligence officer sitting at a desk, or to have it done with data collection programs over having operatives in the field.

The feedback that they are collecting now, concerning Countries or individuals reaction to the "leak" is invaluable.

Wikileaks is bigger than Assange. There is a whole group of them, and IMO, this "leak" is just a trial run. There will be bigger secrets that are leaked in the future, and the Government is learning just as much about the public's/media's reaction to this "leak" as what we have learned.

The internet is a door that swings both ways. If you restrict traffic going, you also restrict traffic coming.
 
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