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Wanted by the US: WikiLeaks Founder Keeps His Head Down
It reads like a James Bond novel: an enigmatic white-haired computer hacker; a soldier turned whistleblower; secret government correspondence; and the world's most powerful country desperate to contain the situation.
Setting knowledge free ... Julian Assange, the only self-identified employee of the Wikileaks website. (Photo: Mark Chew) Julian Assange, the Australian-born face of the web iconoclast WikiLeaks, is in hiding overseas after the US military arrested one of its own soldiers, Bradley Manning, and accused him of leaking a a secret video of a US Army helicopter gunning down civilians in Iraq in 2007.
The video was released on Wikileaks this year, and the US is now desperate to find Mr Assange before he leaks thousands of hugely embarrassing state diplomatic cables, which are believed to discuss the Middle East, its governments and leaders.
Mr Assange, 38, is an enigmatic figure who moves frequently between countries and has bases in Iceland, Kenya, Australia and elsewhere.
He was due to speak at a conference in Las Vegas on Friday but cancelled shortly before he was due to appear.
At the same time a US gossip website published an article claiming that Pentagon investigators were engaged in a ''manhunt'' for Mr Assange.
WikiLeaks, set up in 2007, is a clandestine international organisation that relies on anonymous leaks of confidential documents from government and industry.
Although it has a history of funding difficulties and opposition from governments - Australia's Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, threatened to call in the Federal Police when the site published a confidential internet blacklist - it has continued to operate sporadically and garnered worldwide attention when it released the helicopter attack video.
But it appears that the latest leak may have pushed the US too far, and there have even been suggestions that Mr Assange may be in physical danger.
Daniel Ellsberg, who famously leaked a top secret US history of the Vietnam War dubbed the Pentagon Papers at the height of that war, told US television he had spoken to Mr Assange last week.
''He ... understood that it was not safe for him to come to this country,'' Mr Ellsberg said.
The arrest of US Army Specialist Manning was proof that Mr Assange was at risk of prosecution or worse in the US, he said.
''When the Bradley Manning arrest was announced, he said 'now you understand why I didn't come' ... I think he would not be safe, even physically, entirely, wherever he is.''
- Posted in
77 Comments so far
Show AllIf only the U.S. were as assiduous in trying to track down the authors of the Niger "yellowcake" dossier and other "faulty intelligence" feeding the lies that led to the invasion of Iraq.
And, incidentally, I think I saw Assange at the open-air market in St-Yrieix-la-Perche in the Limousin region of France on Saturday.
Aw, c'mon Clovis. You know that the US Government will never chase down the authors of the Niger files or WMD booga-booga. Or who *really* mailed the New Jersey USAMRID lab weaponized anthrax to congress and members of the media.
Besides, I thought Assange was confirmed to be in Toronto, Ontario yesterday.
The dude moves fast, apparently. May Hermes and Pallas Athena give wings to his feet.
The latest reports have Julian Assange in Fiji.
Really? I was sure I saw him at Chatuchak market yesterday. He was enjoying some som tam with a shigha.
I saw Assange in a lava tube in the central mountains of New Mexico, setting up a pirate internet server ready to upload "stuff" via satellite to Wikileaks. He cooks a mean damper.
Assange sure gets around. I know for a fact Julian Assange was at the Lew Castle College, Stornoway, on the Outer Hebrides on Monday, June 14th. He met someone he's staying with.
Good luck Julian. I hope you can keep up the good work.
Hoa binh
Doesn't Julian Assange follow US Supreme Court decisions? If he wants complete freedom of speech in this country, he needs to incorporate himself!
Thank goodness some still walk the walk.. The usa should be ashamed of its self.. Oh yea I forgot the truth never comes up in this country..In fact you are put in prison for telling the truth.. The fellow who leaked those videos should be given a million dollar reward and held up as a model for citizen behavior.
SUPPORT THE EMPIRE SEND YOUR NEIGHBORS KIDS
Mmmm... maybe I don't gettit, but I thought this byline was incisive and just plain funny. I recommend making buttons and sending them to all members of Congress and CEOs everywhere.
No, it should say, Report Your Neighbors' Kids!
Why send the buttons to members of Congress and CEOs everywhere? They already support the empire and are quite comfortable with the practice of sending everyone else's kids to fight in the wars.
duh, okay, I get it. Get them to be honest and then put . . .
Thanks for the link, Justice.
Julian is a real life hero. Not people who hit, kick, throw balls around.
The intelligence agencies? Don't make me laugh. The best and brightest only. Dark glasses and top guns. What a name for them! Its like 'The Free Trade Organisation' or the Department or Defense'? Its like the democratic mandate to as Bush said he'd spend hsi political capital. And with the best and brightest the USA elected Bush for a second term to keep America safe? What joy that Obama and a Corporate production if ever there was one as Kennedy proved how effective the mass media was in electioneering like the subject 'engineering'. And when the red menace disipated with Tricky Dicky using diplomacy for business interests to shake that open hand of friendship with China the Republicans followed this, complained rightly that Bill Clinton was taking bribes from the Chinese (against the law of freedom's abiding great democracy) and were going to screw him and his party, those wonderful Democrats said not to do so lest they wouldn't in turn produce intelligence evidence that The Republicans were doing exactly the same American democracy sighed in relief.
That their citizens refused to listen to men of character like Ralph Nader deciding to and swallow the same nonsense from Kerry's party to demonise Nader as a spoiler showed the confidence and assurance that the big spenders and thieves rule in that land. Whatever happened to principles. Whay would nader who had one main goal which was to reform entirely political access to a media he understood elects presidents? Its done so since analysis of Kennedy's election demonstrated. Did Bush really have charisma? Or worse for charisma Regan? Were they not such an embarrassment to the electorate when seen on important occasions looking so foolish and ignorant?
That Obama is an intelligent super stud good looking guy who deserted his electorate at every possible opportunity in the ins of political expedience and who in looking forward is driving the entire world into a state of incredulity does the MSM think it has a chance to keep up an image that has fallen into a crap hole? It doesn't have that chance anymore. Israel seals his fate in the eyes of all abroad who are more concerned that they can survive the Capitalist dictatorship and violence underway. These foreigners are not USA citizens and they are no longer so easy to bombard with global propaganda they plainly begin to see as clap trap. There are leaks appearing in the dam. Obama is not only a disappointment he's much more. He and his war party demonstrate to all and sundry what the USA has become and European citizens will resist their own following the leader political elites from now on. There is no doubt about that.
The United States overwhelms people now.
There is no doubt people love the American experience and have great friends and family there. But never before has such discomfort and indeed such anger surfaced in a broad abraod. The stupidity, arrogance and assumptions of security this great leadership from the USA government's projection of its power are out the window.
Populations in independent western economies are musing and countries' civilian populations don't believe or trust politics or their own political puppet masters and mistresses much. There will ensue many riots and demonstrations. Each country will react in its own way. There will be blood on the streets too! Its almost inevitable now.
The USA strategies and policies against against this world's concerns and it is allied to violent activities that rewards those who suppress all people and it conducts itself in International forums like a dictatorial bully. It disgusts baffles and is seriously weakened as an image to be emulated. I wish a reformation to occur there, as all the USA itself will garnish from its outrageous behaviour is opposition. Its influence is enormous but it is leaking like the gusher in The Gulf of Mexico. Not even the Brits will be able to stick this trend.
Europe looks to Germany. To Turkey and to Russia and China. They are more important. The USA is not longer seen as a shopping mall by tourists. It is a pain to go there as the 'intelligence' of other's country's citizens demanded with intrusive security checks are quite simply insufferable. May the Israel/USA pact survive and let's all have one whopping big war about it.
As some US citizens I've heard all too easily say, 'Lets nuke them'! What if The USA is Nuked? That's what will likely happen on this present course. NATO has it as first strike option. So has the USA itself. That is madness if ever people wanted to understand? This is dangerous and frightening. This is real!
Security? Don't make us laugh any more. Bully's and cowardly corrupt politicians covered by their super dooper military forces with their big guns won't survive the reaction well. The great thing about the free world is its capacity to educate and to resist fear the bully creates. People in mass are a force on their own and their governments will seek to survive and not to so placidly follow the road to destruction. Opposition grows to this 'free market' buy out of civilised behaviour.
Llbanus, you seem unaware that Bush's election victories in 2000 and 2004 were not legitimate, as has been amply demonstrated by many, particularly Harvey Wasserman and Bob Fitrakis.
Everybody call the Pentagon or the FBI and tell them where you've seen Mr. Assange.
Maybe we all should start wearing white-hair wigs.
LOL
A for Assange! (and Anarchy, of course)
Take a look. Incredibly, they are out there.
http://www.bizrate.com/costume-wigs-facial-hair/white-hair-costume-wig/
Joe
I hope everyone will pitch in and give them the $upport they deserve.
http://wikileaks.org/
This is a great opportunity for any "intelligence officials" who are really smart to support WikiLeak's quest for truth, justice, and peace. The truth is definitely going to set humanity free from the insanely greedy, warmongering creeps who form the oligarchy, the only question is when.
Ignore the naysayers and cynics - they have been consistently wrong on every step forward since the dawn of time.
It's time to shut down the oligarchy & their pentagon forever. Truth and diplomacy will replace their dirty lies & warmongering.
And there is nothing funnier than hit-men working for a "democractic" government tasked with liquidating a whistleblower. And I say this as one with a boundless appreciation and gratitude for humor and for those who risk it.
One more relay runner for justice. One day his persecutors will wake up. Put the coffee on so they can smell it.
"Not just 'a US hit', but Daniel Ellsberg fears that Obama might have him murdered! "
–(ardent 1)
Correct.
There is little doubt that this statement is more truthful than idle, speculative conjecture.
The cautionary "might" here errs on the side of a plausible denial, not wanting to confront the malaise of unremitting darkness and brutality that is the absolute normative standard for all American 'foreign policy.'
Even if Obama somehow (highly unlikely)– disapproved of this extra-legal murder, he could not restrain the Pentagon and the CIA from killing Assange. Neither agency have any qualms in letting a difference of opinion over 'policy' prevent them from acting 'independently.' That is just the way America now works: A many headed lethal hydra dealing death from multiple sources, absolved from any pretense of civilian control.
The point here is that America, like Israel, is not in the business of showing even a trace of perceived 'weakness,' or suffering cracks in the edifice of its propaganda. That, is simply not an option for either practitioner of state terror. America suffered a momentary loss of 'control' of the 'image spectacle' during 9-11and will turn the earth into a living hell to reestablish the hegemony of image domination.
One is reminded here, most acutely, of Anton Chigurh, the psychopathic killer in Cormac McCarthy's novel, "No Country For Old Men." When asked about his 'enemies.' Chigurh replies: "I have no enemies. I won't permit it." Of course, it goes without saying, that all Chigurh's enemies are dead.
Julian Assange would already have a decal of his face embossed on the fuselage of a Predator drone if he was as remotely dangerous as his 'fans' (sycophants) would like him to be. Unless he becomes too valuable as a 'celebritized' fashion commodity in the image system of capitalist chic– that he is already marked for death– is certainly not implausible.
Event though Assange is at best, a marginal cause celébrè– known to a distinctly hermetic minority audience– he is probably now more popular as a fashion icon (the hip, silver hair, the thin necrotic de-materialized alien, cyberized 'look') than for the subversive qualities of his work. His mere appearance in the rebarbative "New Yorker Magazine" seems to confirm that his celebrity status is already undermining–if not trivializing–his oeuvre.
Let us hope that he avoids the reach of the imperium long enough for more of his invaluable work to give fascism a well deserved black eye.
Escaping the fashionistas is another matter altogether.That fate, once his photograph was out, is a battle he has already lost to 'style.' Relegated forever as a poster boy of 'cool', a hipster mosquito of pseudo subversion and spurious politics headed for Hollywood? Let's hope not.
wow.
put that thesaurus away dude. you sound like a total asshole! (jk, sorta). and it seems you are more obsessed with Assange's look than the rest of us are. i think you are reading way too much into the cultural implications of his style.
to a totalitarian media system like that in the U.S., his work is intolerable because on the one hand, it completely undermines the legitimacy of the corporate stenographers to power, and on the other, is highly effective in exposing the bloody hand of U.S. empire.
in a word, he's just doing what every so-called journalist should be doing. he's exposing the coward's and hypocrites who work in corporate journalism, putting his ass on the line to tell the truth.
it's simple. it's heroic, it's desperately needed, and we should all support him.
We do support Julian Assange's work for the very reasons you presciently and accurately cited. That was clear from the posting you commented on. We found it perplexing, if not astonishing that you missed that. It was tacitly implicit in our posting.
Having said that, we are not innocent enough to believe Assange can avoid the fate of becoming just another 'life style' product of image consumerism, in effect neutering the subversive properties of his work. It is the 'work' that matters, not the 'personality' which when driven by the presence and the availability of the consumable image rapidly is overwhelmed in celebrity.
We already detect signs of this increasing fandom– of the gushing, adoring sycophancy– rapidly turning into a degenerative hero worship and media 'celebrity,' even on a relatively sophisticated site such as this. That phenomena is what prompted our analysis, not, as you erroneously believe, an "obsession" with his "looks."
For the record, we don't own a thesaurus, have recourse to one, nor do we use one. We don't need to. But then we don't have problems with those who do. And why should we?
It does not pique our inferiority complexes when confronted with words we do not understand; rather, it provides another opportunity to educate ourselves for that sake alone.
It's just another tool. Dictionaries are fun to use. We use one whenever we can. Perhaps it would behoove you to do so as well.
–Kim Nquyen
It's not about you being "innocent enough to believe", but that your analysis is based on self-centered notions of what others perceive as "life style". You write:
"We already detect signs of this increasing fandom– of the gushing, adoring sycophancy– rapidly turning into a degenerative hero worship and media 'celebrity,' even on a relatively sophisticated site such as this."
Really? What "detection" methods are you using? Have you done some statistical analysis on a quantifiable number of media outlets, or do you interpret through your own blurry lenses the "fandom" and the "adoring sycophancy" and the "degenerative hero worship"? For us only "relatively" sophisticated "sycophants", please do tell! We are all so excited to hear how we can become MORE sophisticated, like you two.
By the way, now you really do sound like pompous assholes. I understand every word you wrote, but I find it arrogant, elitist, and self-aggrandizing. I am quite capable of getting my point across without the need to impress some professor, and other institutionalized elitist cretins, by the excessive use of a Merriam Webster.
Besides your strangely inaccurate obsession with cultural identifiers, I generally agree with your analysis with respect to empire and Assange.
Here is the gist of what we said in a more anagrammatic, reductive form for those such as yourself:
"Julian Assange, is in danger of becoming to Journalism, what Bono is to politics."
Is that simple enough? Are those 'words' you are capable of understanding? It is of no relevance to us whether or not you agree with our substantive concerns and opinions or not. But you violate a standard of personal decorum by attacking our 'style.' It's best not to personalize things except when issuing kudos and complimentary appraisals.
It is always sad that perceived differences and tastes in writing style have to elicit ad hominem attacks, but not surprising. Our style is what it is. That's just the way we write. So what?
No one (meaning you) likes to have their own private sense of inferiority put to question, especially when these 'insecurities' are generated from within themselves. We certainly had no such intentions or desire to generate personal attacks that were ultimately so revelatory of your own inadequacies.
That we struck such a nerve or accidently hit a weak point is strictly accidental: That's all on you and whatever personal demons you choose to divulge. To have your own doubts splayed about like an open wound in public– in an orgy of the aggrieved– elicits our sympathy for what is decidedly unbecoming, if not vaguely pathetic.
From our brief time reading blog commentary we have always found that a sure 'tell' of this phenomena is when one drags out the hoary accusation of using a thesaurus as if it were a pejorative, to attack a fellow poster.
In the future, consider taking upon our advisement, that your tactic of choice and the desire to 'insult,' with that epithet, reflects more on you than it ever could on us.
Great posts VashkarKim,
I very much enjoyed your style. In my case I only had look up a few words, but as I read to learn, it was very enjoyable.
May I suggest to all lurking Neocons without a decent education, this web site:
www.thefreedictionary.com. Copy and paste the frightening long word into the search box, and turn up your speakers and it will even pronounce those dern Liberal words of wisdom for you when you click on the speaker or flag symbol.
If you can turn off Faux News and NASCAR in the background, you might even learn something. But don't lecture others on how to post. Each person keeps their own council on what to write, for godsakes. Instead of trying to coerce everyone into posting what you want to see in these comments, you instead need to learn how to selectively read.
If you want to viciously attack his/her premise that the protagonist in this story is facing redundant liabilities, then please do it. Or to put it in the NeoCon parlance: "Play the ball, not the Player. "
TJ
To be fair, the best way to impress others IS to use plain English. People are more impressed by clarity of thought than by linguistic genius. So, there ARE words you should avoid using if you don't want to sound pompous - or, as I could have said: grandiloquent. Of course, it also depends on your audience. However, there's nothing wrong with a sprinkling of long or rarely used words within your text, so long as they fit naturally with your writing style.
This site is only for comments. None of us is being paid to write perfect prose. Therefore, as long as we understand each other, I see no problem with a less-than-perfect writing style.
Get a room.
It's not that nobody can understand your words, it's just that they come off as pretentious, empty and tedious more than insightful.
I think the best response to your insults, for us only "relatively" sophisticated folks, is to take a quote from a great essay, recently written in support of Chomsky, in the context of the hatred he generates in french intellectual culture:
"First and foremost is the question of facts. Chomsky’s criticism is laden with facts, a substance that seems to elicit ennui among contemporary French thinkers. No doubt the importance of the essay in the French educational system has bred a world of “philosophers” whose skill at manipulating fact-free ideas was the guarantee of a distinguished career. Louis Althusser confessed as much in his autobiography, admitting that he not only knew few facts but that he knew few works of philosophy – but he had learned how to synthesize. This raises the question of the social usefulness of such philosophy. If the social object is to entertain, then the French school reaches its goal – mystification is often far more entertaining than straightforward descriptions of reality. On the other hand, if the object is to help readers reach their own understanding of reality, especially political reality, then their first need is to be provided with the basic relevant facts, which most people do not have time to ascertain through their own research. Thus Chomsky is useful to citizens by providing them with the raw material to develop their own ideas in a way that the purveyors of ready-made but flimsily supported ideas are not."
from:
Why the French Hate Noam Chomsky
By DIANA JOHNSTONE
http://www.counterpunch.org/johnstone06142010.html
To compare Assange with Bono, or suggest a potential comparison in the future, really exemplifies your ignorance of both politics and culture (especially music), and the completely different planes of consciousness within which they exist. Total absolute ignorance, arrogance, and elitist nonsense.
VK, are you a singular or a plural? Heck, it's all semantics, isn't it? I mean, I don't think you and malatesta are on different sides here. Just FYI, most folks consider it better style to use simpler words and shorter phrases where those suffice, and pompous or overstated to not - thus, malatesta's sorta just kidding remark. So, are you writing for your audience, to impress or connect, or what? Some of us do of course like the occasional grammatical flair, but it is also valuable in writing to know how less can be more. Overall, I found your initial comment insightful and provocative, and perhaps intentionally a bit amusing!?
"VK, are you a singular or a plural?" –(cosmobilly)
–We are plural, who sometimes post separately and often edit our own things unbeknownst to one another. We are man and wife. We apologize for the confusion.
We cannot write any other way than the way we do. We just write. No more, no less.
We don't write for "an audience, to impress, or to connect." We can understand your 'concerns' with our writing style. At least you did not try to insult us. We have found– from reading these forums– that when that happens, one usually ends up insulting themselves.
We do what we can. Some will get it, some won't. That can't be helped. We are happy, as are all people, when their work is appreciated or made a difference.
Thank you for your praise and concern, as we do try.
VashkarKim, I generally agree with everything you say, but I beg to differ with one of the points in the above post.
You say: "America suffered a momentary loss of 'control' of the 'image spectacle' during 9-11 and will turn the earth into a living hell to reestablish the hegemony of image domination."
It seems clear to me, and to anyone, I think, who has done some research, that 9/11 was, on the contrary, a triumph of American 'image spectacle,' and worked like a charm to pave the way for the already planned wars to come.
Or do you think that the 19 hijackers somehow got all the points of structural support in WTC Building 7, which was not hit by a plane, to give out at exactly the same moment, allowing the 47-storey structure to collapse in 6.5 seconds, or at near freefall speed? Did Al-Qaeda wire WTC 7 with explosives? Was Al-Qaeda able to turn the concrete and steel of the Twin Towers to dust in mid-air?
To quote Robert Baer, former top CIA operative in the Middle East and an articulate author: "when the dust finally clears, Americans will see that September 11 was a triumph for the intelligence community, not a failure."
Former German minister of defense, Andreas von Bulow, with deep ties to the international intelligence community, also thinks 9/11 was an inside job. Here's a sampling of him: "Whoever wants to understand the CIA's methods, has to deal with its main task of covert operations: Below the level of war, and outside international law, foreign states are to be influenced by inciting insurrections or terrorist attacks, usually combined with drugs and weapons trade, and money laundering. Since, however, it must not under any circumstances come out that there is an intelligence agency behind it, all traces are erased, with tremendous deployment of resources. I have the impression that this kind of intelligence agency spends 90 percent of its time this way: creating false leads. So that if anyone suspects the collaboration of the agencies, he is accused of paranoia. The truth often comes out only years later."
That said, I do not dispute your point that the Americans "will turn the earth into a living hell." It's just that the purpose is merely to maintain, and ratchet up, the already existing "image domination," in order to force the world to accept their desired control of the Middle East and South Asia, and their resources.
Clovis,
I don't dispute that the destruction of the infernal towers– those vulgar monuments to capitalist triumphalism– was an inside job. The logic is overwhelming that it was. I am in through agreement with that, as subsequent imperial aggression clearly proves.
The momentary 'loss of the image spectacle' was at best an almost evanescent, transient phenomena that provided great delight–even joy– to millions the world over at the symbolic level. That was, more precisely, what I was talking about, not the clandestine plans of the gnomes who planned the terror op.
The spectacle of 'just deserts' and American vulnerability was at best, a short lived indulgence, but it was a priceless one. And for those who do not know about or do not believe the reality of the conspiracy view, it remains an extremely satisfying one at the more profound, symbolic level. Even at the primally satisfying level of raw emotion. I should have taken more care to delineate the difference. Your criticism is well taken.
Of course, as you state, at the invisible level, the deeper level, the motivation of the 'black op' was to create a 'final hegemony' of the 'image spectacle' and full scale imperial dominance. I think America failed miserably on this count; in fact it may even have backfired as the wonder of the falling towers has becomes iconic, even idiomatic of the future.
All the subsequent state terror–no matter its 'true' origin or the spurious rationales used to justify it–has only made the initial image of weakness (the hope for the destruction of America) even more cherished, and in truth, even more powerful.
This contention is apart from the dawning and objective reality that America's wars are consuming it from within and cannot, one day be sustained–paving the way for total collapse.
History will prove if fascism has miscalculated here.
–Vashkar.
"History will prove if fascism has miscalculated here."
Two things: 1) History is written by the winners. And there is far too much information that simply cannot be documented because that would bring down multiple governments.
and
2) How certain are you that there will be enough mass literacy in the future for the history of today to be read?
"How certain are you that there will be enough mass literacy in the future for the history of today to be read?" –(Galenwainwright)
–An excellent point and a dark one. Since illiteracy is a given, one hopes it will not depend on that.
To answer your question, I am not sure at all.
If the present incapacity of Americans to understand at all what is happening to them is an intimation of the future, then darkness is in the ascendent (which it is).
The more extreme mordancy yet is that Americans 'know,' but do not care what is happening to them. It already quite clear they do not care what they do to others.
If history is "written by the winners" then it is incumbent that the right side wins:
"The path of total police control over all human activities and the path of unlimited free creation are one...We are necessarily on the same path as our enemies–most often preceding them–but we must be there without any confusion, as enemies. The best will win"
–Situationist International, from "Now, The S.I."
The fragility of modern 'civilization' is indeed quite unnerving when you consider just how vulnerable the accumulated knowledge across the globe really is. Far too much is now held in the ether of the 'Net, and to cripple or destroy that resource would be in the realm of petulant child's play demonstrated so ably by the remaining 'super-power' governments. Books, actual paper hardcopy books are now disdained, viewed as quaint or primitive in the age of Kindle and iPad, both of which are subject to 'editorial control' of content by their respective makers. ANd the volumes themselves are subject to loss, fire and decay.
Our mental environment is littered with trivia and detritus, leaving the inquisitive to mine for their truth in an increasingly polluted landscape.
As to practicing actual usable skills, far too many occupations, let alone 'jobs' are devoid of any real creativity, produce little or nothing of physical value, are menial, make no constructive difference in the world, and are frequently soul-destroying busy work, mind numbing in it's repetitiveness.
Excellent answer, Vashkar. I agree on all counts. Peace be with you.
"... the US military arrested one of its own soldiers, Bradley Manning, and accused him of leaking a secret video of a US Army helicopter gunning down civilians in Iraq in 2007."
For a U.S. soldier today, perhaps for others as well (e.g. Wall Street, CEOs...), conscious, rather than being a key endowment of their humanity, becomes a liability.
Where it may once have been reasoned that the indomitable American Spirit was founded in consciousness, it appears to exist now only in a nationalistic thralldom. Where right once made for might, it is now might that makes right. Greater Wisdom knows this cannot withstand the test of time. The Colonial Revolutionists and WWI/WWII veterans predominantly held this greater honor in their hearts with clear conviction, whereas too many modern soldiers hold doubt, grief and sorrow. Where once we could appreciably and proudly support our soldiers with clear conscious, we now greatly fear the uncertainty in where they are being led, in how they are being commanded, and in what they are doing.
“Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.” Thomas Merton
Bradley Manning should be honored as a hero. We should send letters in his support. Does anyone know how to reach him?
Did it all begin during Reagan's administration when business schools started preaching 'the bottom line'? The only thing sure is that a whole class of people (I call them the Elite Oligarchy) and their henchmen have no morals whatsoever. They have charm, manners when convenient, dress very well, travel in their own jets, have houses and estates here and there, but the only thing they lack is any moral sense. They do 'what's necessary' to protect themselves and add to their already obscene wealth. They have given up their humanity and should be eradicated while there's still time (if so) to save the species. I'll know that I'm being listened to when I find myself in the same boat that Bradley Manning is in.
They don't always have charm.
Joe
He is apparently being held incommunicado in Kuwait, but who knows?
Remember that the Madame who was arrested in Washington DC and was rumored to have a list of some of the most powerful men in Washington who had used her services...
....Wrote her friends that if she was found dead that it would not be suicide as she had no intentions of doing such.
She was found hung by her neck in a garage. The police and the Media claimed it "Suicide". There was no uproar and no investigation.
If Ellsberg tried to Publish the Pentagon papers today, no media outlet would touch him. He would be found dead and be dismissed as a quack "Conspiracy theorist". It would then be claimed he was secretly a homosexual , owed 50 million dollars, was a suspected pedophile and perhaps a mole for Iran.
Any questioning his death would then have the "Hannity" and "Beck" types loudly screaming that any who supported Ellsberg must be a pedophile.
Thats the way they work.
"Thats the way they work."
So, so true.
Like the 103 dead Kennedy witnesses: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKdeaths.htm
Or J.H. Hatfield, author of the biography of George W. Bush 'Fortunate Son', who committed 'suicide'.
Or Scott Ritter, the CIA weapons inspector who blew the whistle on the fact there were no WMD in Iraq, who was repeatedly set up in stings and entrapment schemes. He used to have numerous articles on CD and Buzzflash. He's still alive, but his reputation is ruined, and he is facing serious jail time.
Or Dr. David Kelly, the Iraqi War critic who committed 'suicide' by somhow cutting his wrists with a weapon that was never found.
Or Michael Connell, the chief IT consultant to Karl Rove who created websites for the Bush and McCain electoral campaigns died in a plane crash in Ohio.
Or U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash during the Clinton Whitewater S&L scandal.
Or most recently, the doyen of the White House press corps Helen Thomas, who was set up in an ambush interview for her opinion of the recent atrocity committed by Israel. She was fired, and has to symbolically fall on her sword so as to not embarrass the Obama Administration.
Should I go on? The list of people embarrassing to the halls of power who have died under questionable circumstances is long indeed.
Don't forget poor Barry Jennings, the Manhattan emergency response chief who had the bad luck to tell exactly what he saw and experienced on 9/11/01, including explosions and deaths in WTC 7 BEFORE the Twin Towers came down. He even tried to recant his very detailed testimony, hoping to spare his family from the death threats he was receiving. To no avail. Now he's gone. He would have been one of the most credible witnesses in a hypothetical new and real 9/11 investigation.
So many "questionable circumstances" to deploy and so little time..
I wish the best for Mr. Assange.
He needs our prayers, as the can of 'truthiness' he has opened is likely to deliver blowback, the extent of which he assuredly anticipated, but perhaps could not fully appreciate the extent of its wrath.