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WikiLeaks Row Intensifies as US Makes 'Privacy' Move Against Twitter
Civil rights lawyers fight order to reveal Twitter accounts linked to WikiLeaks – on the same day Hillary Clinton praises role of social networks in promoting freedom
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, praised the role of social networks such as Twitter in promoting freedom – at the same time as the US government was in court seeking to invade the privacy of Twitter users.
The WikiLeaks revelations have angered the US government, and in a speech in Washington Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, said countries should not have to choose between 'liberty and security, transparency and confidentiality'. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Lawyers for civil rights organisations appeared before a judge in Alexandria, Virginia, battling against a US government order to disclose the details of private Twitter accounts in the WikiLeaks row, including that of the Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir, below.
The move against Twitter has turned into a constitutional clash over the protection of individual rights to privacy in the digital age.
Clinton, in a speech in Washington, cited the positive role that Twitter, Facebook and other social networks played in uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. In a stirring defence of the internet, she spoke of the "freedom to connect".
The irony of the Clinton speech coming on the day of the court case was not lost on the constitutional lawyers battling against the government in Alexandria. The lawyers also cited the Tunisian and Egyptian examples. Aden Fine, who represents the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the leading civil rights groups in the country, said: "It is very alarming that the government is trying to get this information about individuals' communications. But, also, above all, they should not be able to do this in secret."
The court case, which is turning into a cause celebre in the US, centres round the release of tens of thousands of Pentagon and state department classified documents by WikiLeaks. Outraged by the leaks, the US has set up a grand jury in secret, based in Alexandria, to investigate whether grounds can be found for a criminal case against WikiLeaks' founder, Julian Assange. As part of that investigation the grand jury ordered Twitter to disclose the details of the accounts of WikiLeaks and three people said to be linked to the organisation.
The investigation also covers Bradley Manning, the US soldier who was based in Iraq and is suspected of being behind the leak. He is being held in jail in Virginia.
Clinton tried to reconcile the US administration's support for the internet as a motor for change in the Middle East, China and elsewhere with its fury over WikiLeaks. She said: "Liberty and security. Transparency and confidentiality. Freedom of expression and tolerance. There are times when these principles will raise tensions and pose challenges, but we do not have to choose among them. And we shouldn't. Together they comprise the foundation of a free and open internet."
She added that the US backed internet freedom and encouraged other countries to do the same: "Leaders worldwide have a choice to make. They can let the internet in their countries flourish, and take the risk that the freedoms it enables will lead to a greater demand for political rights. Or they can constrict the internet, choke the freedoms it naturally sustains—and risk losing all the economic and social benefits that come from a networked society."
In courtroom 500 in Alexandria, the lawyers were arguing that the government orders be declared unlawful and that they should also be made public. One of the lawyers, John Keker, told the court it was "ironic" that the case was being heard against the backdrop of the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings. He argued that if the government request was successful it would allow the government to intrude into the lives of individuals previously protected by constitutional rights. "This is something brand new," he said.
He added that Twitter, as a US company, was protected by the constitution. "The fact that some non-US citizens use Twitter does not make the constitution go away," Keker said.
Manning is almost certain to face trial in the US later this year but so far the US justice department has failed to find grounds for a criminal case against Assange, who is currently in the UK.
The court hearing broke up without any ruling by the judge.
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13 Comments so far
Show AllOur system is not democracy. It is hypocrisy.
So, the article seems to just be pointing out that Hillary "war goddess" Clinton is a two-tongued lying whore of Empire ----- where's the surprise here?
And what applies to Ms C is true an order of magnitude over for the GD ruling-elite global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE which fully controls our former country by hiding behind the facade of its Two-Party 'Vichy' sham of faux-democratic government!
Everything the US does is filth, lies, disgust, murder, and mortal sins.
But hey, it's an Empire --- and that's how Empires act.
Is it any worse than the Nazi Empire or the Soviet Empire? Maybe bigger in global scope and longer in time frame, but about what always comes from most big Empires.
The only real difference seems to be that this global Empire's crimes will wind up being existential for all of us, and actually cause extinction.
Oh, the one big difference in the global Empire centered here is that, as Ted Rall eloquently says in his superb new book, "The Anti-American Manifesto", "authoritarianism masquerading as liberal democracy, is actually more formidable an adversary than a totalitarian state". Or as I would say, Guileful and hidden Empire is far worse than visible Empire.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
"Democracy over Empire" party headquarters
If this were remotely funny; putting this gov. and its minnions in the same sentence as "Twitter" would be hilarious. I'd bet my tush that this gov has used "social networks" too. Tony
Do as I say, not as I do!
The Guardian could be next
The only way that the USG can win against Wikileaks is to do what they have done to Bradley Manning. Capture illegally, detain without rights, force into insanity and dispose of. The USG is not smart enough to end or deal with Wikileaks legally . The few that work for Wiki in the US are brilliant minded people as are the majority of the young foreign workers of Wiki and Anonymous.
The USG after all lost the war in Iraq but yelled Mission Accomplished. They lost the war in Afghanistan but the generals lie to cover their failure. A slue of propped up puppets for the US are falling like Vietnam dominoes. The defense of our borders includes flyovers with people with bombs in their underwear, shoes and hidden in ice cream cones. The USG does not have the brainpower to fight against Wiki. That happens when you un fund education and create charter schools instead of actually educating.
Bank of America the biggest bank puts out feelers about American corporate hackers to go after Wiki and Wiki outs them and their illegal activities before they them selves can act.
I was taking to a woman the other day that said that her husband is collecting and collating studies on the profusion of hormones in our atmosphere. They are leading to conclusions pointing out the reduced size and mass of male testicular matter and the feminization of the male in humans and animals. It would seem the late increase in the love of all things military, sports or fast cars are compensation as if American males where feeling as if they were lacking in some way with their manbag and three shades of lipstick.
Lets be real the city on the hill has slid into a pile of rubble in the valley. Thomas Jefferson would shed tears of shame to see what has become of a once good people. Okay maybe that's stretching it.
Twitter is an American company, there fore they are under the Constitution. #$%WHAT? Our Govt has destroyed the Constitution. I've seen three clips of obviouspolice brutality this week. I mean, 5 or6 cops kicking and brutilizingg these people. How many are going untaped? Our civil rights are gone. If we started a protest like in Egypt,the army would come in and now us down. I almost barfed, when I saw Obama praising the protesters. What a hypocrite, along with the rest is our Govt, crooks and liars.
there will be more secret criminal activities, more leaks, and more fury ahead.
at least the game is getting closer to even.
ezeflyer
The Guardian has probably already complied, without a bleap, to any request by any government agency of the US, UK, etc. It has been editing the Wikileaks info. with a view towards appeasing the powers that be. People should know that the Guardian has turned in on JA and Wikileaks, as the New York Times, and most, if not all corporate journalists. They know that they've been made to look the fools and hypocrits that they are, and they hate JA for it.
As for the court battle over release of twiiter account info. I have little hope that the government will be defeated. Even if the court rules against it, the spook/fascists will find a way to force out the info. And of course, the Supreme Court and/or congress will side with the government against us and the bill of rights, no doubt about it since they longer depend on us to get elected, but on the military/war profiteer/disaster capitalists/corporate fascists that are ruling and destroying our planet.
Good luck all.
the revolution won't be twitted - shareholders on guard
The hypocrisy of this is so astounding, so breathtaking, it makes me wonder whether they are intending it as a goof. I mean, is this supposed to be funny? They have the audacity to speak of "internet freedom" while they systematically, blatantly, openly work to dismantle internet freedom? I really can't figure out what their underlying message is on this one, but I can't help but think that they mean it as some kind of sick joke. Then again, perhaps it is simply their strategy to speak out on the issue of internet freedom so that we might not notice that they are in reality curtailing internet freedom.
These guys remind me of the Bush regime more and more every day.
HC: The witch that just keeps on giving.
Clinton just wants to make sure, the "little people" in the Arab world, that she and her husband have helped keep down for decades, all sign in to their facebook and twitter accounts, so the NSA can maximize its information gathering, as to the emergent demonstrations.
Hopefully, the hackers, and organization among the people using these tools can outpace the efforts of Clinton and others in, as Cheney put it, "the Dark Side".