The USA Betrays Its Principles

[poliphilo]

The USA is behaving very badly in the case of Julian Assange. Some of those political loud-mouths who have been shouting for his head don't even seem to be aware that he's not actually an American citizen. No, a US court can't try an Australian citizen for treason. As for espionage, well,  maybe they can get that one to stick if they file off some awkward corners, but it's hardly in the spirit of the law- or of the First Amendment.

Freedom of the press, freedom of information- the US is all for these excellent things when it's the secrets of foreign governments that are being exposed.  I loved how the Russians were proposing Assange for the Nobel prize. Very cheeky of them. I didn't think they were capable of that kind of humour. 

If the USA were the sort of society it says it is, it would have gone,"OK, you got us there," and would have set about tightening up its internet security. 

It's not as if these were deadly secrets that have been released. If the information I'm going on is correct, the documents were so low-level that £3,000,000 persons within the USA's government and state bureaucracy had access to them. All they are- especially when released en masse like this- is embarrassing to those in authority.

President Obama has just announced that the War in Afghanistan is "on track"- even though we know from WikiLeaks that it's hardly that. Politicians lie by reflex- even when the evidence that contradicts them is in plain view. By carrying on in this business-as-usual way the President demonstrates just why we need the kind of investigative journalism that  WikiLeaks represents.

By the way, what a terrible disappointment Obama has been.

The USA has flirted with fascism all through its modern history. We rather thought- when Bush stepped down- that the affair had cooled off.  We were horribly mistaken. 

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Politicians and diplomats have been used to doing things in secrecy for a thousand years. Nothing I heard from the Wikileaks stuff was a surprise. All governments maintain control by secrecy. The internet is rather wrecking that concept and they are angry. The trouble is, it is now blatantly transparent that they are using sneaky covert measures (the Swedish condom debacle) to neutralise people they don't like, and we can see all of that happening too and they don't like it one bit, because they are looking scheming and pathetic. If the US had said to the UK government, please extradite Assange on grounds of espionage, would they have done it? I expect they would. There is no need for all this Mission Impossible crap.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

My fear is the UK government would do anything the USA asked of it- and require nothing in return. Such selflessness.

Oh look- they've noticed we exist. How lovely!

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Well, yes but, because of Wikileaks, the UK government knows that the US thinks we are not so speshul, ackshully, and that our soldiers couldn't run a bath, never mind Helmand. Maybe that will make them less likely to roll over like a puppy.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That would be excellent.

I wonder if Cameron has the backbone to take a slightly less star-bedazzled line with the USA