More of the Same (Documents)? WikiLeaks Quizzical Counter-Attack
In the wake of its most recent release of US classified documents, WikiLeaks lost its domain name (though the website is still accessible via its IP address), Amazon kicked it off their cloud servicer and WikiLeaks lost a cash flow source when Paypal discontinued its account. Meanwhile, Sweden’s highest court cleared the way for the issuance of an international arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on unrelated assault charges.
In response to this tightening of the perimeter around himself and his website, Mr. Assange has reminded everyone of his “insurance” file of additional documents, available for download since July and only requiring a password to unlock and purportedly trigger
a new deluge of state and commercial secrets. …
Other documents that Assange is confirmed to possess include an aerial video of a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan that killed civilians, BP files and Bank of America documents.
Mr. Assange reconfirmed this week that he would provide the password to unlock this (additional) Pandora’s file in the event anything untoward happens either to the website or to himself.
Certainly, it’s understandable for someone in his position to prepare a booby trap defense. And, naturally, he’s going to build it out of the materials that he has on hand.
But that is also the obvious weakness of the trap. Are we truly to believe that these “insurance” documents, terrible as they may be, would not have been released in due course, anyway, by the anarchistic, narcissistic Mr. Assange? Isn’t it a somewhat ineffectual defense to threaten someone with the cudgel that you’ve been hitting them with all along?
Maybe this is what we have come to. America is afraid of cap guns, which no longer exist. Of bottle rockets and pocketknives and Islamo-Mahmuds curled beneath the bed. And America is afraid of children. Puzzled boys of eleven are led from school in handcuffs for possession of a water pistol. A cop who would do it ought to go into hiding from embarrassment, but nothing embarrases anyone any longer.
Kill Assange and let the chips fall where they may. He is an enemy of America. He should have been dealt with in July when this first happened but nothing was done because we’re saddled with an embarrassingly wimpish putz in the White House.
Obama cannot disappear fast enough and by any means necessary.
“Kill Assange and let the chips fall where they may”
Say what you will of virtue, how many of us would walk through a ghetto area flashing $1,000 in greenbacks?
What kind of “secret” system enables a Pfc to download 250,000 “cables”? There is plenty of blame to go around.
Tim,
I am extremely grateful that a person with your brutish sensibilities does not share my political views. However, I am ashamed that we probably are the same species.
OldTimeLefty
Why thank you for the compliment OldTiredLiberal. The last thing I want is approval from the rush to the bottom hate America crowd. Thanks again.
Warrington I don’t disagree with your sentiments at all. Problem I have is when they realized the level of compromise happening to their communications they did very little to stop it. Assange should have been taken out months ago.
Tim-Obama will probably continue with his Jimmy Carter Redux act after the 2012 elections,when he turns out to be a one-termer and then becomes a speechmaker and book writer trying to convince the world he was the best thing since sliced bread.Sound familiar?
Assange is a chaoticist,probably what could be termed a techno-anarchist.His leaks may be killing people.Whacking him sounds like a plan.
I bet you just wait with baited breath for the approval of sorry ass leftists ;)).I think it’s cool when they start sputtering and all.
I believe we will do nothing about Assange.
What I don’t understand is how in hell this can be termed a 1st Amendment issue when it involves a foreign national operating abroad.????Such a thought could only emanate from a demented ACLU type brain.
Does Assange remind anyone of Bill Maher??
Are the same people who call for due process and rule of law clamoring for Assange to be -killed-?!
Even my friends in the State Department tell me that the leaks are a ‘big, rude, pain in the rear’, not a real security threat.
What did you folks think about Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers? I’ll agree that the Wikileaks stuff isn’t nearly as important for the public to know, but Assange’s meddling isn’t worth setting aside my values for.
Assanges ploy contains a trap within the trap. Anyone wishing to embarrass or exploit the U.S. could just kill Assange for that purpose. He could end up dead at the hands of people who share the same contempt for America as he does.
The evil genius didn’t thing this one through.
I haven’t really had time to examine the wikileaks, but have the general impression that they are more embarassment than harm. They also seem to be clearing George Bush on the WMD thing.
To the extent that they reveal what we “haven’t been told”, I may favor them. Why shouldn’t we have a clearer understanding of Putin’s personality? We are all familar with the inane and venal bhavior of politicans in the “small time”, why should we harbor the belief that they are any better in the “big time”? After all, they don’t become “statesmen” until they are dead. Don’t you ever wonder about the thought process which gave Obama the “peace prize”?