Julian Assange & Wikileaks

For the last few weeks, there has been a lot of discussion about Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Thanks to the files stolen by Private First Class Bradley E. Manning ((Bradley Manning Bio)) and sent to Wikileaks a great deal of embarrassing information has been released regarding the actions of the United States State Department.

What they haven’t bothered to talk about is the previous document dumps by Wikileaks. These were military and intelligence documents and listed the names of people who have helped us in Afghanistan.

These people and their families have been put in jeopardy because of these two arrogant scum. Unconfirmed sources have said that people have been killed by the Taliban because they were named in these files. ((Sources were in a position to know first hand but couldn’t officially confirm/deny the reports)) Additionally, videos were released purporting to show war crimes by U.S. forces. It later came out the footage had been doctored. ((Edited to put U.S. forces in a bad light. Full footage was released showing what really happened)) Of course, by that time it didn’t matter.

Julian Assange has repeatedly threatened to release even more documents if he should be arrested or harmed in any way. There is an Interpol warrant out for his arrest on an alleged charge of rape in Sweden. Julian Assange was last reported to be in England in hiding denying that he had raped anyone. ((News regarding Julian Assange’s rape charges))

I have no idea if these charges are true or not and frankly don’t care. If he did sexually assault a woman, then he should be punished for it. However, I don’t think he will live to stand trial. He has managed to attract the attention of the Russian FSB ((Federal Security Service)), the successors to the Soviet KGB and they do not play nice. The reason the FSB is looking for Assange apparently has to do with another document dump he’s threatening to make. The details are a touch on the sketchy side, but Assange said that “that new leaks would expose more secrets not only about the U.S. military but about other “repressive regimes,” such as Russia and China. ((Time Magazine))”

Since this threat and the release of the State Department files, Wikileaks has come under sustained DDOS ((Dedicated Denial of Service)) attacks and has been tossed from several hosting sites including Amazon.com ((Amazon’s reasons for canceling Wikileaks account)). Also, PayPal has locked out Wikileaks from using their services for donations stating that Wikileaks had violated their terms of service.

Julian Assange and his backers apparently believe that the information they have is far too important for anyone to risk getting out. They are basically blackmailing the world to insure their continued safety.

I hate to tell them, it isn’t going to work. Assange and Wikileaks have committed espionage against the United States and apparently the Russian Federation as well as a number of smaller countries. Unlike the United States, (At least with the current administration), these countries play hardball. They do not recognize civil rights for their own citizens, and they flat out won’t hesitate to grab Assange and torture him for any information he has, including who has the encryption keys on his “Insurance files.” Julian Assange refuses to believe this, but I suspect that one reason he is in hiding is to avoid a “mysterious Ricin ((Ricin)) overdose or getting his skull ventilated with a pair of bullets.

A number of people I converse with are both present or former service military, and not just U.S. military. They are all saying that Assange and Wikileaks have committed espionage and aided our enemies in time of war. Since Assange is not a U.S. citizen and he is not presently in the United States, he should be declared an enemy ((Similar to Al Qeda and the Taliban)) and killed on sight. The same goes for all none US citizens or legal aliens not present inside the borders of the United States.

A number of people and organizations think that Wikileaks and Assange are performing a service by releasing all these secret files. People and groups like the:

All think that releasing classified information is good since it forces governments to be transparent. A large number of commentators in the various comments sections agree with them.

What they all fail to understand is that secrets are needed. Releasing classified information at best destroys trust and at worst gets people killed. The New York Times has blown at least three classified operations ((Canada Free Press)) since the 9/11 attacks and seriously damaged our war efforts against Islamic terrorism. All three operations were completely legal and had congressional oversight.

These leaks have gotten people killed. They have made things for more difficult. The problem is that these Wikileaks supporters do not understand that there are people who want to kill them. I put Mr. Jarvis, Techdirt and most of the commentators I’ve seen in this category.

The other category is worse and far more dangerous. They hate the United States and want to see it badly hurt or destroyed. The despise American exceptionalism ((American exceptionalism)), our free market system, our belief in the individual and our tendency to ignore the rest of the world.

Julian Assange, the New York Times and the people running Wikileaks tend to fall in the latter category. They are doing this not out of some noble belief, but to hurt the United States. A fair number of these people and organizations are fascist, socialist and/or totalitarian in their views of the world. They think that an elite few should run everything and the Untied States stands in their way.

They’re correct of course. It’s not just the U.S. but the American people as well. Us bitter, gun and bible clingers ((Obama insults gun owners and religious people)), (And I’ll toss in the Torah clingers too) will fight to preserve our way of life and our great nation. We like being free. We like being able to make our lives and the lives of our children better. We do not understand why these clowns think life would be better if the U.S. wasn’t around or was just like Europe.

They fail to comprehend what would happen if the United States fails and collapses. All their precious rights will evaporate before their eyes. They will be enslaved or killed. They will be used up and disposed of.

There is a new book series out written by John Birmingham called “After America.” In this story he puts forward what might happen if the United States were to be utterly destroyed. It’s an interesting scenario and an interesting read. Suffice to say, the world does not improve.

So, what should we do with the likes of Mr. Assange and Private Manning? In the case of Julian Assange, the answer is simple. Issue a warrant for his arrest on espionage charges and also publicly issue a shoot on sight, shoot to kill order. Assange can avoid this by turning himself into the nearest embassy for transport to the U.S. and trial. If he doesn’t surrender, kill him. The same goes for all non-U.S. citizens involved with Wikileaks.

As to Pvt. Manning, he is in custody and has been charged with the unauthorized use and disclosure of U.S. classified information. These charges should be upgraded to espionage, sabotage and treason. If convicted of these crimes he should be executed.

Another thing that I haven’t mentioned is why Manning did what he did. Manning is a homosexual and was upset with the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. Perhaps he shouldn’t have joined the army if he didn’t like the DADT policy. What he’s done is make it even harder for that policy to be changed ((Personally, I’m opposed to changing it. The Angry Webmaster)).

The next few months will prove interesting. If Assange is killed, it will probably be the FSB or one of the other intelligence services he’s managed to piss off. They will have made the decision that the information is going to get out and that killing Assange and his backers will deter others who might want to do the same thing. While the United States can also hunt down Assange, we won’t since we have a corrupt, incompetent, treasonous coward serving as president…for now. There is no way Obama will order a hit team to go after Assange. It isn’t that it’s against the law; assassination was banned by executive order, not by act of Congress ((Executive Order 12333 (.pdf) ))

~The Angry Webmaster~