What do you see as the primary difference between the Wikileaks case and the Pentagon Papers?
On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 1:09 PM, Robert Munn <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 7:59 AM, Vivec <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> The law says that the first ammendment protects Newspapers, journalists >> etc. >> etc. when the publish information such as this. >> > > > He's not a journalist. His stated intention with these leaks is to damage > the United States. Not to expose some uber-secret, but to cause damage > generally to the interests of the United States. That makes him a non-state > actor and links him to the global war on terror, or the clash of > civilizations if you prefer, between radical Islamo-fascists and everyone > else. In the American legal system, your individual constitutional rights > are not absolute. In general, they extend only so far as to not interfere > with the constitutional rights of others. Striking that balance between > public safety and fair disclosure, for instance, has always been a major > role of US courts. > > You say we don't prosecute people for this sort of thing, but has this sort > of thing ever been done in wartime? Do you think Roosevelt would have > tolerated having WWII diplomatic cables and military intelligence documents > published in newspapers around the world? Remember, we're talking about a > guy who imprisoned thousands of Japanese-Americans against their will for > years without recourse to due process. > > Assange has stuck a big stick in a hornet's nest and he's about to pay the > price. > > What a treasure of an irony, though, that Vladimir Putin is criticizing > people who want to prosecute the so-called "journalist" Assange. After all, > Putin doesn't prosecute journalists, he has them killed. And those folks are > real journalists reporting on mundane political affairs like corruption in > the federal government. > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:332676 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
