Wikileaks

Over the past few weeks, American politicians have been calling for the censor and prosecution of Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange. In fact, some people in our government have been calling for Assange to be prosecuted for treason which is ridiculous since he's not a U.S. citizen and because of that cannot be a traitor. Still others have branded Wikileaks a "terrorist" which is just as ridiculous since terrorism is the willful murder of innocent civilians or military actions against the same for political purposes. The only thing being murdered in the case of Wikileaks is the credibility of the U.S. and it's leaders, both Republicans and Democrats.

Another method being deployed against Wikileaks is to smear it's founder Julian Assange with  rape allegations. First, in Sweden having unprotected sex with a consenting adult female is considered rape. Such an allegation in the United States would be laughed out of court. Yet, this charge is being pursued by Sweden due to pressure from Washington and Stockholm's desire to please the U.S. Government. Washington's tactic is to smear the messenger and thereby taint the message which is nothing new.

Many of these leaked reports from Wikileaks are already well known throughout the world. Going back several months ago when Wikileaks released a video of an American helicopter gun ship murdering innocent civilians in Iraq, most of the people in the world, especially the Arab world knew about this event. The only people shielded from that news by a self censoring media were the Americans and that's the point. People around the world, from Latin America to Southeast Asia and on to the streets of Baghdad who have been on the receiving end of U.S. foreign policy already know many things hidden from the American people. That's what Washington is most afraid of, the American people learning what their government is up to, especially when that government is spending trillions of dollars to do so while at the same time it is asking the poor and middle classes to endure sacrifices and pain.

In closing, any government which continuously lies to its citizens and or has too many secrets is neither free nor democratic!

Kenneth Dalton
President
VFP 21, N.J. & VVAW