BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Current Events WikiLeaks and the US Espionage and Sedition Acts

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This is all very complicated. He and his cohorts are reckless. They feel they are doing the world a favor by releasing the information. The Americans who sold/turned over the information are definitely guilty but I am not sure how Assange will be prosecuted. I just hope that we are not guilty of setting him up so that he would be arrested.

He's playing a very dangerous game and walking a very thin tightrope! But, the truth of the matter is, he couldn't have done all this alone! The next few months will tell the tale and I don't think it's going to be a pretty one!

President Obama ...... defended the right of people to freely access information, and said that the more freely information flows, the stronger societies become. He spoke about how access to information helps citizens hold their own governments accountable, generates new ideas, encourages creativity and entrepreneurship. The United States belief in that ground truth is what brings me here today

Some countries have erected electronic barriers that prevent their people from accessing portions of the world�s networks. They�ve expunged words, names, and phrases from search engine results. They have violated the privacy of citizens who engage in non-violent political speech. These actions contravene the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which tells us that all people have the right �to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.� With the spread of these restrictive practices, a new information curtain is descending across much of the world.

Hilary Clinton - www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/01/135519.htm

Peter, thank you for your insights! As I mentioned before, this is a very difficult tightrope to walk! I appreciate your comments.

It is espionage and Obama uses the word transparency easily but doesn't practice what he preaches. The content of the cables and correspondence is probably no worse than ever before in the past but the ease of hacking and downloading and then releasing on the Internet and how it spreads so rapidly is of concern.

I wish him well.

Its past time the American people come to know and understand what their government is up too and I commend him for his efforts.

For those who say that he has put our security at risk I say this..

We have become a war mongering nation, intent on controlling everthing off our own shores, governments, minerals, distrution of war materials. We have killed hundreds of thousands of innocents in Iraq for a crime that their leader did not commit. We spill more and more blood continueally... with little American blood shed. We fund and sell weaponry to people all over the world so the killing can continue, we assisted in the slaughter of 30,000 in Guatemala in our covert money and gun operations.

How many of you realize that the war in Afghanistain is largely about an intended oil pipeline to Russia? Do you even know why Russia fought the Afghans for so long? Do you understand that we have supported the poppy industry in Afghanistan, making it the only profitable export that they have?

I am fully sick of it and more and more Americans are sick of this government gone wild, outside of our control, though black box operations and closed meetings...and association with exterior counsels to our own governement..such a the Bilderberg gourp and the Trilateral commission.

We are a culture fully dependent on arms trade and war making to keep our econcomy going.. It is time for a paradigm shift.. it is time for the truth to come out. It is time that the elite stop terrorising the world through the bounty and power of the United States.. I want my country back and to hell with their secrests and agendas... God Save Wikileaks.

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Should he be prosecuted under these U.S. Acts?

It is interesting how the US is focusing on Assange -- who broke no laws putting them on the web.

Assange did not steal the documents.

If these papers are so secret and damaging to US security why were they on a network openly accessible to hundreds of thousands of US low grade service people and public servants all around the world who had no need to access them?

Seems to me that its not the theft of the papers that is ocncerning the US govenment but their embarrassment.

The US's IT dept. fell down on the job and how anyone could get into the system and download the material is unforgivable. Just who else is involved in this.

Hi Anne, Just another side to the WikiLeaks saga, there has been quite a lot of comment in the European Press about the US soldier who distributed the government documents Bradley Manning, mostly concerning the conditions of his current imprisonment.

Enclosed is a link to an English language article, from a newspaper that does not go in for any type of sensationalist journalism. Is it also covered in the US press?

In the foreign language press comments have occasionally linked it to what Julian Assange can expect if he is extradited.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/...fe-2164841.html