Fungal-one said:

SpiritualSnorkel said:

Julian Assange is at this point just tabloid fodder. Like any political figure these days. His image has been debased on all fronts, from the smear campaign to the idolatry. They're both superficial, fashionable points of view.

Assange has an exceptional background, but he's a figurehead. I'm interested in what all of this means on the fundamental level.

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By assange posting the stolen info he did indeed traffic that stolen info. Did the times do that? Even if they did I don't trust the media either, they wouldn't be prosecuted I'm betting.

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Yes, the Times did it, as well as Der Spiegel and the UK's Guardian. They were the first three papers to my recollection that received the war logs, and published them with redactions. So far countless papers have published highlights and stories regarding the content of the leaks.

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You should know the media, huge mass media anyway is beyond reproach. It's fucked up and not right even a little bit but that's the way shit is. At some point people will unify and fight back. If I were a government pig strategist this would be my primary reason to make the Internet public enemy number one.

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Epsionage Act Two: Senators Joe Lieberman and Dianne Feinstein have launched a war against the Bill of Rights. They have invoked the 1917 Espionage Act and urged its revival and use, in this case, against Julian Assange.      For good measure, Sen. Lieberman intends to use the Espionage Act redivivus to prosecute the New York Times which published the WikiLeaks diplomatic cables. Reports now suggest that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is seeking to invoke the Espionage Act against Assange.

Fungal-one said:

Good. If they are gonna fry ol boy then they should fry the newspaper too, if it did the same shit.

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These two Senators, Lieberman and Feinstein, and the rest of the Congressional and White House leadership who are coming forward in support of them - are cynically counting on America's ignorance of their own history, an ignorance encouraged and manipulated by powerful people who would strip us of our most basic rights. The government is counting on our lack of information about the Espionage Act of 1917; a dark corner of history that should alert us instantly that the Act is being invoked deliberately to silence dissent. That's why it was enacted.


The 1917 Espionage Act was created because President Woodrow Wilson wanted to go to war. But the idea of getting Americans into a European conflict was highly unpopular with most voters. Faced with the troublesome First Amendment, Wilson decided to criminalize all popular criticism of his war plans. The Espionage Act was actually used to round up Americans by the thousands for committing the newly-minted 'crime' of exercising their First Amendment free speech rights.

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snoot said:

he didnt traffic shit, he reported it. the US is going to have a hell of a time charging him with espionage charges, as if they charge him they will have to rewrite the law working around the first amendment. but the thing is, is if they charge him they will have to charge the new york times, the post, and likewise media outlets who knowingly release stolen documents and other shit. the US just needs to get there dick out of my hand and get over it.

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