Posted on 12/03/2010 1:30:26 PM PST by lormand
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is taking a stand as one of Julian Assange’s few defenders in Washington, arguing that the WikiLeaks founder should get the same protections as the media.
Attorney General Eric Holder said this week that the Justice Department is examining whether Assange can be charged with a crime for posting hundreds of thousands of leaked government intelligence documents and diplomatic cables.
Many Republicans have gone even further in their attacks on Assange, especially former Arkansas GOP Gov. Mike Huckabee, who said this week that the source who leaked to the WikiLeaks founder should be tried for treason and executed if found guilty.
But in a Thursday interview with Fox Business, Paul said the idea of prosecuting Assange crosses the line.
“In a free society we're supposed to know the truth,” Paul said. “In a society where truth becomes treason, then we're in big trouble. And now, people who are revealing the truth are getting into trouble for it.”
“This whole notion that Assange, who's an Australian, that we want to prosecute him for treason. I mean, aren't they jumping to a wild conclusion?” he added. “This is media, isn't it? I mean, why don't we prosecute The New York Times or anybody that releases this?”
Paul followed up with a post to his Twitter account Friday morning: "Re: WikiLeaks — In a free society, we are supposed to know the truth. In a society where truth becomes treason, we are in big trouble."
You do realize that being a DHS “domestic extremist” I could call you a kook too, right?
If the conversations are “professional” in that they hold the other nations and leaders in proper respect then why should they be classified?
Granted things which talk of exact/non-hypothetical weapons and defenses do have some justification for being classified... but I think it would ALSO so us well to remember that Tom Clancy’s Hunt for Red October got him pulled in front of Congress [I believe] and questioned for the breaches of security regarding classified capabilities of submarines (which he reconstructed from non-classified sources if I remember).
Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame was celebrated by the Left and Hippies everywhere. Assange just attacked America and our progressive president. Now the Left doesn’t know what to do because on the one hand, he damages America which they see as a good thing but at the same time, he exposes the incompetence of the Marxist president.
Actually, he runs a website that encourages anyone, anywhere, to send any otherwise publicly unavailable documents. The first stories WikiLeaks carried had nothing to do with America, and most of the releases haven't been related to our government. We just have the biggest and most famous ones.
My favorite was the Australian Internet censorship list. The Australian government blocks various web sites, supposedly only those related to child pornography and terrorism. The list was leaked, exposing that they'd blocked many other sites too, including some Christian sites. The hilarious part was the Australian government saying the leaked list was fake, but threatening prosecution for anyone caught distributing it.
Funny, I noticed the outcry over the ‘leaks’ intensified after it was hinted that a major US bank might be ‘outed’ over unethical and possibly illegal activity.......
So what if somebody takes the information provided by this douche bag and uses it to against the United States? Not to mention the damage done to relations with our allies. Who the hell wants to have their dirty laundry aired when it should never have seen the light of day?
The “info dump”, has it has been oh-so-politically correct named, is still being poured over.
And at this point it doesn’t matter if we want him or not as it seems the Swedes or the Brits are going to nail him for rape.
Ya, real stand-up guy. We’ll probably next see Ron Paul with a “Free Assange” t-shirt on.
YOU are on the ball, my friend.
This entire *leak* debacle - complete with the release of so-called *classified* documents hadn't been shut down as a major concern until then.
Excellent observation.
If it indicts Bush, they'll LOVE Assange; If 0bama takes a hit, they'll be the first ones demanding his execution.
My prediction is 0bama won't get a glove laid on him. Call me a cynic of something that already stinks.
It makes me wonder what info he has/had on the bank... and I don’t doubt for a second that there aren’t highly illegal and highly questionable things going on in our banks.
Because those leaders may be taking great risks with their own constituents by cooperating with the US, helping us to secure our own interests.
For example, the Yememni leader, at great personal exposure to himself and his government, allowed us to launch attacks inside his country. That is going to be a HUGE problem for him with respect to his own extremists elements in his country. That leak, while not at all discussing America's "secrets", increases our risk at home and abroad.
**You do realize that being a DHS “domestic extremist” I could call you a kook too, right?**
And just WHAT does that have to do with anything.. Call me KOOK if you like..
from your posts today... you’re a BIRTHER, a PAULTARD..and probably a TRUTHER too
Go sit at the CHILDREN’S TABLE you worthless liberal SCUMBAG
Hello.
By definition, SECRET material is not compartmentalized within the American audience, although we do have restrictions on release for some of it to foreign allies ("SECRET NOFORN" etc.). To get any classified information, you should have an appropriate clearance and a need to know. With SECRET, need to know is more on the honor system. It is not deemed important enough to require strict compartmentalization, and the overhead that comes with it. When we need strictly enforced compartmentalization, as you talk about above, it would be classified TOP SECRET and put under "Sensitive Compartmented Information" (TS/SCI). Then someone has to confirm you have a legitimate business need to know the information and you get "read on" to the information. There are other various categories of compartmentalization too.
For the record, none of this is restricted knowledge. I'm going from past experience, but you can find all this in public sources on American government security practices.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haHXgFU7qNI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPs4bTcyfFI
Get after them! (I’ll watch from under cover)
Hello indeed!!
You missed my point.
My point was that to execute someone based on them “wearing the label’ of kook is completely unjust and that that same label may just as easily be applied to you.
As to your acccusation of me being a birther, I’m sorry if you don’t share my opinion that the President’s qualifications should [pun intended] be unimpeachable and no question of the legitimacy of his position as commander-in-chief should exist.
As to the accusation of my being a truther, while I don’t believe that the government had a direct role in the 11 Sept attacks I would be utterly unsurprised to learn that the someone in the government took advantage of the chaos to do something inappropriate — human nature being what it is that should not be a bad bet on anyone’s part.
As for “being a paultard” I usually say nothing when I disagree with the man and something when I do.
Now, as for calling me a “liberal scumbag,” I would like either a detailed list-of-evidence or an apology.
Hm, good point; I hadn’t considered it.
It's a little more complicated than that. Every organization has people who are authorized to classify information. Otherwise, information is by default unclassified. But that's theory. Practice is that people slap an SECRET label on things all the time without it having been properly classified. Or they'll stick one classified fact into a document without properly labeling the paragraphs (each is supposed to get a classification), and label the whole document SECRET. Thus we have dozens of pages of unclassified material that is suddenly labeled as classified.
The government is currently undergoing a large declassification project. It's not because of any special need for transparency, but because over-classification creates a huge unnecessary administrative overhead.
I see it, I see it!
That’s what’s got me interested.
Okay, for starters how about liebertarians run as liebertarians instead of posing as Republicans, huh, like you have done for several terms and like your son just did??? That is what your Campaign for Liberty is all about, liebertarian infiltration of Republican clubs, organizations and campaigns.
You should know about lying, Mr. Paul. It's all you are about.
It would be interesting to know the truth about where all YOUR funding comes from, too. For example, how are you able to pay for 800 admissions to a conservative or Republican conference???
The TRUTH is Ron Paul, you are a FAR LEFT ANTI-AMERICAN TROLL on the U.S. political scene.
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