Bad Faith, Worse News, and Julian Assange - Journalistic Commentary from Edward Snowden
Posted by freedomforall 2 years, 4 months ago to Philosophy
Excerpt:
"the US government’s indictment of Assange amounts to the criminalization of investigative journalism. And I agree with myriad friends (and lawyers) throughout the world that at the core of this criminalization is a cruel and unsual paradox: namely, the fact that many of the activities that the US government would rather hush up are perpetrated in foreign countries, whose journalism will now be answerable to the US court system. And the precedent established here will be exploited by all manner of authoritarian leaders across the globe. What will be the State Department’s response when the Republic of Iran demands the extradition of New York Times reporters for violating Iran’s secrecy laws? How will the United Kingdom respond when Viktor Orban or Recep Erdogan seeks the extradition of Guardian reporters? The point is not that the U.S. or U.K would ever comply with those demands — of course they wouldn’t — but that they would lack any principled basis for their refusals."
"the US government’s indictment of Assange amounts to the criminalization of investigative journalism. And I agree with myriad friends (and lawyers) throughout the world that at the core of this criminalization is a cruel and unsual paradox: namely, the fact that many of the activities that the US government would rather hush up are perpetrated in foreign countries, whose journalism will now be answerable to the US court system. And the precedent established here will be exploited by all manner of authoritarian leaders across the globe. What will be the State Department’s response when the Republic of Iran demands the extradition of New York Times reporters for violating Iran’s secrecy laws? How will the United Kingdom respond when Viktor Orban or Recep Erdogan seeks the extradition of Guardian reporters? The point is not that the U.S. or U.K would ever comply with those demands — of course they wouldn’t — but that they would lack any principled basis for their refusals."
SOURCE URL: https://edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/assange01
What is it that our government does that must be kept secret from us? Other governments know what we do because we did it to them. So why shouldn't the US citizen be informed?
It could be a long list of nefarious acts from drug smuggling. arms sales, political dirty tricks, human trafficing, anything profitable you can think of.
One element they seem to have in common is if it makes the republican administation look bad it gets amplified. Clinton pay to play, Hunter Biden's $500,000.00 paintings, or Obama's bowing to Arabian kings....not so much.
In my opinion Assange is a hero, he illuminated something we should have known about.
I would like to know who positioned Dwyer in the post of prosecuting attorney. And when.
1. "but then they would lack any principled basis for their refusals." Hypocrisy is never a problem for these people.
2. They are trying the exact thing with James O'Keefe of Project Veritas.
3. Sorry...there is another one....WE ARE NO LONGER A NATION OF LAWS.
I confess I am thoroughly confused with this very significant event in world affairs of today. It is complex and involves more than just hacking into classified information.
The main case I've heard of that is the basis for the US prosecuting Assange was an upload by Bradley "Chelsea" Manning, when he was in uniform and had legal access. So this is another Pentagon Papers case. And if the Espionage Act charges that Assange faces (and the Act's explicit exemption of itself from many procedural rights) are allowed to stand, then the Pentagon Papers precedent has been overturned.
That's why they're pursuing the case.
Remove free market competition and the result is tyranny.
I find I completely ignore Fauci, CNN, most other media, even Fox. Propaganda is everywhere, and media seems to tell me what will make me sit through commercials.