{"id":23774,"date":"2017-04-25T19:06:44","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T00:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=23774"},"modified":"2017-04-25T19:06:44","modified_gmt":"2017-04-26T00:06:44","slug":"prosecution-of-assange-is-persecution-of-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=23774","title":{"rendered":"Prosecution of Assange is Persecution of Free Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"headline\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2017\/04\/25\/prosecution-of-assange-is-persecution-of-free-speech\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Prosecution of Assange is Persecution of Free Speech<\/a><\/h3>\n<div class=\"post_content\">\n<p>US authorities are reported to <a href=\"http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2017\/04\/20\/politics\/julian-assange-wikileaks-us-charges\/index.html\">have prepared<\/a> charges to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. This overreach of US government toward a publisher, whose principle <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/julian-assange-wikileaks-has-the-same-mission-as-the-post-and-the-times\/2017\/04\/11\/23f03dd8-1d4d-11e7-a0a7-8b2a45e3dc84_story.html?utm_term=.908a7255228a\">is aligned with<\/a> the U.S. Constitution, is another sign of a crumbling fa\u00e7ade of democracy. The Justice Department in the Obama administration could not prosecute WikiLeaks for publishing documents pertaining to the US government, because they <a href=\"http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2017\/04\/20\/politics\/julian-assange-wikileaks-us-charges\/index.html\">struggled to determine<\/a> whether the First Amendment protection applied in this case. Now, the torch of Obama\u2019s war on whistleblowers seems to have been passed on to Trump, who had shown <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/politics\/features\/donald-trumps-dictatorial-approach-to-free-speech-w452918\">disdain toward free speech<\/a> and even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2017\/02\/24\/donald-trump-cpac-media-enemy-of-the-people\/98347970\/\">called<\/a>the U.S. media as \u201cenemies of the people\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, CIA Director Mike Pompeo <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cia.gov\/news-information\/speeches-testimony\/2017-speeches-testimony\/pompeo-delivers-remarks-at-csis.html\">vowed<\/a> to end WikiLeaks, accusing the whistleblowing site as being a \u201cnon-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia\u201d. He also once <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/18\/watch-trumps-reported-pick-to-run-the-ci\">called<\/a> Edward Snowden a traitor and claimed that he should be executed. This declaration of war against WikiLeaks may bring a reminiscence of George W. Bush\u2019s speech in the aftermath of 9-11, where he <a href=\"http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2001\/US\/11\/06\/gen.attack.on.terror\/\">said<\/a>, \u2018either you are with us or against us\u2019, and urged the nation to side with the government in his call to fight global \u2018war on terror\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent interview on DemocracyNow!, journalist at The Intercept, Glenn Greenwald put this persecution of WikiLeaks in the context of a government assault on basic freedom. He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2017\/4\/21\/glenn_greenwald_trumps_doj_prosecuting_wikileaks\">spelled out<\/a> their tactics, noting how the government first chooses a target group that is hated and lacks popular support, for they know attacking an idea or a group that is popular would meet resistance. He explained:<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prosecution of Assange is Persecution of Free Speech US authorities are reported to have prepared charges to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. This overreach of US government toward a publisher, whose principle is aligned with the U.S. Constitution, is another sign of a crumbling fa\u00e7ade of democracy. The Justice Department in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5493,15212,249,2703,3250,15213,2001,15128,15211,584,880],"class_list":["post-23774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-counterpunch","tag-democracynow","tag-edward-snowden","tag-free-speech","tag-george-w-bush","tag-green-greenwald","tag-julian-assange","tag-mike-pompeo","tag-nozomi-hayase","tag-obama","tag-wikileaks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23775,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23774\/revisions\/23775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}