In my previous post, “The Hacker’s Treehouse”, I discussed Wikileaks, its founder and leader Julian Assange, and the latest hubbub they’ve stirred with the State Department cable scandal.
In this post, I discuss the reaction of the various governments to the Wikileaks revelations, and what these reactions say about our current state of affairs. At the end of the piece, I conclude that we are living in the era of the New McCarthyism.
The New McCarthyism, The Real Terrorism
 |
| Can you identify the terrorist? Or do they all look the same to you? |
Someone who uses violence and intimidation in order to achieve a political goal.
What is a criminal?
Someone who, whether by action or omission, carries out an offense proscribed by the law, an offense which is therefore punishable by the State.
It’s important to know what these words mean, because both of them—criminal and terrorist—have been liberally applied to Julian Assange and Wikileaks, since it posted its very first batch of documents.
Now, with the State Department cable leaks, those calls have become a collective roar of condemnation, in America:
“Terrorist!”
“Criminal!”
Now, with the State Department cable leaks, those calls have become a collective roar of condemnation, in America:
“Terrorist!”
“Criminal!”
Of course, Assange is neither a terrorist nor a criminal: He simply published some leaked documents that embarrassed some people.
He’s not a terrorist, because he did not commit a single act of violence or intimidation, in order to achieve his political goal.
He’s not a criminal, at least not in the United States, because he has not broken any law in America, and he is not an American citizen, subject to U.S. jurisdiction.
But you wouldn’t know it, from the uproar over the Wikileaks’ case.
The examples are too numerous to list—so let’s go to the highlight reel:
No comments:
Post a Comment