Protecting the freedom of the press
If someone raped you, would you make them breakfast, buy them a train ticket, call them repeatedly to see them again, throw a party in their honor or all of the above?
It seems the answer is all of the above for the two young ladies in Sweden who have filed rape charges against the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange. What’s even more disturbing is the fact that our major news outlets have all decided to ignore the facts of the case and perpetuating half truths.
So why does the sex life of Mr. Assange matter to you? Well I am glad you asked. He is protecting your freedom. In the United States the free press is protected by the Constitution to make sure our government is not lying and cheating us. As a matter of fact, in a case revolving around the Pentagon Papers in 1971, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the New York Times didn’t break any laws publishing a leaked top secret document about the real activities of our government in Vietnam, while we were at war in Vietnam. That document outlined what was really going on for internal government use as opposed to the fabricated story being given to the media and the people.
The Supreme Court case is called New York Times Co. v. United States (403 U.S. 713), and in it the Supreme Court upheld the right of the free media to publish top secret documents. On June 30, 1971, Justice Black said in the majority opinion, “Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people, and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.” Weapons of mass destruction anybody?
At this point I should point out that we were at war, and the arguments being made were the same during the Vietnam War as they are today. If you have not made an official Freedom of Information Act request for documents that were considered top secret in the past, you really should exercise your right and see what happens. Requests for transcripts of top secret hearings that looked into the attack on Pearl Harbor 69 years ago, have a majority of the text blacked out. Why would it still be considered top secret when everyone involved is already dead?
This brings us full circle to the case at hand. I’ve read through many pages of the WikiLeaks documents, and I haven’t seen anything that would put our troops in harms way. President Kennedy said: “Government at all levels, must meet its obligation to provide you with the fullest possible information outside the narrowest limits of national security.” It’s why our founding fathers protected freedom of the press as a right in the First Amendment to the Constitution.
The question I ask is do you care about your rights anymore? Our government is being accused of “deceiving the people,” and WikiLeaks is giving us the proof while the press is scared silent. Corporate and government forces are trying to find a way to shut them down, and you should be outraged about that. This is why it’s important to pay attention to the rape case in Sweden, and the extradition to the United States from Sweden that’s expected.
The case is big news in Europe, and the Swedish authorities have leaked the official statements of the women and their charges. The Daily Mail in the UK and other UK sites have published the full statements of the encounters as described by the female groupie and female stalker. Assange, it seems, is a single heterosexual man who has sex with some of his groupies while he’s on the road. These groupies stalk and invite him over to their homes and movie theaters, where they have sexy times together.
What happened is clearly not illegal in the United States and the United Kingdom, where he’s being held on a warrant for questioning issued by Sweden. It seems in Sweden, they have many levels of rape, including one that comes with a harsh talking to if you’re found guilty. What Mr. Assange is guilty of is being a promiscuous person and not showing better judgment. It seems the charges are based on him continuing to have sexy time after the condom broke. Yes the Swedish people have a law for that.
That is what this WikiLeaks thing is all about. The WikiLeaks secret documents are hardly current news, but have the ability to upset many people doing illegal things now and in the future. Bank of America, for instance, has been caught laundering the money of the Mexican narco-terrorists, and it seems they may have a leak that shows they did more than they admitted. You see this stuff could expose illegal actions by governments and large corporations.
So instead of trying to silence and blame the whistle blower, how about we start asking our media to start demanding the truth from our government, no matter who’s in office. This is not Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Somalia or Zimbabwe. So let’s stop acting like the dictatorships we’re fighting.
David Alsabery wonders why Pearl Harbor is still top secret? He can be reached at alsabery@gmail.com.
