{"id":18254,"date":"2023-05-03T15:16:48","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T19:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=18254"},"modified":"2024-09-11T15:41:47","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T19:41:47","slug":"if-biden-is-waging-a-war-on-secrecy-then-free-assange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/05\/03\/if-biden-is-waging-a-war-on-secrecy-then-free-assange\/","title":{"rendered":"If Biden Is Waging a War on Secrecy Then Free Assange"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Consortium News, May 3, 2023<\/h3>\n

If Biden Is Waging a War on Secrecy Then Free Assange<\/a><\/h1>\n<\/header>\n
\n
\n

The WikiLeaks<\/em> publisher is only guilty of one thing,\u00a0writes James Bovard \u2014 violating the U.S. government\u2019s divine right to blindfold the American people.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

By James Bovard<\/a>
\n<\/strong>The Future of Freedom Foundation<\/a><\/u><\/em>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cA<\/strong> confident government that is unafraid of the truth embraces a free press,\u201d proclaimed Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. But he was referring only to the Chinese government crackdown on Hong Kong journalists early last year. Unfortunately, the Biden administration continues rushing to destroy one of the most important truth tellers of our times.<\/p>\n

Julian Assange has been locked away for four years in a maximum-security prison in Britain. Assange was initially charged in 2019 with \u201cconspiracy to commit computer intrusion\u201d for allegedly giving advice to Army Corporal Bradley (later Chelsea) Manning on dealing with government files. But all the National Security Agency officials who have conspired to illegally intrude into Americans\u2019 personal computers face no indictments, and likewise for the presidents who approved their crimes.<\/p>\n

It Began with WikiLeaks<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Assange was targeted by the U.S. government after his organization, WikiLeaks<\/em>, disclosed hundreds of thousands of U.S. documents, including expos\u00e9s of crimes committed by the U.S. military against Afghan and Iraqi civilians.<\/p>\n

A 2010\u00a0Christian Science Monitor<\/em>\u00a0report on the leak noted that it was \u201cunclear how Americans might react to revelations about apparent indiscriminate killing of Afghan civilians\u201d by American forces. But the\u00a0Monitor\u00a0<\/em>headline captured the verdict in Washington: \u201cCongress\u2019s response to WikiLeaks: shoot the messenger.\u201d Vice President Joe Biden denounced Assange as a \u201chigh-tech terrorist.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t Shoot the Messenger\u201d poster of Julian Assange outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, August 2012. (Chris Beckett, Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Obama administration examined the case against Assange and concluded that he could not be prosecuted without setting precedents that imperiled freedom of the press. But that concern didn\u2019t hobble the Trump administration. In 2019, as the Justice Department prepared to drop the hammer on Assange, several organizations protested.<\/p>\n

The ACLU warned that prosecuting him for WikiLeaks\u2019<\/em> publishing operations would be \u201cunconstitutional\u201d and sets a \u201cdangerous precedent for U.S. journalists, who routinely violate foreign secrecy laws to deliver information vital to the public\u2019s interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trevor Timm of the Freedom of the Press Foundation declared: \u201cAny charges brought against WikiLeaks<\/em> for their publishing activities pose a profound and incredibly dangerous threat to press freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Assange was indicted, a\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0editorial declared that the charges were \u201caimed straight at the heart of the First Amendment\u201d and would have a \u201cchilling effect on American journalism as it has been practiced for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump & Clinton Unite Against Assange<\/strong><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Donald Trump campaigning in 2016. (oriana.italy, Flickr)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

After filing the initial charge, Trump\u2019s Justice Department added 17 charges against Assange for allegedly violating the Espionage Act for disclosing classified information.<\/p>\n

The Espionage Act is a World War One relic that presidents are increasingly using to suppress exposure of U.S. government crimes at home and abroad. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison if he is convicted, but his lawyers are fighting extradition from Britain. If the Brits deliver Assange to the U.S. government, he has almost no chance of a fair trial because of how Espionage Act prosecutions are rigged in federal court.<\/p>\n

[Related:\u00a0How America\u2019s Official Secrets Act Ensnared Julian Assange<\/em>]<\/a><\/p>\n

After Britain acceded to U.S. government demands to arrest Assange, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt boasted that the arrest showed \u201cno one is above the law.\u201d Except for the governments whose crimes WikiLeaks<\/em> and Assange exposed.<\/p>\n

Former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton declared that the charges prove that Assange \u201cmust answer for what he has done.\u201d But Assange\u2019s arrest did nothing to prevent legions of conniving politicians and bureaucrats from continuing to deceive the American public. In reality, the Assange indictment only proved that no government critic \u201cis above the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Hillary Clinton campaigning for president in West Des Moines, Iowa, January 2016. (Gage Skidmore, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Washington establishment pilloried Assange for leaking classified information. Inside the Beltway, classified information is viewed as a holy relic that cannot be exposed without damning the nation. How much classified information are the feds certifying nowadays? Trillions of pages per year. Yet, any information which is classified becomes sacrosanct \u2013 at least to the bureaucrats hiding their actions from citizens. The status quo amounts to trillions of asterisk exemptions to Americans\u2019 self-government.<\/p>\n

Washington policymakers ignored WikiLeaks\u2019<\/em> revelations and expanded the role of the U.S. military in the Afghan conflict. Atrocities continued, helping turn the Afghan people against the U.S. military and a Kabul government that was seen as a Washington puppet. When the Afghan military collapsed like a house of cards in 2021, Washington policymakers were stunned at the Taliban\u2019s lightning triumph. But they were shocked only because they had ignored the truths that WikiLeaks<\/em> revealed.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

U.S. soldiers with Afghans boarding a C-17 Globemaster III at Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 21 after the Taliban captured Kabul. (U.S. Air Force, Brennen Lege)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Federal agencies have not proven that any of the information that WikiLeaks<\/em> released was false. At the court martial of Corporal Manning, who leaked the documents, prosecutors failed to show that any information WikiLeaks<\/em> disclosed had led to the death of a single person in Afghanistan or Iraq. That conclusion was reconfirmed by a 2017 investigation by PolitiFact. Even Biden admitted in 2010 that \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any substantive damage\u201d from the WikiLeaks\u00a0<\/em>revelations. But Assange was guilty of violating the U.S. government\u2019s divine right to blindfold the American people.<\/p>\n

After Britain arrested Assange, Sen. Joe Manchin whooped that Assange \u201cis our property and we can get the facts and the truth from him.\u201d But Manchin had no recommendations on how Americans can \u201cget the facts and the truth\u201d from the federal government.<\/p>\n

Biden has ramped up U.S. bombings in Somalia. Who exactly is being killed there? It is a secret (and maybe nobody in Washington cares).<\/p>\n

Why is the United States continuing to assist Saudi atrocities against Yemen civilians?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a secret.<\/p>\n

The Long History of Govt Secrecy<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

U.S. soldier in a patrol area outside Manbij in northern Syria, June 26, 2018. (U.S. Army\/Timothy R. Koster)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Few Americans are aware of the Iron Curtain shrouding U.S. foreign policy. Consider the U.S. military intervention in Syria. Beginning in 2013, the Obama administration began covertly providing money and weapons to Syrian rebels fighting the government of Bashar Assad.<\/p>\n

Much of the U.S. aid ended up in the hands of terrorist groups, some of whom were allied with Al-Qaeda. After Trump tweeted derisively about the program in 2018, a journalist filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents on C.I.A. payments to rebel groups. A 2020 federal appeals court declared that the records must be kept secret because the court owed \u201cappropriate deference\u201d to the C.I.A. The judges neglected to cite the provision in the Constitution that obliged them to kowtow.<\/p>\n

Syrians know that C.I.A.-backed rebels have wreaked havoc, killing women and children. But federal judges insist on blindfolding Americans to the crimes they are helping finance. The selective censorship is reminiscent of the perpetual falsehoods about the Vietnam War that were exposed in the Pentagon Papers. As philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote, \u201cThe policy of lying was hardly ever aimed at the enemy but chiefly if not exclusively destined for domestic consumption, for propaganda at home and especially for the purpose of deceiving Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the biggest and most dangerous secret operation on the horizon right now \u2014 the U.S. intervention in the war between Russia and Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Do Washington policymakers deserve a blank check to potentially drag America into a nuclear war? Are C.I.A. analysts or Pentagon officials issuing warnings about how U.S. government actions in this conflict could lead to a spiral that ends in catastrophe?<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Americans won\u2019t learn of any such memos until the damage has been done. Biden promised last February that if Russia invaded Ukraine, \u201cwe will bring an end to\u201d the Nord Stream pipeline delivering natural gas from Russia to Europe. That pipeline was blown up last September.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Map of the explosions caused at the Nord Stream pipelines on Sept. 26, 2022. (FactsWithoutBias1, CC-By-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Short afterwards, Secretary of State Blinken declared that the explosion \u201coffers tremendous strategic opportunity for the years to come\u201d to reduce European reliance on Russian energy. Unfortunately, Team Biden and their allies in Congress believe that American citizens have no right to know whether their government blew up the Russian pipeline.<\/p>\n

Democrats in Congress blocked proposals to appoint an inspector general to audit the tens of billions of dollars of aid the United States has already delivered to Ukraine (one of the most corrupt nations in the world). If U.S. intervention ends again in disaster, then we\u2019ll see the same sham that occurred after the Iraq War. Some Senate committee blathering that no one is to blame because everyone in Washington was a victim of \u201cgroup think.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Politico<\/em>, the Biden White House is launching a \u201cnew war on secrecy\u201d and is especially concerned about \u201cpotentially illegal [government] activities that have been shielded from the public for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Biden administration official, speaking anonymously, declared that it is in the \u201cnation\u2019s best interest to be as transparent as possible with the American public.\u201d (Explicitly attaching one\u2019s name to such a dangerous notion could ruin one\u2019s D.C. career.)<\/p>\n

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) recently commented, \u201cWe spend $18 billion protecting the classification system and only about $102 million \u2026 on declassification efforts. \u2026 That ratio feels off in a democracy.\u201d But inside the Beltway, rigging the game 176-to-1 is \u201cclose enough for government work\u201d for transparency.<\/p>\n

Growing Support for Assange\u2019s Release<\/strong><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Assange supporters carry ribbon around DOJ in Washington in October 2022. (Joe Lauria)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Assange\u2019s cause may not be hopeless, as more people in America and abroad are speaking up on his behalf. Protests supporting Assange erupted around the world in October. In London, 7,000 protestors linked hands to surround the Parliament building, demanding that the United Kingdom not extradite Assange. Protests occurred in several U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C., where Assange supporters ceremonially circled the Justice Department headquarters. That protest drew support from both libertarians and leftists and featured prominent former military and C.I.A. officers championing Assange\u2019s cause.<\/p>\n

Media outlets are also belatedly taking a firm stand against the suppression of truth. On Nov. 28, The<\/em>\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 along with its British, French, Spanish, and German partners who published WikiLeaks<\/em> revelations \u2014 published a joint open letter on the danger of the Assange prosecution: \u201cHolding governments accountable is part of the core mission of a free press in a democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The publications also declared: \u201cObtaining and disclosing sensitive information when necessary in the public interest is a core part of the daily work of journalists. If that work is criminalised, our public discourse and our democracies are made significantly weaker.\u201d (The\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>, which used many of Assange\u2019s leaks in its articles, did not associate itself with the open letter.)<\/p>\n

Dropping the charges against Assange is the best way for the Biden administration to prove it is serious about ending excessive secrecy. Assange declared years ago, \u201cIf wars can be started by lies, they can be stopped by truth.\u201d Organizations like WikiLeaks<\/em> are among the best hopes for rescuing democracy from Leviathan.<\/p>\n

Pervasive secrecy helps explain the collapse of trust in Washington. Americans today are more likely to believe in witches, ghosts and astrology than to trust the federal government. There\u2019s an old saying: If exposing a crime is a crime, then you\u2019re being ruled by criminals. Attorney General Ramsey Clark warned in 1967, \u201cNothing so diminishes democracy as secrecy.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this point, America is an Impunity Democracy in which government officials pay no price for their abuses. Adding Assange\u2019s scalp to the Justice Department\u2019s trophy wall will do nothing to end the mistrust of the political ruling class that has dragged America into so many debacles.<\/p>\n

This article is from<\/em>\u00a0Future of Freedom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

James Bovard is the author of 10 books, including 2012\u2019s\u00a0<\/strong>Public Policy Hooligan<\/em><\/strong>, and 2006\u2019s\u00a0<\/strong>Attention Deficit Democracy<\/em><\/strong>. He is also a\u00a0USA Today\u00a0columnist. Follow him on Twitter\u00a0<\/em>@JimBovard<\/a><\/strong>,<\/strong> r<\/em>ead his\u00a0<\/strong>blog<\/strong><\/a> and send him\u00a0<\/strong>email<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of\u00a0<\/em>Consortium News.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Post Views:<\/span> 243<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Consortium News, May 3, 2023 If Biden Is Waging a War on Secrecy Then Free Assange The WikiLeaks publisher is only guilty of one thing,\u00a0writes James Bovard \u2014 violating the U.S. government\u2019s divine right to blindfold the American people.\u00a0 By James Bovard The Future of Freedom Foundation \u201cA confident government that is unafraid of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1056,2868,41,285],"class_list":["post-18254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-julian-assange","tag-manning","tag-war-crimes","tag-wikileaks"],"yoast_head":"\nIf Biden Is Waging a War on Secrecy Then Free Assange - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On World Press Freedom Day, it is past time to free Julian Assange.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/05\/03\/if-biden-is-waging-a-war-on-secrecy-then-free-assange\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"If Biden Is Waging a War on Secrecy Then Free Assange - 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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