Capturing Bin Laden Takes Back Seat to Fighting WikiLeaks
Last Thursday I thought I’d ask the White House a simple question. Is it more important to capture Osama Bin Laden, or to detain and “question” (under the PATRIOT Act, we all know what that can mean.) Julian Assange of WikiLeaks.
I thought this was a no brainer. How wrong, I suppose, I was. At least, for the White House. The decision on what may be declassified has been removed from the Executive Branch of the United States (or any) government, and it seems the Obama administration has yet to figure out how to respond, aside from scheming to capture / detain / or otherwise incarcerate Julian Assange, so that he may be interrogated. With, or Without Due Process. But really now, Patriots! In secret?
Not Bloody Likely.
An absence of answers from the White House Press Office apparently means what? Corking-up WikiLeaks is more important than stopping Al Qaeda?
On Friday morning, I called the White House Press Office again, and repeated that question, and another. I spotted Assange’s interview with abcnews.au wherein he asserted the White House had been approached by the New York Times on behalf of the media partnership, and asked if they would help remove names of our Afghan Friends. The White house “declined.”
I asked, “Is this True?”
Since then, silence.
Seriously. The White House declined an opportunity to protect our “assets”?
What’s wrong with this picture?
Just to keep this in perspective, here is WikiLeaks extraordinary press conference last week:
Link: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8526049
Short Link: http://bit.ly/aQyzbs
WikiLeaks Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010
The Guardian Afghanistan War Logs
Der Spiegel Afghanistan Protocol
New York Times Afghanistan War Logs
My email this morning to the White House Press Office is below.
-dcm
I took the press conference at the Frontline Club July 26 and split it in two and made it available for download here:
Frontline London Press Conference July 26 2010,downloadable,2 pcs http://bit.ly/WLatFL
Also, rageunderground over at YouTube has mapped from the WikiLeaks War Diaries, all of the Afghan War IED attacks from 2004 through 2009, and overlaid them on a NATO map of the area. Here:
:dcm
UPDATE@ 080410
First, there is now an easy to use Citizen Journalist Research tool for the Afghan War Diary Database at http://www.diarydig.org/ . Next…
Here’s a riotously succinct synopsis of why we need ironclad Net Neutrality, as illuminated by the release of the Wikileaks Afghan War Diaries, courtesy of thejuicemedia’s Rap News.
:dcm
Subject: 2 Simple Questions regarding WikiLeaks/Guardian/DerSpiegel/NYT War Diaries, from Scribal Thrum
David Manchester <david.c.manchester@gmail.com> | Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 9:17 AM | |
To: White House Press Office <media_affairs@who.eop.gov>
Cc: [list of journalists]
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dredeyedick @PressSec So. WH doesn’t respond to DINFOS-trained Journalists? http://bit.ly/cANjMw @wikileaks #wardiaries @ggreenwald @shanewharris
WikiGate reports reveal the ugly underbelly of a war merchandised to the public as a noble mission http://huff.to/wkiGate @wikileaks
[…] and one more thing. Don’t murder, kidnap, or torture ahem detain or “interrogate” any Wikileaks Team m… They are working for Peace, and our ability to have sufficient access to History to know where we […]