Wikileaks are not terrorists

This shit fuckin pisses me right off. When the fuck is the US military gonna stop drinking the kool aid and recognise that their futile pursuit of Julian Assange is doing nothing but further destroying their (already on life support) reputation around the world as some kind of light on the hill, or whatever. Instead it's showing up the USA to be a paranoid hypocrite who's ready to plaster a "terrorist" label on anyone they feel like. Today I read in The Age what we've pretty well known all along, the US military has labelled Assange as an "enemy of the United States". This means they can kill him, or throw him in Gitmo to rot, without fuckin trial or charge. 

THE US military has designated Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as enemies of the United States — the same legal category as the al-Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban insurgency.

Declassified US Air Force counter-intelligence documents, released under US freedom-of-information laws, reveal that military personnel who contact WikiLeaks or WikiLeaks supporters may be at risk of being charged with "communicating with the enemy", a military crime that carries a maximum sentence of death.
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"It appears that Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are the 'enemy'. An enemy is dealt with under the laws of war, which could include killing, capturing, detaining without trial, etc."

The Australian government has repeatedly denied knowledge of any US intention to charge Assange or seek his extradition.

However, Australian diplomatic cables released to Fairfax Media under freedom-of-information laws over the past 18 months have confirmed the continuation of an "unprecedented" US Justice Department espionage investigation targeting Assange and WikiLeaks.

The Australian diplomatic reports canvassed the possibility that the US may eventually seek Assange's extradition on conspiracy or information-theft-related offences to avoid extradition problems arising from the nature of espionage as a political offence and the free-speech protections in the US constitution.

Assange is scheduled this morning to speak by video link to a meeting on his asylum case on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The meeting will be attended by Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino. Read more

Pretty bloody dangerous to be a reporter these days isn't it. The Australian gov should grow a fuckin back bone and stand up to this hysterical witch hunt by the American gov. Assange is an Australian citizen and they've abandoned him in exchange for platitudes from America about "the alliance". Well, true friends can disagree without fear of retribution.

I'm reminded of when I signed an online thing from GetUp here, that was to be printed in the New York Times. It was printed, and we all got sent a copy of what appeared in the newspaper:

It reads:

Dear President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder: 

We, as Australians, condemn calls for violence, including assassination, against Australian citizen and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, or for him to be labeled a terrorist, enemy combatant or be treated outside the ordinary course of justice in any way. 

As Thomas Jefferson said, “information is the currency of democracy.” Publishing leaked information in collaboration with major news outlets, as Wikileaks and Mr. Assange have done, is not a terrorist act. 

Australia and the United States are the strongest of allies. Our soldiers serve side by side and we’ve experienced, and condemned, the consequences of terrorism together. To label Wikileaks a terrorist organisation is an insult to those Australians and Americans who have lost their lives to acts of terrorism and to terrorist forces. 

If Wikileaks or their staff have broken international or national laws, let that case be heard in a just and fair court of law. At the moment, no such charges have been brought. 

We are writing as Australians to say what our Government should have said: that all Australian citizens deserve to be free from persecution, threats of violence and detention without charge, especially from our friend and ally, the United States. 

We call upon you to stand up for our shared democratic principles of the presumption of innocence and freedom of information. link

So there it is. Free speech it seems only applies if the American gov agrees. What a bunch of hypocrites. And they wonder why people outside America have got the shits with them.

This is yet another example of American policy being an unmitigated public relations disaster, even in Australia which is considered the closest of allies. Does the US military and gov think we're all dumb fucks here? Do they actually think they can behave like this without any repercussions at all in our attitudes and thoughts on the US? Are they really that stupid? Australia right now is very sensitive to the whole jail with no charge thing after David Hicks (also abandoned by the Australian gov as Howard was too busy kissing Bush's ass) spent 5 years in the Gitmo Gulag without charge.

Honestly, they're behaving like a bunch of school kids playing wars in the playground, only they're a bit more adept at the hysterical rhetoric. "Light on the hill"? Bullshit. There's more light coming out of my ass right now than from the American leadership.

BTW, to date Assange still hasn't be charged with anything.