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WikiLeaks reveals more than just government secrets

By Glenn Greenwald <http://www.salon.com/author/glenn_greenwald/index.html>

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The WikiLeaks disclosure has revealed not only numerous government secrets,
but also the driving mentality of major factions in our political and media
class.  Simply put, there are few countries in the world with citizenries
and especially media outlets more devoted to serving, protecting and
venerating government authorities than the U.S.  Indeed, I don't quite
recall any entity producing as much bipartisan contempt across the American
political spectrum as WikiLeaks has:  as usual, for authoritarian minds, those
who expose secrets are far more hated than those in power who commit heinous
acts using secrecy as their principal
weapon<http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/08/hbc-90007562>
.

First we have the group demanding that Julian Assange be murdered without
any charges, trial or due process.  There was Sarah Palin on on Twitter
illiterately accusing
WikiLeaks<http://twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA/status/9251635779866625>--
a stateless group run by an Australian citizen -- of "treason"; she
thereafter took to her Facebook
page<http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=465212788434>to object
that Julian Assange was "not pursued with the same urgency we
pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders" (she also lied by stating that he has
"blood on his hands":  a claim which even the Pentagon admits is
untrue<http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/11/28/104404/officials-may-be-overstating-the.html>).
Townhall's John Hawkins has a column this
morning<http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnHawkins/2010/11/30/5_reasons_the_cia_should_have_already_killed_julian_assange/page/full/>entitled
"5 Reasons The CIA Should Have Already Killed Julian Assange."
That Assange should be treated as a "traitor" and murdered with no due
process has been strongly suggested if not outright urged by the likes of Marc
Theissen<http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/08/wikileaks_and_drone_strikes.html>,
Seth Lipsky <http://www.nysun.com/editorials/wikileaks-and-the-war/87121/>
(with
Jeffrey Goldberg
posting<http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/10/what-would-lincoln-have-done-about-julian-assange/65382/>Lipsky's
column and also
illiterately accusing Assange of
"treason"<http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/10/on-treason-and-julian-assange/65437/>),
Jonah
Goldberg<http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/10/29/goldberg>and,
today,
*The Wall Street
Journal*<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704584804575644490285411052.html>
.

The way in which so many political commentators so routinely and casually
call for the eradication of human beings without a shred of due process is
nothing short of demented.  Recall Palin/McCain adviser Michael Goldfarb's
recent
complaint<http://the-reaction.blogspot.com/2010/11/glimpse-into-sick-twisted-and-anti.html>that
the CIA failed to kill Ahmed Ghailani when he was in custody, or Glenn
Reynolds' morning demand <http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/110310/> -- in
between sips of coffee -- that North Korea be destroyed with nuclear
weapons ("I say nuke ‘em. And not with just a few bombs").  Without
exception, all of these people cheered on the attack on Iraq, which resulted
in the deaths of more than 100,000 innocent human beings, yet their thirst
for slaughter is literally insatiable.  After a decade's worth of American
invasions, bombings, occupations, checkpoint shootings, drone attacks,
assassinations and civilian slaughter, the notion that the U.S. Government
can and should murder whomever it wants is more frequent and unrestrained
than ever.

Those who demand that the U.S. Government take people's lives with no
oversight or due process as though they're advocating changes in tax policy
or mid-level personnel moves -- *eradicate him!*, they bellow from their
seats in the Coliseum -- are just morally deranged barbarians. * *There's
just no other accurate way to put it.* * These are usually the same people,
of course, who brand themselves "pro-life" and Crusaders for the Sanctity of
Human Life and/or who deride Islamic extremists for *their* disregard for
human life.  And the fact that this mindset is so widespread and mainstream
is quite a reflection of how degraded American political cultural is.  When
WikiLeaks critics devote a fraction of their rage to this form of mainstream
American thinking -- which, unlike anything WikiLeaks has done, has *
actually* resulted in piles upon piles of corpses -- then their
anti-WikiLeaks protestation should be taken more seriously, but not until
then.
full --


http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/11/30/wikileaks/index.html

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