We often hear about those “playing the race card.” We hear less but are affected more by those playing the “Holocaust” card.
I mention this in light of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. Many of Assange’s fiercest critics are also the most ardent supporters of Israel. It’s unlikely I’m the only one who’s noticed.
Whether Israel is justified in its aggressively arrogant and egregious conduct around the world is subject to debate. But, justifying the persecution of WikiLeaks by use of Israeli-like rationale is not just unacceptable it is unjustifiable and reprehensible.
Yet many of this nation’s most outspoken lapdogs of the oligarchs are encouraging what amounts to a McCarthy Era witch hunt and worse.
The same right-wing forces ironically foisting their “compassionate conservative Christian values” on the nation are now focusing their hateful diatribe on those who do not kow-tow to them.
“Once-liberal Democrat Bob Beckel said on FOX, “there's only one way to do it: illegally shoot the son-of-a-bitch.” Center-liberal legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said on CNN that Assange is “absurd", "ridiculous", "delusional", and "well beyond sympathy of anyone”. The Washington Times called for treating him as an "enemy combatant"; Rep. Peter King of the Homeland Security Committee who wants him prosecuted as a terrorist; and of course, Sarah Palin wants Assange "pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders", or a wolf in Alaska.
This is a lynch-mob moment, when the bloodlust runs over. We have this mad overreaction many times since the witch-burnings and Jim Crow, including the Palmer Raids of the 1920s, the McCarthy purges of the 1950s, the Nixon-era conspiracy trials, the Watergate break-ins, and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11.”
As I prepare this blog I learn that Julian Assange has been released on bond from a London prison. This heartens but the nightmare is not over. The nightmare is not Assange’s alone.
“This week, Senators Joe Lieberman and Dianne Feinstein engaged in acts of serious aggression against their own constituents, and the American people in general. They both invoked the 1917 Espionage Act and urged its use in going after Julian Assange. For good measure, Lieberman extended his invocation of the Espionage Act to include a call to use it to investigate the New York Times, which published WikiLeaks' diplomatic cables. Reports yesterday suggest that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder may seek to invoke the Espionage Actagainst Assange…
I call on all American citizens to rise up and insist on repeal of the Espionage Act immediately. We have little time to waste. The Assange assault is theater of a particularly deadly kind, and America will not recover from the use of the Espionage Act as a cudgel to threaten journalists, editors and news outlets with. I call on major funders of Feinstein's and Lieberman;s campaigns to put their donations in escrow accounts and notify the staffers of those Senators that the funds will only be released if they drop their traitorous invocation of the Espionage Act. I call on all Americans to understand once for all: this is not about Julian Assange. This, my fellow citizens, is about you.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/post_1394_b_795001.html
From Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way…
Hasta Siempre,
Hasta Siempre,
More:
WikiLeaks' Assange Released From Jail
The Guardian, Reuters and NPR's Philip Reeves are among those reporting that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange hasbeen released from prison on bail in London.
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy[1] is the title of a book by John Mearsheimer, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, Professor of International Relations at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, published in late August 2007. It was a New York Times Best Seller.[2]The book describes the lobby as a "loose coalition of individuals and organizations who actively work to steer U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction".[3] The book "focuses primarily on the lobby's influence on U.S. foreign policy and its negative effect on American interests".[4] The authors also argue that "the lobby's impact has been unintentionally harmful to Israel as well".[5]
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
The U.S. national interest should be the primary object of American foreign policy. For the past several decades, however, and especially since the Six Day War in 1967, the centerpiece of U.S. Middle East policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering U.S. support for Israel and the related effort to spread democracy throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized U.S. security.
http://mearsheimer.uchicago.edu/pdfs/A0040.pdf
The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention
Arianna Huffington: The Media Gets It Wrong on WikiLeaks: It's About Broken Trust, Not Broken Condoms
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/the-media-gets-it-wrong-o_b_797436.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=121610&utm_medium=email&utm_content=FeatureTitle&utm_term=Daily+Brief
Michael Moore, other high-profile individuals offer support to Assange
[MCM] Sweden doesn't prosecute REAL rape, but locks up Julian Assange (for "rape")
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/post_1435_b_797188.html
We the taxpayers provide the State of Israel $2 billion in foreign aid annually.
http://niemanlab.org/pdfs/columbiawikileaks.pdf
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.html
http://mail.aol.com/32992-211/aol-1/en-us/Suite.aspx#
The Lynch-Mob Moment
Once-liberal Democrat Bob Beckel said on FOX, “there's only one way to do it: illegally shoot the son-of-a-bitch.” Center-liberal legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said on CNN that Assange is “absurd", "ridiculous", "delusional", and "well beyond sympathy of anyone”. The Washington Times called for treating him as an "enemy combatant"; Rep. Peter King of the Homeland Security Committee who wants him prosecuted as a terrorist; and of course, Sarah Palin wants Assange "pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders", or a wolf in Alaska.
This is a lynch-mob moment, when the bloodlust runs over. We have this mad overreaction many times since the witch-burnings and Jim Crow, including the Palmer Raids of the 1920s, the McCarthy purges of the 1950s, the Nixon-era conspiracy trials, the Watergate break-ins, and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11.
http://tomhayden.com/home/the-lynch-mob-moment.html
6 Companies That Haven't Wussed Out of Working with WikiLeaks
As more and more companies bend under government pressure, a few are standing up for the site.
http://www.alternet.org/story/149142/
WikiLeaks founder Assange says Pentagon plans prosecution
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who angered Washington by releasing secret cables, said in a documentary on Sunday he faced prosecution by the United States and was disappointed with how Swedish justice had been abused.Assange has been remanded in custody in Britain after a European arrest warrant was issued by Sweden, which wants to question Assange about allegations made by two women of sexual crimes. He has denied the allegations.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_wikileaks_assange
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