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Taking American imperialism to task
The Tehran Times / The London Guardian ^ | December 5, 2010 | Seumas Milne, Guardian columnist and associate editor

Posted on 12/04/2010 9:40:20 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Official America's reaction to the largest leak of confidential government files in history is tipping over towards derangement. What the White House initially denounced as a life-threatening “criminal” act and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton branded an “attack on the international community” has been taken a menacing stage further by the newly emboldened Republican right.

WikiLeaks' release of 250,000 U.S. embassy cables -- shared with the Guardian and other international newspapers -- was an act of terrorism, Senator Peter King declared.

Sarah Palin called for its founder Julian Assange to be hunted down as an “anti-American operative with blood on his hands”, while former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has demanded that whoever leaked the files should be executed for treason.

Not much truck with freedom of information, then, in the land of the free. In reality, most of the leaked material is fairly low-level diplomatic gossip, which naturally reflects the U.S. government's view of the world, and crucially doesn't include reports with the highest security classification.

When it comes to actual criminality and blood, nothing quite matches WikiLeaks' earlier revelations about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with their chilling records of US collusion with industrial-scale torture and death squads, and killings of Afghan civilians by rampaging NATO troops.

Nor, of course, is what U.S. diplomats write necessarily true. But beyond the dispatches on Prince Andrew's crass follies and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's “weirdness”, the leaks do paint a revealing picture of an overstretched imperial system at work, as its emissaries struggle to keep satraps in line and enemies at bay....

The Author

(Excerpt) Read more at tehrantimes.com ...


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; hillary; iran; iraq; obama; palin; wikileaks; wot
When a major UK newspaper is on the side of the Mullahs, is there any hope at all?
1 posted on 12/04/2010 9:40:22 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The next war will end civilization...the Left is unhinged and loves Islam as they both hate American.


2 posted on 12/04/2010 9:48:28 PM PST by wac3rd (Somewhere in Hell, Ted Kennedy snickers....)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Has Assange done anything illegal? Viewing him as a media outlet, he’s not American and owes no loyalty to America as a citizen or patriot. He did not conduct the espionage. I fear he’s a pawn in a bigger game to bring the internet under government control while we all cheer the government shutdown of websites that disclose information embarrassing to governments.

Yay! Prior restraint! Woohoo. Go big government, go. Shut Assange down. Next go for those jerks at Free Republic. /sarc


3 posted on 12/04/2010 10:13:33 PM PST by November 2010
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

When a homosexual soldier acting consistent with the sexual Orientation has access to so much classified data (all these years after the Islamic Jihad of 9-11-01) When an American President manifests such HATRED for our Country and our way of life-— and when the homosexuals CinC embraces and empowers
the reprobate as a means to destroy or harm America. When the
classified data is then published to the purported embarrassment of our government around the world.It seems to me our Hope is not in that man unconstitutionally fit to the Office of the President-nor in our Military — Our Hope is in restoration of that system Obama will Never represent
nor understand.We need to become again that Moral and Religious people.


4 posted on 12/05/2010 5:42:16 AM PST by StonyBurk (ring)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

When a major UK newspaper doesn’t know the difference between a senator and a congressman, that’s a sign that the rest of the information also isn’t very reliable. Peter King is a member of the House of Representatives from New York.


5 posted on 12/05/2010 12:15:37 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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