Posted on 12/17/2010 9:07:04 AM PST by Zakeet
The Obama and Bush administrations have classified too much information unnecessarily and contributed to an overly secretive atmosphere surrounding U.S. policy, lawmakers at a House Judiciary Committee hearing said Thursday.
At a hearing on the legal implications of potentially prosecuting WikiLeaks, panel Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) said the group’s recent dissemination of classified diplomatic cables might have been embarrassing for the government but that the real-world consequences have been fairly modest.
He labeled calls for criminal charges against site founder Julian Assange "extreme measures" and said the widespread outrage in Washington is a sign that caution is needed before proceeding.
"Prosecuting WikiLeaks would raise the most fundamental questions about free speech, about who is a journalist and what citizens can know about their government," Conyers said. "The problem today is not too little secrecy but too much secrecy."
... and as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, I can assure you that the fact that American troops will be killed and injured, and U.S. diplomacy and intelligence gathering was seriously damaged has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the necessary and patriotic actions taken by Julian Assange ...
How’d Mrs. Conyers doing these days, congressman ?
Been over to the Graybar Hotel for a visit lately ?
Translation: Liberals and socialists are above the law.
F’ers!
Translation: They’re all for the leaks.
What’s sad is I’ve seen a lot of FReepers defending the scum Assange.
They got nothing on Assange but an alleged broken condom. Assange is the alleged fallguy for the government to start regulating the internet, which includes monitoring and spying. Assange is a government patsy. Nothing else.
Even a stopped clock is right sometimes. Assange, in ripping the facade of our corrupt political masters, is right. Without him, they would have kept this dirt (including their role in climategate) hidden for decades. BTW, if Conyers is a trator so are Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh for quoting and documents made available by Assange.
All your Christmas turkeys are mine!
In the process of removing the rotting teeth, let us not cut off the head.
Why isn’t anyone talking about the gay soldier that actually stole the documents he knew were classified?
Given the Pentagon Papers case and its precedent, I don’t know that they can successfully prosecute him. And if he gets prosecuted, then you have to nail the NY Times too, it published some of what he published. If its a crime to publilsh it second hand then its a crime to publish it third hand.
Nah ... that's only reserved for conservative Republican organizations.
I hope I live long enough to see this traiterous piece of
#&@$ tried by a jury of his piers. He is one of the most Anti-American Congressmen in the history of the country.
Please note that these are NOT top secret documents. They are embassy cables with a much lower classification. If we are going to hang Assange out to dry for merely disseminating this information (Hannity, etc. have also done so as a I said), we need to also include journalists and pro-war politicians in government (and out) who rountinely make selective use of similar documents to rationalize their behavior.
As to your other point, if we define "national interests," as advancing American national defense, rather than policing the world, nobody has named a single example in the documents which undermines that goal. In fact, they advance that goal by, for example, showing that the public optimists on the Afghan quagamire are really pessimists in private who think Karzai and his government are a hopeless case.
Again, what is your altenrative to expose these and similar examples of government corruption, bungling, and hypocricy? Are you suggesting that "investigations" by Congress or the President will do the job?
No, but he done more than ANY conservative to expose the Obama administration's complicity in the global warming scam. If he was really some sort of leftist shill, he would not have done that.
Does he even listen to himself? His wife is in jail, his son steals a government car for personal use. LOL, Conyers should go away into the night and never return
Conyers is just what the first three letters of his name says: CON. And he’s a socialist and his wife is a jailed felon. So, WHO SHIVES A GIT WHAT HE THINKS.
Posturing politicians in DC clamoring for Assange's head are either blind to the likely future misuse of such prosecutorial authority, or using Assange as an excuse for a power grab: prosecute Assange today, censor Free Speech tomorrow.
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