Held Harmless
The first is the denial that the charge the USG has brought against Assange poses any threat to press freedom. The New York Times (NYT) practically celebrates it: "The administration has begun well by charging Mr. Assange with an indisputable crime"--that is, "not with publishing classified government information, but with stealing it, skirting -- for now -- critical First Amendment questions."
Hey, if the NYT, publisher of the Pentagon Papers, whose own lawyer warned that "the prosecution of [Assange] would be a very, very bad precedent for publishers," says that the charge against Assange is "well begun" and not critical to "First Amendment questions"--well, that's going to be good enough to calm the fears of most liberals.
Indeed, according to the Washington Post [WaPo], not only is Julian Assange "not a free-press hero," and not only is his prosecution "not the defeat for civil liberties of which his defenders mistakenly warn," but his case can be considered "a victory for the rule of law." That's because "the indictment does not charge Assange with violating the Espionage Act." Besides, "he is long overdue for personal accountability."
Thus, the other iconic liberal journal, recently idealized by iconic liberal Hollywood (Spielberg-Hanks-Steep!) for its iconic liberal courage in publishing iconic liberal hero Danial Ellsberg's thousands of stolen ("an indisputable crime") "Top Secret" national security documents, The Pentagon Papers, has issued its authoritative verdict. It has told its post-The Post, virtue-assured, iconic liberal audience that the prosecution of Julian Assange, who published Chelsea Manning's stolen documents--not a single one of which was classified "Top Secret" and most of which, including the Collateral Murder video, were not classified at all--is, again, something to celebrate. No threat to civil liberties. Long overdue. Personal accountability and all. Well played, Mr. President.
Meanwhile, Daniel Ellsberg--the real one, not the one in the movie--expresses quite another opinion, in a voice that has earned its authority [with his emphasis]: "The truth is that EVERY attack now made on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange was made against me and the release of the Pentagon Papers at the time." But what does Meryl think?
Two little things here.
One, contrary to the NYT assertion, Julian Assange did not commit the "indisputable crime" of "stealing" classified government information, and he is not charged with that. Chelsea Manning committed that crime, and was prosecuted and convicted for it. Chelsea Manning downloaded classified and unclassified government data without any help from Julian Assange. Manning did not get, and did not need, anyone's help to get "unauthorized access" to and "steal" information.
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