GOP outrage about the leaks

Julian Assange, the Australian native and founder of Wikileaks, told the Sydney Morning Herald on May 22, 2010 (well before this latest document dump) that Wikileaks has released more classified documents than the rest of the world press combined:

"That's not something I say as a way of saying how successful we are – rather, that shows you the parlous state of the rest of the media. How is it that a team of five people has managed to release to the public more suppressed information, at that level, than the rest of the world press combined? It's disgraceful."

Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsburg said that Assange "is serving our [American] democracy and serving our rule of law precisely by challenging the secrecy regulations." Amnesty International gave him its International Media Award for 2009, and he received the Sam Adams Award for integrity in intelligence. The New York Times editor in chief Bill Keller justified publishing excerpts as in the best interest of the American people.

Not everyone agrees that this is a good thing. The Obama administration has condemned the leaks and may pursue legal action.

She Who Shall Not Be Named used it as another chance to condemn Obama for failing to protect the lives of Americans. She twittered on her Tweety Bird that Assange:

". . . is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. His past posting of classified documents reveal the identity of more than 100 Arghan sources to the Taliban. Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?"

The GOP scourge Rep. Peter King (R-NY) who is ranking minority member on the Homeland Security Committee and presumably is in line to become Chairman in January, said that

". . . if the lives of some Americans are endagnered by the illegal release of classified information by the Likileaks website, then the government should "go after" the people who control Wikileaks for violating the espionage act."

My, my, my. Such high dudgeon. Where was this outrage when officials in the Bush administration intentionally and deliberately leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame to hack journalist Robert Novak -- thus ending a distinguished career and endangering numerous lives of those she had worked with as secret sources and undercover operations.

At least Assange has an ideology that the government's business needs more transparency, and he sees his action as civil disobedience in the service of a good cause.

In contrast, the Plame coverup was all in the interest of protecting the administration's lies about why we were about to invade Iraq in an illegal act of war against a nation that posed no immediate threat to the United States. That is what needed to be exposed, which is what Plame's husband Joe Wilson was doing -- which is why they destroyed Valeria Plame, even if it meant doing it to their very own CIA.

At least one of those leakers has never been identified and brought to justice -- but enjoys his post-White House career as the mastermind of the conservative resurgence and retaking of the House majority. None other than Karl Rove himself, FOX News commentator.

Why, She Who Shall Not Be Named and Rep. King, was KR not pursued -- nay, why was he not waterboarded --and forced to confess and spill all he knew about the president's role in "fixing the evidence" to make the case for invasion?

I'll bet that fat little Rovian pig would have squealed with the first sprinkle of water over his nose. My cup of contempt runneth over.

On a lighter note: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been busy talking to her diplomatic counterparts among our allies to patch up the damage done by these revelations. She reported that some have made light of it, one saying, "Don't worry about it. You should see what we say about you in our dispatches."

Ralph