Extortion/protection. The Justice Department would have no problem distinguishing WikiLeaks from traditional media outlets, if it decides to charge WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with violating the Espionage Act, a former federal prosecutor told lawmakers Thursday. “By clearly showing how WikiLeaks is fundamentally different, the government should be able to demonstrate that any prosecution here is the exception and is not the sign of a more aggressive prosecution effort against the press,” said Kenneth Wainstein (pictured at right), former assistant attorney general on national security, during a House Judiciary Committee hearing about WikiLeaks and the Espionage Act on Thursday. The hearing was the first to publicly address WikiLeaks. It consisted of testimony from legal scholars and attorneys as well as former Green Party presidential candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader.
Washington’s hand-wringing over WikiLeaks comes as the organization continues to publish from its leaked trove of 250,000 U.S. Wikileaks and the Definition of Terrorism. Collusion NYT: Feds probe whether Assange helped leaker - U.S. news - WikiLeaks in Security. 8 Smears and Misconceptions About WikiLeaks Spread By the Media. December 30, 2010 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. The corporate media's tendency to blare misinformation and outright fabrications has been particularly egregious in coverage of WikiLeaks. Here are the bogus narratives that keep appearing in newspapers and on the airwaves. 1. That's not to say that the exposure of secret government files can't somehow lead to someone, somewhere, someday, being hurt. 2. Greenwald and others have battled to kill the myth that the whistleblower site threw up all the cables without taking any precautions to protect people, but it keeps coming up. 3.
While the government tries to conjure up a legal justification for prosecuting Assange, the media is helping out by fanning the narrative that he's some criminal mastermind. The effort to tar Assange as a criminal -- spearheaded by government officials and helped along by the media -- may have a chilling effect on future whistleblowers. 4. 5. 6. 7. Why Julian Assange is a journalist - War Room. Julian Assange may not be Time’s Man of the Year, but he almost certainly is a journalist — at least as far as the First Amendment is concerned. The Constitution’s First Amendment forbids Congress from making any law abridging either freedom of speech or freedom of the press. Some commentators and government officials have confidently asserted that Assange is not a journalist — perhaps intending to imply that he does not enjoy the protections afforded by the First Amendment.
But they are almost certainly incorrect. Let us first dispense with the idea that Assange may not enjoy the safeguards of the First Amendment because he is not a United States citizen. The language of the First Amendment does not limit its protections to citizens, and the courts have never interpreted it that way. Let us next dispense with the canard that Assange does not enjoy First Amendment protection because he is not objective, has a point of view, or is seeking to achieve a particular political outcome. Col. Manning versus Pfc. Manning Army will evaluate mental state of suspect in WikiLeaks. The Army is assembling a special board to evaluate the mental state of Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is being held on charges that he illegally obtained thousands of classified documents and turned them over to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks in what might be the biggest security breach in U.S. history.
Lt. Col. Robert Manning, an Army spokesman, said Monday that no further legal proceedings will happen until Pfc. Manning is evaluated by what is called a “706 board” and a recommendation is made on his fitness to stand trial. The Army charged the 23-year-old private in May while he was assigned as an intelligence analyst with a combat brigade in Iraq. Since July, he has been held in solitary confinement in the brig at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. “What’s happening right now, they are convening a 706 board, which is a board to determine his mental fitness, which was requested by the defense,” Col. The 706 refers to a section of the Manual for Courts-Martial. Enlarge Photo Col. Mr.