..."Viewing the Wikileaks situation through this lens, it becomes apparent why the government would seek to charge Assange with conspiracy," he continued. "Not only Assange, but anyone involved in the Wikileaks community could be swept up in a dragnet. Just as in my parents’ case, the prosecutors could seek to bully some involved into ratting out others, in return for more favorable treatment. This divide and conquer approach would turn individuals against each other, sow the seeds of distrust within the broader community, and intimidate others into quiescence.
"This kind of attack threatens every left wing activist. I urge all progressives to come to the defense of Julian Assange should he be indicted for violating the Espionage Act of 1917."
Assuredly if we don't hang together on this we may all hang separately. Which, many people feel, is why these things were all leaked in the first place, despite being reported separately before.
..."By its terms, it criminalizes not merely the disclosure of national defense information by organizations such as Wikileaks, but also the reporting on that information by countless news organizations... It also criminalizes all casual discussions of such disclosures by persons not authorized to receive them to other persons not authorized to receive them–in other words, all tweets sending around those countless news stories, all blogging on them, and all dinner party conversations about their contents...
"Taken at its word, the Espionage Act makes felons of us all..."
Well, sure, that was the point.
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