“The facts are in and the case is closed: the US and its allies do not care about press freedoms beyond the extent that they can be used to conduct propaganda. The way journalists who offend the powerful are dealt with by the US government and the way they are dealt with by the Saudi monarchy differ only in terms of speed and messiness.”- Caitlin Johnstone
caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/as-fascism-casts-off-its-disguises
Most depressing shit this.
Well, there’s a mixed story here. Yes, he was a whistle blower who lifted the lid on a lot of nasty corruption. But otoh he published personal details of informers and spies in regimes not as open as ours which led to many state murders of people who fundamentally were on our side.
WikiLeaks has drawn criticism for violating the personal privacy of individuals and inadequately curating its content but there is no evidence that anyone has been endangered as a result of Wikileaks’ publications. The Pentagon itself was forced to admit that claims made to that effect were “hysterical”.
Can you name one of these “many state murders of people who fundamentally were on our side”?
To my knowledge, Wikileaks did a good job of not revealing the informants. AFAIK it was some (European) newspapers that published the information and none of those news paper journalists got any problems for their publications.
These are political trials. To put fear into potential leakers and to punish Assange for revealing the crimes of the U.S. army and government. Same shit Chelsea Manning had to endure. It’s fucked up.