AIt has come to this: people such as Julian Assange and Wikileaks are criminals and “high tech terrorists” because they are heroically and in grave danger of their lives releasing documents stamped “SECRET” thereby revealing the grotesque lies being told by our government, our government’s advocacy and commission of crimes right and left, and the fact that the government is doing exactly the opposite of what it claims to be doing to our faces. Not only are these whistleblowers the criminals “responsible for blood on their hands,” but the people who have openly confessed to ordering that detainees be tortured, who were caught red-handed fabricating the grounds for unprovoked aggression (the wars upon Afghanistan and Iraq) that have resulted in the deaths of more than a million people, those who cold-bloodedly murdered innocents and journalists from US helicopters, who routinely kill and killed civilians for sport, are blameless, white as snow, lambs, true patriots, true god-fearing icons of virtue, and moral paragons.
These pure souls are so innocent and moral that they can freely advocate murder of these whistleblowers and still be pure, moral paragons. To cite just one example of several of these god-fearing moralists who are openly calling for Assange’s assassination:
“We’ve built an overwhelming, nearly unstoppable war machine that can turn any military force that goes up against it into cat food and then we’ve proceeded to create mind numbingly stupid, overly legalistic rules of engagement that nullify many of our advantages. We have a military capable of reducing whole regions to rubble in days and yet we struggle to deal with Somalian pirates and Taliban cavemen because we can’t bear the idea that there might be an unflattering piece in the New York Times if we accidentally kill some of the ‘civilians’ who, short of picking up a gun, are doing everything they can to help our enemies.” (John Hawkins, “5 Reasons The CIA Should have Already Killed Julian Assange,” Townhall.com, 11/30/10).
In this passage we find concentrated much that is so wrong in our times. Empires, Hawkins thinks, are “nearly unstoppable” and can only be stopped when they limit themselves by such quaint and annoying practices such as observing the law. The law? WTF? There is no law but what we say! No one can beat us so it must be that we lose only when we hurt ourselves. “Bomb them into the Stone Ages!” these high IQ types used to yell during the Vietnam War. We can reduce “whole regions to rubble in days” so let’s get it on! We should not care “if we accidentally kill some of the ‘civilians'” as they aren’t “civilians” after all, they’re ALL the ENEMY, don’t you see? Note to citizens everywhere: the Empire regards you as the enemy if you do anything except side with it under any and all circumstances and/or cower in fear of it.
And if you should dare to read any of these secret documents, perish the thought that you could ever work for the Empire in the future!
“Today I received information about Wikileaks that I want to pass on to you. This is most relevant if you are going to apply for or have already applied for federal government positions. Two big factors in hiring for many federal government positions are determining if the applicants have good judgment and if they know how to deal with confidential/classified information. The documents released by Wikileaks remain classified; thus, reading them, passing them on, commenting on them may be seen as a violation of Executive Order 13526, Classified National Security Information. See Section 5.5 (Sanctions).
“For many federal government jobs, applicants must obtain security clearances. There are various levels of security checks, but all federal positions require background checks. As part of such checks, social media may be researched to see what you are up to, so DO NOT post links to the documents or make comments on any social media sites. Moreover, polygraphs are conducted for the highest levels of security clearance.
“I have not yet heard any fallout about specific individuals, but we wanted to give you this take on the situation.”
Maura Kelly, Assistant Dean for Career Development and Public Service, Boston University School of Law. (Cited in Daniel Tencer, “Students Warned: Read Wikileaks and you’re out of a government job,” Raw Story, December 5, 2010, )
Similar letters have been obtained sent out by other schools such as Columbia University’s School of Law.
As commenters at the Raw Story point out, what college or graduate student doesn’t know how to set up a Facebook page using a pseudonym, thus by-passing this “Don’t You Dare Read This or You’ll Go Blind” order, and the fact that government regulations cited in these letters state the opposite of what these LAW schools are telling their students:
“Executive Order 13526, referenced in the letter the Boston University School of Law official sent to graduate students, includes the following. Perhaps the official should send a letter to the federal government warning them that their continued use of false national security claims to hide the government’s crimes and to avoid embarrassment is a violation of the order.
“Sec. 1.7. Classification Prohibitions and Limitations.
(a) In no case shall information be classified, continue to be maintained as classified, or fail to be declassified in order to:
(1) conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error;
(2) prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency;
(3) restrain competition; or
(4) prevent or delay the release of information that does not require protection in the interest of the national security.”
Isn’t it interesting that Maura Kelly is?”Assistant Dean for Career Development and Public Service”? Career development and public service: aren’t these two in conflict with each other per her letter? If you want to do public service make sure you don’t do anything that might harm your career development.
When the crimes and lies our government is committing get bigger and bigger and people who still hold onto their consciences rebel against this and reveal these murderous lies and egregious crimes are the criminals and those who perpetrate these crimes are the law-abiding, telling us that the law be damned and that you must ignore anything that you see or hear, including things that the government itself said or did and just listen to what we say NOW that you should see or believe, what avails the society? When the society’s gatekeepers are the worst examples of immoral and illegal assassins and advocates for assassins, then what must the people do?
DENNIS LOO is an associate professor of Sociology at Cal-Poly Pomona. He is the co-author of Impeach the President: the Case Against Bush and Cheney. He can be reached at http://dennisloo.blogspot.com.
