WikiLeaks And A Truth Revolution
\nBy The Public Record – The Public Record – Jul 13th, 2011
\nFrom RevolutionTruth.org<\/p>\n
Open Letter to the United States Government Regarding WikiLeaks, Julian Assange and the Fundamental Tenets of Democracy and Open Societies<\/p>\n
To President Obama, US Senators and Congressmen and women, Attorney General Eric Holder, the Department of Justice, and all of those involved in the attempt to prosecute Julian Assange, founder of the nonprofit news organization WikiLeaks.org:<\/p>\n
We are a diverse group of people from around the world who have come together for a common purpose: to defend WikiLeaks, to ask the United States to cease its attempts to manufacture a case against Julian Assange, and to defend democratic principles and our fundamental rights guaranteed therein. We are professionals, homemakers, activists, students, and others who believe that government derives its power from the consent of the governed, as stipulated in the Declaration of Independence, but that citizens can only give meaningful consent if they are fully informed about their government\u2019s actions. Nothing more violates American principles, which inspire both those of us who are and are not American citizens, than the idea that \u201cgovernment knows best\u201d and has the right to deceive its own people.<\/p>\n
The Wikileaks documents have revealed that the U.S. government has been keeping enormously important information secret from the American people, such as the fact that the U.S. government knew of the mass murder of civilians in Iraq even though it claimed it did not; that the U.S. government failed its legal responsibility as an occupying power by handing civilians over to Iraqi police units knowing they would be tortured and killed, even though it claimed it did not; that U.S. officials believe the Afghan government is corrupt and unpopular, even as they falsely claim to be fighting for democracy in Afghanistan; and that U.S. officials are extremely worried about the safety of Pakistan\u2019s nuclear stockpile, a potential matter of life and death that they have kept from the people of the world.<\/p>\n
When the N.Y. Times released the Wikileaks \u201cAfghan Logs\u201d on July 25, its headline read: \u201cView Is Bleaker than Official Portrayal of War in Afghanistan.\u201d This revealed, according to America\u2019s \u201cnewspaper of record,\u201d that the U.S. Government was hiding the truth from its own people. Is it really right that the proud citizens of America should need Wikileaks to discover vital truths denied them by their own government?<\/p>\n
U.S. officials claim they have a right to deceive the American people, and prosecute WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, on the grounds of \u201cnational security\u201d. But this information is clearly known to America\u2019s enemies. It is the American people who have been denied it, information critical to their ability to make an informed decision as to whether or not to support their government\u2019s war-making, including putting their sons and daughters at grave risk of death or crippling injuries.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Government claim that Wikileaks has endangered national security has been invalidated by its own Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, who has stated \u201cis this embarrassing? Yes. Is it awkward? Yes. Consequences for U.S. foreign policy? I think fairly modest.\u201d The German Interior Minister has stated that \u201cWikiLeaks is annoying, but not a threat\u201d, and the BBC has reported that \u201cWikileaks: US allies unruffled by embassy cable leaks.\u201d<\/p>\n
The result of any U.S. government prosecution of Wikileaks and Julian Assange will be to restrict the truthful information American citizens receive about their government\u2019s foreign policy. But the U.S. cannot promote democracy abroad by limiting it at home.<\/p>\n
We urge you to halt your undemocratic prosecution of Wikileaks; and to instead learn from it by providing the public with the honest and truthful information upon which democracy depends. …more<\/a><\/p>\n