The Guardian reports:
Joe Lieberman, the chair of the Senate homeland security committee, told Fox News: “To me the New York Times has committed at least an act of, at best, bad citizenship, but whether they have committed a crime is a matter of discussion for the justice department.”
Lieberman also said that the department of justice should indict Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, under the 1917 Espionage Act and try to extradite him from the UK. Asked why this had not happened, Lieberman admitted there was probably an argument going on over how to charge Assange.
“I think this is the most serious violation of the Espionage Act in our history,” Lieberman said, adding: “It sure looks to me that Assange and WikiLeaks have violated the Espionage Act.”
At the daily state department briefing in Washington, DC, Philip Crowley, the department’s press spokesman, said: “What WikiLeaks has done is a crime under US law.”
The Guardian appears to have misquoted Crowley. According to the transcript of yesterday’s briefing, he said:
What we’re investigating is a crime under U.S. law. The provision of 250,000 classified documents from someone inside the government to someone outside the government is a crime. We are investigating it. And as we’ve said, we will hold those responsible fully accountable. That investigation is still ongoing.
From all the information currently available, the only individual who is believed to have committed a crime is Private First Class Bradley Manning. He has been has been arrested and charged with the unauthorized use and disclosure of classified information.
The New York Times reporter David Sanger told NPR:
The Times knew that this material was going to be out there anyway. We didn’t get the initial leak,” he says. “If we had done nothing — if we had ignored it — I think it would have looked strange. I think that also would have been irresponsible. It is the responsibility of American journalism, back to the founding of this country, to get out and try to grapple with the hardest issues of the day and to do it independently of the government.
Which is why the Times‘ sycophantic executive editor, Bill Keller, consulted with the administration for advice on each of the cables it has published. So much for “independence.”
Worthed reading Pepe Escobar’s new article in the AsianTimes:
“Naked emperor hails sex by surprise ”
By Pepe Escobar
His discourse is serious and yet very wity!
Wikileakes is already mirrored in 780 site and counting. Hey war criminal R. Gate! This is really good news!
Since the US media has become cowardly and “inbedded” it is tough to find the real truth to power anymore. Nowdays I get my news from Democracy Now, Aljezeera English, Rolling Stone, Wikileaks and the internet. Even the European media is more attuned to whats going on with the US than we are. We need more exposure over here.
Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha…Is this a joke?
Joe Lieberman investigating Zionism’s hasbara organ?
Prof. Jerome Slater, Harvard’s IR journal of record, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY, compared the NY Times and Ha’aretz for pro-Israel bias and found the Times dedicated to nothing but “ALL THE HASBARA THAT’S FIT TO PRINT.”
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/isec.2007.32.2.84
To imagine that this Likud Fifth Columnist in the US Senate would go after the “Pravda” of Zionism, NY Times, is laughable….So why am I crying at how how Zionism has suppressed America’s greatest freedom– speech– and the ultimate sign of civilization: MEANINGFUL DIALOGUE?
Lieberman, since he came soooooooooo close to the presidency in 2000, has gone from a righteous Jew to a total fraud!
Did I miss something? The only place I could find the following Cablegate story was at Der Spiegel:
“Last year’s climate summit in Copenhagen was a political disaster. Leaked US diplomatic cables now show why the summit failed so spectacularly. The dispatches reveal that the US and China, the world’s top two polluters, joined forces to stymie every attempt by European nations to reach agreement.”
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,733630,00.html
Assange’s government (Australia) is mad at Israel for having it’s agents forge Australian passports in order to kill a Palestinian in Dubai. Lieberman, the Israel firster, is obviously worried about more coming out.