Thank you all for your letter to the President . Freedom of the Press needs as much support as it can get during these difficult and apocalyptic times…
Far from stealing anything, WikiLeaks has returned to the people, that which is rightfully theirs.
Some try to say that Assange is not a hero. Then Robin Hood and Zoro are really bad people as well …
Regarding criminal charges in Sweden , I’m pretty sure that they are false.

Sorry, first time!

I think the freedom of the press is a fundamental human right and it must be protected by any means. There is no right of the state to hide information from its citizens even if they are embarrassing. Consider if the the “Emser Depesche” was known to the world in its true wording, world history would have been totally different. (Emser Depesche was a cable witch was falsified by Bismark to justify the war against France in 1871).

I think the freedom of the press is a fundamental human right and it must be protected by any means. There is no right of the state to hide information from its citizens even if they are embarrassing. Consider if the the “Emser Depesche” was known to the world in its true wording, world history would have been totally different. (Emser Depesche was a cable witch was falsified by Bismark to justify the war against France in 1871).

Oh OK, I’ll bite. What specifically should this person of prominence outside of elected government do to lead us? If not elected how should they be chosen? By coup?

Democracy requires that the citizens who elect their representitives are kept informed about what their representitives are doing. Democracy does not work in an arena of secreecy — as we see with the Bush/Obama terrorist regime’s war crime Christian atroicties around the planet and their treason against America.

Without transparency, how does a citizen know which war criminals, corporate traitors, and international terrorists need to be voted out of office so that the next batch of Christanic terrorists can be voted in to office?

Wikileaks benefits Democracy and freedom. No wonder republinazis hate Wikileaks.

Since you hate Democracy, truth, and freedom so much, pal, why don’t you just pack the fuck up and more to Iran? Iran happens to share your ideologies, so why don’t you leave?

THANK YOU !!
Finally some REAL AMERICANS are standing up to our corrupt government!

America needs someone outside of elected government to lead us!

Someone of prominence PLEASE STAND UP ! !

There are really two questions in your question. As for when to show wisdom in not attacking, the answer is always. I believe Iraq II was foolish. Are you surprised? However I believe Iraq I was necessary, we probably disagree on that. As for when to reveal all the “secret lies”, I just don’t think it’s that simple. Multiply Wikileaks by 1000 and you still won’t build enlightenment and understanding between nations. That’s going to come not from celebrating harmful actions, but from supporting constructive ones.

“A journalist collects and disseminates information about current events, people, trends, and issues. His or her work is acknowledged as journalism.
Reporters are one type of journalist.
Depending on the context, the term journalist also includes various types of editors and visual journalists, such as photographers, graphic artists, and page designers.”

Based on the real documented and accepted definition of journalism, he IS in FACT a journalist!!!
Look it up for your selves,

How was he able to get the information? AND if he can, any one can right? So the gov. needs to revamp there own security. Find out who there leak is, and plug it.
If your boat is leaking, how will getting mad at the ocean stop the leak? The ocean didn’t cause the leak, the hole in the boat(weak structure) caused the leak. —plug the hole…duh

Nuff said

More self-righteous, patronizing tripe. If I’m not a neocon, then I must be living in willful ignorance or against the 1st Amendment.

Face it, you still have very little idea of what your government is doing in secret even after the leaks. You got a few tidbits to reinforce your attitude against the government that schooled you, provides infrastructure for you, and protects you. However enemies of your country (and you) got a treasure trove of material to analyze and exploit.

If you’re looking for a rant, I may disappoint. But why do you think I must be some sort of neocon lunatic to think Assange’s acts are unconscionable? Ironically raven thinks I’m a fanatical liberal. Both views come from the same error: overconfidence in one’s own world view and the resulting belief that only an extremist could disagree.

W/respect to your other points:
1. I support Ellsberg’s release of the Pentagon papers, but I think he’s dead wrong on this as release of the Wikileaks documents has far greater downside than the Pentagon papers. I know there are those that say there’s no harm, but the reality that Assange clearly appreciates is that these documents will do great harm to the security of the US and the safety of its people.

2. The claim that the U.S. is modifying the law to prosecute assange is a canard. Not gonna happen, put away the outrage.

3. It would be arrogant and foolish to think the US government doesn’t have smart people working this. Wikileaks/Assange were quite effective in making it difficult to reel in the documents. How that was done (mirror sites, etc.) is well documented. I wouldn’t count Uncle Sam out just yet.

4. The video shows several guys armed including one with an RPG launcher. The bad guys don’t have to be striking Ninja poses to be targets. The death of the reporters is a tragedy, but is anyone really shocked to find that war is messy and brutal?

ROFLMBO!
Poor Ralphie (laughing and shaking my head) I work third shift, so I miss all the talk shows.
Such an accusation is simply your prejudice talking.

Sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t need anyone to tell me not to give more money and power to government. Hard to be a tool for people when you refuse to hand over your rights and property to them so they can run your life for you, eh? Unlike liberals, who not only want government to run their own lives for them, but everyone else’s as well.
How extravagantly tool-ish! :^))))

I just hope Washington is listening!

Ralphie, I think what you’re doing is actually pretty close to trolling. You’ve put a lot of effort of combating most pro-wikileaks posters, and if “wakeup6850″ is wrong in his assumptions on you, as you claim he is (although I can’t understand how he can be “wrong on every count” while still be correct in the fact that you are against wikileaks. There has to be a contradiction around there, isn’t it?), I wonder why you are doing this?
There is one thing I’ve noticed at people furiously defending the USG position on WikiLeaks is that you tend to just make statements and expect people to be in awe and take everything you say for granted.

There is a lot to talk about this whole issue, but let me post here my 2 (non-American) cents:
First and foremost, I think that the heaviest burden in terms of responsibility for the Wikileaks issue rests on the shoulders of the USG. Here’s why:
1) People have conscience. It has always been like this and it will always be, irrespective of how many forms and polygraph tests and wiretaps and security mechanisms you have in place. I come from a formerly Communist country and your guys should have at least learned this: people have a natural tendency to oppose coercion, especially when this coercion comes in contradiction with the values that they have been imprinted since childhood. The Daniel Elsberg precedent, as well as a simple look-up on American whistleblowers should have taught them this much. Oh, and do not think for a moment that altering the law so that it specifically prosecutes this alleged offences would stop a motivated and determined individual. Therefore a correct attitude for the government of the Land of the free, home of the brave, flagship of democracy and upholder of human rights should be different. Word is out that you spy your ALLIES in the UN to obtain private data, that you pay countries to hold your illegal detainees and so on, you regroup, fire, prosecute and sentenced people that ordered these things done, and DON’T DO THAT AGAIN. You don’t attempt to dodge this in a cowardly and ultimately futile manner. Not to mention that while polls show that MOST Americans support prosecuting Assange, fact of the matter is that I am positive that this majority has no clue as to what Ex post facto means. Which leads me to point no. 2:

2) To have public figures of great importance say that they are looking at modifying the law to prosecute Assange means to disregard two things: one is the fact that he is not a US citizen, has not pledged allegiance to keeping secrets has no security clearance and thus is no subject of US law, and second, even if he were, MODIFYING A LAW TO PROSECUTE AN ACT THAT HAS ALREADY TAKEN PLACE, MEANS DISREGARDING A BASIC LAW PRINCIPLE KNOWN AS “Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali”, or no “Ex post facto” law can be passed under normal circumstances. Let me say that again so that each and every one of you understands that. NO ONE CAN CHANGE THE LAW NOW, TO PROSECUTE SOMEONE FOR A PAST DEED.

3) The (lack of) reaction in the USG seems to me (as a non-American, coming from a formerly communist country) similar to the reaction of a bully caught masturbating in the toilet. Pressure exercised on WikiLeaks itself, on the financial institutions to cut funding (they were probably relying on the fact that this kind of measures have effectively stopped funding for terrorist organisations… NOT), the fact that 7 (SEVEN) months after it was hinted that WikiLeaks have a quarter of a million US cables, and 4 months after the war logs’ publishing there was no legal effort to contain this mess says a lot about the effectiveness of the USG. Then again, maybe not.

4) Reaction to the leaked video. I don’t know how many of you have seen the whole video, including the private’s testimony. I have, and it is disturbing. I am former military, and it really seems to me that the crew had no basis for opening fire on the group. First and foremost, because of their attitude. They were relaxed, disorganized, were not hiding, moving with a specific goal. They were just lingering. Second, there was no immediate danger to any civilian or ally (yes, 30 something minutes before an IED exploded in the area, but again… LOOK). In MY opinion, an honest reaction of the USG would have been to at least acknowledge the fact that there has been a mistake. Act like they have a pair… The fact that at the press conference with the White House, the same convoluted language is used, only enforces the idea that a cover-up is in the air. Mistakes are made, and at least in the final hour, a little bit of decency goes a long way. Although it seems that even now, they are thoroughly lacking.
There is a lot more to be said about this whole issue, but for now, I think I’ve posted enough to give Ralphie a lot to rant about. So… fire away.

Ralphiec88 my good friend…

Your mind did not understand my answer because your mind did not answer my questions. The failure to answer questions that are designed to resolve contradictions, is the reason each such person continues to perceive and or manifest damaging contradictions (problems).

Wisely answer every question you ever encounter, for the knowledge you will therefore accumulate, while those who do not answer questions (government chaps) become increasingly ignorant and confused while the people around them learn and act on advancing knowledge.

Again, the answer to your question… If you are taking care of your grandmother, and you steal my possessions, and I tell the police, and you therefore go to prison, precisely, in exact words, as an answer to this question, how shall I react to another person who attempts to blame me for your grandmother not being taken care of by you anymore?

After the United States government militarily attacked over a dozen nations that did not attack the US, since WWII, with no lawfully required “congressional declarations of war”, slaughtering millions of innocent civilians, and soldiers defending against the invaders, torturing helpless prisoners, poisoning their homelands with toxic agent orange, cluster bombs, vaporized “depleted uranium” and every other new US military industrial complex toy still killing and maiming innocent people, you are void of any intelligent, rational defense against absolutely anything anyone does in retaliation. Your repugnant American maliciousness, and especially your recalcitrance, leaves you with NO defense.

Your option is to start correcting the wrongs America has done. That is difficult when you slaughtered so many people, and poisoned their homeland with dioxins, cluster bombs and uranium, so you would wisely start soon.

Otherwise, it is THEIR TURN, and your whimpering is just that of folks who cannot understand the above, while everyone else in the world can easily understand it.

Read that again. It is THEIR TURN. It is your game, and THEIR TURN.

The more that the repugnant American government (and other governments) cannot get-away-with its lies and malicious plans anymore because they are being exposed on the internet, the sooner the government chaps will stop being malicious because it comes back on them and the people they represent, sooner.

What goes around, comes around. You have no escape, by design of humans. I suggest that you send around open honesty, because that is the only way to get open honesty from the other guy.

Respectfully, DougBuchanan.com

The article you cite was directed to students, not faculty, and reading the article I’d say ‘intimidation’ is a reach.

“What’s your problem with liberty?” What a ridiculous distraction. The original poster presented information that was largely false. I don’t have a problem with liberty, I have a problem with BS. You seem happy to equate the two.

Um, SURE, Ralphie, lol!
Somehow, numerous media outlets have been able to publish the scholastic records of other presidents–even mere candidates for the White House–but you continue to steadfastedly assert that “they won’t release anyone’s records.”
Good doggie! Or would “parrot” be more accurate? :^)

Well, you are certainly welcome to keep telling yourself “Mmm, that kool-aid tastes good” if it helps you sleep at night. Face it, that’s probably a lot easier on the ego than to ponder whether or not you’ve made an emotionally-based commitment to the wrong people, and are being taken for granted as a slavish tool.

Your response is devoid of content (at least any that actually argues a point). As for my being a fanatic, see my response to wakeup, another person who seems to think that only a fanatic would question their views.

A liberal :^)))

You think anti trust applies here somehow?

A conscience is a subjective judgment specific to individuals–like everything else about them–and you cannot enforce it. If it was universal, you wouldn’t need to. Because it is not, it implies dissent or a false standard.

Every one of them, because they each individually contribute to the destruction of the concept of a ‘state’ as separate from individual actions. They want us to see a big machine, but the truth of the matter is that law is just the enforcement of will on individuals by other individuals. Wikileaks illustrates the particulars of the machine. That those particulars are ugly is inevitable and irrelevant: all that matters is that wikileaks shows us that it’s just men behind the curtain, and that everything they do only have the weight of our own actions as individual men, so we should not lend them undue trust or give them the benefit of legitimacy that we would not give each other unquestioned.

Yes and businesses many years ago, used to NOT provide services to blacks = the “free market” dogma with no moral constraints – the actions by VISA et al are not bogus. They must abide by due process of law like any organization in a civil society! They accepted WikiLeaks as a client and they must follow due process to show they should no longer be clients – ever hear of the concept of “anti-trust”. That is the reason why corporate execs do not have absolute power AND why your concept of free market is bogus!.

And BTW – though I disagree with your CEO-power trip, I do agree that customers of VISA etc should also respond and I have, even to my bank that is affiliated with VISA. I will remove my use of all of them! Lots of smaller-local competitors who do not respond to political pressure to be unethical.

It appears you’re willing to overlook the action I asked about for some “greater good”. But what good is that? The things you cite were not secrets before Wikileaks. You didn’t answer my question because the example I gave is wrongdoing by the standards of anyone with a conscience.

Ralphiec88 my friend…..

An instructive answer to your question…. They were each breathing at the time.

Now, shall we compare daily action for daily action, or shall we ask, who did how much to achieve honesty in government, by national and world recognition?

Let me further assist. If an increasingly malicious Soviet Kremlin foolishly made itself increasingly more dependent on keeping a rapidly escalating number of minor “secrets” mixed in with major “secrets”, in the name of the people, including spying on its own people, and arresting people who peacefully criticized the government, while squandering the people’s tax money on more and more military armament and wars against 5 nations that did not attack the Kremlin, how would you describe one of those Soviet people who blew the whistle on those secrets as effectively as Julian and Brad?

Or might it be that if one of YOUR gang tells the people about you, it is bad, but if a member of the other gang tells the people about his leader, it is good?

Concepts prevail above personalities and governments, or the personalities and government would be God.

And intelligent person can answer every question ever asked, including by stating “I don’t know”, when it is true. Your answers to the above?

The source of the problem is OUR government keeping secrets from US, in OUR name, with OUR money, hiring common people among US, off the street, to create and keep those secrets. Fail to solve the original problem, and it will just keep “biting” you until you finally figure it out from all the damage you created by attempting the impossible – keep a secret known to two or more humans.

Respectfully, DougBuchanan.com

you know… you are pretty oppinionated. So here’s my oppinion of you, judging by the comments you have chosen to reply to, you are against wiki leaks, more than likely a conservative, you probably consider yourself a patriot, and agree with a lot of what the TEA party stands for. I bet you think liberal views are from the devil, and believe we should submit ourselves to the almighty god and get back to the roots this country was founded on! Here’s to you Ralphiec88 THIS COUNTRY WAS FOUNDED ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!!! You excercised yours, I excercised mine, and Assange excercised his.

“at the moment we can see only the faschist side of america!!!”

No, at the moment you see only what you want to see.

If someone challenged the notion that Assange is a hero, you’d claim their mind was in bondage, wouldn’t you? Do you see an inherent contradiction in that?

Please. They won’t release anyone’s records. Shop your crackpot conspiracy theories elsewhere.

Who’s intimidating Columbia?

Instead of regurgitating New Age platitudes, how about specifically listing wikileaks revelations that you feel make the country a better place.

It is different. To speak the truth, to have standards, to think for yourself. To be free. It isn’t the body thats locked in bondage, it’s your mind.

Nobody’s prosecuting wikileaks at present, and Assange is being sought by Sweden for sex crimes. somehow I don’t see Big Brother hanging out in Sweden.

Um, does it surprise you that the White House has a fence? Did Bush attack them? I’m no fan of GW but these comparisons are absurd.

Wait, you’re a slave? No, other people are, but you’re too smart for that. So how is your life different from the “slaves”, other than the belief that you see things others don’t? Oh it’s not different?

Well, you obviously did not grow up with me. Inuka has been my nickname since childhood and yes, I wrote my letter to the President 2 weeks ago with my full name, address, phone, zip, email, IP add, etc… Scary isn’t it that speaking up for your basic/given rights in a democracy is now considered brave. I am grateful that Columbia J is one the first but still, where is everyone else?

I totally agree with your protest Columbia…PRESIDENT OBAMA PLEASE STAND UP FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH and SUPPORT WIKILEAKS and their BRAVE LEADER MR ASSANGE

The censorship is not being enforced by formal Government action. MasterCard, Visa and PayPal will not allow their users to make donations to WikiLeaks. It was Amazon who refused to allow hosting. It was a private organisation that killed their web address. Assange’s bank account in Switzerland has been frozen by a bank. His Post Office box at Melbourne University can’t be used because the Post Office branch has been shut. It is true that his bail conditions have been set to $380,000 in cash, electronic surveillance, daily reporting and 8 hours curfew but there are no charges against him. Nor has there been a rape complaint. 2 women asked whether, if certain behaviour had taken place, an offence would have been committed. The lawyer for the Swedish Govt correctly pointed out that evidence is not relevant. The Swedes have the Napoleonic legal system that uses investigatory magistrates. He is only wanted in Sweden to see if he will provide evidence against himself. His only worry is that the US Govt is after him and the US uses kidnapping, murder and imprisonment without charges or trial. donthomson1@hotmail.com

you can have all that information, you can’t do anything with it, transparency of everyone’s lives would make the world infinately better

Thanks for the support of Wikileaks, if the swedish press and journalist organisations will stand upfor the freedom of speach as Peter Bratt has done may be we will reach our goal, a goverment for the people.

the goverment already has taken away many of our rights as citizens and we allowed it and are still allowing it…the patriot act ring a bell?

it is our right as citizens to see the information the road is two ways i can say what I want and have access to the information I want without censorship

you, sir, are and idiot.

This shouldn’t be an issue. Didn’t President Obama say at the beginning of his term that he wanted to “keep the White House transparent”? If he would have done so, we wouldn’t have to have anyone leaking information because it would already be available. The government’s arguable corruption created this group, now it should just deal with the fact that the people care enough to do this instead of trying to prosecute them. It just gives them more work to do.

(1) and (2) The relevant historical precedent (pentagon papers) shows that whistle-blowers are entitled under US law to protections that, most likely, will make this leak perfectly legal. That one went to the supreme court and here is the majority (6-3) opinion: Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.

(3) Useless straw-man. Apples and oranges. Let’s be serious please.

(4) Do you really think this is a persuasive argument? “You can’t get away with something in North Korea, so it must be evil.” What about this one? “You shouldn’t risk your life for anything you believe in.”

Thank God we still have some people in important positions that have retained the use of their faculties and are not afraid to voice their opinion. The intelligentsia at Columbia will now be targeted by the Fascist regime in Washington as Our Democracy spirals further and further toward the bottom of the toilet. The joy I experienced with the 2008 Presidential win of Barack Obama continues the same downward spiral and will hit rock bottom unless Mr Obama stands up for freedom and Assange. I’ve apparently gone colorblind, I can not distinguish any difference between Barack Obama and George Bush.

Has this had any effect on how the government are viewing Assange? Only time will tell. On another note has anyone seen this? http://www.circalit.com/projects/competitions Looks like these guys are looking for a film script based on Wikileaks…think ima write one!

There is a lot of precedent stating essentially that if there’s a first amendment right to free speech and free journalism – then incumbent in that is a first amendment right to free reading and possession of journalistic speech. So – by gagging a journalistic entity such as wikileaks – our government would be infringing on ALL of her citizens’ first amendment rights to read and possess journalistic material- and not just Mr. Assange’s.

http://operationleakspin.org/

When civil rights disappear and innocent people die for no other reason than greed and abuse of power, it is absolutely essential that the general public know to avoid those crimes being repeated again and again: like in Irak or Pakistan… or Palestine…

We, civilians, not only should protect these “rare,brave human specimens” , but also have them in high respect and follw their peaceful example…everbody can live without wars…and what is more, wars for petrol and energies which destroy our planet!…

I am sorry to tell you Americans how ridiculous you would look to see Obama -who keeps several wars on …- with the Nobel Peace Prize for nothing and those who really deserve it in prison!. Pathetic!. Laughable!…
FREE ASSANGE NOW! ASSANGE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE THANKS ASSANGE THANKS WIKILEAKS

finally some intellects in the US are coming to terms wiht the importancy of not trust it’s government but that is not enough!!!guantanamo must be closed and the selling of armaments also have to be stopped. that is one of the biggest crime against humanity!!!

the time is come to get the world open for a real democracy and it can not and will not come from a solo political body of a country that act like the US is acting at the moment. at the moment we can see only the faschist side of america!!!

Propagandists place a premium on being first with the news, and as they merely report what they wish us to believe, rather than what they believe to be true, they can dispense with fact checking or reasonable doubts and concentrate on monopolising the media with thier message.

The Colombia University Journalism faculty (like the Progressive Librarians Guild, and International PEN) are speaking sanely, in the face of intimidation. They are brave and should not be judged by thier ability to co-opt a free media with their own cause de jour.

Far from stealing anything, WikiLeaks has returned to the people, that which is rightfully theirs.

“Guard your light and protect it. Move it forward into the world and be fully confident that if we connect light to light to light, and join the lights together of the one billion young people in our world today, we will be enough to set our whole planet aglow.”
- Hafsat Abiola

From: http://LiveFree-ChooseOptionC.tk

Very commendable, but remember where you are. More accurately, remember when you are. This is not 1969. It is nearly 2011 and the majority on the U.S. Supreme Court now will happily void certain sections of the First Amendment, given the opportunity. And this may give it to them. Big Tony and the Gang of Five have been waiting for such a break. This decision would doubtlessly gag any criticism of the ongoing corporate takeover of this country amid the gleeful consent of News Corp. and all its minions.

I would love to see similar campaigns coming up at Universities all over North America. Regardless of what opinions one holds about the cable releases, it cannot be denied that the US Government is persecuting Assange without any proof of wrong doing, let alone a trial. The DoJ has so far been unable to conjure up charges to file against assange or cite statutes which would support a trial.

Kunal shah.

There is absolutely nothing illegal with what Assange did. The National Security Act, to my knowledge (I’m not a lawyer, but I had it explained to me by a friend with a clearance) can only be enforced against people who have signed a contract stating that they won’t disseminate classified information. If this is correct, it means that the person who leaked them can be prosecuted (since he signed the classification contract), but since they are works of the United States Federal Government they are public domain, and they can be copied by any citizen who hasn’t signed that contract. Because it’s public domain, the government doesn’t have standing to claim copyright — which appears to me to be the only right that can civilly prohibit copying.

Again, I’m not a lawyer… but I like to be informed.

This is pathetic at best – what took you so long? my god did you really have to think/debate/meet about this? anyone with even a “BASIC” knowledge of the Declaration of Independence, American Constitution, American history or a simple visit to the Jefferson Memorial can see that this horrific attack on wikileaks is an attack on democracy. WHERE are the rest of our cowardly professors, teachers, historians, journalists, citizens?

It’s time for people to wake up and stop being slaves of 1 World Government!!!!! It is time for the people to be free!

As a student in Communication I’m so pleased to see so many concerned professors and academic comrades speaking out to the dangers of wasted time and effort in prosecuting Assange. Through standing together we can act in unison to defend out First Amendment rights for Journalism and all Americans. I salute you all. Mark C.

Dear America, Just because the news is bad, doesn’t make it treasonous. Just because you don’t want to hear what you should already intuit, doesn’t make the reporting criminal. When a reporter prints documents leaked by someone in YOUR government, doesn’t make HIM a traitor. And just because it scares you doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen.
People hate the truth. It disbands the ornate mixmaster of cyclic logic they have forced into a round hole all these years. Living the illusion! Heads in the sand. We owe Assange our 1st Amendment. Indeed he has awoken it from a Van Winkle slumber, and not a moment too soon.

The point is that if we (Americans), as a nation, do not uphold what we claim are universal rights outside of our borders, then we have no right to claim them within our borders.

If the US stops acting as if they want to try Assange for something (if they can find anything they can even try doing that with), even though, as you rightly say, he is neither resident in nor citizen of the US, then people will stop talking about his having First Amendment rights.
Otherwise, you are claiming that US law (somehow, magically) applies to him, but only the prosecutorial bits, not the bits that defend him.

Also, I have read Locke on more than one occasion, but the Constitution itself, and not the theories of Locke which inspired it, is what prevails in a court of law.

Unfortunately they will not. Noam Chomsky put it well: Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media..

as someone studying Journalism at Emerson college, I would like to be the first to say that we as Journalist do what were criticizes the US government for doing every day of our lives. Journalist hold sources and methods of obtaining information secret, keep information off the record, and are not transparent when called to disclose our sources. So what IN THE WORLD gives us as Journalist’s the right to be critical of this. I just feel like we are holding a double standard right now.

The entire Constitution is based on the idea of natural rights, based upon the rights that man naturally possesses in a state of nature; not handed out at the whim of government. If I may quote John F. Kennedy:

“And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe — the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.”

To argue that somehow those who are not Americans are not entitled to their natural rights undermines everything that America stands for, and in fact undermines and endangers the basis of every Americans’ rights. According to your argument the government can rescind the rights of every American at will. I recommend you read John Lockes’ /Second Treatise on Government/ if you want to know more.

Thank you, signers. Precedent in international freedom of expression is the real battle, not the posts of diplomats.

Brilliant article. Well done!

Corageous and inspiring. The Guardian and The New York Times nd other traditional media should sign with you if they were lucid enough.