Assange compared WikiLeaks’ “persecution” to that endured by Jews in the US in the 1950s.

I wonder how that went within context? BTW, what happened to the Jews in the US in the 50′s?

The Russians on the other hand have no such policy…”

Article for you: http://dissidentvoice.org/Jan05/Whitney0121.htm

Homeland Security hires former Stasi chief Marcus Wolfe and former head of the KGB Yevgeni Primakov.

If your profile is high enough, then that’s probably true, not unlike Khodorkovsky’s case in Russia as it happens; after all Litvinenko didn’t have such a profile and the same restrictions didn’t apply.

Being left alive sure has its advantages, but let’s not get a warm fuzzy feeling regarding the US treatment of its enemies (spare a thought for Bradley Mananing for instance).

And without that high profile, the situation is likely to be very different indeed, particularly for those who had the cheek to be, say, a Vietnamese or El Salvadoran peasant. Or these days maybe a Reuters journalist or a guest at an Afghani wedding.

Is that code for “not by any means perfect, but extremely good considering recent events?”

I’ll buy that.

“I was assuming the “Jews in the 50′s” comment referred to the refusal of banks to process payments to Wikileaks. While Jews were not the target of official discrimination/violence by the federal government, they were unofficially shut out of a lot of aspects of American business and professions like law (and the schools that groomed people for them, which had very strict quotas for Jews), and in many country clubs and other powerbroker-type institutions. Think the antisemitism some of the characters on Mad Men display. In that industry, there are actually major agencies started by Jewish partners, like Grey Advertising, who had to use an anglo sounding name just to get a foot in the door.

Assange’s comparisons to each persecuted group in world history are getting old, but I think that’s what he was referring to: unofficial societal pressure not to do business with him.”

:D

That’s it. Thanks.

Assange’s comparisons to each persecuted group in world history are getting old, but I think that’s what he was referring to: unofficial societal pressure not to do business with him.

And do you really think that Wikileaks is *not* being persecuted in America? The CIA has a Wikileaks Task Force (see the next Boingboing post)

I don’t think Wikileaks is being “persecuted”. Julian Assange and Wikileaks as an “organization” of backers and facilitators are simply in the process of being PROSECUTED. It’s a little different. It’s one thing to blow the whistle but another thing to endanger and expose the lives of informants and agents. Journalists take some care in editing some info when it comes to revealing secrets that might hurt the safety of those who shouldn’t be.

You can’t have it both ways – either it was WRONG to oust Valerie Plame as a CIA agent and it is therefore wrong of Wikileaks to act rather recklessly in some of its releases, or it’s fine in both cases.

Also, the threats of releasing damning information as a CONDITION of Julian Assange’s safety is a really smarmy move. If there is malfeasance that deserves revelation, then reveal it. Manipulating its revelation as a shield to Julian Assange is the least respectable misuse of information. It’s blackmail.

I’d much rather be wrong about something being as bad as the Holocaust than to have had that tool — the emotionally weighty comparison — and have not used it.

On the other hand, if you use a knife for everything from cleaning your boots to scraping paint off your house, it becomes dull and useless when you really need to use it for something the knife was meant for.

You really should pay attention if you’re going to comment. They’ve released a tiny fraction of the cables so far, and it’s not only been vetted by journalists but it’s been offered to the US government for vetting (which has refused. Because lives are at stake.)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-22/wikileaks-joins-forces-with-billionaire-lebedev-gorbachev.html

It would seem that Wikileaks are M.I.R.V.-ish in their “targeting”.

If you must call it that.

He’s right!

I am 100% in favor of persecuting any BoA board members who committed crimes during the financial meltdown, but I think Mr. Assange’s ego is growing a bit too rapidly and this latest release is starting to look more like a personal vendetta than an impartial quest for “justice.”