Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
The system goes after the person or person responsible for the leaks. It fulminates but does and probably can do little about the ex post facto disseminator. It can and will do little or nothing to the media for publishing what the first two made available.
Nah... it appears that Bradley Manning is the prime suspect. Assange and the newspapers are merely receivers of stolen property.

The Pentagon Papers incident gave USG and indication of how difficult taking on the press legally is (also the New York Times).

So bullies and cowards that they are they go after the little guy who did not steal the data.

This is the truth of the matter.

One issue that raises is whether or not Wikileaks qualifies as "the press" under US law. Not yet known and it may or may not, the Courts will decide if or when it comes to a test. If it does, then Assange will be protected under US law.Probably due to the impact on commerce or lack thereof, don't you think? Early days yet, more to come.
...in the meantime his case has been so publicly prejudiced that like Ellsberg he can never get a fair trial in the US.

As to US law and the rule of law with the opening of Guantanamo Bay US justice is not held in very high esteem around the world.

I note that US is not the only nation pursuing the hackettes (LINK). There'll be more. I think it has to do with the number of people affected more than any conscious desire to be unfair in prosecution of offenses. In similar offenses by two opposing parties, the effort to mitigate the greatest potential harm to others will always determine which offender gets the most and earliest attention.
One minute the US is condemning China for hacking Google and censoring the Internet the next they are doing similar. Does anyone in the current Administration believe that they are doing any more than bringing the US and its people into international disrepute?

But then, you knew that...The actions of the USG or the reports by the US news media? The latter rarely know precisely what the former is really doing and they report a lot of gossip and speculation -- and you fall for it.
No Ken, what I see is government out of control. Maybe less criminal than Russia or China nevertheless out of control.

...and sadly there is a tendency of a certain section of the US population to try to block out the reality of what is happening in their government.

So, apparently do many of the nations you unfairly deride.
I don't deride people even the sheeple of any country... but am quite rightly critical of the US and Brit governments especially the State Department and their partner in crime across the pond the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

fairness to you and to others, I certainly acknowledge our news media, by and large, is quite poor and does indeed make a laughing stock of the US in general for those elsewhere who do not know better. The actuality is that we do bumble a bit but our media can't even report that properly. They are or should be the laughing stock -- as could also be said of those who propose serious comment based on inadequate information, media speculation, ignorance and personal bias.Well that is certainly progress! Long overdue, too...Nah, not 'only bad,' simply more relevant and more in line with national interests. Concern for others is one of our better features but we also -- like many -- have a strong sense of self preservation and more concern for friends and relatives than for strangers. Is that unusual?
National Interest? Provide a definition of that if you will. It seems that the misuse of term is used to cover any act from murder to torture to... just about anything. Not nice people. I don't know how you tolerate it.

It looks as though you're not really learning "US think," rather that you only think you are doing so. One could be tempted to point out you might benefit from learning certainly much more if not all about the US instead of selecting snippets appropriate to your penchant for making spurious comments and dropping innuendo bombs, then perhaps those would have more telling impact ...
The people of the world can see what is going on. The people of the US could see what is going on but they are being told that it is unpatriotic or even treasonous to challenge what whichever administration is abusing the system at the time and flick over to the sports channel, have another beer (or maybe a double bourbon) and pretend everything would be just dandy if only someone took Assange out and closed down his website.

The people of the world have probably given up on the US as so-called leader of the free-world but that should not deter the citizens of the US from retaking control of their own country. Maybe they need an Oliver Cromwell figure?