One of the more depressing revelations to come out of the whole Wikileaks saga has not been the cables themselves but the reaction to them, and the degree to which it lays bare the contempt for due process of law in so-called Western liberal democracies. The New York Times, for instance, reports on how the Justice Department is currently scouring the books for some pretext to charge Julian Assange, even though he is not a U.S. citizen and was not involved in actually leaking classified documents himself. Lieberman would even like to charge the New York Times. The rogue journalists of the world, apparently, just like Saddam Hussein, must be "sent a message," even if that means another big hit to the U.S.'s credibility in the eyes of the world.
The means by which Assange will eventually (I'm assuming) land in U.S. custody are even more ridiculous. Perhaps what is most impressive is the degree to which various Western countries are able to twist their legal systems to cooperate, all with the aim, presumably, of delivering Mr. Assange into U.S. hands.
Even if you take the "sex without a condom" charges at face value, I'm really curious as to when the last time was that a similar accusation landed someone on Interpol's wanted list...not to mention thrown in one of the worst prisons in London and denied bail. Conveniently, Mr. Assange will be headed to Sweden, which has no bail, along with a liberal extradition agreement with the U.S.
As Naomi Wolf notes with obvious sarcasm, "As a longtime feminist activist, I have been overjoyed to discover [Interpol's] new commitment to engaging in global manhunts to arrest and prosecute men who behave like narcissistic jerks to women they are dating."
Contrast this treatment with the reaction to some of the unquestionably illegal actions exposed in the cables themselves. Many months ago for instance, Wikileaks published shocking video of the U.S. military intentionally gunning down innocent civilians - along with two Reuters journalists - in Iraq. I must have missed the furious action to identify, extradite and bring to trial the perpetrators.
What to make of the account of Ahmed Wali Karzai, who basically does everything except wear a T-shirt saying "I am an Opium Druglord"? Not that he's the only one:
The leaked cables reveal mounting US worries over corruption in Afghanistan and the flight of "vast amounts" of money from the country.
One memo from October 2009 stated that Ahmed Zia Massoud, the then vice-president, had been found with $52m in a suitcase when stopped at Dubai airport.
That wouldn't happen to be $52 million of the U.S. taxpayers' money, would it? And yet this incident was never revealed by the U.S. government under it surfaced in the leaked cables. Any investigation or followup by the press...nowhere to be found.
The cables also documented, of course, Hillary Clinton ordering acts of espionage against U.N. officials, including "credit card numbers, email addresses, phone, fax and pager numbers and even frequent-flyer account numbers for UN figures." I'm sure the investigation of this violation of international treaties will be forthcoming ASAP.
The Wikileaks saga dovetails rather nicely with the increasing efforts of Western countries to censor their own media. Denmark, Norway and Australia are among those enthusiastically drawing up their own "censored websites" lists (Wikileaks was, somewhat ironically, added to the Australian blacklist for leaking the list itself).
Here in the U.S., the response to the Wikileaks incident has demonstrated our own, uniquely "free market" approach to censorship:
...Milo Yannopoulos’ first question on stage to PayPal’s VP of Platform Osama Bedier was why PayPal blocked WikiLeaks payments and froze its account. Bedier’s answered “State Dept told us these were illegal activities. It was straightforward.” The question was met with boos from the mostly European audience.
Bedier basically admitted that PayPal has complied with governmental request, “We first comply with regulations around the world making sure that we protect our brand,” he said. Bedier also said that the State Department deemed WikiLeaks illegal on November 27th, a statement that was not followed up on by Yiannopoulos. It is still unclear what exact US laws WikiLeaks is breaking.
Although, not to fear, the government has begun the legally questionable process of seizing objectionable web domains all on its own.
Throwing anti-government activists in prison via questionable means and censoring the internet is, of course, is the kind of thing we used to criticize countries like China for. Over time, that criticism seems to have given way to a kind of grudging respect. Perhaps the likes of China and Iran, in the eyes of the new generation of Western leaders, were never really so evil after all, but simply ahead of the game.