Two of us, Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky, testified for Assange at his extradition hearing last year. In Ellsberg’s words then, the WikiLeaks publications that Assange is being charged for are “amongst the most important truthful revelations of hidden criminal state behavior that have been made public in U.S. history.” The American public “needed urgently to know what was being done routinely in their name, and there was no other way for them to learn it than by unauthorized disclosure.”
Maybe you should care about what your government does in foreign countries. Particularly when it is routinely murder and manipulation, as is the case with the U.S. government.
That aside, I invite you on a thought experiment:
Let’s say everyone took your advice and just let the government hide whatever it wanted because it is a “state secret”. Let’s say then the government goes ham and commits a bunch of atrocities. What would stop it from declaring them state secrets to prevent the public from knowing about them?
There is no any advice am giving out in that statement.
I am stating facts as.
Assange is being prosecuted because he leaked state criminal activity.
I was wondering why anyone would ask.
Also the government is hiding more atrocities than those leaked. And people are letting them get away with it. How?
You know what’s happening in Yemen? Palestine? Congo DRC? Lybia? Cameroon? You know US military involvement?
Compare it to the reaction of the population with when Russia attacked Ukraine (of course you can say Russia’s was a direct attack)
US involvement in those countries vs the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine are completely different.
That is what am actually saying. The general population feels like US has a right to go anywhere and do whatever they want. Even if it means bombing a country to ruins
What if I want my gov manipulating more?
I’d be totally into some manipulation in Russia, North Korea, Iran, Niger, Syria, etc.
oh yeah, because that’s always gone so well!
Going well in Ukraine, and I’d like to see that aid heavily escalated, too.
Would’ve been great if we’d saved Syria during the Arab Spring.
US/Euro hegemony has been some of the most peaceful time in human history, and many people internationally have been brought out of poverty. Compare that to the most recent serious alternatives: