According to the US government, the release of documents by Wikileaks is damaging US interests, and even endangering lives.
So why has the US government not filed injunctions to prevent media outlets like Forbes, the New York Times and the Guardian from publishing news stories based on Wikileaks classified documents if it really does believe these could threaten national security?
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told the media last week that he had been leaked a computer hard drive from an executive at Bank of America and said he was about to release documents on large American bank that could result in its collapse, so threatening the global financial system.
He also said he has “poison pile” cache of uncensored documents.
And yet the US government appears to have filed no injunctions against the main media outlets hyping Wikileaks – and presumablygetting ready to hype the bank data, and so contributing to turbulence.
Because Wikileaks documents are being hyped by only a handful of newspapers acting in concert, it should be quite easy to restrict the flow of information with injunctions. The blogosphere is largely skeptical about the real value of the Wikileaks information. To be sure, Assange could still release a poison pill cache if he so wanted on his own site or mirror sites. However, without the huge media exposure, damage to US interests would surely be significantly limited.
By the simple act of filing injunctions against the major newspapers, the US government can cut off Wikileaks’ media oxygen. Why hasn’t it done this when US Justice Minister claims to be exploring every legal avenue? The Wikileaks furore looks contrived.
WikiLeaks Ready to Release Giant ‘Insurance’ File if Shut Down
Published December 05, 2010
| Sunday Times
Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has circulated across the internet an encrypted “poison pill” cache of uncensored documents suspected to include files on BP and Guantanamo Bay.
One of the files identified this weekend by The Sunday Times — called the “insurance” file — has been downloaded from the WikiLeaks website by tens of thousands of supporters, from America to Australia.
Assange warns that any government that tries to curtail his activities risks triggering a new deluge of state and commercial secrets.
Yea. Why didnt they just kidnap Assange away from some street, brought him to a nearby NATO airfield, flew him to one of their secret tortur chambers and waterboarded him about connections he might have to the source of all that delicate info? They are not squimish about doing it to everybody else…