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In reply to the discussion: Julian Assange bids to sue Julia Gillard for defamation over WikiLeaks comments [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Why are the executive and the military given the authority or permitted the authority to determine what is or is not news?
The right of the military or the executive to keep secrets is not spelled out in the Constitution, but the right of the press to freedom is.
Treason is defined as giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
So far Manning has not been convicted of anything, and I don't think that the leaks he is alleged to have provided to the media gave aid or comfort to any of our enemies.
If anything has given aid and comfort to our enemies, it's that we tortured prisoners. Our enemies can console themselves that after all who are we to criticize them since we do the same very evil things that they do. If we put little value on human life and dignity, that comforts others including our enemies who abuse and disrespect their fellow man.
It is that our government does these reprehensible things that aids and comforts our enemies, not that some journalist lets us know that we do these things.
Should our government be able to limit our information just to protect itself from the fact that we would feel disgust at what it does if we knew what it is?
Military secrets are how well or poorly manned our embassies and consulates are, troop movements, the identity of intelligence agents. We have lots of legitimate secrets. But what the Wikileaks published???? Not what I saw anyway.