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.”
I mean, disagree on fuck him. Poor dude has been unfairly villified and I don’t envy the guilt he probably lives with, especially because I think he did the right thing (without the benefit of hindsight, anyway).
As a government worker myself, I know what it’s like to work for shit pay for the mission and to read in popular media about what a terrible job you’re doing. I want to see someone do it better when they understand all the nuances, or are faced with tough decisions. People are always ready to make snap decisions when they lack the whole picture or have to actually think about the consequences. Can you imagine the hue and cry if Clinton were elected and it came out she was under investigation later, and that on top of that the investigation was now dropped (because nothing was found)? For all we know we could’ve had January 6th 4 years earlier! It’s an impossible counterfactual.
ACAB
Everyone hates cops and lawyers until they need one…
I mean fair enough. I get the phrase, and while I kind of agree with the reasoning behind it even if I don’t agree with the actual sentiment, I definitely don’t think it applies to the FBI.
Let’s see what they do about that podunk police force that murdered the smalltown paper down in, was it Kansas there? Seems to me that whole town should already be overrun with g-men in horn-rimmed glasses ready to Mississippi Burning the whole county to the ground.
Edit - also, to be fair, quite a few people hate the cops even more after they need one, because the cop didn’t do shit.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is already investigating: https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/08/15/state-investigators-will-probe-police-raid-kansas-newspaper-office/
Lots of local police forces absolutely suck. Many cops are bastards, so to speak. But lots of state and federal (and yes, even some local) cops investigate white collar crime, human trafficking, murders, and yes, even wrongdoing by other local cops!
#NotAllCops