Tuesday, December 28, 2010

WikiLeaks Outrage Misdirected and Intentionally Misdirecting

The powers that be are using the full range of their propaganda tools in an all out campaign to gin up a public lynch mob mindset against WikiLeaks and its founding leader, Julian Assange, for having made public an enormous trove of sordid information they were trying to keep from ever seeing the light of day.

The campaign is a diversion. Its purpose is to get people to focus on the supposed sins of WikiLeaks and Mr. Assange and thus to divert their attention from the corrupt, deceitful, brutal, and criminal conduct that has been shown to have become our government's standard operating procedure.

All of this is spelled out in -- surprisingly, of all places --  Salon, in this detailed account.

It's a must to read and think about.

Also not to be missed is the second part of the article, in which the author goes on to point out how our government, in keeping with the normal practice of authoritarian regimes, is increasingly keeping its activities secret from the nation's citizens and, at the same time, gathering hordes of information about each and every one of us for whatever uses and purposes it may decide to use the collected data against any of us in the future.

An additional point that needs to be noted is the financial stress that has been brought to bear against WikiLeaks and Mr. Assange by the big -- and incidentally government beholden -- bank credit card payment processors. They all have decided, supposedly independently, to stop processing payments to WikiLeaks and Mr. Assange. Another surprise is that The New York Times, in this editorial, has noted the dangers to our freedoms that this action portends as any publication, any enterprise, any group, or any individual disfavored by our rulers could be similarly cut off at the financial knees.

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