In Part 2 of my Orwellian Doublethink series, let’s examine how you can be in a leadership position of a free democratic republic and still make remarks that are not only anti-democratic and anti-constitutional, but which are bloodthirsty and tyrannical regarding Wikileaks. AND let’s give credit where credit is due to Ron Paul for speaking common sense to power on the House floor.
On the subject of Wikileaks recent revelations, Ron Paul rose to the floor of the House on December 9, 2010 and uttered the following…
“WikiLeaks release of classified information has generated a lot of attention in the past few weeks. The hysterical reaction makes one wonder if this is not an example of killing the messenger for the bad news. Despite what is claimed, the information that has been so far released, though classified, has caused no known harm to any individual, but it has caused plenty of embarrassment to our government. Losing our grip on our empire is not welcomed by the neoconservatives in charge.
There is now more information confirming that Saudi Arabia is a principal supporter and financier of al Qaeda, and that this should set off alarm bells since we guarantee its Sharia-run government…”
Because of Wikileaks, the prevailing atmosphere of neo-conservative Orwellian Doublethink in Washington has been challenged and stands exposed as the hypocritical mode of thought and behavior it is. Ron Paul’s voice of reason regarding this matter should be applauded.
Information has also been revealed that our “ally” in Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is a paranoid corrupt individual who is as up to his eyeballs in drug connections as is his brother. It is an act of Doublethink to see this as acceptable and yet permit the arrest of Willie Nelson for possessing marijuana! As a matter of fact, DynCorp, the same defense contractor whom Wikileaks exposed for pimping small boys to Afghan police recruits-http://www.globalwhisperer.com/2010/12/wikileaks-cable-reveals-dyncorp-funding-child-sex-slavery-in-afghanistan/
has a long history of violent tyrannical mercenary “counter-narcotic” operations (all at our tax expense) in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/10921/dyncorp_in_colombia:_outsourcing_the_drug_war/?page=3
So, Drugs are okay if you are Afghanistan’s corrupt leadership but worth millions of taxpayer dollars to fight in Colombia. And an elderly and respected Country musician has to go jail if he is smoking marijuana and not harming anyone? This is pure Orwellian Doublethink.
Not only that, but Wikileaks revealed that the DEA is now a huge foreign intelligence eavesdropping service-
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_16943340
The hypocrites stand exposed and what is the reaction of the leadership towards this newly revealed information? Is it to cut off funds to Saudi Arabia? Is it to suspend the War on Drugs and launch an investigation into DEA and DynCorps’ activities in Afghanistan and Colombia on the taxpayer dime? No. The hypocrites in charge of leading our country turn immediately to betraying the ideals of the US Constitution and start spouting the most heinous tyrannical venom at Mr. Assange and Wikileaks.
We’ve had Vice-President Joe Biden publicly call Mr. Assange a “high tech terrorist”. I personally subscribe to the US Army’s definition of terrorism as the “use of violence or threat of violence to attain goals, which are political in nature”. Mr. Biden’s statement is laughable and a disgrace to all victims of real violent terrorism. Ron Paul is right when he said that so far, Wikileaks release of information has harmed no one. To use the label terrorist when no violence has been committed is an act of Doublethink!
And Chairman of Homeland Security Committee Congressman Peter King joins Biden in this hypocritical Doublethink. He has said, “WikiLeaks presents a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States.” Not only that, he labels Wikileaks “foreign terrorist organization”!
And it’s not just Democrats, as witnessed by Newt Gingrich’s non-existent commitment to the Constitution! The former Speaker of the House said, ““Information warfare is warfare, and Julian Assange is engaged in warfare. Information terrorism, which leads to people getting killed, is terrorism, and Julian Assange is engaged in terrorism. He should be treated as an enemy combatant.” This from a man who rationalized that outed CIA agent Valerie Plame was “fair game”.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said, “I think the man is a high-tech terrorist, He's done enormous damage to our country, and I think he needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and if that becomes a problem, we need to change the law.” That last part is so insidious that it bears repeating-in regards to Freedom of the Press-“…if that becomes a problem, we need to change the law.” Mitch McConnell 12/5/10-
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/132043-mcconnell-wikileaks-founder-a-high-tech-terrorist
And in the true spirit of Orwellian Doublethink, at the same time that these statements were being made, the US Government announces that it will host UNESCO’s “World Press Freedom Day” event from May 1-May 3!
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/12/152465.htm
Call it a triple whammy for libertarians- Ron Paul looks like a rock star being the only one to defy Washington’s Conventional Wisdom in this manner AND the government is exposed as having a chilling hostility to a Free Press at the same time it announces that it is holding a Free Press Seminar! And I say triple whammy because a truly efficient institution would never allow such an embarrassing contradiction as the US Government just did. So the US Government looks like a chump for dropping the ball with the timing of the seminar on top of being exposed as corrupt and hypocritical on numerous fronts by Wikileaks and our leadership’s chilling lack of commitment to the 1st amendment stands naked for everyone to see!
And the Orwellian Doublethink hits just keep coming. Remember Judy Miller? She is the “journalist” responsible for bleeding Ahmed Chalabi’s manipulative drivel about Saddam hussein’s Weapons of Mass Destruction directly into the New York Times. Ahmed Chalabi received over 2 million dollars of our tax money from the time he was head of the Iraqi National Congress until the Start of the Iraq War for intelligence on Saddam Hussein. Not one piece of evidence he ever was paid for turned out to be true! Heroic soldiers who signed up to avenge 9/11 paid for this error with their lives and property. Judy Miller didn’t care. She said regarding this, “…My job isn’t to assess the government’s information, and be an independent intelligence analyst myself. My job is to tell the readers of the New York Times what the government thought about Iraq’s arsenal.” And in true journalistic Orwellian Doublethink, she criticized Julian Assange for not verifying his sources!
That’s how dangerous Doublethink is. This government is responsible for breaking every single treaty ever signed with every Indian Nation, the Palmer Raids, the murders/executions of Sacco and Vincetti, Prohibition, the Bonus March Massacre, the Japanese relocation camps, the Dresden and Japanese firebombings, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Red Scare witchhunts of the 1950’s, lying about the Gulf of Tonkin in order to get us into VietNam, Agent Orange, the War on Drugs, sponsoring the terrorist army the Contras in the 1980’s, sponsoring Manuel Noriega in Panama, the largest per capita Prison Population in the world, funding Osama Bin Laden and the current Afghan and Iraqi quagmires.
Doublethink is how they operate because the people who are a part of these atrocities need to be told that they are not doing the obvious. They need to think that they are engaged in something noble and ignore the evidence of their eyes ears and conscience.
If you are not chilled by the governments response to Wikileaks let me reiterate-
(regarding Freedom of the Press)“…if that becomes a problem, we need to change the law.” Mitch McConnell 12/5/10-
“…were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” Thomas Jefferson-1787
“ …If Assange can be convicted of a crime for publishing information that he did not steal, what does this say about the future of the first amendment and the independence of the internet?
…Could it be that the real reason for the near universal attacks on Wikileaks is more about secretly maintaining a seriously flawed foreign policy of empire than it is about national security?
…Is there not a huge difference between releasing secret information to help the enemy in a time of declared war, which is treason, and the releasing of information to expose our government lies that promote secret wars, death and corruption?” Ron Paul 12/9/10
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