Follies of a Bloated Empire

Printed in the Friday, December 12 issue of The New Hampshire "From the Right"

The recent Wikileaks scandal has drawn a wide array of calls for action on the part of the American government. The Department of Justice is pondering espionage charges against Julian Assange, Wikileaks’ founder. Mike Huckabee has called for Assange to be tried on treason charges, not excluding execution as punishment. All the while, Interpol, the international police force has been chasing down Assange on Swedish sexual assault charges. It seems odd that these charges resurfaced soon after some embarrassing messages from US diplomats were released, even though the rape charges were dropped by the previous prosecutor. Assange is now in custody of British law enforcement.

Wikileaks is a nonprofit that allows sources to securely leak a wide variety of information to the site so the documents can be anonymously released to the world via the web. Documents include everything from diplomatic correspondences and embassy documents to board room minutes of the world’s largest corporations. Julian Assange seems to be the only face we can point to for the latest leaks that have some current and former US intelligence officials crying foul, but why are we shooting the mailman? Assange is the only courageous soul willing to challenge the most powerful and most permanent aspects of the modern American empire. For pursuing the truth, he is an enemy to American national security.

Is there anybody else who believes that we can be safe and free at the same time?

In order to fully debate this issue, we need to note an important distinction between the government: the transient group of elected leaders who write national policy, and the state: the ever-present and ever-expanding bureaucratic and military institutions controlled by the government only superficially. Wikileaks keeps the state honest. It’s the reason why the careerists in the state department and intelligence community are shaking in their boots; they need secrecy in order to operate. Leaks of classified documents severely limit their ability to do their job effectively, no wonder they’re pulling their hair out over Julian Assange. But leaks happen. They are a part of diplomacy. Trust is an important facet of diplomatic negotiations; from honesty in communication grows trust in negotiation. More honest and open diplomacy could well minimize leaks and encourage peace across international lines. Imagine if Wikileaks was around to expose the lies and deception at the core of the rush to invade Iraq in 2002 and 2003? Could we have avoided squandering over $700 billion of taxpayer funds in the latest foreign policy failure of the American empire?

Recently, high level intelligence officials such as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen have told us that these leaked documents could put lives in danger. Call me crazy, but I’m less likely to trust military leaders who have ordered the bombings of scores of innocent villagers across Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 10 years to be the authority on saving innocent lives.

If the US government wants to restrict leaked information, it should consolidate intelligence agencies to tighten security and to provide better organization. They would go after leakers in their ranks. After all, when you have first-class privates who can obtain classified information and leak it on the internet with relative ease, your security clearances probably need a bit more scrutiny. Earlier this year, The Washington Post, published an investigative report into the intelligence community that showed an estimated 854,000 people now hold top secret clearance. The Post concluded: "no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work." The American intelligence community has become bloated to the point of complete disorganization. Its time we cut out the slack that’s endangering our national security.

Unfortunately for us, we are told that we can only be kept safe as long as we are clueless about the inner-workings of our military state, no matter how bloated. Ignorance

is bliss. With the recent bloody debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for government officials to face the public and actually tell the truth. That’s the thing about Wikileaks, it keeps the American empire honest. That’s the point of the media, right? Is it any wonder why those in power are seeking to put away Julian Assange? Without the sort of shock to the system that Assange has provided—but currently being punished for—the American empire would never have been challenged and may have never been forced to change. And that’s exactly what the permanent American bureaucratic and military state is wishing for.

If we let this scandal fall by the wayside and accept the establishment’s crucifixion of the truth-seeker, Julian Assange, we will have provided a precedent for a future where global freedom of speech and of the press is diminished, even in the international community of modern “democracies.” We will have opened the door to increased repression from the United States and other governments simply for uncovering the truth. When telling the truth becomes a treasonous act, our society has lost its way.