US v. Wikileaks (or US v. Freedom)

In this increasingly volatile opera known as Wikileaks, the United States has shown its true colors and become the standard bearer for oppressive regimes. By the United States, I mean the government, corporations, and the media.

The release of the "Collateral Murder" video and the "Afghan War Diaries" were legitimate releases of information that any government would want to keep secret from its citizenry. I know that the AP found vindication in its claim that U.S. soldiers killed innocent civilians and reporters, because Collateral Murder showed exactly what they claimed. This certainly didn't look good for the government, so as is normal, instead of reacting, the government over-reacted, by starting to mess with Wikileaks. How? Well, before these inflated charges of rape in Sweden came to the forefront, the government started messing with Wikileaks' financial resources and the providers of services facilitating them, and the government also tried to detain and intimidate a Wikileaks representative at the Next H.O.P.E. conference in New York City, in July of this year. So, does the U.S. government learn its lesson? No! Instead of accepting that the embarassment of the latest release of State Department communications was a direct result of their threatening Wikileaks, the government, with the forewarning of the existence of a file named 'insurance', stepped it up a notch. By calling on their corporate masters, the government has waged a full scale war against freedom. Amazon, Paypal, Mastercard, and Visa are now fighting the battle that the government was too petulent to admit it lost.

Well, the U.S. government is stupid, but these corporations are worse, because they are arrogant. After the distributed denial of service attacks have concluded, these corporations will go back to doing what they do best, secretly raping consumers with the blessing of the government. I hope that, before that happens, Anonymous is successful in causing monetary damage to these corporations, with Operation Payback, but more importantly, financial retribution must be paid by the consumer, in boycotting these corporations as enemies of free press and free speech.

The failure of the government to act responsibly is not surprising, because the government is made up of people who are greedy for power. The failure of corporations to act responsibly is not surprising, because corporations are made up of people who are greedy for money. The failure of the U.S. media is not surprising, because of, something less sinister but equally as dangerous, incompetence. In a country where Oprah Winfrey is considered a journalist, I am not surprised that 'real' journalists are not a) accurately reporting on this and b) standing with and in defense of Wikileaks. After the Wikileaks site was shutdown by Amazon and mirrors sites started springing up, media companies should have shown support by providing a mirror; yet CNN, Viacom (CBS), Disney (ABC), and General Electric (NBC, MSNBC, CNBC) are standing by idly, because profits are more important than the exercise of free speech and free press. The newspaper sites, also owned by these same corporations (thank very much, FCC), are suspiciously quite, as well. The New York Times has forsaken Wikileaks, but they have no problem selling newspapers with the material provided by Wikileaks. I guess that is why the New York Times is called 'the paper of record' and not the paper of integrity.

I would also lay blame at the feet of the citizens of the United States, but they are too indifferent to give a damn. All they care about are:

1) Low prices, which is why they shop at Walmart, then complain that there are no more Mom 'n Pops, and trample each other the day after Thanksgiving,

2) Gays and how many rights they are willing to allow the LGBT community to enjoy,

3) Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, and all of the other minutia that leaves their brains so atrophied that Sarah Palin looks like a viable candidate for elected office beyond the one she quit.

So, when Congressmen like Peter King call Wikileaks terroists and Senators like Joseph Leiberman want to write laws specifically targetting Wikileaks, the American people let them get away with it, because they are too busy spending money on things they do not need but buy, just because they are the latest thing or on sale, arguing about gay marriage, or watching Dr. Phil to notice that journalists are being equated with Osama Bin Laden and Congress is planning to act in a manner that is expressly forbidden by the U.S. Constitution.

When all is said and done, freedom of the press will be weakened, the corporations that facilitated it will find a way to profit from it, and the American public simply won't care. I don't expect the government to change. I tried that in 2008 and am still waiting.