Glenn Greenwald Comments on Julian Assange Extradition Case, Campaign to Target WikiLeaks Supporters

[democracy1st]

Run time: 13:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYKx8Z7z-ww   Posted on YouTube: February 24, 2011 By YouTube Member: mediagrrl9 Views on YouTube: 316   Posted on DU: February 25, 2011 By DU Member: democracy1st Views on DU: 654

 
A British judge ruled today that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden to face questioning on allegations of sexual crimes. Assange plans to appeal within ten days. His defense team had argued against the extradition, in part, by citing the potential he could wind up being extradited to the United States and prosecuted for publishing classified government documents, a crime that could result in the death penalty.

Democracy Now! interviews constitutional law attorney and legal blogger Glenn Greenwald about the Assange case; allegations of U.S. army torture against alleged whistleblower Bradley Manning; and a recently disclosed plot by three private intelligence firms to target WikiLeaks and its supporters, including Greenwald who has publicly defended the organization.

For the video/audio podcast, transcript, to sign up for the daily news digest and for all of our reporting on WikiLeaks and the case against Julian Assange, visit http://www.DemocracyNow.org.

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[JDPriestly]

1. Our government's obsession with keeping as secrets cables containing bits of gossip

only a tiny amount of really confidential information seems like a huge waste of taxpayer money.

This is particularly troubling in light of the admission by some members of the military that they had been requested to conduct psyops actions to influence members of Congress.

To what extent are we prevented from reading or finding out the truth about the world outside our borders?

To what extent are we simply fed lies?

To what extent does our government categorize information as secret in order to manipulate American opinion?

Most of our "journalists" seem to be just as beholden to the rich and powerful elite in our country as is Walker.

If we really had a free press, no one would attack Assange due to his release of the information in the Wikileaks. A lot of it is stuff that Americans should have been told a long, long time ago. We cannot pretend to be a democracy when our government withholds so much information from us.

I repeat: Most of the information in the Wikileaks was not really of any importance to our national security. Why has our government created such an elaborate system to keep the truth from the American people? Is that democracy?