Obama Adm. opens grand jury hearing that could lead to prosecution of Julian Assange for espionage

[Better Believe It]

WikiLeaks: US opens grand jury hearing
First session of process of deciding whether to prosecute website and founder Julian Assange for espionage
By Ed Pilkington
May 11, 2011

The US government has opened a grand jury hearing into the passing of hundreds of thousands of state secrets to WikiLeaks – the start of the process of deciding whether to prosecute the website and its founder, Julian Assange, for espionage.

The first session of the grand jury is understood to have begun in Alexandria, Virginia, with the forced testimony of a man from Boston, Massachusetts. The unidentified man was subpoenad to appear before the panel.

The terms of the subpoena – first revealed by the Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald – gave a clear indication that the jury has been convened specifically to consider whether to approve the prosecution of Assange and Wikileaks.

The public radio network NPR pointed out that the WikiLeaks grand jury is just one of a spate of federal investigations into leaking that constitutes a major crack down by the Obama administration.

Read the full article at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/11/us-opens-wikileaks-grand-jury-hearing

[SidDithers]

1. Good...nt

Sid

[WillowTree]

3. What Sid said.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

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[coalition_unwilling]

20. +1,000,0000. It's abuse of prosecutorial power.

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

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[Tarheel_Dem]

7. +100

:thumbsup:

[Ramulux]

11. Why?

What has Julian Assange done thats illegal?

[MattBaggins]

13. I can only think of two reasons they like this

1. Kangaroo Kourts are funny

2. It will be a real hoot when China and other nations start demanding extradition of human rights workers if this were successful.

[FLAprogressive]

23. I can think of a third. "3. Because Obama is doing it."

[Bluebear]

27. + + + +

[QC]

34. BINGO!

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

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[Hissyspit]

18. Yeah!!

Obama administration goes after war criminals and torturers and Wall Street conspirators!! YES!

Oh, wait...

[demosincebirth]

2. +100

[Name removed]

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[Gregorian]

4. Responses so far...

[JonLP24]

5. Some info

Espionage Act Presents Challenges for WikiLeaks Indictment

As the U.S. Justice Department crafts a legal case against WikiLeaks' Julian Assange for the publication of thousands of secret government cables, legal experts are warning that any indictment under the Espionage Act may also implicate the news media -- and Americans who've read the cables or shared them with their friends.

The World War I-era law is broadly written and criminalizes anyone who possesses or transmits any "information relating to the national defense" which an individual has "reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation."

If WikiLeaks, which allegedly did not steal the documents, is guilty of espionage for printing them, so too might be the New York Times, U.K.'s The Guardian, and Germany's Der Spiegel, which have replicated and disseminated the materials worldwide, some experts say.

Individual users of Twitter and Facebook and other social media who spread links to the documents far and wide, or even discussed the contents in public, could also technically be liable.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wikileaks-indictment-us-charge-julian-assange-espionage-act/story?id=12369173

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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[Matariki]

9. I'm with you. I just wrote and deleted before posting a couple myself.

The applause responses are either glib and foolish or baldfaced flamebait, imo.

[aSpeckofDust]

10. I find myself coming to DU less and less. It's become so Authoritarian lately.

[TheKentuckian]

12. Fuckin' A

[Bluebear]

28. Thank you.

[Jefferson23]

8. I read the title wrong.

I thought I read, 'Obama Adm. opens grand jury hearing that could lead to prosecution of Karl Rove'

[coalition_unwilling]

21. Shit, I thought it said, "Obama Adm opens grand jury hearing

into extra-judicial executions on foreign soil." Instead, a sophomoric assault on freedom of the press. Chains we can believe in.

[iwishiwas]

30. I dream a lot lately also.

[sabrina 1]

24. You were dreaming again, like me.

I used to dream about that, Karl Rove having a GJ looking into his crimes against the American people, a dream I thought would come true if only we had a Democratic Administration and control of the House and Senate. And then we got all that and I remember the disbelief that finally, we were going to see the investigations we were promised if we worked hard enough to get a Democratic majority in Congress and the WH.

Now, every day is like a bad dream. The good guys are being prosecuted, like Don Siegelman and Assange, and the bad guys are profiting from their crimes.

[Jefferson23]

29. I was being sarcastic and dreaming, both of which do no good.

:hi:


What Siegelman has been going through is pure hell and is another issue I believed would be corrected.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. This administration has become pathetic in it's fear of whistleblowers and truth.

Hiding the dirty laundry has become a full time job for them.

[saras]

19. The good Assange has done outweighs the bad by orders of magnitude

A sensible government would be trying to implement, for itself, the sort of transparency Wikileaks provides, for the large majority of issues where Wikileaks has proved to be correct in releasing the information. If they would do this, they would be much more likely to be trusted that information that they say needs to remain secret really does so.

But the idea that anything Assange has done can even remotely compare with the crimes exposed by Wikileaks is just ludicrous, as is the United States wasting good money on this course of action.

[sabrina 1]

22. Each day I have another reason for regretting my support

for this administration. Even Bush would not have tried this. There must be something in those documents that they really, really don't want anyone to see.

I hope Assange knows what it is and has it set up for release the minute they make these phony charges so we can start prosecuting some real criminals.

This is pure revenge. We are assassinating suspects and using our judicial system to charge News Orgs with espionage. And this is the 'change' people voted for? Disgusting, but it will not harm Assange or Wikileaks. It will harm this country just a little more.

I bet this was Lieberman's idea, he was pushing for the Espionage garbage. The jury better do the right thing. But would we even know?

Why is this administration doing everything in secret? Wasn't there a promise of 'transparency', or I am dreaming again?

[Name removed]

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[inna]

25. No right-wing meme left unembraced (and unpromoted); what else is new.

[mmonk]

32. What about The Guardian? The New York Times? etc.

[WinkyDink]

33. Keep the truth hidden; be a patriot.