Pirate Parties Condemn Violence and Threats Against Wikileaks Staff

Despite their supposed antagonism and opposition, it did not take long for the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties to form a bipartisan consensus regarding Wikileaks after the organization began publishing its database of leaked diplomatic cables in conjunction with newspapers from around the world.  They even seem to be reading from the very same script.  Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on December 5th, from Mediaite:

This morning on Meet the Press, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called Julian Assange a “high tech terrorist” for his role in publicly releasing over 250,000 US diplomatic cables. "I think the man is a high tech terrorist…he’s done enormous damage to our country and to our relationships with our allies around the world, and he should be prosecuted,” McConnell said.

Two weeks later, Vice President Joe Biden echoed McConnell on the very same program, from the Guardian:

US vice-president, Joe Biden, today likened the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, to a "hi-tech terrorist", the strongest criticism yet from the Obama administration. . . .  His description of Assange shows a level of irritation that contrasts with more sanguine comments from other senior figures in the White House, who said the leak had not done serious damage. Interviewed on NBC's Meet the Press, Biden was asked . . .

Numerous propagandists for the dictatorship of the two-party state have even begun to call for the assassination and killing of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.  See, for instance, John Hawkins and Donald Douglas.  Needless to say, such contempt for the freedom of speech and of the press on the part of our political "leaders" and their deluded supporters is a far greater threat to the United States than an Australian with a website.  A coalition of European Pirate Parties has now begun to push back against such rhetoric and released a joint statement condemning violence and threats against Wikileaks and its staff.  From the press release, via Third Party and Independent Daily:

In a joint declaration with other Pirate Parties, today the Pirate Party of the United Kingdom strongly condemns any attacks on Wikileaks infrastructure and more so any attacks on Wikileaks staff, as reported by Wikileaks in March and again by Julian Assange this week.

"Any democracy worth its name should distance itself immediately from any such actions" says Mark Wood, Vice-Secretary for Whistleblowing at Pirate Parties International and Member of the Board of Governors at Pirate Party UK. "Personal attacks and threats against anyone publishing information, are not what democracy is about. Should Wikileaks do anything illegal, they should be prosecuted through due process of law, which until now has - not surprisingly - not happened" . . . 

"Again, we see many states, including some so-called democracies trying to inhibit the free flow of information that is inherent to the democratic principle" states Loz Kaye, Leader of Pirate Party UK. "It comes to show the sorry state our democracies have plunged to."

Those who argue that Wikileaks is waging terrorism by engaging in acts of free speech and press may already have the law on their side in their crusade against cherished freedoms.  Ironically, it turns out that a group of high-profile Republicans – including Michael Mukasey, Rudolph Giuliani, Tom Ridge, and Frances Townsend – openly provided material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization just last month.  If the enemies of liberty and independence in the Democratic and Republican parties have their way, there's going to be a long line at the gallows.