Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'?

[Jan Klimkowski]

Enter stage right, to add some colour to this pantomime, that noted political thinker Sarah Palin and the more sinister neocon William Kristol:

Sarah Palin has called on the US government to hunt down WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange like an al-Qaeda or Taliban leader, calling him "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands".

In a post on her Facebook page, the former US Republican vice-presidential candidate wrote: "Assange is not a 'journalist', any more than the 'editor' of al-Qaeda's new English-language magazine Inspire is a 'journalist'."

Manhunt calls via Facebook. Wow nice touch. Perhaps she should have tweeted it though...

"He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. His past posting of classified documents revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the Taliban. Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders?"

She added that the activist website should have its financial assets frozen "just as we do to individuals who provide material support for terrorist organisations" and that "cyber tools" should be used to "permanently dismantle WikiLeaks".

Oh, she did tweet it as well:

The 46-year-old, who is known for her conservative views, questioned on Twitter why the US government couldn't "stop WikiLeaks' treasonous act", perhaps unaware that Mr Assange is not an American citizen, and that the activist website is hosted in Sweden with servers across the globe.

Here's Billy:

She also linked to a blog by William Kristol, the editor of the right-wing US magazine The Weekly Standard, who called for his country's government to "use our various assets to harass, snatch or neutralize Julian Assange and his collaborators, wherever they are".

"Congress can have emergency hearings - in closed session, if necessary - to find out if the executive branch has the necessary means to defeat WikiLeaks. If it doesn't, Congress can provide additional means and authorities to those that already exist," wrote Kristol, who served under former US president Ronald Reagan and former US vice-president Dan Quayle.

"But in either case, Congress can act, in an expeditious and bipartisan manner, to encourage and authorise the use by the executive branch of all necessary means to respond to and defeat WikiLeaks."

Kristol did not elaborate on what he meant by "all necessary means", although some US media have speculated that he and Mrs Palin could be calling for the US to " treat WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as a target to be snatched off the streets somewhere by the CIA", The Christian Science Monitor wrote.

Kristol's blog is called "Whack Wikileaks".

I wonder what Billy Boy could possibly be suggesting...

Sources:
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/tech...18g69.html

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/whac...20462.html