Is it a hint at mass prosecutions to come, or simply another example of the administration’s bluster overreaching and coming off downright absurd?
It is unclear, but the US Air Force is certainly capturing headlines today with a “guidance” to its service members that not only are they at risk of prosecution if they read WikiLeaks, but that their families and everyone else are as well.
The release, dated Thursday but only coming to public knowledge today, cautions that anyone who reads the documents could be prosecuted for “espionage under the Espionage Act,” and cautions members to make sure their families don’t try to read the whistleblower’s leaks.
A spokeswoman for the Air Force insisted the guidance was designed “to give guidance to military and civilian servicemembers and employees to control their young’uns,” but now say that the warnings are under review based on reports that there may be a secret, alternative guidance from the Justice Dept.
Though administration officials have raised the possibility that the seldom-used Espionage Act could be used against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (even this appears to be a matter of no small speculation) for releasing the files, there has never in US history been an attempted prosecution of a citizen for espionage for having read a website, nor does it seem like such moves are immediately forthcoming.
Ha ha ha,government ,GO TO HELL!
In the eyes of our government masters and their henchmen everyone is a criminal, or at the very least a potential criminal.
WE, the general taxpaying public, are the enemy. The USG/MIC, Mafia Industrial Complex, has declared war on the American people whom have been instilled with mindlessness, the inability and/or unable to discern thoughts from facts, don't even know that their tax monies are being used by the USG/MIC to conduct war against them. Noam Chomsky, the philosopher linguist, has realized this and revealed it. Being a linguist he can examine the USG/MIC propaganda for what it is, lies, in the tradition of the investigative reporter I.F. Stone who reported that all governments lie which of course Stone was condemned for by the, surprise, USG/MIC.
Bogus and bogi, you are both correct. Since "our" government is no longer really "ours," it has lost its moral authority, and only the threat of coercion forces us to submit to the dictators in Washington.
Being called a criminal by any of its agents is increasingly empty.
Typical scare tactics- and the sad thing is, it will probably work on a great percentage of the US population, Air Force or otherwise. I've got the site bookmarked, the 'WL 'nuclear' file on standby, and an abiding interest in seeing wrongdoers in government brought to justice. That just might be though the courts, or a Ceausescu-style torch-and-pitchfork party- either way, I don't care. I refuse to be scared by this sort of thing. Oh, and HORROR OF HORRORS- I'M A 100% AMERICAN MUSLIM!!
Bring it on.
I didn't know the Air Force could talk?
This was against the "law" in Nazi Germany and USSR as well. Control, Power and ownership of Zombies at any cost.
The Air Force can give them all dishonorable discharges. This is a pilot program by the USG/MIC to test for eventual application to all Americans.
Which Crackpipe have these Airforce spokespeople been smoking from!!!!!!!!!
That would mean that every person that has read any of these stories in the Newspapers were also subject to the same threat of Arrest, and it would also mean the Publishers of those Newspapers were in fact subject to arrest and Prosecution.
Some how I think that there are still a few fools in the Pentagon who DONT know what a PRECEDENT is. The US Supreme Court ruled on the Pentagon Papers, cant prosecute Journalists, Assange is an Accredited Journalist he is even a Journalist Union Member and been one for years. If you send money to Wikileaks its sent to a Publishing company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sippenhaft
"Sippenhaft or Sippenhaftung (English: "kin liability") was a form of collective punishment practiced in Nazi Germany towards the end of the Second World War. It was a legalized practice in which relatives of persons accused of crimes against the state were held to share the responsibility for those crimes and subject to arrest and sometimes execution."
So much for the land of the "free"
Let them start the prosecution so we can start the revolution!
Again, one doesn't know whether to laugh or be appalled at the reaches of "our" government. Of course anyone who works for the government is its subject and apparently so are their family members. If that goes for their own zombies, what is the government going to do to us, regular Americans?
Let me see your papers please
simply stupid. communist rules.
The 'Jets-4-Jesus' Corps might want to rethink this little persecution. What the hell is next, internment camps? Gas chambers? Golly, the Air Force will have to change the name of Colorado Springs to Gulag Springs. You know, on account of that's where the Air Force keeps that Air Force Evangelicostal Academy.
I wonder if the airmen are going to put up with veiled threats to their families…
Sounds like a way of violently splitting the American public. Hey, isn't that treason?
Sounds like a couple of air force colonels bucking for promotion might have spent a few too many afternoons at the club.
They are working non-stop to upload new firmware to over half the population (and we know which half) but the Stuxnet worm keeps getting in the way.
will need an awful large prison
The entire Air Force officer corps ought to be charged with murder and war crimes.
Worse, what is a 'family'? Aunts and uncles? Grandparents? How about kids who no longer live at home with AF daddies? Defining who these people are and who is covered by these Soviet-style rules is a tricky matter indeed. And what if they read the NYT? Or even the pathetic, imperialist Washington Post which has quoted a few of these cables? I say, arrest everyone who is literate. HAHAHA…that could prove interesting indeed.
No, since our own government has become a criminal element, how can only reading accusations against it possibly be a crime? It's a bit like saying reading the criminal charges against Charles Manson are a crime.
They'd better arrest and try the seniors first.
If they start with the "young'uns" then a lot of "old'uns" will get off scot free by dying before they can be apprehended.
Ve Vill Arrest Everyone!!!!!!
Still US citizens refer to their country as LAND OF THE FREE???
Same freedom as in Stalins Russia……
What happened to the once brave nation? Unfortunately for the world, it seems it has dissapeared ….