Last weeks arrest of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange by the Britishgovernment on a US extradition order is an attack on all of us. It is anattack on the US Constitution. It is an attack on the free press. It isan attack on free speech. It is an attack on our right to know what ourgovernment is doing with our money in our name. Julian Assange is everybit as much a political prisoner as was Cardinal Mindszenty in Hungaryor Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

They, and so many more, were imprisoned because they told the truth about their governments.

Repressivegovernments do not want their citizens to know that they are up to sothey insist on controlling the media. We are taught, at the same time,that we have a free press whose job it is to uncover the corruption inour system so that we can demand our political leaders make some changesor face unemployment. That, we are told, is what makes us differentfrom the totalitarian.

The arrest of Assange is a canary in a coal mine to warn us that something is very wrong with our system.

Whatswrong? The US mainstream media always seems to do the bidding of the USgovernment. That is why they rushed to confirm Washingtons claim thatthe Assange indictment was not in any way about journalism. It was onlyabout hacking government computers!

As the New York Times said inan editorial, sounding like a mouthpiece of the US government, JulianAssange committed an indisputable crime. But was it? As actualjournalist Glenn Greenwald wrote last week, what Julian Assange did in2010, for which he is facing extradition to the US, is no different fromwhat New York Times and other journalists do every day! He attempted tohelp Chelsea Manning shield his identity as he blew the whistle on USgovernment crimes to a publisher. The information in question included avideo showing US military personnel participating in and cheering themurder of Iraqi civilians. Why is it criminal for us to know this?

Thedifference is that what Assange and Manning did embarrassed the USgovernment, which was lying to us that it was liberating Iraq andAfghanistan when it was actually doing the opposite. Mainstreamjournalists publish leaks that help bolster the neocon or other vestednarratives of the different factions of the US government. Thats whythe US media wants to see Assange in prison, or worse: he upset theirapple cart.

The lesson is clear: when you bolster thegovernments narrative you are a brave journalist. When you exposecorruption in government you are a criminal. Do we really want to livein a country where it is illegal to learn that our government is engagedin criminal acts? I thought we had an obligation as an engagedcitizenry to hold our government accountable!

As long as JulianAssange is in prison, we are all in prison. When the government has thepower to tell us what we we allowed to see, hear, and know, we no longerlive in a free society. Julian Assange will be extradited to the US andhe will have dozens of charges piled on. They want him to disappear sothat the next Assange will think twice before informing us of ourgovernments crimes. Are we going to let them steal our freedom?

This article was published by RonPaul Institute.

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Ron Paul: Julian Assange, Political Prisoner OpEd Eurasia ...