Is the United States of America powerless to stop WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, a nomadic cyber-hacker? In the age of President Barack Obama, maybe so.
What is WikiLeaks? Simply put, it is not a news organization, but a criminal enterprise that exists to obtain classified national security information and disperse it throughout the world.
Four months ago, WikiLeaks released more than 75,000 stolen classified documents that revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghans who were cooperating with America against the Taliban.
Soon after, the Justice Department said it was “weighing criminal charges” against Assange, and the Pentagon demanded that WikiLeaks return other stolen documents or face consequences. Unfortunately, nothing happened.
Last month, WikiLeaks struck again. It posted more than 390,000 classified documents on the war in Iraq. The result: Lives were put at risk, and our enemies gained valuable information.
Recently, WikiLeaks hit a third time with its most damaging disclosures yet. It released a cache of more than 251,287 American diplomatic cables and directives, including more than 117,000 that were classified. Many of these cables/documents exposed confidential sources, conversations with foreign leaders and counterterrorism plans. Their release could be devastating and damage U.S. diplomatic relations in the future.
The question of the day is, why hasn’t the Obama administration prevented the release of such explosive information, and will anything be done in the future to stop the serial disclosure of our nation’s most closely guarded secrets? The actions of WikiLeaks and its founder are likely a violation of the Espionage Act, and they are providing national support for terrorism, according to Marc Thiessan in The Washington Post. Why hasn’t the Justice Department indicted Assange and put his criminal syndicate out of business? Why hasn’t the Justice Department worked with international partners to apprehend and extradite him?
Last year, the Obama administration approved a new U.S. Cyber Command to “conduct full protection military cyberspace operations” in defense of U.S. national security. With the stroke of a pen, President Obama could have brought Assange to justice and put WikiLeaks out of business. The new U.S. Cyber Command could have shut down the servers of WikiLeaks and prevented them from releasing more classified information.
Incredibly, recently the Obama administration shut down more than 70 Web sites that were disseminating pirated music and movies. Now, Hollywood is safe, but not America.
What is wrong with this administration? Is it dangerously incompetent or, as some suggest, purposely at odds with America’s best interests? Under their oath of office, it is the job of President Obama and Eric Holder to protect America. If they can’t do their duty, they should be replaced or resign.
Diana Thorn
Carpinteria