Hundreds of thousands of State Department documents leaked Sunday revealed a hidden world of backstage international diplomacy, divulging candid comments from world leaders and detailing occasional U.S. pressure tactics aimed at hot spots in Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea.
The classified diplomatic cables released by online whistle-blower WikiLeaks and reported on by news organizations in the United States and Europe provided often unflattering assessments of foreign leaders, ranging from U.S. allies such as Germany and Italy to other nations like Libya, Iran and Afghanistan.
The cables also contained new revelations about long-simmering nuclear trouble spots, detailing U.S., Israeli and Arab world fears of Iran’s growing nuclear program, American concerns about Pakistan’s atomic arsenal and U.S. discussions about a united Korean peninsula as a long-term solution to North Korean aggression.
Long Island Rep. Peter King told 1010 WINS the release of the information put “American lives at risk all over the world.”
“This is worse even than a physical attack on Americans, it’s worse than a military attack,” King said.
King has written letters to both U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking for swift action to be taken against WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.
King wants Holder to prosecute Assange under the Espionage Act and has also called on Clinton to determine whether WikiLeaks could be designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
“By doing that we will be able to seize their funds and go after anyone who provides them with any help or contributions or assistance whatsoever,” King said.
“The Attorney General and I don’t always agree on different issues. But I believe on this one, he and I strongly agree that there should be a criminal prosecution,” King told WCBS 880.
(Read More: WCBSTV)
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5 Responses
Why isn’t he recommending to prosecute the newspapers that print these leaks?
I will be difficult to prosecute Assange as he is not a US Citizen and there is no evidence he has been in the US any time recently. We can certainly try to find out who the actual leakers are, though, and prosecute them.
It’s amazing how these are usually the same people who blame Israel for terrorizm and for US bad image. In other words – when it comes to Israel it’s understood as a trigger and an excuse for terrorist, but showing US & Israel in a negative light o no that won’t cause any terrorizm at all…
I can’t prove it, but it’s my gut feeling that Obama is behind this. He doesn’t seem too sad about the whole business and his state dept. isn’t doing anything to go after the NYTimes and Assange. If Obama and his czars really were concerned they would be raising bloody murder to get after all the people who leaked these top state secrets and the nytimes for printing it. This is not the first time that WikiLeaks exposed U.S. state secrets and Obama did nothing about it. He’s probably thrilled that America is being exposed in a bad light. However, what I don’t understand is how Jonathan Pollard is still sitting in jail after 25 years for exposing secrets to a friendly nation (Israel) and how all these people who are leaking and printing these harmful top-state secrets are doing so with such brazenness and with such potential harm to America’s interests– and the U.S government doesn’t seem to give a hoot. They’re in on it!
If the Americans are incapable of keeping their secrets from being publicized to the world, that is their problem. The idea of calling these people terrorists is absurd but in keeping with the general tyrannical direction the US has been moving in for the past generation. The entire root of the concept of freedom of the press and freedom of speech is to be able to seriously embarrass Governments and expose things they want to keep from the public. It is not supposed to be a gentleman’s agreement to be nice to each other.
Aryeh Zelasko
Beit Shemesh