I watched a show called "Freedom Watch" with Judge Andrew Napolitano not long ago. He was discussing the recent release of documents by an organization known as Wikileaks. I'm sure most of you know the story, but for those who may not, Wikileaks was given over 90,000 documents detailing questionable activities undertaken by American forces while conducting the occupation of Afghanistan. It has exposed war crimes and shows the world just how callous the military is when it come to human life and how cruel the occupation has become. Our military, filled with well intentioned men and women, has been turned into a mechanism that systematically destroys innocent lives in attempts to alleviate perceived threats that aren't even necessarily real.
Judge Napolitano had a man on his show by the name Wayne Simmons. Mr. Simmons is an ex CIA agent. The judge had others on his show that spoke in favor of Wikileaks, but I'd like to address some of the things Mr. Simmons said.
Mr. Simmons was very much against what Wikileaks did. He went so far as to call them a terrorist organization. Now, I don't know what definition he uses for terrorism, but I obviously use a different definition. So did Judge Napolitano, he used a legal definiation, and he as much as said so on the show. To me, a terrorist organization would be a group that tries to terrify a civilian population in order to affect political change in a designated area. Such a group would be prone to partake in violent acts in order to intensify the terror. It seems to me that the militaries of all nations would be perfect examples of such organizations.
Mr. Simmons suggested that the director of Wikileaks be labeled a traitor, even though Mr. Julian Assange, the director of Wikileaks who also appeared on the show, is not a citizen of the United States of America. He is an Australian. That didn't seem to matter to Mr. Simmons. I guess he believes that anyone in the world should be subject to the laws of the United States. As if it wasn't bad enough that the citizens of these United States have to endure unconstitutional laws. Judging from the tone of Mr. Simmons' voice as he spoke, I would guess that he wants Mr. Assange dead. I wouldn't put it past him to shoot the assassin's bullet himself.
Mr. Simmons may have good intentions. He may be truly trying to protect the well being of the people of the United States. He may actually believe that what he is advocating is vital to national security. He may believe that he is fighting for the principles which are held dear in the hearts of many Americans. I somehow doubt it. Mr. Simmons seems far too clever not to understand that what he is advocating does not protect the people of the United States of America, it protects the federal government of the United States of America and the bureaucrats conducting operations in foreign lands. He seems intelligent enough to realize that the federal government at the top levels is populated by collectivists. He should know that there is a globalist agenda at work here. He should realize, as Major General Smedley Butler did back in the early part of last century, that when he was in the CIA he was working for a group of multi-national corporations and that they are the ones benefiting from these undeclared wars and occupations. Of course, if he does know such things, it would make sense that he doesn't want the truth well known as he hides behind nationalism to help realize the agenda of global collectivism.
Of course, I could be wrong. It could be that he truly is well intentioned. He truly could be so naive to believe he's protecting the people of the United States. If that's the case, I believe he is extremely misguided and maybe also a bit misinformed.
He started by stating something about the founding fathers being worried about treason and putting protections against such treason in the federal constitution that they wrote. He seems to conveniently forget that Thomas Jefferson once advocated a revolution every twenty years or so to make sure that the people stay involved in the maintenance of their freedom. He also has taken such words out of context with the times in which they were written. Our founding fathers were concerned with the British taking back their rule. They were concerned with foreign powers retaking the mantle of government in the new world. As far as domestic affairs went, they were supposed to leave it up to state governments to regulate their people. In the early years, when they passed laws such as the "Alien and Sedition Acts," the laws backfired as the people recognized that these laws protected only those with power and violated the natural rights of individuals, rights that the federal government was supposed to protect. In those days, such things mattered and those who helped pass such laws were quickly voted out of office and lost the power they'd had.
He went on to say that people die in wars. Yes they do. All kinds of people. Innocent and guilty people. Men, women and children. Old and young. Combatants and non combatants. This is the best reason I can think of to avoid them unless absolutely necessary because some foreign power is actually invading your lands. Then, you know the people dying are only those who have come over to usurp your power and wealth.
Another basic error Mr. Simmons made, in my humble opinion, was to call these actions war. They are not war. War is, in my opinion, the deployment of the militaries of two opposing factions in order to gain control and power over the peoples of a given land mass. The United States military is not being opposed by any national military organizations. Our forces have crushed any such organizations in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have, in effect, won any war that might have been fought there. We are now occupiers. The indigenous peoples are fighting to protect their homes, farms and their way of life. We are trying to force our way of life upon them, even if it kills them.
When asked what he thought about a Supreme Court decision to uphold the right of the press to print documents in the Pentagon Papers case of the early 1970s he called it a misguided decision. He obviously thinks freedom of the press and freedom of speech are misguided concepts. He obviously wishes to keep the American citizenry in the dark about how our military conducts the "wars" we pay for. He obviously believes in censorship and not a free press. Such thought processes, if adopted unilaterally, would quickly result in frightening authoritarian tyranny beyond anything yet imagined. If he believes such power would not be abused then he truly is more naive than any ex CIA operative should be.
Mr. Simmons doesn't believe the American public should be aware of how these actions are being conducted except through our "representatives." I don't know about you, but I don't feel I've been represented in ages. In fact, I don't believe I've ever been represented in Washington, DC. How can I be when only one of two major parties ever hold any power and both parties are fundamentally flawed? How can I be when both parties want to restrict my freedoms in one way or anther? I don't believe anyone should have to pay for wars and occupations which they find immoral. I don't believe we should be forced to pay taxes by a coercive centralized government which doesn't hesitate to throw tax protestors in jail and will kill them if they resist. I certainly don't think we should be forced to pay taxes without proper representation in the halls of government and that representation is not forthcoming.
Wayne Simmons seems to believe that he and people like him who are in power can protect the nation better than anyone else through secretive means. He accuses others of trying to be all knowing and deciding what to release. But he and his ilk are actually the ones who do that. He believes only the elite few should know the facts, and they should decide how to deliver those facts to the public. That is how censorship starts. That is how propaganda is able to gain a foothold in the public consciousness. When the facts are available to everyone, that is when each and every one of us can decide for himself what the truth is. That is when we'll be able to determine what is truth and what is propaganda.
Wikileaks did us all a service, in my opinion, when they published the papers they just published. They did what the mainstream press should have been doing all along. They should not be hiding these facts from the American people. They should not be censoring pictures of the death and destruction that is going on in our name. They should not be hiding the death counts and hiding the cruel realities of war from the American populous. They should not be hiding the real damage caused by the weapons used and pictures of innocents who suffer as a result. They do so because they think such exposure would create an outcry from the American people, and they are likely right. They do so because they want to maintain support for unpopular military actions.
Censorship is anathema to the principles upon which our nation was built, particularly government censorship. It prevents the populous from being informed. It keeps the ugly truth from the common folk so they can't denounce it. The people who believe as Wayne Simmons does, that it is okay to keep such information hidden, are the real dangers to our way of life. They are the ones who stand against the principles our nation was founded upon. They are the ones who are misguided, even if they have good intentions. Our founding fathers realized the importance of freedom, but that lesson has not weathered well over the ages. The political storms of the past have eroded these ideas at their base. It is up to us to rebuild these ideas of liberty and demand they be honored by those in power. It is up to us to praise those who deliver the truth and condemn those who would hide it from us.
The world is changing. People seem to be finding their own worth again. They are longing for knowledge and truth. Certainly, those in power will try to hide that truth if they believe it will hurt their causes or their agendas. It seems that throughout history whenever there was a force so powerful that it threatened mankind, a new way of disseminating the truth emerged. Let us all resist any attempt to censor the Internet as the power elite step up their efforts to hide the truth. Let us applaud and support Wikileaks and any organization dedicated to exposing the truth for all to see.
Please remember to visit my website, szandorblestman.com. There, you can find a link to help support my efforts. I also have an ebook available entitled "The Ouijiers" which you can purchase. It is a horror fiction novel written under the pen name Matthew Wayne.
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