Lawmaker Reintroduces WikiLeaks Prosecution Bill

angry tapir writes "New legislation in the US Congress targets WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for espionage prosecution. Representative Peter King, a New York Republican, introduced the Securing Human Intelligence and Enforcing Lawful Dissemination, or SHIELD, Act (read the bill here [PDF]). The bill would clarify US law by saying it is an act of espionage to publish the protected names of American intelligence sources who collaborate with the US military or intelligence community."

How about

[Gonoff]

Bills should be introduced in the USA, UK, Australia and lots more places saying things like

It is a crime to hide things from the electorate. (This should not be mixed up with "Freedom of Information acts" that rarely work.)
It is a crime to govern by misdirection of public attention.
It is a crime to protect the powerful to the detriment of the weak or less powerful.
It is a crime to take away civil rights, whatever the state of the nation
It is a crime to introduce 'knee jerk' legislation.
It is a crime to retrospectively criminalise something. It can only be criminalised from the introduction of the law
It is a crime to give or accept identifiable corporate campaign donations

That last one would be the one that would upset many politicians and large companies.

Who's the enemy here?

[chicago_scott]

"The bill would clarify U.S. law by saying that it is an act of espionage to publish the protected names of American intelligence sources who collaborate with the U.S. military or intelligence community."

Anyone who would want to create a classification of people who are immune from public scrutiny is definitely an enemy of United States. That's you Rep. King.

Re:Misleading...

[timeOday]

Are you entirely sure? There are people who argue that the Constitution applies not to actions of the US government in general, but that it only guarantees rights to US citizens. So, for example, the US government could detain foreigners without charging them indefinitely (no right to due process) or torture them (no ban on cruel and unusual punishment).

They are Punishing the wrong person.

[jameskojiro]

They should throw the book and the bench at Pfc. Bradley Manning and not touch Jullian Assange. Manning was the one who STOLE the information in the first damn place.

This amounts to trying to "kill the messenger" if the messenger was telling everyone about something he heard from from someone who stole the information. It has a bad "chilling effect" and is not good for free speech.

It is like trying to shut down a newspaper that published stolen state secrets, instead of going after the person who stole them in the first place.

Re:US law to apply to foreign citizens?

[Tom]

Yes, No.

Yes, the US routinely applies US laws to foreign citizens. I have first hand experience of that, as one of the defendants back in the DeCSS case.

No, the same does of course not apply the other way around. The US does not consider itself a peer amongst peers, it thinks of itself as the greatest nation on earth, chosen by god himself, above all international law save the one they bring themselves, with guns and tanks.

But it's good that they're doing it now. Julian has hinted towards this from the beginning, it will give his fight against extradition more strength.