Imagine, if you will, the irony of the government pursuing the hide of Julian Assange with a baying chorus of Republican thugs openly calling for his assassination because he exposed government secrets and, simultaneously, these same defenders of the security state charging the Attorney General for contempt of Congress because he refuses to provide more government documents on an undercover operation—that first came to light through a whistleblower. Yes, Fast & Furious, the lame Treasury Department scheme to sell weapons to the Mexican drug cartels so that they could trace the guns to the higher-ups, only became known to us because someone within the bowels of the state illicitly transferred the emails and other documents to unauthorized hands. That’s how the system works and how it should work, but it’s an amazing display of double standards to see its beneficiaries howl for blood when the same practice involves something they like, for example, ‘rendering’ terrorism suspects so that they can be tortured in Syrian prisons. That should be protected, but actions by the hated Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms Bureau are fair game.
I’m all for getting government officials to come clean on their stupidity, but these are police undercover operations, for goodness sake. You’d think the hard-liners would at least nod to the possibility that a minimum degree of privacy might be prudent given their hysterical insistence that Assange be tried for treason for revealing similar things.
And am I living in a parallel universe, or is there something triply mystifying about the brouhaha over American weaponry being shipped to the Mexican drug gangs clandestinely when these same shocked, shocked solons insist that their sales be permitted to proceed openly? Perish the thought that anyone should suggest that automatic assault rifles or back-yard bazookas should be in any way restricted by laws!
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