US embassy cables culprit should be executed, says Mike Huckabee

Republican presidential hopeful wants the person responsible for the WikiLeaks cables to face capital punishment for treason

* Haroon Siddique and Matthew Weaver
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 December 2010 11.31 GMT


Mike Huckabee Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said, 'Whoever in our government leaked that information is guilty of treason, and I think anything less than execution is too kind a penalty'. Photograph: Tony Gutierrez/AP

The Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has called for whoever leaked the 250,000 US diplomatic cables to be executed.

Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination at the last election but is one of the favourites for 2012, joined a growing number of people demanding the severest punishment possible for those behind the leak, which has prompted a global diplomatic crisis.

His fellow potential Republican nominee Sarah Palin had already called for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be "hunted down", and an adviser to the Canadian prime minister has echoed her comments.

Huckabee said: "Whoever in our government leaked that information is guilty of treason, and I think anything less than execution is too kind a penalty."

He added, according to Politico: "They've put American lives at risk. They put relationships that will take decades to rebuild at risk. They knew full well that they were handling sensitive documents they were entrusted.

"And anyone who had access to that level of information was not only a person who understood what their rules were, but they also signed, under oath, a commitment that they would not violate. They did … Any lives they endangered, they're personally responsible for and the blood is on their hands."

Bradley Manning, a US army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking the diplomatic cables, is currently being held at a military base. He has been charged with transferring classified data and delivering national defence information to an unauthorised source. He faces a court martial and up to 52 years in prison.

The 23-year-old was arrested after boasting in instant messages and emails to a high-profile former hacker, Adrian Lamo, that he had passed the material to WikiLeaks along with a highly classified video of US forces killing unarmed civilians in Baghdad.

Kathleen McFarland, who served in the Pentagon under the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations, concurred with Huckabee. "It's time to up the charges," said McFarland, now a Fox News national security analyst. "Let's charge him and try him for treason. If he is found guilty, he should be executed."

It is not just the Americans who are demanding blood. Tom Flanagan, a senior adviser to the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, issued what has been described as a fatwa against Assange, on the Canadian TV station CBC.

"I think Assange should be assassinated, actually," he said. "I think Obama should put out a contract and maybe use a drone or something." Flanagan chuckled as he made the comment but did not retract it when questioned, adding: "I wouldn't feel unhappy if Assange does disappear."

Revelations directly relating to Canada have been few and far between so far, although there was some embarrassment for Harper in the leak of a US embassy note from one of the French president's key foreign advisers. It explained that Harper was invited to last year's D-day commemorations in Normandy only because his government was in trouble.

Assange is facing growing legal problems around the world.

The US has announced it is investigating whether he has violated its espionage laws, and his details have been added to Interpol's worldwide wanted list, based on an arrest warrant issued by Swedish prosecutors in connection with rape allegations.

On Monday, Sarah Palin wrote on Facebook: "He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. His past posting of classified documents revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the Taliban. Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaida and Taliban leaders?"

US embassy cables culprit should be executed, says Mike Huckabee | World news | The Guardian

Quote:

"I think Assange should be assassinated, actually," he said. "I think Obama should put out a contract and maybe use a drone or something." Flanagan chuckled as he made the comment but did not retract it when questioned, adding: "I wouldn't feel unhappy if Assange does disappear."

Yeah, I know that confirmation of what the Yanks really think of you must have hurt, but don't threaten to shoot the messenger just to sublimate your inferiority complex...

Quote:

He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands

I reposted some of that stuff, does that mean I'm an anti-American operative too? Sweeeeet. Way better than my current job title.

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Wikileaks founder Julian Assange placed on Interpol wanted list - Europe, World - The Independent

Quote:

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been placed on Interpol's wanted list over rape allegations made against him in Sweden. The 39-year-old Australian's whereabouts are unknown, but he is a frequent visitor to Britain and has held several high-profile press conferences in London this year. Mr Assange is wanted by Swedish prosecutors on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion. He denies the allegations. He is under intense scrutiny after WikiLeaks began releasing a selection of more than 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables passed to the whistle-blowing website. The allegations against Mr Assange surfaced in August when two women in Sweden went to police with complaints they had been sexually assaulted. The Swedish authorities issued an international warrant for his arrest last month. Interpol, the international police co-operation agency, posted a "red notice" on its website yesterday stating that Mr Assange was wanted for sex crimes by the public prosecutor in Gothenburg, Sweden. Anyone with information about him is asked to contact their national or local police. Interpol's red notices allow international arrest warrants to be circulated to police forces worldwide. If Mr Assange is held in the UK, he will face proceedings to extradite him to Sweden at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in central London. Scotland Yard, which handles most British extradition cases, said it was not prepared to discuss the matter. There is a UK connection to the leaks of the diplomatic cables, which have proved deeply embarrassing for Washington and its allies around the world. US Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, 23, who is accused of passing classified information to WikilLeaks, lived in Wales for about four years as a teenager. He grew up in Oklahoma in the US but moved to live with his mother in Wales when his parents split up in his early teens and became a pupil at Tasker Milward secondary school in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire. Manning, who was serving at a remote military base in Iraq, was charged by the US Army in July with mishandling and leaking classified data and putting American national security at risk. He has not been charged over the release of the US diplomatic cables, but is suspected to be the source of the latest leaks.

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Slightly surprised about Huckabee, since AFAIK he's always been against the death penalty.

But, he IS running for the Republican nomination for president again.

Anyway, I hear Iceland is going to become Leakastan in the near future, offering protection to global leakers, and good for them. Iceland got taken to the cleaners in a hard way by US bankers, whom apparently Wikileaks has info on as well.

And LOL at the red list... it sounds serious, but it has no teeth, its simply a suggestion for world leaders. But hey, when you depants the state department of a Hyper Power, you gotta expect some blowback.

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Here is the Taiwanese animated edition of Wikileaks.

As one of my friend said yesterday, "no one serious has yet called for Assange to die"...

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Originally Posted by roadkill

Here is the Taiwanese animated edition of Wikileaks.

I wish I could see it; those things are just amazing. Here's my favourite, a CCTV 13 diagram of the Foxcon suicides, just in case you weren't sure about the mechanics of throwing yourself off a building:

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