Bush speechwriter outlines case for prosecuting WikiLeaks founder

Bush speechwriter believes WikiLeaks violated the Espionage Act and its founder, Julian Assange, should be brought to justice, claiming the U.S. has the authority to arrest fugitives on foreign soil.

The title of a Times magazine article published yesterday sums it up: “Should The U.S. Kidnap WikiLeak's Founder Julian Assange?” The article refers to a piece penned by former George W. Bush speechwriter, Mr. Marc Thiessen, in which Thiessen advocates arresting the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange - even if he is abroad - and then outlines the legal rationale for doing so.  At the outset of the moral tirade, Thiessen does not want anyone to be confused:

Let's be clear: WikiLeaks is not a news organization; it is a criminal enterprise.

Thiessen states that WikiLeaks most recent stunt of uploading over 76,000 formerly classified U.S. military documents onto its website violates the Espionage Act and constitutes material support for terrorists. In a literal sense, Mr. Thiessen has a point because according to the Espionage Act the unauthorized possession of “information relating to the national defense” is a federal criminal offense.

However, legal experts have said that quite a few news outlets would be liable under this act for printing leaks, so the government and justice department are leery to attempt to prosecute full force on this basis in fear of risking a court reinterpretation of the law’s scope due to a First Amendment challenge (then again, with a sitting Supreme Court that has conservative leanings, the government might be in better shape than they realize – at least on this point.)

Thiessen asserted that the Obama administration had a moral obligation to shut WikiLeaks down. He attacked the whistleblower site for unveiling documents that exposed at least one U.S. intelligence operative and identified another 100 Afghan informants, which often included the names of their villages and family members. Meanwhile, a Taliban spokesperson claimed the group was perusing these files and swore to exact revenge upon all suspected spies. Not to mention Afghans will be less willing to provide intelligence to U.S. officials in the future.

Assange may think he is immune to U.S. law considering he is living in another country, but Thiessen says the U.S. has every right to hunt him down wherever he may lay his head:

 

Assange is a non-U.S. citizen operating outside the territory of the United States. This means the government has a wide range of options for dealing with him. It can employ not only law enforcement but also intelligence and military assets to bring Assange to justice and put his criminal syndicate out of business.

 

After indicting him the U.S. should of course first work with international law enforcement partners to apprehend and extradite Assange, who has been nomadically living amongst Sweden, Belgium and Iceland. Theissen wrote if any of the nations hosting Mr. Assange refuse to cooperate, the U.S. has every right to go into any of these countries providing haven for Assange and arrest the culprit without them even knowing, citing a 1989 Justice Department memo:

In 1989, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel issued a memorandum entitled "Authority of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to Override International Law in Extraterritorial Law Enforcement Activities."

This memorandum declares that "the FBI may use its statutory authority to investigate and arrest individuals for violating United States law, even if the FBI's actions contravene customary international law" and that an "arrest that is inconsistent with international or foreign law does not violate the Fourth Amendment." In other words, we do not need permission to apprehend Assange or his co-conspirators anywhere in the world.

He ends with patriotic gusto that the Obama administration must act because WikiLeaks represents a “clear and present danger to the national security of the United States”, and then implores Obama to act:

If left unmolested, Assange will become even bolder and inspire others to imitate his example. His group is at this moment preparing to release tens of thousands of documents that will put the lives of our troops and our allies at risk. Will President Obama stop WikiLeaks from doing so -- or sit back and do nothing?

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