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Extraordinary invective against Assange, from US right wing

A vengeful chorus came mostly from Republicans. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, darling of the unhinged right, denounced Julian Assange‘s “sick, un-American espionage” and came close to inciting his assassination

WikiLeaks: How US political invective turned on ‘anti-American’ Julian Assange The Guardian..…. demonstrates how ‘US blood on hands’ of website’s founder got fainter and fainter Luke Harding and David Leigh, * The Guardian,   3 February 2011

As the cables rolled out day by day, an ugly, and in many ways deranged, backlash took place in the US. A vengeful chorus came mostly from Republicans. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, darling of the unhinged right, denounced Julian Assange‘s “sick, un-American espionage” and came close to inciting his assassination: “Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaida and Taliban leaders? … He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands.”

But it was Senator Joe Lieberman, Senate homeland security committee chairman, a foreign policy hawk and maverick Democrat, who was the most practical attack dog. Lieberman described the leak in apocalyptic terms as “an outrageous, reckless and despicable action that will undermine the ability of our government and our partners to keep our people safe and to work together to defend our vital interests”……

Contrary to the bloodcurdling claims made in public about the crimes of WikiLeaks, senior state department officials appeared to have concluded by mid-January that the WikiLeaks controversy had caused little real and lasting damage to American diplomacy. Reuters news agency reported on 19 January 2011 that in private briefings to Congress, top US diplomats admitted the fallout from the release of thousands of private diplomatic cables across the globe had not been especially bad.

One congressional official briefed on the reviews told Reuters that the administration felt compelled to say publicly that the revelations had seriously damaged American interests in order to bolster legal efforts to shut down the WikiLeaks website and bring charges against the leakers. “I think they want to present the toughest front they can muster,” the officials said.

WikiLeaks: How US political invective turned on ‘anti-American’ Julian Assange | World news | The Guardian

February 4, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA