WikiLeaks press release on Tucson shootings.

[Better Believe It]

WIKILEAKS PRESS RELEASE
10 Jan 2010, 10:15 PM EST

“WikiLeaks: treat incitement seriously or expect more Gabrielle Gifford killing sprees.”

Wikileaks today offered sympathy and condolences to the victims of the Tucson shooting together with best wishes for the recovery of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords, a democrat from Arizona's 8th district, was the target of a shooting spree at a Jan 8 political event in which six others were killed.

Tucson Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, leading the investigation into the Gifford shooting, said that "vitriolic rhetoric" intended to "inflame the public on a daily basis ... has impact on people, especially who are unbalanced personalities to begin with." Dupnik also observed that officials and media personalities engaging in violent rhetoric "have to consider that they have some responsibility when incidents like this occur and may occur in the future."

WikiLeaks staff and contributors have also been the target of unprecedented violent rhetoric by US prominent media personalities, including Sarah Palin, who urged the US administration to “Hunt down the WikiLeaks chief like the Taliban”. Prominent US politician Mike Huckabee called for the execution of WikiLeaks spokesman Julian Assange on his Fox News program last November, and Fox News commentator Bob Beckel, referring to Assange, publicly called for people to "illegally shoot the son of a bitch." US radio personality Rush Limbaugh has called for pressure to "Give Ailes the order and there is no Assange, I'll guarantee you, and there will be no fingerprints on it.", while the Washington Times columnist Jeffery T. Kuhner titled his column “Assassinate Assange” captioned with a picture Julian Assange overlayed with a gun site, blood spatters, and “WANTED DEAD or ALIVE” with the alive crossed out.

John Hawkins of Townhall.com has stated "If Julian Assange is shot in the head tomorrow or if his car is blown up when he turns the key, what message do you think that would send about releasing sensitive American data?"

Christian Whiton in a Fox News opinion piece called for violence against WikiLeaks publishers and editors, saying the US should "designate WikiLeaks and its officers as enemy combatants, paving the way for non-judicial actions against them."

WikiLeaks spokesman Julian Assange said: "No organisation anywhere in the world is a more devoted advocate of free speech than Wikileaks but when senior politicians and attention seeking media commentators call for specific individuals or groups of people to be killed they should be charged with incitement -- to murder. Those who call for an act of murder deserve as significant share of the guilt as those raising a gun to pull the trigger."

“WikiLeaks has many young staff, volunteers and supporters in the same geographic vicinity as these the broadcast or circulation of these incitements to kill. We have also seen mentally unstable people travel from the US and other counties to other locations. Consequently we have to engage in extreme security measures.”

“We call on US authorities and others to protect the rule of law by aggressively prosecuting these and similar incitements to kill. A civil nation of laws can not have prominent members of society constantly calling for the murder and assassination of other individuals or groups.”

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/82g3kb

[Catherina]

1. K & R n/t

[glinda]

2. K & R n/t

[tblue37]

3. k&r

[steve2470]

4. k and r nt

[JackRiddler]

5. Anyone claiming Palin bears responsibility for Loughner's rampage should be able to understand this.

[Little Star]

6. How true............

"A civil nation of laws can not have prominent members of society constantly calling for the murder and assassination of other individuals or groups.”

[sabrina 1]

7. Wikileaks is correct. And it is an absolute shame that not one

prominent American Politician condemned the calls for assassination of a publisher and editor of a news organization.

Especially since it was the usual suspects, Sarah Palin, Huckabee, King from NY et al. These people are or were elected officials and a statement should have been made the the U.S. condemns this kind of vitriol and abides by the rule of law.

Did I miss it, it's possible, but I saw no such statement.

Wait, Conyers did say that Wikileaks had not broken any laws. But no one condemned the murderous vitriol.

And then we wonder why we have so much violence in our society. Shame on our government. Their silence condones this hateful, dangerous and threatening behavior.

[krabigirl]

8. K & R. Nt

[Mojeoux]

9. Kick and Rec

[TornadoTN]

10. K&R - so true

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

11. if you have a twitter account "follow" wikileaks. If you don't then sign up for twitter acct

and then "follow" wikileaks.

The more the merrier.

[sabrina 1]

12. I have a twitter account which I've never used so maybe I can

start now. Had it for so long I forget about it until I get requests from people wanting to 'follow me'. Why would someone want to follow someone who hasn't said a word?

Btw, the FBI is demanding that twitter turn over all Wikileaks accounts and those of their followers. So yes, the more the merrier. I don't think they can persecute over a million people without some repercussions.

[russspeakeasy]

13. Yes, Yes, Yes. Incitement to commit murder.

Lock em up; at the very least bring them to court.

[Amonester]

14. K & R

Plus:

Assange: WikiLeaks to speed release of leaked docs
By Associated Press
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 - Added 14 hours ago
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/europe/view/20110111assange_wikileaks_to_speed_release_of_leaked_docs

And:
WikiLeaks: Julian Assange 'faces execution or Guantánamo detention'
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 January 2011 14.21 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/11/julian-assange-wikileaks-execution-gantanamo

(Too late for an OP in LBN)

[sulphurdunn]

15. Two of many troubling aspects

of the media narrative on these shootings are its predictable resurrection of the deranged, lone gunman hypothesis and its diversion of coverage from hate speech to gun control. Gun control is a tangential issue. The motives of the gunman are only relevant in the context of cause and effect relationships to the larger issue. That larger issue is incitement to violence by prominent individuals with political connections who use the mass media as their megaphone and appear to be another protected class of people above the law.