We are learning today the Department of Homeland Security, without providing due process or Congressional authority, is shutting down Web sites around the country--Web sites that pose no threat to national security. Wasn't the purpose of the Department of Homeland Security to fight against terrorists. Obviously, it has become the face of the growing American police state, which as you know, the TSA is the most recognized symbol of this police state in America today.
It won't be long until the controversial Wikileaks will also be shut down. It seems like the stage is being set to take the site out. Of course, one will have to wonder if the First Amendment's freedom of the press is even relevant anymore if this was to happen.
Admiral Mike Mullen is setting the stage for what may be the next phase in the Department of Homeland Security shutting more Web sites down. One would think Wikileaks is a major target considering the focus by the nation's top Admiral.
"I would hope that those who are responsible for this would, at some point in time, think about the responsibility that they have for lives that they're exposing and the potential that's there and stop leaking this information," Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS due to air Sunday.
Wikileaks published controversial information that showed the number of civilian casualties in Iraq, which they claim totals 60% of the over all war deaths in Iraq. Whether you agree with their tactics or not, there is freedom of the press in the United States guaranteed by the First Amendment, and to totally understand freedom of speech and the press, there are going to be things printed that you don't agree with that may make you angry, but that's the reality of the Amendment. You can't censor what you don't like and still have the freedom of the press.
I fear we are on the path to that. Like Wikileaks or not, if the Department of Homeland Security continues down this path of removing Internet Web sites from the free people of the United States, then we will have a situation similar to China where the state governs what sites can be seen--where a woman faces one year of reform work just for retweeting a tweet mocking young nationalists who held anti-Japanese rallies.
I guess the question that needs to be asked, as we see the military brass setting up the termination of Wikileaks is simply this--how long will it be until your blog, your favorite Web site like Infowars, Prison Planet, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, or even your tweets are considered a national security risk and removed as well? This is something we are going to face in our lifetimes, and it's coming very quickly now as we see what the Department of Homeland Security has done today.