There are many monsters in the world, but there are others who act in courageous ways on our behalf in the quest for justice and peace. Of the latter, there are some who are willing to put themselves out in the public view knowing that they will be subjected to humiliation, verbal attacks and even sometimes to physical attacks and possibly death. For all of these distinguished individuals I have great admiration beyond words. One of these heroes is Julian Assange, the public face of WikiLeaks www.wikileaks.org . WikiLeaks is the organization that released the video of American troops in an Apache helicopter cold bloodedly murdering civilians in Iraq Collateral Murder and they just released over 91,000 United States government documents relating to the years 2004-2010 of the U.S. “war” in Afghanistan. There are another at least 15,000 documents that have not yet been released.

Assange is truly a man after my own heart. When the reporter from the German paper Der Spiegel said to him, “You could have started a company in Silicon Valley and lived in a home in Palo Alto with a swimming pool. Why did you decide to do the WikiLeaks project instead?” Assange replied, “We all only live once. So we are obligated to make good use of the time that we have and to do something that is meaningful and satisfying. This is something that I find meaningful and satisfying. That is my temperament. I enjoy creating systems on a grand scale, and I enjoy helping people who are vulnerable. And I enjoy crushing bastards. So it is enjoyable work.”

The entire interview is very interesting: WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange on the ‘War Logs’: ‘I  as is this brief article on his background Julian Assange profile: an uncompromising rebel

Assange is not the only hero in this story. There are many behind the scenes taking part in collecting, organizing and disseminating the information “WikiLeaks is Not One Person…We Are All the Threat”–Hacker Magazine Editor Says WikiLeaks is Bigger Than Julian Assange And then there are the brave whistle blowers, who in this time frame in particular, put themselves in much danger. The alleged whistle blower of these documents, Private First Class Bradley Manning Help Bradley Manning has been incarcerated by the Obama administration and is being kept in isolation without access to even his attorneys. WikiLeaks Hired Lawyers for Leaker – Which the Pentagon Rebuffed. Iraq war vet Ethan McCord and Elaine Brower, mother of an Iraq vet, discuss the current military codes of conduct and structures of command, and the Bradley Manning case, at the United National Peace Conference in Albany, New York The Rules of Engagement in Iraq Are a Joke: Elaine Brower & Ethan McCord | UNPC 7/24/2010

There are also reports that Assange is being hunted. Is this the America you want to live in where the criminals go free and those with a conscience are locked away?

In a democracy, the people should know what the government has been doing in their name and they should know where their money is going.  The United States can no longer be considered a democracy because for many years truth has gone by the wayside. Our last several presidents and our representatives have kept deep dark secrets and have enlisted the corporate media to aid and abet in their many crimes. And so since 2001 and the illegal invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and the subsequent illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, the American people have no idea what horrors the Bush/Obama administrations have been committing. The rest of the world knows but are powerless against our threats and viciousness.

The White House keeps saying President Obama has a “new policy” on war in Afghanistan, but in actuality it is the same policy of the Bush administration…only escalated. It is a policy of death and destruction State of Denial: After the Big Leak, Spinning for War? The ANSWER organization states very clearly the problem with the White House response: “The White House condemned the release of the classified documents in the most disingenuous and hypocritical way. It denounced those who provided the files for putting “the lives of U.S. and partner service members at risk.” That is turning reality upside down. It is the Obama administration that is putting the lives of U.S. service members and Afghan civilians “at risk” every day by continuing a war just so that it can avoid the political backlash for suffering a defeat on its watch.” While ANSWER said it very well, they neglected to point out that the policy never really changes because those in power want perpetual war for perpetual profit.

Instead of discussing whether or not the information should have been made public, the media should be discussing who will be arrested for war crimes and crimes against humanity and when they will be tried and whether they should get life in jail or the death penalty. This is the one instance in which I believe in the death penalty because terrorists like the ones in our government and in our military since 2001 are so heinous they do not deserve to inhabit this planet.

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! is another hero—a real journalist who reports on the important stories and asks the pertinent questions. She covers this story in depth over several days…

Democracy Now: WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange: “Transparent Government Tends to Produce Just Government”—We spend the hour with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, talking about the biggest leak in US history: the release of more than 91,000 classified military records on the war in Afghanistan. As the Pentagon announces it is launching a criminal probe into who leaked the documents, Assange asks what about investigating the “war crimes” revealed in the leaked military records? He also talks about the media, why he isn’t coming to the US anytime soon, and what gives him hope. “What keeps us going is our sources. These are the people, presumably, who are inside these organizations, who want change,” Assange says. “They are both heroic figures taking much greater risks than I ever do, and they are pushing and showing that they want change in, in fact, an extremely effective way.” [video, audio and includes rush transcript]

Democracy Now: Guardian Editor on Coverage of Afghan War Logs: European Audience “Troubled More…by the Toll this War is Taking on Innocent People” - We speak with David Leigh, the investigations editor at The Guardian, one of the three newspapers, along with the New York Times and Der Spiegel, WikiLeaks gave the Afghanistan war documents to. “Broadly, we see a similar picture in the three media. What we do see is quite a different political perspective. From the New York Times’s point of view…it was interesting to see that the relationship with Pakistan was a political priority,” Leigh says. “With us, we’re more concerned about the casualties, I think. We’re troubled more, a European audience, by the toll this war is taking on innocent people.” [includes rush transcript]

Afghanistan: The war logs | World news | guardian.co.uk

This interview gives background. What Daniel Ellsberg has to say is very important:

Democracy Now: The New Pentagon Papers: WikiLeaks Releases 90,000+ Secret Military Documents Painting Devastating Picture of Afghanistan War – It’s one of the biggest leaks in US military history. More than 90,000 internal records of US military actions in Afghanistan over the past six years have been published by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. The documents provide a devastating portrait of the war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, how a secret black ops special forces unit hunts down targets for assassination or detention without trial, how Taliban attacks have soared, and how Pakistan is fueling the insurgency. We host a roundtable discussion with independent British journalist Stephen Grey; Pentagon Papers whistle blower, Daniel Ellsberg; former State Department official in Afghanistan, Matthew Hoh; independent journalist Rick Rowley; and investigative historian Gareth Porter. [includes rush transcript–partial]

Also: Daniel Ellsberg: Obama Should Release the Garani Massacre Video to the American Public Immediately – www.ellsberg.net

We need heroes, not mass murderers, running our country.

Even though some of what is available in the leaked files has been made public over the years by other heroic real journalists, they have been ignored by our co-opted media and by the American public who unless it is thrown in their faces, don’t really want to know. They prefer to sit in front of their televisions watching garbage rather than take action or even feel emotion for other human beings. The selfishness is astounding. Will even this massive volume of information about the obscenities of war be enough to wake the sheep?

There are these really amazing heroes in our midst, and because they so bravely speak out we want to believe that “the truth will set us free” and that there will be an end to the abject misery America deliberately causes around the world, but then we are abruptly brought back to reality. Look what the bastards did now Congress Appoves $60 Billion U.S. War Funds Amid Afghan Policy …? .