I guess those who care about international press freedom can take comfort in the fact that Marc Thiessen no longer works for the government. On the Washington Post website, the former Bush Administration speechwriter and harsh interrogation booster, offers his view of WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange. In short, Thiessen calls for the U.S. to basically declare war on Assange, or presumably any other individual or organization that publishes documents the U.S. thinks might harm national security.
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. The first step is for the Justice Department to indict Assange.
Military assets? Thiessen goes on to argue that the U.S. has the legal authority to effectively kidnap Assange from foreign soil, even if such a kidnapping violates international law. He cites a 1989 legal analysis by the Reagan Administration: “In other words, we do not need permission to apprehend Assange or his co-conspirators anywhere in the world.” We can, apparently, just put a bag over his head as he orders a cappuccino in some Icelandic coffee shop and drag him off to. . . well, anywhere we want.
To be clear, Assange’s crime, according to Thiessen, is intentionally receiving and republishing classified information, something that is done with some regularity in the United States by respectable and responsible reporters working for top flight news organizations. To adopt Thiessen’s view, one would effectively have to reject the Supreme Court’s opinion in New York Times Co. v. United States, the so-called Pentagon Papers case from 1971.
Concurring in that case, Justice Potter Stewart observed, “In the absence of governmental checks and balances present in other areas of our national life, the only effective restraint upon executive policy and power in the area of national defense and international affairs may lie in an enlightened citizenry — in an informed and critical public opinion which alone can here protect the values of democratic government.. . . . Without an informed and free press, there cannot be an enlightened people.”
Justice Hugo Black, with Justice William Brennan, added the following:
