An Espionage Case Against Julian Assange and Wikileaks? Or More Governmental Hypocrisy?

So the Justice Department is subpoenaing Twitter records in order to examine the relationship between Julian Assange and Private Manning, the one with access who leaked both the military database and the diplomatic cables to Wikileaks.

That is the only legal case possible against Assange: if it can be proved he employed or worked with Manning, that Manning was not a solo leaker and Assange was not merely a leakee.

Or is it?

When Woodward and Bernstein were getting material on the Watergate story, didn't they ask their sources for more?  Didn't they push for documentation, even if that meant "stealing" copies of government information?  Isn't it good journalism to milk a source for more?

And is trying to get material for the purpose of publicly leaking it an act of espionage?   I've been writing elsewhere about the public's right to know, or the right to access government information.  Obviously my opinion on that is not the law.  But espionage requires digging for information for the benefit of a foreign power, does it not?  Or to sell to a foreign power?

And when it comes to espionage, what charges has the U.S. government brought against officials in the State of Israel, in the Mossad?  Remember that two men are in U.S. federal prison for spying on the United States for Israel.  If we go after Assange, who did not work for a foreign government, why aren't we going after the spymasters in Israel?  [Hell, the Israelis strafed, torpedoed, and bombed the heck out of an American ship back in 1967, and were required to say no more than "Oops, sorry" and pay a few million in damages.  For more, Google "U.S.S. Liberty".]

Or in Russia, for that matter.  Why don't we indict Putin and seek to have him arrested when he is abroad?  Or more practically, why not indict high KGB officials for espionage?  Remember the Russian agents busted last year?  Why not indict their bosses? 

The answer to that seems to be that the United States brings espionage charges when it is convenient to do so and where the target is relatively helpless.   Which of course is how we conduct warfare these days.  We love to invade and war against impoverished third world countries, where the opposition carries AK-47 rifles and some war surplus weaponry.   And is preferably shoeless.   Not against those with some teeth.

And while I am bashing my country, let me ask this.  When the U.S. military and government failed to reveal that 2007 video showing a U.S. helicopter engaged in the commission of a war crime, wasn't that an indictable offense under laws that we would seek to apply to others?  Concealing evidence?  Failure to report?  Conspiracy?  Even terrorism?   Why don't we investigate the Department of Defense, the Pentagon, and the whole chain of command on that one? 

Answer:  Because in this as with Assange, our laws are applied selectively, when and where it is convenient to the government itself.  Which is in the nature of hypocrisy, is it not?