Libya Learns from US Right's Approach to Wikileaks-- Treats Journalists as Terrorists

By Rob Kall
opednews.com

James_Redfield, author of the bestselling Celestine Prophecy, recently tweeted a quote from his new book, The Twelth Insight, "..Karma has nothing to do with payback. It reflects back to you what you're doing."

Now, we are seeing the regime of perhaps the worst, most despicable dictator, Muamar Gaddafi, doing to American journalists what America's "Right" has done to the journalists at Wikileaks, treating them like terrorists. I can't imagine a more ironic, real reflection of Redfield's definition of Karma.

The US State department has issued a warning:

Notice to the Press
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
February 24, 2011

In meetings with senior Libyan government officials, U.S. diplomats were told that some members of CNN, BBC Arabic and Al Arabiya would be allowed into the country to report on the current situation. These same senior officials also said that some reporters had entered the country illegally and that the Libyan government now considered these reporters Al Qaida collaborators.

The Libyan government said that it was not responsible for the safety of these journalists, who risked immediate arrest on the full range of possible immigration charges. Foreign journalists already in Libya who are not part of the approved teams were urged to immediately join the approved teams in-country.

Be advised, entering Libya to report on the events unfolding there is additionally hazardous with the government labeling unauthorized media as terrorist collaborators and claiming they will be arrested if caught.

This is what happens when members of congress, like Peter King, (R-NY) call for treating a genuine, revolutionary, heroic news organization like Wikileaks as a terrorist group. King wrote, ""WikiLeaks appears to meet the legal criteria... WikiLeaks presents a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States."

CNET reports that on November 28, on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough challenged King, saying, "But you know you can't--you can't designate them a terror outfit."

King replied, "Oh, Joe, I mean, we have to--I don't think we should write that off that quickly and say we can't do it. I mean, they are assisting in terrorist activity. The information they are giving is being used by al-Qaeda. It's being used by our enemies."

Even that nuance, from King, tying our journalists to Al Qaeda, was picked up by Gaddafi.

Fox News took a position on Wikileaks, with an article titled, "Yes, WikiLeaks Is a Terrorist Organization and the Time to Act Is NOW," penned by K.T. McFarland, a Fox News National Security Analyst and host of FoxNews.com's DefCon 3 10 AM propagandashow.

Representative King is now the Chairman of the Homeland Security committee. He's just getting started setting examples that dictators, fascists and tyrants can model and use to excuse their behavior. This is what the tea party has wrought, putting a right wing majority into power in the United States.