Second US Sedition Act
When President Woodrow Wilson backed the Espionage Act in 1917 he lost by one Senate vote on an amendment that would have legalized government censorship.
So the following year, Wilson pushed for another amendment to the Espionage Act. It was called the Sedition Act, added on May 16, 1918 by a vote of 48 to 26 in the Senate and 293 to 1 in the House.
The media at the time supported the Sedition Act much as it works today against its own interests by abandoning the seditious Assange. Author James Mock, in his 1941 book Censorship 1917, said most U.S. newspapers "showed no antipathy toward the act" and "far from opposing the measure, the leading papers seemed actually to lead the movement in behalf of its speedy enactment."
Among other things, the 1918 Sedition Act stated that:
"...whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or Navy of the United States into contempt, scorn, contumely, or disrepute, or shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any language intended to incite, provoke, or encourage resistance to the United States."
The U.S. has certainly seen revealing prima facia evidence of U.S. war crimes and corruption as being "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive" towards the U.S. government and military.
Debs & Assange
A month after the 1918 Sedition Act was passed, socialist leader Eugene Debs was sentenced to 10 years in prison for publicly opposing the military draft. In a June 2018 speech he said: "If war is right let it be declared by the people. You who have your lives to lose, you certainly above all others have the right to decide the momentous issue of war or peace."
While in jail Debs received one million votes for president in the 1920 election. Assange's defiance of the U.S. government went well beyond Debs' anti-war speech by uncovering war crimes and corruption.
For being seditious, Debs and Assange are the most prominent political prisoners in U.S. history.
Despite an attempt by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer (of the anti-red Palmer Raids) to establish a peacetime Sedition Act, it was repealed in 1921 -- but not before thousands of people were charged with sedition.
It was repealed because it was not seen as befitting a democratic society. Prosecuting Assange no longer arouses such widespread sentiment.
Except for a technicality in the Espionage Act, which needs to be challenged on constitutional grounds, the U.S. has no case against Assange. The weakness of the government's case points to it falling back on the abolished crime of sedition as the real, unstated charge.
The Accusations
The superseding indictment against Assange makes plain that official Washington is acting out of a fit of pique more than a sense of injustice. It is angry at Assange for revealing its dirty deeds.
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