Yesterday WikiLeaks dropped another boatload of documents (in this case a quarter-million diplomatic documents) and unsurprisingly many politicians are miffed about it. Seriously miffed. New York's own representative Peter King (R-LI), incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, was so bothered by the website's leaks that, in letters to Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he's called for WikiLeaks to be designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and for its leader, Julian Assange, to be indicted under the Espionage Act (not that Assange doesn't have any other legal issues to deal with).
While other area lawmakers are speaking out firmly against the leaks (Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) thinks we “must use all means available to prosecute and punish this man for putting countless American lives at risk.”) King seems to be taking it up a notch by bringing in the T-word, writing "WikiLeaks appears to meet the legal criteria for FTO designation as a (1) a foreign organization; (2) engaging in terrorist activity or terrorism which (3) threatens the security of U.S. nationals or the national security of the United States. Specifically...WikiLeaks engaged in terrorist activity by committing acts that it knew, or reasonably should have known, would afford material support for the commission of terrorist activity."
So will the Obama administration declare a Swedish-based website a Terrorist Organization? We'll certainly find out soon enough— though Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn) of all people made the point on Imus in the Morning that "Normally we reserve that designation for groups that fit the traditional definition of terrorism, which is that they are using violence to achieve a political end."
