WikiLeaks blasted Vice President Mike Pence and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley on Friday after they tweeted calls for Burma to release two imprisoned Reuters journalists.
In a tweet, Pence condemned a Myanmar court’s decision to reject the appeal of Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo who have been sentenced to seven years in prison for violating the Official Secrets Act.
While Pence is clearly in the right here, and the journalists should be freed, the double standard pointed out by WikiLeaks is mind numbing.
Deeply troubling to learn that #Burma’s courts upheld the convictions of 2 journalists today – failing a basic test in democracy. In the name of free & independent press, the gov’t of Burma should release these journalists immediately. The world is watching. #FreeWaLoneKyawSoeOo https://t.co/7SAEUfYtpo
— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) January 12, 2019
“Hard for US govt to advocate for Reuters journalists wrongly convicted for telling the truth when our editor has been arbitrarily detained, in violation of multiple U.N rulings, for reporting about the U.S. govt *killing* two Reuters journalists,” the official WikiLeaks account tweeted with a link to their Collateral Murder release.
Hard for US govt to advocate for Reuters journalists wrongly convicted for telling the truth when our editor has been arbitrarily detained, in violation of multiple U.N rulings, for reporting about the U.S. govt *killing* two Reuters journalists https://t.co/1OW8c5y2oq https://t.co/m7qx3YyfD7
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 12, 2019
Former UN ambassador (and neoconservative war hawk) Nikki Haley tweeted a similar sentiment, with a similar response from the news organization.
It is hard for the U.S. to advocate for two Reuters journalists abusively convicted by Myanmar for reporting the truth when Julian Assange has been arbitrarily detained for reporting the truth about the U.S. government *killing* two Reuters journalists. https://t.co/jFzuiRUaYo
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 12, 2019
The Collateral Murder video was one of WikiLeaks’ most stunning revelations in their impressive history.
The 2007 video revealed a US Apache helicopter strike in East Baghdad that left multiple civilians, Reuters photojournalist Namir Noor-Eldeen and his camera assistant Saeed Chmagh dead.
The US, prior to the video’s release, told Reuters that they did not know how the men died.
Chelsea Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the leak — serving seven before her sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama.
Meanwhile, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been living in the small Ecuadorian Embassy in London without any sunshine for six and a half years — as there are secret charges against him in the United States. As the Gateway Pundit reported earlier this week, the publisher is currently being arbitrarily detained in conditions more akin to political dissident in China or Stasi-era Germany — not a journalist claiming political asylum from a country that once promised to protect his right to publish information.
The ramped up restrictions and surveillance of Assange comes amid pressure from the US to get him out of the embassy and extradited to the U.S. where he will be placed on trial for the crime of publishing factual information that those in power did not want you to see. Sound familiar, Pence?
Assange entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on June 19, 2012. He was soon granted political asylum. The UK has long refused to acknowledge the findings of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD), which found that Assange is being arbitrarily and unlawfully detained and must be immediately released without the threat of arrest and compensated.
While there can be no argument that Burma should free the Reuters reporters, it is comical that Haley and Pence would even pretend that they actually care about the freedom of the press as long as the persecution of Assange continues.
The post Mike Pence Calls for Release of Reuters Journalists in Burma — Wikileaks Calls Out Mike Pence appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
