2010 ended with the holidays, and that seemed to smooth over much of the outrage for most people. It only took a couple of weeks for Julian Assange to drift into that dreaded place in the American thought process where an issue is suspended between fairy tale and something out of a Tom Clancy novel — a place where serious issues go to stagnate. Don’t let that happen, stay angry.

Most people are not aware of the cable from the Kabul embassy discussing what has been dubbed the “dancing boy scandal,” something that has made me deeply ashamed and embarrassed of my country.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ll bring you up to speed with a paragraph from humantrafficking.change.org’s article about it.

“DynCorp is a government contractor which has been providing training for Afghan security and police forces for several years. Though the company is about as transparent as a lead-coated rock, most reports claim over 95% of their budget comes from U.S. taxpayers. That’s the same budget that DynCorp used to pay for a party in Kunduz Province for some Afghan police trainees. The entertainment for the evening was bacha bazi boys, whose pimps were paid so the boys would sing and dance for the recruits and then be raped by them afterward. That’s your tax dollars at work — fighting terrorism and extremism in Afghnistan by trafficking little boys for sex with cops-in-training.”

The reaction of the then Interior Minister of Afghanistan, Mahammad Hanif Atmar, sums up what has become common place in our country when politicians are faced with accountability. According to the Wikileaks cable, “Atmar said he insisted the journalist be told that publication would endanger lives. His request was that the U.S. quash the article and release of the video.”

Why wouldn’t he do this though, this has been a tried and true strategy in our own nation. When the chips are down and something unsavory is about to be exposed to public light, tell people that it is in their own best interest not to know. Don’t stop there, tell them that not only is it in their own best interest not to know, but if the information gets out the public will be endangered. I’m surprised that he didn’t bring in the tired bogey men of our generation and say, “If someone publishes information about this al-Qaeda and the Taliban will kill Americans.”

I wouldn’t have found any of this out without Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Is it a wonder that our nations government is so angry that he published these documents? Does it make a little more sense now that the Department of the Sate does not consider Julian Assange a journalist?

Philip J. Crowley, the current United States assistant secretary of state for public affairs said on Dec. 7, 2010, “Well, earlier today, we announced that we proudly will host UNESCO’s 2011 World Press Freedom Day. And that is — that’s something that’s enshrined in our Constitution. It’s something that we promote day in and day out all around the world. We understand and appreciate and support the vital role that journalists have in creating a civil society around the world in holding governments to account. It is essential to the advance of good governance and, country by country, the advance of democracy. And we understand that you and your colleagues in various parts of the world are subject to intimidation and legal action and in some cases assassination every single day. So we appreciate and without hesitation continue to support the role of journalists in your daily pursuits. In our view, Mr. Assange is not a journalist.”

Did anyone else catch the part where he says that ” … we understand that you and your colleagues in various parts of the world are subject to intimidation and legal action and in some cases assassination every single day,” and then goes on to denounce Assange as a journalist?

Funny thing is that when you bring up the Wikiepdia for Assange the fifth word in his description is “journalist” with three citations to it.

Shortly after this some journalists started writing about how it was ironic that the U.S. would host World Press Freedom Day, considering how it had just run Wikileaks right out of the country and cut off the ability of Americans to donate to Wikileaks.

Of course there are those who — for whatever asinine reason — wrote columns putting forward that it wasn’t ironic because of the United States has the First Amendment. One column in particular struck me as particularly foolish, it was written by Alexandra Petri for The Washington Post.

It pretty much sums up everything that is wrong with this country.

Assange brings to light many things, one of them being state sponsored pedophilia, and the U.S. looses it’s mind and runs his organizations out of the country. The U.S. then announces that it will host World Press Freedom day — cue Admiral Ackbar yelling “It’s a trap!” — and many point out how ironic that is.

What does Petri have to say? Oh, just the semantics of what irony means, and broken logic pointing out how it isn’t ironic. Here’s an idea Alexandra, why don’t you stand up for those that are trying to help you instead of acting like a child. I know that departing from nationalism might be disconcerting, but it’s part of growing up.

Such behavior is to be expected in these dark and troubled times in our nation. Many will turn their face away from what is happening, many will out right deny what is happening is even taking place, and others will stand up for what they believe.

If there is any guidance to be sought from yesterday’s heroes, the words of Captain America ring poignant and true when he said in Amazing Spider-Man #537, “Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — ‘No, you move.'”

To everyone who condemns those that speak out, to everyone who is willing to join the clamor of parrots saying that this isn’t happening and our government is right, to everyone that is willing to compromise our liberty for a false sense of security: No, you move.