IDEA FROM PROF. CORNELL WEST

Instead of Hillary Clinton and the U.S. Government concentrating on building a case against Wikileaks and Julian Assange for publishing secret cables from the State Department, how about Pres. Barack Obama directing his administration to crack down on wrong-doing contained and disclosed in the cables, such as the torture and other misdeeds committed by governments supposedly "friends" of the U.S., such as Tunisia, Iraq and China?

"CLASSIFIED" INFORMATION EMBARRASSING TO U.S. GOVERNMENT

Why is it when newspapers publish "classified" information it is always a threat to U.S. military personnel and an aid to America's "enemies?"

This is the response of politicians and government officials who hate to be embarrassed by information which casts doubt on their abilities and policies.

Witness Hillary Clinton's statement about the trove of classified information about the conduct of the Iraq War made public recently by Wikileaks. She said it was despicable and harmful. Oh yeah, right! This is the same response that the Obama people put out after the publication of information about the Afghan campaign. It was "illegal" and it could kill American soldiers and personnel of American allies. Has there been anyone who has been killed by the Afghan "classified" information? Do the uneducated cadres of the Taliban really sit down and read this stuff! Of course not!

The only reason for the sanctimonious huffing and puffing of American officials is because the public can see how incompetent the military and their supervisors in government really are.