Syria jails schoolgirl blogger for 5 years

[dixiegrrrrl]

Source: Reuters

DAMASCUS, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A special Syrian security court sentenced a teenaged blogger on Monday to five years in jail on charges of revealing information to a foreign country, despite U.S. calls to release her, rights defenders said.

The long jail term for high school student Tal al-Molouhi, under arrest since 2009 and now 19 years old, is another sign of an intensifying crackdown on opposition in Syria in the wake of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, they said.

Molouhi had written articles on the Internet saying she yearned for a role in shaping the future of Syria, which has been under the control of the Baath Party for the last 50 years.

She also asked U.S. President Barack Obama to do more to support the Palestinian cause. A security court charged her several months ago with "revealing information that should remain hushed to a foreign country".

Read more: http://af.reuters.com/article/tunisiaNews/idAFLDE71D26I20110214

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Wow.

[Boswell]

1. sounds very much like the calls we hear

to "String-up" Assange...

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. It makes the Syrians, who are trying to protest, very brave in the face of acts like this.

[pnwmom]

5. This girl wasn't leaking any government documents.

It's ludicrous to compare her situation with Manning's or Assange's. (And I've never heard calls to "string up Assange." I assume you've heard that from freepers.)

[TheMadMonk]

6. Whether the exact phrase "string up" was used or not...

...the sentiment from certain parties (including many namable individuals here) certainly has run in that direction.

And the materials exchanged is largely irrelevant. What is relevant is the crime for which all three are being punished, or threatened with punishment: DISENT

[pnwmom]

7. The materials "exchanged" are critically relevant.

All the young girl was doing was sharing her own opinions.

Manning, on the other hand, was a military person sworn to protect the government who was "sharing" hundreds of thousands of confidential diplomatic documents. (In addition to leaking the war documents, which may well have been justified.)

[TheMadMonk]

10. The subject of THIS sub-discussion is ASSANGE.

And many individuals here on DU have called for him to be treated pretty much exactly like this girl (AND far worse).

Locked up (or killed extra-judicially) not for any infraction of the law, but for daring to embarrass powerful people.

For daring to embarass Amurika. A "crime" which saw certain people I once respected (even when I often didn't agree with them) standing foursquare with Glen Beck et. al. Jail, Gitmo, hitsquad and formal execution all came as suggestions from long time DUers. If "stringing him up" wasn't amongst the suggestions, it was oversight not good sense which kept it off the list.

As for Manning, his treatment is so far beyond the pale that no possible crime on his part can possibly justify it.

And since a good many of the diplomatic documents speak (at least peripherally) to many of the issues raised by the earlier release of the war documents their release is as justified as the first.


I say again, the "crime" of Tal al-Molouhi, Assange and Manning, that is of interest to the powers that be, is disent and the potential for these individuals to become nuclei around which widspread disent might nucleate.


Consider the case of nuclear "secrets" going astray (straight to Bejing) from Los Alamos Laboratories not that long ago. Of the booming trade in more such secrets through Turkey which cost Siebel Edmonds her career. Of any number of futher instances of improperly "shared" American secrets which went unpunnished. Secret material far more sensitive than anything in the documents Manning "liberated" with the assistance of Assange's organisation.

[pnwmom]

11. Assange isn't a citizen, so he has no obligation to keep our secrets.

And he'll never be charged with such a crime, much less put into prison like that young girl. Manning, however, is in serious trouble.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended for democracy in Syria.

Thanks for the thread, dixiegrrrl.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. You are welcome.

:hi:

[Jokinomx]

4. They (Syrian Gov) suppress and it works for awhile however

sooner or later the suppressed will fight back. That is how it's always been. The people just need a catalyst to start the movement. Hopefully the good people of Syria will also get a government that won't abuse it's citizens.

[blackspade]

8. Sounds like kindergarten

"revealing information that should remain hushed to a foreign country"
Seriously? this is the best they could come up with?