Is "Terrorist" the new "Communist" ?

Whistleblowing site WikiLeaks' latest leak of hundreds of thousands of classified documents has led to immense condemnation from American law makers on both sides of the aisle.  One congressman, Rep. Peter T. King (Rep-NY) even went as far as to send a formal letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  In his letter Rep. King states his case in hopes of having Wikileaks.com labeled a Foreign Terrorist Organization.  He asserts,

   
  "From these acts, 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, pursuant to Section 212 (a)(3)(B) of INA (8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(3)(B)) 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."

Is Wikileaks a terrorist organization as defined by the legal definition of FTO's?

Yes.... and no.  Breaking down the answer we see that in order to be classified as a FTO, the suspect in question must fulfill a criteria including three characteristics. First, is it a foreign organization? By the sites own emission it is.

"Wikileaks was founded by Chinese dissidents, journalists, mathematicians and startup company technologists, from the US, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa." 

The second characteristic it must fulfill in order to be classified a FTO is, does the group engage in terrorist activity or terrorism?


This is where the things start to get hazy.  What is terrorism?


The League of Nations defined terrorism in 1937 as "criminal acts directed against a State and intended or calculated to create a state of terror in the minds of particular persons or a group of persons or the general public"

The dictator led National Reorganization Process of late 1970's Argentina definied terrorism as "not only who sets bombs and carry guns, but also those who spread ideas opposite to christian and western civilization"

India's Supreme Court defined terrorism in 2003 as "peacetime equivalents of war crimes."

 Our own government has had an equally difficult time defining the term as illustrated by the fact that it is written in to multiple laws.


U.S.C. Title 22, Chapter 38 defines it as "the term 'terrorism' means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents;"

U.S.C. Title 18 says, "involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State; [and] appear to be intended . . . to intimidate or coerce a civilian population"

These are just a few of the many definitions offered up by organizations and states who over the years have struggled to define such a complex act.  The reason it is so difficult to define is because no two acts of terrorism are committed in the same way or for the same reasons.  This is why there is no cookie cutter definition just as there is no single way to combat it.  It is ever changing and as a result our definitions of the horrific acts of terrorism have continued to change. The term has become so loaded that it is reminiscent of how the word "Communist" was thrown around during the 1950's.  We can now look back and say that while there were agents with a goal of spreading Communism in The United States, most of the people labeled as "Communist" were only done so because they were disliked or seen as a threat, regardless of where their political ideologies laid.  Is Julian Assange and Wikileaks an enemy of The United States Government? Absolutely, and probably could be convicted on behalf of the Espionage Act. But to label Wikileaks a terrorist organization is to skew the already loaded word and possibly even make it more difficult to define and ultimately combat true terrorism.   Is Wikileaks a terrorist organization?  Whatever your opinion, I'm sure there is a definition out there to support your position.