Newt Gingrich: Elect him and get Assange killed?

Newt Gingrich, one of the favorites to win the Republican primary election in 2012, spoke on "Fox News Sunday" today where he attacked President Obama's handling of the WikiLeaks issue, as well as WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.

“This administration is so shallow and so amateurish about national security that it is painful and dangerous,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich was harder on Assange.

“Information warfare is warfare, and Julian Assange is engaged in warfare,” Gingrich said. “Information terrorism, which leads to people getting killed, is terrorism. And Julian Assange is engaged in terrorism. He should be treated as an enemy combatant. WikiLeaks should be closed down permanently and decisively.”

Like George W. Bush, Gingrich is well on the way in his effort to change the meaning of words. Like Bush, Gingrich will probably also succeed to some degree. That WikiLeaks does something that most certainly is protected by the first amendment, that what Assange does probably doesn't mirror warfare (hacking etc. could be) and that terrorism doesn't involve the release of documents on the Internet, doesn't seem to matter in this regard. The next Republican president will offer some interesting challenges for the media too. Maybe it's better to just get used to reading the Guardian?