Gingrich: Assange an 'enemy combatant' but fault is Obama's

The founder of the whistleblower website responsible for releasing thousands of secret documents should be treated as an enemy of the US, according to a former Republican Speaker of the House.

Newt Gingrich became the latest conservative Sunday to suggest that WikiLeak's Julian Assange deserves to be hunted and executed by calling him an "enemy combatant."

"I approach this very seriously," Gingrich told Fox News' Chris Wallace. "Information warfare is warfare. Julian Assange is engaged in warfare."

"Information terrorism, which leads to people getting killed is terrorism. And Julian Assange is engaged in terrorism," he continued.

"He should be treated as an enemy combatant and WikiLeaks should be closed down permanently and decisively," Gingrich said.

The former House Speaker added that the Obama administration deserved much of the blame for the leaked documents.

"This is a system so stupid that it ought to be a scandal of the first order," he said. "This administration is so shallow and so amateurish about national security that it is painful and dangerous."

Gingrich, who is now a paid pundit at Fox News, is just the latest conservative to call for violence in response to the WikiLeaks releasing 250,000 secret US diplomatic cables.

Townhall's John Hawkins wrote a column last week entitled "5 Reasons The CIA Should Have Already Killed Julian Assange."

Fox News contributor Sarah Palin took to her Facebook page to suggest that Assange deserved the same treatment as terrorists and insurgents.

"Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?" she asked.

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told NBC's David Gregory Sunday that Assange is a terrorist.

"I think the man is a high tech terrorist…he’s done enormous damage to our country and to our relationships with our allies around the world, and he should be prosecuted," McConnell said.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was caught on video at a book signing at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif. saying that the person that leaked the documents to WikiLeaks should be executed.

"Whoever in our government leaked that information is guilty of treason," Huckabee said. "I think anything less than execution is too kind a penalty."

Palin, Huckabee and Gingrich are all paid Fox News contributors who are thought to be contenders for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Gingrich indicated Sunday that he was likely to make a presidential bid.

"We're much more inclined to run than not run," he said.

This video is from Fox's Fox News Sunday, broadcast Dec. 5, 2010.

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