The news that the “US government obtained secret court orders to force Google Inc and a small Internet provider to hand over information from email accounts of a WikiLeaks volunteer” is now the latest government attack on peaceful American citizens to be revealed to the public. Jacob Appelbaum, “a volunteer for the campaigning website,” had his email history looked through by the government with the help of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a law “that allows the U.S. government to secretly obtain information from people’s email and cellphones without a search warrant.”

This is the same Appelbaum who “has been subjected to harassment, detention, and interrogation at airports by US agencies.” He has never been charged with a crime and the government has so far hid behind a wall of secrecy to avoid having to explain why he has been placed under surveillance.

I’ve written before about how activists, particularly those vocally against American wars, empire, or national security policies, are targeted for surveillance, harassment, and even prosecution, despite having never committed any discernible crime.

After all of this Awlaki business…I’m sort of left wondering what if Appelbaum happened to be vacationing in Morocco or some such country at the time of the government’s decision to frame his political activism as a crime without a name.

Update: Glenn Greenwald on Appelbaum: