Flashback Friday: The Case of Julian Assange

Miscellaneous quotes pertaining to Wikileaks and the Assange Case

Dark Shadows Over the Heartland

“It is impossible to correct abuses unless we know that they’re going on.”
—Julian Assange

"That's what a journalists job is, to hold those in power, elected politicians and everyone else to account, we have got to protect journalists"  
--Jeremy Corbyn speaking to Sky News on Assange

"The goal is to use Afghanistan to wash money out of the tax bases of the US and Europe through Afghanistan and back into the hands of a transnational security elite. The goal is an endless war, not a successful war.”  

--Julian Assange speaking in 2011

"He should be given a medal - he is contributing to democracy.”

--Noam Chomsky on Julian Assange

"To every political leader and journalist making and writing speeches: You can't save Navalny. You *can* still save Assange. If you're silent here, when and where you can actually influence the outcome, you were never standing up for principles—you were just hoping for applause."

--Edward Snowden,  Feb 20, 2024

"Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression." 

--James Madison, letter to Thomas Jefferson, October 17, 1788

“Their fear of Assange and malice toward him tells us that the WikiLeaks documents were real. Anyone who read them had their world view changed forever. Guessing and knowing are two different things.”

--Attribution uncertain

"As they lecture us endlessly about human rights in other countries, the Biden administration is trying to kill journalist Julian Assange for the crime of embarrassing the CIA. His wife Stella joins us from his extradition hearing", sad but very true!”

--Tucker Carlson

“It's crucial to untangle facts from politics in the Assange case. Yes, there were allegations that the CIA discussed actions against him, but that shouldn't overshadow the debate on press freedom. Assange's actions have raised complex questions about journalism and national security. While he may have broken the law by aiding hackers, the severity of his penalty should be assessed fairly. We need to consider the impact on freedom of expression and media accountability.”

--Quantica

"The contradiction of people screaming of the  treatment of Alexei Navalny say nothing over the treatment of Julian Assange. Wonder why that is?"

--Eric Pistey

"Why punish julian assange who is only the messenger of truth, he is not the perpetrator of the crimes committed by the USA who is trying to cover up their crimes by attempting to shoot down the messenger to sweep their crimes under the carpet and out of view."

--Sweet Jennet, x.com

“This is not justice; never could this be justice, the verdict was ordained long ago. Its function is not to determine questions such as guilt or innocence, or truth or falsehood. It is a public relations exercise, designed to provide the government with an alibi for posterity. It is a show of wasteful vengeance; a theatrical warning to people of conscience.”

—Julian Assange

“A Society that prohibits the capacity to speak in truth extinguishes the capacity to live in justice.”

—Chris Hedges

“The New York Times reported that Assange’s lawyers contend that the U.S. is prosecuting him for political reasons. That is correct. Assange very publicly shamed the U.S. government. And the U.S. government does not stand for humiliation. (Just witness its treatment of Iran for over 40 years because of the hostage crisis.) For that, Assange has been hounded, falsely accused, tortured, prosecuted and threatened with 175 years in prison. The same fate awaited whistleblower Edward Snowden, had he not had the sense to flee to a place the U.S. could not follow, namely Russia.... Had Assange died in Belmarsh prison, or should he, that would be fine with the United States, because there’s one thing the U.S. miitary and national security state will not tolerate and that is publication of their crimes abroad, in other words, the truth."

--Eve Ottenberg, CounterPunch, 19 February 2021  

"Wikileaks and Assange have done more to expose the dark machinations and crimes of the American Empire than any other news organization. Assange, in addition to exposing atrocities and crimes committed by the United States military in our endless wars and revealing the inner workings of the Clinton campaign, made public the hacking tools used by the CIA and the National Security Agency, their surveillance programs and their interference in foreign elections...And WikiLeaks worked swiftly to save Edward Snowden, who exposed the wholesale surveillance of the American public by the government, from extradition to the United States by helping him flee from Hong Kong to Moscow..."

—Chris Hedges

Thoughts on Journalism after Watching The Fifth Estate, a Film about Julian Assange

The Fifth Estate is a compelling film about the emergence of Wikileaks as a global force. It's extremely well done, especially seeing Benedict Cumberbatch become Julian Assange. The film is co-written by one of the characters in the film based on a book by that self-same person, Daniel Berg. 

This is not a review of the film, but a handful of thoughts about journalism, stimulated by having watched this last night. 

The world is full of secrets, but governments are especially shrouded in fog and veils of secrecy. If, however, government is purportedly as extension of the people, is granted power to rule by consent of the people, then how can we effectively trust them if we can't see what they are doing?

This is where journalism comes in. This is what "freedom of the press" is supposedly about. But when government agencies do really awful things and lie about it, the only way the truth gets out is for whistleblowers to call attention to these misdeeds. Unfortunately, the whistleblowers almost always pay a price for this, which can include losing one's livelihood, their standing in the community or even jail.

As Julian Assange put it, "This... really defines the essence of what we're trying to achieve. Privacy for the individual, transparency for institutions, with your personal safety as a whistleblower guaranteed through anonymity as an individual."

Daniel Domscheit-Berg

Daniel Berg, is a German technology activist who Assange recruited to help execute his vision. After a critical leak in which Assange and the team published unredacted material that put lives in danger, Berg split from Wikileaks and wrote a book about it titled Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website, which became the basis for this film, the chief criticism being that the story is slanted.

The reviews are fairly mixed, but I see this as an important film because it raises good questions and addresses issues that need to be assessed. 

What follows are quotes from various sources dealing with the journalistic profession.

"It takes two things to change the world and you'd be surprised how many people have good ideas. Commitment, true commitment, requires sacrifice."
--Julian Assange

Julian exposed another set of wars...what do you say to people like Chelsea Manning and Julian, who’s the principal target of the legal and judicial brutalities taking place, when they reveal stuff, which everyone knows it’s true, since some of it is on video — Americans bombing Iraqi families, totally innocent... laughing about it and are recorded killing them? That’s a big joke. Well, it isn’t a big joke for the millions who have died in the Arab world since these 20 years of war began. And Julian, far from being indicted, should actually be a hero... He should never have been kept in prison for bail. He should not be in prison now awaiting a trial for extradition. He should be released.

--Tariq Ali

You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can't lead to a good conclusion.
--Julian Assange

WikiLeaks... published nearly 400,000 field reports about the Iraq War, which contained evidence of U.S. war crimes, over 15,000 previously unreported deaths of Iraqi civilians, and the systematic murder, torture, rape and abuse by the Iraqi army and authorities that were ignored by U.S. forces.

--Marjorie Cohn

If Julian is to be prosecuted, then there’s an equally good case for the editor and journalists in The Guardian... New York Times, Der Spiegel, El País, La República and all the other organizations involved in this coverage being prosecuted, too. Obama, in spite of his liberal background, failed to stand up to the pressure from the intelligence agencies, and he used the draconian 1917 Espionage Act and other laws against whistleblowers and journalists. In fact, Obama was responsible for more prosecutions and action against journalists and whistleblowers than all the other presidents in the U.S. combined.
--Ewen MacAskill

The fat Russian agent was cornering all the foreign refugees in turn and explaining plausibly that this whole affair was an Anarchist plot. I watched him with some interest, for it was the first time that I had seen a person whose profession was telling lies—unless one counts journalists.

--George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia

Secretive power loathes journalists who do their job: who push back screens, peer behind façades, lift rocks. Opprobrium from on high is their badge of honour.
--John Pilger

Journalists can help people by telling the truth, or by as much truth as they can find, and acting not as agents of governments, of power, but of people. That is real journalism. The rest is specious and false.

It was a fatal day when the public discovered that the pen is mightier than the paving-stone, and can be made as offensive as the brickbat. They at once sought for the journalist, found him, developed him, and made him their industrious and well-paid servant. It is greatly to be regretted, for both their sakes. Behind the barricade there may be much that is noble and heroic. But what is there behind the leading-article but prejudice, stupidity, cant, and twaddle? And when these four are joined together they make a terrible force, and constitute the new authority.

--Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism

Today's quotes were prompted by the following statement from an article on Medium. It has nothing to do with The Fifth Estate, but makes a thoughtful contribution to what is being stirred here.

"What prompted me to journal for the first time in so long is the sense that I was hitting a new inflection point. I felt that the density of my personality had deteriorated. My inner life as of late has only one or two tempos. A full orchestra became just one oboe, and a viola. The cellos are gone, as well as the French horns."
--Timothy Kim, [journals] 11-26-2021

* * * * 

Trivia: Julian Assange contacted Cumberbatch and tried to dissuade him from being in the film.

Trivia: On September 18 2013, Wikileaks released a mature version of the complete script to the public, because "the film is, from WikiLeaks' perspective, irresponsible, counterproductive and harmful." They also published a "Talking Points" memo "because it represents a frank internal appraisal of [the film] and what is wrong with it."

Statement from one of the reviewers on imdb.com:
"It seems like so much of what we hear today, from politicians and celebrities and publicists is 'spin.' And most of us are aware that there's more than they're telling us."

Feedback welcome. This is intended as a conversation starter. Feel free to comment.

New Evidence That the Fix Is In: Vikings to Win Super Bowl LII

According to newly released documents from WikiLeaks, the Minnesota Vikings will not only be participating in the Super Bowl, they are slated to pull off the largest upset win in Super Bowl history, directly in front of their hometown fans in Super Bowl LII. *

A series of emails between NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and several owners debating how to respond to Brian Tuohy's accusations in The Fix Is In has now come to light. In one revealing memo Goodell declares he's "dazed and confused" by the accusations, while simultaneously he's unsure how to deep six a voice recording that's been floating around the Internet that has him laughing at the fortune he and his cronies will rake in when the Vikings run the table.

In another stolen email, Vikings chairman and owner Zygi Wilf has alleged that Goodell "promised" a Vikings victory, saying that "the NFL owes it to Vikings" after so many years of heartbreak. Wilf sent an email to 90-year-old former head coach Bud Grant requesting his presence at U.S. Bank Stadium on February 4. Grant replied that when the Vikings win he will strip to the waist and march around the stadium carrying the trophy "even if it kills me." (It was not clear from the email whether Grant mean he would walk around inside the stadium with the trophy or outside around the perimeter.)

IN OTHER NEWS the Minnesota Handoff Video has been released, with at least two shots from Duluth. WooHoo! Governor Dayton, the Bob Dylan Mural, Sid Hartman, the Jolly Green Giant, Austin Spam Museum and Bud Grant all make appearances as well, along with a host of other characters and Minnesota landmarks.

* EdNote: The WikiLeaks story is Fake News... but a Vikings win would make a good story. And the Minnesota Handoff Video is real.
   EdNote 2: The Super Bowl trophy image, logo and all NFL branded images inside the video are sole property of the NFL.

The Listeners

"The more data banks record about us, the less we exist." ~Marshall McLuhan

Listening is nothing new. By that I mean, listening in by others such as eavesdroppers or Big Brother. Back when the telegraph was invented people who wanted to send messages would have to give their messages to telegraph operators who relayed the message to a receiving operator who could then deliver the message. As people began getting paranoid about sensitive information or ideas of significant value being overheard, they often devised methods of coding their messages. Buy and sell orders from stock brokers might receive such treatment, for example.

If you watch old movies you'll occasionally see scenes in which telephone operators are all connecting callers and overhearing conversations. It must have been an interesting occupation. I remember the days of "party lines" in which multiple households shared a single phone channel. When you picked up the phone to make a call, you were supposed to listen first to make sure the line was available. As a kid I remember picking up the phone once and hearing two women talking. Instead of hanging up I kept listening, until one of them scolded me, ordering me to hang up.

There are other kinds of listeners. I don't know how much phone tapping the FBI did, but we know it happened. Americans who travelled to the Soviet Union would be warned that their phones were probably tapped as well.

The Lives of Others is a powerful film about the monitoring of East Berlin residents during the Cold War. The film focuses on a Stasi officer (GDR secret police) who is listening to the apartment of a playwright and a prominent actress. Would you live differently if you knew you were being monitored?

The Nixon White House was brought down in part by it's own "listening." The president had wired up the Oval Office (and maybe more) so as to capture all his conversations... including some that he would live to regret. When the tapes were subpoenaed by a special prosecutor for the Watergate break-in, segments were erased... without explanation.

When we're active in forums and in discussions on Facebook or other social media, we may not be aware of how many people are out there lurking. The word lurker brings to mind the image of a person standing behind the curtain in your living room while your family is having an important discussion, or not so important. To lurk is to be listening but not participating.

Maybe there is a sense in which our whole news media apparatus turns us into a nation of lurkers somehow. We listen to what the talking heads tell us about events in Washington or city hall, but most people don't participate in the discussion. Sporting events differ in this regard. The fans may not be on the field, but their cheering can energize a team to give it the extra oomph they need to bring home the winning touchdown.

This week's new WikiLeaks story is about last week's leaks regarding Clinton campaign and the tactics it used to undermine Bernie Sanders. Brings back memories of the antics Nixon's campaign chiefs pulled, which earned him the not so kind epithet "Tricky Dick." It's apparent that once you're a public figure, you really don't have much privacy anymore.

The listeners aren't just listening to important people. We're all being listened to... by Target, Amazon and anyone else with something to sell. In the early 1990's, when Amazon was just a twinkle in the eye of Jeff Bezos, Erik Larson wrote a book called Naked Consumer: How Our Private Lives Become Public Commodities. The book is about how companies "spy" on the private lives of consumers. One reviewer wrote:

Larson, in his clear and precise reporting, tells us how tax dollars have enabled marketers to find us, zero in on our secret wishes, and persuade us to buy things we don’t need. We are all on lists that help companies locate us, determine what we are patsies for, and how to make us empty our pocketbooks.

This was happening long before the Internet. Today it's 10X. I know that it creeps some folks out when they do a search for something unusual in the morning and an ad for the same item shows up on their Facebook page in the afternoon. Then again, proponents will argue that the consumer is always right, and what better way to give consumers what they want than to know them intimately. In other words, the marketers are listening.

Times have changed. The quantity of new info being broadcast per day is startling. When we speak out ourselves and strive to be heard, we're all too conscious of our voices being lost in the noise. And yet... it's quite apparent that someone, somewhere, really is listening.

Meantime, life goes on....