There are some unasked questions that stare back at a reader of yesterday’s long and factually undernourished New York Times article on the probable or possible material or sentimental links between Julian Assange and the interests of the Russian state.
Four times (including a subsidiary related article) we are offered a version of “US intelligence officials assert.” The unnamed officials assert that they know that certain Wikileaks documents, which reflect badly on the US and on Hillary Clinton, came from Russian spies. The story contains not a word about the basis for this assertion except the all-purpose confidence-building phrase “high confidence.” People who know more about hacking than Steven Erlanger and his co-authors have asserted we possess no reasonably sure way of tracing the source of such leaks
The story builds up Edward Snowden as an honest critic of Russia, quite different from Assange in that regard, but a certain opportunism mars the double portrait. One can’t help recalling that the Times attitude toward Snowden and other whistleblowers has been complicated and by no means consistently friendly or courageous.
Assange has been confined to the Ecuadorian embassy in London for more than four years, with considerable damage to his health. The article alludes to the determination by Hillary Clinton to take “aggressive” steps to punish him for the release of the Cablegate documents, which were humiliating to her State Department. It notes, soon after her vow, the announcement that the DOJ was launching an investigation of Wikileaks — and soon after that, the arrest of Assange by London police. These occurrences are mentioned in successive paragraphs but no connection is drawn. Did Mrs. Clinton make good her vow by exerting her influence to launch a grand jury investigation of Assange in the US and secure his arrest in London?
When explaining the reasons for Snowden’s decision to travel to Moscow, the article omits a relevant fact: the forced landing in Vienna, on July 1, 2013, of the plane carrying President Evo Morales of Bolivia. This extraordinary action was ordered by the president, Barack Obama, and his attorney general, Eric Holder, because they suspected that Snowden was on the plane. Assange believes that the US, given the chance, would hunt him down just as relentlessly. Is that an irrational belief?
As the empire becomes more and more totalitarian, providing the truth and exposing the lies becomes more and more dangerous.
irrational? i would imagine somebodies intelligence service-be it CIA, MI-5/6 or others would have had ample opportunity to infiltrate the security of the ecudoran embassy in london. that assange ( a self-serving narcissist whose is often at odds with the most senior members of wikileaks by making the claim that he “is” wikileaks) has not been harmed anymore then his confinement and continues to refuse to appear for legitimate charges of sexual assault in sweden makes the authors conspiracy seem a little weak.
As for the US press portraying Snowden as ‘highly critical’ of russia and putin? that depends on what press outlet one reads. i for one am not convinced that snowdon has not had to make a faustian deal with putin in order to avoid a much worse fate. one look at how RT tv is produced and presented and its no surprise that snowden is given some leeway to present critical views of russia as long as the us and the west ar his primary focus.
The American belief in anti-Russian propaganda is being used to disparage patriots and heroes, as well as prepare Americans for larger conflicts against the few nations with the ability to oppose America’s imperial expansion.
Irrational? It would be irrational to believe that should Assange fall into our hands that he might still be competent to aid in his own defense at trial after several years of solitary confinement and interrogation in a military brig or stockade.
No matter how many times I witness the msm flip what should be the focus of an issue to whatever they so choose I am always stunned that the masses fall for it. For instance the wikileaks release of DNC emails confirming the DNC had “rigged the system” for Clinton now it totally focused on the “Russians are coming” the Russians are influencing our election.
The DNC “rigged system” issue was really never picked up by anyone at MSNBC etc. Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews so sold out.
T