Julian Assange of Wikileaks, who is involved in a Kafkaesque ordeal, made the following statement on December 16, 2010:
It’s rather amazing how this interviewer doesn’t want to understand the situation. Maybe she would get it if she had been accused of a terrible crime by the corporate news media, and her name had been smeared across the Internet despite the fact that the prosecutor never actually brought any charges or produced evidence of any crime. Maybe then she would get it. The interviewer also can’t seem to wrap her head around the fact that Assange is likely being smeared by those countries and corporations that are being embarrassed by his devastating leaks of authentic documents.
This is nothing short of Kafkaesque.
Here's another recent video interview of Assange. Notice the first comment (following the interview) by the female host: "He remains defiant."
I will repeat my rant from above. "Ma'am, how the fuck would YOU feel if the worldwide media had intensely smeared you for a month as a criminal despite the lack of any charges filed against you and the lack of any evidence? Would YOU be a bit defiant? Or, perhaps you'd like to share with your audience the evidentiary basis for your personal belief that Mr. Assange has committed a crime?"
Interesting too, how the hosts both completely ignore Assanage's revelation of U.S. cable indicating that there are 1,200 cases of torture by India in Kashmir.
How sad that this reporter is more interested in adding to the smear campaign against Julian Assange than in uncovering the truth. What total disrespect of another human being and manipulation of information! Her questions assume facts not proved and she constantly interrupts. I can't help but wonder if she was raped herself and is simply looking for a way to get back at all rapists. Or does she just hate men? Or is she being paid off? This kind of junk is why I turn the TV off. I am truly offended. Why do we not have the right to know what our governmental officials are doing? They have made such a mess of things, I think they seriously need our help.
Another reason to move your money away from big banks like Bank of America.
Bank of America Corp said on Saturday it will not process payments intended for WikiLeaks, which has angered U.S. authorities with the mass release of U.S. diplomatic cables.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40728284/ns/business/
I heard a discussion on MSNBC that the Wikileaks documents have caused "great damage" to the U.S. because they indicate that President Karzai is corrupt and unstable.
As I understand this discussion, it's OK to keep this from the U.S. taxpayers, who are pouring billions of dollars every month into propping up Karzai. Brilliant! Beautiful analysis. Instead of blaming Wikileaks, maybe we should throw the whole lot of our politicians out of office for political malpractice. Is there really no better strategy for Afghanistan? Is there really no better way to spend enormous amounts of tax dollars?
But most of the mainstream media rants about Julian Assange instead of leveling blistering criticism at U.S. foreign and domestic policy being conducted by our secretive elitist government officials. Thanks to Wikileaks, it's all looking more and more like our government operates much like a a bunch of immature and egotistic high school student government council rather than conducting the straightforward and professional negotiating of honorable policy interests on behalf of American citizens.
Excerpt from statement by Larry Flynt, who recently donated $50,000 to Wikileaks:
I'm sick and tired of the politicians and political pundits treating this man as if he were a criminal. If WikiLeaks had existed in 2003 when George W. Bush was ginning up the war in Iraq, America might not be in the horrendous situation it is today, with our troops fighting in three countries (counting Pakistan) and the consequent cost in blood and dollars. . . Julian Assange should not face a prison sentence. We should have a ticker-tape parade for this brave man.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/798159
At Huffpo, check out the comments in reaction to Joe Biden's statement that Wikileaks has "made it difficult to conduct out business with our allies and our friends. … It has done damage."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/19/joe-bide…
A few examples:
"The mess we are in now is the result of the citizenry allowing these b*st*rds to continually get away with concealing the crookedness, cynicism and knavery with which they operate, all the while wrapping their garbage in the American flag."
and
"The secrecy of our government and even military has reached criminal levels. The air force to this very day refuses to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. They're hiding things, even when it's required by law to be up front about it."
and
"What Wikileaks is doing should be the norm in the journalism of a healthy democracy. "
and
"It's because world leaders don't want the truth to be known that they sell out their own people for $$$."
and
"It just goes to show that we need to turn things around in this country and its policies to where truth is our ally, not our nemesis."
and
"Every one of you should be bothered by his pronouncement. He/the govt is doing a great job applying the terrorist stamp to something he just doesn't like. This makes it easier and easier to shut down anyone, and I do mean anyone (left or right) that says something they don't like."
and
"Wait a darn minute! Just yesterday, VP Biden was saying that Assange hadn't done any appreciable damage to our country, or our diplomatic processes! Which is it? He can't have it BOTH ways?"
and
"Joe Biden has lost his mind (and I even like the guy). Making his job more difficult is not an act of terrorism. It is the duty of the press to shed light on the dark manuverings of power and right now nobody BUT Wikileaks is doing it. If you think the Government has a right so shut people up and imprison them because they are posting true documents and embarrassing you, then you do NOT understand true democracy. Nor do you understand the definition of terrorism."
and
"Whose life was endangered? Have you bothered to read any of the cables? Or any of the reports on the cables? If all you do is take the word of the government then you will never know the truth."
and
"not much said about Wiki until there was a mention of leaking BANK data . . . "
and
"I think we have the right to know that Hillary Clinton wanted DNA samples of visiting foreign leaders during the 1990's and how some U.S. soldiers requested male child prostitutes in Afghanistan. Horray Wikileaks!"
and
"Remember when you guys came in and were asked by various international organizations to look into Bush-era war-crimes? Remember how you didn't? In many people's eyes, the US already had no credibility."
and
"The US Congress are more like terrorists then Assange could ever hope to be. They are constantly assaulting the US Constitution and individual rights."
and
"The PATRIOT Act made our officials think that they are entitled to hide information from us. Fact is, if their foreign policy would be in the interest to bring peace, NOT in the interest to maintain U.S. world dominance there would be nothing to hide. Shutting down the Wikileaks website and pushing companies to cut services to Wikileaks is the equivalent of burning books."
and
"Hey Joe, You work for the U.S. Taxpayer, not for some secret fraternity club in the State Dept. "
and
"Crawl back under your rock and wait while Assange fumigates the place."
and
"Biden just wants to continue to do all things in secret. These sociopaths do not want the truth out when exposes how ridiculous and conspiratorial they all are."
and
"Too bad Biden doesn't speak out against anonymous d.rone attacks k.illing children."
and
"The powers that be are totally freaked because their old reliable tools of fear and bogus patriotism are no longer cutting it, at the very same time the world economy is all falling apart and they want to maintain control more than ever. Brace yourself folks, its gonna be a bumpy ride."
Julian Assange speech after losing a British extradition ruling:
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"The police investigator who first interviewed two Swedish women about allegations of rape and sexual assault against Julian Assange is a friend and political associate of one of the women, a Swedish newspaper has claimed.
The female officer became friends with the woman referred to in court as Miss A through Sweden's Social Democratic party, in which both are involved, according to Expressen.
The pair corresponded on the internet 16 months before the allegations were made against Assange."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/10/julia…