Senior Guardian hacks turn on Assange An intriguing mini-drama has emerged from backstage at the WikiLeaks theatre. Julian Assange has fallen out with the two senior Guardian journalists who have been central figures in the global publishing of classified US military and diplomatic documents this year. Arguably, he's not a man who can afford to lose friends at the …
>>"So now he's signed up "exclusively" with Murdoch's Times. Gosh."
>
>Many would consider that a real dumb move, totally at odds with the spirit of Wikileaks.
Speaking of 'Mammon', the saintly aura surrounding St. Jules (partially clipped away to reveal a hoary lower layer) fades daily. He intends to profit from his racket:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/21/julian-assange-memoirs
Not so squeaky clean then, eh? No longer St. Julian from Heaven, but El Diablo Julian from Hades. Think on the possibilities here.
This story epitomises why I have little or no time for either Assange, or Wikileaks. Aside from the rampant hypocrisy of Assange, it shows that he is not a whistleblower calling time on nefarious dealings. He is just dumping stuff on the web as a means of either self promotion, or spurious justification of his wrong doings.
It is indeed nice to see the tables have been turned for a change.
So Assange's reaction to being fitted up is "conspiratorial" and is mockingly attributed to (woooo) "unseen dark forces".
So the Reg joins the ranks. This shameful Wikileaks hunt has been more revealing than any popular conspiracy theory could ever hope to achieve. I ashamed to be human, frankly.
I think you will find it was Assanges lawyer who attriuted the allegations to 'dark forces'. So who is mocking who?.
I think you will also find its Assange and co who attribute this extradition busniess to some kind of giant conspiracy relating to his entirely unrelated wikileaks shennanigans.
He says that during the humphries interview. The allegations of rape have nothing to do with wikileaks.
So boo shucks to you!
Oh, yeah whilst typing this post I was listening to the humphries interview. He is a creep, I have no sympathy. Thats my impression.
I heard John Humphrys' s interview with him this morning and I thought that Humphrys pwned him. Assange came over as an arrogant whiner. Whether his is or not is a different matter but he seemed it in the interview.
See http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9308000/9308216.stm for the interview
I have no opinion on whether or not Julian Assange is guilty or even has a case to answer in Sweden. But a lot of people listening to that interview form their opinions based on how he sounds. And sad as it may seem, a lot of people base their opinions on how people look or sound.
Going on Today was a bad move for Assange. John Humphries technique was honed on politicians with skins so thick they're sought after in Chinese medicine. Assange's lawyers or publicists should have spent enough time with him to know he wasn't going to come across well.
Maybe he would have come across better on the One Show with Chris Evans?
Assange put himself in the spotlight. Either he should receive proper media training or he should pick and choose who he is interviewed by (i.e. definitely not Paxo & chums) , or he should keep his mouth shut and confine interviews to email. The latter is probably more in keeping with his character anyway. While there are some people who can't or won't accept it, everytime he opens his yap in the non-specialist media he is undermining himself and wikileaks.
"Either he should receive proper media training or he should pick and choose who he is interviewed by (i.e. definitely not Paxo & chums) , or he should keep his mouth shut and confine interviews to email."
<Irony>Buhbuhbubuh^but he's a journalist an' an editor, didn't you know?</Irony>
I listened to 2 minutes of the same interview and turned the radio off. I'd rather drive in (relative) silence than listen to John Humphrys' forthright wittering.
There are lots of people in this world who have opinions, and lots of people who are able to ask awkward questions and that alone should tell you that the ability to have an opinion and ask awkward questions isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be.
Maybe Assange is creepy - that doesn't make him guilty.
Maybe Assange is guilty - that doesn't mean WikiLeaks is doing the wrong thing.
Rarely in the field of human conflict can such an unappealing set of combatants have entered the same ring. In no particular order...
Murdoch Empire
Grauniad
Divers crooked governments
Assange
At a pinch I'd still back the underdingo - but wish rather they would all just annihilate each other in a puff of hadrons.
Well done.
Personally, I tend to think of egos sort of like the magnetic field of an inductor. Ever charged up a powerful inductor and then severed the connection on both ends? The magnetic field collapses with nowhere to go but the inductor itself and the inductor rather suddenly isn't very happy. I personally wish that all four of the entities mentioned would very suddenly and abruptly have everyone ignore them. The lack of attention would cause their egos to collapse suddenly and abruptly, hopefully converting the lot of them into a pink mist.
I am quite convinced it is a honeypot, just not a CIA honeypot.
It's a honeypot from a different branch of the anarchists mob. It got sprung at this point in time because he wasn't important enough before now for the accusations to catch much wind. Best part for them is not only does it advance their specific subcause (all sex is rape) it also helps undermine trust in government because they can play the fascist CIA card.
Not that Beck played that angle. He didn't seem to know what was going on, just that it was all rather fishy.
Hmmm,
I can believe that that is certainly possible but please tell me you do know that Glenn Beck is full of shit though, don't you?
He recently connected the student protests in London with Assange and then a circular nonsensical connection to George Soros. The student protests were not about attacking Royals or Wikileaks even remotely, quite simply they were about many young voters who had their first opportunity to vote, voted for the Lib Dems as they had a policy pledge that affected them directly and were let down badly.
I actually think that there is a case for a rise in fees or a reduction of the number of students but you can't get away from the fact that the voters were lied to. (yeah, yeah - colation this, compromise that - Bullshit, it was a direct lie to a large section of their voters)
Anyway i digress - Glenn Beck is an idiot!
Mr Assange should remember there is no honour amongst journalists. If you make yourself the story, your former journalistic comrades will turn on you and treat you like you're just another story. In the meantime, I'm off to a flashmob snowball fight in Regents Park. Should I get hit by too many snowballs I will be hiring Mr Assange's legal team and loudly proclaiming it was all a big conspiracy, as shown by the mobile records....
Merry Chrimbo one and all! Merry Traditional December Gift Day to those less inclined to the Christian fable.
There is a degree of honour amongst journalists, and I am glad to see it return: the good ones report without bias, and dig out the lies. Here are 3 free media tips for you:
1 - assume "off the record" does not exist.
2 - never, ever lie to a journalist, because you'll pay for that when (s)he finds out.
3 - never mention any assumptions either.
Assange cannot claim it's OK to disclose confidential information without agreeing to the same treatment. The information of the Swedish case against him clearly shows he's been telling stories that have no basis in reality, so I can well imagine he's pissed off. It shows, for instance, that this would not have blown up if Mr Ego would have done the decent thing.
Those women were not out to hang him, they were simply trying to get assurance that he had not infected them. By not bothering to respond to what I personally think was not an unreasonable request to get himself tested he basically dug his own hole, especially as he appeared to have been too impressed with himself to listen to these people.
He's a t*sser. Or I bet he wished he was one now..
"In June he contacted Assange in Brussels and suggested that professional reporters should comb the gigabytes of data WikiLeaks had obtained for stories.
The site's previous practice had been to dump raw material on its own website and hope it would be picked up by journalists. It was only moderately successful."
By this admission alone, taken at face value... Wikileaks isn't a newspaper, nor are their 'staff' reporters or journalists. So that any argument regarding Wikileaks as part of the press and should be afforded the protections of the press are misguided.
At the same time, it meant that Wikileaks didn't really censor or edit what they were dumping. Just tossing anything out there for the world to see.
But I digress... the point of the article is important.
It seems that Assange didn't quite understand that when you tell a reporter something you both know to be a bold face lie and to cry wolf, that the reporter will actually call you out on it.
Assange == Amateur
Nick Davies == Professional Journalist.
Big difference.
some interesting reading here
http://cryptome.org/0002/ja-conspiracies.pdf
A Supposed Assange essay from 2006 - his definition of conspiracy is fairly banal and probably rather disappointing to any illuminati hunters out there, but you can see why powerful people might take issue with him.
An interesting critique of said Essay here:
http://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/julian-assange-and-the-computer-conspiracy-%E2%80%9Cto-destroy-this-invisible-government%E2%80%9D/
All a bit intellectual but worth taking the time to read. I think it becomes pretty clear why Governments have lashed out, might all be the plan.
I'm not really bothered if Assange is a nice bloke or not and people who are trumpeting the irony of having details of the allegation leaked are essentially missing the main point. Irony aside, there is a significant difference between transparency of government officials actions and the privacy of individuals.
For example, if i were a US citizen, I don't think i should have the right to know what colour knickers Hilary Clinton wears but i should know what is done in regards to Foreign policy issues.
History is littered with example after example of leaders engaged in abuses of power and covering them up, there should be transparency and mechanisms to allow for these people to be held accountable by the people that vote for them.
Time has shown that the whistleblower is often the most effective way to enact change. Assange may come across as a bit of a dick, but he certainly has the courage to stand up for what he believes. He has certainly upped the paranoia level of the US government, we'll have to wait and see what the long term results are.
AC 'cos the walls have eyes....
" History is littered with example after example of leaders engaged in abuses of power and covering them up, there should be transparency and mechanisms to allow for these people to be held accountable by the people that vote for them. "
Yes. And it was his self-assumed position of authority that Assange allegedly used to get his way with these women. He met them through an event he was invited to specifically because of Wikileaks.
As an self-selected leader, he more than anyone should be exposed if it seems that he has abused his power.
"As far as I'm aware "coming over as creepy" isn't an arrestable offence (yet). He just came over as softly spoken and extremely careful with his words to me."
Just wait until PC Suvidge catchs Mr A looking at him in a funny manner or, god forbid, urinating in a public convenience, then he'll be for it.
This was meant to be a joke until I relaised that if I'd used 'taking a photograph in a public place' then he could be under arrest
.
"In a rare and wide-ranging interview, the attorney general disclosed chilling, new details about the evolving threat of homegrown terror, and touched on topics ranging from Wikileaks to the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
What was uppermost on his mind, however, is the alarming rise in the number of Americans who are more than willing to attack and kill their fellow citizens. " ....... http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/attorney-general-eric-holders-blunt-warning-terror-attacks/story?id=12444727&tqkw=&tqshow=GMA&tqkw=&tqshow=GMA
Of course, because of mess the administration has made of everything with its financial meltdown and serial wars, is the real fear that those they have abused and lied to, come looking for them to settle the score. It is the frightened powers-that-be that keep pimping the terrorist outrages against the people threat, but that is just to stop you realising that it is their policies which are causing all the pain. And the people are getting wise to where the problems are originating from, and it aint from a cave in a foreign mountain range, that's for sure.
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