late wrote:I have no illusions here, he was a Russian pawn, but at the same time, he threw some light in some dark places.
We like to think of ourselves as something special. But the grim reality of empire keeps reminding us of the truth.
Yes, and Assange himself becomes the epitome of the abuses of the deep state as they make a mockery of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Very few people held Bush or Obama to account. Certainly not our so-called "free press." Assange played an important role.
late wrote:Democrats certainly would have agreed with Mike Pompeo, speaking in 2017 as CIA director before becoming secretary of state last year, when he said, “It is time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is: a nonstate hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.”
Perhaps, but Assange isn't a US citizen, owes no duty of allegiance to the US, and most of what he's published just embarrassed the establishment by exposing major fuck-ups that they have classified to save themselves from being held accountable. Nobody seriously thinks that he got that information himself. It was merely provided to Assange.
The problem then becomes that Assange has effectively been incarcerated for 10 years without trial, which makes all of the criticism of the US (and the UK) extremely well founded. I was fine with using military tribunals against Al Qaeda. Yet, nobody has had the balls to do it. Instead, they have kept people in Gitmo incarcerated for 19 years on a suspension of
habeas corpus and no formal charges, no trial, no firing squads, nothing. The establishment has made a mockery of the United States and the Bill of Rights with this sort of thing.
One thing you can't say about Al Qaeda anymore is that they hate us for our freedoms. So many of those freedoms are effectively gone. The establishment is to blame for that, not Al Qaeda, and certainly not Russia. Why shouldn't our adversaries take advantage of a colossal establishment fuck up like that?
ckaihatsu wrote:Okay, so your politics are now aligned with those of Mueller and Pompeo -- you're a CIA Democrat, basically.
It sure seems like it. He always defends the establishment.
"We have put together the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics."
-- Joe Biden