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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChris Hedges: "We Steal Secrets:" State AgitProp...On Bradley Manning
We Steal Secrets: State Agitprop" (Chris Hedges on Bradley Manning)
by Chris Hedges
Is the most important thing about Martin Luther King Jr. the fact that he was a serial adulterer? Did Kings infidelities invalidate his life and struggle? Do the supposed defects of Assange and Manning negate what they did? Gibney would have us believe they do. Manning, in a just world, would be a witness for the prosecution of those who committed war crimes. Assange would be traveling around the United States collecting First Amendment awards.
The persecution of Manning and Assange is not an isolated act. It is part of a terrifying assault against our most important civil liberties and a free press. Manning and Assange are the canaries in the mineshaft. They did not seek to sell the documents that WikiLeaks published or to profit personally from their release. They are part of the final, desperate battle under way to stymie the security and surveillance states imposition of corporate totalitarianism. They and others who attempt to expose the crimes of the statesuch as Jeremy Hammond, who admitted in a plea agreement last week that he had hacked into the private intelligence firm Stratfor and who faces up to 10 years in prisonwill be ruthlessly persecuted. And the traditional media, which printed the secret cables provided by WikiLeaks and then callously abandoned Manning and Assange, will be next.
The Associated Press recently saw the state seize two months of its emails and phone logs, and the government has admitted seizing Fox News reporter James Rosens phone records. Half a dozen government whistle-blowers have been charged by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act. It is becoming harder and harder to peer into the inner workings of power. And once there are no Mannings or Assanges, once no one is willing to take risks to expose the crimes of empire, there will be no freedom of the press.
The fundamental conceit of We Steal Secrets is that Assanges concern about the possibility of being arrested by U.S. authorities is a product of paranoia and self-delusion. The vast array of intergovernment forcesat least a dozendedicated to arresting Assange, extraditing him and destroying WikiLeaks is, Gibney would have us believe, fictional. I detailed these forces in The Death of Truth. The refusal to acknowledge the massive campaign against Assange is the most disturbing aspect of the film. There are numerous indications, including in leaked Stratfor emails, that a sealed indictment against Assange is in place. But Gibney refuses to buy it.
Had the secret-leaker become the secret-keeper, more and more fond of mysteries? Gibney asks in the film. The biggest mystery of all was the role of the United States. Over two years after the first leak, no charges had been filed by the U.S. Assange claimed that the U.S. was biding its time, waiting for him to go to Sweden, but there was no proof.
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Adrian Lamo, who worked as an FBI informant, faking a friendship with Manning to sell him out, is given a perch in the film to wring his hands like Judas over how agonizing it was for him to turn in Manning. He did it, he assures us, to keep the country safe, although no one has ever been able to point to any loss of life caused by the leak of the secret documents.
I care more about Bradley than many of his supporters do.
And I had to betray that trust for the sake of all of the people that he put in danger, Lamo says tearfully. It is one of the most cloying moments in the movie.
MUCH MORE AND WORTH THE READ AT:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/06/03-11
KoKo
(84,711 posts)"Is the most important thing about Martin Luther King Jr. the fact that he was a serial adulterer? Did Kings infidelities invalidate his life and struggle? Do the supposed defects of Assange and Manning negate what they did? Gibney would have us believe they do. Manning, in a just world, would be a witness for the prosecution of those who committed war crimes. Assange would be traveling around the United States collecting First Amendment awards."
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)Also, as I detailed in post # 3, I think the dismissal of victims of sexual assault in this Hedges' piece is offensive.
backscatter712
(26,355 posts)Every time MLK Jr. was brought up in a thread, the crabs would be howling incessantly about rumors of his affairs, and refuse to let any discussion of the civil rights movement go without a huge flamefest about how MLK Jr's a horrible person for having an affair.
Can't have any fellows getting out of the bucket, can we?
zeemike
(18,998 posts)msanthrope
(37,549 posts)Calling one of the women who has filed charges against Assange an "estranged paramour" is disgusting and demeaning. Characterizing a rape charge as "sexual misbehavior" is just....unspeakable.
"We Steal Secrets" is a very uncomfortable film for Assange fans to watch. I get that. But demeaning a victim of sexual assault should be beneath a "progressive."
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)Except when they fear that the people will find out what they actually do when not waving the flag and talking about "transparent government".
Starts off with a RW slur of MLK Jr. and proceeds to slobber all over two Ron Paul-loving crooks.
Auto-Hedge hide.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)I'll give you "benefit of doubt" that you made a mistake replying to this thread...And, apologize "If" you made an honest mistake, though.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)STRATFOR wikileaks cache revealed incestuous relationship between intel insiders and Wall Street.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002366571
Response to Octafish (Reply #8)
KoKo This message was self-deleted by its author.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Carol Lam, fired by Gonzo and Turd Blossom, was gonna bust' em.
http://m.dailykos.com/story/2007/03/30/317829/-It-Was-All-About-Carol-Lam-Always
snot
(10,530 posts)to ignore the war crimes exposed by Assange to fixate on allegations that he had unpermitted sex without a condom. I don't mean to say the latter doesn't matter; but the difference in magnitude is extreme, to say the least.
We can't let ourselves be so easily distracted
And so some distract.
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)msanthrope
(37,549 posts)the director refused to pay him, and rightly so....
Alex Gibney: Not so well. I tried over the course of a year and a half to get the interview. Hed already been interviewed by practically everyone on the planet. Finally we had a six hour meeting. He told me that the market rate for an interview was a million dollars. I told him I dont pay for interviews. He said Thats too bad, in that case you might do something else for me. He wanted me to spy on our other interview subjectswhich I found a rather odd request from someone concerned about source protection. So I never did get the interview with Julian Assange.
Read more: http://www.thenation.com/blog/174526/we-steal-secrets-filmmaker-alex-gibney-talks-about-wikileaks#ixzz2VDOzQV9x
http://www.thenation.com/blog/174526/we-steal-secrets-filmmaker-alex-gibney-talks-about-wikileaks#
Pelican
(1,156 posts)It was his ideology that drove him and his need to hurt the organization that he had failed at and he felt had treated him unfairly.