Wikileaks Is A Rare Truth Teller. Smearing Julian Assange Is Shameful - Pilger

[polly7]

By John Pilger

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Last December, I stood with supporters of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange in the bitter cold outside the Ecuadorean embassy in London. Candles were lit; the faces were young and old and from all over the world. They were there to demonstrate their human solidarity with someone whose guts they admired. They were in no doubt about the importance of what Assange had revealed and achieved, and the grave dangers he now faced. Absent entirely were the lies, spite, jealousy, opportunism and pathetic animus of a few who claim the right to guard the limits of informed public debate.

These public displays of warmth for Assange are common and seldom reported. Several thousand people packed Sydney Town Hall, with hundreds spilling into the street. In New York recently, Assange was awarded the Yoko Ono Lennon Prize for Courage. In the audience was Daniel Ellsberg, who risked all to leak the truth about the barbarism of the Vietnam war.

Like the philanthropist Jemima Khan, the investigative journalist Phillip Knightley, the acclaimed film-maker Ken Loach and others lost bail money in standing up for Julian Assange. “The US is out to crush someone who has revealed its dirty secrets,” Loach wrote to me. “Extradition via Sweden is more than likely …is it difficult to choose whom to support?”

No, it is not difficult.

Full Article: http://www.zcommunications.org/wikileaks-is-a-rare-truth-teller-smearing-julian-assange-is-shameful-by-john-pilger

[LiberalLovinLug]

1. thanks for this article

It heartening to hear other voices.

The blackout of not only Assange but any imagery of support he has is appalling though not surprising.

How can there be any left who doubt the main stream corporate owned media have an agenda to discredit the importance of this man and the organization he started.

[polly7]

11. You're very welcome.

I've read other accounts from time to time of huge support for Assange but Pilger, to me, is one of the most trustworthy, intelligent, journalists out there, and this one caught my eye. Of course it isn't in MSM's interest to show any of his support ...... he's been doing the job they were too scared to or were paid not to do.

[rachel1]

2. K&R nt

[struggle4progress]

3. Jemima Khan's recent piece on Assange is worth a read:

The inside story of how Julian Assange alienated his allies

[nxylas]

6. I've read it. It got extensive media coverage.

Whereas Pilger's piece only got published on Znet. Funny how that works.

[struggle4progress]

7. No, Pilger's bit was published in the Guardian:

Assange hate is the real cult

[struggle4progress]

12. Pilger's piece was also published in the New Statesman

WikiLeaks is a rare truth-teller. Smearing Julian Assange is shameful

[nxylas]

13. I stand corrected

Why thank you, yes I will have some barbecue sauce with my crow.

[struggle4progress]

4. I see that Wikileaks has just tweeted: "Today marks 800 days of Julian #Assange's detainment

without charge" Link

But even a minimal attention to fact will reveal the peculiarity of this reckoning: Mr Assange was granted bail 16 December 2010, after his arrest in London on 8 December 2010, and that is the whole extent of his detainment; thereafter, he was comfortably housed among adoring fans in the countryside -- until he chose to jump bail in mid-June 2012, abandoning further legal appeals, and costing his fans (who had put up their own money so he could be free during the court battle) several hundred thousand dollars when he decided to hide out in Quito's embassy Link Link



To count time spent avoiding the law as time spent in custody, of course, is highly unusual, though odd fashions of thought are surprisingly common in the cult of St Julian the Blessed Martyr

Pilger's bit here illustrates the cultic derangement perfectly: The essence of Khan's "attack" on Assange (says Pilger) is that "Ecuador granted Assange asylum without evidence." But the claim is, in fact, entirely a product of Pilger's fevered mind, for Khan never says that. His entire article is filled with such misrepresentations, which (on first impression) will seem inapposite in a bit purporting to praise "a rare truth teller" -- though perhaps it is merely a symptom of the double-think and resultant double-talk required of anyone who persists in the worship of St Julian, as the evidence increasingly suggests serious problems with the cult leader

Sadly, little supports the notion that Assange is "a rare truth teller" -- and much militates against it

[struggle4progress]

5. What, exactly, is the "damning, irrefutable evidence that Peirce presented

to the Australian government"?

[geek tragedy]

8. The same Pilger who claimed that Barack Obama is a CIA plant and an Uncle Tom?

Totally credible dude.

Bonus quote for our GLBTQ brothers and sisters:

Legal obstacles should not prevent people from marrying each other, regardless of gender. However, this is a civil and private matter; bourgeois acceptability is not yet a human right. The rights historically associated with marriage are those of property – capitalism itself. Elevating the “right” to marriage above the right to life and justice is as profane as seeking allies among those who deny life and justice to so many, from Afghanistan to Palestine.

[struggle4progress]

9. Yeah, it's the same Pilger

The racist flipside of anti-imperialism
For John Pilger to call Obama an 'Uncle Tom' betrays an ugly contempt for those who refuse his revolutionary romanticism
Sunny Hundal
Sunday 30 November 2008 08.00 EST

What do Ralph Nader, John Pilger and Ayman al-Zawahiri have in common?

Before Barack Obama has even taken office or signed a single bill, all three have dismissed him as a sellout by using racial slurs. One might be tempted to say, "at least give the guy a chance," but that would be a futile exercise.

The activist Ralph Nader and documentary filmmaker John Pilger both referred to him as an "Uncle Tom", while, more recently, al-Qaida No 2 al-Zawahiri said Obama was "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X, and lumped Obama together with Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell as "house slaves" ...

He later removed his pre-inauguration webpage calling Obama "Uncle Tom"

[geek tragedy]

10. On the plus side, no one with any kind of influence on anything cares about John Pilger. nt

[struggle4progress]

15. I should expect not, given his evident inability to construct a convincing argument and

his resultant reliance on personal attacks against people who disagree with him

Khan wrote an interesting and nuanced piece, that illustrates the considerable conflicts she experiences in considering the Assange case and (in addition) contains quite a lot of factual information

Pilger, on the other hand, misrepresents her position and largely contents himself with one-sided statements that suggest he cannot abide any suggestion that Mr Assange is anything other than a perfect saint:

... Mark Stephens .. charged him almost half a million pounds in fees and costs. This bill was paid from an advance on a book whose unauthorised manuscript was published by another “ally” without Assange’s knowledge or permission ...

is profferred as evidence that dear St Julian the Blessed Martyr is beset and oppressed on every side by rabid predators. But, of course, Mr Assange himself negotiated that book contract, for which he was paid a substantial advance that he himself handed over to Stephens for his extradition case work -- after which he failed to complete the book. Following some discussion with Mr Assange, who indicated he would not return the advance, and who refused to progress further on the book, the publisher finally, in accordance with the original contract, pulled together and published what they had. This story is much more informative when you know that Mr Assange had originally attempted to demand that the contract would allow him to keep the advance without any consequence, whether or not he produced the book, though this demand was not finally reflected in the contract. It sounds very much as if Mr Assange never intended to produce that book and regarded the publisher merely as a convenient source of a million pounds for legal fees. This impression is only strengthened, of course, by the fact that Mr Assange, soon after stiffing that publisher, turned about and released his own self-published book

[truth2power]

14. K&R. Thanks for posting. n/t

[LiberalLovinLug]

16. Yes thanks for posting

In spite of the neo-con apologists on here.

[midnight]

17. K&R