Julian Assange Statement On The U. S. Elections

Discussion in 'People' started by Aerianne, Nov 8, 2016.

  1. Aerianne

    Aerianne Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    I support WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.

    I think the American people owe him a debt of gratitude.


    Assange Statement on the US Election
    8 November 2016

    By Julian Assange
    In recent months, WikiLeaks and I personally have come under enormous pressure to stop publishing what the Clinton campaign says about itself to itself. That pressure has come from the campaign’s allies, including the Obama administration, and from liberals who are anxious about who will be elected US President.
    On the eve of the election, it is important to restate why we have published what we have.
    The right to receive and impart true information is the guiding principle of WikiLeaks – an organization that has a staff and organizational mission far beyond myself. Our organization defends the public’s right to be informed.
    This is why, irrespective of the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential election, the real victor is the US public which is better informed as a result of our work.
    The US public has thoroughly engaged with WikiLeaks’ election related publications which number more than one hundred thousand documents. Millions of Americans have pored over the leaks and passed on their citations to each other and to us. It is an open model of journalism that gatekeepers are uncomfortable with, but which is perfectly harmonious with the First Amendment.
    We publish material given to us if it is of political, diplomatic, historical or ethical importance and which has not been published elsewhere. When we have material that fulfills this criteria, we publish. We had information that fit our editorial criteria which related to the Sanders and Clinton campaign (DNC Leaks) and the Clinton political campaign and Foundation (Podesta Emails). No-one disputes the public importance of these publications. It would be unconscionable for WikiLeaks to withhold such an archive from the public during an election.
    At the same time, we cannot publish what we do not have. To date, we have not received information on Donald Trump’s campaign, or Jill Stein’s campaign, or Gary Johnson’s campaign or any of the other candidates that fufills our stated editorial criteria. As a result of publishing Clinton’s cables and indexing her emails we are seen as domain experts on Clinton archives. So it is natural that Clinton sources come to us.
    We publish as fast as our resources will allow and as fast as the public can absorb it.
    That is our commitment to ourselves, to our sources, and to the public.
    This is not due to a personal desire to influence the outcome of the election. The Democratic and Republican candidates have both expressed hostility towards whistleblowers. I spoke at the launch of the campaign for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, because her platform addresses the need to protect them. This is an issue that is close to my heart because of the Obama administration’s inhuman and degrading treatment of one of our alleged sources, Chelsea Manning. But WikiLeaks publications are not an attempt to get Jill Stein elected or to take revenge over Ms Manning’s treatment either.
    Publishing is what we do. To withhold the publication of such information until after the election would have been to favour one of the candidates above the public’s right to know.
    This is after all what happened when the New York Times withheld evidence of illegal mass surveillance of the US population for a year until after the 2004 election, denying the public a critical understanding of the incumbent president George W Bush, which probably secured his reelection. The current editor of the New York Times has distanced himself from that decision and rightly so.
    The US public defends free speech more passionately, but the First Amendment only truly lives through its repeated exercise. The First Amendment explicitly prevents the executive from attempting to restrict anyone’s ability to speak and publish freely. The First Amendment does not privilege old media, with its corporate advertisers and dependencies on incumbent power factions, over WikiLeaks’ model of scientific journalism or an individual’s decision to inform their friends on social media. The First Amendment unapologetically nurtures the democratization of knowledge. With the Internet, it has reached its full potential.
    Yet, some weeks ago, in a tactic reminiscent of Senator McCarthy and the red scare, Wikileaks, Green Party candidate Stein, Glenn Greenwald and Clinton’s main opponent were painted with a broad, red brush. The Clinton campaign, when they were not spreading obvious untruths, pointed to unnamed sources or to speculative and vague statements from the intelligence community to suggest a nefarious allegiance with Russia. The campaign was unable to invoke evidence about our publications—because none exists.
    In the end, those who have attempted to malign our groundbreaking work over the past four months seek to inhibit public understanding perhaps because it is embarrassing to them – a reason for censorship the First Amendment cannot tolerate. Only unsuccessfully do they try to claim that our publications are inaccurate.
    WikiLeaks’ decade-long pristine record for authentication remains. Our key publications this round have even been proven through thecryptographic signatures of the companies they passed through, such as Google. It is not every day you can mathematically prove that your publications are perfect but this day is one of them.
    We have endured intense criticism, primarily from Clinton supporters, for our publications. Many long-term supporters have been frustrated because we have not addressed this criticism in a systematic way or responded to a number of false narratives about Wikileaks’ motivation or sources. Ultimately, however, if WL reacted to every false claim, we would have to divert resources from our primary work.
    WikiLeaks, like all publishers, is ultimately accountable to its funders. Those funders are you. Our resources are entirely made up of contributions from the public and our book sales. This allows us to be principled, independent and free in a way no other influential media organization is. But it also means that we do not have the resources of CNN, MSNBC or the Clinton campaign to constantly rebuff criticism.
    Yet if the press obeys considerations above informing the public, we are no longer talking about a free press, and we are no longer talking about an informed public.
    Wikileaks remains committed to publishing information that informs the public, even if many, especially those in power, would prefer not to see it. WikiLeaks must publish. It must publish and be damned.




    https://wikileaks.org/Assange-Statement-on-the-US-Election.html
     
  2. Okiefreak

    Okiefreak Senior Member

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    When is he going to give us Trump's tax returns? What we have is half-truth, supplied by a hostile foreign power to assure the election of its preferred candidate. He is a Russian errand-boy, and those who support him are, in KGB terminology, "useful idiots".
     
  3. Aerianne

    Aerianne Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    :rofl:
     
  4. storch

    storch banned

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    What half-truths did he tell?
     
  5. Okiefreak

    Okiefreak Senior Member

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    Only one side of the story. Nothing leaked about Trump.
     
  6. pensfan13

    pensfan13 Senior Member

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    Maybe he dosnt have anything on trump.
    I could name a thousand things that I would like to be leaked. But if the info isn't there then how can he do it.
     
  7. storch

    storch banned

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    WikiLeaks publishes information that it receives from whistleblowers. The media has put Trump's crap up for all to see. What would you have WikiLeaks publish?
     
  8. Okiefreak

    Okiefreak Senior Member

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    If wikileaks publishes all the negative information that it receives from Russian hackers, with full knowledge that it will have a substantial impact on the election, even though it knows there is negative infomation about the other side the Russian hackers haven't gone after, it is complicit in rigging the election.
     
  9. pensfan13

    pensfan13 Senior Member

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    That isn't rigging that is influencing.
     
  10. Maybe now that the election is over we can actually pay attention to what these WikiLeaks are saying. People need to be held accountable for this.
     
    2 people like this.
  11. MeAgain

    MeAgain Dazed & Confused Lifetime Supporter Super Moderator

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    If Wikileaks wanted to be fair they would have withheld the "Clinton" emails so as to not sway the election. They could have been released the day, week, or month after the election, there was no immediate reason to release them when they did, and we don't know how long they were in their possession. Did they release them immediately upon receipt, or have they been sitting on them waiting for an opportune moment? There was nothing illegal presented in those documents, nothing to disqualify a candidate, nothing to point to any wrong doing or illegality. It was not a case of whistle blowing...it was a data dump released over a period of time calculated to keep it in the news day by day at a critical point in the election cycle so as to influence that election.

    There supposedly was no information on Trump because Clinton was the one targeted, not Trump. Further, we only have Wikileaks word that it has no information on Trump, the GOP, or anyone else. Why should we take them at their word?
     
    1 person likes this.
  12. The Walking Dickhead

    The Walking Dickhead orbiter of helion

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    How is it fair to withhold evidence of criminality about someone who could be about to become the most powerful person in the world?

    It would be downright criminal to withhold such information from the public!
     
    5 people like this.
  13. pensfan13

    pensfan13 Senior Member

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    If NBC wanted to be fair they would have held the Billy bush tape till after the election
     
    1 person likes this.
  14. MeAgain

    MeAgain Dazed & Confused Lifetime Supporter Super Moderator

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    There was no criminal evidence.
     
  15. MeAgain

    MeAgain Dazed & Confused Lifetime Supporter Super Moderator

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    In the Billy Bush tape Trump admits to being a sexual predator, that's the difference.
     
  16. pensfan13

    pensfan13 Senior Member

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    Fuck that. If it was a big deal they would have released it years ago. There is no difference. The scumbags in the monkey suits at 30 rock wanted to sway the election. They did not want to be fair.
     
  17. MeAgain

    MeAgain Dazed & Confused Lifetime Supporter Super Moderator

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    We have confirmation from the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Public Forum of International Affairs that they were the source of the anti Clinton Wikileaks.

    In addition the ultra-nationalist Boris Chernyshev added “Tonight we can use the slogan with Mr. Trump; Yes We Did.” ~ Peacock
    Russian Osmk govenor Viktor Nazarov stated, “It turns out that the United Russia has won the elections in the United States!” ~ Peacock
     
  18. storch

    storch banned

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    What negative information about Trump are you talking about?
     
  19. storch

    storch banned

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    If you would like, I could present proof that Clinton is a national security risk because of her illegal use of her personal email server over which classified information passed. Even though you've seen this proof over and over, I would be happy to put it in front of your eyes again. In fact, I think I will.
    __________________________________________________________________________________________

    From Comey:

    "While not the focus of our investigation, we also developed evidence that the security culture of the State Department in general, and with respect to use of unclassified e-mail systems in particular, was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information found elsewhere in the government.

    "With respect to potential computer intrusion by hostile actors, we did not find direct evidence that Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail domain, in its various configurations since 2009, was successfully hacked. But, given the nature of the system and of the actors potentially involved, we assess that we would be unlikely to see such direct evidence. We do assess that hostile actors gained access to the private commercial e-mail accounts of people with whom Secretary Clinton was in regular contact from her personal account. We also assess that Secretary Clinton’s use of a personal e-mail domain was both known by a large number of people and readily apparent. She also used her personal e-mail extensively while outside the United States, including sending and receiving work-related e-mails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries. Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail account."
    ____________________________________________________________________________________________

    The former bolded part is an ever so polite way of saying that Hillary was a high security risk.

    The latter bolded part is a straight forward statement that confirms that the risk she posed through her gross negligence eventuated into a fucking incident.
     
    1 person likes this.
  20. Tyrsonswood

    Tyrsonswood Senior Moment Lifetime Supporter

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    And the Trumpettes worried about Bernie being a "commie"... lol
     
    1 person likes this.

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