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    Freeing Julian Assange: Part One - how three top Wikileaks executives have been tarred as 'rapists' Archived Message

    Posted by margo on June 9, 2019, 7:08 am

    Freeing Julian Assange: Part One
    Suzie Dawson

    Rapists, rapists, everywhere... three men's reputations destroyed. We've been so busy sifting through the ashes that too few of us have noticed what’s been staring us in the face all along

    The Big Picture



    ContraSpin / New Zealand -- WITH millions of words written about Julian Assange, WikiLeaks and its associates, swirling all around us daily, it’s easy not to see the wood for the trees.

    The first port of call for those defending the world’s most at-risk publishing organisation and its staff has been tackling the individual narratives of its oppressors. Focusing on Sweden, or Ecuador, or the US Department Of Justice, the Grand Juries or the United Kingdom and debunking their spin seems a necessary task. But we have to face the reality: Years of arguing til we’re blue in the face about the intricacies of all the various aspects of the aforementioned – plenty of which I’ve engaged in myself – hasn’t achieved victory. We aren’t better off, or stronger for it. Things are slipping, and slipping fast.

    A decade into this battle, it’s time to reflect upon the sum total of the parts. We need to acknowledge what has happened not just to Julian – but to his organisation as a whole. We need to examine WikiLeaks at an architectural level, just as its opponents have.

    In doing so, we see that the desecration of Julian’s reputation and the attacks against his work, relationships and his physical person were actually never about him – it was always about his organisation, what it is and what it does, all along.

    Sweden and the cases against Julian were only ever a distraction, a red herring. To get a crystal clear picture of the situation we must zoom out to an eagle eye’s view.

    What that lofty vantage point reveals is an obvious and protracted systematic destabilisation of the key pillars of the organisation. The social decapitation of its most effective members. The undermining of their ability to continue to serve and add value to it.

    These are the rotten fruits of the transnational agenda to eradicate WikiLeaks. A state-level, international conspiracy which long pre-dates then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s declaration of war against WikiLeaks in 2017. His overt threats were merely a cover for covert operations that track back at least as far as 2009.

    Those who oppose WikiLeaks are closer to their goal of destroying it than ever before. If we’re to turn that tide, we must examine what made WikiLeaks good at its best, find the missing pieces between then and now, and reinstitute them with haste.

    What A Strong WikiLeaks Looks Like

    The organisation Julian engineered was robust. This is self-evident: it has been able to withstand 10 years of unceasing attacks by state intelligence agencies across multiple jurisdictions. That it has so far survived them is a historic accomplishment.

    This is what WikiLeaks in its prime looked like: a publishing wing, an activism wing, and a media/PR wing.

    Each of these three pillars were championed by individuals with very public facing roles. Specialists in their field. Taking huge powers head on, and huge risks.

    In their competent hands, WikiLeaks was the world’s premiere publisher; the pearl of the tech activism sphere; and platformed on major cable news networks, with opinion pieces in major MSM publications. WikiLeaks controlled the narrative; WikiLeaks was always on the front foot; WikiLeaks critics were forced into a defensive posture, always having to respond to whatever WikiLeaks was doing next.

    WikiLeaks pulled rabbits out of hats. We always knew to expect the unexpected. Whenever it appeared that the chips were down, they bounced back better than ever before.

    It was a golden age and I refer to the three major components of it as the dream team. Quite frankly, they rocked this shit.

    The Dream Team

    Julian Assange controlled policy, process, publishing and protected sources. He established satellite organisations and was the managing director of the WikiLeaks empire.

    Jacob Appelbaum went on stages around the world, speaking to hundreds of thousands of people about the value and importance of utilising and supporting WikiLeaks. He was a major conduit to the tech crowd and a constant presence at developer, privacy and journalism conferences.

    Trevor Fitzgibbon liaised with media bigwigs, musicians and celebrities, recruiting them to the cause and utilising them to enhance WikiLeaks public profile. He managed media relationships, engineered and pushed proactive narratives.

    These three men relentlessly championed WikiLeaks.

    These three men built the original campaign to save Chelsea Manning.

    These three men helped to save Edward Snowden.

    These three men all had their public reputations destroyed.

    Victims Of Their Success

    You don’t have to look hard on social media or the web to see how often Julian Assange is described as a serial rapist.

    Nor to discover that Jacob Appelbaum is described as a serial rapist too.

    And Trevor Fitzgibbon? Yup, also called a serial rapist.

    What is the likelihood of all three public figures representing the key pillars of WikiLeaks, conveniently being serial rapists?

    In retrospect, it defies logic.

    In aggregate, the subterfuge is so obvious as to be ludicrous.

    But when the CIA is targeting you there’s always more in store.

    One rapist, two rapists, three rapists, four.

    Rapists! Rapists Everywhere!

    When celebrated Icelandic journalist Kristinn Hrafnsson was appointed Editor-in-Chief of WikiLeaks in October 2018, the announcement was lauded across the aisles.

    The accolades would be short-lived however, as within a week of his accepting the mantle, he was being smeared as “a hostile and abusive person toward women“, and a “violent drunk with a history of being physically and emotionally abusive of women”.

    The wording of the smear article is as limp as the accusations – “An air of allegations… He may now face allegations… unable to independently confirm the veracity of these allegations…”

    No victims came forward. No charges were filed. No investigation launched. They just threw their mud at the new head of the WikiLeaks publishing pillar and hoped it would stick, as it had with the others.

    This is a tactic applied in social media as well as in print. Other towering figures in activism and whistleblowing have been tarred with the same brush ..... / full, longer article continues at link
    LINK https://contraspin.co.nz/freeing-julian-assange-part-one/

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