Monday, October 24, 2011

Awe, Poor, Poor Julian

He's had to suspend his "whistleblowing" due to lack of funds.
"Assange said in a statement that since December last year, "an arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade has been imposed by Bank of America, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union."

"The attack has destroyed 95 percent of our revenue," he added."
There he goes again, butchering the English language and showing the depths to which hypocricy can go. Apparently the law is for those other guys, not for him.

The view from an Arab paper: Assange's aphorism
"Assange’s adversaries have sought the shield of a Higher Cause—defence of a state in wartime—themselves. The point of this confrontation is moral without prejudice to the personal morality of the activists. Governments revel in revealing what helps their image. They hide, mostly, only what hurts. We do not have to admire Assange in order to admire what he did.

Time for mild confession. I have not read the smartly titled Julian Assange: The Unauthorised autobiography published against Assange’s will by Canongate. I have only read the reviews. But if reviews are like the tasting menu offered by grand chefs, then the flavour is sufficient to indicate that this is enough. I don’t want the full meal. Publicity and adulation have bloated Assange. He has become his own Higher Cause. He is no longer the child who exposed a superpower and went home. He wants to live the rest of his life on a pedestal.

This book project began as collaboration between him and the publisher in December last year, confirmed by a fat fee. In June Assange walked out of the deal after the first draft was written based on interviews he had given. All autobiography, claimed Assange in justification, is prostitution.

This is the sort of pompous aphorism, which has been polished for glitter before an image-enhancing mirror. Assange can no longer see the difference between an autobiography and PR press releases.

His defenders will doubtless argue that you need an unstable sense of self if you have the courage to challenge the Pentagon. Assange is a famous hero, but I wonder if he is more heroic than the American soldier, Bradley Manning who actually stole the documents and passed them on to Assange, and now sits in an anonymous cell rather than on the cover of magazines.

There is a poignant moment in this book. In 1996 Assange was tried in Australia for hacking into Nortel, the Canadian telecom system. When he rose to stand in the witness box he saw the face of a colleague who had turned state evidence against him. “It was the look,” Assange says, “that I would come to know: the look of betrayal, organised on the face to look like a high-minded interest in the truth.”

I wonder whether the American soldier jailed for life would recognise the same look if he were to see Assange’s face right now."
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I feel a bit of empathy for Bradley Manning. He was obviously duped - used - betrayed - by someone he worshiped. The leader of THE GRAND CAUSE had discarded him like a used tissue.

Another good one.

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2 Comments:

Blogger Dave in Pa. said...

I have 0 sympathy for Pfc. Bradley Manning.

The US Armed Forces are governed by the Constitution, by authority of which, the Congress has legislated the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

I just finished reviewing this for what Manning could be charged with. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, his willful massive handing over of top secret files to Wikileaks could be considered under the Sedition article. Taking a hard approach could see him tried under the Espionage article. Either of these charges have penalties, "the accused shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a court- martial may direct." So, he's facing death or imprisonment ranging from years to life in the "United States Disciplinary Barracks", the US Military's version of the federal civilian "Supermax" prison.

In these wishy-washy, touchy-feely times, I doubt very much that Manning will get the death sentence he deserves. I suspect he's likely looking at a couple of decades in that military prison. For the US to be able to successfully extradite Assange from Britain, we'll probably have to agree not to prosecute for a death penalty. So, IF, repeat IF we can get our hands on Assange, he's probably looking at a lengthy stay in the federal civilian Supermax.

October 24, 2011 3:40 pm  
Blogger Louise said...

I don't disagree with the basic arguments you make, I just think Assange's penalty should be as severe as or more severe than Manning's, or, to put it the way I really feel, there is part of this that will/is work(ing) out outside or beyond the reach of courts and constitutions into the field of human weakness and gullibility, and in that arena, I judge Assange more harshly than I judge Manning.

I fact, I played with words a bit as I was writing this entry, and decided in the end to keep it cleaner than I originally entertained.

What I should have said, is Assange whiped his own ass with Manning and then flushed Manning down the shithole. It is true that Manning voluntarily put himself in a compromised position where he could be used as asswipe, but people who do that sort of thing for/with creeps like Assange and then get tossed into the shitter by their heroes are pitiful little creatures, if you ask me. He should get what he deserves, but so should Assange, and IMHO, Assange, being the ringleader, should suffer more - way more - of the consequences.

So far, I don't see that happening. Manning is getting what he has coming. Assange, not so much, even though I think he deserves more, cause there are legions of Manning clones out there that Assange has wiped his ass with and flushed down the toilet.

I don't think there's a court anywhere in this world (maybe in the after world, if there is an after world) that can deal with the sort of harm Assange has done to his groupies. The groupies soon enough, will come to realize it. Or at least most of them will. Perhaps Manning is thinking about that as he sits in his cell.

For his sake, I hope he has access to spiritual counselling and takes advantage of it, so that at least he has some sort of awakening before the verdict is rendered. Assange, on the other hand, shows 0 signs of understanding the harm he has done. His ego only gets bigger with each passing crisis and with each passing crisis his propensity to cast blame everywhere else simply magnifies. Meanwhile, Manning rots, while Assange casts his own self-serving hypocritical net wider and wider.

Oh, IMO, the best place for Assange is in the Aussie courts where they can try him for treason and put him, and the world, out of misery.

October 24, 2011 5:29 pm  

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