Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and investigative reporter John Pilger takes the gloves off on the continuing attempts to upend WikiLeaks and arrest its founding publisher, Julian Assange, in this interview with Dennis Bernstein and Randy Credico.
Pilger talks about Assange’s deteriorating health and the physical dangers he faces during this period of virtual isolation. Pilger also excoriates the western media for their silence and pro-government stand on the marginalizing and potential prosecution of Assange, even after they collaborated with WikiLeaks and major high-profile breaking stories. The interview is part of a continuing national radio series—Assange: Countdown to Freedom. Pilger was interviewed on August 3rd, 2018.
By Dennis J. Bernstein and Randy Credico
DB: John, what is the latest we know about how Julian Assange is being treated and his current state?
John Pilger: His state of health is just about the same, as I understand it. He needs medical attention, the kind of treatment you get only in a hospital. But it has been made clear to him that if he attempts to go to a hospital he will not be given free passage and he will be arrested. Since he was arrested in 2010, Assange has not been charged with a single crime. His treatment amounts to the most unprecedented persecution. Julian could leave the embassy if his own government, the government of his homeland, Australia, applied legitimate diplomatic pressure on behalf of its citizen. We must ask ourselves why this hasn’t happened.
My own feeling is that there is a great deal of collusion between the Australian, the British and the US governments–meant to close down WikiLeaks completely and/or deliver Julian Assange to the Americans. Recently the Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, traveled with senior officials to London and to Washington and raised the whole matter of Julian. But they raised it in a way that didn’t support the idea that a government should represent its citizens. These people listened to the more powerful governments. In Washington they met Mr. Pompeo, who refused to discuss Assange altogether. I think there is collusion which amounts to an attempt to try to do a deal with Assange whereby he might be allowed free passage of return to Australia if he shuts down WikiLeaks. I think that is very, very likely.
As I understand Julian, this is something he would not even contemplate. But that might be one of the so-called “wretched deals” that are being offered Assange. Some very strange things are being said by senior members of these two governments. The new foreign secretary of the United Kingdom, Jeremy Hunt, said sarcastically that the British police would offer Julian “a warm welcome” when he came out, when he would face serious charges. There are no serious charges. He hasn’t been charged with anything.
Was Hunt referring to a deal which has already been done with the United States on extradition? I don’t know. But this is the milieu of machination around someone who has the right of natural justice concerning his freedom. Putting aside freedom of speech, the persecution of this man has been something that should horrify all free-thinking people. If it doesn’t horrify us, then we have surrendered something very valuable.
DB: Among those who should be especially horrified are those of us in the journalistic community. John, I would like you to explain once again why Julian Assange is such a significant journalist, why so many journalistic institutions have collaborated with him based on the information he provided. We are talking about a publisher and reporter who has changed history.
Pilger and Assange in London 2011. (Photo: Oli Scarff/Getty Images)Europe)
JP: Nothing in my time as a journalist has equaled the rise of WikiLeaks and its extraordinary impact on journalism. It is probably the only journalistic organization that has a 100% record of accuracy and authenticity! All of WikiLeaks’ revelations have been authentic. And it has been done “without fear or favor.” Although there has been a concentration on, say, the release of the Hillary Clinton/Podesta emails, or the Iraq and Afghan war logs, WikiLeaks has released information that people have a right to know across the spectrum. It has released something like 800,000 documents from Russia, and now WikiLeaks is accused of being an agent of Russia!
WikiLeaks’ journalism has covered a universal space and that is the first time this has happened. In Tunisia, the release of WikiLeaks documents foretold the Arab Spring. The people at the forefront of the uprising in Tunisia credit WikiLeaks for informing them of what their repressive government was doing behind their backs. In Venezuela, WikiLeaks released cables which described in great detail how the United States intended to subvert the government of Hugo Chavez. Some of this was published in the mainstream media, when there was still a collaboration with WikiLeaks.
The Clinton/Podesta emails, which appear to have made a number of people resentful, were published in the New York Times. These emails showed the close role that Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation played in support of extreme jihadism in the Middle East. That was a very important piece of information for people to know and understand. By doing that, WikiLeaks performed an extraordinary public service, while at the same time making some very serious enemies.
Randy Credico: People sometimes forget that, apart from being a journalist, Julian Assange is a human being. You have known him a long time. Could you give us a feel for the kind of person Julian Assange is?
JP: Julian is a very principled individual. He feels very strongly about the moral basis of WikiLeaks. When he first put up WikiLeaks, he wrote that the whole idea of transparency, honoring people’s right to know, was the central aim of the website. He feels that very strongly. Any attempt to do a deal with Julian to shut down WikiLeaks will no doubt be resisted. As a person, Julian is an extremely interesting man. He is very well read. He studied physics. He has a very good sense of humor, and I have often laughed out loud with him about situations that others might consider too bleak to discuss. His black humor is a part of his survival kit. Obviously, he is incredibly resilient. Personally, I could never endure what he has, especially in recent years. But this comes with a cost and his health is continuing to deteriorate. Those close to him are extremely worried.
Turnbull: Deaf to pleas for Assange.
In a letter to the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, Julian’s father, John Shipton, wrote: “I ask the prime minister to do all within his power to return Julian home before Julian’s situation becomes an irreversible tragedy.” That is why this is such an urgent case of justice toward a single human being as well as a case of a journalistic organization’s right to function and our right to have the information it provides. Only seven years ago, the current prime minister said that when an Australian citizen is threatened in this way the prime minister should respond. That was Turnbull before he became prime minister. Now the government is playing its usual role of being the fifty-first state of the United States. It is a true disgrace.
RC: What about Theresa May and the British government? Are they getting pressure from the United States or are there internal reasons why they want to keep Julian Assange quiet?
JP: Everything comes down to the relationship with the United States. Australia has an almost totally servile relationship with America, in which its national security structure, much of its academic life and certainly much of its media is integrated into the US system. That is not entirely the case in Britain. Since the loss of its empire after the Second World War, Britain has been eager to play a secondary role to the new imperial power. In many parts of the world, Britain is still the biggest corporate investor. But it does move in lockstep with the US on much of its foreign policy. It is interesting to see the corruption that this kind of relationship produces. Information has come out that the Crown Prosecution Service tried to prevent the Swedes from giving up the case against Julian on bogus sexual assault charges. The pressure was on from London to keep it going.
Julian is also seen as defying a system and that is just not acceptable. There is a real element of vindictiveness here. The Crown Prosecution Service kept this case going when otherwise the European warrant put out by the Swedes would have been abandoned in 2013. When Julian came up to a bail hearing last year, it was an absolute disgrace. The judge described Julian’s circumstances as if he were on some sort of extended vacation. What didn’t emerge was the whole conflict of interest in this hearing. The judge’s husband is a figure deep within the national security establishment in Britain who was named in WikiLeaks documents. Because there is no serious media examining the whole WikiLeaks witch hunt, virtually none of this emerges.
DB: The corporate press has a major responsibility if Julian Assange goes down, don’t you agree?
JP: As you know, Dennis, governments do respond to pressure from powerful media interests. It rarely happens but when it does governments do change their tune. There has been no pressure from media in the United States, Britain, Australia or pretty much anywhere except in programs like yours outside the mainstream. You are absolutely right in that the responsibility of journalists for what has happened to Julian Assange and what might happen to WikiLeaks is undeniable.
I was looking this morning at a report by Media Lens in Britain describing how the British press has reported on Julian Assange. It describes the tsunami of vindictive personal abuse that has been heaped upon Julian from well-known journalists, many claiming liberal credentials. The Guardian, which used to consider itself the most enlightened newspaper in the country, has probably been the worst. The frontal attacks have been coming not from governments but from journalists. I described this recently as “Vichy journalism,” a term which now fits so much of the mainstream media. It collaborates in the same way that the Vichy government in France collaborated with the Nazis.
There used to be spaces within the so-called mainstream for unbiased discussion, for the airing of real grievances and injustices. These spaces have closed completely. The attacks on Julian Assange illustrate what has happened to the so-called free media in the West. I have been a journalist for a very long time and I have always worked within the mainstream, but the journalism I see now is part of a rapacious establishment and one of its prime targets is Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. This is precisely because WikiLeaks is producing the kind of journalism that they ought to be doing. WikiLeaks has in fact shamed journalists, which might help to explain the deeply personal abuse he has suffered. WikiLeaks has revealed what journalists should have revealed a long time ago.
DB: Even the attorney for the New York Times happened to mention that if Julian Assange gets prosecuted, the Times could get prosecuted under the same laws.
JP: It could but I don’t believe it would be, because power respects power. The New York Times is part of the establishment. The difference with WikiLeaks is that it is outside of the establishment and is truly independent.
DB: What would be your strongest plea for Julian Assange?
JP: It’s very simple. This is about justice. In a famous speech given in the 1930’s by Parson Martin Niemoller, he said that first the Nazis came for socialists, but he didn’t speak up because that didn’t concern him. Then they came for trade unionists, but he didn’t speak up because that didn’t concern him. He didn’t speak up when they came for the Jews because he wasn’t a Jew. And, of course, finally they came for him. That might not be a precise parallel, but if Julian Assange is allowed to literally go under, it represents the conquest of all of us. It means that we have kept quiet. Keeping quiet has allowed the great atrocities of histories to take place. If Julian is allowed to be spirited away to some super-max hellhole, it will be a great atrocity.
DB: In the library, silence is golden. In the world of human rights, silence equals mass murder. They say you shouldn’t yell fire in a crowded theater just to get a reaction. But if you know the theater is in fact on fire and you do not shout out, what happens after is your responsibility.
Dennis J. Bernstein is a host of “Flashpoints” on the Pacifica radio network and the author of Special Ed: Voices from a Hidden Classroom. You can access the audio archives at www.flashpoints.net. You can get in touch with the author at [email protected].
Randy Credico is an American perennial political candidate, comedian, radio host, activist and the former Director of the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice
We all behave like sheep. 100000 people on the streets of London, marching on the streets to free Assange.
How many would they shoot, before they had to let him go?
We live in times before the revolution. We will still have to fight for our freedom. The longer we wait, the bigger the battle.
The outcome is given though. The globalists will be eradicated.
I am surprised Trump ha.s not weighed in on this
Be inspiared check out Holberg debate w julian and jon 2017 norway on u tube and then VIRAL
2 events
wends 8/15 Free Julian noon sproul plaza tabling
sat 8/18 KPFA
KPFA Local Station Board Meeting
Saturday, August 18, 2018, 11:00 AM PT
North Berkeley Senior Center,
1901 Hearst Ave., Berkeley, CA 94709
Wheelchair Accessible
Reports at 12 noon,
Town Hall for public comments at 1 PM
Dear Trans, Sisters and Brothers defend Julian Assange
SPROUL PLAZA WENDSDAY BUILD A BASE FOR JULIAN (UC BERKLEY TABLE DAY ) AUG 15 12PM TO 2PM HELP STAFF TABLE . AND ORGANIZE FOR OTHER EVENTS AND TABLING
“Don’t let them kill or discredit and isolate the 100% truth wekileaks message and the courageous Messenger . Like my song says “they never change they shoot us down with out shame it’s the same ole capitalist game”
You can quote me too
“Its good for the working class to know about the iraq war logs…. it’s good that the working class knows about the survailence by Their enemy the NSA… it’s good that the working class was shown how the FBI /CIA was hacking their computers and lost controll of those very hacking tools , documented in Vault 7 report on Wikileaks.
Most important of all the rulling class domestically made up of republican and democrat capitalist and imperialist are united against Assange and Wikileaks .When the working class people and their allies don’t fight for truth we all lose . thanks Orion ” Here the Children ”
ALSO DEMONSTRATE FOR ASSANGE AT KPFA 8/18 sat
KPFA Local Station Board Meeting and Town Hall
https://kpfa.org/event/kpfa-local-station-board-meeting-15/
Why doesn’t Julian Assange SUE the British Government? There must be one legal eagle out there with balls.
I’m truly ashamed of the world in which we’re living. What happened with the human courage, dignity, honesty?!
Truth?! With great profession of the journalisme? Gone! Disapire!
We just don’t deserve someone like Julian Assange – he is the man for another planet and another time. Not for the cowards like we are.
Great respect for John Pilger and hope that Julian has enough force and courage to survive this horrible and humiliating situation. Together, we must do something to help him ! In doing so , we will not just helping him but at the same time trying to save little bit of our own dignity, if we still have any .
How will the news media, CNN and MSNBC in particular, continue to exist if their hysterical exhortations are found to be based on lies? Are they so totally committed to their position, to the exclusion of any alternatives, that they will risk catastrophic ends if and when their positions are exposed? Witness the recent revelations about Bruce Ohr, along with any number of other documented facts, that they ignore. Is that to be the fate of what was once billed as a free press? Everyone suffers in such cases.
With a few honorable exceptions (some of them appear here on a regular basis) the appropriate (if somewhat archaic) word of the day that comes to mind to characterize the vast majority of today’s MSM journalistic malpracticers would be LICKSPITTLE.
thank you dennis bernstein for all the top-notch work you have done.
i am a regular listener to ‘flashpoints’ and a subscriber to kpfa.
keep up the pressure…
Wikileaks contradicts the claims of “Russian interference” in 2016 US election. The fact that there is no evidence of Russia having any involvement with/influence on that election doesn’t matter to Dem loyalists. This makes “liberal media” support for Assange weak and quite confused.
The Dems will discover come election day that they would have been far better off to just accept Hillary’s unexpected loss with grace rather than to make false accusations, use Putin as a whipping boy, raise an endless stink and shamelessly focus all their attention on getting the president thrown out of office rather than simply pushing for their policy agenda. Senator Schumer threatens that the intelligence community can get back at anyone six ways from Sunday. Well, the voters can do so about 200 million ways from any day of the week. I think that’s approximately the number of registered voters in the country.
Good comment but, first, we must have honorable people to vote for. Who are they? They probably know, if they step forward, they will receive the HRC/DNC treatment that Sanders got. We will continue to be forced to vote between worse and “worser” candidates until most people don’t bother to go to the polls. I believe in the last election something like 46% of registered voters stayed home. I voted for Sanders, then Jill Stein, unable to bring myself to vote again for a candidate that did not reflect my values. I come from along line of Democrats, but Obama finally took the scales from my eyes. I see no one in the wings or at the forefront who can undo the damage both parties have done to our country.
Same here
What are these “liberal media”, really?
The Guardian has been one of the worst, using Wikileaks articles to boost circulation, then turning against Assange and even supporting a really nasty “biography” by David Leigh. NYT is no surprise, of course.
“What are these “liberal media”, really?”
Well, it sounds like you’ve characterised them nicely: self-serving hypocrites.
we need to change the misleading name main stream media MSM with the objectively true description “Capitalist Imperialist Media ” orion ps google my t shirt What kind of Pie? Occupy !
Comment about Assange a suggestion
Connecting The Press which we have today with journalism as it was once defined is useless. Those who work in what were once news disseminating organs now only receive dictation to copy from their corporate owners who are seamless with the present nation states which they control. Those of us unlucky enough to live in states which are dominated by the English language and culture or in which English is the second language and the language of business can no longer count on the truth of anything that we are told by this dominant part of the media which surrounds us. The German speaking world suffered this indignity during the thirties. There was no opposition to the dark nightmare of lies and propaganda of the Horde that was to be. The few difficult to access outlets for truth in reporting that we can access, such as this one, are waging a rear-guard effort to keep a flame of honour that was journalism alive. With regard to Assange, the corporate-national media are his sworn enemies as much as are the corrupted politicians-corporate leaders whose main efforts in life are taken up with keeping their crimes away from public notice. It is up to “The People” to save Assange now. If he goes to the US for a show trial and punishment without every effort by those he has served so courageously, we are all doomed. Flooding the streets around the embassy is probably the wrong thing to do. Flooding the street around the BBC or the Guardian and occupying their offices might help. Put the name of some other media somewhere else if one doesn’t live in London. Somebody, do something. I would attend a demonstration against any of the silent local media in Montreal where I live.
Michael Fish, Longueuil, Canada
I hope many thousands of Julians will grow like the offsprings of the beautiful flowering plant that he has been. And I hope people will wake up. Specially people who live in (the so called) united states of america.
(These days, I feel it would be more appropriate to call it “united ss states of america”.)
Connecting The Press which we have today with journalism as it was once defined is useless. Those who work in what were once news disseminating organs now only receive dictation to copy from their corporate owners who are seamless with the present nation states which they control. Those of us unlucky enough to live in states which are dominated by the English language and culture or in which English is the second language and the language of business can no longer count on the truth of anything that we are told by this dominant part of the media which surrounds us. The German speaking world suffered this indignity during the thirties. There was no opposition to the dark nightmare of lies and propaganda of the Horde that was to be. The few difficult to access outlets for truth in reporting that we can access, such as this one, are waging a rear-guard effort to keep a flame of honour that was journalism alive. With regard to Assange, the corporate-national media are his sworn enemies as much as are the corrupted politicians-corporate leaders whose main efforts in life are taken up with keeping their crimes away from public notice. It is up to “The People” to save Assange now. If he goes to the US for a show trial and punishment without every effort by those he has served so courageously, we are all doomed. Flooding the streets around the embassy is probably the wrong thing to do. Flooding the street around the BBC or the Guardian and occupying their offices might help. Put the name of some other media somewhere else if one doesn’t live in London. Somebody, do something. I would attend a demonstration against any of the silent local media in Montreal where I live.
Michael Fish, Longueuil, Canada
Most would agree something needs to be done and most would agree they have absolutely no idea of what it is they can do. Every day I read articles pointing out the tyranny and wish someone would write an article about what we van do to prevent it.
Mr C. – Joe Tedesky linked (below) to a great article by Paul Craig Roberts wherein he states that corporations like Apple, Google, Youtube (which is owned by Google), Twitter, Facebook are all starting to censor alternative speech.
“What can we do? Never purchase another Apple product. Desert Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify. Terminate all Google email accounts and never use a Google search engine. These firms are Nazi Gestapo firms. They deserve our condemnation. These despicable companies should be nationalized or abolished or arrested for aiding the plot to overthrow the President of the United States.
They are the agents of evil.
There are alternative portals. Turn to them and support the ones that refuse to censor free speech. Hopefully, the anti-democratic actions by Facebook, Twitter and the rest will destroy their business model, and their place will be taken by new firms that respect the Constitution’s protection of free speech.
Are Americans so stupid that they do not see what is unfolding in front of their eyes? Our ruling elite have agendas that they cannot defend. People like Alex Jones expose these agendas. The ruling elite have to shut this exposure down, so they misrepresent and demonize Alex Jones. Those brainwashed into Identity Politics and the presstitute media are manipulated and used to instigate a campaign against Alex Jones, just as they have been used against President Trump, Julian Assange, Snowden, and many others. Indeed, PropOrNot was used against 200 independent-minded websites.
Once they get Alex, who they made a target, they will make a target of the rest of us, and all truth will disappear from the entirety of the Western World. Indeed, truth has a scant presence in the existing Western World. The ruling elites have no interest in truth. […]
The print and TV media have already fired all the real journalists, such as Robert Perry, Chris Hedges, and Sy Hersh. Now that Alex Jones is being driven off the Internet, the elite’s determination to control all explanations will spread over the Internet until every truth-teller is shut down. It is just a matter of time.
Indeed the censorship is rapidly spreading. Twitter has now banned the presence of Scott Horton who is the editorial director of antiwar.com and Daniel McAdams who is director of the libertarian Ron Raul Institute. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-07/crackdown-continues-twitter-suspends-libertarian-accounts-including-ron-paul Tommy Robinson has had his Instagram page removed. https://www.rt.com/uk/435312-tommy-robinson-instagram-ban/ Former State Department official Peter Van Buren has been banned from Twitter, apparently because he told us that government officials lie to us.”
We might not agree with everything Alex Jones stands for, but surely we can agree that he should be able to speak and not be censored. Do as Paul Craig Roberts suggests: stop using Google, don’t buy anything from Apple, boycott Twitter. Hit them back.
Good luck with that but it will achieve little as they are not doing it for the money.
My question remains because if that is the only answer, well that’s it then.
I agree and i keep asking the same question. With an emphasis on “peacefully” or “in a civilized way”.
It’s sad and depressing, the world we live in. And at times, almost totally dark and full of despair. A few, like John Pilger, bring light, hope, moral support – but a lot more than that is needed.
There are times I feel a need to abandon all political discussions to concentrate on thousands of years false conceptions, instead: words and their true meanings, regulations that contradict our nature (causing internal conflicts in each individual, and then between individuals and societies, as the result). But what do I know? I’m just an old simple man with a slow brain, a little common sense, and a firm belief in love&fairness for “all”..
Thank you.
Any political “leader” or “journalist” on Earth not demanding Julian Assange’s immediate total freedom is a gutless morally-bankrupt coward.
Absolutely Jerry ! Someone else here asked “What can we do?”, so I would add that your statement applies Not only to leaders and journos, but all of us. Eventually the truth must prevail .
One thing that I see people can do is to actively hound so-called ‘progressive’ sites for instance Democracy Now! has a huge following and they are standing mute on this but I think a huge outpouring of calls, emails,and a BIG physical presence at their broadcast studio in New York is needed.
THAT will get their attention and maybe embarrass them into reporting on Julian’s plight and the threat to press freedom, something they themselves better worry about for their on sake because they won’t have the protection like the NY Times or Wapo has with their release of wikileaks information.
I gave up on Democracy Now after the 2016 post-election disgrace perpetrated by HRC. Amy Goodman swallowed her bait hook, line, and sinker. What a profound dissapointment! Especially after DN was almost alone in exposing Obama’s betrayal of the Dakota Pipeline protesters’ right to be heard and not hearded.
to those who imagine themselves to be the rulers of Earth:
The world is like a ride at an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it, you think it’s real, cause that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round; it has thrills and chills and it’s very brightly colored and it’s very loud and it’s fun… for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: “Is this real, or is this just a ride?” And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, and they say, “Hey – don’t worry, don’t be afraid – EVER – because… this is just a ride.” And we… KILL those people. “Shut him up! We have a lot invested in this ride – SHUT HIM UP! Look at my furrows of worry! Look at my big bank account, and my family! This just HAS to be real!” It’s just a ride. And we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. But it doesn’t matter because… it’s just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your door, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one. Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride: Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defense each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over – not one human being excluded – and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.
“DB: Even the attorney for the New York Times happened to mention that if Julian Assange gets prosecuted, the Times could get prosecuted under the same laws.
JP: It could but I don’t believe it would be, because power respects power. The New York Times is part of the establishment. The difference with WikiLeaks is that it is outside of the establishment and is truly independent.”
This is the crux of the matter. The Empire has become so large, so pervasive and so powerful that it intends to assimilate and control every human assemblage and activity on the planet. It is in the process of swallowing and digesting every last piece of Europe into this monstrosity it calls NATO. The Anglosphere, which it calls the Five Eyes, has been totally co-opted for many decades, perhaps most of the 20th and all of the 21st centuries. Latin America it deigned to de-facto colonise, ostensibly by “protecting it” against “outside influences” via the Monroe Doctrine far back in the 19th century. Europe’s far flung colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands, now targeted for reintegration into the new Empire, have surreptitiously been effed with in ways unknown to “the civilised world” because none of it gets reported in the mass media.
The mass media is itself a critical function of the Empire’s ability to project power, just like its military, its financial institutions, its web of NGO’s, its grand international puppet shows given names like the UN, the EU, NATO and so forth, and its world-wide network of spies in the CIA, the NSA and probably a multitude of operations no one in the greater world even knows anything about. The only human societies left outside the purview of the Empire’s hegemony have now been reduced to the likes of Russia, China, India and Iran. Even Serbia, which it methodically destroyed, has been so cowed that it is begging for Anschluß with the Empire’s local clubs in Europe. Vietnam now eagerly seeks out business with the Empire. And the Empire thinks it can dictate to China who rules in Chinese provinces, like Formosa (aka Taiwan) which have been in existence far longer than the United States. Intransigent places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen have recently been utterly destroyed and are fully intended to be some day fully digested in the maw of the Empire. Same for a dozen other targets, like Somalia, Sudan, Georgia and Ukraine, which one hears about, when advantageous to the Empire, sporadically and entirely speciously in the controlled media.
Like the Borg, the Empire fully intends to assimilate every last sovereign nation on the planet, including the four major hold-outs just mentioned. To do this it has used the global media, which it massively controls, to construct a false matrix of deception which has been so pervasively disseminated that most of the people it targets have no clue that it comports not a whit with reality. It is used to create the “new realities” that Karl Rove promised the world would be supplied to amaze and control it. Wikileaks, Julian Assange, and the rest of the “independent” or “alternative” media, such as this very blog you are presently reading, are like the few remaining resisting cells of resistance to the Empire in the greater already co-opted world. They are like Russia or Iran trying to prevail against the massive tissue of lies and brute force projected by the Empire. They are ruthlessly assailed, through lies, conspiracies, legal actions and undisguised bully actions, like the recent shut down of entities like Info Wars and Alex Jones on outlets such as You Tube, Facebook, and Twitter. Even a search engine like Google operates under algorithms that bias the information provided to you to enhance the posture of the Empire and do damage to its remaining targets, be they nations or organisations.
So, it is no surprise that the entire corporate media walks in lockstep, endeavoring to destroy the man (Julian Assange) they SHOULD be trying to emulate, if their dedicated mission is really to seek out, learn and divulge the TRUTH. His truth threatens the Empire, in some small way; and like a cornered animal the Empire strikes out at that threat using every modality at it command, including the mass media which it has organically grafted onto itself like a set of bloody claws or talons. Think of that media not so much as a lapdog of the Empire (and whatever evil beings manipulate it from behind the scenes–Erebus himself perchance?) but more like Cerberus, the three-headed canid whose job it is to keep all of us inmates in Hades.
Realist your fine appraisal made me think of how this very week our MSM reports away on the Manafort trail, and wherever it was Don Jr wasn’t suppose to be, and why he was or wasn’t doing it. Yet, our freedom of speech is being taken down big time with the censorship of Ron Paul, as not to forget Alex Jones. Just two free speaking sites at the beginning of a government purge of all alternative news sources, is what being preempted by our unreliable MSM. Nothing to see here, as they say. Between censorship of movies, and certain books, we are now squarely standing inside the 4th Reich. All the while Americans were distracted with the Russia Gate show.
Here Paul Craig Roberts is freaking out about the same thing….
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/08/07/apple-google-youtube-facebook-twitter-subvert-the-us-constitution-free-speech-and-american-liberty/
Yes, Joe, I fully intended to mention Ron Paul as an example of the egregious censorship now ongoing, but I just forgot to put it in. Everything I type is stream-of-consciousness and that just slipped out of the stream. Actually, the Ron Paul slight is even greater in that he was a highly respected elected official with a large following who, like Bernie Sanders, actually got close to being elected to the presidency. Like Sanders, he was sandbagged by his own party. Now he is being “disappeared” by the corrupted media.
Realist – wonderful words. “The Empire has become so large, so pervasive and so powerful that it intends to assimilate and control every human assemblage and activity on the planet.” Sadly, you are right. We must fight back against them, against globalism, against censoring free speech, against the elites’ use of supranational organizations that override sovereignty, and against the illegal detention of good people like Julian Assange.
I wonder: do you not think they would have moved on Assange by now if they thought they could get away with it? Maybe they don’t dare? Just wondering.
The Empire is vastly over-extended, and utterly dependent on the network of oil-dependent infrastructure. None of it can be maintained without oil, refinement of crude, and the flimsy electric grid. It is doomed by the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
I’m torn between a sort of comicbook outlook, where I hope for some legion of superheroes (Julian may be counted among them.) to come along and rescue humanity, and a simple petit bourgeois desire to just make it all go away, and have the Ozzy and Harriet worldof my youth in the Fifties be back again. Well, not really the latter.
We need to recognize someone who might be on the brink of emerging as a new truly moral leader a’la Franklin, Thomas Paine, or Lincoln. Contamination with the Russian hysteria is a categorical disqualification in my mind, however.
“None of it can be maintained without oil, refinement of crude, and the flimsy electric grid. It is doomed by the Second Law of Thermodynamics.”
Glad you make this essential point that most people, being scientifically illiterate, are totally unaware of. If I were the guy in charge, I’d be not only developing as many alternative energy sources (not just wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric but thorium power plants anyone? Fusion has seemed elusive all my life.) as possible in anticipation of the day that the fossil fuels run out in our finite world (whether runaway climate change from accumulated greenhouse gases happens or not), but I’d be hardening the grid against a natural or anthrogenic EMP event and stockpiling backup large core EHV transformers if the aforementioned catastrophe occurs and society simply cannot build these from scratch any more without the requisite industrial infrastructure. But even our most cool, calculating rational thinkers in positions of power are constantly forced to put any such large scale plans off till mañana. The people with the power and resources would rather invest in financial speculation than insurance plans. It’s why empires rise and inevitably collapse.
Realist, what a great encapsulation of the “real” world as contrasted with the “dream” world spun by the corporate media. If only we could see the clouds with an antidote that would awaken the masses, but then the asylums would be full of Russiagaters with truth-induced psychotic breaks.
I’m in agreement with RnM, in that that Empire has overextended itself, as all empires do. From my perspective it appears to be held together by money printing, propaganda and military coercion, all of which are wobbling like a top about to topple. My questions are: how devastating will the implosion be, who will take control of what remains afterward, and will it be fascism or socialism? Assuming, of course, that a flying saucer doesn’t land in Central Park unleashing a giant police robot named Gort before TSHTF.
Any rebound will be determined by the magnitude of the collapse. Who takes control will be determined by which elites most effectively maintain their resource and political bases. If the collapse is precipitous and power widely fragmented, as occurred in Europe after the fall of Rome, humanity will probably have a very long dark age to look forward to. Moreover, if the dark age is especially long, the resources might become critically depleted before the political will to re-unify emerges taking us back to an indefinite state of chaos, perhaps even resembling pre-history. This is why we should hope for a soft landing when our current civilisation ultimately does collapse.
Thank you John Pilger, always honest always respected. Vichy journalism- brilliant! Viva Julian Assange.
Every truth loving person is deeply offended and threatened by the rapid growth of a 1984 world all around us. We must use such opportunities as still exist to wake up as many as we can to the great danger overtaking our world. Truth needs wide expression to be effective in nurturing a just world.
Sadly, the US has become a bottom feeder of a country. It no longer has any honor, morals, or pride. A bully doesn’t like to be beaten, a poseur doesn’t like to be exposed. And Julian Assange will surely suffer more than he has so far. The only good thing to come out of this will be the unmasking of the United States as the ugly country that it is. That will hurt the US a lot more than Assange’s revelations.
I hope you are right Jeff, and that there are still enough people with a functioning conscience to respond strongly to the injustice being visited on Assange. It is true that the pretension of morality promoted by the US government is being torn aside, and the ugly little men behind the curtain revealed – but how many will awake to see it?
I truly hope Julian Assange doesn’t have to become a martyr for the cause of free speech, because as was noted in the article, he is a human being (a very courageous one) who deserves support and thanks from the rest of us who are working against this horrific criminal syndicate.
The establishment press and corporate mass media are running scared right now. They’re downright terrified b/c they know the geenie is slowly wending its way out of the bottle, they recognize that much of the Western public — who have been lied to, abused, economically exploited, over worked, and humiliated for decades — are finally starting to recognize the developing lie, albeit many are still engulfed in the prevarications and deceit but many are beginning to wake up, to stir and ask pertinent questions, and many of them are irritated, to say the least.
The general population realizes something is horribly awry when their sons are threatened to go off to war in a hot desert; when the only jobs available pay a pittance with nominal or non-existent benefits; when a broken muffler or toothache can lead to bankruptcy; when a handful of parasitic financial firms, military monopolies, and three owning class humans (Buffet, Bozos, Gates) own as much wealth as the bottom half of the population combined; when college students start out in debt peonage with life ruining student loans that will hound them for eternity; when co-pays and deductibles rise to the level of a monthly rent payment.
The class struggle is real and our ruling elites well knows it. When close to half (HALF!) the United States population lives near or below the poverty line it’s a tragedy no one can mask, no smooth talking b.s. hustler can assuage. All the while the Defense [sic] budget eats up close to two-thirds of the annual discretionary budget.
Something has got to give!
Ergo, it’s crucial the mass media and the slick corporate dissemblers control the narrative, period. They know more so than me and other critics and irritated scribes and social philosophers that the Wall Street/military empire presides over a precarious house of cards.
Going after Alex Jones (and yes, he can be a lunatic on certain issues, and never seems to call out Israhell, but on a few things he was generally correct) is the start, prosecuting Assange will be the next phase. It’s a simple display of muscle, not unlike the shylock on the street corner, the boss has to set an example in order to deter other deadbeats (truth tellers) that broken legs are the price to pay if you have any silly ideas about kicking the truth to the aggrieved people.
What other thinkers, intellectuals, scholars, critics, websites, activists, etc. will be next on the chopping block? Next to face a massive smear campaign, to be the victims of blatant censorship, prosecuted for daring to speak and write the truth, be browbeaten as conspiracy loons, anti-Semites, or un-American elitists: Noam Chomsky? Joe Lauria? Paul Craig Roberts? Diana Johnstone? James Petras? Alison Weir? Ray McGovern? Finian Cunningham? Andre Vltchek? Michael Parenti? Chris Hedges? Caitlin Johnstone? Jeff Blankfort? Pilger? Pepe Escobar?
Drew Hunkins – very well said! Yes, they really are running scared. They wouldn’t bother unless they had good reason to worry; they can see the public turning before their very eyes. We were only allowed “freedom” when the wool was pulled down nice and tight.
“We were only allowed “freedom” when the wool was pulled down nice and tight.”
Excellent point backwards. Sort of reminds me of Plato’s allegory of the cave.
FREEDOM always comes at a cost. It is not something that can be given, granted or allowed. However, when it is TAKEN or earned, it WILL be respected. We (and “they”) cannot help respecting Assange!
As for the results or effects of this sort of courage, I think most of us can see evidence of an imminent uprising, revolt, or change. – I give again my version –
There’s a war in the east, so we’re told at least
There’s a war in the west, some just call it unrest
We feel shame, who’s to blame? Well its always the same
But the times are once again changing
We have conflict down south, its in everyone’s mouth
Confrontation up north, refugees and so forth
Open borders for all, or build a wall, heed the call
And the times are once again changing
There’s resentment and strife between man and wife
And a hostile fight between the left and right
Is it Adam or June calls the tune night and noon?
The times are once again changing
You better learn how to crawl. Those who triumphed will fall
Those who now dictate will soon find it too late
You’re corrupt, too well supped, and you can’t get it up
So the times are once again changing
These times my dears are not measured in years
They’re recorded in blood since before the great flood
If you do not belong, then this song will sound wrong
But the times are once again changing
Great stuff Mr. Kath.
Tom Kath – good stuff, Tom. I like what you said here: “It is not something that can be given, granted or allowed. However, when it is TAKEN or earned, it WILL be respected.” Bang on!
How true your words are Tom we need freedom of expression, freedom of speech not censorship which has become the norm. The devil is abroad and we must counteract it with diligence and bravery.