VIDEO: Pilger Says Assange Denies Meeting Manafort

The Guardian has claimed Paul Manafort visited Julian Assange at the Ecuador embassy. John Pilger visited Assange and tells CN’s Joe Lauria Assange strongly denied any such meeting. 

 Pilger: ‘Julian is a touchstone for opposition’  

By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News

WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange has vehemently denied that he ever met Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, according to journalist and filmmaker John Pilger, who met with Assange at Ecuador’s embassy in London last week.

Pilger said Assange told him the story published by The Guardian on Nov. 27 was a “total fabrication.”  Pilger told Consortium News in an interview for the Unity4J vigil on Friday that “I personally can confirm that did not happen. He said it was a fabrication. It was not possible. The way internal security works at that embassy, it was not possible.”

Pilger called The Guardian story “an indication of a kind of degradation of the media today and especially of the ‘respectable’ media. We discussed that a great deal.”

Pilger said Assange had been the target of attacks “over the years” that have come “thick and fast.” He said:  “And for one man to cope with them is an extraordinary feat. Only occasionally does he express anger—he does it as anyone of us would feel—say on an attack like The Guardian‘s utterly false story.”

First Visit Since March

Pilger had not visited Assange since before March, when the Ecuadorian government imposed a ban on his internet and phone connection, and limited visitors to his lawyers and family members. 

Pilger’s impression on seeing him again is that Assange has lost no sharpness of mind after more than six years confined to a small space in the embassy, and now nine months cut off from the outside world. 

“He’s in very good spirits,” Pilger said. “The extraordinary resilience of this man is something to behold. In his own personality, intellectually he is Julian.” 

“I can’t say what he’s feeling. His health is probably holding steady but he urgently needs comprehensive diagnostic work done,” said Pilger. 

“But people should know that Julian’s spirits, his whole sense of ‘to hell with them,’ and his own resolve to stand up to those who would want to do a great injustice to him is undiminished,” he said. “He’s not leaving, they will have to throw him out. He’s not going anywhere.”

The United States government has admitted that it has indicted Assange for publishing classified documents that revealed apparent U.S. war crimes and corruption. Assange fears that if he leaves the embassy British authorities would arrest him on bail skipping charges and then extradite him to the U.S. for prosecution. 

Touchstone of Opposition

Pilger said The Guardian story was the best example he could think of that expresses today’s Cold War. “I’ve never known it to be as explicit as it is now. And that fabricated Guardian story … is an example of that.”

He said: “In the first Cold War there was an opposition in those days. There isn’t a popular opposition now. The so-called liberal opposition is so confused, so disorientated, and so, almost wretched, in its uncertainty of its true allegiances, in its collusion, that there isn’t a major anti-war movement.”

“In many ways, Julian is a touchstone for opposition to so much of what is happening in our world,” said Pilger. “Of all the cases that illustrate resistance to that, there is none like that of Julian Assange.

“And he needs public, popular support. He needs people to go into the street outside the embassy. To go in the streets all over the world, as they have done in the past,” Pilger said.

You can watch the entire, original video of the 20 minute interview with John Pilger here:

59 comments for “VIDEO: Pilger Says Assange Denies Meeting Manafort

  1. December 29, 2018 at 00:35

    There are some honest sounding comments here. I have taken the initiative in copying the relevant to me (Kiwi) parts of this comment from. evelync
    December 28, 2018 at 8:14 pm
    Quote..”I’d like to be aware of some outreach initiative too, ranny.
    FWIW, I sent the Prime minister of Australia a request something like:Dear Prime Minister Morrison,
    Your citizen, Julian Assange, is a courageous publisher who has put himself at risk to inform the public.
    Protecting journalists and whistleblowers will help restore public confidence that democratic principles do mean something in our world.
    I never heard anything back…Unquote …disappointing…..
    I would suggest you all do the same, it is well worded. If we all saturated Social media with it, someone may listen.
    Assange needs our support. He may not be safe outside, but at least he would be in control of his life. Please act on it…cheers Graeme.

  2. Douglas
    December 27, 2018 at 21:20

    Julian Assange must be freed immediately.

    Wikileaks research and factual reporting is essential
    for the people to know the facts of the continuing crimes
    of the psychopathic fascist capitalists, and their deadly and
    homicidal acts against the people of the world.

    Free Julian Assange now.

  3. Suzie speirs
    December 26, 2018 at 22:09

    Thank you John pilger and joe lauria
    Julian stands for the reality of peace for all
    And must not be persecuted any longer for standing up for this
    Which is in fact the only way forward on earth
    today
    The people of earth needs peace and care
    The environment the native life on earth needs peace and care
    Please free julian

  4. December 26, 2018 at 19:27

    There may be a handful of reputable journalists that I have faith in and two at the top of that credibility spectrum are Julian Assange and John Pilger.

  5. December 25, 2018 at 23:47

    This historic injustice against Julian Assange has surpassed description in levels of surrealism, and therefore it is time for Assange supporters around the Earth to become very serious. Every reader here on Consortium News knows Julian Assange is being persecuted by warmongers because he exposed their hideous war crimes, and that Assange will with conscious intent continue publishing their crimes on WikiLeaks – unless the war “leaders” put him in prison for life, or kill him.

    Supporters of Julian Assange worldwide at this extra-critical juncture have only (2) action options remaining:

    1.) Step up the pressure, ideally pushing at 110% of maximum … on United States President Donald Trump, United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May, Ecuador President Lenin Moreno, demanding they arrange for Assange’s immediate, rightful freedom, or …

    2.) Watch Assange imprisoned for the rest of his lifetime, an important voice for peace totally silenced, – or put to death.

    To good people supporting Assange worldwide: Using all available moral power, solidarity, creativity and public communications channels, shame and embarrass warmongers Trump, May and Moreno so thoroughly in front of the human race they become literally forced to surrender their illegal charade, take right action – and free Julian Assange.

    Peace.

  6. Mild - ly Facetious
    December 25, 2018 at 21:13

    Pilger says Assange
    denies meeting Manifort
    ( as if Farts don’t Stink)

    ç
    tangled tales or knotted tails
    it’s woe to us as gordian knot

    is severed by Manhattan Project
    realist? ordained mathematicians

    these Close Encounter theorist
    explore boundaries of Patterns

    and uncover nuclear science
    and keys to Total Destruction.

    mankind steps into tomorrow
    a technocratic era w/ open spaces

    some will survive the onslaught of
    Elimination Proceedings/Moving On

    Past interjections of GMOs inserted into
    “our daily bread” without resistance.

    Adler opens other places& spaces
    of cognitive liberty w/Nierenberg
    solving problems w/o beneficiaries.

    (just for truth) Has truth died?
    honesty rejected as irrelevant
    in humanity’s post modern world?

    the knot tightens & we lose air
    breath is fundamental to life
    it was Breathed into our nostrils.

    thru Tales of The Unexpected /
    comic book flat forms of denial
    as if Assange cannot be a Judas?

    ç (or is ? )

    tangled tales or knotted tails
    it’s woe to us as gordian knot

    is severed by Manhattan Project
    realist? ordained mathematicians

    these Close Encounter theorist
    explore boundaries of Patterns

    and uncover nuclear science
    and keys to Total Destruction.

    mankind steps into tomorrow
    a technocratic era w/ open spaces

    some will survive the onslaught of
    Elimination / Proceedings/Moving On

    past interjections of GMOs inserted into
    “our daily bread” without resistance.

    Adler opens other places& spaces
    of cognitive liberty w/Nierenberg
    solving problems w/o beneficiaries.

    (just for truth) Has truth died?
    honesty rejected as irrelevant
    in humanity’s post modern world?

    the knot tightens & we lose air
    breath is fundamental to life
    it was Breathed into our nostrils.

    thru Tales of The Unexpected
    comic book flat forms of denial
    as if Assange cannot be a Judas?

    Mary Christmas
    + Eventful New year
    2 all you Fools on
    the hill/ from the Beetles,
    Paul, John, George/ and Ringo.

    — Video’s tell the Truth !!!
    ( as in the Anti- Capitalist Movie — ”
    The Magic Christian”

  7. JWalters
    December 25, 2018 at 20:40

    Just watched Steven Spielberg’s movie The Post, the fascinating and gripping inside story of Katherine Graham risking her family’s newspaper and fortune for freedom of the press in the United States. Meryl Streep portrays Graham and Tom Hanks is her pirate editor Ben Bradlee. They are a wikileaks of that day, with charges of “endangering national security” aimed to shut them up, and to secure the bankers.

    The mainstream media today has been largely brought under the control of the bankers, who so ominously threaten Graham in the movie. Now the Post too has been absorbed and goes along with the cover-ups. e.g. http://t.co/Z7xhvfJgnC It’s left to indy media to inform the public about who is really running the public’s affairs.

    This movie is so much like today it amazed me. So much lying to the public from the powers that be. Great performances, script, directing.

    • December 26, 2018 at 17:32

      First, Katherine Graham was not an unqualified friend of freedom.

      She was a pretty good friend to CIA interests.

      And you cannot name a single instance when the Washington Post did not beat the drum for a new American imperial war.

      Second, Steven Spielberg is also a big friend to the power establishment’s interests. His movies are packed with tidbits of propaganda, besides generally having a somewhat comic book character.

      Third, Ben Bradlee is thought by many to actually have been CIA.

      To expect that an American big-studio film, and one directed or produced by the super-establishment likes of Spielberg, is going to offer enlightenment on such topics seems to this observer naive.

      • Skip Scott
        December 27, 2018 at 09:44

        Thanks John. I saw this post and planned to reply later. You beat me to it, and did a great job.

      • JWalters
        December 28, 2018 at 01:06

        The movie deals explicitly with the problem of people in the news business having personal friendships with those in government power. It deals specifically with Katherine Graham’s friendship with Robert McNamara and Ben Bradlee’s friendship with John F. Kennedy. It does not sugar coat or hid the multidimensional nature of their reality, and the problems those cause.

        Regardless of their personal friendships with the power elite, in this case Graham agreed with Bradlee’s analysis and decided to go against the pressure from the banking establishment. She did what Julian Assange did, and published official government secrets for the good of the country. That is a historical FACT.

        Your assertion about Ben Bradlee is empty conjecture in this context. Does that mean he was in on the JFK assassination? Valerie Plame was a CIA agent, so does that automatically make her evil?

        Steven Spielberg may not have seen the politically motivated restrictions of the movie business when he began. But Hollywood’s bankers have been pushing propaganda bits into American entertainment virtually forever. Americans who want to work as entertainers (movies or music) must live within that matrix or face enforced obscurity. Despite that, in THIS movie Spielberg stands strongly for the people and against anti-democratic government secrecy, especially involving war.

        Publishing the American government’s lies to the people about the Vietnam war was most definitely NOT beating the drum for THAT war. It was clearly beating the drum AGAINST it, and played a prominent role in the following mass protests that were instrumental in ending the war.

        One may not expect a Spielberg, big studio movie to tell a worthwhile story on this topic. But the FACT is that in this instance they most definitely did. Many people in the oligarchy matrix manage to do acts of resistance here and there. Maybe this movie is one of those. Maybe Graham and Bradlee blowing the government’s cover story on the Vietnam war was another.

        I stand by every sentence in my review of this movie. I hope others will not be dissuaded from seeing a fine movie that stands so clearly for the values of Julian Assange.

      • December 28, 2018 at 22:09

        thank you john chuckman!

  8. ranney
    December 25, 2018 at 19:17

    Can any of the readers provide a link to something that might help Julian? How about a link to contribute; or a link to a petition in the UK or the US to let him go free? Even though that wouldn’t really have an effect it might let him know (and us too) just how many still care about him and hope for justice. Is there a link that we can write and tell him we are supporting him?d How about a link to the British justice department with a petition to let him free?

    No I suppose there are no links or actually anything that ordinary readers can actually do to help. I appreciate Pilger’s plea for people to go out in the streets and support Julian, but I don’t live in the UK and where I live is so rural that my protest would be unnoticed. Lots of the US is like that – we don’t all live in major cities along the two coasts. That’s why I ask for ideas or links for something we can actually DO. Ideas, anyone?

    • JWalters
      December 25, 2018 at 21:16

      It seems to me a key goal is to help consumers of mainstream news outlets learn that those outlets are omitting key information. One tactic is to provide them with links to articles like this. So in addition to this comment community, you might consider joining a similar community at a mainstream news website, such as the PBS Newshour, or ABC’s Sunday news show. As that community becomes increasingly informed, the news staff will find they are looking less informed than their audience. At that point the MSM’s credibility could tank fairly suddenly. The emperor’s mythical magical clothes would vanish.

    • Skip Scott
      December 26, 2018 at 13:03

      Here’s the site to donate to his legal defense fund:

      https://justice4assange.com/Donate.html

      • ranney
        December 27, 2018 at 18:07

        Thank you JWalters, Skip and Jill for your ideas and the links. I will at least use the links.
        Happy New Year

    • Jill
      December 26, 2018 at 20:14

      ranney,

      https://wikileaks.org/ is where you can got to donate. The donation box is on the upper right side of the page in red. This will help. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. See Jerry’s ideas above. Also go to @wikileaks for latest info.

    • evelync
      December 28, 2018 at 20:14

      I’d like to be aware of some outreach initiative too, ranny.
      FWIW, I sent the Prime minister of Australia a request something like:Dear Prime Minister Morrison,
      Your citizen, Julian Assange, is a courageous publisher who has put himself at risk to inform the public. He is in the company of other people who sacrificed their own safety, like Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the U.S. Pentagon Papers in the 1980’s to inform the public of wrongdoing. There are many others, like Chelsea Manning who took great personal risks to inform the public of wrong doing and Edward Snowden and others who risked everything to serve the public interest.
      The foundation of a democracy is for citizens to be well informed in order to make wise electoral choices and keep their government on the path of civic minded service.
      Please show courage and stand up for doing the right thing. Please serve your own people and democracy everywhere by returning Mr. Assange’s passport and giving him safe passage home to Australia if he chooses.
      Protecting journalists and whistleblowers will help restore public confidence that democratic principles do mean something in our world.
      I never heard anything back……
      disappointing…..

      • December 29, 2018 at 00:38

        Hope you don’t mind.
        There are some honest sounding comments here. I have taken the initiative in copying the relevant to me (Kiwi) parts of this comment from. evelync
        December 28, 2018 at 8:14 pm
        Quote..”I’d like to be aware of some outreach initiative too, ranny.
        FWIW, I sent the Prime minister of Australia a request something like:Dear Prime Minister Morrison,
        Your citizen, Julian Assange, is a courageous publisher who has put himself at risk to inform the public.
        Protecting journalists and whistleblowers will help restore public confidence that democratic principles do mean something in our world.
        I never heard anything back…Unquote …disappointing…..
        I would suggest you all do the same, it is well worded. If we all saturated Social media with it, someone may listen.
        Assange needs our support. He may not be safe outside, but at least he would be in control of his life. Please act on it…cheers Graeme.

  9. mike k
    December 25, 2018 at 12:15

    Major media is all lies and propaganda. Sad – and infuriating! Our wealthy rulers are so sure they can con us and thus control us with their fake news, fake government, fake military. We are living in a fake world that most people take to be real. How else to explain all the millions of votes for a fake human to be our President?

    • mike k
      December 25, 2018 at 12:20

      Fake wars, fake money, fake education, fake health care, fake entertainment, fake food, fake religion…….the list goes on and on. And one is considered “normal” if they accept all of this as real, and play along with it

      • Maxwell Quest
        December 25, 2018 at 15:33

        Agreed, Mike. Always enjoy your posts.

        Yes, the average American lives in a fake world, which is a crime against life because it shields him from the only objective reality he can know, and when truth is replaced with falsehood the subjective (or reasoning) instrument is damaged. And what is the result of this, but a lack of true consciousness development, or a development built on sand which eventually must be washed away and rebuilt, if ever.

  10. voza0db
    December 25, 2018 at 11:42

    “And he needs public, popular support. He needs people to go into the street outside the embassy.”

    This is why Assange doesn’t stand a chance!

  11. Skip Scott
    December 25, 2018 at 08:59

    Thanks for this timely video. One of the more interesting points to me was that fact the anti-war movement really did fall asleep, or was maybe hypnotized, under Obama. I’m sure the MSM has been complicit. How do we wake them up? I urge everyone here to spread the word about CN. It is one of the few remaining bastions of real journalism.

  12. Charles
    December 25, 2018 at 02:17

    It is so shameful that people don’t care about the abuse that is being hePed upon this true hero. It is also a real indication of how low our morals have fallen. The fear factor that a person will be targeted if he speaks out on this issue is palpable. We see major criminals escape prosecution ( that are in our government) and then see this happen to Julian. 1984 is upon us. I pray he gets out soon!

    • Mild - ly Facetious
      December 25, 2018 at 21:41

      Mild – ly Facetious

      comment ?

      – !!!

  13. Kiwiantz
    December 24, 2018 at 23:01

    I treat all Mainstream Media as mere fiction & infotainment & bad infotainment at that? Once you have been exposed to Journalistic Truth, such as what is published on Consortium News & other sites such as Zerohedge & RT & exposed to the views of the many commentators here on this site, you can never look at Mainstream Media the same way again? It’s like having a road to Damascus moment like the Apostle Paul & having the scales drop from you minds eye?? The truth, be that journalistic truth, really does set you free from the mind numbing propaganda & falsehoods being shoved down people’s throats, 24/7 from this corrupt, Orwellian news media & devious Politicians! To all the contributors such as John Pilger & all the comments folks here & in the spirit of the late, great Robert Parry I wish you all a Merry Xmas & a peaceful New Year!

  14. December 24, 2018 at 20:27

    This looks like the deep state has someone to blame for telling the truth about hillary and the Clinton crime family. Trump would put himself squarely in the sights of the WITCH hunt story spinner Robert Muller. I think That Julian deserves the medal of honor for providing what the mainstream media would not. I wish the newattorny General would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the deep state.

  15. John Danziger
    December 24, 2018 at 19:16

    As an Australian I am deeply ashamed and angered by the great silence of my government and the parliamentary opposition in not helping Julian Assange gain the freedom he deserves. Shame on you PM Morrison, shame on you Labor Party leader Shorten.

    • KiwiAntz
      December 26, 2018 at 20:34

      John, As a Kiwi, I agree with your comments of shame, as the Australian Nation & Govt shares many of the Historic traits with the US, such as indigenous Native genocide & the theft of their Lands! Today it’s the demonisation of Russia & China & in NZ, your lousy immigration policy of sending your criminals, raised all their lives in Australia (but with a hint of NZ connection) over to our shores? Australia is little more than a South seas’s Vassal of the US Empire & unfortunately, my own Country also is linked, courtesy of this 5 eyes intelligence spy agencies arrangement, so we are also complicit in the silence over Julian Assange’s illegal Treatment!

      • December 29, 2018 at 00:37

        There are some honest sounding comments here. I have taken the initiative in copying the relevant to me (Kiwi) parts of this comment from. evelync
        December 28, 2018 at 8:14 pm
        Quote..”I’d like to be aware of some outreach initiative too, .
        FWIW, I sent the Prime minister of Australia a request something like:Dear Prime Minister Morrison,
        Your citizen, Julian Assange, is a courageous publisher who has put himself at risk to inform the public.
        Protecting journalists and whistleblowers will help restore public confidence that democratic principles do mean something in our world.
        I never heard anything back…Unquote …disappointing…..
        I would suggest you all do the same, it is well worded. If we all saturated Social media with it, someone may listen.
        Assange needs our support. He may not be safe outside, but at least he would be in control of his life. Please act on it…cheers Graeme.

  16. December 24, 2018 at 16:30

    The Guardian, under its present direction, serves pretty much as a crypto-Tory propaganda outlet.

    It tries covering its trail with loads of stuff about the disadvantaged and minorities, but these are puff pieces of no real substance. Indeed, many of them strike the reader as forced and not terribly sincere.

    When it comes to the big issues of the day – Assange, Russia, Corbyn, America’s military, Israel’s behavior, Saudi Arabia’s murderer Prince, Ukraine, and others – The Guardian view is virtually indistinguishable from some Tory Party house organ under the direction of Theresa May.

    It is an amazing phenomenon that anyone still gives The Guardian any credibility. Its extreme bias and willingness to run what can only be called disinformation disqualify it entirely from being taken seriously, at least by serious people, and certainly on serious issues.

    Its bias shows in many ways, notably in the way it handles comments from readers. It is very controlling, starting with big limits on what story topics are even allowed comments to removing (non-abusive) comments to banning people from commenting.

    It still lives off its old reputation from decades ago when it was a (somewhat dull) publication genuinely concerned with working-class and progressive matters.

    Today, on the Internet, the main page resembles a pop magazine with its mix of personalities, movies, fads, pop books, television, promotions, pop singers, and travel with a spot of local interest. This all goes to trying to draw a younger audience.

    That is all enmeshed with numberless light articles about the unfortunate, women achieving things, and people with unusual sexual identity problems. This kind of material provides the paper’s only claim to being progressive or liberal today.

    Under this outer skin, as it were, comes the red meat of The Guardian.

    I could give dozens of examples, but here, below, is my favorite, analyzed as what I call a celebration of Hate Russia Day. It is propaganda and disinformation and just plain hate on a grotesque scale. An old 1950s Soviet publication might even have been ashamed to pile it on so thickly.

    But The Guardian is not ashamed, not in the least, and it does comparable things, week-in and week-out, about Assange as Russian tool, Russia as an imminent threat to “the West,” Corbyn as anti-Semite, the good work of America’s military, Iran as the root of evil, celebrating Saudi Arabia’s murderer Prince as progressive, Ukraine as a victim of aggression, and others.

    Along the way, it manages to heap praise and give continued publicity to the likes of Tony Blair and Hillary Clinton, a couple of the most dishonest and murderous figures of our time.

    https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2018/05/21/john-chuckman-comment-absurd-lengths-to-which-our-press-goes-to-attack-russia-britains-guardian-holds-hate-russia-day-today-some-of-its-stuff-is-so-ham-fisted-it-reads-like-1959-pravda-atta/

    • Maxwell Quest
      December 25, 2018 at 15:06

      Right on target, John. I removed my Guardian bookmark quite a while ago and have never returned.

    • JWalters
      December 25, 2018 at 20:42

      Thanks for that perspective.

    • Ash
      December 27, 2018 at 17:38

      Thanks for this, John. My girlfriend, an otherwise sensible leftie and eminently fine person, uses The Guardian as her primary source of news and compulsively checks it numerous times per day. It’s really disturbing how they can shape the worldview of even someone who is aware of the manufacture of consent, etc. Her heart is still in the right place, but I can barely talk to her about anything important happening in the world because she is constantly misinformed if not outright poisoned by lies, and even occasionally recasts some power-serving nonsense editorials as her own opinions.

      On this particular topic, she said it doesn’t matter if Manafort met Assange or not because The Guardian had previously already published text messages (or some such?) that supposedly demonstrated direct collusion between WikiLeaks and “the Russians” and the timing of the [Podesta/Clinton] releases. I can’t find anything legitimate to corroborate that–and if they had really proven this collusion already, one figures they wouldn’t have bothered with the embarrassing Manafort psy-op–but she’s utterly convinced that it’s god’s honest truth (if anyone knows what story I’m referring to and can debunk, please let me know!) As a result, she liked Assange until recently, but now doesn’t trust him. Even said she likes that “they’re not afraid to go after someone who is supposedly a hero, like Assange, and show the other side.” She actually thinks they’re the brave truth-tellers not afraid to expose either side!

      • Ash
        December 30, 2018 at 02:31

        Correction — she alludes to proof of collusion between Wikileaks and the TRUMP CAMPAIGN — not the Russians.

        Unfortunately, now that it has taken days for my comment to appear, I presume nobody will see this and reply.

  17. December 24, 2018 at 14:11

    Men like Pilger, Parry and others that appear on CN offer gifts to us all. At this time of gift giving it is appropriate to thank them, for what they offer is in the tradition of tolerance and compassion that is the spirit of Christmas. Whatever their feelings about Christmas, they nevertheless capture its meaning in the best way.

    Watched an English movie last night taking place around Christmas. The well wishers said happy Christmas rather than merry Christmas. I don’t know if it is customary in England to say happy rather than merry Christmas but I thought it more appropriate in the sentiment it expresses.

    So to those like me that still cling to the meaning of Christmas, happy Christmas. To the others, happy holiday. And in this Christmas season, for those so inclined prayers for Julius Assange.

    • JOHN CHUCKMAN
      December 24, 2018 at 19:10

      It was traditional to say “happy” in England.

      When I was a ten-year old, my English pen pals all sent Christmas cards with this way of speaking.

      But, as a fairly wide reader of English writers and press, I can say things have changed tremendously in recent decades.

      A great writer like Graham Greene, not from so very long ago, read very differently to what we read today. Almost old-fashioned in expression. Ditto George Orwell.

      All the British papers now use a mid-Atlantic voice, actually a mid-Atlantic voice somewhat west of the mid-Atlantic.

      I pretty sure “merry” has caught on. Everyone wants to be understood and accepted by the larger audience.

      • John A
        December 25, 2018 at 06:40

        it was always Merry Christmas where I grew up in England. Mainly, I think, to avoid repetition of happy with the mandatory Happy New Year as they usually go together on cards, rather than when spoken.

      • December 25, 2018 at 09:46

        John, thank you for that. My guess would be the same. The Brits have been captured by our culture in so many ways. Even the plays and movies have become less cerebral and more violent.

  18. bobzz
    December 24, 2018 at 13:11

    I would like to see the video, but it does not appear. Please restore it or make it available if you can.

    • bobzz
      December 24, 2018 at 13:13

      or at least not available on my browser.

      • JWalters
        December 24, 2018 at 19:58

        Are you using Windows 10 by any chance?

  19. rosemerry
    December 24, 2018 at 13:06

    I understood that the Guradian(sic) story had been not only found wrong by numerous sources, but that this fact had been made clear to the “newspaper”-surely by now nobody could accept it as even remotely related to the already discredited Russiagate fantasies. Luke Harding has been strongly criticized for his constant lies. I notice in checking out the “Sycophant” (not my suggestion for its new name!) that many times over the months since March 4, it has been the one to report RT to the propaganda authority in the UK (Ofcom?? a name like that) for lack of impartiality, while its articles and those on the BBC have followed the official line on Russian guilt for Skripal with absolutely no proof or allowance of alternative views which RT of course demonstrated. Every time RT was condemned. Impartiality in UK/US MSM???? LOL

    • T
      December 26, 2018 at 17:59

      > while its articles and those on the BBC have followed the official line on Russian guilt
      > for Skripal with absolutely no proof or allowance of alternative views

      That just might have something to do with the fact that the Guardian has a seat on the British government’s press-censorship committee (the “D-notice”, re-branded “Defence and Security Media Advisory (DSMA) Notice” committee)

      For more details, follow the link to SpinWatch:

      http://spinwatch.org/index.php/issues/propaganda/item/5998-two-d-notices-for-skripal-affair

  20. Jeff Harrison
    December 24, 2018 at 12:09

    Indeed. Where has the anti-war movement gone? Where is the fourth estate? It is interesting that you have the old colonial powers complaining that the US isn’t being imperialist enough because we’re withdrawing from Syria (and presumably) Afghanistan whilst simultaneously complaining about being treated as vassal states.

    • JWalters
      December 24, 2018 at 20:04

      A lot of energy was sapped from the anti-war movement by replacing the draft with a “professional” army. The war profiteers didn’t want any more disruptions like they got during the Vietnam war.

  21. December 24, 2018 at 11:54

    Manafort never met with Assange. Neither are Putin puppets, the narrative we are sold.

    Luke Harding is an MI6 asset. The UK and US governments enact these psyops on Russiagate and WikiLeaks together.

    Unfortunately, the team sports nature of American politics has befuddled everyone’s minds.

    Assange is the only one of the bunch who is actually on OUR side.

    You Don’t Have to Love Assange to Fear His Prosecution

    • Lisa
      December 25, 2018 at 18:03

      It was reported that Manafort’s passport shows his latest visit to London having been in 2012. As simple as that.
      The problem is that the original lie stays in public’s memory, the revelation that it was a lie, is not at all that widely published. People believe what they want the truth to be, and they believe everything that supports their biased view of the events.
      The newspapers in other countries keep quoting Guardian because once upon a time it was a trusted source. Not anymore.

  22. December 24, 2018 at 11:31

    Julian Assange deserves a medal of honor for enduring all this.

    • JWalters
      December 24, 2018 at 20:05

      A Congressional Medal of Honor.

  23. WALDRON
    December 24, 2018 at 09:51

    Julian Assange a prisoner of the truth. To think all the dissidents were in captivity in the Soviet Union during their time of political repression. Fast forward 2018 how times have changed; not for the better in the West. And Putin warns a world war not impossible?

  24. john wilson
    December 24, 2018 at 08:25

    I’m afraid, Davey, that the public are now saturated in news to the extent that news has become a kind of background noise heard by a radio telescope. There is fake new, bad news, indifferent news, acres of news about non entity celebrities, war news about far of places which the public has no interest or knowledge of etc etc. Even when the news is so obviously fake and one points it out, there is a closed mind approach. Take the Skripal/novichok affair. Charlie Rowley’s story is so ridiculous it beggars belief that anyone can give it credence. Rowley tells us he spilled novichok (perfume) on his hands to the extent he had to wash it off and he also told us it had no smell/scent so this means he breathed the stuff into his nasal olfactory system and inevitably some into his lungs. By any bodies reckoning this must surely constitute a massive dose of weapons grade chemical nerve agent. However, Rowley does not collapse on the spot but is fine until some ten hours later when he is taken ill. He recovers in hospital a few days later and is discharged from hospital in a couple of weeks or so. His friend Dawn however, merely sprays a fine mist of the same stuff on her wrists and is taken ill in 15 minutes (according to Rowley) and is a hospital case on 30 minutes and dies later in hospital. The Skripals are supposed to have touched a door handle with novichok on it and they are hospitalized for months and in a coma at that!! By the way, you would think that Rowley who has a broken bottle of perfume with no scent to it, would have poured the rest down the sink and put the bottle in the nearest waste container. He doesn’t, he places bottle it carefully in the garage instead because that’s where the police say they found it. A believable story? Is it along the lines of Claas Relotius of Spegel , Manafort, or the whole damned lot of news about everything. I don’t believe anything I hear anymore. Anyway, Davey, as you and me seem to be the only two commentators here today,…

    A HAPPY WHATEVER YOU BELIEVE XMAS AND A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR

    • rosemerry
      December 24, 2018 at 13:14

      I fully agree, John. Notice also when the story died down a bit, lo and behold, the 11,000 hours of CCTV found the two culprits, while CCTV never showed Skripal leaving or returning to his lethal doorknob. The story the “assassins” told was certainly not as fantastic as the official line, and no CCTV showed them near the doorknob. As well, who really thinks the evil Putin who kills anyone anywhere, would send two stooges and then welcome them back having failed, and six months later they are still alive and able to be interviewed? This is the man we are all terrified of, taking over the world??

      • john wilson
        December 25, 2018 at 07:05

        Obviously, Rosemary, the two Russians were a pair of “good time boys” and they came to the UK to buy drugs and most likely from the same dealer who I suggest Mr Skripal and the other two got theirs from. The police say they found novichok in the Russians hotel room and this after many other people had used the room following hovering, cleaning, bed changes etc. Clearly, the drugs used were synthetic and are synthesized in clandestine labs using just about any chemicals available from weed killer to aspirin. The whole story of the “novichok affair” is so ridiculous that it makes one wonder about the intelligence of the average member of the public, because they have actually swallowed the whole story.

  25. Janis
    December 24, 2018 at 08:22

    You misinterpret the facts Sir. Not only is there an anti war movement but Americans realize there is a fundamental difference between the cultures of the UK and US. Like the Mayans before the Spanish invasion, Americans don’t understand this war at world thing and the UK took over the Army Air Force with the bombing of Dresden and Hiroshima and the loss of Americans’ property rights in 1923 with the displacement of pharmacist John Leach to Henry Kaiser and Kaiser’s was the first alien (LTD LLP LLC) corporation to what except to build warships and later with Prohibition to limit tinctures to everyone except the the alien commie ghouls. #AmericanBar vs. the people since 1628 when the innocence of an American could only be proved by her death resulting from drowning so the Judges were not nice people and they still aren’t however the US Army has pardoned Chelsea Manning because Americans are aware of the need to fight a real enemy since the draft as that too is not Constitutional and we have been constantly under attack and why doesn’t the government award Honorably Discharged Vets lifetime passports and AK47s? Me thinks it is because the ghouls don’t want any opposition to the Australian “firefighters” who judging from the Queen’s not pardoning Julian Assange can only mean 1 thing, the ghouls or originals want to eliminate native Cannabis from the California rain forest just like they did with the elimation of alcohol. They take the best and not the rest. And the originals don’t quit they have to be forcibly stopped.

    • Tim
      December 26, 2018 at 18:04

      > the ghouls or originals want to eliminate native Cannabis from the California rain forest

      Whereas you have apparently been smoking/drinking too much of the high-THC-content varietals bred by Dutch growers…

  26. December 24, 2018 at 07:37

    Thank you for sharing this piece offering Assange’s perspective as to the lies that were asserted in The Guardian recently claiming that Manafort had secretly met with Assange.

    The mania of Russiagate and the maligning of Assange rolled into one rag piece item of gossip and propaganda.

    As this article points out, there is no united anti war movement from “the left” these days.

    Nor is there much to pass for legitimate journalism, the so referenced rag piece by The Guardian being a prime example.

    All the more reasons why the world owes a great debt of gratitude to social heros such as Julian Assange.

    • JOHN CHUCKMAN
      December 24, 2018 at 18:59

      Well said.

      I think the sheer breadth and intensity of dark operations these days by the US and allies such as Britain and France plus the changed circumstances with our press created the spur for the likes of Assange, Manning, and Snowden.

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