That does indeed appear to be the case. Julian Assange has very close ties with the Russian government. If Assange really is a whistle blower organization, his targeted victims are very selective. When has Assange ever targeted or released any material Mother Putina didn't like? Can you say never? Additionally, Assange was instrumental in getting Snowden to seek asylum in Putina's Mother Russia. Assange intentionally engineered Snowden's stranding in Mother Russia. Ironically, Assange, the guy who claims to be for freedom on information has very close ties and connections to the one of the least free states in the world i.e. Mother Russia. Assange even had his own television show on state owned and state controlled Russian TV and a Russian security detail. I think the evidence is clear. By his own actions. Assange and his organization Wikileaks isn't what it represents itself to be. It's a front for Putin's thugs. The guys who have been instrumental in doping Russian athletes. Why didn't Assange report on the Russian doping scandal? Assange and his Wikileaks organization is a front for Russian espionage. http://www.businessinsider.com/edward-snowden-and-wikileaks-2014-1 http://www.inquisitr.com/3351049/wikileaks-julian-assange-and-the-trump-russia-connection/
Interesting. Chuck Todd, on Meet the Press, interviewed Assange and presented the following conundrum: If Russian intelligence is providing Wikileaks with information intended to influence a US election, doesn't Wikileaks have an obligation to expose the covert Russian activities in the interest of public disclosure? After all, this is allegedly the goal of Wikileaks in the first place. Assange just dodged the question by saying that they don't reveal their sources. ~ But if Wikileaks has been weaponized and is being used by one foreign government against another in order to influence an election, isn't Wikileaks just being used as a tool, Todd asked. Doesn't the public has a right to know this as well? Assange again dodged the question by saying they protect their sources. SO it does seem clear that Wikileaks is only interested in revealing secrets that don't involve THEM. Russian operative or not, THEY have become a player in their own right and are now operating by the same tactics they seek to expose in others!
Assange is the guy who wants Russian state security body guards. Assange is the guy who had a TV show on Russian state owned and state controlled TV. Russia isn't the transparent. It imprisons and executes journalists who don't tow the Russian party line. So it's more than a little hypocritical for Assange to do what he has done.
I think he's an equal opportunity secret leaker. Yes, this happens to be detrimental to Clinton, but it could just be a coincidence.
An equal opportunity leaker who just never attacks Putin; who had his own TV show on Russian state owned and controlled TV and it's not like Russia arrests and murders dissidents. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!. Oh, that's right, it does. But Assange never says anything about it. Sure, he's equal opportunity as long as your name isn't Putin. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Oh, so he can get all this stuff on others, but he can't get anything on Putina....seriously? Putin's regime is one of the most corrupt regimes on the planet and Assange can't find anything? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index Assange isn't looking, probably because he has some cozy ties with the Russian state. The irony here is he is suppose to be for a free press and Russia has one of the least free press in the world a press which he was publicly a part of when he hosted a TV show on Russian state controlled TV. Russia arrests, imprisons, and murders journalists and Assange can't find anything on Russia....seriously? If Assange can't find anything, he isn't looking.
Russia doesn't need Assange to be actually working for it in order for wikileaks to be a useful medium for putting out information that Russia wants out there without its source being obvious. To give Assange his due, it makes sense for wikileaks to maintain a policy of never revealing its sources. To do that in any instance would destroy the business model of wikileaks. Its existence relies on the trust of the people who feed it the leaks. The idea that Assange is some kind of Russian agent is a nice conspiracy theory with not a lot to recommend it. What is Assange supposed to be gaining by working for Mother Russia?
Russia doesn't need Assange to be an unwitting accomplice in releasing hacked materials. No one has said otherwise. But Russian intelligence does need him to collect intelligence as he has done e.g. US diplomatic cables. Wikileaks attracts people who leak classified information because they believe Wikileaks will publish the material without disclosing their identities. Wikileaks is a big global classified information funnel. That's exactly what an intelligence agency like the FSB would want in an agent. So for you to represent Wikileaks as just an unwitting information outlet for Russian intelligence is more than a little myopic at best. No one has questioned the Wikileaks policy of not revealing sources or that it is critical to its business model. No one is pressuring Wikileaks to release its sources. No one is inferring anything nefarious in Wikileaks's refusal to release its sources. That really isn't an issue. This is a straw man argument on your part. Questions are not theories, but theories begin with questions. No one has said Assange is a Russian agent. But, there is a lot of smoke and real life conspiracies do occur. Believe it or not, there are very real conspiracies in our world and this might be one of those real life conspiracies. Why would Assange request FSB agents in his security detail? Why would he need a security detail? Why does Assange have such a cozy relationship with Putin's state controlled media? As previously pointed out, Assange hosted his own Russian TV show. I find that particularly odd given how Russia controls its press and oppresses journalists. That doesn't fit with Wikileaks public image and stated goal of transparency. Given that Russia is one of the most corrupt countries on the planet and Assange can't find even an iota of information which would embarrass the Russian regime? Yeah, I find that odd too. Why did Assange engineer Snowden's stranding in Russia? Snowden never intended to stay in Russia. Snowden had planned on migrating to South America. Thanks to Assange, Snowden is in Russia today and not South America. There is plenty of smoke here. Contrary to your assertion, there is much reason for suspicion. So to suspect that Assange might be a Russian agent is reasonable given the facts. You ask what would motivate Assange to conspire with Russian intelligence, what normally motivates people? You don't think money and power motivates people? It motivates them every day around the globe. Each day billions of people wake up and work for money. You don't think money motivates Assange? And then there is fact that Assange is in a very precarious place. He's evading an international arrest warrant for rape in an Ecuadorian embassy. Assange needs all the allies he can muster. He doesn't have many friends in the Western world. There are many reasons why Assange would become a Russian agent.
Obama promised transparency of government. Assange and Snowden delivered(at least partially) on Obama's promise. (It would most likely be a cold day in hell before Obama kept his promise.) Someone had to? and now Another whistleblower is claiming that the NSA has Clinton's missing emails.
Oh, and where has Obama not been transparent enough. As head of state, he cannot divulge secret materials. He is after all responsible for the safety of 330 million people. Snowden, disclosed state secrets. I don't expect my government to be totally transparent, nor would I want my government to be totally transparent. Somethings are best kept secret. It's not like we didn't know about the Patriot Act and how it was being used before Snowden, we did. And it's not like much has changed afterwards. Call metadata is still being captured and stored, just not by government. It's being captured by private industry and called upon when the government needs it.
joepistole: So you're making the claim that he is probably a Russian agent, but you're not willing to go so far as to commit to your claim. Is that right? You're just "asking questions". Ok. So your reasoning boils down to this: 1. Wikileaks is useful for collecting classified information on the US. 2. Russia wants classified information from the US. 3. Therefore, Assange must be a Russian agent. I think you need to fill in a few glaring gaps in that line of argument. So might the government coverup of space aliens. Merely pointing out that there are or have been some conspiracies doesn't make this conspiracy any more likely. I don't know about that. What's your source on that? Assange is undeniably paranoid, but justifiably so given some of his history. He's not hiding out in an Equadorian embassy because he has no fears of being snatched and locked up the US. Paris Hilton hosted her own TV show. You don't need a conspiracy for that. What was Assange's Russian TV show about? Was he spouting pro-Putin propaganda? Have you checked what wikileaks has been putting out lately? Maybe classified Russian information is harder to come by that classified American information. There's a lot more internet access in America, for a start. This is the first I've heard of Assange being responsible for Snowden's Russian exile. What does Snowden have to say about that? Maybe I don't know enough of the facts yet. But what I know of Assange suggests that he is not the type to start working for any government, and Putin's government would be particularly unattractive as a potential employer - unless, of course, Assange was willing to compromise a lot of the principles he has publically stood for. Anything is possible. But this is all very vague.
You have set up a straw man. I have said is there is sufficient evidence and reason to lead one to conclude that there may be collaboration between Assange and Putin, but not for the reasons you have asserted. I have previously described those reasons. Assange does have close connections with Putin’s regime. He has had a warm relationship with Putin’s regime. He was a part of the Russian state owned and state controlled media. He has never published anything which would offend Putin. You don’t find that odd or suspicious? You asked a question. I simply answered it. You asked why Russia would want to use Assange as a Russian agent. I answered when I wrote Assange, "Wikileaks is a big global classified information funnel. That's exactly what any intelligence agency like the FSB would want in an agent.” Contrary to your assertion, any intelligence agency would want to be inside Assange’s network or have Assange working for them. The US along with other intelligence agencies would love to have an agent inside Assange’s network. I’d be surprised if they didn’t have one inside Assange’s organization. Assange doesn’t only disclose US secrets. Believe it or not, the US government isn’t the only government with state secrets. But surprisingly, Assange doesn’t disclose secrets related to Putin’s regime. Are you trying to tell me Putin’s regime is as pure as new fallen snow or better able to keep its secrets than Western powers? Is that your argument? Plenty of other folks have blown the whistle on Putin’s regime, but never Assange, and you don’t find that strange? So to correct the record, in response to your question, I said Wikileaks is useful for collecting intelligence on anyone in any country, not just the US. I never limited Wikileaks’s value to just intelligence on the US. Yes, Russia wants classified information from the US. You doubt that? That’s one of the reasons they maintain a spy network and they have been spying on Western powers, including the US for many decades, at least since the end of WWII, if not before. Do you doubt that too? Well, fortunately we are not talking about space aliens here. We are talking about government spying and espionage. Governments spying on other governments and espionage aren’t uncommon. It happens. It happens all the time, it’s not like an space alien conspiracy. There are many good reasons why Assange might want to conspire with the Russians. Assange is a very vulnerable man. He needs money. He needs political support. He needs an advocate, and he feels he needs protection for both himself and his family. He's hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy in order to evade an international arrest warrant. http://www.inquisitr.com/3351049/wikileaks-julian-assange-and-the-trump-russia-connection/ The US hasn’t issued a warrant for his arrest, Sweden has. He has more to worry about than just a US warrant for his arrest. Most immediately he is facing arrest by British authorities. That’s why he is hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy. Assange claims to have received death threats against he and his family. That’s why he believes he needs body guards. Whither that belief is warranted or not, he believes it is, and 24 hour security for his family is expensive. Was it on Russian owned and controlled TV? No. It wasn’t. Your assertion here is about as relevant as your space alien comment. It was a political show. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tomorrow/ Do you really think Putin would let Assange be critical of Putin on Russian state owned and state controlled TV? Maybe, but then how do you explain all the other Russian whistle blowers? If they can get the information, why can’t Assange get the information? Really, that’s the first you have heard it? http://www.businessinsider.com/snowden-assange-wikileaks-and-russia-2013-8 Well, it’s not vague. Having a political talk show on Russian TV state owned TV where speech isn’t free and is strictly controlled, where journalists and dissidents are imprisoned and murdered was a big compromise of his stated values, desperate men to desperate things. Assange has already compromised his stated values by cozying up to Putin’s regime.
joepistole: I remain unconvinced. You place a lot of stock in the fact that Assange's chat show was broadcast in Russia. It didn't go only to Russia, from what I can gather. To tell you the truth, I haven't heard of wikileaks being particularly active lately in exposing any classified information other than info coming from the US. So, out of more than 150 nations, it seems that most of wikileaks' leaks (at least recently) have come from one. So, while Assange might be favouring US leaks, Russia is by no means on its own in being left out of the wikileaks circus. And, no, I am not trying to tell you that Putin is pure as new fallen snow. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! What do you think? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Assange is worried that if he goes to Sweden he will be extradicted to the US from there. Did you not know that? Do you really think Putin would let anyone be critical of Putin on Russian state-owned TV? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
That isn't surprising. Whither you like it or not, Assange was an employee of the Russian state, a state which arrests and murders journalists who do not tow the Putin party line. That’s the antithesis of what Assange represents himself to be. Hmm, so you don’t find that interesting? Out of the 194 countries in the world Assange’s organization can only find information from Western countries? Well, obviously Assange is favoring US leaks. And how is it Russia hasn’t been included in the Wikileaks circus? Are you sure? Assange is worried about many things as previously discussed. But the fact is the US hasn’t issued an arrest warrant for Assange. If there is to be an extradition to the US, the US would first need to issue a warrant for his arrest. And no such warrant exists. Yeah, that’s the question I asked of you, and you haven't answered.
