Analysis -- The Times Are Changing: Assange Goes on FOX News and Destroys the Russia Hack
Conspiracy Theory.
by Claire Bernish.
�The narrative has begun that, in fact, the U.S. government is accusing Wikileaks
of having received materials from Russia and Russia�s cybercriminals with the political
agenda of influencing the election.
And obviously they�re talking, not just about the John Podesta emails, the DNC emails,
but in other ways.
I�ve asked you before, I�ll ask you again today � did Russia give you this information,
or anybody associated with Russia?� Hannity asked.
�Our source is not a State party,� Assange told Hannity, once again confirming assertions
he and Wikileaks have made on previous occasions.
�So, the answer for our interactions is �no.��
Continuing, he explained the political establishment has attempted to distract from the revelations
in the leaked documents � which exposed the true words of Clinton and others in her
campaign,
�And the American public read that information, true information, and said, �We don�t
like these people.� And then voted accordingly.�
Rather than acknowledge the breadth of corruption and behind-the-curtains nastiness on display
in the documents, the establishment has attempted to conflate Wikileaks with Russians hacking
the election � an accusation Assange explained amounted to bait-and-switch, as,
�Even Obama has had to admit that there was no hacking of U.S. voting machines.�
�But � the main focus for most Americans is that, they are being told by Hillary Clinton�s
campaign, by the President of the United States, there are the Department of Homeland Security,
Office of the Director of National Intelligence, et cetera, that in fact,� Hannity asked,
�that Wikileaks was working with the Russian government to influence the election.
Is that true in any way, shape, matter, or form?�
�No, it is absolutely false,� Assange replied, �and, if you read their statements
carefully, you�ll see they don�t actually say that.
They kind of mention one fact here, and one fact there, and nothing else.
�In the most up-to-date information, the twenty-ninth of December, where the FBI, DHS,
White House, et cetera, made a statement, what is completely absent � from all those
statements � is Wikileaks.
Totally absent.
So, what�s going on?
�I believe two things are going on.
Number one, they don�t have the evidence that Wikileaks is involved in that way.
Now, why am I confident about that?
Because there is one person in the world � and I think it�s actually only one � who knows
exactly what is going on with our publications.
And that�s me.�
Asked whether he could state �unequivocally� the information published by Wikileaks did
not come from any person associated in any way with the Russian government, Assange stated,
�We can say, and we have said repeatedly over the last few months, our source is not
the Russian government, and it is not a State party.�
Again refusing to comment on the clarifying details concerning the source of documents
leaked to the publishing organization, Assange emphasized that � although he could not
confirm or deny reports from close friend and former British intelligence agent, Craig
Murray the leaker came from within the Democratic establishment � �our sources are not a
State party.�
Hannity then directly requested clarification for several accusations bandied about by the
United States political establishment, asking if Assange had ever conversed with Russian
President Vladimir Putin, to which he replied flatly, �No.�
�Have you ever talked to any of his surrogates?� the host continued.
�No.�
�Have you ever talked to Donald Trump?� Hannity asked, addressing suspicions Wikileaks
had acted on behalf of the billionaire businessman�s campaign.
�No.�
�Any of his surrogates?�
�No.�
�Not one?� Hannity prodded.
�No,� Assange firmly responded.
�There was some report you might have talked to someone who was not associated with the
campaign, Roger Stone?�
�No.
That�s false.�
Claiming The Russians hacked anything has been largely a creation of the corporate press
and politicians, and, as he explains, Obama is �acting like a lawyer,� and �If you
look at most of his statements, he doesn�t say that.
He doesn�t say that WikiLeaks obtained its information from Russia, or worked with Russia.�
Addressing one of the most frequently touted ideas that leaked documents influenced the
election in order to sway the election for Donald Trump, Assange noted it would be impossible
to tell for sure, but,
�If it did, the accusation is that the true statements of Hillary Clinton and her campaign
manager, John Podesta, and the DNC head, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz � their true statements
is what changed the election.� Discussing millions of documents hacked by
the Chinese, about which the aforementioned parties and the Obama administration have
selectively chosen not to focus, Hannity asked whether Assange felt the move was intended
to �delegitimize Donald Trump � what�s your interpretation of that?�
Assange explained, �It is exactly what it is designed to do � If you look at what
the allegations are, they don�t mention Wikileaks, for the 29th, they don�t mention
our publications.
Our publications had wide uptake by the American people.
They�re all true.
But that�s not the allegation that�s been presented by the Obama White House.
So, why such a dramatic response?
Well, the reason is obvious: they�re trying to delegitimize the Trump administration as
it goes into the White House.
They�re going to try � they are trying to say that President-elect Trump is not a
legitimate� president.
The Wikileaks head went on to explain the Democratic Party continues to attempt �short
term wins� in such criticisms, while ignoring the factual substance of leaked documents
� and the American people �want as much true information as possible.�
Wikileaks has been vilified for not releasing documents pertaining to Trump or his campaign
� but, as Assange has repeatedly contended, no such documents were provided to the publisher.
�If the information you had was about Donald Trump and his campaign,� Hannity asked,
�would you have equally released that?�
�Yes,� Assange responded without hesitation.
�Absolutely.�
Murray, Assange�s associate � and former intelligence officials entirely unassociated
with Wikileaks � have suggested the documents were leaked by a disgruntled party inside
the Democratic establishment.
On that topic, after Assange noted the perfect record Wikileaks has maintained in regard
to authenticity of documents and refusal to expose the identity of sources, Hannity asked,
since the leaker was not Russian,
�Can I ask � take it one step further.
Can you say that the source was within the United States?�
After a frustrated pause, Assange replied, �I don�t want to constrain whether it
was someone inside the United States, in the DNC, in the service providers that provide
for the DNC, or outside, et cetera.
I think that we have already pushed it quite a lot � more than we would like, by saying
it was not a State party.�
But speaking out with that qualification had been a necessity as �there was a serious
attempt to distract from the content of our publications with this Russian narrative.�
On the joint report from DHS and the FBI, Assange noted the tools provided as loose
evidence of Russian hacking are commercially available � to anyone � and nothing laid
out by the agencies evinced solid proof.
Additionally, Podesta�s careless choice of �password� for his password, and his
staff�s erroneous assertion the infamous phishing email he received was legitimate,
Assange said,
�This is something a fourteen-year-old kid � a fourteen-year-old kid � could have
hacked Podesta that way.�
On the topic of corporate media�s lack of coverage of the content of the leaked documents
� and exposed collusion with the Clinton campaign � Assange described the American
mainstream press as �ethically corrupt.�
Despite allegations Assange and his organization had been somehow motivated to influence the
election in favor of Trump, he noted,
�My motivation, for twenty years � ten years with Wikileaks � is to publish true
information that is otherwise unassailable.�
Emphasizing he has no party political agenda, he added,
�We believe that the best type of government comes from a government that is scrutinized
by the people, when they have true information about how governments and major corporations,
other power actors in society, are behaving.�
Assange has been confined for years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London under threat
of extradition to the United States � effectively making him a political prisoner.
But vociferous anti-Russia rhetoric and allegations Russian hackers provided documents to Wikileaks
forced Assange to come forward � first in an interview on Hannity�s radio program,
and then this face-to-face interview � to call out the claims as hollow and baseless.
Although mainstream media has parroted these allegations against Russia, perhaps hearing
Assange�s words in this rare appearance will help quiet the new Red Scare propaganda
� and bring logic and common sense back to the table.
The video link for the video is in the article below in our description.
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