This morning.

Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange (top) arrested after seven years in Ecuador’s embassy in London..

More as we get it.

Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange arrested (BBC)

Pic: Getty

Update:

This morning.

A Wikleaks press conference to discuss the arrest.

Meanwhile…

Meanwhile…

Meanwhile…

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156 thoughts on “Arrested

  1. eoin

    “Julian Assange dragged shouting from Ecuadorian Embassy as he’s arrested” says the Sun though their video, uploaded to Youtube two mins ago has already been taken down. Indeed all videos of the arrest and dragging out appear to have been removed.

    Doesn’t look like he went voluntarily.

  2. martco

    ah Bodger you missed a golden opportunity there…

    surely it’s “Arrested Development” no?

  3. Johnny Keenan

    Democracy is at risk of being slaughtered in front of our stupid docile apathetic faces.

    If we don’t stand up to the bullies i.e. American and Britain now we will never be able to call ourselves truly Free.

    I call on Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to stand up and be counted and act on behalf of the will of the Irish people, and give a credible journalist and human being asylum in Ireland.

    #FreeJulianAssange
    #IrelandGiveAssangeAsylum

      1. b

        there’s an awful lot of Russian shills on here – check out the post on Browder a few weeks back and they all came out of the woodwork

    1. Nigel

      This is such a mess, but in terms of the end of democracy, it’s going to be, um, interesting to see the UK hand Assange over to the US, now ruled by a president he arguably did his bit to help elect. Leaving out any consideration of whether the emails came from a Russian hack, that dump harmed Clinton, even if it was just one of a thousand cuts. Trump’s administration has put poor Chelsea Manning back in solitary. How will they treat Assange?

      1. bisted

        …don’t know how the Trump administration will treat Assange but we do know that crooked Hillary wanted to ‘take him out’…

          1. Brother Barnabas

            if they really want to phupp with his head they should give him nothing but llapingachos for another 7 years

      2. Johnny Keenan

        Nigel it’s about America terror on the world. It was there long before Trump and it will be there long after he is gone.
        Israel apartheid is because of America.
        American vulture funds throwing Irish people out of their homes and hiring a current TD to sell us out is allowed happen because no one is brave enough to stand up to American bullies.
        There is no excuse man.
        Assange is our last chance to stand up and be counted.
        There is really no argument if you truly believe in freedom of the press.

        The headline and bottom line is this
        JOURNALISM IS UNDER THREAT!!!

        Lest we forget why America and Britain hate Julian Assange so much

        American Attack on the Innocent
        https://youtu.be/Zok8yMxXEwk

        If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything

        Have a go at me by all means but everyone is still going have to have a conversation with their conscience at some stage.

        John Pilger a fellow Australian and fellow credible journalist tweeted
        “The action of the British police in literally dragging Julian Assange from the Ecuadorean embassy and the smashing of international law by the Ecuadorean regime in permitting this barbarity are crimes against the most basic natural justice. This is a warning to all journalists.”

        #UKMustResist
        #PowerToThePeaceful

        1. Nigel

          Don’t worry. he’s going to completely prove there was no Russian involvement and get a pardon, or so I’m told.

    1. Starina

      It’s Gore VIdal’s “History of the National Security State” apparently. Assange has a definite Jesus complex.

  4. Joe Small

    Delighted he’s been arrested. Wikileaks have been playing God, in league with the Russians, deciding who to leak damaging information against in accordance with an undemocratic agenda.

    1. Bodger

      Joe, Assange will now testify that Wikileaks got the emails on a thumb drive from Seth Rich, a Democrat party staffer who was subsequently murdered, and not the Russians.

      1. Rep

        Well obviously. Otherwise he would have to admit he got them from his buddies in the Kremlin and being a stooge wouldn’t be a good luck for him.

          1. Bodger

            Nigel, no it’s true I’m afraid. Guccifer was created to help craft the Russia collusion narrative.

          2. Nigel

            It’s not the smug, Millie, it’s the unearned smug. It’s mistifying. All these things have been proven to satistaction on 8chan, but always curdle to smug assertions and glib slogans in the cold light of Broadsheet.

          3. A Person

            Who are Wikileaks, ans who is behind them – shurely that’s a question that must be asked. Not surprise that the video is from RT? Hopefully bodger is not paid from the same source, given the Trump and Clinton bias.

      2. Joe Small

        I see Bodger is reverting into his Pizzagate mode. I suppose Vince Foster was murdered by the Clintons too?!

        Funnily enough the only journalist present when he was arrested was from Russia Today.

        1. Bodger

          Axelf, I believe he can prove Seth Rich was his source. I don’t believe it can be proven the Russians were.

      3. rotide

        Wait, wasn’t there supposed to be big news relating to Pence assuming control of the deep state by the end of march or have those goalposts shifted as well?

        1. Nigel

          Arrests by the end of March, including, possibly, Pence, for treason, I was assured. Personally, I feel the lack of indictments has completely exonerated me.

          1. jusayinlike

            Not as ambitious as the dem saturated baseless conspiracy nutjob theory that Russia hacked the DNC.

          2. rotide

            Didn’t we all say at the the time that when nothing actually happened, you’d just push the date of proof further out, like you are doing now?

          3. jusayinlike

            And that’s why your still pushing Russia gate even though special counsel found no collusion. Editor and his wild conspiracy theories. Get a grip.

          4. Nigel

            Again. Your schedule was a little ambitious again. Or somebody’s scedule was, you hardly came up with it all on your own? Reiable sorts, would you say?

          5. Nigel

            It WAS ambitious, wasn’t it, since they got the famously liberal and democrat-friendly security services of the US to go along with it…

          6. Nigel

            I’m not rrying to muscle in on your second-hand Kleenex business, if that’s what you’re worried about.

    2. f_lawless

      @ Joe Small
      “Delighted he’s been arrested. Wikileaks have been playing God, in league with the Russians, deciding who to leak damaging information against in accordance with an undemocratic agenda.”

      You’re looking at it all wrong. Even if the Russians were somehow connected to information published by Wikileaks (and there’s been no evidence presented to prove that, whereas there is forensic evidence to proving the DNC emails were downloaded locally to a thumbdrive), can’t you see that this is information very much in the US public’s interest? eg. that the DNC were rigging their primaries, that privately it was a known fact that the Saudis and Qatar were funding terrorist groups in Syria, etc.

      If you can’t see the value of this service and dismiss exposing corruption as “playing God” and somehow part of an “undemocratic agenda” then frankly, you’ve been propagandised without realising it.

      1. Nigel

        Y’know, it’s funny. I think he’s a creep, maybe a rapist and definitely likes to play God, but he also did good and noble things that make this outcome bad and sad. Who knows, a presidential pardon from the guy he helped get elected may not be out of the question. But I agree with him on this – anything he could have leaked about Trump or the Republicans would have to be pretty atrocious to match what was already out there in public and freely available, from bankruptcies to sexual assault allegations to tax dodging and money laundering and connections with rotten people and mocking the disabled and racism and sexism and ant-semitism and widespread racially targeted voter supression and gerrymandering, all enough to show Trump and the Republicans as evil, corrupt and a terrible threat to democracy. But we are supposed to accept that one leak of DNC emails, yes a genuine scandal, is proportionate both in scale and immoraltiy with all of that? That’s a straight-up lie. It is, as you might say, ‘a narrative.’

        1. f_lawless

          I think in the scale of things, the personalities of two people, Assange or Trump, pale largely into insignificance in comparison to the kind of power struggle going on here underneath it all. This is about those who are at the reins of establishment power structures acting like tyrants to send a clear message to any would-be whistleblowers who would act in the general public interest to release information that holds power to account (whether they be leakers, journalists etc). The thing about about Wikileaks is that it’s a conduit for those who are using the very same power that those establishment surveillance agencies are using on the public at large. The establishment doesn’t want to tolerate that their own surveillance methods may be used against them so that’s why they’ll make an example of Assange as they did with people like hacker, Aaron Swartz, etc.

          I’d say the “national security” card will be played which will allow Assange to be tried in secret and even his own lawyer may not be privy to evidence being used against him. A ‘kangaroo court’, as they say.

          1. f_lawless

            sorry, rather than “personalities of two people”, I should have said ” the personalities and deeds of two people “

  5. eoin

    Jebus, we knew RTE was beholden to Washington, but even so….

    “Five things to know about Wiki Leaks
    WikiLeaks has been making headlines for more than a decade by releasing millions of classified documents, *embarrassing* governments while also *raising fears* that *its activities may have put lives in danger*

    *Controversy also swirls* around its founder Julian Assange, who was arrested after being holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London for nearly seven years.

    Here are five things to know about WikiLeaks.

    10 million leaks

    WikiLeaks was founded in 2006 by Australian-born Assange, who said it would use encryption and a censorship-proof website to publish secret information and protect sources.

    It first caught the world’s attention in 2007 with the release of manuals for US prison guards at Guantanamo Bay. [where’s the reference to torture, RTE?, isn’t exposing torture a good thing RTE]

    But it really hit its stride in 2010 when it worked with The New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and El Pais to publish millions of classified diplomatic cables.

    It has published more than 10 million leaked documents and associated analyses, to the *dismay* of politicians, governments and corporations. [what, no mention of the video footage of US military machine gunning Iraqi kids and journalists. wasn’t that leak worth mentioning, RTE]

    *Controversy* strikes

    In its early days, WikiLeaks worked with *dissidents* [time was, in USSR times, “dissident” was a good word, but in Ireland in 2019, it tends to refer to one cohort who haven’t gone away, you know] worldwide to expose government secrets from the United States to Europe, China, Africa and the Middle East.

    But over time it has increasingly *set its sights* on the US.

    Assange has *denied claims that it might be working with Russia.* [does the RTE Washington correspondent deny he beats his wife?]

    WikiLeaks *raised a storm* in July 2016 by releasing emails showing US Democratic Party officials favouring Hillary Clinton over left-winger Bernie Sanders in the presidential primary elections, forcing high-ranking party members to resign.

    WikiLeaks was *also accused of revealing the identity of a gay man in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia. Again, the group denied the accusation.* [“also”, as in, yet another bad thing, boo, hiss]

    Arrest warrant

    The *worst scandals* to affect WikiLeaks have been those involving Assange.

    Hailed as a hero by supporters and reviled as a manipulator by critics, the white-haired Australian was holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012, when he was facing rape allegations in Sweden.

    Swedish prosecutors dropped their investigation in 2017 but Assange remained in the embassy, fearing the US would extradite him for revealing state secrets.

    Snowden and Manning

    The mass exposure in 2010 of US diplomatic cables, which *embarrassed* governments worldwide, would not have been possible had it not been for US soldier Chelsea Manning, who handed WikiLeaks 700,000 classified documents.

    She was given a 35-year prison sentence in 2013 and served more than three years before being freed in 2017.

    In March 2019 she was jailed again for refusing to testify in a grand jury investigation targeting WikiLeaks.

    Former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has also received WikiLeaks’s backing, though he did not use the group’s site to publish his leaks about the National Security Agency.

    Assange recommended he quickly flee to Moscow to evade prosecution in the US – advice he heeded.

    In the movies

    Two major films have been made about WikiLeaks – ‘The Fifth Estate’ (2013) and ‘Risk’, a documentary that was screened at the Cannes film festival in 2016.

    Assange meanwhile *guest-starred as himself* [the narcissist] in an episode of ‘The Simpsons’ in 2012, recording his lines over the phone from the Ecuadoran embassy. [anything about the series of interviews conducted by Assange in 2010 with global influencers, naah]

          1. eoin

            You see, Papi knows my truth. Just copy and paste, and insert your comments, so that your overall comment stands alone and you don’t have to refer to source text which might not be accessible, or which might not be any longer accessible.

          2. eoin

            Sorry, in case it’s not clear, the comment above is the entirety of our state broadcaster’s article on “what is wikileaks”. Wikileaks has been 100% valuable for Ireland, our interests weren’t threatened or impaired by any of the leaks. And yet, the state broadcaster produces a critique for the masses that is entirely negative.

            I highlighted what I felt were the negative words or phrases with “*” and added in some comments in the body [] . In my opinion, RTE is just mirroring the attitude of the USA to Wikileaks and I don’t think that’s healthy. It’s certainly not balanced.

          3. jusayinlike

            And you are correct eoin.

            however RTE cronies like b and editor never criticise the state broadcaster.

  6. Starina

    “This man is a son, a father, a brother. ”

    Gimme a fupping break. so was bin Laden.

    I recommend you all follow Xeni Jardin on Twitter, she was one of the first to call out Assange for the scumbag he is, way back when we all thought he was one of the nice guys.

    1. Pee Pee

      What have you got against Bin Laden?

      For all of Assange’s fault, Wikileaks did expose the war crimes that were committed in Iraq by the American army, amongst other reportings.

      I like Xeni Jardin, but she is a big supporter of the Clintons. The Clintons are creeps. And if you’re down with the Clintons, as they say in Home and Away, you can rack off.

    2. ReproBertie

      “He’s been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year since 2010.”
      Utterly meaningless. Anyone can be nominated.

    3. eoin

      If he had questions to answer in Sweden for alleged sex crimes, fine, but the UK has confirmed he has been arrested on grounds which include an extradition request from the US.

      Showing us what was happening in Guantanamo, Iraq and, even if it was partisan, the Democrats was a service for the entire world. He should not be extradited.

      #WeMustResist

      1. bisted

        …locally, he exposed comrade Gilmore was up in the US/zionist embassy giving briefings while Tainaiste…I believe the brits call this treason…

          1. Bodger

            He wasn’t, Starina. Expand your thinking. Don’t you think he would have gone to Moscow?

          2. Nigel

            Now hang on, Starina, a guy who has set himself up as the channel for making public information that exposes the workings of high and low politics, has apparently been hoarding proof that would clear up all questions of Russian involvement and set him free, which he has hung on to for years while holed up in an embassy where he was increasingly unwelcome, and will release that information after he has been unceremoniously removed from his sanctuary and extradited across the Atlantic and hauled before some sort of hearing which may well be held in camera. Let’s see how it works out for him.

          3. Starina

            Bodger your frequent “expand your mind” comments are both condescending and like a conspiracy loon from a late-90s blockbuster.

            Besides which, if he went to Moscow it would have been seen as undeniable proof of Russian involvement.

          4. Bodger

            Yes, but he would have been safe from extradition like Snowden. Sorry for being patronising but the Russia collusion narrative -something you have held onto for two years – was a hoax from the very start. And, with respect, many on here sound like people who don’t have the internet.

          5. jusayinlike

            Starina accuses someone else of conspiracies whilst simultaneously peddling a baseless hysterical conspiracy theory of her own.

            lamentable

          6. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

            Free your mind
            And the rest will follow
            Be colour blind
            Don’t be so shallow

            Not great rhyming, to be honest.

          7. eoin

            Sorry Starina, but it was the early 1970s that gave us all the best conspiracy movies. Maybe that was before your time though.

          8. jusayinlike

            @ starina

            how am I?

            citation for him being a Russian asset.

            if not you are peddling baseless conspiracy theories. And my assertion is correct.

        1. George

          Why wouldn’t he release the evidence instead of living a miserable life trapped in the Ecuadorian embassy for years having rows with them about his cat?

          They want him for releasing the Guantanamo stuff anyway regardless of anything involving the Russians.

          1. George

            The alleged evidence is that a dead person was responsible for the leak. Assange was already wanted for extradition and hiding in an Embassy. There was no reason for him to withhold the evidence if it existed.

          2. George

            If you are accused of a crime that you are innocent of and have conclusive evidence you provide that evidence to investigators before a prosecution is brought to demonstrate that there is no basis for a prosecution. You don’t wait until you are in court.

            But anyway this is all nonsense because the reason Assange is wanted by the US is for the leaks associated with Chelsea Manning.

  7. italia'90

    Hopefully Assange is taken to the same location that Sergei and Yulia Skripal are being detained in against their will.
    Skripal can then tell Assange about his dealings in the “Russian Collusion” false propaganda project that started with Clinton/Podesta/DNC and supported/developed from NSA/GCHQ’s Integrity Initiative which connects a lot of the many false narratives from as far back as Iraq and Libya to more recently, Syria and the pathetic Russian collousion McCarthyism like reds under the beds, project fear operation.

    Everything reported by the MSM with regards to Syria for example, from The exemplary and heroic, whiter than white,White Helmets to the staged WMD gas attacks, to the shambolic Novichok narrative in Salisbury.

    It will all be exposed one day, just like the pretence for going into the illigal invasion and occupation of Iraq. Do you remember how that was played out on MSM? The same playbook…Do you rememeber Robert Muellers role back then too? And John Bolton and Elliot Abrams roles – have you all forgotten?

    1. jusayinlike

      All the so called liberals, peddling CIA talking points and balls deep in pushing aggression against Russia.

      All unwittingly supporting Trump.

  8. Ron

    Again the smell of the tootle-bumkins noo noo voter of this thread is at maximum levels. Reading the commentary fron the silly poos on this site really gives a good insight into why we have the problems we have in this country.

    Regarding Julian Assange. Regardless of how he exposed the leaks, the important piece is what was in the leaks. The political pooties around the world never wanted you to see it because it exposes them as the pinky-peeps that they actually are.

    1. Junkface

      Ron please…there’s no thicker voter than the Brit who voted for Brexit and now realises that his/her job or small business is in peril because he “didn’t think about that stuff, I was thinking about Britain.”

      It is almost an indisputable fact that the Russian propaganda network has sprawled all over Europe and USA in an attempt to weaken NATO and therefore pursue annexing all of their former Soviet countries for Russian empire, wikileaks was part of the Russian network. Ask anyone from Finland about this stuff.

        1. Junkface

          @jusayinlike
          You have no clue what you are talking about. If you are denying the reality of Europe’s (and the USA’s) struggle with the disinformation campaigns from Russia then you are an idiot. Read below, I have provided links to documentaries, citations, facts, quotes from authors, interviews with former KGB agents, on the subject of the Russian intelligence culture of disinformation and common Soviet era disruption techniques.

          Go ahead! Try to debunk it. Show me what you have. Your tinfoil hat may fall off.

      1. f_lawless

        “It is almost an indisputable fact that the Russian propaganda network has sprawled all over Europe and USA in an attempt to weaken NATO and therefore pursue annexing all of their former Soviet countries for Russian empire, wikileaks was part of the Russian network. Ask anyone from Finland about this stuff.”

        It would be ridiculous to contend that NATO haven’t been the aggressors in all of this. They’ve been expanding eastward since 1990 – breaking an agreement made with the Russians that they wouldn’t expand past the East German border (which was part of the conditions for the Soviets in which they would dissolve their Warsaw Pact). Now surrounding Russian borders, masses of troops at the ready; warheads pointed at Russia. It all been about defending us from this phantom Red Terror? More like the US wanting to maintain hegemony and the war industry needing a bogeyman to justify it’s existence.

        But all the time all we needed to do was to ask anyone from Finland to figure out what was actually going on. I’ve heard it all now
        https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/newly-declassified-documents-gorbachev-told-nato-wouldnt-23629

          1. jusayinlike

            Typical, you’ve offered no citations for your rubbish. Than when questioned on it, revert to smears.

          2. italia'90

            “almost an indisputable fact that the Russian propaganda network has sprawled all over Europe and USA in an attempt to weaken NATO and therefore pursue annexing all of their former Soviet countries for Russian empire”

            Just how have the big bad scary Ruskies managed this?

          3. Junkface

            They have created troll farms in Russia and many other countries close to them. They have infiltrated Facebook and Twitter, none of this is news. Everyone has reported this already. They have created shell companies all over European cities and funneled money through them to Documentary Film studios, pretending to be legit, but they make propaganda films. They have funded the far right in France (Marine Le Pen), Austria, Germany (Afd), Italy, Hungary and many more. They have funded links to Cambridge Analytica.
            Russia has cut back spending on their traditional defense systems of the past and instead spent millions on propaganda for social media. It has been their most successful campaign for the amount of money they have spent by far! It has helped them shape American politics and influenced the election in favour of Trump. All of this can be found in the New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC Newsnight, Channel 4 news, Euronews, Al Jazeera News.

            Here is a journalist who has been investigating Russian interference since 2015/2016. Its a great interview on Joe Rogan, so its a long one.
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAGZcGi1OP8&list=PLk1Sqn_f33KuS7ZSVMJqzFaqOyyl-esmG&index=21&t=0s

            I don’t have time to go running around finding quotes and citations of every little thing that can already be googled easily.

          4. italia'90

            In my best Joe Lycett accent – LOL
            I was expecting some of your reply tbh
            You are what Jimmy Dore calls “A Slogan Repeater”
            You regurgitate and repeat the headlines of MSM without a critical thought of your own I’d imagine?
            I like Joe Rogan, but only for entertainment value especially Neil deGrasse Tyson interviews.
            You do know who Renée DiResta is employed by don’t you? New Knowledge is her employer and here’s just one article about how they meddle in and influence democratic elections. A kind of Bot Farm you could call them ;)
            https://gizmodo.com/secret-online-influence-campaigns-are-the-future-of-ame-1831231126

            One of the founders of LinkedIn had to apolgise after it was found out that he was part funding them. You couldn’t make this sh1t up!

            infiltrated Facebook” you say. I was expecting that one.
            But I still couldn’t help laughing at your gullability.
            I’ve worked in FB as a contractor for many years, even before they came to Ireland. I worked in Boston, New York and Texas on various IT projects. I met my Ukrainian wife in FB here in Dublin and she still works there. Before I forget, she’s one of the many Russian speakers who are non Russian that work there. And she is the most senior analyst on Russia and Eastern European markets, responsible for almost all ad account revenue, which is not outsourced to Accenture. They calculated that these so called Russian Bot Farms spent 10’s of thousands of dollars during the 2016 presidential campaign, maybe as much as $150K when they extended the spend analysis back to the 2008 election.
            So get this, you believe that FB ad campaigns that spent approx. $150k heavily influenced a US presidential campaign that spent over $13Bn on ads and campaigns? I’m still laughing here at you, you clown.

            You left out that they are secretly working with George Soros and they’ve been funding him to undermine NATO, the EU, all western democracies and the Vatican all this time!

          5. f_lawless

            Ah here Joe Rogan is obviously out of his depth when it comes to geopolitics and has a reputation for a “softball” approach to interviewing controversial people.
            An interview with the “Director of Research” at the now disgraced and discredited “New Knowledge” firm? Aren’t you aware that they were caught out staging an “elaborate ‘false flag’ operation”(as the NY Times put it) that promoted the idea that Republican candidate, Roy Moore, was backed by Russian bots? Their CEO, Jonathan Morgan, was suspended from Facebook as a result.
            I’d recommend this article by Aaron Mate, who consistently called “Russiagate” right over the last 2 years. He gives a break down of this so called Russian social media influence campaign over US democracy – you don’t have to expose too much light on it to see it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.
            https://www.thenation.com/article/russiagate-elections-interference/
            The reality is that Britain and the US have historically been the masters at meddling in the politics of other countries through soft power tactics. The rest of the world is trying to play catch up. Forget Joe Rogan, listen to someone like Noam Chomsky who’s been around long enough to have an informed opinion

          6. Junkface

            Hey Italia 90! That was the point of the Russians using this method to mess with US politics, they don’t have to spend that much at all. They created bogus accounts and videos with actors pretending to be American to push their divisive bull plop. There were very clever about it and picked at parts of US society that could be easily provoked. Millions of Americans shared this propaganda thinking it was America. Did you listen to any of the Renee DiResta interivew? Its all in there.

            Also, I never mentioned MSM. I have watched news reports and documentaries on this subject. The whole point of them is to inform the general public, now you say I regurgitate slogans?? No, I didn’t repeat any of their slogans, I talked about facts I learned from the documentaries and reports. Whats the difference between that and talking about a Noam Chomsky book? Aren’t you applying the same use of knowledge, once you know the journalist or news media is a good source and well researched? Is a book more valid than a news documentary?

            And I am aware of all of the meddling the US and UK have done over the last 50 years, good God! Who isn’t. I am not a fan of their past foreign policies at all. That being said, the current game Putin has running is a lot more destructive in its goal and could bring massive instability to the western world. Do you think Putin has moral values? Do you trust his agenda more than the (past not Trump) US one? I know who I would rather was the dominant power. I do not want war in Europe.

            I’ve also seen a couple of interviews with Tim Pool and learned a lot about the dirty tricks going on with the modern Left in the US, especially with regards to Twitter, Google, Universities, etc.. It is disturbing, anyone who tries to silence free speech and balanced news reporting is not welcome.

        1. Junkface

          Yes the people who wanted democracy and freedom of speech beyond the old East German Soviet border were totally wrong. People who had their family members kidnapped or murdered by the soviets for writing articles or daring to question Communism were all dead wrong. Everyone loved living as a soviet subject. The queues for food, the endless drudgery, lack of any hope at all.
          Of course they expanded east ward since 1990, Communism fell. A lot of things that were not predicted happened at that time. Every former soviet country that got independence and democracy would never choose to go back to communism and soviet control. Now their lives have changed for the better. And yes I am aware that the US had place missile defense systems around those countries. It was an international effort to protect new independence for former soviet countries as well as giving the USA the upper hand in the region.

          Anyone who thinks that Putin’s dream is not to regain the soviet empire by force if necessary is the one in the tin foil hat.

          1. jusayinlike

            Congrats on peddling CIA talking points. You’re unwittingly supporting Trump and the military yearning for a new cold war.

            You also haven’t a clue what you’re talking about when it comes to Russia.

          2. Junkface

            jusayinlike, Tell me where I am wrong about Russia. Prove to me that YOU know what you are talking about when it comes to Russia. What are Russia’s goals currently? What do you think about the way Russia operated in Syria recently with Assad? Would you be happier with Russia in control in Europe? Why?

          3. italia'90

            I’m probably wasting my time engaging with you but try any one of the links in this google search, knock yourself out, try them all :)

            https://www.google.ie/search?ei=-4ivXMGtJvmQ1fAPm_6auAk&q=cia+involvement+in+syria&oq=cia+operation+to+incite+revolution+in+syria&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.0i71l8.0.0..174644…0.0..0.0.0…….0……gws-wiz.zzLwFA_2lDk

            The Syrian people are returning to Syria thankfully.
            I think Putin outplayed the US, UK, France, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey in Syria, but that’s my personal view.
            I’d also like to see the EU have a strong economic and diplomatic relationship with Russia in the future. We need their resource rich deposits and they need our mature consumer markets and access to development and investment funds.

          4. Junkface

            @Italia 90 While I don’t appreciate your patronising tone, I do understand that you might have a very different perspective because your wife is Ukrainian. I too would like to see Europe and Russia have a more respectful relationship with each other, but it is not possible under Putin. He is a tyrant who murders journalists in pursuit of truth and democracy. I would have thought that Ukrainians above all would understand and fear Putins intentions since he annexed Crimea and waged war on East Ukraine. He is a former KGB agent and worked under the Stasi in East Berlin. He is using misinformation techniques developed with advisers to such as Vladislav Surkov to breakdown peoples trust in journalism and news. If you haven’t seen it I would suggest watching Putin, Russia and the West (BBC).

            I have read about modern Russia a lot over the last few years (articles by Anne Applebaum, Gabriel Gatehouse, Matt Frei), and though I am not a writer, journalist, or work in politics, I think I have a good grasp of what is going on. I did check out your links and found them interesting. I will definitely pursue more information on recent CIA actions in world affairs.

            Here are some quotes from Anne Applebaum on Russia and Putin (from wiki)

            2014 Crimean crisis
            On February 21, 2014, Applebaum wrote in The Daily Telegraph, documenting the breakdown in law and order in Ukraine over the previous fortnight. She concluded that it “is not a war, or even a conflict which either side can win with weapons. It will have to be solved through negotiations, elections, political debate; by civic organisations, political parties and political leaders, both charismatic and otherwise; with the participation of other European states and Ukraine’s other neighbors”.[31]

            Applebaum has been a vocal critic of Western conduct regarding the 2014 Crimean crisis. In an article in The Washington Post on March 5, she maintained that the US and its allies should not continue to enable “the existence of a corrupt Russian regime that is destabilizing Europe”, noting that the actions of President Vladimir Putin had violated “a series of international treaties”.[32] On March 7, in another Telegraph article, discussing an information war, Applebaum argued that “a robust campaign to tell the truth about Crimea is needed to counter Moscow’s lies”.[33] At the end of August she asked whether Ukraine should prepare for “total war” with Russia and whether central Europeans should join them.[34]

            Russia
            Applebaum has been writing about Russia since the early 1990s. In 2000, she described the links between the then-new president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, with the former Soviet leader Yuri Andropov and the old KGB.[42] In 2008, she began speaking about “Putinism” as an anti-democratic ideology, though most at the time still considered the Russian president to be a pro-Western pragmatist.[43] Applebaum has also focused on Russia’s failure to come to terms with the legacy of the USSR and of Stalin, both in her Gulag book and in other writing and speeches.[44] In 2014, she asked whether “the most important story of the past twenty years might not, in fact, have been the failure of democracy, but the rise of a new form of Russian authoritarianism.”[45] She has described the “myth of Russian humiliation” and argued that NATO and EU expansion have been a “phenomenal success”.[46] In July 2016, before the US election, she was one of the first American journalists to write about the significance of Russia’s ties to Donald Trump[47] and to point out that Russian support for Trump was part of a wider Russian political campaign designed to destabilize the West.[48] She has also written that a summer spent as a student in Leningrad, Soviet Union in 1985 has helped shape her views.[49]

            Central Europe
            Applebaum has written extensively about the history of central and eastern Europe, Poland in particular. In the conclusion to her book Iron Curtain, Applebaum argued that the reconstruction of civil society was the most important and most difficult challenge for the post-communist states of central Europe; in another essay, she argued that the modern authoritarian obsession with civil society repression dates back to Lenin.[50] More broadly, she has written essays on the Polish film-maker Andrzej Wajda,[51] on the dual Nazi-Soviet occupation of central Europe,[52] and on why it is inaccurate to define “Eastern Europe” as a single entity.[53]

            Disinformation, propaganda and fake news
            In 2014, Applebaum and Peter Pomerantsev launched Beyond Propaganda, a program examining disinformation and propaganda, at the Legatum Institute.[54] In 2016, they expanded the program, renamed it Arena, moved it to the LSE and began piloting solutions to the problem.[55] Applebaum has written that a 2014 Russian smear campaign, aimed at her, first taught her the techniques of modern Russian propaganda. That campaign was promoted by Wikileaks.[56] Applebaum argued in 2015 that Facebook should take responsibility for spreading false stories and help “undo the terrible damage done by Facebook and other forms of social media to democratic debate and civilized discussion all over the world.”[57]

            Populism
            In March 2016, six months before the election of President Donald Trump, she wrote a column asking, “Is this the end of the West as we know it?”, which argued that “we are two or three bad elections away from the end of NATO, the end of the European Union and maybe the end of the liberal world order”.[37] Considered unduly gloomy at the time, the column inspired the Swiss magazine Tagesanzeiger and the German magazine Der Spiegel to interview Applebaum in December 2016[38][39] and January 2017. She argued very early on that the movement had an international dimension, that populist groups in Europe share “ideas and ideology, friends and founders”, and that, unlike Burkean conservatives, they seek to “overthrow the institutions of the present to bring back things that existed in the past—or that they believe existed in the past—by force.”[40] Applebaum has underlined the danger of a new “Nationalist International,” a union of xenophobic, nationalist parties such as Law and Justice in Poland, the Northern League in Italy, and the Freedom Party in Austria.

            I think its crazy that as soon as I mention the positive side of independence, democracy and freedom in former Soviet countries, I am called a slogan repeater of CIA talking points.
            If I was to talk about the positive aspects independence and freedom for Ireland after breaking away from Britain in the 1920’s would you call me the same? Odd behaviour.

          5. Junkface

            I would rather read news from a recognised expert journalist on the topic of Russia, as well as BBC, New York Times, WP reporters, than some blog you found online that slanders her character and life’s work. Thousands of people worldwide would disagree with you.
            For every writer or journalist out there, there is probably a blog tearing them down. Honestly, that seems to be the way it is now.

          6. f_lawless

            Just because the information is in a blog or elsewhere it doesn’t disqualify it from being true. Anna Applebaum holds a senior position at the right-wing US think tank, CEPA. This is a fact. CEPA gets it’s funding not only from the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of State, but also major players in the western arms industry: eg Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, BAE Systems. This is a fact: See https://www.cepa.org/support
            These are the entities that have been causing so much death, destruction and instability around the world with their perpetual war mongering. If they are donating large sums of money in support of the kinds of narratives that CEPA is putting forward – isn’t that reason enough to question Applebaum’s work and look elsewhere to try and get a more independent point of view?

          7. Junkface

            So you would disregard all of her excellent, factual reporting, based on years of experience, critically acclaimed books, backed up with evidence, interviews, supported by many other writers, journalists, presenters, filmmakers etc… and go with the murderous authoritarian with intentions to destroy peace in Europe? Madness!

            I will leave this excellent interview she did with Sam Harris here:
            https://samharris.org/podcasts/the-russia-connection/

            You know he kills anyone who disagrees with him if they get enough media attention don’t you? He imprisons political opponents who become popular, silencing the voice of Russians who want a genuine democracy and a fair chance at a better life. Is that a CIA talking point? No, it is FACT!

          8. Junkface

            So here is another documentary put together by the New York Times and British journalists on the topic of Russia (this strengthens Applebaums arguments based on actual proof) and their well known disinformation techniques which they started in the early 1980’s.
            Their tactics were so well known and got completely caught in the act that in the late 1980’s when Gorbachev had to apologize to Reagan when they were both handed documents proving that Russia had spent 5 or 6 years by that point spreading the fake story that the USA had engineered the AIDS virus to kill Africans and Gays worldwide.
            This documentary not only contains proof of the lies Russia has employed thousands of agents to spread, but also it has interviews with former KGB agents admitting exactly this and going further to share their processes and tactics. They also explain Putins motivations regarding world power and how he wants to break up the EU and USA alliances.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR_6dibpDfo&feature=youtu.be

            This is important for everyone to know, and regardless of what @f_lawless or @italia90 say, they have provided no counter argument, no proof, or that they have any knowledge of well know Russian tactics for dividing opponents societies, other than ‘look what the CIA did’, or Applebaum works US intelligence or Military (which she explains in interview how Wikileaks went after spreading fake links).

            Their denial of Russian tactics of disinformation worldwide is dangerous and reeks of ‘Whataboutism’, which was something strongly developed in Soviet Russia in the 80’s. They are either in denial about the reality we are in, or are completely naive regarding Russian motivation. Either way their seeming support of Russia’s current tactics would make powerful people in Moscow very happy. The Russians have a term for this, ‘useful idiot’, something which is also explained fully in the documentary.

      2. Ron

        @junkface. I don’t care who is responsible for exposing them.. again all the daw daws on this site let the actual CONTENTS of the leaks go over their heads and like proper daw daws fall into the narrative of attacking the messenger, which is exactly what the filth exposed in the leaks want you to do. This thinking is the reason our country is in the trouble it’s in. This is the way the decision makers in this country think too. The comments on this thread should be archived for future generations to peruse in a museum as the collective representative thoughts and insights to the Silly Boo Boo Pootly Pants Voter.

  9. millie st murderlark

    I love these wormhole threads.

    Utter madness abounds. I wish I wasn’t in work. Very boring today. Damned tracker reports.

    1. Nigel

      Science is still working on trying to get a photo of one, but they’re too far out there, man.

  10. Friscondo

    Britain’s humiliation is complete. Having to go on blended knee to Brussels and with Assange arrest, shown to be a lapdog of US.

  11. A Person

    Who are Wikileaks, ans who is behind them – shurely that’s a question that must be asked. Not surprise that the video is from RT? Hopefully bodger is not paid from the same source, given the Trump and Clinton bias.

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