
Campaign to Fatally Marginalize the Organization
``The possibility that current employees or moles within DoD or elsewhere in the U.S. government are providing sensitive or classified information to WikiLeaks.org cannot be ruled out. It concocts a plan to fatally marginalize the organization. Since WikiLeaks uses "trust as a center of gravity by protecting the anonymity and identity of the insiders, leakers or whistleblowers", the report recommends "The identification, exposure, termination of employment, criminal prosecution, legal action against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers could potentially damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others considering similar actions from using the WikiLeaks.org Web site."
https://wikileaks.org/wiki/U.S._Intelligence_planned_to_destroy_WikiLeaks,_18_Mar_2008
Since the 2010 USG report, a parallel campaign has been underway to vilify, marginalize, 'other' and dehumanize its founder Julian Assange. An incessant effort to eliminate and marginalize the leadership of Wikileaks have prevailed for years up to, and after, the arrest of Julian Assange on April 11th 2019.
The goal of these ongoing smear attacks has been to chip away at the public trust in Wikileaks and in Julian.
Over the past decade, Assange and his organization have been the target of a relentless defamation campaign and character assassination.
- Wikileaks is "non-state hostile intelligence service."
- Wikileaks is a puppet of Putin's Russia
- Wikileaks/Assange hacks USG agencies
- Wikileaks/Assange elected Trump
- Assange is an Alt. Right Trump Supporter
- Assange is a rapist
- Assange is a pedophile (CNN forced to retract defamatory statement)
- Assange is dirty and unclean
- Assange is a horrible guest in the embassy
- Assange doesn't clean up after his cat
Immediately following the arrest of Assange on April 11th, a total violation of international law, a coordinated media smear campaign was thrust into action the very next day on April 12th, 2019.
"Smeared Feces" Smear Campaign Echoed Through Controlled Media
I came across this Vice article first which attempted to justify to their viewership why Julian Assange had been forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Another disgusting, distasteful, and slanderous hit piece on the embattled founder of Wikileaks by Disney controlled VICE.
Opening Paragraph:
It didn’t take long for Ecuador to spill the dirt on its most famous houseguest. From bad hygiene, to skateboarding in the halls, to insulting staff, Julian Assange really wore out his welcome.
If it's not obvious from the first couple of sentences, this shitpost (literally a shitpost as we will see) was created for the single purpose of denigrating an individual who has been under constant attack for years and unable to communicate with the outside world to defend himself.
Yes, you read that correctly, ”putting feces on the walls of the embassy and other behaviors of that nature.” The article goes on to complain about skateboarding and claims Assange's hygiene was unacceptable.
No mention of the his human rights, no mention of the UN's ruling on arbitrary detainment, no mention of the violation of international law, no mention of the guarantees of Ecuadorian citizens under the nation's constitution, no mention of living in prison like conditions, no mention of anything worth knowing.
No, just a worthless (s)hit piece against a publisher who dared to challenge power.
The media is literally smearing Assange for allegedly "smearing feces on the walls". This is gutter journalism... This should not even be considered journalism... even from a Disney owned rag like VICE mag.
Unsurprisingly, VICE was not the only media outlet spewing this venomous drivel:
- The Daily Caller
- True Pundit
- CNN
- Vox
- The Independent
- The Daily Mail
- The New York Post
- NBC News
- The Guardian
- The Root
All of them essentially regurgitating the same sensational and cowardly smear job.
The Daily Mail included a few photographs that were 'leaked' by the embassy's own spy operations against their Asylee and detailing the "squalid horror" created by Assange describing his living space as a "fetid lair".
This laughable article even claims that Julian's cat, nicknamed "embassy cat" by the public, was a potential spy threat against the staff at the embassy!
They also feared he had hidden a camera in its collar to spy on them.
‘It could go in every room – we were suspicious it may carry a device ... to spy on us.’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6917341/Assange-inside-fetid-lair-squalid-horror-drove-embassy-staff-finally-kick-out.html
Can you just imagine the agonizing torment the embassy staff must have been going through? Living in such fetid squalor with a feline agent-of-terror stalking and recording your every move?
Did we mention the "EXCREMENT" stuffed with "EXCREMENT"?!
Ecuador’s UK Ambassador Jaime Marchan, 72, said: ‘When Assange wanted to be unpleasant he put excrement on the walls and underwear with excrement in the lavatory. We had to remind him to flush the toilet and clean the dishes'
The VOX piece was equally asinine, here's an excerpt.
VOX
Propaganda
As we know, this is part of a campaign to marginalize and dehumanize Julian Assange in the eyes of the general public. This is what is known as 'othering' of the enemy. Julian Assange exposed US war crimes, CIA hacking tools, collusion between the DNC and the media, DNC efforts to thwart Bernie Sanders, TPP secrets, HRC's pay-to-play corruption, and countless other revelations. He became enemy #1 of the USG and they have pursued him ever since for revealing the truth - in their own words. Therefore, he must be silenced - permanently silenced.
In order to take down Assange they need to 'other' him first. They need to vilify Assange in the eyes of the public so they go along with his mistreatment at the hands of empire. This technique, as Noam Chomsky would put it, is to manufacture consent of the masses whose tacit approval is necessary to accomplish their objective. In this case, the silencing of a journalist/publisher in the name of national security. By vilifying and dehumanizing Assange their goals or more easily achieved. The average citizen is drawn a picture of a appalling house guest covered in excrement designed to evoke feelings of distaste and disgust towards the target. This depiction is amplified throughout the media and repeated again and again so that it becomes associated with the individual.
These tactics are common place and often we accept these narratives they spin for us without questioning their validity. The success of these campaigns rest on the effectiveness of the propaganda itself.
Yet there are signs that even while attempting to force the repetitive narratives on to an unsuspecting public, the propagandists are met with stiff resistance. This is likely the case with Wikileaks and Assange, the general public's trust in institutional media is at an all time low. At the same time, the intelligence agencies that wish to destroy Wikileaks are finding it more resilient than they anticipated. They have failed to marginalize Wikileaks. The people still trust Wikileaks more than any other publisher.
Pushing Back Against the Propaganda
If the comment sections of these smear pieces are any indication it would seem that the public is not going to passively swallow this heaping turd of lies and allow the continued attacks against Assange to go unanswered.
VICE comments on Twitter
VOX comments on Twitter
The Daily Fail
#FreeJulian