The Guardian's obsession with sullying the reputation of Julian Assange
Publicat de Mr. Miaghy la 10:45After Julian Assange
gave a speech at the Oxford Union on January 23, 2012, The
Guardian published
an article criticizing his appearance, saying "he refused to
be gracious". At the time, video had not been uploaded of the
event, so it was impossible to contradict The Guardian's
claims. Now that the
Oxford Union has uploaded the full speech and Q&A session (albeit
only after editing
out footage of "Collateral Murder" due to copyright
fears), The
Guardian's blatant smear tactics
can be revealed.
It
should first be noted that The Guardian
chooses to focus on Julian Assange, rather
than the event which he was speaking
at: the Sam Adams Award ceremony. Thomas Fingar, the
recipient of the award who authored a 2007
National Intelligence Estimate which asserted that Tehran halted
its nuclear weapons program in 2003, is not even mentioned in The
Guardian's article.
The Guardian
describes Mr Assange's talk as "an impassioned defence of
WikiLeaks and against censorship of all kinds", but
foregoes
any actual discussion
of his 21-minute
speech, instead focusing
on the Q&A session. The article states that Mr Assange
"repeatedly refused to answer questions about his decision not
to return to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault".
This is false as Mr
Assange did not "refuse" to answer any questions, but
indeed answered all that were
asked of him.
The
first question The Guardian mentions
is a student asking how long Mr
Assange will stay in the Embassy. He responds, "We
will see. Hopefully not much longer, but who knows". As Mr
Assange and the Ecuadorian Government are
attempting to arrange
a diplomatic solution with Britain, this can be viewed as an
honest, straightforward answer. But The Guardian
implies that his answer was insufficient, stating that
"the next student fared
no better".
The
following question is about Julian Assange's refusal
to return to Sweden. The Guardian describes
his answer stating:
"Assange's smile faded. "I have answered these questions extensively in the past," he replied sharply and referred the student to a website."
First
off, The Guardian
implies that the question altered Julian Assange's mood, something
which can be concluded to be
false upon seeing the video.
He receives and answers the question in the same manner. Secondly, it
is true that he has "answered
these questions extensively", and
it is also detailed in Ecuador's
statement on the acceptance of his asylum.
Furthermore,
after referring the student to the Justice
for Assange website,
he goes on to give a brief explanation of how Sweden refuses to
guarantee against his extradition to the U.S. Again, answering the
question.
Mr
Assange is then asked, "What
would you say to the protesters outside who say that your
appearance here and you being in the Ecuadorian Embassy is dismissing
victims of rape and the seriousness of the crime of rape?"
The Guardian states,
"Assange half closed his eyes and sighed", neither of which
happen. Again, we see The Guardian
attempting to paint Mr Assange as someone who is annoyed by these
questions, when he is actually answering them in an even,
straightforward manner.
The Guardian
continues:
"[Assange speaking:] "I heard there was a protest but we sent our cameras out there before joining you tonight and there were 28 supporters of me and of no one else."
Before the event, however, there had been at least 50 protesters and no supporters of Assange to be seen. After the ceremony, security staff confirmed they had not seen anyone defending the WikiLeaks founder all evening."
If you listen to Mr
Assange's actual response, you will notice that he is implicitly
referring to the planned protest outside the Ecuadorian Embassy:
"Well, I'm here at the Embassy. I heard there was going to be a protest, repeated ad infinitum in The Guardian by PPE students who somehow have roles writing for The Guardian. But actually, we count 28 supporters of ours out there—we just sent out the cameraman—and no one else."
As he suggests, there
were plans
to protest both outside the Oxford Union and the Ecuadorian
Embassy, arranged by the same person.
The
second half of The Guardian's article contains quotes from the
protesters outside, as if to frame Mr Assange as a liar based on the
previous claims they make. All other questions he is asked go
unreported—namely, all the ones not about the Swedish
allegations, but about a government's
right to keep secrets, Mr
Assange's asylee status, the
publication of unredacted cables, WikiLeaks' decision process of what to publish, and cyberterrorism.
It is clear from The
Guardian's article that they
have an obsession with Julian Assange and are incredibly selective
of their quotations in order to frame him as an ungrateful liar. But if
one reviews the actual source material, it is evident that The Guardian's claims hold no truth.
All
videos of Julian Assange's speech at the Oxford Union can be seen at
its YouTube
Channel.
[Update]
A short letter criticizing the same article, signed by ten former intelligence officers and foreign service officers, has been published by The Guardian. It reads as follows:
If the Guardian could "find no allies" of Julian Assange (Report, 24 January), it did not look very hard. They could be found among the appreciative audience at the Oxford Union, and in our group seated at the front: the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence. Many in our group, which co-sponsored the event, had travelled considerable distances to confer the 10th annual Sam Adams award on Dr Thomas Fingar for his work overseeing the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate that revealed the absence of an Iranian nuclear weaponisation programme since 2003. Many of us spoke about the need for integrity in intelligence, describing the ethical dilemma that confronts government employees who witness illegal activity, including serious threats to public safety. However, none of this, nor any aspect of Dr Fingar's acceptance speech, made it into your article.
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