Julian Assange’s countercultural mission is having a hard time finding a home in a world without counterculture.
In 1971 Daniel Ellsberg leaked a top-secret internal government document about the Vietnam War known as The Pentagon Papers, which confirmed to the public for the first time what many people had long suspected: the US government had lied. While Lyndon Johnson had told the public he intended to deescalate the war effort, the Pentagon Papers revealed what he was actually doing: massively escalating and authorizing bombing missions into Cambodia and Laos.
Ellsberg risked jail time, assassination, being accused of treason—everything you can imagine, in order to expose the truth to the world. It was the first tangible evidence ever that the government had flat-out lied to the people. At the time it must have been hard to predict what the reaction to this kind of watershed moment would be.
Decades later, we don’t blame Ellsberg for telling the truth, we blame the government for being corrupt. We remember the Gulf Of Tonkin incident as a lie the government told, not as a good plan foiled by a leaky brat. Ellsberg was received as a hero, not a traitor.
But Ellsberg lived in a generation of hippies—a generation that valued integrity and the principle of truth—and Ellsberg’s revelation caught like wildfire.
Forty years later, Julian Assange steps onto the world stage with WikiLeaks as a twenty-first century Ellsberg. He’s nationless, garnering his information from the porous openings in the World Wide Web—an apt commentary on the modern world. And his operation leaks documents on a much larger scale than the 1,000 page Pentagon Papers. His revelations, including new information about the killings and torture in Iraq after Abu Ghraib, including 66,081 Iraqi civilian deaths, may be more shocking than those exposed by the Pentagon Papers. And yet all anyone seems to talk about is what a jerk the guy is.
The news about WikiLeaks is at least as focussed on the sexual assault allegations he faces in Sweden and whether his dominating personality is causing volunteers to defect as it is on the actual information his organization is revealing. Daniel Ellsberg tells the New York Times, “I’ve been waiting 40 years for someone to disclose information on a scale that might really make a difference.” But the world has changed. Whereas in Ellsberg’s time Assange’s revelations would have incited mass protests and indignant calls for accountability, now we find the substance of the leaks unsurprising and instead marvel at Assange himself, telling each other, “This guy is fucked.”
I’m not saying Julian Assange didn’t rape anyone in Sweden—if he did he should be locked up like every other rapist. But I am saying the motive to smear and discredit him is sky-high. Assange has acknowledged these relationships with his “fans” and insisted they were consensual. Given the intense motive to smear him, I think presuming him guilty of rape without some hard evidence to prove it would be foolish.
It seems quite likely that Assange has tangoed with some sexual indiscretions and it seems possible from volunteers’ stories that as a boss Assange is dominating, if not tyrannical. But that’s not the point. People don’t remember Martin Luther King, Jr. as a guy who cheated on his wife. It was a character flaw, sure, but King’s work and message found a home with a generation who were committed to social change.
Assange may be homeless right now, seeking asylum with any country who will have him—he was recently denied citizenship in Sweden, and the New York Times describes him as being literally on the run after a brief stint in Iceland. But Assange’s real alienation comes from his ideological homelessness.
40 years later David Ellsberg describes himself as feeling a “kinship” with Assange, but that kinship is not materializing on a broader scale. Assange’s leaks do not inspire marches on Washington or palpable protests of any kind. President Barack Obama, for all his campaign rhetoric of transparency and integrity, hasn’t praised Assange as a champion of truth, and in fact the Pentagon is hoping to silence him. Even foreign governments whose agendas aren’t complicated by hiding military secrets are hesitant to take him in.
Assange may have been born at the wrong time. It’s as if he’s force-feeding truth to a world that has no stomach for it. An ally of no one, an ideological nomad, it’ll be interesting to see how long Assange’s voice keeps leaking the truth. Historically, leading voices of opposition—from Martin Luther King to Malcolm X to John Lennon—seem to have a way of getting silenced sooner or later.
October 23, 2010 at 11:28 pm, steve_real said:
Hippies and the early 1960's counterculture had many layers, but a large part of it was strongly correlated with the draft.
Ending the draft and seperating the peoples from it's own land army
has proven both good and bad for the United States
as lamented by Secretary Gates.
Rock concerts are a dime a dozen man.
October 24, 2010 at 4:29 pm, Alex Moore said:
Very true – thanks for the astute point!
October 23, 2010 at 11:30 pm, Thinkaboutit said:
Julian Assange certainly appears to be a C.I.A. asset. Ooooo he’s been wanted for questioning since March and is being pursued by the C.I.A. and supposedly has to change his location every two days… but yet will give interviews and appears as a guest speaker in front of hundreds of students at an investigative journalists’ forum. The C.I.A. and MI5 are two peas in a pod. If the C.I.A. REALLY wanted this guy he would be in a dog kennel in Gitmo baking in 110 degree heat months ago. Anybody notice how this latest leak claims that about 100,000 Iraqis have been killed in the war? When others put the numbers at over a million? Don’t you think that the Pentagon knows that if they held a press conference and say “Well we have actually been tallying up the Iraqi dead for years and it turns out it has been about 100,000, not over a million as some of you might have heard” then nobody would believe them because nobody with a brain in their head takes the Pentagon’s word for anything anymore.
Ah, but if a supposed “concerned citizen” claiming to be doing a public service by leaking alleged “classified information” leaks documents purporting to claim that about 100,000 Iraqis have died as a result of this illegal bloodbath waged in the interests of Exxon-Mobil and Chevron-Texaco then people will believe it because it’s Julian Assange and Wikileaks meanwhile the Pentagon brass pretends to tear their hair out and wring their hands, all the while laughing at all you jackasses who think Assange is legit. They saw you rubes coming a mile away.
October 24, 2010 at 10:02 am, Pete said:
There is a difference between an estimate of a million and actual fact counts as evidence which were previously omitted by the same military sources. Even more so if the documents indicate evidence of torture and lead to having charges brought forward.
October 24, 2010 at 6:33 pm, Casey said:
Your contention that he's a plant to misinform the masses is a bit redundant given that 100,000 dead or 1,000,000 is hardly any less a crime regardless of the agreed figure. The Israeli's claim 6,000,000 million Holocaust victims. The word Holocaust means burnt offering. 6,000,000 burnt bodies. I don't think so. Time and motion studies and lack of resources by the Nazis at that time would definitely rule that out. It would have been physically impossible to burn 6,000,000 people in the time frame open to them. At the demise of the Soviet block the records from Auschwitz commandeered by them became available and the truth about the dead from that sorry place came out. They had to cut 2,500000 from the supposed dead many of whom were not Jews. Still they claim the six million. It doesn't retract from the terrible crimes committed by the Nazi but it is a lie. Disinformation. Thinkaboutit.
October 23, 2010 at 11:54 pm, Marysc said:
Does anyone doubt we went to war to control Iraq oil flow. Bush comes from a Oil Family for Christ sakes.
Shortly after the Iraq war we were paying nearly 70 a tank for gas at the pumps. I sure it had nothing to do with the war but it didn't hurt the Bush families and friends.
October 24, 2010 at 1:08 am, steve_real said:
It’s more than a little ironic that, with its newest document dump from the Iraq campaign, WikiLeaks may have just bolstered one of the Bush administration’s most controversial claims about the Iraq war: that Iran supplied many of the Iraq insurgency’s deadliest weapons and worked hand-in-glove with some of its most lethal militias.
October 24, 2010 at 5:22 am, Sídhe D'mento said:
Don't worry so much. We have his back. We are legion.
October 24, 2010 at 1:36 pm, Foo Bar said:
The author of the article fails to mention the poos sob who is sitting and awaiting his trial, because he leaked the Iraqi documents. I think he is much more similare to Ellsberg than Assange. But for sure, he is not as iconic as Assange and does not make a good fit for the photo in this article: a Rock Star.
October 24, 2010 at 5:24 pm, philosophia said:
it's not so much that the world doesn't want to know the truth, it's more like there were hundreds if not thousands of people years ago telling everybody on the internet that the Iraq War was started on the premise of a bunch of lies, the U.S. is guilty of committing acts of terror against it's own populace, that intelligence garnered from torture is almost always useless, and all the rest of it and no one cared then… so why would they care now?
October 24, 2010 at 5:45 pm, Steven Sherman said:
Don't mistake what the New York Times has to say for what 'everyone is talking about'. Go back into the archives, and you'll find the Times didn't like the protesters of the Sixties very much either.
October 24, 2010 at 6:56 pm, barker said:
the 'truth' is a society too scary to live in. most people have to stay numb cause fear of the unknown has us all by the balls. get happy and try to stay happy and consider sharing your homes with people who need a little help or company. you'll have a good time too and wonder why you didn't open your heart and home sooner. shit, share the bills for christ sakes.
peace out
October 29, 2010 at 8:08 am, Charlie Beckett said:
I don't think it's a lack of stomach for the truth – it might be the opposite. I think the 'problem' with the way that Wikileaks is deluging us with data on the Iraq War is two-fold.
Firstly, there is simply too much for anyone to take in. How many people got through the resulting documentary let alone read the acres of newsprint?
Secondly, there may be no 'counter-culture' because the opposition to the Iraq War was pretty widespread and quite mainstream at the time, even in the US but especially in the UK where I am based – let alone now that we know there were no WMDs etc.
So while I welcome the Wikileak revelations and know that they add to our understanding of what went wrong in Iraq, I don't think it's a political game-changer in the way that the Pentagon Papers were (somewhat).
We live in a much more knowledgable and sceptical age – that's a good thing and shows that despite the myths of some Golden Age of investigative journalism in the 60s, 70s, or even 80s, we are better informed now then we were then,
regards
Charlie Beckett, Polis, London School of Economics
http://www.charliebeckett.org
October 31, 2010 at 11:22 am, tony curzon price said:
You're right, Charlie. But we have to suspect some pretty under-hand tactics to shut him up and discredit him. We do need to carefully separate the message and the character – whatever the truth of the allegations – of the messenger. The behaviour of the states involved and revealed is so much worse than the accusations made against Assange. What if this were the truth of it: institutions that turned a blind eye to – to the point of encouragement – torture on a massive scale accuse whistle-blower of xxx (whatever the accusations in Sweden are..). Why do we even take notice of that stuff?
October 29, 2010 at 9:08 am, Manuel said:
I don't know what hippies are, I am not even an American. But Julian Assange is my hero.
November 30, 2010 at 2:21 am, quartertiller said:
Then your standards are both low, and non-existent.
December 01, 2010 at 5:45 am, Manuel said:
Thanks for the “insightful” reply first of all. The whole Vietnam war and the insurmountable amount of deaths and destruction that followed happened because of a huge cover up by US Govt. which everyone is aware about now. If truth was somehow revealed to the people, the entire war could have been averted.
Wikileaks may not be the ultimate source of truth after all, but it is definitely a good start. And I have deep respect for Wikileaks and Julian Assange for exactly that. So why exactly a guy like you with “high intellectual standards” hate Wikileaks and Julian Assange?
October 30, 2010 at 3:35 pm, Rcartes said:
Excellent piece. Julian Assange is clearly not an easy person to work with (as the article points out well), but the whole thing has been muddled by obvious black propaganda from the Pentagon/CIA. I was highly amused to read that they've had to backtrack on their blatant and hypocritical lie when the first tranche of material was released, that he had “blood on his hands.” And this coming from the US military!!!! Anyway, good luck to Julian Assange, I hope they don't manage to silence him.
One criticism of the piece: the absolutely bathetic statement at the end about “leading voices of opposition—from Martin Luther King to Malcolm X to John Lennon.” John Lennon a leading voices of opposition? Yeah, about as leading a voice of opposition as Posh Spice. What was the fool thinking of?
November 29, 2010 at 4:33 am, Joe said:
There is nothing brave, noble or even smart about what this moron is doing. All he is doing is endangering ALL of us. Thank God Assange was not alive during WWII…
Dont forget that these documents are STOLEN…the messages that are secret are OUR secrets…he has no right to disclose any of it. He should feel free to disclose hie OWN secrets whenever he wants. This guy has an axe to grind….thats all. I'm sure he fancies himself a hero, but he is just a worm.
December 11, 2010 at 4:47 pm, Anne M. said:
Leaked not stolen.. there is a difference, use a dictionary if you can't see it. And just because you are oblivious to the world, and do not care further than you back yard, does not mean that the rest of the world is. Unfortunately, these secrets are concerning far more people than only the ones that are keeping them, therefore, i am glad Assange is exposing them to us, exposing them to the whole world.. So that we could do something about and not just keep caring only about ourselves and pretending the world ends with our street. Awareness people. That's all you need to learn from this situation if you cant get anything else out of it..
November 29, 2010 at 2:55 pm, Julian Assange: Spiderman or Green Goblin? | Death and Taxes said:
[...] Julian Assange a public savior or a public liability? Is he a Spiderman, or no better than the Green Goblin? [...]
November 30, 2010 at 2:18 am, quartertiller said:
The bottom line is, he stole something. It makes no difference what country, he stole something that did not belong to him. His life is in danger, to put it mildly. Will there be a reward for him? Too many out there who love to hunt down just about anything for money. His journey will end. The boomerang always returns to it's origin of flight. What he put out, will come back to him. Life is strange with it's twists and turns, and always, always comes full circle. Our deeds have consequences, and again, thats life's oddity. Assange, no doubt whatsoever, has some severe mental/emotional problems. otherwise he'd not derive pleasure from doing these things. He's accepted stolen property, intellectual property, and that is immoral and wrong. What if there were several wars generated from these document's contents? Would Assange feel proud of himself?
November 30, 2010 at 8:02 am, Sadie Mae Sand said:
I am a 28 year old middle class woman living in a small town in Manitoba, Canada, and Julian Assange is the voice, moral, theoretical and otherwise, of my generation, the new generation. I have half a mind to make t-shirts emblazoned with his name and give them away on the streets. He is my hero. He is what journalism has failed to be. Open your eyes world. And if you don't want to… Well, you have to. You are the parents, the corporations, and the government that raised this generation… And in the words of Kahlil Gibran, “Your children are not your children.” We are the arrows that the abuses of the past have sprung forth. Watch us fly into the future, where you cannot go.
December 07, 2010 at 3:31 pm, Oneevenstar said:
Make those t-shirts!!!
November 30, 2010 at 4:03 pm, Willgeek said:
Here's my thing about Mssr. Assange: What he leaks is fascinating, but it only confirms what can be found in any number of other avenues on the Internet. I guess the value of his site is its convenience. And nobody should be bent out of shape that he leaks things like “Putin is the smartest gangster in the world, and Berlusconi and Sarkozy are corrupt idiots” or the the US is involved in some ugly business in the Middle East mess. We've known this, those facts have been out there for a very long time. So I don't think Mr. Assange is really all that, and if he's stealing government secrets that put troops at risk, he deserves the difficulties he gets. It's certainly good for his image to be this “martyr/prophet” figure. I just don't know what to think — the issues the civilised world is facing now are rather different than those in the 60's, or the '80's. I guess I'd have to meet him, work with him, really know what his background is — and those are all pretty shadowy too, like the governments he reveals documents about. Plots within plots within plots…sigh. I just live my life, I guess, and honor those who put themselves at the service of these people, right wing or left wing.
December 01, 2010 at 3:14 am, Reb_enfilade said:
Lets just hope this guy can live long enough to provide us with the leaked documents from big banks he claims to have and wants to release in january. thats if the cia doesnt get to him first…
December 02, 2010 at 3:38 pm, woody123.. said:
I am disgusted by the Alex Moore (Guardian) article describing the virtues of our corrupted world. Guardians of the people (politicians) direct the horrendous misery on the people of the world. If you read between the lines you see the need for the status quo.
I do feel sorry for the young military gentleman. To do what he did required a lot of soul searching. It was not easy to do what he did knowing the consequences of his actions. To watch the injustice perpetrated on a day-to-day basis by our so called protectors. For Julian Assange to bring the information (injustice) to the eyes and ears of the world, will, I hope provide a means for the power base to step back and re-examine past actions and direct it to a more true meaning versus ulterior motive for activities both internal and external .
It was interesting watching the U.S. troops in Afghanistan on a video thru WikiLeaks. It provided us with a view of Afghanistan citizens fingerprinted and retina scanned. This was the supposedly the same procedure (retina scan) the U.S. government wanted to perpetrate on foreign government citizens. I wander if they perfected the technique on their own citizens on a mass scale (300+ million people) before proceeding to create a foreign citizen database.
The information we are receiving from Julian Assange is on a larger scale than we are normally allowed by the main stream media. If you read a newspaper article, magazine, or TV article on a daily basis you see media cables only in a different format. The only difference is the main stream media will in its wisdom take information it receives, discuss the information consequences (is it beneficial for the masses to know), consult with government(s) and be advised by government(s) or should I say advised with a certain degree of threating action(s).
The information we are provided thru WikiLeaks is just a verification of what we already knew to a certain degree but now we are provided with the actual documentation to discuss and disseminate.
December 07, 2010 at 5:24 pm, Julian Assange: Man of the Year | Death and Taxes said:
[...] public information it seemed unwilling to stomach. Unlike Daniel Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers, Assange’s testimonies were met with shrugged shoulders as opposed to a full-blown cultural revolution, despite Obama’s fumbling Afghan war coupled [...]
December 10, 2010 at 12:40 pm, US to Indict Julian Assange | Death and Taxes said:
[...] The Pentagon Papers, which leaked classified documents about the US dealings in the Vietnam war, are the only comparable historical reference we have. Ellsberg, a military analyst, leaked the Papers to the ‘New York Times,’ who published them in 1971. The Nixon Administration tried to ban the ‘Times’ from publishing them, but on June 30th the Supreme Court decided the Times could keep publishing freely in the ‘New York Times vs. United States’ decision. [...]
December 11, 2010 at 8:58 pm, Carolakracht said:
I agree with nearly everything you said here. But one point remains open: why should we resign and accept our fate (to be cheated and ruled by governments)? We don't have hippies nowadays, but the belief in resistance and solidarity is still alive. I have to admit that we are a minority. But wasn't that always like that?
December 15, 2010 at 10:17 am, Dr. Martin said:
Julian Assange has the guts to stand up and speak, very few people today have any guts at all. Normality are for “people sheep” who seem happy to tow the extremely thin line.
I was in the army, saw what I saw, and have praise for any one sticking the neck out so a better world of less bloodshed and less intercontinental haterade may occur.
Regarding secrets: No body is above the law, and governments who use “secret” as an excuse to hide there “bad” business is moralily corupt, and should exposed to the people they are meant to serve.
Julian Assange is ultimately re-setting the bad foundation of government, so in future we all might have a better world. Good on him. I just hope others can peacefully offer him support, Gandhi is a likeness to this guy.
December 22, 2010 at 1:27 pm, lawyer said:
Невід'ємні права Людини.
Неотъемлемые права Человека.
Droits inaliénables de l'homme.
Unveräußerlichen Rechte des Menschen.
Inalienable human rights.
Защищать необходимо не только права женщин, но, как оказывается, и права мужчин.
Necessary to protect not only the rights of women, but as it turns out, and the rights of men.
http://blogs.pravda.ru/users/3…
http://my.mail.ru/community/ko…
http://planeta.rambler.ru/user…
http://community.livejournal.c…
http://konsyltacii.livejournal…
December 22, 2010 at 1:27 pm, lawyer said:
Невід'ємні права Людини.
Неотъемлемые права Человека.
Droits inalienables de l'homme.
Rechte des Menschen.
Inalienable human rights.
Основой юридической защиты г-на Джулиана Пола Ассанжа (Julian Paul Assange) из WikiLeaks могло бы стать обоснование соответствия его действий международному праву и основным правам человека (в том числе это и право знать кто управляет людьми и какой их как интеллектуальный, нравственный, так и профессиональный уровень, в той части, что касается их способности регулировать публичные общественные процессы).
Кроме того, есть юридические обоснования его права не раскрывать источники информации, если обнародованная информация соответствует действительности и затрагивает основные права большого количества людей.
Относительно выдвинутого формального обвинения Джулиану Полу Ассанжу (Julian Paul Assange) из WikiLeaks: судя по тому, в чем его обвиняют (по опубликованной в интернете информации), он, скорее, не обвиняемым должен быть, он,скорее всего, потерпевший, так как из самой сути обвинений понятно, что идет фактическая его дискриминация и безосновательные придирки с противоположной стороны, мало имеющие общего с правами человека и простой логикой.
Если верно то, что пишут в интернете, то Джулиан Пол Ассанж попал в такую ситуацию по формально выдвинутым претензиям активистки феминистского движения, которая, как мне кажется, безосновательно предъявляет к нему претензии, нарушающие его права как человека. Формально выдвинутые претензии, как мне кажется, нарушают международное право и установленные международным правом права человека, даже если в Швеции и есть такие законы, настолько искажающие отношения между мужчинами и женщинами. Права человека не могут быть отменены или запрещены национальным законом какой-либо страны – иначе такой отменяющий права человека закон будет противоправным. Речь должна идти не о злоупотреблении правами, а о равноправии – это означает соблюдение равенства прав и их паритет, согласование взаимных прав с взаимными обязанностями. Мне кажется, что в данном случае имеется злоупотребление правом, преувеличение прав одной стороны за счет неправомерного уменьшения прав другой стороны. Поэтому, если даже с точки зрения морали, не совсем красиво встречаться с двумя девушками, то с точки зрения права – Джулиан Пол Ассанж невиновен, если они встречались по доброй воле и без насилия.
Я не понимаю позиции правительства Австралии. Джулиан Пол Ассанж, если я правильно понял, является гражданином Австралии, обвинение ему выдвинули в одной стране, задержали в другой стране. У правительства Австралии отсутствует интерес к судьбе гражданина Австралии и оно не хочет выполнить свою функциональную обязанность по защите своего гражданина?
The basis of legal protection, Mr. Julian Paul Assange of WikiLeaks could be justification for its compliance with existing international law and fundamental human rights (including this and the right to know who controls the people and what they as an intellectual, moral or and professional level, in so far as regards their ability to regulate public social processes).
In addition, there is legal justification of his right not to disclose sources of information, if released information corresponds to reality and affects the basic rights of many people.
Regarding of formal charges, Julian Paul Assange (Julian Paul Assange) from WikiLeaks: judging by the charges against him (published in the online information), it probably is not the accused should be, it is likely the victim, because of the very essence of the charges it is clear that it is the actual discrimination and baseless carping from the opposite side, having little to do with human rights and simple logic.
If it is true what is written on the Internet, Julian Paul Assange got into this situation by formally put forward claims of activists of the feminist movement, which I think is unreasonable requirements, violating his rights as a person. Formally put forward the claim to be in violation, in my opinion, international law and established international human rights law, even in Sweden and have such laws, so distorting the relationship between men and women. Human rights can not be waived or prohibited by national law any country – is repealing the Human Rights Act would be unlawful. The discussion should not abuse the rights and on equality – it means respect for the equal rights of men and their parity, negotiation of reciprocal rights with mutual responsibilities. Me it seems to that in this case is present abuse of right, overstatement of rights for one side due to the illegal diminishing of rights for other side. Therefore, even if in terms of morality, not really nice to meet two girls, from the point of view of the law – he is innocent, if they met voluntarily and without violence.
I do not understand the position of the Australian Government. Julian Paul Assange, if I understood correctly, is the citizen of Australia, a prosecution was pulled out him in one country, detained in other country. The government of Australia is not interested in the fate of an Australian citizen and it does not want to fulfill their responsibilities to protect its citizens?
http://blogs.pravda.ru/users/3…
http://konsyltacii.livejournal…
http://community.livejournal.c…
http://my.mail.ru/community/ko…
http://planeta.rambler.ru/user…
For lawyers, attorneys Julian Paul Assange from WikiLeaks.
Я думаю, что американцы должны вспомнить какие люди писали их Конституцию, о какой стране они мечтали, вспомнить о Билле о правах.
I think that Americans must remember, what people wrote their Constitution, what country they dreamed about, must remember about Bill of Rights.
Защищать необходимо не только права женщин, но, как оказывается, и права мужчин.
Necessary to protect not only the rights of women, but as it turns out, and the rights of men.
December 28, 2010 at 1:21 pm, jose said:
so true unfortunately
January 17, 2011 at 6:39 am, Buddy0067 said:
The people that hate Assange are the same ones who were crying about a government keeping secrets and begging for the truth. I’m not saying everyone that wanted freedom of information hates him now, or that everyone that hates him wanted the freedom of information, but most of the ones that do hate him (most of the ones I’ve encountered anyway) are usually that wanted something like this all along.
March 03, 2011 at 11:14 am, Jackthesmilingblack said:
Print um, market um, buy um, wear um. EVERYBODY!!
March 03, 2011 at 2:14 pm, SE962582C said:
It is “them”, or ” ‘em”, not ” ‘um”.
Do go and learn to use proper English words!
April 17, 2011 at 1:52 pm, Jackthesmilingblack said:
Fuck wit.