This morning on UK television’s Peston on Sunday program, Wikileaks’ Julian Assange was interviewed over the Clinton emails, Russia and Trump.
Whilst he defended the leaking of the emails and the veracity of authenticating them, he made some very valid points about allowing the public to decide on the nature and weight to be attached to them. Interestingly, there was neither confirmation nor denial of Russian involvement; Assange argues its irrelevance. There is undoubtedly an argument to be made here: the evidentiary value of the Clinton and Podesta emails, and the rigging of the election against Sanders by the DNC outweighs the identity of the sources.
But then what of Trump? And it’s true, there must be some culpability in the reasonably foreseeable consequence - hurt Clinton, help Trump. And help a Trump who has made outrageous and outright fascist and anti-US constitutional policy statements on a raft of issues that in all likelihood he was always going to, and is now making true. It is a double-edged sword and our friends at Wikileaks and Julian himself has to accept that.
By the same measure, a thing we have to accept of Assange’s claims, is that he has long been shouting-out over Clinton, Obama and efforts by successive US administrations to install hardening security infrastructures and centralising of powers - increasingly out of the eyes of scrutiny and accountability leading to abuses. Assange claims all it required was a turnkey President. And Trump is precisely that man who has come in and turned the key. This isn’t just about Trump it is about a system out-of-control in the US.
Meanwhile, albeit Assange didn’t mention it, Europe is on the verge of the same but markedly worse. Trump has shut the international transit door for Syrians to the US, in direct contradiction of the Geneva Convention. Although oppressive fascist tyrants rarely care for such trivialities. However, for Europe, these same Syrians are on our physical shores and borders. Real human beings. Real children. Real families in dire need and suffering. We can’t allow Trump’s policies of inhumanity spread to Europe. Or these will be the darkest of times.
Say no.
First published 29 January 2017: Medium