Assange Complains of Jewish Smear Campaign

[cali]

By RAVI SOMAIYA
Published: March 1, 2011


LONDON — A report published by a British magazine on Tuesday said the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, suggested that British journalists, including the editor of the newspaper The Guardian, were engaged in a Jewish-led conspiracy to smear his organization.

<snip>

He was especially angry about a Private Eye report that Israel Shamir, an Assange associate in Russia, was a Holocaust denier. Mr. Assange complained that the article was part of a campaign by Jewish reporters in London to smear WikiLeaks.

A lawyer for Mr. Assange could not immediately be reached for comment, but in a statement later released on the WikiLeaks Twitter feed, Mr. Assange said Mr. Hislop had “distorted, invented or misremembered almost every significant claim and phrase.”

The Private Eye article quoted Mr. Assange as saying the conspiracy was led by The Guardian and included the newspaper’s editor, Alan Rusbridger, and investigations editor, David Leigh, as well as John Kampfner, a prominent London journalist who recently reviewed two books about WikiLeaks for The Sunday Times of London.

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/world/europe/02assange.html?_r=2

[PBS Poll-435]

1. Here we go!

Took long enough.

[cali]

2. let me be clear: I think this is very likely just another smear

but I think the forces out to discredit Assange will not stop at anything.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Hislop and Private Eye have a good reputation

as a publication that exposes much in government and business. I'd be surprised at it being 'just another smear'; but there may have been misunderstanding , and bad recall (Hislop did not record the phone conversation; but he felt that, when Assange had complained about the first Private Eye article without even reading it, and did not bother writing the offered right of reply when Hislop sent the article to him, that some openness about what Assange accuses other journalists of was needed, so he's published what he remembers of the conversation.

[cali]

9. thanks for the background info.

:hi:

[nomb]

3. I hope it clears up. nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Partial scan of the Private Eye article here:

http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/03/01/assange-goes-off-deep-end-blaming-jews-and-guardian-in-private-eye/

(It was full, but they shortened it for copyright reasons)

[cali]

5. I think two things are true- Assange is a bit (maybe more) unhinged and

there is a smear campaign.

[villager]

6. it's true that one doesn't preclude the other...

n/t

[JuniperLea]

8. Is this crazy on crazy?

I was going to ask how it is that nutjobs float to the top... but I guess it's always been so.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

10. I smell a "Did Glenn Beck rape and murder a young girl in 1990?" stunt.

Only played straight.

[cali]

11. huh?

[joeybee12]

12. Actually, i'm surprised this took so long to come out...

the accusation, probably baseless, that is. Assange threatens those in power and irritates journalists because in comparison they see themselves for the stenographers they are.

[cali]

13. well, that was my first thought. having said that, there's no doubt in my mind

that Assange is a bit unhinged. Not that that obviates in any way, what Wikileaks does.

[joeybee12]

15. I don't know if he's unhinged, per se, but probably amazingly arrogant

...both could come across the same way...it would take someone like that to do what he's doing, a Joe Schmoe like myself certainly wouldn't know where to begin.

[Peace Patriot]

14. I give Assange the benefit of the doubt.

It's hard to imagine the pressure he is under but I think we owe him the courtesy of trying to.

If you think you could live with the entire U.S. government and its allies trying to utterly destroy you--smear you, bankrupt you, imprison you and shut you up--without becoming a little rocky and a bit paranoid, then go ahead and criticize him.

But, frankly, I take criticism of Assange with less than a grain of salt.