This is beneath contempt: Assange floats theory that Hillary murdered a DNC staffer who

[cali]

Assange says was the leak from the DNC to WikiLeaks.


Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks organization appear to be actively encouraging a conspiracy theory that a Democratic National Committee staffer was murdered for nefarious political purposes, perhaps by Hillary Clinton.


Seth Rich was killed last month in Washington D.C. in an early morning shooting that police have speculated was a failed robbery. Because Rich did voter outreach for the DNC and because we live in a ridiculous world, conspiracy theorists have glommed on to a fantastical story that Rich was an FBI informant meeting with purported agents who were actually a hit team sent by Hillary Clinton. There is of course absolutely zero evidence for this and Snopes has issued a comprehensive debunking of the premise itself (Rich is only 27 and has only worked at the DNC since 2014 so is unlikely to be in possession of information that might take down Clinton, he was on the phone with his girlfriend at the time of the shooting and she hasn’t reported any FBI meeting, there have been a string of robberies in the area, an FBI rendezvous at 4 a.m. only happens in movies, the whole thing is batshit crazy, etc.).


The fact that the idea is so absurd, though, has not stopped Assange from suggesting that Rich was murdered for nefarious political purposes either because he was an informant for the FBI or because he may have been a source in last month’s WikiLeaks release of thousands of DNC emails. In an interview on Tuesday that was picked up by BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski, Assange seemed to lend credence to the idea that Rich had been retaliated against.


<snip>

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/08/09/wikileaks_is_fanning_a_conspiracy_theory_that_hillary_murdered_a_dnc_staffer.html

[canetoad]

1. Assange should get out more

Oh wait.

[Thrill]

2. I think he's watching a lil too much of ABC's Scandal show

[SwankyXomb]

9. Even that show's Republican president

(Tony Goldwyn) is backing Hillary.

[glennward]

3. Pretty soon, nothing he says or reveals will have any credibility. nt

[Rex]

4. Asshat is a troll, I bet he and Snowden get the same paycheck from government services.

They've gone from brilliant light, to shining turd. Reputation destroyed.

[geek tragedy]

5. Wikileaks= Trumpkins nt

[NanceGreggs]

6. The fine folks over at JPR ...

... have been promoting this idea since Rich's death.

Perhaps Assange should become a member there - they can obviously hatch a ludicrous idea before he can, and run with it before he gets up in the morning.

Why waste time conjuring up ridiculous conspiracy theories when there's a website that will do it for you.

[msanthrope]

12. JPR, you say? Who floats it here? nt

[Kingofalldems]

25. Boom. Thank you.

[C_U_L8R]

7. All they've got is baloney

So weak I bet even Rublicans don't believe it

[Zynx]

15. Oh, they'll believe this. They believe anything.

[sarae]

8. That explains what I read yesterday...

WikiLeaks offers $20,000 for information about killing of DNC staffer

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/9/wikileaks-offers-20000-information-about-murder-se/

The whole thing is so absurd, I have no words. 2016 must be the year of conspiracy theories.

[The_Casual_Observer]

10. That idiot had a 3rd rate half ass web site.

Why he is being protected and treated like some kind of a boy genius is absurd.
That embassy ought to be raided and the asshole should be put in a proper jail.

[cali]

19. No embassy should ever be raided. It's sovereign territory. A raid on an embassy

is an act of war.

And WikiLeaks was originally a valuable resource, ruined by Assange.

[Demsrule86]

23. You can believe nothing now. nt

[cali]

24. I agree that information obtained from WikiLeaks is now suspect

as it's become Assange's private fiefdom and not wiki anything, but the FACT remains that raiding the London Ecuadorian Embassy to arrest Assange, would be an act of war. There simply isn't any wriggle room there.

[The_Casual_Observer]

35. How many embassies harbor criminals?

WTF is wrong with those people? This has to be unique.

[cali]

36. I don't believe it is unique. In any case, that is moot. Such a move would set a HORRIBLE

precedent, endangering the lives of thousands in a very short period of time.

[MacGregor]

11. At what point does his crackpot ass get laughed out of the public sphere?

He's also spoken of the dumb "Tim Kaine made a deal for VP in 2011 to step down from the DNC and let DWS take over" conspiracy theory as if it's ironclad fact.

[DemonGoddess]

13. definitely beneath contempt

ugh. Assange is an asshole.

[eShirl]

14. As long as he's entertaining such theories,

why does he think it wasn't Russia?

[Zynx]

16. Julian Assange has always been awful. He's just making it clearer.

[obamanut2012]

17. Oh, some very well-know DUers are agreeing with it over on Facebook

As well as a lot of Steiners on twitter.

They never talk about Trump's rape allegations, or his many crooked business deals, oh no.

[geek tragedy]

21. current or former DUers?

the alt-left aren't that much better than the alt-right

[obamanut2012]

27. Both

One of the main ringleaders is a very well-beloved DUer for some reason.

[geek tragedy]

29. PM me, por favor! nt

[whistler162]

18. Well Vince Foster didn't work 25+ years ago

so why not try again.

[geek tragedy]

20. Assange is a scumbag who has largely malevolent motives

it's mainly the alt-left who pushes the Clinton Body Count/Vince Foster stuff these days

[cali]

26. No, it's still more the right. Although the alt-left who hate HRC

and believe all dems are just as corrupt and awful on... everything, also do it.

[Demsrule86]

22. Assange doesn't want people to think he is in bed with the Russians

who are the hackers...but of course he is...and has lost all credibility.

[mythology]

30. Does anybody expect anything more from the guy

Who seeks to discredit the women accusing him of rape are agents of the CIA? Assange is a cockroach who blatantly lies about wanting transparency but isn't interested in being transparent himself.

The world will be a better place when he's in jail.

[yellowcanine]

31. How long before Trump tweets this...."People are saying....?"

This kind of stuff is his bread and butter.

[maxrandb]

32. Limp-Balls was just talking about it on his show

He's trying anything to get the subject off his guy Trump calling for the assassination of political opponents.

Ole' Rush was spinning faster than a cat covering its poop on a linoleum floor.

Trust me, I spent 30 years in the Navy, and what Rush was doing was some World Class Turd-polishing.

Heck, you may not even call it "turd-polishing"...more like he was working to convince his listeners that they could pick the turd up by its clean end.

[LAS14]

33. I've said it before here in another context. What can we do about...

... "whistle blowers" of impure motives? Used to be we would automatically support whistle blowers. And Assange has so much reach. He has a tool people need. (Don't they??? Maybe not.) How can we express our concern/withdraw moral support from Assange?

[randome]

39. What tool? Anyone can push a button and publish something on the Internet.

That's all Wikileaks does, is publish stuff that others steal for them. It's the easiest job in the world!
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Meredith McIver approves of this post.[/center][/font][hr]

[eissa]

34. The Stein loons on my FB feed have been pushing this

All linking the Assange article from RT. The fact that RT never prints anything anti-Trump doesn't seem to register with them. Neither does the fact that they are now officially in the same bed as Roger Stone and Alex Jones. I told one of them to look up the "Horseshoe Theory" and she flipped out.

[DFW]

37. The struggle to regain lost relevance

It knows no limits if that relevance is all someone has left in life.

[Blue_Tires]

38. kicked

[GaYellowDawg]

40. Fortunately, Snopes is on it.

Any time I've seen this on social media, I've countered it with a link to Snopes.

[oberliner]

41. Hannity is very excited about this story

Talking about it non-stop.