Can We Trust Julian Assange and WikiLeaks?

[lapucelle]

Film maker Alex Gibney in a New York Times opinion piece:

"The release of a cache of emails from the Democratic National Committee by WikiLeaks last month has raised a great many questions — about the role of the D.N.C. in trying to influence the primary and about the alleged interference of Russian intelligence in an American election.

It also raised long-debated questions about WikiLeaks itself, about how an organization dedicated to radical transparency continues to bring secretive worlds to light. And the episode reveals some of the weaknesses of WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, like their recklessness with personal data and their use of information to settle scores and drive personal agendas.

I’ve had my own run-ins with Mr. Assange. During the making of my 2013 film, “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks,” I spent an agonizing six hours with him, when he was living in an English country house while out on bail. I was struck by how insistently he steered the conversation away from matters of principle to personal slights against him, and his plans for payback. He demanded personal “intel” on others I had interviewed, and dismissed questions about the organization by saying, “I am WikiLeaks” repeatedly. (Later, Mr. Assange and his followers attacked both me and my film.)"

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/opinion/can-we-trust-julian-assange-and-wikileaks.html?_r=0

[OKNancy]

1. just like Trump. Peas in a pod

[MichiganVote]

2. Short answer, no.

[auntpurl]

3. Of course not. I don't believe a word they release.

And I bet a lot of people are just like me. They/Assange clearly have an axe to grind. A Russian axe.

[Avalux]

4. Why would we? Assange/Wikileaks have no loyalty to anyone or any institution.

They exist to play spoiler and throw a wrench in the works at every opportunity. You can either praise or demonize them depending on how it affects your 'team'.

[Peacetrain]

5. You can trust them about as far as you can throw them..

wikileaks has an agenda that is too much in bed with Putin for my tastes

[charlyvi]

6. Can't see how he's any different from Roger Ailes.

Using your organization to seek revenge for slights you think have been done to you shows a small, vindictive, ego driven mentality. The mentality of a coward. He's also an alleged rapist who refuses to face charges for it. Yep, he and Ailes have much in common.

[Hortensis]

7. “If an Afghan civilian helps coalition forces, he deserves to die.”

As for the way the leak was published, Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks have more to answer for. Contained in the D.N.C. archive were Social Security numbers and credit card data of private individuals, information that served no public interest. Mr. Assange defended this invasion of privacy by claiming that deleting the information would have harmed the integrity of the archive.

But there is a responsible tradition of redacting potentially harmful private information. In 2010, just before publishing the first Afghan war logs provided to WikiLeaks by Chelsea Manning, Mr. Assange and a group of journalists from The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel were engaged in a tussle over redacting the names of Afghan informants. The three publications all decided to do so, but Mr. Assange disagreed. As he told Nick Davies of The Guardian, “If an Afghan civilian helps coalition forces, he deserves to die.”

[workinclasszero]

8. Putin does for sure

[DemonGoddess]

9. Nope

they really showed their true colors with the DNC leak via Russia.

[MineralMan]

10. Quite simply, no.

Assange is an anarchist. He doesn't give a damn about government. He wants it all gone.

[Recursion]

11. Wikileaks can be useful, but I don't trust them farther than I can throw them

They're one of many gray-hatted forces in the world.

[AgadorSparticus]

12. Assange's alignment with Russia will answer that question.

I think sometimes desperation makes strange bedfellows.

[Demsrule86]

13. NO.

Russian tool.