‘People affiliated with our organization have already been assassinated,’ Assange claims

[kpete]

Source: Raw Story

‘People affiliated with our organization have already been assassinated,’ Assange claims

By David Edwards
Tuesday, December 21st, 2010 -- 1:04 pm

People have died because of their affiliation with secrets website WikiLeaks, according to founder Julian Assange.

In a little-noticed interview with BBC's John Humphrys, Assange claimed that WikiLeaks is not just facing financial and legal attacks. People associated with the website have actually been assassinated, he said.

Unfortunately, the interviewer did not follow-up and Assange did not provide any evidence.

Assange made the startling claim while Humphrys was questioning him about returning to Sweden to face sexual assault accusations.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/assange-people-affiliated-organization-assassinated/

[berni_mccoy]

1. I smell desperate b.s.

Assange has been quite the drama queen lately.

[harvey007]

16. Watch this documentary

It was produced by Swedish national television and is something you must see.

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhTfOL9_HBE&feature=player_embedded#!

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRF3gYxz1XQ&feature=related

Part 3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6TRb40Km6A&feature=related

Part 4:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8imkYy_hJ4E&feature=related

[Robb]

2. Perhaps he meant their *characters* were assassinated.

Probably a mistake in translation. :D

[boppers]

5. A google for you:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Oscar+Kamau+Kingara

[Robb]

6. Tangentially associated with Wikileaks.

Kingara has had a target on his back since 1998. To call him a "Wikileaks Writer" rather belittles a lifetime of activism.

[stray cat]

9. People looking to appear persecuted love to claim the courage of others for their own

[boppers]

10. We should examine the original statement:

'People affiliated with our organization have already been assassinated'

Was Kingara "affiliated", or not? He appears to have been using wikileaks as an international conduit for releasing information.

As far as calling him a "Wikileaks Writer" being somehow belittling, that's not something I would agree with. It certainly doesn't express the whole body of his work, but it doesn't denigrate his work IMO.

[Igel]

18. Relevance.

Because he says that there was an assassination and places in the context of Wikileaks, we assume that they're related. That the two bits of information are relevant to each other. Relevance is a really nasty thing in pragmatic inferencing, it's so easily manipulated. As any politician or lawyer would tell you, if they had the explicit conceptual framework for the explanation.

John: "Did you miss work yesterday?"
Burt: "Yes. I ate a pizza the night before."

Of course, the reason Burt missed work had nothing to do with pizza. Instead he was busy interviewing with John's competitor--he did have pizza the night before, of course. But John's next question will involve trying to piece together how the pizza was relevant to Burt's absence--or John will simply assume food poisoning. It depends how insistent John is on having the relevance made explicit. If they're friends so that John wants to avoid giving Burt a hard time, explicitness won't be important.

John: "That happened to me once. Sushi."

Assange could have easily as said, "People whose name begins with 'K' have already been assassinated." No reason stated, but we assume that somehow having a name beginning with 'K' *must* be relevant, otherwise Assange is incoherent.

But that would be redundant.

[boppers]

21. It's relevant to human rights whistleblowers, but doesn't have a cause/effect chain.

Nobody has proffered evidence that his wikileaks work was what led to his death directly, this is true.

I don't think anybody can honestly argue, however, that those who are whistleblowers, and are assassinated, were killed for completely random (or different) reasons, and that their work product was always disconnected or unrelated.

[derby378]

3. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence

I respect Assange, and I know he's doing a little cloak-and-dagger of his own, but he's not the CIA. When one of their agents dies in the field, they're commemorated with an anonymous star on the wall at HQ. When one of Assange's associates is offed, he needs to give us more than just a tasty morsel for the rumor mill.

[The Second Stone]

7. See the link below. Shot at point blank range qualifies

as evidence of murder. And the nonsense about claims you don't like being "extraordinary claims" requiring "extraordinary evidence" is really weird. Ordinary evidence that is convincing is enough. We don't need supernatural evidence. Wikileaks people working on corruption in Kenya were gunned down on their way to a meeting.

[boppers]

4. Uhm, it's true.

http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/main/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/502/Wikileaks-writers-killed-in-Kenya.aspx

[stray cat]

8. True in the sense that people investigating the mob who also write an editorial for the ny tmes

Get assassinated by the mob and the ny times claims their people are being assassinated making the ny times itself look persecuted and heroic

[boppers]

12. Well, if the articles written in the NYT are about the mob, yes.

...and it's not like people are publicly calling for Assange's death:

http://www.prosebeforehos.com/video-of-the-day/12/10/fox-news-calls-for-assassination-of-julian-assange/

Oh, wait, they are.

[MadHound]

11. Wouldn't surprise me at all,

In fact the only reason that Assange is still alive is because right now he's got a lot of attention being paid to him.

Wouldn't surprise me if he was killed here in a few years, after the light has moved on to another person.

[truth2power]

13. People here still twisting themselves into pretzels trying to undermine Assange. eom

[DeSwiss]

14. I swear.....

...and it's pathetic too.



K&R

[ZombieHorde]

17. It is weird. If they don't like the guy, that is fine, but denying what is going on is strange. nt

[Better Believe It]

15. And so the character assassination campaign against Julian Assange continues.

But we shouldn't encourage, assist or lend credibility to this massive character assassination campaign.

And that's because we don't support government attacks on a free press and speech.

[Pavulon]

19. Post in LBN when evidence arrives..

one time at band camp...

[cherokeeprogressive]

22. Yeah, one would think that "Wikileaks" people being ASSASSINATED would be news we've all heard.

Of course the Assangeobots would say that news was "censored" by The Powers That Be.

[Pavulon]

20. dupe

[Kalun D]

23. Ding Ding Ding

""Unfortunately, the interviewer did not follow-up and Assange did not provide any evidence.""

the CIA Shill Assange is starting to stand out like a sore thumb

Just like the CIA shill defender shills...