83 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 69 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing Summarizing
OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 8/1/10

Wikileaks' Julian Assange and Conspiracy Theories


Michael Collins
Follow Me on Twitter     Message Michael Collins
Become a Fan
  (120 fans)

By Michael Collins


(Image by Unknown Owner)   Details   DMCA
"I'm constantly annoyed that people are distracted by false conspiracies such as 9/11, when all around we provide evidence of real conspiracies, for war or mass financial fraud." Julian Asange, Wikileaks, July 19 (Image right)

John Young was one of the co-founders of Wikileaks. He quickly left the organization in disagreement with some of its policies (CNET). Young was a natural choice for Wikileaks since he's operated a leak website, CRYPTOME, since 1996. His site just released two articles on July 31 attributed to Wikileaks' Julian Assange (me@i.1.org). The announcement read:

"These essays on conspiracies by Julian Assange (me@iq.org) were retrieved today from his website iq.org. The first from the currently active site, dated November 10, 2006, and the second at archive.org, dated December 3, 2006." CRYPTOME - 31 July 2010 (author's emphasis)

The essay titles indicate an entirely different take on conspiracies than that indicated by Assange in his 9/11 comments. In fact, in these two essays from 2006, Assange defines conspiracies as the critical state function to maintain power. The titles are:

State and Terrorist Conspiracies me @ iq.org November 10, 2006

Conspiracy as Governance me @ iq.org December 3, 2006

In the second essay, Conspiracy as Governance, Assange outlines the centrality of conspiracies to maintaining elites.

"Conspiracy as governance in authoritarian regimes

"Where details are known as to the inner workings of authoritarian regimes, we see conspiratorial interactions among the political elite, not merely for preferment or favor within the regime, but as the primary planning methodology behind maintaining or strengthening authoritarian power.

"Authoritarian regimes create forces which oppose them by pushing against a people's will to truth, love and self-realization. Plans which assist authoritarian rule, once discovered, induce further resistance. Hence such schemes are concealed by successful authoritarian powers until resistance is futile or outweighed by the efficiencies of naked power. This collaborative secrecy, working to the detriment of a population, is enough to define their behavior as conspiratorial." Julian Assange, Dec. 3, 2006

Assange proceeds to define conspiracies as "cognitive devices" that are able to "out think the same group of individuals acting alone." He argues that "deceiving conspiracies" operate by distorting reality to achieve some specific goal. The outcome is of these conspiracies is likely to be "misplaced. Programmers call this effect garbage in, garbage out."

After defining the dangers and centrality of government conspiracies in the first and second essay, Assange proposes the following:

"Attacks on conspiratorial cognitive ability.

"A man in chains knows he should have acted sooner for his ability to influence the actions of the state is near its end. To deal with powerful conspiratorial actions we must think ahead and attack the process that leads to them since the actions themselves can not be dealt with. We can deceive or blind a conspiracy by distorting or restricting the information available to it." Julian Assange, Dec. 3, 2006

"Distorting or restricting the information available" to conspiracies is the justification for dis-intermediating the flow of information, as Wikileaks has done in the past. Gather raw data and simply post it. The strategy most recently with the Afghanistan leaks involved choosing three mainstream media news organizations as intermediaries - The New York Times, the Guardian, and Der Spiegel.

Next Page  1  |  2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Well Said 3   Valuable 3   Supported 2  
Rate It | View Ratings

Michael Collins Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Follow Me on Twitter     Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

Ukraine President Once Agent for U.S. State Department

Worst President Ever - Barack H. Obama

It's official! You're on your own

Rigged Elections for Romney?

Real Unemployment at 23% - Dampening the Excitement

Humiliation And Death As A Tool Of National Policy

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend