The 2014 book The Snowden Files by Guardian journalist Luke Harding contains anti-Assange rhetoric and insinuates that WikiLeaks Editor Julian Assange and whistleblower Edward Snowden are serving Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a vitriolic post that went live ahead of a review to appear at The clubof.info Blog, the L'Ordre blog denounces what it calls "bizarre" insinuations in the book that mar Harding's otherwise compelling case for the elimination of the US surveillance state. Particularly troubling is Harding's injections of anti-Assange rhetoric into his book, which the L'Ordre blog tried to expose and bust. From the blog:
Assange is bizarrely likened to George W. Bush (the “with us or against us” quote is juxtaposed with odd readings of Assange’s behavior, almost as if arguing that he was the one who said it), Putin’s repression is bizarrely likened with far worse torture, disappearances and surveillance perpetrated by the US, and Harding then offers warped conclusions that Assange and Putin are somehow bigger problems than the very regime Harding is comparing them with. It is Harding himself who illustrates in the book that US repression is unprecedented and an assault on democracy, so it seems bizarre for him to try to then manipulate the reader to focus on the much lesser dictatorship of Vladimir Putin as the biggest problem in the world. Harding also insists that rather than the US being authoritarian or hypocritical, it is just “similar” to authoritarian countries, and also accused of hypocrisy by nefarious harpies and Assanges who can’t possibly be right. Somehow, Harding finds it too radical to actually conclude what his own analysis was screaming in his face: the US is authoritarian and hypocritical, and his book offers an overwhelmingly good case for both conclusions.
Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/lordre/2015/05/assange-spreads-russian-propaganda-assange-is-like-george-w-bush-and-more-gibberish.html#ixzz3Z4twK5PH
Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/lordre/2015/05/assange-spreads-russian-propaganda-assange-is-like-george-w-bush-and-more-gibberish.html#FluGPuC1JAQTskmu.99The blog also defended Assange's use of the Russian alternative media network RT to express his views, while using such appearances as a reason to ridicule claims by western countries that they are the only regimes willing to give a platform to persecuted dissidents:
The insinuation is that failing to shut Assange up or take his “Kremlin-funded propaganda” off air caused lots of people to think – wrongly – that the US was hypocritical (America has its own multi-billion dollar propaganda machine. Why is it so weak that it is overpowered by a single network with an altenrative point of view!?)
Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/lordre/2015/05/assange-spreads-russian-propaganda-assange-is-like-george-w-bush-and-more-gibberish.html#ixzz3Z4vGTm4X
Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/lordre/2015/05/assange-spreads-russian-propaganda-assange-is-like-george-w-bush-and-more-gibberish.html#FluGPuC1JAQTskmu.99
The post also made some efforts to absolve British authorities of much of their role in US repression of journalists, laying all blame on the United States, saying "I’d argue we British aren't to blame for the Americans who exploit our “special relationship”, especially the part about us not having a First Amendment".
The Snowden Files argument structures make a strong effort to deflect rage away from the US government specifically and towards the British, Chinese and Russian governments instead. The British are criticized for their lack of a First Amendment, although it was the US that enthusiastically abused this and pressured the UK to negate many of the values that the British people had in fact been faithful to in the past.
— The clubof.info Blog (@ClubOfInfo) April 29, 2015
It is worth noting that the leaked documents the British authorities were most embarrassed by were the ones that exposed the United Kingdom to be selling its services to the foreign NSA, making their allegations that journalists reporting on the documents do not "love this country" especially ironic.The Snowden Files argument structures make a strong effort to deflect rage away from the US government specifically and towards the British, Chinese and Russian governments instead. The British are criticized for their lack of a First Amendment, although it was the US that enthusiastically abused this and pressured the UK to negate many of the values that the British people had in fact been faithful to in the past.
