a potentially explosive Tweet from WikiLeaks

i'd gone to the Committee's website, but had found no press releases about this, but oh, yes: it's out and about; i chose this because at least it wasn't behind a paywall.

WikiLeaks says Senate panel requested Assange testimony in Russia probe’,
Morgan Chalfant, 1 hour ago, the hill via msn.com

"“The organization, through its Twitter account, posted a letter dated Aug. 1 that purports to come from committee leaders Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) requesting that he make himself available "for a closed door interview with bipartisan Committee staff at a mutually agreeable time and location."

A spokeswoman for Warner declined to comment on witnesses. A spokeswoman for Burr also declined to comment.

Assange's legal team is "considering the offer but testimony must conform to a high ethical standard," WikiLeaks wrote on Twitter.
Assange's testimony would be of interest to those investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election."

declined to comment? is this a calculated ruse?

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Raggedy Ann's picture

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

wendy davis's picture

@Raggedy Ann

at all. it all sounds fishy as hell to me give this history, especially: from june 27, 2018 at consortium news:Did Sen. Warner and Comey ‘Collude’ on Russia-gate?

“The U.S. was in talks for a deal with Julian Assange but then FBI Director James Comey ordered an end to negotiations after Assange offered to prove Russia was not involved in the DNC leak, as Ray McGovern explains.

An explosive report by investigative journalist John Solomon on the opinion page of Monday’s edition of The Hill sheds a bright light on how Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and then-FBI Director James Comey collaborated to prevent WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange from discussing “technical evidence ruling out certain parties [read Russia]” in the controversial leak of Democratic Party emails to WikiLeaks during the 2016 election.

A deal that was being discussed last year between Assange and U.S. government officials would have given Assange “limited immunity” to allow him to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been exiled for six years. In exchange, Assange would agree to limit through redactions “some classified CIA information he might release in the future,” according to Solomon, who cited “interviews and a trove of internal DOJ documents turned over to Senate investigators.” Solomon even provided a copy of the draft immunity deal with Assange.

But Comey’s intervention to stop the negotiations with Assange ultimately ruined the deal, Solomon says, quoting “multiple sources.” With the prospective agreement thrown into serious doubt, Assange “unleashed a series of leaks that U.S. officials say damaged their cyber warfare capabilities for a long time to come.” These were the Vault 7 releases, which led then CIA Director Mike Pompeo to call WikiLeaks “a hostile intelligence service.”

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Raggedy Ann's picture

@wendy davis
Something will play out, though. Discussion ensues.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

wendy davis's picture

@Raggedy Ann

you'd meant either way, then.

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Lookout's picture

Sure smells that way to me. I wouldn't trust a damn thing they say or promise. Testify over skype not in person...they will throw you under the jail as soon as they lay hands on you!

Have to trust that Julian is a smart man and will play the situation to his advantage...I sure hope that's the case.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

wendy davis's picture

@Lookout

the letter's been fabricated, but i also believe it's a potential con of enormous proportions, given...everything that's been afoot lately w/ may. lenin moreno's military deal w/ the US, the hideous judicial ruling from arbuthnot, etc.. i suppose by 'the Team', that includes all the attorneys who're working for him, wouldn't you think? like a goose, i'd looked at jen robinson's twitter account (nothing there) but then don't dozens of attorneys work on his behalf?

would/could skyping in front of the Committee be count as sworn evidence?

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WaterLily's picture

@wendy davis The letter's real, AND it's a trick. Never mind jail, if they can convince Assange to come testify, he'll likely end up in the company of Seth Rich. "Ooops! Another botched robbery on the way to the chambers!"

Like Lookout, I have to believe (or at least hope) that Julian is too smart not to see through this.

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wendy davis's picture

@WaterLily

roy blakely downthread, there's another plan afoot, but i doubt it. unless he has *more to trade*.

if seth rich were the DNC leaker, wikiLeaks made a serious error offering that $20 grand award for info and conviction, however it went. and i did see the interview when he'd er...tried to back off from it. major fail mumbles.

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snoopydawg's picture

The timing of this stinks don't ya think? Right after Moreno has been stating that Assange's time in the embassy is coming to an end and people are afraid that if the UK gets their hands on him he will be extradited to the US.

"Hey Julian, have we got a deal for you. Come over the pond to testify whether this Russia stuff has legs or not and we promise you safe passage back to the the country of your choice."

Very stinky.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg he cooperates with Russia-gate and provides them "assistance" in "proving" Russia did it they'll let him go? They would love nothing more than to co-opt him and ruin his reputation for honesty and truth, wouldn't they?

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@lizzyh7 But I wouldn't believe them. They'd get him to say shit and then throw him down a hole anyway, and what's to stop them? Besides a dead man's switch.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

a friend just emailed me RT's coverage, w/ the extras you're citing.

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divineorder's picture

@snoopydawg

Did you see this?

“VIPS Plead for Humanitarian Asylum for Julian Assange
August 6, 2018 • 64 Comments”

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/08/06/vips-plead-for-humanitarian-asylum...

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

snoopydawg's picture

@divineorder

It goes into detail about the international laws that have been broken by the U.K. and others. And now Moreno for not protecting him after he became a Ecuadorian citizen and providing him safe passage to Ecuador.

Roy makes a good point. Maybe he isn't being asked to come to the states to testify, but by video from the embassy.

Has anyone from congress asked Comey or Schiff why they rejected the deal that had already been arranged by his lawyer? I doubt it, but I think that's a good place to start.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

'ray' and it was a typo, was there something in that letter that caused you to think 'skype' or such? i admit i'm often a crap reader, always in haste.

but i guess my larger point is that those out to get him know all of those rulings to a T, and they just don't give a fuck. i mean, bless their hearts and all for the 24-hour uniity4j marathons his weightiest supporters have done, but have they made any significant difference do you think? the mass global support julian vigils and actions turned out (tragically) to be a fizzle rather than anything; twelve brave and doughty souls at the ecuadorian embassy in london, iirc.

consider what a Big Deal it was for one state senator to offer his support to julian; while brave of him, how pitiful was it that it was a Big Deal?

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snoopydawg's picture

@wendy davis

Roy Blakeley mentions this below.

the interview could be carried out in the embassy or by scrambled, encrypted video.

I'm aware that the PTB don't give a rat's ass about international laws or people protesting for or against something. . they're going to do whatever they want like they always have.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

i'll respond to him then; i'm quite unfamiliar w/ the names of the commentariat as a newbie, as well as being baffled by the use of so many cartoon names and characters as avatars. was that a great orange satan thing?

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as far as I could throw them. I'm sure he doesn't either.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Roy Blakeley's picture

The key points are "closed interview" and "mutually agreeable time and location." If they are serious about the investigation, the interview could be carried out in the embassy or by scrambled, encrypted video.

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dance you monster's picture

@Roy Blakeley

I'm also looking at what Wendy brought into her comment:

A deal that was being discussed last year between Assange and U.S. government officials would have given Assange “limited immunity” to allow him to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been exiled for six years. In exchange, Assange would agree to limit through redactions “some classified CIA information he might release in the future,” according to Solomon, who cited “interviews and a trove of internal DOJ documents turned over to Senate investigators.”

How would the "U.S. government officials" know what was in that as-yet-unreleased material that had to be protected? Had Assange offered them a foretaste of what was on a dead man's switch if anything untoward should befall him?

And if so, are some looking to see what satisfies the goal of getting Assange out of that embassy without tripping the switch? In short, is a deal again being formulated?

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wendy davis's picture

@dance you monster

shown a trove of documents, as you repeated, and from the same article:

Missteps and Stand Down

In mid-February 2017, in a remarkable display of naiveté, Adam Waldman, Assange’s pro bono attorney who acted as the intermediary in the talks, asked Warner if the Senate Intelligence Committee staff would like any contact with Assange to ask about Russia or other issues. Waldman was apparently oblivious to Sen. Warner’s stoking of Russia-gate.

Warner contacted Comey and, invoking his name, instructed Waldman to “stand down and end the discussions with Assange,” Waldman told Solomon. The “stand down” instruction “did happen,” according to another of Solomon’s sources with good access to Warner. However, Waldman’s counterpart attorney David Laufman, an accomplished federal prosecutor picked by the Justice Departent to work the government side of the CIA-Assange fledgling deal, told Waldman, “That’s B.S. You’re not standing down, and neither am I.”

But the damage had been done. When word of the original stand-down order reached WikiLeaks, trust evaporated, putting an end to two months of what Waldman called “constructive, principled discussions that included the Department of Justice.”

The two sides had come within inches of sealing the deal. Writing to Laufman on March 28, 2017, Waldman gave him Assange’s offer to discuss “risk mitigation approaches relating to CIA documents in WikiLeaks’ possession or control, such as the redaction of Agency personnel in hostile jurisdictions,” in return for “an acceptable immunity and safe passage agreement.”

so of course he released them anyway, w/ complaints that he'd doxxed cia spooks (which he carefully hadn't, as i understand it, but coded agents with numerical codes, making him 'a hostile foreign agent' yada, yada. also:

"Why did then FBI Director Comey fail to insist on getting direct access to the DNC computers in order to follow best-practice forensics to discover who intruded into the DNC computers? (Recall, at the time Sen. John McCain and others were calling the “Russian hack” no less than an “act of war.”) A 7th grader can now figure that out."

and some say that the NSA would know who was 'involved', but i admit ignorance on that.

now what's left to publish, i dunno, few would, but the existence of a dead man's switch might be only speculation by now...unless julian could communicate to his team to activate it...if indeed one exists, no?

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WaterLily's picture

@wendy davis Of how dead-men's switches work.

But I'm inclined to believe that Assange has one, and that his people are precisely prepared for when and how to trip it.

(Caveat: I have no credible sources to back this up. Just a gut feeling.)

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wendy davis's picture

@WaterLily

i'd seen/read of one was during the time that assange was cut off from the internet (was it in 2016?) an wikiLeaks sent out some lines of alpha-numeric code...and the world went bonkers that he was dead, gone, and the switch had been pulled. after a day or two, he clearly was alive and tweeting, and as i remember it (unreliable as hell) he/they had called it a 'pre-insurance signal', fwiw.

my thing is: if he's incommunicado/silenced, how would his team know when he wanted the switch activated? but maybe i'm over-thinking it all.

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WaterLily's picture

@wendy davis And I'd venture to guess you're closer to the answer than I ever would be. Smile I think I just want to believe that Julian's "people" will "know" through some kind of magic if (not when, IF) it's time to trip that switch.

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wendy davis's picture

@WaterLily

good as mine, but i hope they never need it. sending apatheistic prayers for his safety and freedom.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@wendy davis I suspect people other than Assange would be the ones making that decision, based on certain standards they had all set long before.

It's weirdly like a Living Will. If certain conditions are met, then you do this.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

wendy davis's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

how or when they would know, and who has the codes are a few questions.

but see what you make of what patrick henningson says in the RT video i'd stuck in at the bottom. i don't subscribe to his point of view on 'the reasons', but he coughs at 'high ethical standards'.

someone along the way, apparently not henningsen as i'd mis-remembered, had said 'we'll know soon', etc., but i hope to hell no one knows anything pending, time, dates, or his life would be in an insane amount of jeopardy.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@wendy davis Yes, indeed. Let us remember that a hack of Medusa's servers (now running into multiples of one) likely caused the demise of the entire spook delegation in China--but did they die by beheading or Novichok?

But Killary could give a shit about anybody not named Killary. In fact, none of the "elites" (so-called only because of money and power) gives a damn about anything or anyone except their power and influence.

Dead man's switch = the only reason HRC (via Brennan the Hand JOB, or One Hand clapping Clapper) hasn't "droned him".

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wendy davis's picture

@Alligator Ed

when did you come on this thread? i swear if i leave a tab open too long, i never see the 'new' comments. that said, i most sincerely wish i knew what all you're talking about. i'll try again in the mornin; i'm knackered, and was just about to sign off for the might and leave a closing song. and boy, howdy, do i need something brilliant and silly and fun.

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WaterLily's picture

@wendy davis What's up?

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wendy davis's picture

@WaterLily

ah, i had the 'big bird surfin' bird' (below) in mind; but thank you.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@wendy davis please read excellent essay (shameless plug!) Clinton's successor server.

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wendy davis's picture

@Alligator Ed

it was fun, save for the loooooong (8 min, srsly?) video, agony! greta van sustern? she still walks among us? but srsly, the only reason i'd clicked in was on accounta

i) wondering who medusa of the snake hair is/was
ii) i was skeert witless of those gator jaws & teeth

thank you, in any event (smile), you blog whore.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Alligator Ed Holy shit, Ed, really?
/facepalm

God damn it. I mean, it's not like I like the spooks, you understand, but a person shouldn't die because their superior just decides to hang them out to dry, y'know, because.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

wendy davis's picture

@Roy Blakeley

down to the senate select intel committee if they'd agree w/ that (and i did poke around about the issues to no avail save in Canada), but i'd offer that it's counter-intuitive as at the end of june assange's two go-between attorneys had agreed to 'limited immunity' (whatever on gawd's formerly green earth that might mean) and 'safe passage' to the US and Committee hearing/s.

at the time, assange had something to offer, as in: thru redactions of: “some classified CIA information he might release in the future,” which he and wikileaks later did. to me, it might signal that the committee wouldn't allow a teleconference as testimony...or that some larger Team Wikileaks plan might have been imagined. just spit-ballin' here, of course.

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wendy davis's picture

@Roy Blakeley

via RT this morning: ‘Assange should secure immunity before taking risk of testifying to Senate – whistleblower Kiriakou'

kiriakou's advice is about congressional immunity, oliver north's arrest after he was guaranteed the same...but later the courts threw out his arrest charges; oh great. he'd never mentioned the june 'limited immunnity' at all. but the pithiest parts to me are these:

“The animosity harbored towards Assange suggests that the US Senate has “ulterior motives” for summoning him, human rights activist Peter Tatchell believes.

“I believe they want to snare him into somehow admitting or implying that he got information from Russian sources. That seems to be the focus of their attention,” the activist said, adding that the US authorities might use the interview to collect new evidence to prosecute Assange in the future.

Former MI5 officer Annie Machon, meanwhile, argues that it may be “difficult” for Assange to agree to a closed interview with US officials on such a sensitive subject. She believes he “always has got to be very careful about how they approach this, how it might be perceived, and what might be the outcome.” But crucially, the very nature of the hearing goes against the principles of WikiLeaks which Assange has staunchly defended.

“The whole ethos of WikiLeaks is to be open and transparent, and to bring the information out for the public’s good,” she said."

the lawfare blog (mainly anti-trump issues, as far as i could tell) said that the senate can compel witnesses to appear, and noted that it can to be a very nasty bidness if they so choose.

but so far this letter 'requests' that he 'make himself available, etc.' as far as a 'mutually agreed time and location',

i) if assange and his legal team come up with suggestions
ii) and the senate select committee refused to agree to any of them
iii) if even further negotiations fail
iv) would they, might they subpoena him and compel him to appear at a time and location of their choosing meaning have the london po-po arrest him and extradite him to amerika?
v) seems as though a judge like miz tory-arbuthnot would agree to that 'storm the bastille' necessity...
vi) am i too paranoid to live?

(that's a rhetorical question, y'all!)

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Alligator Ed's picture

The "honorable" Senator Mark Warner, hailing from corrupt Virginia politics (e.g., Terry the Bagman McAulliffe) had his own personal contacts with Russian "sources" but that's okay because Mark is a Dimocrat. His partner in lies, Richard I Can't Stand Trump Burr, also was salivating at the chance to nail Assange.

Sen. Mark Warner reportedly was in contact with a Russian oligarch last year in an attempt to contact the former British intelligence agent behind the Trump dossier, Fox News reported late Thursday [Feb. 8, 2018].
Mr. Warner, Virginia Democrat, was in contact with lobbyist Adam Waldman, who had ties to Russian billionaire Oleg V. Deripaska, to try and connect with Christopher Steele, the author of the dossier. Mr. Waldman apparently said he could put Mr. Warner in touch with Mr. Steele, according to text messages obtained by Fox News.

I get it, Mark the Shark, it's okay for DemonRATs like you and RINO's like Burr to consort with Roooskies but not okay for publishers of verified information, like J.A. Right? Say what? Look at the sources of Gospel according Mark (the unsainted): Deripaska--good. Steele--very good. Assange--fucking traitor to all the Dimocrats hold dear.

Sure, says Mark the S., come on over to the US of A to testify with safe passage--but only TO the land of the free and home of the knave. Your return trip however may attract some "hiccups".

Shades of Hotel California: you can check in but never check out.

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wendy davis's picture

@Alligator Ed

Roach Motel? great catch on all of that, but i do soooo love the scent of hypocrisy in the morning, don't you?

and as i said, i hope y'all need something brilliantly (and painstakingly) mixed, fun and silly by now. g' night all.

[video:https://youtu.be/jZmhBi-1gec]

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wendy davis's picture

from mr. wd. two new things from Wikileaks:

@wikileaks 6h6 hours ago
'BBC' asks to install permanent @JulianAssange monitoring cameras in flats (no. 18 Hans Cres) opposite Ecuadorian embassy in London. It should be noted that the UK government already has several robot cameras pointed at the embassy steps, including on top of No. 22 #OpKudo

(link here)

but why on earth wikileaks had reTweeted this hit piece is beyond my ken: ‘Assange 'considering' testifying on Russian role in Trump vote’ sidney morning herald, august 9

it contains a video of dan coates and his homies, a video of ‘russia’s election trolling tactics in three minutes (Cyberattacks. “Little green men.” Frozen conflicts. These are just a few of the tactics Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, have used to try to disrupt the world order). and this:

“The Russians sent a gigabyte of data through and WikiLeaks released over 20,000 emails and other documents three days before the convention began. There was another big release of emails and documents taken from the Clinton campaign in October, precisely a month before voting day - and just an hour after Trump’s infamous “grab them by the pussy” tape was made public.

Assange has denied receiving the documents from a Russian source, though he has given no details - saying part of WikiLeaks' mission is to protect the identity of sources."

the rest is boiler plate agitprop.

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wendy davis's picture

these folks are assuming that assange would appear in front of the committee by link.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgNoQiGTLTs]

21st century wire has some extras; the kim dotcom tweet is...fascinating.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

if his life depended on it, and he certainly doesn't want to do anything that would disturb the Clintons.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

wendy davis's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

*and* he was ten of the dems who'd signed the 'eject assange from the embassy' letter. to say the truth, i've been meeting more elected officials over this and other major flaps than i'd been familiar with earlier.

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wendy davis's picture

does the plot thicken...or thin? via RT today: ‘Are you being served? DNC officially gives notice of lawsuit against WikiLeaks via Twitter', 11 Aug, 2018

this morning’s Popular Resistance daily digest included this abject rubbish; i wrote to margaret flowers and complained at length, suggested other sources (with links) asking her to advise the team that collates the newsletter of this.

‘WikiLeaks Says The Senate Intel Committee Wants Assange To Testify On Russia Interference’, Alex Ward, Vox.com

it’s a complete msm hit job worthy of the guardian or the intercept.

one bit with hyperlinks: “After members of Russia’s military intelligence unit hacked and stole emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta, they handed them over to WikiLeaks. Assange’s organization then slowly disseminated them to the public, keeping the emails constantly in the news cycle during the 2016 presidential election.

Assange, who’s wanted on charges of rape and has avoided extradition by hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, denies his organization worked with Russia. “Our source is not the Russian government,” he told Fox News’s Sean Hannity in January 2017.”

on the right sidebar is ‘Fox News appallingly fell for North Korean propaganda’. #howAppalling.

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