

Why I don't Trust Julian Assange - cjoh
http://infovegan.com/2010/07/13/why-i-dont-trust-julian-assange/

======
woodall
Assange is not that scared for his life. He appeared at the Centre for
Investigative Journalism just last Friday[1].

I think George Brock said it best in his post entitled "Julian Assange and the
Wikileaks agenda" where he wrote, "Assange’s style is an odd mixture of
insight, nonsense and brass-neck salesmanship"[2] The fact that Wikileaks has
an agenda and are out to sell information to the highest bidder does not speak
well, IMO[3].

The Wau Holland Foundation has told reporters that Wikileaks receives no money
for personnel costs, only for hardware, travelling and bandwidth, however they
have not produced any detailed reciepts for this[4]. As any chartiy should do-
some are even required by law to do so.

On their twitter feed they call cryptome out for full primary sources, this is
very hypocritical on their part[5]. Many of their problems did not start until
Assange took the "helm", and many will not cease until he leaves.

[1] <http://www.tcij.org/>

[2] <http://georgebrock.net/?p=853>

[3] [http://stefanmey.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/leak-o-nomy-the-
ec...](http://stefanmey.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/leak-o-nomy-the-economy-of-
wikileaks/)

[4] [http://www.techeye.net/internet/wau-holland-foundation-
sheds...](http://www.techeye.net/internet/wau-holland-foundation-sheds-light-
on-wikileaks-donations)

[5] <http://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/17960055502>

~~~
eli
No, he's not scared, he's just very good at manipulating a certain segment of
the media

------
motters
Whatever the personal scruples of Julian Assange may be, I support the overall
aims of Wikileaks to allow whistle blowers to post information in the public
interest, exposing wrong doing, corruption, human rights violations or war
crimes. In the past too many misdeeds have been hidden from public scrutiny
and public accountability.

Putting yourself into the public arena as Assange has done must be very
difficult, and take some degree of personal courage. I'm sure there must be
many powerful people from regimes of ill repute who want to cut him down a few
pegs, or disappear him entirely.

------
cilantro
Assange's antics have turned me off to Wikileaks to the point where I will
have trouble taking anything they publish at face value. He is doing a
disservice to the transparency movement. It's pretty remarkable that someone
can be both a paranoid recluse and shameless attention whore, but Assange
pulls it off quite well. Wikileaks would be much better off with someone both
low key and competent like Clay in charge.

~~~
mcantelon
Like his style or not, he's been fairly adept at generating press. Someone low
key might not be capable of doing that.

~~~
cilantro
The press wikileaks was getting before Assange emerged from behind the curtain
was far better than it is now. They seemed poised to become the reuters/AP of
primary source data. Now that seems almost impossible.

~~~
Nwallins
> _the reuters/AP of ..._

Unintentional irony? Both of those organizations' reputations have become
quite tarnished. They are certainly not contemporary bastions of fair-handed
transparency -- witness Reuters' photo manipulation and AP's quote-whoring.

~~~
eli
No organization is 100% perfect, but AP/Reuters is a far cry from wikileaks in
terms of journalistic integrity. Did you read the New Yorker profile on
Assange? He doesn't even claim to be objective. He talked about selecting
audio for the "collateral murder" clips to maximize emotional impact.

------
masonlee
It was Wikileaks' publishing of the private pager messages in New York from
the day of 9/11 that turned me off to them. (<http://911.wikileaks.org>)

Would Wikileaks also have published all my private email from that day had
they obtained it? Can't say I'd be down with that.

------
Tichy
For somebody who runs Wikileaks to be a little bit paranoid seems forgivable.
In fact even without something like running it I am already so paranoid that I
don't even dream of starting something like Wikileaks.

I am very much interested in freedom of information and anonymous outlets, but
I don't think there is a reliable way to provide anonymity on the internet. So
if you start something like Wikileaks, staying anonymous seems impossible.

------
blueberry
Why I don't trust Clay Johnson: He thinks that US Army is an angel. He has
ties with politicians. He is jealous of Julian Assange and it is easy for him
to sit around his ass blame Assange for trying to be a Messiah while Assange
has to travel constantly to protect the whistle blowers' identity and to keep
organizations & governments honest.

~~~
eli
I don't see how you could have possibly drawn those conclusions about Clay
based only on this post, and I simply disagree with the idea that Assange
_has_ to grandstand in order to protect anyone's identity.

~~~
grandalf
He's not grandstanding to protect peoples' identities, but to reduce the risk
of his being disappeared by a government.

------
shalmanese
You go to war with the Wikileaks you have, not the Wikileaks you wish you had.

~~~
tptacek
Exactly wrong. If we're going to discuss Wikileaks, we have to discuss the one
that actually exists, not the idealized fiction we wish existed or hope
develops over time.

~~~
xenophanes
Err. You say "exactly wrong" then agree with him. You've both made statements
favoring the use of what actually exists.

~~~
tptacek
You're implying that I endorse using Wikileaks. I kind of don't.

~~~
jacquesm
Why not ?

~~~
mahmud
He is a security vendor, and that industry's biggest client is the U.S.
government. Can't speak for him, but others in a similar position are usually
muzzled.

~~~
tptacek
Seriously? I'd like to think I wouldn't say something like that about someone
I didn't know at all, 'mahmud.

For the record, and not that it should need to be said, but we do zero
business with the US Government.

~~~
mahmud
Sorry Thomas, I am a D.C-area native and surrounded by IT security people like
the type I wrongfully characterized you as.

FWIW, I thought I was doing you a favor answering on your behalf, so you don't
have to.

------
makmanalp
To be honest, if Assange is really stands by his own principles, he probably
doesn't want you to take anyone's trustability for granted (including his).

~~~
blueberry
Good point. He probably would not want US politicians to trust him or like him
either.

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alextingle
...says some guy who works for the US Government.

~~~
benatkin
[citation needed]

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_A._Johnson>

None of the jobs listed is a US Government job. The Sunlight Foundation, which
it seems he no longer is director of, is most certainly not a part of the US
Government.

