An argument is only as good as the evidence it cites. For this reason, WikiLeaks embodies one the most significant information armories in existence. John Pilger spoke to this importance when he compared WikiLeaks with a mainstream press that he called nothing more than “state-stenography.” In the wake of news of Assange being cut off from the outside world by order of the Ecuadorian government, Pilger also wrote that the “silencing of Assange is the silencing of us all.”
After this author and other independent journalists, whistleblowers and friends of Assange took part in a ten-hour vigil to call for the journalist’s freedom of speech to be upheld under the banner #ReconnectJulian, many have continued to publicize the injustice of his inability to speak and have contact with the outside world on top of his ongoing arbitrary confinement.
As this writer previously noted, a topic of discussion during the online vigil centered on the irreplaceable impact WikiLeaks has had through the documentation of evidence of corruption and war-crimes. The consequences of WikiLeaks’ most well-known accomplishments cannot be overstated.
In a 2016 conversation with Democracy Now, Julian Assange described WikiLeaks:
“….WikiLeaks has become the rebel library of Alexandria. It is the single most significant collection of information that doesn’t exist elsewhere, in a searchable, accessible, citable form, about how modern institutions actually behave. And it’s gone on to set people free from prison, where documents have been used in their court cases; hold the CIA accountable for renditions programs; feed into election cycles, which have resulted in the termination of, in some case—or contributed to the termination of governments, in some cases, taken the heads of intelligence agencies, ministers of defense and so on. So, you know, our civilization can only be as good as our knowledge of what our civilization is. We can’t possibly hope to reform that which we do not understand.”
The resonance stemming from the information published by WikiLeaks extends infinitely beyond the scope of a few well-known issues like the Iraq War Logs, Collateral Murder, Cablegate or Vault 7. Taking stock of the work impacted directly by WikiLeaks from even one small outlet like Disobedient Media creates an immense array of topics, in a microcosm of the depth and breadth of ammunition WikiLeaks has given to anti-establishment journalism.
For example, William Craddick’s ground-breaking coverage of the Laura Silsby child trafficking scandal would not have been possible without the WikiLeaks publication of emails showing Clinton and State Department interference on Silsby’s behalf. Craddick wrote of multiple email chains published by WikiLeaks which demonstrated that “Clinton intervened politically on behalf of Laura Silsby.”
Likewise, WikiLeaks’ publication of the Dutroux dossier strengthened Disobedient Media’s coverage of the fact that court records showed, without doubt, that Marc Dutroux was one link in a vast chain of human traffickers with strong enough establishment ties that Dutroux was greatly enriched through the activity. Disobedient Media wrote:
“There were over eight hundred mentions of Nihoul in the WikiLeaks dossier, published in 2009. The notes record the presence of a photo of Nihoul with “various political figures… Nihoul proposed to reduce [traffic] girls from Eastern countries…WikiLeaks’ Dutroux dossier also shows large financial transactions, maps of numerous European countries, and the presence of international currencies including Morrocan and Saudi Arabian money. The dossier shows payments of hundreds of thousands of francs to Michelle Martin, Dutroux’s then-wife, and to Dutroux’s personal bank account.”
Disobedient Media’s coverage of Greg Bucceroni’s testimony of an East Coast child abuse network was yet another article published by this outlet that was bolstered with documentation from WikiLeaks. Our report stated:
“WikiLeaks emails sent during the crisis reveal that in behind-the-scenes discussion of Rendell’s Haitian efforts, Hillary Clinton’s aides characterized Rendell as extremely motivated to remove the children from Haiti as quickly as possible. The discussion included statements by Clinton aides showing an awareness that the children Rendell sought to fly from the earthquake-ravaged island nation included 12 minors who were not involved in any adoption process.”
The following screenshot illustrates the extremely relevant email chain published by WikiLeaks.
Disobedient Media also cited WikiLeaks publications in coverage of the Zoe’s Ark scandal, as well as our writing on Dyncorp. Child trafficking and abuse was far from the only topic reported by Disobedient Media that was supported by WikiLeaks documents. This author also cited Assange’s text ‘Google is Not What it Seems,’ in Disobedient Media’s coverage of the weaponization of artificial intelligence, and again in this author’s report on Eric Schmidt’s unusually hasty resignation from his executive role at Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
WikiLeaks’ publication of The Yemen Files informed Disobedient Media’s coverage of the bipartisan US support for Saudi Arabia’s ongoing genocide perpetrated against Yemeni civilians, revealing that the US was funding/arming both sides of the conflict, profiting very literally from the resulting deaths of thousands.
In Disobedient Media’s coverage of findings stemming from this author’s collaboration with Suzie Dawson in the journalistic initiative known as DecipherYou, which analyzes never-before-scrutinized Snowden documents, WikiLeaks’ files were used to cross-reference issues of interest. This proved extremely useful in bolstering our understanding of the SID Today documents, in once instance expanding our understanding of the history of PRISM.
Disobedient Media’s groundbreaking report on the scandal surrounding the removal of former South Korean President Park from her position also cited a WikiLeaks cable. The cable described rumors among the South Korean public that Park’s close spiritual advisor, Choi Tae-Min, represented a “Rasputin” type figure with “complete control over Park’s body and soul during her formative years.”
WikiLeaks has also been instrumental in informing the public of the blatant corruption stagnating the Democratic Party establishment, which acted to undercut Senator Bernie Sander’s campaign in favor of Clinton during the 2016 Democratic Primary race. Without WikiLeaks’ publication of the DNC Emails, little of the critical evidence of corruption would be available for the public to bear witness to. Legacy press would easily dismiss valid accusations of corruption as the fevered conspiracy theories of “Bernie Bros.” WikiLeaks’ role in proving the subversion of the American democratic process at the hands of the Democratic party cannot be overestimated in its importance.
Without the publication of the DNC emails (and the Guccifer 2.0 documents which were most likely published as an effort to smear WikiLeaks), it is unlikely that the DNC fraud lawsuit would have come into existence.
As Disobedient Media reported, the defense counsel of the DNC and Debbie Wasserman Schultz have not only been forced to state outright that such corruption took place, they have actually argued that this primary rigging was protected by the first amendment. It is highly likely that, without WikiLeaks, none of this would have ever taken place. Likewise, the appalling censorship, later admitted by Twitter, of the #DNCLeak hashtag during the run-up to the 2016 Presidential election would never have come to light without WikiLeaks’ publication giving rise to the tag in the first place.
This author noted that the DNC emails were so damning, that it seems they spawned the entire Trump-Russia narrative in an effort to deflect from the contents of the documents: “The publication of the DNC emails served as the starting point of the constantly evolving Russian hacking narrative, which has changed in the face of evidence within the chrysalis of media salivation from accusations of a “hack” to accusations of “collusion,” and finally, to accusations of mere Russian social media “trolling.”
Clearly, simply in viewing the range of work WikiLeaks documents have supported in Disobedient Media’s reporting over the course of less than two years of work, the range and depth of diversity in the type of material WikiLeaks provides evidence for is at once shocking and awe-inspiring. As Julian Assange remains out of contact with the outside world, it is a timely reminder to take stock of the value WikiLeaks provides to the public and independent media in so many different areas. With this context in mind, the ability of Assange to speak his mind and communicate with the public as the face of the organization he leads becomes more important than ever.
In light of all this, please consider donating to Julian Assange’s legal defense fund.