Assange has been the target of repeated official
attempts to discredit him or, at the very least, to
muddy the waters in a case that should be all about
freedom of speech
By Patrick CockburnFebruary 22, 2020 "Information
Clearing House" - I was in
Kabul in 2010 when
Julian Assange and
WikiLeaks first released a vast archive of
classified US government documents, revealing what
Washington really knew about what was happening in
the world. I was particularly interested in one of
these disclosures, which came in the shape of a
video that the Pentagon had refused to release
despite a Freedom of Information Act request.
When WikiLeaks did release the video, it was
obvious why the US generals had wanted to keep it
secret. Three years earlier, I had been in Baghdad
when a US helicopter machine-gunned and fired
rockets at a group of civilians on the ground who
its pilots claimed were armed insurgents, killing or
wounding many of them.
Journalists in Iraq were disbelieving about the
US military’s claims because the dead included two
reporters from the Reuters news agency. Nor was it
likely that insurgents would have been walking in
the open with their weapons when a US Apache
helicopter was overhead.
We could not prove anything until WikiLeaks made
public the film from the Apache. Viewing it still
has the power to shock: the pilots are cock-a-hoop
as they hunt their prey, including people in a
vehicle who stop to help the wounded, saying, “Oh
yeah, look at those dead bastards,” and, “Ha, ha, I
hit them.” Anybody interested in why the US failed
in Iraq should have a look.
The WikiLeaks revelations in 2010 and in 2016 are
the present-day equivalent of the release by Daniel
Ellsberg in 1971 of the
Pentagon Papers, unmasking the true history of
the US engagement in the Vietnam War. They are, in
fact, of even greater significance because they are
more wide-ranging and provide an entry point into
the world as the US government really sees it.
The disclosures were probably the greatest
journalistic scoop in history, and newspapers such
as The New York Times recognised this by
the vast space they gave to the revelations.
Corroboration of their importance has been grimly
confirmed by the rage of the US security
establishment and its overseas allies, and the
furious determination with which they have pursued
Assange, the co-founder of WikiLeaks.