ALSO CLAIMS OBAMA REGIME ENGAGED IN “DESTRUCTION OF HISTORICAL RECORDS”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Jan. 9, 2017) — Following a live press conference on periscope.tv earlier on Monday by the open-government organization WikiLeaks, the full audio is available in which founder Julian Assange presented his analysis of the report released on Friday by the U.S. intelligence community alleging that there was Russian interference “in recent U.S. elections.”
Editor’s Note: There are large gaps of silence during the first ten minutes of the audio track before it begins in earnest.
After a brief introduction, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange began to speak. One of the first statements he made was that the “report” released on Friday allegedly written by the U.S. intelligence community “is not a report.” “It’s a press release,” Assange stated.
WikiLeaks’ Twitter feed also pointed out on Monday that the “intelligence” report admitted that it gathered evidence from Russian “social media” and other online sources, not from direct evidence.
CIA Director John Brennan and other U.S. intelligence agencies appear to believe that the Russian government intruded into the servers of the Democrat National Committee (DNC) with the intention of harming Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton politically and helping Republican candidate Donald Trump win (p. 7).
At approximately 16:33 in the audio, Assange repeated that WikiLeaks did not receive the emails it released from the DNC and John Podesta’s email account from anyone in the Russian government or “state parties.”
“When you look at the CIA report, you will notice that it deliberately obscures its assessments as to intentions…” Assange said, pointing out that the DNC was reported by U.S. intelligence agencies to have been “hacked” before Trump “was on the horizon.”
Assange said that the “alleged hacks” of the DNC were “conflated” by the media with WikiLeaks’ publications of the DNC emails in July and Podesta’s beginning in October with the conclusion that the U.S. election had been affected by hacking.
He pointed out, as is posted on Twitter, that the U.S. intelligence community stated that it could find no signs of forgery in the documents WikiLeaks released from the DNC and Podesta accounts.
Assange also said he found the report tinged with politics.
At 26:40, the host began to take questions submitted by the cyber-audience.
Assange responded to the first question by opining that the U.S. intelligence report uses “speculative terms and admits speculation.” Further, he said it “conflates” certain activities with WikiLeaks’ work. It has “literally zero evidentiary weight,” Assange said of the report, invoking the word “sneaky” as a descriptor. “There is no evidence of any kind supplied.”
He cited the statement quoted in the report that a Russian operative said following the U.S. election that he was “glad Hillary Clinton lost.”
“Anyone can do that,” Assange said.
At 30:45, Assange said that he has been provided information that the Obama regime is currently “destroying documents” as he said both Democrats and Republicans have done when exiting the White House. Assange said that such destruction “should be listed as a crime against humanity” as “part of the history of humankind.”
Last week, WikiLeaks had offered a $20,000 reward from anyone with information about the destruction of records which has been increased to $40,000.
In response to another question about his health given his refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Assange said that his “detainment” has entered its sixth year. He said he has not been charged with a crime, and previously that the United Nations believes his living arrangement to be inhumane.
Last week, WikiLeaks threatened to sue CNN after it made what Assange said were defamatory statements against him.
Assange is wanted for questioning by Sweden, which will not guarantee that the U.S. will not extradite him en route if he were to travel there to answer questions. As Assange later recounted, in 2010 the Obama regime convened a federal grand jury which indicted Assange for releasing documents provided by then-Sgt. Bradley Manning regarding U.S. Army activities in the Middle East.
In the fall, Swedish authorities met with Assange at the embassy, the result of which has not been made public.
Assange has two young children and a wife who he has not seen since he was given sanctuary in the embassy in 2012. Assange has said publicly that two women who reportedly accused him of a crime recanted their stories.
Of U.S. politics, Assange opined that Americans rejected “the elites” in favor of a political outsider, Donald Trump. He said that Clinton “represented a consolidation of international power” while Trump and “all the people around him are very hostile to WikiLeaks,” invoking the disclosures made by Edward Snowden in 2013 about the extent of surveillance of American citizens.
Assange cited the fact that Obama has prosecuted more journalists on the Espionage Act “than all previous presidents combined.”