Julian Assange Pans WikiLeaks Movie

As reported by news.com.au, Julian Assange has seen leaked copies of the script of an upcoming film depicting WikiLeaks, and blasts it as inaccurate propaganda. He says, among other things, "They tried to frame Iran as having an active nuclear weapons program. Then they try to frame WikiLeaks as the reason why that's not known to the public now." Says the article: "Assange declined to say where he got the script, although he hinted that he had been supplied with several copies of it over time. He also declined to say whether the script would be posted to the WikiLeaks website, saying only that "we are examining options closely.'"

Comments

blasts an

[nimbius]

upcoming film depicting wikileaks

I have bad news, but films are designed to sell advertising, tickets, and concessions food in that order. you dont achieve all these things by making an accurate depiction of a subject matter, you sensationalize it. among other things patently false in several other films:
1. Abraham lincoln, neither vampire hunter nor martial arts expert
2. transformers: cars do not in fact transform into killer robots.
3. Jurrasic park: while UNIX is in fact quite useful in the administration of automated SCADA systems, no such systems have been constructed to date for the express purpose of housing genetically cloned dinosaurs, which also do not exist.
4. zero dark thirty: "terror" is in fact not something a nation can declare war on or successfully claimed to have emerged the victor from.

Re:blasts an

[_KiTA_]

upcoming film depicting wikileaks

I have bad news, but films are designed to sell advertising, tickets, and concessions food in that order. you dont achieve all these things by making an accurate depiction of a subject matter, you sensationalize it. among other things patently false in several other films:

1. Abraham lincoln, neither vampire hunter nor martial arts expert

2. transformers: cars do not in fact transform into killer robots.

3. Jurrasic park: while UNIX is in fact quite useful in the administration of automated SCADA systems, no such systems have been constructed to date for the express purpose of housing genetically cloned dinosaurs, which also do not exist.

4. zero dark thirty: "terror" is in fact not something a nation can declare war on or successfully claimed to have emerged the victor from.

Ya know, I think I'd watch a parody movie about Wikileaks. One where Assange is a Cyborg Ninja from the 45th century, sent back to save the world from what the United States will become. But not while he's still alive. I guess I'm saying that my descendants would probably enjoy that movie.

But 1, 2, 3 -- those are obviously based on fantasy. Not reality. This movie is ostensibly based on real people, real events. That puts it in a different light. It is held in a higher standard.

Imagine a movie about Linus Torvalds, where he's portrayed as actively attempting to destroy America's economy by being a socialist communist pink fascist obsessed with "stealing" from American programmers, who put up a valiant and noble fight against him. Would suck, wouldn't it?

As for #4, having not seen the latest "Rah Rah War is Awesome" movie there, nor do I really intend to. (I try to not support political assassination whenever possible.) I can only say that your comment on Zero Dark Thirty seems like more of a statement of fact about a real life policy enacted by the Bush Administration and continued by the Obama administration.

Don't get me wrong, Zero Dark Thirty is probably the closest thing in that list to being relevant, but you miss a bigger point -- 0DT takes a very disgusting pro-torture stance, which is pure propaganda bordering on outright fantasy.

We caught Bin Laden DESPITE using torture, not BECAUSE of it.

Re:blasts an

[gmuslera]

I have worse news. That movie comes from the propaganda factory of the powers that be, exactly the ones that want to imprint into public opinion that Wikileaks is something evil that only spread lies. Not exactly surprised about what Assagne said about it.

Re:blasts an

[Runaway1956]

We KNOW this because of testimony from the CIA operatives who worked with the captives who provided information about Osama.

In short, they tortured people suspected of knowing important information, and those "informants" gave up shit for intel. They'd say ANYTHING they thought the torturers wanted to hear. And, it was useless.

AFTER all the torturing was finished, different operatives approached the same "informants" in a more friendly manner, and basically bribed useful information from the "informants". Promises of better treatment, promises of religious practice, a little sympathy, a little empathy, share a smoke - the little things that denote that you recognize a man as a man, and that you respect him.

FFS, parents who are worthy of that title can tell you that they can tease information from their children far more readily than they can threaten it or beat it out of them.

Our own experiences in Viet Nam demonstrated quite clearly that our guys would, eventually, tell their torturers anything that the torturers wanted to hear. And, our guys fed the Viet Cong garbage for the most part. The interrogator wants to hear about troop concentrations, complete with equipment lists? Fine, spout some nonsense at them, transpose numbers, inflate some, deflate others, blah blah blah.

Everyone has a breaking point, but the interrogator is only guessing at what that point is, and he's only guessing at the usefulness of the information he extracts.

Re:blasts an

[sheetsda]

1. Abraham lincoln, neither vampire hunter nor martial arts expert

[citation needed]

Re:blasts an

[Runaway1956]

The "good cop, bad cop" routine does not require the use of torture. It only requires the THREAT of torture, or some other unpleasant things occurring. The routine is very effective, of course, in certain situations.

Re:blasts an

[hairyfeet]

Not to mention we tortured people that anybody with a fucking brain would know wouldn't be told jack shit. We tortured the cab driver the Taliban grabbed and used to ferry around some of their high level guys...he was a fucking CAB DRIVER, do they think that the world works like a James Bond film? that the villain is just gonna monologue their plans to some dumb shit that doesn't have squat to do with anything? Of course not he was told "STFU and drive until I say stop" and that was it. It would be like torturing Romney's garbageman to find out what his campaign plans are, how the hell is he supposed to know this? You think he goes out for a beer with Romney or something?

And THIS is why i'm so saddened and disgusted by the people in this country not saying shit about Assange and letting our leaders keep him locked in a room in that embassy because you read the shit that was posted on Wikileaks and its pretty damned obvious that several high level members of our government frankly should be brought up to the Hague for war crimes. Its disgusting the shit that our government and those hired by our government have been doing in these countries, shit just as evil as during the worst days of the Vietnam war (which you noticed the press didn't make shit about the government FINALLY coming clean and admitting The Gulf Of Tonkin was a false flag) only now the evil bastards at the top learned from their mistakes in Vietnam and simply bought up all the MSM. So now instead of anybody saying shit about this stream of information proving multiple war crimes we get "Assange is a dirty pervo rapist who need to be sent to Gitmo". you know what? I don't give a rat's ass if Assange spends his weekends pushing little old ladies down the stairs as HE ain't killing thousands of people and starting shit all over the planet!

I urge everyone to watch the end of America by Naomi Wolf. She isn't some whacko here, she is a quiet little conservative Jewish girl (I personally think she is a little TOO conservative when it comes to the conclusions) who is now on the watchlist for daring to speak about our rights under the constitution. That's right folks, simply giving a lecture about what the declaration of independence and constitution says is enough to have you put on the list. In this video she shows several examples in history of free societies that became non free overnight, and she gives a step by step account of how it happens. She calls it the "universal playbook" that has been used by everyone from Stalin to Franco and watch how many of those plays are already either in motion here or have already been used. And one of the final steps she lists is a society creating a framework to where people can be tortured outside the rule of law. Why is this one of the last steps? Because it always starts small and gets bigger. Hitler started with only communists, Stalin started with the kulaks, in EVERY case she shows how these extra judicial systems grow like a cancer to cover more and more "undesirable elements".

so we need to seriously wake the fuck up, stop letting the MSM divert us with bullshit like Assange and start demanding that they go after the big issues like the tortures, bombings, and all the other nasty evil shit that has been and is being done in our name and with our money.

Re:blasts an

[Raenex]

It only requires the THREAT of torture

It's generally considered a form of psychological torture to threaten to torture somebody. For example, from the Geneva Conventions:

"No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind."

Re:blasts an

[Runaway1956]

Reading comprehension, much?

Go back, read it again. In fact, I copy pasted my original statement to respond to your post.

"It only requires the THREAT of torture, or some other unpleasant things occurring"

Must I draw a picture, color it, and label it for you? I'm opposed to torture. I'm opposed to "enhanced interrogation". I'm even opposed to the "good cop - bad cop" routine.

Read my posts in this thread four or five times, or four or five hundred times if necessary. Nowhere can you find that I've rationalized, justified, approved of torture. I don't even attempt to redefine what torture consists of, to provide a loophole for the assholes to jump through.

I despise the Bush administration based on two issues, more than all others combined.
1: the invasion of Iraq, based on lies
2: the use of torture

I could provide you with a longer list, but those two issues will be on top.

You will never find anyplace where I have approved of the use of torture, or the threat of torture.

Lies vs Truth

[ohnocitizen]

A film based on the actual events surrounding Wikileaks could have been compelling material. They could touch on Manning's plight in jail, on the embassy drama, the fights within the organization, etc. By choosing to fabricate key elements of the plot to push an agenda that is anti-wikileaks and pro war with Iran, Dreamworks is passing up a massive opportunity as a studio, and opening themselves up to a PR nightmare.

Re:Lies vs Truth

[hsmith]

a PR nightmare

By whom? Almost all Americans don't care about Julian Assange or Bradley Manning - they probably don't even know who the two are if you didn't mention Wikileaks in the same sentence.

Now, back to the news - what is important, did Beyonce lipsync?

Re:Lies vs Truth

[Runaway1956]

WTF is Beyonce?

Didn't we discuss this yesterday...

[whoever57]

For a complete discussion, just read this story

UN Security Council

[Enderandrew]

7 times the UN security council has unanimously voted that they have evidence that Iran is enriching uranium for weapons and ordered them to stop. If they're being framed, they're being framed in such a way that every single member of the security council has it confirmed by their own intelligence agencies.

And yet Assange individually knows better than all of these intelligence agencies. If he had actual proof of that, that would be a fantastic thing to leak. I don't believe he does.

Re:UN Security Council

[Maudib]

Actually most of those agencies believed that they didn't, and stated as much. As did the non-Cheney controlled American analysts. It was pretty obvious at the time that the Bush/Cheney were looking for a pretext for war.

Thats not the case this time. Iran is an existential threat an ally. Has actively supported our enemies. Is unequivocally known to be enriching uranium. Has traded bomb and missile technology with a country that openly admits to be developing weapons to target the U.S..

Furthermore no one is talking about regime change. The hit that WILL come to Iran is going to be aimed at the nuclear program and overwhelmingly specops/aerial/naval, which in fact adds credibility to the motives.

Re:UN Security Council

[wmac1]

Stop there.

"UN security council has unanimously voted that they have evidence that Iran is enriching uranium for weapons and ordered them to stop"

Is that a joke?

UN voted that they have enriched Uranium for weapons? Iran has never enriched above 20% level. Show me your proof or I call a huge bullshit.

Re:UN Security Council

[Raenex]

Actually most of those agencies believed that they didn't, and stated as much. As did the non-Cheney controlled American analysts. It was pretty obvious at the time that the Bush/Cheney were looking for a pretext for war.

I'll await your citations. I've debated this position with others in the past, and even France, the poster child for the "wise" Europeans counciling against war by the brash Americans, wanted more time for inspections. They never said they believed there were no WMD.

mockingbirds

[Max_W]

The Soviet bureaucrats learned hard way that keeping such phenomenons as Andrei Sakharov, Anatoly Sharansky, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in prison is like trying to kill a mockingbird.

The US and UK bureaucrats should cut losses, learn lessons and leave Julian and Bradley alone. Let them go wherever they wish while still there is time. They are just too big to be kept down like this. Not good to attract attention to them any longer.

It the USA and UK go berserk the whole world will turn into a zoo.

Re:mockingbirds

[Max_W]

A law has a letter and a spirit. Socrates also broke a letter of a law. And he was condemned to a capital punishment by sort of a kangaroo court of that time.

They are on the same scale as Socrates, they are the personages of human civilization. Nothing can be done about it anymore. They are too big and can turn out to be unexpectedly devastatingly strong. The best way is to leave them alone and ignore.

He's Just Holding Out

[Greyfox]

He's just holding out for Brad Pitt to be cast as the role of Julian. Then I bet he'll change his tune. The final cut of the movie will be 5 minutes of explosions followed by 90 minutes of Brad Pitt crashing on a couch in an embassy somewhere.

An inaccurate portrayal is appropriate ...

[drnb]

A film based on the actual events surrounding Wikileaks could have been compelling material.

And the unedited helicopter gunship video that brought wikileaks mainstream attention would have been compelling material too. Unfortunately wikileaks saw an opportunity to get the press attention that they desired and to further the political agenda that they desired. So they edited out the scenes where guys could be seen holding weapons. The journalists walking around with armed insurgents was an inconvenient truth for their narrative. An inaccurate portrayal of wikileaks is fitting since they were are all about inaccurate portrayal as well. All the leaks that fit their agenda and politics, none that do not.

The idea to anonymously leak info to the press is a good idea. Wikileaks/Assange was the wrong group/person to lead that effort. They/he have set back an otherwise good idea.

So is torture forbidden or not ?

[boorack]

Even arguing whether torture was effective or not is a sign that US propaganda in this regard did very well. Now supported by Hollywood they seem to beat Goebbels to the punch. Torturing people is forbidden by Geneva convetions and international law, period. Anyone using torture under any pretext should be prosecuted, period. This ban has its reason: if you allow your government to torture some "brown people" your govt claims being dangerous, a precedent is being set and very soon the very same government will torture just about anyone they don't like (including their own citizens).

Stop talking about effectiveness of torturing people - your government propaganda division can't be happier hearing this.

Ego

[Martin Spamer]

This will cost me karma but when will his fanbois finally understand his ego knows no bounds.

He fell out with with Daniel Domscheit-Berg and other co-founders of Wikileaks.

He fell out with his Alan Smithee his autobiographer.

He fell out with the Guardian Newspaper.

And now he's fallen out with Dreamworks.