Historian and U.K. analyst Mark Curtis checks out the Twitter accounts of journalists whose names have been associated with the Integrity Initiative, a British “counter disinformation” program.
By
Mark Curtis
Part
3 - Linking Assange to the Kremlin
Many of
the same individuals have also been tweeting false statements about
Julian Assange and Russia.
The
Integrity Initiative twitter site itself retweeted a Guardian
smear article about a lawyer, Adam Waldman, visiting the Wikileaks
founder.
US lobbyist for Russian oligarch visited Julian Assange nine times last year https://t.co/pcvsATION0— Integrity Initiative (@InitIntegrity) June 20, 2018
It also
tweeted: “If you still believe Assange is some kind of hero, you
deserve pity at best.”
Anders
Aslund has tweeted that Assange “represents certain Russian
agencies” that “Wikileaks, Assange & Snowden are
nothing but highly successful Russian special operations” and
“Kremlin agents” and that “Assange is collaborating
w[ith] Russia Today as program host. Would be strange if not
full-fledged agent.”
Cadwalladr
has also sought to overtly link Assange to the Kremlin. She has
tweeted that “Assange & Milne… are both Russian propaganda
tools,” that Assange is a “special friend” of
Russian intelligence and that Wikileaks has “colluded with…the
Kremlin.”
In
addition, Cadwalladr has tweeted several times that “Assange was
in direct communication with Russian intelligence in 2016” and
that “Wikileaks sought assistance from Russian intelligence
officers to disrupt the US presidential election.” Cadwalladr
is here claiming that Wikileaks knowingly colluded with Russian
intelligence by releasing the files on the Democratic Party in 2016:
in fact, this is not known or proven at all, while numerous media
outlets also published or had contacts with Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks
in 2016 – though do not figure as targets in her attacks.
Nick
Cohen has also made many smears against Julian Assange, variously
calling him a “Russian stooge,” a “Putin agent,”
“pro-Putin,” a “Russian toady”, that he “works
for Russia propaganda machine” while “Wikileaks will think
whatever Putin tells it to think.”
David
Leask, chief reporter of The Herald (Scotland), has described
Assange as a “Kremlin proxy” while Anne Applebaum tweeted:
“’Wikileaks is a front for Russian intelligence,’”
linking to an article of the same headline. Edward Lucas retweeted
his Times article suggesting that Assange and Wikileaks are
part of the “Kremlin-loving camp” while David Clark has
tweeted that “Assange is an active accomplice” of
autocrats such as Putin.
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