The Editor Of Wikileaks Breaks His Silence
As the editor-in-chief of Wikileaks, Kristinn Hrafnsson certainly has his plate full. Chelsea Manning’s re-arrest, the Cohen testimony, the Mueller investigation as a whole—all of these things involve Wikileaks in some fashion or another, justifiably or not. No matter what Kristinn has to deal with, his convictions on the role of Wikileaks and journalism in general remain strong.
Wikileaks, Russians, and the 2016 elections
Wikileaks also caught plenty of flack for the Democratic National Committee emails leak, which started in June 2016. Critics have contended that the leak was the work of Russian hackers, working at the behest of Donald Trump’s campaign team, and that figures such as Roger Stone and Paul Manafort allegedly either speaking with or meeting Assange underscores a conspiracy to steal the election from Hillary Clinton, with Wikileak’s collusion. Kristinn addresses these charges in a systematic fashion.
Kristinn believes that rather than blame Wikileaks, the DNC should instead do some soul searching.
“The DNC wants to maintain [the email leak] had an effect, to try and brush over the humiliation of their defeat in the electoral college,” he says. “The Democratic Party just needs to come to terms with the fact that Hillary Clinton was not a charismatic candidate that people were excited about. Of course, it’s a hard thing to swallow, but it’s a necessary thing to do if the Democratic Party wants to come to terms with this and try to move forward. I haven’t seen any discussion within their ranks about how it’s possible you could win the popular vote and still lose the election. For us who have a hard time understanding the electoral college, when you get an instant like that, it should call for introspection and that the system needs to be changed. It’s a very serious situation that demands examination.
Roger Stone, a lifelong weasel of the Republican Party who was an advisor to the Trump campaign, has gone on record saying he spoke with Assange. This was also brought up in the testimony being given by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
“If you read through [Stone’s indictment], and it’s only 23 pages long, it’s basically a confirmation that there was no communication between Roger Stone and Julian Assange,” Kristinn says. “Stone claimed that there had been. He was trying to elevate his position. He’s a player in that circle. It’s Roger Stone.” In fact, Kristinn says, “The only communications that arguably took place between them was a direct message on Twitter in January 2017, where Wikileaks asked Roger Stone to please stop making the claims that you had access to Julian Assange and had communication with him. Because it didn’t exist.”
With regards to the Cohen testimony, Kristinn points out that Wikileaks is mentioned only once, “When [Cohen] said that he was present when Roger Stone called Trump and said that he had just talked to Julian Assange. So that’s the proof that Trump knew that Stone had talked to Julian Assange and therefore there’s a direct connection? But it’s a claim. You’re going to take at face value something Roger Stone is saying, at the same time that you’re charging him with lying to investigators?”
https://grapevine.is/mag/feature/2019/03/22/information-is-never-neutral-the-editor-of-wikileaks-breaks-his-silence/