Wikileaks Insider: Julian Assange Is Everything He Once Despised
Wikileaks Insider: Julian Assange Is Everything He Once Despised

                                
            Julian Assange "has become everything he originally, rightly, despised," according to former Wikileaks spokesperson James Ball.Ball wrote about working for Assange and his decision to leave Wikileaks in an essay posted Thursday in The Daily Beast. The piece comes days after the release of We Steal Secrets, a Wikileaks documentary in which Ball dishes about Assange and working for Wikileaks. SEE ALSO: Listen to the Dramatic WikiLeaks Documentary SoundtrackBall describes Assange as an egomaniac who destroyed Wikileaks by failing to separate the organization from the sex crime allegations made against him as an individual -- for example, he says Assange tried to use Wikileaks' cash reserves (limited by financial embargoes) to post bail. Ball says he ultimately decided to leave Wikileaks after Assange and other members tried to make him sign a non-disclosure agreement limiting what he could say about the organization's work."Faced with the bizarre situation of being asked to sign a gag order by a whistleblowing organization, I, alone, refused," he wrote.Ball's piece for The Daily Beast goes further than his film interviews: He accuses Julian Assange of maintaining ties with Israel Shamir, a Swedish writer often accused of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, and who Ball says has "ties and friends in Russian security services."Shamir, Ball writes, tried to sell Wikileaks' cables to Russian news outlets before they were publicly released. Ball also accuses Shamir of giving unreleased cables to Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko, who United States Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, among others, has labeled a dictator.Assange "blocked any attempts" at investigating the incident, according to Ball. Why would Assange maintain ties with Shamir? Ball accuses Assange of blatant self-interest:Disturbingly, Assange seems to have a personal motivation for staying friendly with Shamir. Shamir’s son, Johannes Wahlstrom, is apparently being called as one of Assange’s defense witnesses in his Swedish trial.Ball ultimately decides the world needs a Wikileaks without a public face, so that the trap of hero worship might be avoided.This is the mess you get into when you buy into the “noble lie,” as Julian willingly does.Eventually, you’ve got to back your claims up. And that’s what is needed: people to really believe in the principles WikiLeaks supposedly stands for, rather than in a cartoon hero or villain figure.The consequences of mistakes, of arrogance, of division, are all too real.Assange isn’t entirely venal. His problem is “noble cause” corruption: behavior he’d rightly condemn in others, he excuses in himself, because he believes, at his core, he is the good guy.Assange denies Ball's claims and considers We Steal Secrets to be Hollywood propaganda. He's been making media appearances refuting claims made in the film.Is Wikileaks dead? And if so, will something else (like this) rise up in its place? Share your thoughts in the comments.
                    
                    