I suppose it may not be surprising to many people, but Julian Assange and Anonymous have gone down a dark, dangerous, and disconcerting road with the recent leaks from the DNC. I have to admit that prior to their latest escapade I was under the impression that their leaking information was designed to help the world, to enlighten the masses, and help them be aware of secretive, immoral activities that should be exposed. I sympathized with Snowden who felt the need to expose the extent to which the government was spying on its own citizens. I felt that information should generally be public, not hidden. But now I am really not so sure. After all, do I want them targeting my emails any more than the government?
The leak implying that Hillary Clinton benefited from the DNC preferring her was no big surprise. Everyone paying attention knew that Clinton, the hard working and long term supporter of the DNC was favored over Bernie-come-lately. The implication that Bernie might have won the primary vote without this is designed to split the Democratic Party. If this is true, and Bernie was going to win except for the DNC’s intervention, and Anonymous is a supporter of Sanders, then the release of this information after Clinton had been anointed as the presumptive nominee of the party and Sanders had announced his support for her as such, makes no sense. Surely if this information had been released earlier it may have influenced the outcome in a manner that may have actually had an impact on the outcome of the primary, in a manner that would assist in the will of the voters. But since they clearly had this information and waited to release it to the eve of the democratic convention, I suspect that was not purely their motive.
So then what exactly is the goal of Anonymous and their last minute leak prior to the convention? Did they think that the convention would descend into discord and the party would decide to not nominate Hillary after all? Or was the plan simply to sow chaos and confusion?
I recommend that we ponder their actions a little more. This was clearly a targeted attack on democrats. Why did they go after the democrats and not the republicans? Surely over the last 20 years the Republican Party and Fox News have been more guilty of lying to the public. Where were they when George Bush lied his way into war? Where were they when numerous other republican shenanigans were passed over by the media? Why no hacking of corrupt police forces, bridge scandals, voter suppression by Republicans? I could go on and on.
Julian Assange has clearly admitted that he has it out for Hillary Clinton. The reason for this? Hillary has been one of the people requesting his prosecution for leaking sensitive information from the American military to the world. He admits that he sees her as a personal foe, and adds that he also dislikes her policy regarding intervention in Libya, sees her as too hawkish.
But really, has he thought through what his opposition to Clinton may mean for the United States and the rest of the world? What a Donald Trump presidency could look like? He responds to this by saying Trump is an unknown, but Clinton is a known problem. I don't think Trump is an unknown. He has shown us who he is. And it is a lot worse than Clinton as a leader of the U.S. and a major force on the world stage.
And then there is this bizarre Russian connection. Apparently the hacks into the DNC computers have been done by Russians that appear to be associated with the Russian government. Putin also has made no secret of his distaste for Hillary, and she has returned the favor. Donald Trump and Putin on the other hand have an active and ongoing bromance. And there are a number of other complex and uncertain financial ties between Trump and his campaign manager with the Russian oligarchy. How does Assange fit into this picture? It is hard to say, but it appears that he is at the least willing to use the circumstances for furthering his own personal feud with Clinton, and risk the Trump policies. snowmen has received sanctuary from the Russian presumably for something in return. What is Assange’s relationship to the as a fugitive from the U.S. law? He is apparently willing to associate with the corrupt Russian oligarchy while condemning the American admittedly imperfect democratic republic. Apparently he is willing to side with Putin against America. He probably fears Hillary, after her relentless pursuit and take down of Osama bin Laden. I think this is personal for him, not based on any form of political idealism. He may have started with some idea of doing the right thing for the world, but he doesn't seem to have been able to maintain that in the face of the enemies Anonymous and he have made.
I am starting to think that Assange and Anonymous feel the U.S. in general is the enemy. It looks they have targeted the U.S. Military and been targeted in return; perhaps they have started a war on the U.S. Government that extends to sowing general chaos as much as possible. To that extent, Trump being an obvious fool and poorly qualified candidate for president would be their choice. Have they been helping him otherwise win the primary? Who knows. The biggest surprise of this election season is that he has survived at all. Perhaps he has had more help along the way by the Russians and Anonymous than anyone knew.
So what to do, what to do. I think we must start with recognizing that Anonymous which started out as seeming to be the best friend of the 99% in the Occupy movement has taken a turn off the road of clearly befriending the American people. I don't know what else they have up their sleeves. I suspect it will not look good for Clinton. And probably not for the U.S. in general. But unless they also release other information, (like Donald Trumps tax returns) that is not clearly directed at his personal enemy, I think we should take it with a grain of salt. Lots of ugly information released against one candidate without any balance to the other candidate is not an equal playing field. Sure, Hillary has played on an unequal playing field her whole life. But this is a new attack from a different angle that we need to be aware of. This information being released is every bit as biased as Fox News has been.