PRESS RELEASE
Trump Refuses To Capitulate on Russian Scare, Quotes Assange in a Tweet
Jan. 4, 2017 (EIRNS)—Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s interview with Fox last week, was broadcast on Tuesday night. He issued strong advice for the Democratic Party regarding those who are peddling Obama’s fairy tale about the Russians’ interference in the election:
"They will seize on this and harp on it for the next four years. I think that’s a mistake. I think that’s a mistake not just in fact; that’s a mistake for the U.S. Democratic Party. I think it’s a stupid maneuver."
Assange reiterated that neither Russia nor any other state actor provided Wikileaks with the emails of the DNC and Podesta. He also ridiculed Podesta:
"Podesta gave out that his password was the word ‘password....’ So this is something a 14-year-old kid—a 14-year-old kid could have hacked."
As to the actual source, Assange said:
"We have the trust of our readers, having never got it wrong, not even—not even one sustained allegation, even. We have a perfect record in relation to authenticating the material that we publish. That’s a very valuable reputation to have, and we try and preserve it.... But WikiLeaks is a source-protection organization. We are famous for never having exposed one of our sources over ten years. That’s why sources trust us and they come to us."
Asked about former British diplomat Craig Murray, who has reported that he personally was handed the documents from a disgruntled DNC member who was angry at the betrayal of Bernie Sanders, and then gave them to Wikileaks, Assange said that Murray was a friend, but that he would not reveal the source, other than that it was not Russian.
Donald Trump issued a tweet this morning:
"Julian Assange said ‘a 14-year-old could have hacked Podesta’—why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!"
He had also tweeted on Tuesday night:
"The ‘Intelligence’ briefing on so-called ‘Russian hacking’ was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!"
Meanwhile, the "normal suspects" are up to their old tricks. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former CIA Director Mike Morrell, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia (and rabid Putin-hater) Michael McFaul, and eleven others, issued a letter calling for an "independent commission" to investigate the charge against Russia, or else the country would be "vulnerable to another attack and, possibly worse, permit and normalize future interference."
