Keith Olbermann · @KeithOlbermann
22nd Dec 2010 from Twitlonger
OK, I gave Murdoch his pound, and what I got was Assange's lesson in how to lose friends and influence people to rip you. Note that the article pulls are in double quote marks and the actual Assange quotes are in singles. Times of London: “'The leak of the police report to The Guardian was clearly designed to undermine my bail application,” he said. “It was timed to come up on the desk of the judge that morning...Someone in authority clearly intended to keep Julian in prison, and shopped [the report] around to other newspapers as well,' he said. Mr Assange told The Times, however, that there is 'very suggestive evidence' that the two women accusing him...were motivated by a mixture of revenge, money and police pressure."
The "tizzy" quote comes from Assange's interview with the BBC, as quoted by The Daily Mail: "'...they had unprotected sex and they got into a tizzy about whether there was possibility of a sexual transmitted disease'..."
Back to the Times, and his deft self-erasure of other areas of support: "He compared WikiLeaks’ current 'persecution' to that endured by American Jews in the 1950s. 'All sorts of abusive statements were made against the Jewish people in the 1950s and before,' he said. 'Let’s not forget that there were quotas for Jews in universities in Boston. I’m not the Jewish people, but the people who believe in freedom of speech and accountability [are in the same position].'"
From a second Times article: "Mr Assange said that he believed that the US situation would 'turn around absolutely' as a groundswell of favourable opinion grew in America. 'The people in power are organised and were able to respond quickly,' he said. 'But numerically they are not that strong and our support in the general population is tremendous.' Such support would 'turn the tables', Mr Assange said. 'They’ll make statements by [Sarah] Palin and [Bill] Clinton not only ineffective but lethal.'"
Why do I think he's just managed to stop his own groundswell? None of this pertains to his guilt or innocence, nor the appropriateness of WikiLeaks. But right now the greatest threat to Julian Assange is the uncontrolled leaking of his mouth.