22 December 2010
Sir David Frost interviews Julian Assange
A truly professional interview by a senior journalist. Several points I found of interest.
1) When asked if the U.S. was the "leading target" for WikiLeaks, Assange said not really, that the idea was to target the most closed and corrupt governments, which is not the U.S. - but that in practice as the dominant empire in the world with connections to all other governments it becomes de facto an important source of information. And as the largest security state in the world (security budget = total budget rest of world combined), it generates lots of secrets, and because it is now conducting two unpopular wars, that generates lots of dissenters who choose to leak secrets.
2) He notes that WikiLeaks is source-driven and dependent on material submitted to it. When asked re China he said they are now getting material from China. None from N. Korea yet, for obvious reasons, but they are getting material about N. Korea.
3) Beginning at about the 17:30 mark, he comments about the situation in Sweden, especially re Sweden/U.S. government relations and how that may be affecting his prosecution and possible extradition. WikiLeaks leaked revelations re U.S. and Sweden sharing information, a behavior that may have been contrary to the Swedish constitution.
Comments are disabled at YouTube. I have several comments of minor interest to anyone but me.
ReplyDelete"A truly professional interview by a senior journalist." is an oxymoron when you are talking about David Frost.
Why are we getting this video from AlJazeera?
Why doesn't Assange have a comb or a razor.
Other than that I found this to be an informative interview. It seems to me that Mr. Assange is the one getting raped by many people and organizations.
I don't understand your first comment and can't address the third one. But as to why we're getting this from Al Jazeera, it's because that's where I encountered it. I monitor eight news websites on a daily basis - WaPo and WSJ in the US, BBC and Guardian and Telegraph in UK, and Russia Today and Al Jazeera. Other news sites I visit biweekly or once a week. Excerpts from this interview may show up at some of those sources later, but Frost Over The World is broadcast by Al Jazeera.
ReplyDeleteI meant that any interview by Sir David Frost is bound to be truly professional in all respects.
ReplyDeleteThe AlJazeera question was simply curiosity as to why you got it from them.
The third remark was just a tease about Assange's messy hair and sloppy shaving.
As I said, minor interest.
Very informative interview in any case.
I feel better now re the first one. (p.s. I think you meant to say "redundancy" rather than "oxymoron."
ReplyDeleteI'm just surprised it's taken so long for an interview of this caliber to have taken place!
ReplyDeleteI think that it should be obvious, to any reasonable person, that there are forces at work behind the scenes with the aim of destroying Julian Assange and Wikileaks, using every means possible.
ReplyDeleteIf they cannot find a way to imprison Assange, I fear that his life will be in jeopardy.
7 Oct 2005: Veteran UK broadcaster Sir David Frost is to join Arabic-language TV station al-Jazeera, the network has confirmed.
ReplyDeleteSir David is to appear on al-Jazeera International, the pan-Arab news network's new English-language channel, due to be launched next spring.
The Qatar-based channel said Sir David, who broadcast his final Breakfast with Frost programme for the BBC in May, would be among the "key on-air talent".
Sir David was quoted as saying he felt "excitement" about his new role.
"Most of the television I have done over the years has been aimed at British and American audiences," he said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4318284.stm