Assange seeks asylum in Ecuador embassy, London

[killer b]

has everyone read Andrew O'Hagan's LRB article on Assange? If not, crack on.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/2014/02/21/andrew-ohagan/ghosting

 

[Jon-of-arc]

has everyone read Andrew O'Hagan's LRB article on Assange? If not, crack on.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/2014/02/21/andrew-ohagan/ghosting

Summary?

 

[killer b]

O'hagan was commissioned to ghost-write Assange's autobiography. The article explains how and why that didn't really work out as planned.

 

[yield]

A good article. Very long though. A couple of things that stuck with me.

‘The much more important thing is how we get this book done. I’ve got to move on soon. I was only supposed to be helping you until the first of April. The trouble is you’re just not focused on this book.’

‘I am. It just needs to be done in a certain way. There’s a big fan-base out there. They will buy this book if it contains the right message and inspires them.’

‘What do we need?’

‘It needs to be more like Ayn Rand.’

And

Fact is, he was not in control of himself and most of what his former colleagues said about him just might be true. He is thin-skinned, conspiratorial, untruthful, narcissistic, and he thinks he owns the material he conduits.

It may turn out that Julian is not Daniel Ellsberg or John Wilkes, but Charles Foster Kane, abusive and monstrous in his pursuit of the truth that interests him, and a man who, it turns out, was motivated all the while not by high principles but by a deep sentimental wound.

I can see why Andrew O'Hagan waited before writing this. I kind of want to read the unauthorised autobiography now.

See also this thread. http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/it-could-only-happen-to-julian-assange.281431/

 

[laptop]

Near the end:

He continued with his habit of biting the hand that fed him, satirising or undermining those who came to his aid. He said the Ecuadorian ambassador was mad and ‘stalked the corridor’. He said she thought she was fat and went on a ludicrous diet because she didn’t like the way she looked in the photographs taken by the Daily Mail.

 

[yield]

Near the end:

It goes beyond satire. What with the twitter feuds and hours of internet vanity searching it kept reminding me of the commentariat thread.

‘Is this a good use of our time?’ I said it again and again and it had no impact. One of his strategies was to invent, on the spot, new avant-garde styles that the book should adopt. One day he said the book should contain ‘parables’ and he suggested the paragraphs should be numbered, like verses. ‘You’ve got to get yourself and staff to see the book as a priority,’ I said. ‘A great book will set things right. It will constitute a much bigger thing than turf wars or Tweets.’

‘But it can’t be the priority,’ Julian said. ‘Ending wars and starting a revolution in Libya is the priority.’

 

[rekil]

I wanted to warn him that they certainly had transcripts of our interviews, sittings in which he’d uttered, late at night, many casual libels, many sexist or anti-Semitic remarks, and where he spoke freely about every aspect of his life. There was little security consciousness at work in those interviews, and I calmed them down when preparing the manuscript and removed things that were said in the heat of the moment or that were too much or too jocular or just banter, but Canongate could have released them to the press at any time, rubbishing his notion that he did not want a ‘memoir’ and devastating him in his own words. I have those tapes still and they can be shocking.

Can it be possible that he's an even bigger twat than he was previously believed to be, even by the most sober assessors?

 

[laptop]

Can it be possible that he's an even bigger twat than he was previously believed to be, even by the most sober assessors?

More than possible.

I have those tapes

 

[phildwyer]

A good article.

A silly article. It just focuses on his personality, paying little attention to what he's achieved--which is absolutely vital and completely unprecedented. And even on a personal level, it frequently sinks to the ridiculous. This is typical:

"I made lunch every day and he’d eat it, often with his hands, and then lick the plate. In all that time he didn’t once take his dirty plate to the sink. That doesn’t make him like Josef Mengele...."

Well no, no it really doesn't does it?

 

[laptop]

It just focuses on his personality, paying little attention to what he's achieved

Did the red mist come down and further impair your reading comprehension, then?

 

[phildwyer]

Did the red mist come down and further impair your reading comprehension, then?

Sorry dude, you've lost me now.

The basic problem with the O'Hagan article can be seen here:

'"I have been detained,’ he said, ‘without charge, for 1000 days.’ And there it is, the old conflation, implying that his detention is to do with his work against secret-keepers in America. It is not."

Oh-ho yes it bleeding well is. And anyone who can't accept that has no business pretending to be on his side.

 

[elbows]

Oh-ho yes it bleeding well is. And anyone who can't accept that has no business pretending to be on his side.

I am not on his side because the following from the article has long been easily to confirm using the utterances of the man himself, and is certainly one of the things I've shouted about, probably well before the sex-related stuff came along to further complicate and charge the debate:

and he thinks he owns the material he conduits

Even if we ignore all the other aspects of his personality, the above critically undermines the principal of 'his cause' that people would otherwise wish to support. Many turn a blind eye to this, more fool them.

 

[butchersapron]

What a pathetic response to O' Hagan's article. Note the three co-authors needed on his published Assange book.

 

[laptop]

Note the three co-authors needed on his published Assange book.

* Sets up alerts for news of why each stomped off *

 

[butchersapron]

And now he's fallen out with Greenwald.

 

[phildwyer]

What a pathetic response to O' Hagan's article. Note the three co-authors needed on his published Assange book.

It looks bang on the money to me. Colin Robinson is a fine man. And as he says regarding Assange

"O'Hagan's LRB piece is no part of an organised dirty tricks campaign. But by focusing as it does on Assange's character defects, it ends up serving much the same purpose. Here is a man who eats with his hands and is paranoid about assassins in roadside bushes, whose lascivious gaze is directed towards teenagers and who is infatuated with the thrill of arriving at the Hay literary festival in a helicopter. Meanwhile, his achievements in uncovering the misdemeanors of the secret state are almost entirely passed over."

Absolutely correct.

 

[weltweit]

Is Assange really still around?
I bet the staff in that embassy are starting to get tired of him by now.

 

[phildwyer]

Is Assange really still around?
I bet the staff in that embassy are starting to get tired of him by now.

Innit. In fact it's surprising that they haven't managed to smuggle him out of the country by now. How difficult can it be with a diplomatic passport? One can only presume that the state is keeping a very tight watch on him--further testimony to the fear he inspires among our rulers.

 

[skyscraper101]

Police outside the door and in the communal lobby to stop an attempt at a roof exit. But TBH.. even I would've found a way to apprehend the foyer plod in the dead of night and get to the roof by now. I'd be drinking Colada Morada's in Quito before the day was out.

 

[phildwyer]

Police outside the door and in the communal lobby to stop an attempt at a roof exit. But TBH.. even I would've found a way to apprehend the foyer plod in the dead of night and get to the roof by now. I'd be drinking Colada Morada's in Quito before the day was out.

Exactly. What's wrong with a helicopter ffs?

 

[el-ahrairah]

Exactly. What's wrong with a helicopter ffs?

 

[el-ahrairah]

that colin robinson article is such crap. i didn't get very far in because it's clearly not a reasoned response, it's a puff piece by an assange cultist. immediately i think, well, fuck this.

 

[classicdish]

Exactly. What's wrong with a helicopter ffs?

After he's got in the helicopter, what then?

 

[DotCommunist]

monte carlo or bust

 

[goldenecitrone]

monte carlo or bust

Knowing Assange, he will grab for the latter.

 

[Wilf]

that colin robinson article is such crap. i didn't get very far in because it's clearly not a reasoned response, it's a puff piece by an assange cultist. immediately i think, well, fuck this.

I got as far as this:

"I've just published Julian Assange." The young man's demeanour changes abruptly and he fixes me with a sneer. "Assange," he echoes, "he's a bit of a cunt isn't he?"

I'm with the young man on that one.

 

[8115]

I would risk extradition, couldn't stay in there that long. Ugh.

 

[phildwyer]

After he's got in the helicopter, what then?

Off to the nearest country without an extradition treaty. Would that still be Spain?

 

[DotCommunist]

Off to the nearest country without an extradition treaty. Would that still be Spain?

no, i believe they can get you in spain now. Could take the fleeing nazi to paraguay option

 

[phildwyer]

that colin robinson article is such crap. i didn't get very far in because it's clearly not a reasoned response, it's a puff piece by an assange cultist.

Oh please. He acknowledges much of the criticism, and even says he thinks Assange should stand trial in Sweden. It's anything but a puff piece.

But anyway, the point is that Assange's personality is irrelevant. What is relevant is the massive blow he struck for freedom, which has not been matched since.