Chomsky: CIA Targeting of Julian Assange of WikiLeaks is …

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AMY GOODMAN: Noam, I wanted to, before we get to your book, your latest book, ask you about this latest development in the United States. The director of the Central Intelligence Agency gave his first major address, and he focused on WikiLeaks. And it looks like now the U.S. is preparing an arrest warrant for Julian Assange, whos been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for almost five years now. Pompeo calling WikiLeaks a hostile non-state intelligence service, calling Julian Assange himself a demon, and said hes not protected by the First Amendment. Your thoughts?

NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, I think it speaks for itself. WikiLeaks has released lots of information that governments dont like. Its overwhelmingly information that citizens should have. Its information about what their governments are doing. And perfectly natural that systems of power dont want to be exposed, so theyll do what they can to prevent exposure. I think its a disgraceful act. In fact, I think its disgraceful even to keep Julian Assange holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy. I did visit him there once, but you can guess yourself. Its, in many ways, worse than imprisonment. At least if youre in prison, you can see other prisoners, and you can get out and look at the sunshine now and then. Hes in a small apartment, where he cant go out. You know, he can go to the balcony, but thats about it, a smallbasically, a couple of rooms inside a small apartment. Its not a big embassy. The embassy is like a kind of an apartment in London, surrounded by police and so on. Theres been no credible basis for any of this. And to go on to try to raise it to the level of criminal prosecutions, I think, is, again, one of these efforts to look tough at home, and the kind of effort that a government would carry out that is dedicated to trying to protect itself from exposure of facts that citizens should have, but systems of power dont want them to have. I think thats the crucial issue.

AMY GOODMAN: The suggestions are it has to do with his aiding and abetting perhaps Chelsea Manning and also Edward Snowden, doing that with Edward Snowden, which he openly admits, while hes trapped in the Ecuadorean Embassy.

NOAM CHOMSKY: If the charge is true, he should be honored for it. Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden carried out heroic, courageous acts. They fulfilled the responsibility of somebody who takes citizenship seriouslythat is, who believes that the people of a country ought to know something about what their government is up to. OK? Like if their government is carrying out murderous, brutal attacks in Iraq, people should know about it. Takes us back to Martin Luther Kings talk in 1967. If the government is, and corporations, too, incidentally, are listening in to your telephone conversations and what youre doing, you know, tapping this discussion and so on, we should know about it. Governments have no right to do things like that. And people should know about it. And if they think its OK, fine, let them decide, not do it in secret. And I think people wouldnt agree to it. Thats why its kept secret. Why else keep it secret? You know? And these are people who exposed it at great risk to themselves. So those are heroic, courageous acts. If WikiLeaks was abetting them, more power to them. Thats what they should be doing.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, President Trump endorsed WikiLeaks, right? He said, I love WikiLeaks, during the campaign.

NOAM CHOMSKY: Yeah, when it was releasing things that he liked, yeah. Any system of power will do that. You release information that I like, its great. But I dont want to be exposed.

AMY GOODMAN: Thats MIT professor Noam Chomsky speaking on Monday at the First Parish Church in Cambridge. To see our full conversation, go to democracynow.org.

That does it for our show. Ill be speaking at Middlebury College in Vermont today at noon, then on to the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier at 7:00. Tomorrow, Thursday, at noon, Ill be at Bennington College, tomorrow night at the Unitarian church on Pearl Street in Burlington, Vermont. Then, on Saturday night, after Democracy Now!'s 5-hour broadcast of the People's Climate March in Washington, D.C., Ill be speaking at the Plymouth Congregational Church.

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Chomsky: CIA Targeting of Julian Assange of WikiLeaks is ...