Scott interviews the great Patrick Cockburn about his written testimony in Julian Assange’s extradition hearing. Cockburn argued, as have many other witnesses for the defense, that Assange’s activities with WikiLeaks amount to the very best kind of journalism: the exposure of government misdeeds to the people. Far more journalists, in fact, should be doing what Assange does. Cockburn also reminds us that the information Chelsea Manning leaked and Assange published was not even all that secret. It was on a server that millions of soldiers and government employees had access to, a far cry from the top secret exposure of informants that the U.S. government would have you believe. The prosecution has even had to admit on record that the leak of this information has not resulted in the endangerment of a single informant.
Discussed on the show:
- “Patrick Cockburn and Andy Worthington’s Testimony in Assange Extradition Hearings” (Antiwar.com Blog)
- Collateral Murder
- “Iraq War Diary” (WikiLeaks)
- “State Department Cables” (WikiLeaks)
- “The Guantanamo Files” (WikiLeaks)
- “Afghanistan War Diary” (WikiLeaks)
Patrick Cockburn is the Middle East correspondent for The Independent and the author of The Age of Jihad and Chaos & Caliphate.
This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.
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Scott Horton is director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of Antiwar.com, host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, California and podcasts the Scott Horton Show from this website. He’s the author of the 2017 book, Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. Visit https://scotthorton.org