By John Pilger
Worldwide - War by media, says current military doctrine, is as important as the
battlefield. This is because the real enemy is the public at home, whose
manipulation and deception is essential for starting an unpopular
colonial war.
Like the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, attacks on Iran and Syria
require a steady drip-effect on readers' and viewers' consciousness.
This is the essence of a propaganda that rarely speaks its name.
To the chagrin of many in authority and the media, WikiLeaks has torn
down the facade behind which rapacious Western power and journalism
collude. This was an enduring taboo; the BBC could claim impartiality
and expect people to believe it.
Today, war by media is increasingly understood by the public, as is
the trial by media of WikiLeaks' founder and editor Julian Assange.
Assange will soon know if the supreme court in London is to allow his
appeal against extradition to Sweden, where he faces allegations of
sexual misconduct, most of which were dismissed by a senior prosecutor
in Stockholm.
On bail for 16 months, tagged and effectively under house arrest, he has been charged with nothing.
His "crime" has been an epic form of investigative journalism:
revealing to millions of people the lies and machinations of their
politicians and officials and the barbarism of criminal war conducted in
their name.
For this, as the United States historian William Blum points out,
"dozens of members of the American media and public officials have
called for [his] execution or assassination".
If he is passed from Sweden to the US, an orange jumpsuit, shackles
and a fabricated indictment await him. And there go all who dare
challenge rogue America.
In Britain, Assange's trial by media has been a campaign of character
assassination, often cowardly and inhuman, reeking of jealousy of the
courageous outsider. Bbooks of perfidious hearsay have been published,
movie deals struck and media careers launched or resuscitated on the
assumption that he is too poor to sue.
In Sweden, this trial by media has become, according to one observer
there, "a full-on mobbing campaign with the victim denied a voice".
For more than 18 months, the salacious
Expressen, Sweden's equivalent of the
Sun, has been fed the ingredients of a smear by Stockholm police.
Expressen is the megaphone of the Swedish right, including
the Conservative party, which dominates the governing coalition. Its
latest "scoop" is an unsubstantiated story about "the great WikiLeaks
war against Sweden".
On March 6,
Expressen claimed, with no evidence, that WikiLeaks was running a conspiracy against Sweden and its foreign minister Carl Bildt.
The political pique is understandable. In a 2009 US embassy cable
obtained by WikiLeaks, the Swedish elite's vaunted reputation for
neutrality is exposed as sham. (Cable title: "Sweden puts neutrality in
the Dustbin of History.")
Another US diplomatic cable reveals that "the extent of [Sweden's
military and intelligence] co-operation [with NATO] is not widely
known", and unless kept secret "would open up the government to domestic
criticism".
Swedish foreign policy is largely controlled by Bildt, whose
obeisance to the US goes back to his defence of the Vietnam War and
includes his leading role in George W Bush's Committee for the
Liberation of Iraq.
He retains close ties to Republican party extreme right-wing figures
such as the disgraced Bush spin doctor, Karl Rove. It is known that his
government has "informally" discussed Assange's future with Washington,
which has made its position clear.
A secret Pentagon document describes US intelligence plans to destroy
WikiLeaks' "centre of gravity" with "threats of exposure [and] criminal
prosecution".
In much of the Swedish media, proper journalistic scepticism about
the allegations against Assange is overwhelmed by a defensive jingoism,
as if the nation's honour is defiled by revelations about dodgy coppers
and politicians, a universal breed.
On Swedish public TV "experts" debate not the country's deepening
militarist state and its service to NATO and Washington, but the state
of Assange's mind and his "paranoia".
A headline in March 6's
Aftonbladet declared: "Assange's
moral collapse". The article suggests Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks'
alleged source, may not be sane, and attacks Assange for not protecting
Manning from himself.
What was not mentioned was that the source was anonymous, that no
connection has been demonstrated between Assange and Manning, and that
Aftonbladet, WikiLeaks' Swedish partner, had published the same leaks
undeterred.
Ironically, this circus has performed under cover of some of the
world's most enlightened laws protecting journalists, which attracted
Assange to Sweden in 2010 to establish a base for WikiLeaks. Should his
extraditionbe allowed, and with Damocles swords of malice and a vengeful
Washington hanging over his head, who will protect him and provide the
justice to which we all have a right?
