Assange: CIA ‘Has No Credibility’ on Chemical Weapons

WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange urged news outlets to use the word “alleged” regarding the origin of the chemical attack that killed more than 80 Syrian civilians last week until conclusive evidence is presented by the U.S. government, during an interview Tuesday on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”

After the chemical attack wreaked havoc upon Syrian civilians, U.S. officials quickly pinned the horrific incident on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before retaliating with a limited missile strike Thursday evening. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose own government backs the Syrian government, told reporters Tuesday that he’d received intelligence indicating that planned “provocations” were attempting to pin the blame on Assad.

“Until we see public evidence, we have to simply say, ‘alleged.’ And I’m quite disturbed to see the number of journalists, in The New York Times and elsewhere, simply saying that there was such an attack” from Assad’s government …

“We don’t know exactly what the evidence is, and that is part of the problem,” Assange said Tuesday. “What it doesn’t demand is going into Syria and overthrowing a government without any plan.”

Assange insisted that too many details don’t line up about what exactly happened in Syria and about who was ultimately responsible for the heinous attack.

“It doesn’t pass the smell test from a ‘who benefits’ point of view,” Assange said. “Sometimes people do stupid things. So it is theoretically possible that Assad has done it. But, unfortunately, the CIA has no credibility in this area.”

Until the proper evidence comes forward, Assange urged media outlets to use the utmost caution in how they report upon the Syrian situation.

“Until we see public evidence, we have to simply say ‘alleged.’ And I’m quite disturbed to see the number of journalists, in The New York Times and elsewhere simply saying that there was such an attack” from Assad’s government, Assange said. “That’s something that the U.S. administration is alleging. We don’t know what the evidence is.”

“There is a problem when the administration says, ‘You just have to accept our word on this.’ Because in the past, the word of intelligence agencies has not been reliable,” Assange added. “And there’s so many plans and so much power at stake. Even if the CIA is being honest this time around, has it been fooled by, you know, these other players?”

Ingraham asked Assange about the difficulties of running WikiLeaks when so many governments, intelligence agencies, and news outlets are hungry to find out the organization’s sources.

“That’s just a problem for investigative journalism,” Assange said. “It’s kind of — look at Wikileaks as an institution. We have a 10-year perfect record for accuracy of our publications. Perfect. No one is denying that. So when we talk about credibility, I would put that credibility against any news institution, frankly, in the world.”

When Ingraham asked Assad about one of the media’s favorite narratives of late — investigating potential Russian collusion with the Trump campaign to sway the election — Assange expressed frustration the Russians have taken some of the credit for WikiLeaks’ damaging leaks against the Democratic National Committee and nominee Hillary Clinton last year.

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“Russians are good at making noise, and others … are [using] that Russian trait to make Russia seem a lot bigger than it is,” Assange said. “And, frankly, in my opinion, Putin certainly likes that. And me and my staff, frankly, we’re extremely annoyed about Putin getting any credit for our incredible scoops about the Democratic Party during the election process.”

As for the March information dump this year in Vault 7 concerning the CIA’s capabilities of carrying out mass surveillance, Assange insisted that the CIA “has a culture of lying and doing things undercover.”

“That produces a culture of cover-up and a culture of abuse. And inevitably that starts to backfire,” Assange said. “They don’t have a system of proper accountability because the whole institution is designed to avoid accountability for what it’s doing.”

Noting that the CIA and other government entities have access to “extensive information” that can be used to “blackmail people,” Assange said “the deep state within the United States has unparalleled ability to blackmail people.”

“And that is what has been happening … in the Trump administration with those leaks coming out to The New York Times and elsewhere,” Assange said. “That is those agencies using their exclusive access to information to beat the White House into line.”