Donald J. Trump on election night: photo by Damon Winter/The New York Times, 9 November 2016
Donald J. Trump on election night: photo by Damon Winter/The New York Times, 9 November 2016
The Secrets of the US Election: Julian Assange talks to John Pilger in the Embassy of Ecuador in London, broadcast 5 November 2016 (excerpt; transcript via John Pilger)
John Pilger:
What's the significance of the FBI's intervention in these last days of the U.S. election campaign, in the case against Hillary Clinton?
Julian Assange:
If you look at the history of the FBI, it has become effectively America's political police. The FBI demonstrated this by taking down the former head of the CIA [General David Petraeus] over classified information given to his mistress. Almost no-one is untouchable. The FBI is always trying to demonstrate that no-one can resist us. But Hillary Clinton very conspicuously resisted the FBI's investigation, so there's anger within the FBI because it made the FBI look weak.
We've published about 33,000 of Clinton's emails when she was Secretary of State. They come from a batch of just over 60,000 emails, [of which] Clinton has kept about half - 30,000 -- to herself, and we've published about half.
Then there are the Podesta emails we've been publishing. [John] Podesta is Hillary Clinton's primary campaign manager, so there's a thread that runs through all these emails; there are quite a lot of pay-for-play, as they call it, giving access in exchange for money to states, individuals and corporations. [These emails are] combined with the cover up of the Hillary Clinton emails when she was Secretary of State, [which] has led to an environment where the pressure on the FBI increases.
John Pilger:
The Clinton campaign has said that Russia is behind all of this, that Russia has manipulated the campaign and is the source for WikiLeaks and its emails.
Julian Assange:
The Clinton camp has been able to project that kind of neo-McCarthy hysteria: that Russia is responsible for everything. Hilary Clinton stated multiple times, falsely, that seventeen U.S. intelligence agencies had assessed that Russia was the source of our publications. That is false; we can say that the Russian government is not the source.
WikiLeaks has been publishing for ten years, and in those ten years, we have published ten million documents, several thousand individual publications, several thousand different sources, and we have never got it wrong.
John Pilger:
The emails that give evidence of access for money and how Hillary Clinton herself benefited from this and how she is benefitting politically, are quite extraordinary. I'm thinking of when the Qatari representative was given five minutes with Bill Clinton for a million dollar cheque.
Julian Assange:
And twelve million dollars from Morocco ...
John Pilger:
Twelve million from Morocco yeah.
Julian Assange:
For Hillary Clinton to attend [a party].
John Pilger:
In terms of the foreign policy of the United States, that's where the emails are most revealing, where they show the direct connection between Hillary Clinton and the foundation of jihadism, of ISIL, in the Middle East. Can you talk about how the emails demonstrate the contention that those who are meant to be fighting the jihadists of ISIL are actually those who have helped create it.
Julian Assange:
There's an early 2014 email from Hillary Clinton, not so long after she left the State Department, to her campaign manager John Podesta that states ISIL is funded by the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Now this is the most significant email in the whole collection, and perhaps because Saudi and Qatari money is spread all over the Clinton Foundation. Even the U.S. government agrees that some Saudi figures have been supporting ISIL, or ISIS. But the dodge has always been that, well it's just some rogue Princes, using their cut of the oil money to do whatever they like, but actually the government disapproves.
But that email says that no, it is the governments of Saudi and Qatar that have been funding ISIS.
John Pilger:
The Saudis, the Qataris, the Moroccans, the Bahrainis, particularly the Saudis and the Qataris, are giving all this money to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton is Secretary of State and the State Department is approving massive arms sales, particularly to Saudi Arabia.
Julian Assange:
Under Hillary Clinton, the world's largest ever arms deal was made with Saudi Arabia, [worth] more than $80 billion. In fact, during her tenure as Secretary of State, total arms exports from the United States in terms of the dollar value, doubled.
John Pilger:
Of course the consequence of that is that the notorious terrorist group called ISIl or ISIS is created largely with money from the very people who are giving money to the Clinton Foundation.
Julian Assange:
Yes.
John Pilger:
That's extraordinary.
US
- Hillary Clinton makes a concession speech in New York after being defeated by
Donald Trump. By @jewelsamad #Elections2016 #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP. 9 November 2016
Julian Assange:I actually feel quite sorry for Hillary Clinton as a person because I see someone who is eaten alive by their ambitions, tormented literally to the point where they become sick; they faint as a result of [the reaction] to their ambitions. She represents a whole network of people and a network of relationships with particular states. The question is how does Hilary Clinton fit in this broader network? She's a centralising cog. You've got a lot of different gears in operation from the big banks like Goldman Sachs and major elements of Wall Street, and Intelligence and people in the State Department and the Saudis.
She's the centraliser that inter-connects all these different cogs. She's the smooth central representation of all that, and 'all that' is more or less what is in power now in the United States. It's what we call the establishment or the DC consensus. One of the more significant Podesta emails that we released was about how the Obama cabinet was formed and how half the Obama cabinet was basically nominated by a representative from CitiBank. This is quite amazing.
John Pilger:
Didn't CitiBank supply a list .... ?
Julian Assange:
Yes.
John Pilger:
... which turned out to be most of the Obama cabinet.
Julian Assange:
Yes.
John Pilger:
So Wall Street decides the cabinet of the President of the United States?
Julian Assange:
If you were following the Obama campaign back then, closely, you could see it had become very close to banking interests.
Julian Assange:
So I think you can't properly understand Hillary Clinton's foreign policy without understanding Saudi Arabia. The connections with Saudi Arabia are so intimate.
John Pilger:
Why was she so demonstrably enthusiastic about the destruction of Libya? Can you talk a little about just what the emails have told us, told you about what happened there, because Libya is such a source for so much of the mayhem now in Syria, the ISIL jihadism and so on, and it was almost Hillary Clinton's invasion. What do the emails tell us about that?
Julian Assange:
Libya, more than anyone else's war, was Hillary Clinton's war. Barack Obama initially opposed it. Who was the person championing it? Hillary Clinton. That's documented throughout her emails. She had put her favoured agent, Sidney Blumenthal, on to that; there's more than 1700 emails out of the thirty three thousand Hillary Clinton emails that we've published, just about Libya. It's not that Libya has cheap oil. She perceived the removal of Gaddafi and the overthrow of the Libyan state -- something that she would use in her run-up to the general election for President.
So in late 2011 there is an internal document called the Libya Tick Tock that was produced for Hillary Clinton, and it's the chronological description of how she was the central figure in the destruction of the Libyan state, which resulted in around 40,000 deaths within Libya; jihadists moved in, ISIS moved in, leading to the European refugee and migrant crisis.
Not only did you have people fleeing Libya, people fleeing Syria, the destabilisation of other African countries as a result of arms flows, but the Libyan state itself err was no longer able to control the movement of people through it. Libya faces along to the Mediterranean and had been effectively the cork in the bottle of Africa. So all problems, economic problems and civil war in Africa -- previously people fleeing those problems didn't end up in Europe because Libya policed the Mediterranean. That was said explicitly at the time, back in early 2011 by Gaddafi: 'What do these Europeans think they're doing, trying to bomb and destroy the Libyan State? There's going to be floods of migrants out of Africa and jihadists into Europe, and this is exactly what happened.
* * *
John Pilger:
Do you yourself take a view of the U.S. election? Do you have a preference for Clinton or Trump?
Julian Assange:
[Let's talk about] Donald Trump. What does he represent in the American mind and in the European mind? He represents American white trash, [which Hillary Clinton called] 'deplorable and irredeemable'. It means from an establishment or educated cosmopolitan, urbane perspective, these people are like the red necks, and you can never deal with them. Because he so clearly -- through his words and actions and the type of people that turn up at his rallies -- represents people who are not the middle, not the upper middle educated class, there is a fear of seeming to be associated in any way with them, a social fear that lowers the class status of anyone who can be accused of somehow assisting Trump in any way, including any criticism of Hillary Clinton. If you look at how the middle class gains its economic and social power, that makes absolute sense.
#glassceiling #WAwithHer#WellesleyWatches: image via wellesleyunderground @wellesleyunderg, 8 November 2016
The largely female crowd of about 3,000 snacked on cupcakes topped with shards of candy glass ceiling (clear, flat sugar) and snapped group selfies with the Clinton cardboard cutouts decorating the arena. They also took pictures of themselves grabbing the crotches of the Donald Trump and Mike Pence cutouts.
Graduating senior Caroline Bechtel, who will serve as a second
lieutenant in the army after she finishes officer training school in
2017, talked about her relief that the election season was over and that
Clinton would be president. Her classmate Zainab Younus, who is
majoring in international relations, said how exciting it had been to be
with her politically engaged classmates supporting Clinton’s campaign.
Then the results started rolling in.
By 9.30pm, the guests seated in the front of the college’s field
house – watching the results on CNN and in a position to hear the
commentary – looked much tenser than the ones still standing in line for
the bar and partying in the back of the room.
Lindsay Miller, a class of 1969 schoolmate of Clinton’s, and the
former editor of their college newspaper, explained that when it comes
to Clinton and Trump, “it’s no contest, but it looks like there’s a
contest, and that says something about our country.”
“What we’re seeing is a serious, serious split,” Miller, a journalist, said.
Graduating senior Amal Cheema said much the same. “As the polls came
in, I was seeing how much division and disagreement there is in
America.”
By 10.22pm, after the predicted Clinton blowout had failed to
materialize and everyone was settling in for a close race, Wellesley’s
other famous Democratic alumna, former secretary of state Madeleine
Albright, addressed the cheering audience remotely. “Nothing comes easy
for women. But I think she’ll pull it out,” she told them.
Four minutes later, the audience booed the announcement that Trump had won Ohio.
As state after state went for Trump, people began making discreet
exits. Ten minutes after results showed the Republican candidate up in
Iowa, a young woman was visibly in tears, being comforted by her friends.
She wouldn’t be the last.
The fluorescent lights came on at the back of the field house an hour
and several more electoral votes for Trump later. Around the room,
women were comforting one another as despondent face found despondent
face. A biracial lesbian couple were holding on to each other, with a
visceral sense of defeat.
Shortly after midnight, when CNN showed Trump pulling away from
Clinton in Pennsylvania, a few women shouted “No!” and “Why?” at no one
in particular, as the catering staff packed up the bar and dispatched
the remains of the cheese plates and buffet sandwiches. More and more
women could be seen crying on one another’s shoulders, while one group
of women (and a couple of male friends) gave the middle finger to CNN’s
Jake Tapper on the large screen.
Younus, the graduating senior who had started the night so excited by
the thought of a Clinton win, stood in the middle of the room, alone,
with her arms crossed across her chest. “How are we supposed to predict
anything?” she asked rhetorically, and then refused to answer any more
questions.
Tempestt Morgan -- who had been hoping against hope for a Clinton
victory at 12.30am -- was not optimistic about the America into which she
would be entering as a college graduate next May. “Even if [Clinton]
somehow makes it back from this, it’s still sad to see so many people
aligned with a candidate like [Trump]” she said.
Her friend, Jekia Brockman, looked around at the women crying -- one
of whom flopped over dramatically as yet another state was said to be
leaning Trump -- and said: “It’s not unbelievable. It’s completely
believable.”
Just
before 1.30am, as the group of (mostly) students watching the results
had dwindled to a couple of hundred, the Wellesley president, Paula
Johnson, took the stage. “Whatever the result, we stand for justice,”
she said. “We stand for equality for every one, no matter your gender,
your race, your sexual orientation or your religion, no matter what
country you’re from or what your immigration status is.”
“We must be part of the momentum that takes us forward from here” she added, after a standing ovation.
“We will be here together in the morning” she said.
And then, just minutes before Donald Trump was elected president of
the United States, Wellesley College shut down the news feed, and sent
their students and guests home.
Quite literally! @Wellesley: image via Megan Carpentier @megancarpentier, 8 November 2016
wellesley women shattering glass ceilings: image via dweeb @brocroft, 8 November 2016
This @Wellesley event is also a sort of reunion so I don't think people realize how close the race is. Big cheers/shrieks with each result.: image via Anne Mostue @AnneMostue, 8 November 2016
12:13am #WAwithHer #WellesleyWatches: image via wellesleyunderground @wellesleyunderg, 9 November 2016
A man reacts to election results on Tuesday night at the Javits Center, the site of Hillary Clinton's planned election night party in Manhattan: photo by Todd Heisler/The New York Times, 8 November 2016
Supporters of Mrs. Clinton at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center as election results were being called: photo by
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times, 8 November 2016
An overflow section was set up for supporters of Mrs. Clinton at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan: photo by
Todd Heisler/The New York Times, 8 November 2016
Supporters of Hillary Clinton watching results during her event at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York: photo by
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times, 8 November 2016
Supporters of Hillary Clinton watching results during her event at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York: photo by Ruth Fremson/The New York Times, 8 November 2016
An emotional election night in America: image via The New York Times @nytimes, 8 November 2016
Hillary Clinton supporters at her election night event in New York: image via The New York Times @nytimes, 8 November 2016
Some Americans look to Canada, New Zealand as Trump lead grows: image via Reuters UK @ReutersUK, 8 November 2016
#ElectionNight La tristeza invade el comando de campaña de @HillaryClinton en Nueva York #AFP: image via Agence France-Presse @AFPespanol, 8 November 2016
#ElectionNight La tristeza invade el comando de campaña de @HillaryClinton en Nueva York #AFP: image via Agence France-Presse @AFPespanol, 8 November 2016
#ElectionNight La tristeza invade el comando de campaña de @HillaryClinton en Nueva York #AFP: image via Agence France-Presse @AFPespanol, 8 November 2016
Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton react during election night in New York #ElectionDay #Elections2016: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 8 November 2016
Supporters
of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton react during
election night in New York #ElectionDay #Elections2016: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 8 November 2016
KENYA - Two Maasai men listen to news on the US election over the radio near Saikeri. By Tobin Jones #ElectionDay #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardafp, 8 November 2016
The stage at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center for Mrs. Clinton: photo by
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times, 8 November 2016
The stage at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center for Mrs. Clinton: photo by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times, 8 November 2016
Adrian Kajac, center, takes a break from watching the election results at Fred’s Divot, a bar in Ambridge, Pa.: photo by Hilary Swift for The New York Times, 8 November 2016
Supporters of Mr. Trump celebrate at a watch party in Atlanta after learning he had won Florida: photo by Kevin D. Liles for The New York Times, 8 November 2016
Trump's chance of victory skyrockets in betting exchanges and online market: image via Reuters UK @ReutersUK, 8 November 2016
KENYA - Two Maasai men listen to news on the US election over the radio near Saikeri. By Tobin Jones #ElectionDay #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardafp, 8 November 2016
IRAQ - Members of the Iraqi forces react as they watch Donald Trump
after he won the US president elections in Arbid. By @ahmedafp
#MosulOps: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP. 9 November 2016
A Peshmerga fighter runs to take position as the Iraqi Kurdish forces pushed deeper into the town of Bashiqa during street battles against Islamic State group jihadists: photo by Odd Andersen/AFP, 8 November 2016
A Peshmerga fighter runs to take position as the Iraqi Kurdish
forces pushed deeper into the town of Bashiqa during street battles
against Islamic State group jihadists: photo by Odd Andersen/AFP, 8 November 2016
#Iraq A Peshmerga fighter runs to take position in #Bashiqa during street battles against Islamic State (IS) #AFP Photo by @odd_andersen: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 8 November 2016
#Iraq street battles in #Bashiqa against Islamic State (IS) #AFP Photo by @odd_andersen: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 8 November 2016
A Peshmerga fighter runs to take position as the Iraqi Kurdish forces pushed deeper into the town of Bashiqa during street battles against Islamic State group jihadists: photo by Odd Andersen/AFP, 8 November 2016
#Iraq A Peshmerga fighter runs to take position in #Bashiqa during street battles against Islamic State (IS) #AFP Photo by @odd_andersen: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 8 November 2016
#Iraq street battles in #Bashiqa against Islamic State (IS) #AFP Photo by @odd_andersen: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 8 November 2016
#Bashiqa today: sniper fire, air strikes, and at least 1 blast that Peshmerga fighters told us was car bomb: image via Maya Gebelly @GebellyM, 9 November 2016
In last stand for #Bashiqa, IS played twisted game of whack-a-mole: popping out of tunnels to attack Pesh. Via @AFP: image via Maya Gebelly @GebellyM, 9 November 2016
#Isis made special plate numbers for cars and motorcycles in #Mosul saying Welayat Nineveh, today in East of Mosul: image via Warzer Jaff @warzerjaff, 7 November 2016
Islamic State abducts more than 200 near Mosul, retreats with thousands - U.N. : image via Reuters UK @ReutersUK, 8 November 2016
SYRIA - Syrians fleeing areas controlled by IS come to safety in areas held by by Kurdish-Arab SDF alliance near Ain Issa. By @Delilsouleman: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 8 November 2016
IRAQ - Members of the Iraqi forces check a body they pulled from a mass grave near Hamam al-Alil area during #MosulOps. By @ahmedafp #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 8 November 2016
IRAQ - A elderly displaced man awaits transport in the Iraqi Kurdish checkpoint village of Shaqouli during #MosulOps. By @odd_andersen #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 8 November 2016
A fighter from the NPU (Nineveh Plain Protection Units) walks through a destroyed church in Qaraqosh, Iraq. The NPU is a military organisation made up of Assyrian Christians and was formed in late 2014 to defend against Islamic State.: photo by Chris McGrath, 9 November 2016
A fighter from the NPU (Nineveh Plain Protection Units) walks through a destroyed church in Qaraqosh, Iraq. The NPU is a military organisation made up of Assyrian Christians and was formed in late 2014 to defend against Islamic State.: photo by Chris McGrath, 9 November 2016
Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton react to television reports during election night at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York: photo by Angela Weiss/AFP, 9 November 2016
Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton react to television reports during election night at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York: photo by Angela Weiss/AFP, 9 November 2016
make-shift
In besieged #Aleppo, necessity is the mother of invention
Amir Sandeh tends to plants in his small rooftop garden: image via Karam Almasri @KaramAlmasri25, 8 November 2016
In besieged #Aleppo, Cigarettes stuffed with grape leaves instead of tobacco: image via Karam Almasri @KaramAlmasri25, 8 November 2016
#2
Abu Rahmo, a mechanic in #Aleppo, welds a dynamo (the small generator
used to charge car batteries) onto the back of an old bicycle: image via Karam Almasri @KaramAlmasri25, 8 November 2018
#2
Abu Rahmo, a mechanic in #Aleppo, welds a dynamo (the small generator
used to charge car batteries) onto the back of an old bicycle: image via Karam Almasri @KaramAlmasri25, 8 November 2016
#2
Abu Rahmo, a mechanic in #Aleppo, welds a dynamo (the small generator
used to charge car batteries) onto the back of an old bicycle: image via Karam Almasri @KaramAlmasri25, 8 November 2016
#2
Abu Rahmo, a mechanic in #Aleppo, welds a dynamo (the small generator
used to charge car batteries) onto the back of an old bicycle: image via Karam Almasri @KaramAlmasri25, 8 November 2016
#3 Khaled Kurdiyah uses a metal container outfitted with a fan to create a highly-controlled fire to replace rare gas-fired stoves: image via Karam Almasri @KaramAlmasri25, 8 November 2016
#3 Khaled Kurdiyah uses a metal container outfitted with a fan to create a highly-controlled fire to replace rare gas-fired stoves: image via Karam Almasri @KaramAlmasri25, 8 November 2016
#3 Khaled Kurdiyah uses a metal container outfitted with a fan to create a highly-controlled fire to replace rare gas-fired stoves: image via Karam Almasri @KaramAlmasri25, 8 November 2016
#3 Khaled Kurdiyah uses a metal container outfitted with a fan to create a highly-controlled fire to replace rare gas-fired stoves: image via Karam Almasri @KaramAlmasri25, 8 November 2016
SYRIA - A man tries to extinguish a fire caused nearby airstrikes in the rebel-held town of Douma. By @SameerAlDoumy #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department @Afpphoto, 8 November 2016
SYRIA - Syrian children await treatment at a make-shift hospital following a reported airstrike on a crowded market in Douma. By @AbdDoumany #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardafp, 8 November 2016
SYRIA - Syrian children await treatment at a make-shift hospital following a reported airstrike on a crowded market in Douma. By @AbdDoumany #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardafp, 8 November 2016
Russia ships 'chase away' Dutch submarine in Mediterranean: image via BBC News (World) @BBCWorld. 9 November 2016
Turkish Coast Guard TCSG90 kept an eye on #ВМФ #Cф NF Ropucha class LSTM Georgiy Pobedonosets 016 during its Bosphorus transit: image via Yörük Isik @Yorukisik, 7 November 2016
Great @reuterspictures photo of Russian parachutists on exercises in Serbia: image via Howard Amos @HowardTAmos, 7 November 2016
ReplyDeleteJohn Pilger: 'The truth is... there was no one to vote for'(Going Underground US election special)
The Secrets of the US Election: Julian Assange talks to John Pilger in the Embassy of Ecuador in London, broadcast 5 November 2016 (full interview)
one word. madness.
ReplyDeleteSo many poor, affluent-looking, smartphone wielding members of the younger Democratic Party establishment wondering what went wrong—why didn’t they Google “Nostradamus” beforehand?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/730526/donald-trump-nostradamus-end-of-the-world-hillary-clinton
Everything has come unstuck. Trump is undoubtedly a monster but his victory sets out the reality of the coming politics clearly. Neoliberalism is done as an ideology. What comes next is frightening. The left has to get its shit together (what a faint hope).
ReplyDeleteThis wild, unthinking rancour cannot be the only response. We can't let it be all Budweiser and white fire.
Thanks for that, Tom. Not sure if it's that surprising. The Saudis have been supporting all kinds of fanatics for the last thirty years (as have the Qataris in more more recent times). And the Gulf Arabs have been great allies of 'the west'. Hmm. How does that work again?
ReplyDelete:-)
Or think of the ISI and the funding/support of the radicals. And we're supposed to believe that they've been playing a double game, fooling all those gullible folks back in Washington!
Nostradamus -- wait, wasn't that the name of the bewhiskered and blindfolded fellow they've just now driven off with, headed into the desert somewhere beyond Raqqa?
ReplyDeleteYou know, those madcap operatives of the DNC Escort Committee?