Julian Assange's December Surprise

Image Source: Express.

The fake news, alt-news, doubleplusungood disinformation about WikiLeaks is reaching the stratosphere. Ugly themes from the US election continue. On 28 November 2016, WikiLeaks dumped 500,000 diplomatic cables on US policy in the Middle East, dating from 1979. On 1 December, they released 2,420 (90 gigabytes) documents on cooperation between US and German spies, which shows how Merkel's government distinguished between 'internal use' priorities and a 'public answer' face; this dump could damage Germany's place in the EU.

The MSM are putting out conspiracy theorists' brush fires. Most of these flare-ups concern Assange and: ISIS; Russia; Turkey; Syria; money laundering through high-valued art pieces to conceal global crimes; pornography and child trafficking; elections in Europe; the UN; the Federal Reserve; the CIA and NSA; the future of the Internet (more here, here, here, here). Below the jump, see links and images which may converge into Julian Assange's December Surprise.

Lori Handrahan runs a crowd-sourced site on arrest data relating to the global trade in child porn, rape and torture, Data4Justice. Handrahan refers to Europol (at a dead or blocked link), stating that half of all servers in the world which host child porn are located in the USA; she focuses on convicted ex-government officials. Handrahan has been involved in controversy, and material from her site is being cited by conspiracy theorists. Image Source: Medium.

Conspiracy theorists claim that on 16 October 2016, Julian Assange's Dead Man's Switch was triggered and that: (a) he has disappeared and/or is dead but either way has certainly left the Ecuadorian embassy in London to be tortured, killed, or pardoned; (b) is in the hands of the CIA; (c) is/isn't a terrorist and pawn of Putin; (d) was/is working for the CIA; (e) WikiLeaks and Tor have been compromised and commandeered by the CIA; (f) although WikiLeaks' latest dump implies that the CIA created ISIS; (g) Pizzagate leaks are part of Assange's Dead Man's Switch which could bring down governments; (h) Assange's top staff and sources have been interrogated and are on the run, in fear for their lives; (i) and/or messages from people claiming to be from Assange's team are faked, etc. etc. The quote of the day comes from a Pizzagate believer:

"Now there are fake fake news people on you tube saying pizza gate is fake. I don't bother to watch them as soon as I see their lying agenda to cover up the truth."

I present these competing cultures of truth and untruth without comment. Consider it alt-infotainment on the road to Trump Land.

One of the imaged communications circulating online at present, purportedly from one of Assange's team, supposedly from November 2016. There is a follow-up, discounting it, here. This kind of disinformation is fueling more disinformation, speculation, confusion. (Click to enlarge.) Image Source.

ADDENDUM: On 4 December 2016, tickets went on sale for a video appearance by Assange at Melbourne Town Hall, No More Secrets, No More Lies (19 February 2017).