The Extraordinarily Deceived U.S. & UK Publics About Assange
The only international poll that sampled many countries simultaneously about Assange or his WikiLeaks so as to be able to compare the opinions internationally was by Reuters, headlining on 26 April 2011 “WikiLeaks' Julian Assange is not a criminal: global poll”, and it showed that by far the most hostile public in opposing WikiLeaks was in America, the only public that was more anti-WikiLeaks than pro. 61% of Americans opposed WikiLeaks, and the second-worst was in UK, 38% opposed. Third-worst was Canada, 33%. Fourth-worst Poland at 32%. The four most favorable to Wikileaks were South Africa 12%, and then India, Russia, and Spain tied at 15%.
Subsequently, on 19 September 2022, Morning Consult headlined "Many in the West Support Assange’s Leaks, and Few Want Him Extradited to U.S." and reported their pollings in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, & U.S. Lowest approval of Assange was in both UK & U.S., so again those were the two worst. Their report said:
On the question of extraditing Assange, there is a lack of support across Europe’s five largest economies and Australia. Only 21% in Australia back extradition, compared with 46% who oppose it, but it’s Germans who are most against the idea: Just 18% want to see Assange’s extradition go ahead, compared with 52% who said it should not. Opposition outweighs support by 12 percentage points in France, 13 points in Spain and 27 points in Italy.
Only Americans are far more likely to back extradition than not: Support is at 40%, almost double the 21% of adults who are opposed. In the United Kingdom, support for extradition also outweighs opposition, but the gap is much narrower: 30% of U.K. adults support Assange’s extradition, compared with 26% who oppose it. But many in both countries said they have no opinion: 39% in the United States and 44% in the United Kingdom.
In fact, across each country surveyed, sizable portions said they have little knowledge or no opinion
Inside the U.S., there were other pollings.
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On 17 April 2019, I headlined “By 3-to-1, Americans Want Assange Prosecuted” and reported two YouGov polls, 2019 and 2018, both of which showed high American hostility toward Assange personally.
Then, there were these polls in America:
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https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/565245-poll-democrats-more-likely-to-view-julian-assange-as-having/
Poll: Democrats more likely to view Assange as having committed espionage
28 July 2021
35% of Democratic registered voters in the July 20-21 survey said Assange committed espionage. … 24 percent of Republican voters said Assange committed espionage. Females were far more anti-Assange than were males.
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https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2024/06/26/24020/1
Do you have a favorable or an unfavorable opinion of Julian Assange?
26 June 2024
YouGov surveyed 4814 US adults
ALL:
Very favorable 10%
Somewhat favorable 18% that’s 28% favorable
Somewhat unfavorable 15%
Very unfavorable 12% that’s 27% unfavorable
Not sure 46%
MALE: 13, 24, v. 17, 13, only 32 unsure. that’s 37%/30%
FEMALE: 7, 12, v. 13, 10, w. 59 unsure that’s 19%/23%
So, males were more favorable toward Assange than females were.
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https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/biden_administration/just_12_view_julian_assange_as_hero
Just 12% View Julian Assange as Hero
3 July 2024
Americans voters have decidedly mixed views on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s recent release from custody.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that only 12% of Likely U.S. voters consider Assange a hero, while 31% view him as a villain, 45% say he’s somewhere in between and 12% are not sure.
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And here is a video which shows what the entire matter has actually been about:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240705205833/
Julian Assange and the dark secrets of war | DW Documentary
DW Documentary 55 minutes
5 July 2024
8:00- In 2010 Assange receives video which he knows that for him to present publicly might create enormous retaliation against him from the U.S. Government. It shows the U.S. Government authorizing its Iraq snipers to machine-gun to death 9 civilians who are conversing together on the street; and the instruction to them is “Light ‘em all up” then making unambiguously clear the instruction, “Come on, fire!” immediately followed by the rat-a-tat-tat and all of the targets collapsing to the street, but one running away as the firing continues and then he too falls to the ground dead. It is clearly an international war crime, and is so graphic that forever after, the U.S. Government aimed only to destroy Assange, just like he feared would happen from his publishing that evidence.
The U.S. Government has consistently lied about why they destroyed him, and so it got this lie from him that he had committed “espionage” (and got his promise never again to offend them), but this video was the actual reason why they did it, and as is clear ever since 20 March 2003, all who trust the U.S. Government believe its lies again and again and again without limit, and never learn but are permanent fools for the U.S. Government.
So: that is what this matter has really been all about. The U.S. Government prohibits the clear evidence of a U.S. international crime to become published, and demands that any violator will suffer intensely, so as to terrify any other journalist who might consider violating this demand. That’s it. Everything else is propaganda.
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.