Joshua Foust: Has Wikileaks Been Infiltrated by Russian Spies?
Has Wikileaks Been Infiltrated by Russian Spies?
Leak group and Moscow’s intel agency sure do have a lot in common
Joshua Foust in War is Boring
August 29, 2013
It might sound strange, but Wikileaks has probably been infiltrated by Russia’s Federal Security Bureau, the post-Soviet successor to the KGB. Moreover, there are signs that Edward Snowden’s flight to Russia, eventually seeking asylum there, was organized by Russian intelligence. So was his defection a Russian intel op?
Julian Assange and Israel ShamirNothing in the public record supports such a strong conclusion. In fact, it looks like Snowden made the decision to leak his cache of documents independently of any sympathy with Russia. But the chain of events leading up to Snowden’s flight, and his decision in Hong Kong to flee to Russia, of all places, strongly suggests that Russian intel has coopted him to a remarkable degree.
Wikileaks’ ties to the Russian government
Many people object to the idea that Wikileaks is not a “pure,” public-interest based organization. After all, that is the official line out of Wikileaks itself, told mostly by Julian Assange. But Assange has some curious ties to the Russian government that bear exploring.
Most obvious is his show on RT, the Kremlin-funded propaganda network. Called “The World Tomorrow,” its first 12 episodes featured a ragtag bunch of terrorists and lefties — and even endorsed Ecuadorian president Raphael Correa’s increasingly violent crusade to end free media in his country. Not coincidentally, Ecuador and Russia enjoy increasingly close relations.