A Private Investigator’s View of Julian Assange
Every day I endeavour to uncover the truth. The first thing you learn when you’re selling the truth for a living is that, unfortunately, it’s in low demand. The average consumer just wants to feel happy and typically considers abstract ideals such as truth an afterthought. As Tony Robbins says, people buy feelings, not things. Fortunately, the truth happens to randomly coincide with emotional or commercial needs just often enough that it’s feasible to eke out a living as a private investigator, but only if you yourself are committed to the truth to compensate for those who are not.
The second lesson you learn on the job is that humans are indeed creatures of habit. My mentor, the late Warren Mallard illustrated this principle to me by imparting the story of the first insurance claim he investigated at the start of his career. His attempts to find any witnesses to a motor vehicle accident had failed so he took up his older colleague’s suggestion and attended the crash site on the day of the week and at the time at which the crash had happened but months later. In doing so he found two people at a nearby bus stop who had seen the accident and, presumably, were there at that time every week.
Warren himself was a perfect reflection of the two principles in action. After forty years of investigating, seeking the just and truthful course had become an everyday habit. He would go out of his way to report any evidence of a serious crime that he became aware of although he knew it would cost him time, effort and place him at risk. He once testified against criminals who issued him death threats and who had allegedly killed another witness. He once tackled a criminal being pursued by police, resulting in a commendation. He endlessly followed up the police when their action was inadequate. At the time I wondered why he did all of this but, after years of dealing in the truth myself, I came to learn that doing the honest and right thing ultimately becomes a compulsion because you see what results from doing the opposite.
In this age, there are many who proclaim their version of the truth and endless opportunities (online) for them to be heard. Emotion clouds the critical thinking capabilities of most people, including the well-intentioned majority and, as discussed above, those of us with a proven methodology for weighing evidence recognise that and understand the damage caused by negligence towards the truth.
The truth has become a central consideration in my life, largely due to my vocation but as one changes focus from one’s work to the world at large, the will to truth can become a dangerous obsession. As a fictional detective once said, be careful what you get good at. I do believe however, to co-opt a Chris Hedges phrase, that the truth draws to it the truth and its nucleus thereby grows ever stronger.
So it was that I eventually found my way to Wikileaks’ publications and to the debate around the function it has played in our society over the last decade. Take it from someone who does this for a living — there is no greater exponent of truth alive today than Julian Assange. The awful crimes and examples of human baseness I have seen up close over and over pale in comparison to what is done by the powerful to the vulnerable in countries you could not locate on a map. Julian has made it his life’s work to provide indisputable primary source evidence that reveals a significant number of these terrible acts are done by our governments or those supported by our governments. Coming to terms with this fact is easier for those of us who rely on evidence and know that nationalistic zeal is just another emotion in the panoply of objectivity-killers, like hatred towards a person accused of a crime he or she did not commit.
When a lying husband consistently gaslights his wife, we rightfully recognise this as emotional abuse and understand that it can lead to serious mental health problems on the part of the victim. When a government lies to its citizens over and over again about its role in the world, we wonder why mental illness amongst the general population is on the increase. When a courageous speaker of truth is actively persecuted, simply for conveying facts, we wonder why groups of people turn to conspiracies that are not based upon evidence.
I take pride in the work I have done in my life but I hope that I can accomplish more in the years I have remaining. The greatest truth is required to repel the greatest evil and there is no greater evil than unjust wars and unnecessary conflicts which result in the death of thousands or millions. Plato noted that nobody is more hated than he who speaks the truth and I suspect that the level of hatred amongst the elites for Julian is commensurate with the power of the truth he has revealed. Claims that “he brought it on himself” or “he’s a narcissist” or “he collaborated with the Russians” are all nonsense of course for anyone with even a modicum of investigative ability but, even if they were true, they do not affect the veracity and importance of anything he has published. Concentrating one’s ire on an individual endeavouring to bring about peace by publishing facts whilst defending governments whose negligence or greed has resulted in millions of deaths is indicative of a greater level of derangement than every sociopath I investigated in a decade put together.
For those who are compelled to seek and speak the truth, we see it in his eyes and we hear it in his words. Julian is driven to right the wrongs of the world and he knows that truth is the means by which we will do that. He cannot help but speak the truth because he knows that many millions of vulnerable people around the world rely on those who are willing in the West to fight to stop the crimes committed by our governments. Even as the full weight of the US superpower was exerted on Julian during his extradition trial, he would not yield and stood and proclaimed “I will not permit the testimony of a torture victim to be censored by this court” when that is exactly what was proposed by the US counsel.
Plato also said that the price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. You should know that there has been no shortage of evil rulers over the last century and there stand to be many more in the 21st century if we each fail do perform our civic duty. Negligence towards the truth is a failure to properly perform a background check on power and is apathy in the purest form. To those not intimately familiar with the work of Wikileaks, you have an important investigation to conduct yourself if you are to fulfil the entreaties of ancient philosophers and help protect our society from evil.
