The editor-in-chief of "WikiLeaks" talks about Washington's lie in Afghanistan... and the complicity of the Western media
WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristin Hrafnsson said the sudden US withdrawal from Afghanistan should not surprise anyone.
He added that Washington's ability to deceive the world for two decades is shocking, as the Western media "colluded" in concealing the truth of the Afghan war, allowing the reinforcement of that "extraordinary lie" throughout this period.
Hrafnsson said Washington's 19-year war campaign in Afghanistan was a "big lie" that only benefited the US military-industrial complex and private contractors. The current chaotic withdrawal is no surprise, but mainstream media outlets around the world have not been aware of the lies that perpetuated the war so long ago.
WikiLeaks had published a set of documents that "all painted a true picture of what was happening in Afghanistan 11 years ago," according to Hrafnsson, referring to the so-called "Afghan War Diary," a compilation of US domestic military records and diplomatic cables. and documents from the CIA, covering the period between 2004 and 2010.
The leak, in which WikiLeaks published 91,000 documents, is considered one of the largest leaks in the history of the US military, as these leaks made headlines at the time, which eventually led to the arrest and prosecution of the whistleblower, Chelsea Manning, and the status of “WikiLeaks” and its founder, Julian Assange, in Washington's crosshairs.
Despite the file dump of those documents, the public perception of the Afghan war did not change, the lies “continued,” and the situation, as Hrafnsson describes it, was “amazing.”
“It is surprising that it lasted this long,” Hrafnsson continues, and then that war became a “forgotten war,” after it was overshadowed by another American military adventure, the war in Iraq.
The blackout on what is happening inside the United States of America had been "largely avoided", until the "Washington Post" revealed the matter again, by publishing the so-called "Afghan papers" in 2019.
Those documents, obtained by The Washington Post through Freedom of Information Act claims, portray a continuing effort by several successive US administrations to mislead the American public about involvement in Afghanistan.
Hrafnsson accused the Western media, which paid no attention to reality, of being "complicit in concealing these facts" and of allowing the situation to deteriorate. "There is a lot of self-confrontation going on in one's mind that journalists usually have to do," he added.
Ultimately, the US military-industrial complex benefited from what turned out to be a colossal waste of money, according to the WikiLeaks editor-in-chief. More than a trillion dollars has gone into the pockets of this complex and private contractors, who were supposed to be training the Afghan police, adding that the largest arms manufacturers in the United States of America have seen a “tenfold increase” in the value of their stock, over the course of 20 years. from the war.
It was a massive influx of money into the wrong pockets, and it can only be described as corruption on a massive scale. Now the truth of the war is out for all to see as Washington and its allies frantically withdraw from Afghanistan, which fell to the Taliban in just a matter of weeks. However, this is unlikely to change the political trajectory of Western elites, who still prefer to "punish those who speak the truth" rather than draw lessons from their mistakes, Hrafnsson believes.
"The war now going on is the war on the press, the war on Julian Assange, who still has to spend some time in prison in the City of London," in a trial "political, not legal," Christine Hrafnsson continued. He asked, “Does the truth matter there? I doubt it".
Source: RT
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