Interestingly, however, Assange and his loyal band are using this strange episode to fuel the myth that envelopes him. Wikileaks has broadcast seven messages about the story on Twitter, beginning with: "We were warned to expect 'dirty tricks'. Now we have the first one." christian louboutin pumps The second Twitter message communicated the information that "Expressen is a tabloid" and stated that the story was "hugely distracting" – the classic tactic of trying to discredit information by attacking the source and suggesting that it is part of a smear campaign to divert attention from truth, justice, world poverty etc. christian louboutin black This approach worked for John Edwards, the sleazeball former US presidential candidate, who scared off the mainstream media for more than a year by denouncing the christian louboutin sandals reports of his lying, infidelity and illegitimate child were all spot on. Among the Wikileaks groupies – an online crowd that seems to swell by the day – Assange didn't even need to attempt to distract. For people who question every aspect of the American government and military, they are surprisingly eager to suspend all critical judgment in this instance. coach handbags "It's been clear for some time that the Pentagon would love to put a bullet in Julian Assange's brain," opines libertarian blogger Lew Rockwell. But because "sending off a team of professional hit men – as is their wont" would be bad public relations, "the disinfo artists of the [American] military junta" have used "phoney sex charges" instead. cheap handbags outlets For Canadian blogger Matthew Good, the whole thing "fits the CIA's modus operandi like a glove". From New Jersey, Alexander Higgins states that the US government has "truly grown into an Orwellian Big Brother regime" and its corruption is "beyond control". He asks whether Washington has fabricated the accusations against Assange because he had "revealed the slaughter of an untold number of innocent civilians" by the American military. You get the picture. coach bags Assange, 39, has carefully cultivated his persona of being a fearless renegade and elusive target of shadowy forces. Profiles of him mention how his parents met at a Vietnam-era anti-war rally, how he attended dozens of schools as a child, used to sleep rough in Melbourne and now flits from country to country with little more than a laptop. coach pureses Even the august New Yorker portrayed him as an almost supernatural figure "with his spectral white hair, pallid skin, cool eyes, and expansive forehead – like a rail-thin being who has rocketed to Earth to deliver humanity some hidden truth". When Assange chose to dye his "spectral white hair", it sparked an internet frenzy. christian louboutin What Assange is up to is more prosaic. He hit the big time with his video entitled "Collateral Murder" that used footage, shot from a US helicopter, of the killing of alleged insurgents and two Iraqi employees of Reuters, to accuse the American military of a war crime. christian louboutin pumps Oddly enough, it was Stephen Colbert, ostensibly a comedian, who skewered him. "There are armed men in the group. They did find a rocket-propelled grenade among the group. The Reuters photographers who were regrettably killed were not identified as photographers. christian louboutin black Although the cache of documents was trumpeted as the new Pentagon Papers (the 1971 leak that helped discredit the Vietnam War), in reality the documents were remarkable chiefly for their mundaneness. Amid a blizzard of military acronyms, they revealed essentially that war is messy and that civilians sometimes die. christian louboutin sandals Most seriously, however, the documents contained the names of numerous Afghans who had helped British and American forces. Just in case the Taliban have a problem locating them, they also included grid locations and villages along with the names. When Assange unveiled the documents amid a blaze of publicity, he did so sitting in front of Don McCullin's iconic photograph of a US Marine at the Battle of Hue in 1968. Although usually described as being of a soldier suffering from "shell shock", actually it appears to depict a marine steeling himself for the battle ahead. coach handbags In fact, he is a highly political campaigner, and his message that he wants only to protect the vulnerable is undermined by the possibility that ordinary Afghans may already have died because of Wikileaks. cheap handbags outlets