“Gracias amigo,” Assange replied. “¿Quién es?”
“Un hombre de Rusia.” Russia? Who on Earth…no bloody way. Assange got excited. He picked up line two.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Assange…do you know who this is?” It was Edward Snowden, but Assange could tell it was best not to mention that on the phone.
“I do. Thanks for contacting me. How are you fairing?”
“I’m a little depressed about how difficult life can be, but I’m trusting it’ll get better. You?”
Assange grinned. “Same old, same old…reading…writing…lecturing via satellite from this humble abode. My hosts are still gracious, thank God.”
“Good, mine too.” It was phenomenal to hear from Snowden. Assange had never spoken with him before, and during his purgatory in the Moscow airport, there was plenty of interference run by those against him from contacting WikiLeaks for protection. Luckily, Amnesty International had gotten to him first bringing more press with them. “I was hoping we could talk.”
“By all means,” replied Assange. “Tell me something good.”
“During my tenure at Big Brother, I saw, read and heard mostly tame stuff. The overwhelming majority of people were just people, and that rule extended across international boundaries. I would estimate 99% of all info I perused was simple, bill of rights material…”
“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?” asked Assange.
“Exactly,” Snowden continued, “very little illegal business and no terrorist activity…until, I began monitoring some of the larger players, Monsanto, Dow Chemicals, GE, big oil, big banks, the government, and especially our military. Suddenly, it was like opening the door to a perverted version of reality. Not only were they often conspiring in illegal behavior, it appeared to be the norm. Suppressing information from the public, bribery, confidence scams, eliminating competition and even murder was commonplace. It was as if they considered themselves immune to any kind of accountability so long as they worked together in secret.”
Assange empathized. “I’m only too aware.”
“When I was younger, I heard a song called ‘Power Corrupts’ by some folk singer named Rob Getzschman. I laughed at his generalizing, what a naïve dude! He clearly didn’t know how America worked. We’re the good guys! My family was a perfect example. We always obeyed the rules, we always stayed the course, and we were always rewarded for doing the right thing, military or otherwise. All the families I was raised around held this same ethic of American exceptionalism, and I was rigid in my agreement…but then working for Big Brother showed me what happens behind the curtain, and my world was split in two: the 99% who just want to live their lives and the 1% who want to control them, at whatever the cost.”
“Well, ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely,’” quoted Assange. “Lord Acton was a lord after all, and 1887 was a banner year for the Bank of England considering the Rothschild’s joined forces with the DeBeers diamond mines of South Africa then...”
“I don’t want any part of it,” Snowden cut him off. “The glimpse I had was Earth shattering, and I will not play their game. It’s not stable, and their culture of lying knows no bounds. They will protect their lifestyles by any means necessary. It goes against humanity…it goes against nature.”
Assange felt for Snowden. He was clearly still in the middle of a breakdown, but at least he was coping.
“Do you know what nature does to forests?” asked Snowden.
“Tell me,” Assange urged.
“Plants compete for sunlight, and eventually you get a handful of massive trees that dominate the landscape. Life still adapts beneath them, and while less is able to grow, what does survive gets protection from the trees. It’s like a trade-off. This goes on for hundreds of years, sometimes thousands…until the tree dies. Then it falls and destroys much of the life beneath it, but even then, the sun shines where it couldn’t before and creates new life, and the process starts all over.” Snowden paused, breathing fast.
“Go on.”
“Our leaders have spent their load. The tree is dead, but instead of letting it fall, they’re propping it up with 2x4s called ‘quantitative easing’ and chains called ‘strategies of tension,’ and balloons called ‘drones.’ They’re hoping against hope that they can keep this tree from falling…they’re hiding the condition of the tree…they’re keeping the public from seeing it, and anyone who tells the People, ‘hey, that tree is dead!’ is silenced by threats, defamation or even death.”
Assange stared the floor. “So what’s the answer?”
“The only way the People can evolve is if they know the tree is dead.” Snowden paused again. “I have some leaks for you.”
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