Russia has nothing to do with the email leaks of Clinton
campaign chair John Podesta, as Moscow’s resources allowed it to
hack Hillary herself, Anonymous activist Alex Poucher told RT ahead
of the Million Mask March staged by the hacktivist
group.
"America is very quick to blame Russia for just about anything
these days, especially with things going on in Syria right now,
with the US really wanting to extradite [NSA whistleblower] Snowden
to the US to charge him for trial," Poucher said.
The activist said he does not believe the claims by Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton that Julian Assange’s
website WikiLeaks has been cooperating with Russia and was handed
sensitive data, damaging for her campaign, from Moscow. "What was
Podesta’s password? It was ‘password’ with a zero instead of ‘o.’
Any kid could’ve hacked this email account. I think with the might
of the Russian intelligence and the resources that Russia has
available to them, if they would’ve hacked anybody – they would’ve
hacked Hillary directly and not Podesta," Poucher said.
"I don’t believe that the Russian government has any ties
directly with WikiLeaks," he said, adding that the group’s
whistleblowers, just like Anonymous, "don’t work for any government
or organizations" and stand for the people.
The only link that I could see between Russia and WikiLeaks
would be Sarah Harrison having contacts with Snowden," who has been
granted asylum by Moscow, Poucher said.
He expressed confidence that WikiLeaks would continue releasing
the Podesta emails, despite opposition from the Clinton camp.
However, the activist is skeptical about Clinton suffering any
legal consequences because of them.
"I believe Hillary won’t go jail, but the revelations from these
emails will eventually force her to make confessions regarding
these leaks. And that’s going to be very important for the US
people," Poucher said.
Whistleblowers who risk everything to deliver the truth to the
people "should be applauded" and not persecuted, Poucher said.
"The more the government hides what’s it doing, the more we need
whistleblowers like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden… We should be
looking at these whistleblowers as heroes and not making them lie
in hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, or in Russia," he
added.
There should be nothing criminal about "the leaks and
revelations that are coming out and don’t directly, physically
threaten anyone," the activist said.
"If transparency causes fear, that’s a good indication that the
government isn’t working in accordance with the will of the people.
The people shouldn’t fear their government. The government should
fear the people."
Poucher said the focal point of this year’s worldwide protest
will be the US presidential election on November 8, in which the
top two candidates are the Republican nominee Donald Trump and the
Democratic nominee Clinton.
"Whenever a nation of 300 million people has Trump and Clinton
to choose from, you can tell that the electoral system is either
corrupt or fully rigged," the activist said.
"Until we start seeing changes for these causes that we protest
against – either on a statistical or legislative level – we’re
going to continue protest on November 5 every year," Poucher
said.
The hacking group plans large-scale rallies in Washington, DC,
London and Halifax, as well as smaller actions in 120 cities around
the globe on Friday.
"All together, every city combined, you can expect 100,000 or
more people protesting on this day. Every year it gets bigger and
bigger," the activist said.