From ICHC.
Did Julian Assange say the alien invasion was beginning this year, and by 2015 the would would be run by aliens? He absolutely did not. Period. If that’s all you need to know, move along. Otherwise, git comfortabuls:
The UFO world is abuzz this month for two big reasons. The first is the release of 8,500 UFO-related British government documents, which are available free at the National Archive, w00t w00t w00t. Or you can save time and check out that site’s PDF-format Highlights Guide, which is only a 397K download.
The second is that back in February, Julian Assange made a passing reference to UFOs in response to a question at the Wikileaks roundtable. The question related to a December news story that Assange was going to release information about UFOs. This was sorta weak soup compared to what people were expecting. Here’s the Assange quote from the transcripts, via UFO-Blogger.com:
Julian Assange: “I have said in the past that there is information about UFO’s in Cablegate. And that is true, but these are only small references. Most of the material concerns UFO cult and there behavior in recruiting people. For instance there is quite a large cable which we will try to release in the next few days concerning the Raëlians, a UFO cult which has a strong presence in Canada and was a concern to the US ambassador in Canada. At that time the Raëlians claimed to have cloned an Individual and fantastically the press all around the world ate this up and turned it into front page stories.”
…Which is not really news, dude. Whack-ass Raëlians is so, like, 2005.
On UFO Blogger, the comments on this piece are awesome:
As much as I would love to “have it both ways,” with a “69 year old cover up” (hee hee hee hee!!!!) it’s a little strange to claim that Assange, of all people, knows something and then, when Assange says this is what he knows, claim that what he knows is bigger than what he knows. I’m probably telling you what you already know, but that’s kind of wacky.
But that kind of cherry-picking of information and sources is common in the conspiracy-theory community. And that’s nothing compared to the claims about Assange showing up in a series at Huliq.com about what the British documents mean and what 2011 will bring for the UFO invasion. In the first post we’re taken to Brays Point, the furthest-west point in Oregon and a popular place for spotting UFOs. Here’s Dave Masko at Huliq:
According to recently released British government secret UFO files, [Brays Point] is reported to have possible alien encampments in its deep forests.
[Link.]
Say what!?! Tell me more!! But, sadly, even UFO nuts can’t resist taking a Charlie Sheen diversion this week:
Last week’s release of 8,500 pages of secret British unidentified flying object (UFO) reports are growing in both size and number with keen interest by world authorities. At the same time, the fascination with Charlie Sheen is tempered by serious questions regarding this hoard of valuable UFO sighting and alien contact information that’s been kept under lock and key for more than 60 years. Most significant, say UFO watchers is British UFO documents linking other reports out of “Mother Russia” with regular UFO sightings and believed contact on the ground in the deep forests of Eastern Siberia.
Those Siberian reports, incidentally, have been making the rounds this week. They’re covered here by UFO Digest, which claims they’re “proof” of alien contact.
But oh, the “proof” is coming fast and furious. Here’s the section with what Masko claims Assange said that is so “controversial”:
Julian Assange has final word on what’s predicted for 2011
Assange has recently gone on record with the Guardian’s talk shows, and website interviews that includes this final word from Assange about his views on the UFO files that he still controls:“The threats against our lives are a matter of public record, however, we are taking the appropriate precautions to the degree what we are able when dealing with superpowers.
Assange continued by stating that “the international community is aware of an alien invasion that began in March (2010, last year) and that they predict will continue for the next five years. The global community is trying to protect the citizens of Earth from the truth, which is that by 2015, Earth will be controlled by aliens.”
Whoa!!! Wait, did Julian Assange just say that by 2015 the world will be controlled by aliens? If that’s true, it means it’s not already, which would be strange, and, well, that by 2015 it will be, which would be…you know, strange.
Has Assange signed up for an all-expenses-paid sojourn at the Happy Hills Laughing Academy? Or does he know something I don’t? Clearly UFO nuts are leaning toward the later interpretation. They’re sure he knows something we all don’t.
UFO message boards are alive with Assange’s soundbite saying that the world will be taken over by aliens by 2015. What’s even more astonishing, because of the nature of swiped content in today’s infested web, the quote is bouncing, without context, reference or linkback, to innocuous-looking URLs as far afield as floridatoday.com (with the content tag “World War II” for some reason), techcomnews.blogspot.com (which cleverly strips out the “Weekly World News” from the opener so search engine teasers only refer to it as “WWN”), horseracing.msg.com (huh!?!?!?) and many more.
Sadly, the first hit on Google for the opening line of that quote is this one. It appears to be the origin of the quote:
In a secure Skype chat with Weekly World News this morning, Julian Assange of Wikileaks – who is in an undisclosed bunker – confirmed that a large number of documents in his latest release reveal a massive international cover-up about the existence of UFOs and extraterrestrial life.
Assange indicated that WikiLeaks has unreleased documents about UFO, sparking concerns about the existence of the second form of life. In a conversation with Frank Lake of WWN, Assange said, ‘Many weirdos email us about UFOs or how they discovered that they were the anti-Christ whilst talking with their ex-wife at a garden party over a pot-plant.’
‘However, as yet they have not satisfied two of our publishing rules. However, it is worth noting that in yet-to-be-published parts of the Cable Gate archive there are numerous references to UFOs.’
Assange told WWN that after the recent earthquake in Haiti there were thousands of individuals that saw UFOs over the country. Hillary Clinton ordered all photos of the UFOs destroyed. She also ordered all documents relating to UFOs sightings in Haiti to be deleted from all computers. But Assange has the documents and the photos.
Assange went on to say that the international community is aware of an alien invasion that began in March of this year and that they predict will continue for the next five years. “The global community is trying to protect the citizens of earth from the truth, which is that by 2015, Earth will be controlled by aliens.”
[Link.]
Just to half-assedly track down the potential hoaxes within this hoax, the Wikipedia entry confirms, for what it’s worth, that Weekly World News relaunched its site at that URL in 2006, but whether it’s the original publishers I can’t really tell. The “About” page does claim that the current publishers control the trademark licenses. But the Bat Boy musical was, as far as I can tell, totally unaffiliated with the publishers of the satiric newspaper, and unlicensed. So it’s not unthinkable that someone would hoax a new WWN site.
In any event, Assange DID NOT say the Earth will be controlled by aliens by 2015.