Reported 2010 Remark About Assange
What This Image Shows
A screenshot pairing a social-media post with a block of reported text. The post at the top reads: "In America, we defend free speech in terrible times. We defend free speech even when it's offensive. We defend free speech."
The text below recounts a widely republished 2010 account of State Department deliberations over the WikiLeaks cables, describing pressure to "stop, slow or spin" the release, and reporting that at one point a senior official "blurted out a controversial query: 'Can't we just drone this guy?'" about Julian Assange.
The remark has been reported for years and has also been denied and disputed; it rests on unnamed sources and no recording or transcript has been produced. It is presented here as a reported claim, not as an established fact, and nothing about it constitutes an allegation of criminal conduct by anyone.
Its presence in the drone folder is thematic rather than evidentiary. It is filed as an example of how drone strikes have entered political rhetoric, and it has no connection whatever to the events of September 10, 2025 at Utah Valley University.
See the cluster overview, Censorship, and Drones.
Related Areas
More In This Cluster
- Next: Drone — Photo 2