This post, beginning to get some traction and claiming that it is the Pentagon itself that wants to take Assange down, raised my eyebrows sky high:

Assange lawyer reveals Pentagon in pursuit of Wikileaks publisher

I decided to google: What is the Pentagon? — seeking to know who, if any particular individual, is behind this pursuit. But of course, got nowhere. However, I did get this amazing archive.

https://archive.defense.gov

At the top of the page, it notes that this IS an archive, and may no longer be current. I clicked on the link, and was taken to the new one which has gobs of bells and whistles, and, of course, is as thoroughly  compartmentalized as are the men and women who work in the U.S. military, either officially, or as civilians for the various corporations that feed off the military octopus.

Instead of getting caught up in the current official labyrinth, I decided to read through the About part of the archive, which details the enormous depth and sweep that the U.S. military has over not only our nation, but the entire world.

I remember Putin once referring (where is that quote?) to the military as a “bureaucracy.” Exactly. And to refer to it that way is to appear take the onus of its immense power to crush anything in its path off individuals and onto the human propensity to build material structures which then tend to grow and expand, just like organic life forms, including cancer.

However, the fact that individuals inhabit the military bureaucracy is important, because, given their personal need for financial security, it is natural that employees, even if not eager to “move up,” are likely insecure and territorial, wanting to both continue and even expand their “position” as well as make some kind of mark on their environment. A new department. A new program. A new weapon system. Bringing down Assange? Something to assure their own legacy.

And so in a bureaucracy devoted to the preventing of destruction which instead creates destruction in order to prevent it, it may be that there is no hope for us other than tearing it completely down.

It appears that the year 1947 was crucial in several ways for the U.S. Gov. Both the CIA and the hierarchical structure of the Pentagon  were established in that year, when Saturn and Pluto were conjunct. Meeting up about every 35-36 years (the last time was 1982-83), these two planets are conjunct again, this year and next (see previous posts). Institutionalization and structures and decisions regarding such can be ascribed to this fairly rare conjunction between these two karmic heavies in the sky.

From the About section of the archive, I pull out these sentences (and bolded parts of them):

With over 1.4 million men and women on active duty, and 718,000 civilian personnel, we are the nation’s largest employer. Another 1.1 million serve in the National Guard and Reserve forces. More than 2 million military retirees and their family members receive benefits.

Headquarters of the Department of Defense, the Pentagon is one of the world’s largest office buildings. It is twice the size of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, and has three times the floor space of the Empire State Building in New York. Built during the early years of World War II . . .

Hmmm. . . so they knew World War II “wouldn’t be the war to end all wars”?

Our military service members and civilians operate in every time zone and in every climate. More than 450,000 employees are overseas, both afloat and ashore.

The Defense Department manages an inventory of installations and facilities to keep Americans safe. The Department’s physical plant is huge by any standard, consisting of more than several hundred thousand individual buildings and structures located at more than 5,000 different locations or sites. When all sites are added together, the Department of Defense utilizes over 30 million acres of land.

These sites range from the very small in size such as unoccupied sites supporting a single navigational aid that sit on less than one-half acre, to the Army’s vast White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico with over 3.6 million acres, or the Navy’s large complex of installations at Norfolk, Virginia with more than 78,000 employees.

So. To say, it is the Pentagon that wants to bring down Assange, what does that mean? Somebody specific there? A particular branch of the Pentagon? Or program? I re-read the original article above: Aha: It is a particular Branch, the Cyber Counter-Intelligence Assessments Branch. But what does that mean? Googling that phrase, “Cyber Counter-Intelligence Assessments,” I see there are lots of permutations of that name, and wonder what it’s really called now. On and on. No real way for me to answer this question. But it does seem to take the onus off the White House. Not to mention that it also pits anyone against “The Pentagon” as a David to its Goliath, including, not just Assange, but perhaps Donald Trump.