I'm sure we all have our personal slant on the historical truth. But to the best of my knowlege , consensus would tend to side with Al there; so, personally I'll buy his version over the other one if I have to make a choice.
As for the situation here and now, I really can't take it seriously as a Forces of Light versus Forces of Darkness scenario. Looks to me much more like one bunch of silly aspies versus another bunch of silly aspies , a third bunch of silly aspies desperately attempting to build bridges. Oh! and fourth lot screaming "Shut up! The lot of you"
Personally, I've yet to see any convincing evidence of anybody being dishonest( beyond the usual thing of fooling ourselves) never mind how much that word is bandied about. I think the sad and highly inconvenient fact is that we all pretty much mean what we say, God help us.