Wikileaks: Defend Julian Assange

19Nov
by Maximilian C. Forte

On Thursday 18th November 2010, @wikileaks said:

Why our editor-in-chief is busy and needs to be defended

Thursday, November 18, 2010

WIKILEAKS STAFF EDITORIAL

In October 2010 Julian Assange won the Sam Adams Award for Integrity. He has also been awarded the 2009 Amnesty International Media Award and the Economist Index on Censorship Award in 2008. It is important to remember that accolades such as these do not come without tremendous hard work.

The expose of the Afghan War Diaries was a moment of media history, orchestrated by Julian Assange. He brought together The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel, three of the world’s most reputable newspapers to collaborate with WikiLeaks on exposing more than 90 000 secret significant action reports by the United States relating to the war in Afghanistan. This involved a huge amount of administration in order to co-ordinate all four media partners’ publishing schedules and a lot of time to carefully construct the levels of trust needed to bring together three major newspapers who were also competitors.

Since 2007 Julian, WikiLeaks and the Sunshine Press have been behind international front page stories that have changed the world. However, every story exposing abuses by powerful organizations, whether they be from New York or Nairobi results in a counter attack. Such the importance and veracity of revelations must be defended. Immediately after the Afghan War Diaries he conducted seventy-six interviews in three days maximizing the impact of the disclosures. It is very important for WikiLeaks to create a global platform with which to reach all corners of the earth. This demonstrates to those who wish to expose wrongdoing and misconduct that there is a way to do so without putting themselves at risk. He remains a messenger who big governments and their agencies can, and constantly do, attack while all the time keeping the source of the information published safe.

Because of the nature of the work performed by WikiLeaks both the organization and Julian Assange are constantly under attack. Their servers are under attack. Their security is under attack and their work resources and finances are under attack. This results in a lot of time-consuming administration and means working through a lot of bureaucratic steps to re-establish the efficient running of an organisation. When finances are frozen, as was the case with Money Brokers Limited in August this year (the WikiLeaks account was closed because of “watchlisting” by the US after publication of the Afghanistan documents) it resulted in many letters back and forth, instructing a legal team to administer the situation and still to date there has been no resolution. In just the last 14 days he has met with more than 9 lawyers (excluding Swedish lawyers) in in defense of WikiLeaks’ publishing activities, agreements and sources. Similarly, Julian Assange is subject to these sorts of attacks on a personal level.

He and WikiLeaks both have been attacked in the media by Leon Panetta, Director of the CIA, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and highest ranking officer in the US and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates not to mention the well recognized media personalities such as Marc A. Thiessen, a former bush administration chief speech writer and currently a Washington Post columnist who wrote “Assange is a non-U.S. citizen operating outside the territory of the United States. This means the government has a wide range of options for dealing with him.” Christian Whiton, a Fox News contributor, said “WikiLeaks should be declared ‘enemy combatants’,” indicating they should be dealt with outside the law and Jonah Goldberg, a conservative syndicated columnist asked “why wasn’t Julian Assange garroted in his hotel room years ago?”

Attacks such as these create an extreme need for security and he must always be conscious and personally vigilant – a task that is both time consuming and mentally exhausting. The major government players such as the CIA and the Pentagon do not stop at just Julian but also target many WikiLeaks volunteers or associates. Two volunteers and an American WikiLeaks spokesperson have been detained and questioned in the United States along with other individuals alleged to be participant to his publishing activities such as Bradley Manning, an alleged source who is being held as a political prisoner in the United States. Mr Manning’s mother’s house in Wales was raided by the FBI together with local police earlier this year.

The result is a constant need for legal and political support and managing this from afar and throughout many continents is no small task. Furthermore Julian Assange does not take these matters lightly having been privy to bad experiences in the past – while working on the extra judicial assassinations taking place in Kenya, two WikiLeaks’ affiliates being assassinated.

Since the false allegations made about him in Sweden this August Julian has also needed to work extremely hard at ensuring the smear campaign launched against him has not affected the WikiLeaks brand. Making many public appearances and conducting interviews is absolutely necessary not to mention maintaining relationships with media partners who are so easily affected by such events.

In spite of the attacks against him, Wikileaks successfully released the Iraq War Logs in late October – a cache of over 400 000 US military intelligence reports relating to the war in Iraq. Due to the false allegations mentioned above the management of this leak was extremely difficult. However, he successfully made new lasting relationships and expanded the media partners to include Al Jazeera, Le Monde, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, SVT and also brought in Public Interest Lawyers and NGOs such as Iraq Body Count. The documents’ release was increased to television as well as print media with two full-length documentaries being commissioned.

Julian Assange also readily offers to speak at many public events; especially those he feels will have a resonating effect on people’s rights and liberties, ideals he holds close to his heart. Recently he presented at the United Nations Universal Periodic Review against the United States in Geneva where he offered up evidence from the Iraq War logs of the human right abuses such as the 109 000 deaths, 185 000 casualties, 66 000 civilian deaths and countless cases of torture conducted by America. The speech he gave lasted over two hours alone and the preparation for such an event is mammoth. During his stay in Geneva the Swiss government was so fearful for his personal security that they offered two International Police and two Swiss Police as his bodyguards for the duration, yet another indication of the severity of the danger he encounters on a daily basis. In late September he spoke in London for Index on Censorship regarding Security and censorship in the age of WikiLeaks.

In the coming months Julian Assange aims to carry on the invaluable work and service that WikiLeaks offers the public. In due course he intends on providing information, as yet publically unknown. He has stifled many illegal attacks and remains victorious on all legal attacks against WikiLeaks.

34 thoughts on “Wikileaks: Defend Julian Assange”

  1. Pingback: Tweets that mention Wikileaks: Defend Julian Assange « ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY -- Topsy.com

  2. Shannon Grow-Garrett

    I support Julian all the way and if I could afford to support him financially I would do that too. Leon Panetta needs to go before the Hague along with Bush, Cheney,Gates, Blair and all the other lying murderers. I don’t know what I can do specifically but if someone has ideas I would like to hear them because Julian and the rest of Wikileaks to be protected from these evil doers.

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  5. Valec

    Some more editing before publishing could have helped:
    do come without tremendous hard work.
    excluding Swedish lawyers) in in defense
    And possibly more.

  6. Tom Lowe

    “accolades such as these do come without tremendous hard work”
    Should be “do NOT come without tremendous hard work”.
    But no need for double negative..
    “accolades such as these do come with tremendous hard work”

  7. Tom Jodel

    It takes great courage to stand up to organized criminals, liars, and thieves. Julian deserves our thanks and our support.

  8. Maximilian Forte

    Thanks Tom Jodel.

    Also thanks to those finding the points to edit. As someone who frequently drops entire words when writing, I managed to find the original text to be perfectly understandable.

  9. AgentJunk

    All you guys at WikiLeaks are my heroes. The fight for justice in our broken and corrupt world is a constant uphill battle, but its good to see someone out there fighting for us.

  11. annie

    While appreciating correct grammar, i find the comments about the typos in this article completely outrageous. Tom Lowe, Valec and Yadadyawhateva, shame on you. I imagine there was no time to check for errors due to the fact that all involved in Wikileaks are probably spending their time trying to fight for justice in this world. THANKYOU WIKILEAKS. Your actions and hard work are priceless and you have much support. I´d like to echo Shannon´s comment that you have an army of us behind you waiting to support you in any way possible.

    1. Maximilian Forte

      Thanks Annie for the statement, which I fully support as well. Wikileaks is filling an enormous gap, taking enormous risks, challenging the mightiest powers on earth, helping to raise and change consciousness, contesting the established so-called truths, taking the side of the weak against regimes of conquest, calling for accountability, and helping us think of better ways of organizing human society. I have written many criticisms myself in the past, but always as someone who supports this cause and tries to do whatever I can to further it. The world would be a worse place without people like Julian Assange, and the powers that be that want this world to remain as it is know that very well, which is why they are trying many different ways of essentially stifling if not snuffing out Wikileaks.

  16. ruben

    Hi,

    I’ve helped with a very little donation, because I think wikileaks deverve it and they are gonna need the money to protect themselves and going on with their amazing job.

    Think that they’re showing reality to the world, we should help to keep they strong!

    Don’t hesitate to help, even 5€ is good… my 5€ are nothing, but the sum of all the litte help is gonna be helpfull!

    Thanks WikiLeaks!

  17. ruben

    The horrible things USA government has done and is doing, will be punished. The only thing WL is doing is revealing reality, and those is power doesn’t like questioning, just doing what they want when they want.
    And those that are brain washed with constant terror threads, can’t see anymore than stupid patriotism.

    A ten year old or any person, is the same in USA, in Iraq or China. War does not justify killing innocents. It has never been a war to protect anyone, it has been a war to achive power.

    I feel anger when I think mass media and governments are able to control what people think… and how the fuck people is so dissconected with reality. How can someone aprove tortures? How can someone aprove war?
    I know lot of people justify this with the deads usa have had… but please have a count and compare right now.

    Travelling, knowing people around the world should be compulsory. It makes you realize that we have more things in common than opposite. It makes you realize that war is between governments, with citizens suport obtined with fair/religion, to obtain what governments want.

  18. iridesce

    Currently 483 upvotes and 83 comments on reddit.

    Most thinking humans will correlate the timing of the charges and the work of wikileaks to come up with a reasonable explanation.

    Thanks also for the link to the Tom Hayden article.

    Keep up the spotlight

  19. Andrew

    How about defend Wikileaks; regardless of what happens to Assange, that site needs to keep going.

    I don’t know anything about the accusations, but I know it would be a damn fucking shame if something as local as this would tear down something as globally important as wikileaks.

  20. Eric

    Assange is the public face of Wikileaks. If he goes down it will be a major blow for the site too. It will be buried under the sensationalist major media spam and will forever tainted to the non news junkies as “that rapist site”. Donations will decline as they will fade from the news and be relegated to gossip.

    Believing that WikiLeaks is immune to Assange’s fate is naive.

    Said that i do believe that he has to clear his name one way or another. I do not 100% trust Sweden to be impartial (not after the Pirate Bay trial) but he has to go to court. Your support is to keep the story alive and not let Assange be tried in a backroom away from the spotlight. If he indeed is guilty he will pay, but we must guarantee that he is not a victim of foul play.

    EDIT: Some people seem to ignore the fact that Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks and the editor in chief. He is not hired by the “true” wikileaks admins to play the media clown. He is the man behind the scenes (at least one of the 5). That is why he is attacked and why WikiLeaks would greatly suffer if he is taken out of the picture. Like him or not he is not a marginal and disposable figure in the WL org.

  21. Keven

    I was not attempting to accurately predict the future, but i made an educated guess. Googlebombing and orchestrated smearing articles(CNN, NYT etc) against Assange cannot be a coincidence, and if Assange is just a pawn and a clown why would anyone care to go after him? I think that they are trying to eliminate the public face with a sensational trial thus smearing the site. Will they succeed? Remains to be seen, but if Assange wins it will be a blow for many.

    I agree that there is not much I can do about it other than donate and making as much noise as I can. But after all it is what they ask you to do. They didn’t ask for a lawyer or a lynch mob. As long as the spotlight remains on him he will be in the best possible condition for a fair trial. While you cannot rule foul play out, at least it will be harder to stage a blatant manhunt physical or moral.

  22. Maximilian Forte

    My apologies for the fact that this blog often places legitimate comments in the spam queue–I will find them and retrieve them, not to worry, but it may take your comment a few hours to appear.

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  27. chris

    Exposing the ‘state of affairs’ of USA or Briton is like exposing the Satan himself. The situation is comparable to what Martin Luther did in 16th century in exposing the ‘state of affairs’ of the papacy under the Pope Leo X. Like the current states running for Julian Assange the papacy was behind Martin Luther.
    However, there are differences. States are more powerful and there is less privacy in the current age than it was in 16th century. States are more totalitarian and oligarchic than ever before. Conspiratory circle of the elite oligarchs running the world is stronger and solid than ever. Media is tamed to be the hunting dogs of the power elite. Citizens everywhere are tamed to be boiled vegetables impotent of awareness. In this totalitarian age, it is hugely difficult to expose the state of affairs. The evil of the state has got consolidated with pretensions of democracy, justice,….
    The worst of all totalitarian state power exists is there in the USA followed by the Briton and other G8 nations. Exposing them is so much difficult as attacking Satan on his horns. In these nations we have the most tamed impotent citizens and mediating media mafia. Will truth take its turn as it was during the protestant upraising? I doubt. What is to be done to Assange is what is done to freedom.

  28. konsyltacii

    Невід’ємні права Людини.
    Неотъемлемые права Человека.
    Droits inaliénables de l’homme.
    Unveräußerlichen Rechte des Menschen.
    Inalienable human rights.

    Защищать необходимо не только права женщин, но, как оказывается, и права мужчин.

    Necessary to protect not only the rights of women, but as it turns out, and the rights of men.

    http://blogs.pravda.ru/users/3039108/blog
    http://my.mail.ru/community/konsyltacii.com

    http://planeta.rambler.ru/users/konsyltacii

    http://community.livejournal.com/konsylt

    http://konsyltacii.livejournal.com

  29. konsyltacii

    The basis of legal protection, Mr. Julian Paul Assange of WikiLeaks could be justification for its compliance with existing international law and fundamental human rights (including this and the right to know who controls the people and what they as an intellectual, moral or and professional level, in so far as regards their ability to regulate public social processes).
    In addition, there is legal justification of his right not to disclose sources of information, if released information corresponds to reality and affects the basic rights of many people.
    Regarding of formal charges, Julian Paul Assange (Julian Paul Assange) from WikiLeaks: judging by the charges against him (published in the online information), it probably is not the accused should be, it is likely the victim, because of the very essence of the charges it is clear that it is the actual discrimination and baseless carping from the opposite side, having little to do with human rights and simple logic.

    If it is true what is written on the Internet, Julian Paul Assange got into this situation by formally put forward claims of activists of the feminist movement, which I think is unreasonable requirements, violating his rights as a person. Formally put forward the claim to be in violation, in my opinion, international law and established international human rights law, even in Sweden and have such laws, so distorting the relationship between men and women. Human rights can not be waived or prohibited by national law any country – is repealing the Human Rights Act would be unlawful. The discussion should not abuse the rights and on equality – it means respect for the equal rights of men and their parity, negotiation of reciprocal rights with mutual responsibilities. Me it seems to that in this case is present abuse of right, overstatement of rights for one side due to the illegal diminishing of rights for other side. Therefore, even if in terms of morality, not really nice to meet two girls, from the point of view of the law – he is innocent, if they met voluntarily and without violence.
    I do not understand the position of the Australian Government. Julian Paul Assange, if I understood correctly, is the citizen of Australia, a prosecution was pulled out him in one country, detained in other country. The government of Australia is not interested in the fate of an Australian citizen and it does not want to fulfill their responsibilities to protect its citizens?

  30. konsyltacii

    For lawyers, attorneys Julian Paul Assange from WikiLeaks.

    Я думаю, что американцы должны вспомнить какие люди писали их Конституцию, о какой стране они мечтали, вспомнить о Билле о правах.

    I think that Americans must remember, what people wrote their Constitution, what country they dreamed about, must remember about Bill of Rights.

    Защищать необходимо не только права женщин, но, как оказывается, и права мужчин.

    Necessary to protect not only the rights of women, but as it turns out, and the rights of men.

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