WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is due to plead guilty on Wednesday to violating U.S. espionage law, in a deal that will set him free after a 14-year British legal odyssey and allow him to return home to Australia.
Here are some reactions to the news:
STELLA ASSANGE, ASSANGE’S WIFE
“I feel elated… I also feel worried … Until it’s fully signed off, I worry, but it looks like we’ve got there…We will be seeking a pardon, obviously, but the fact that there is a guilty plea, under the Espionage Act, in relation to obtaining and disclosing national defence information is obviously a very serious concern for journalists.”
AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER ANTHONY ALBANESE
“Regardless of the views that people have about Mr. Assange (and) his activities, the case has dragged on for too long. There is nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia.”
GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER ANNALENA BAERBOCK
“I can only say that I am very happy that this case, which was discussed very emotionally all over the world and moved many people, has finally found a solution.”
ALAN RUSBRIDGER, FORMER EDITOR OF BRITAIN’S GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER
“I’m sorry that it’s taken a plea on a charge of espionage because I don’t think actually anybody thinks that what he was doing was espionage… I think if the attempt was to chill national security reporting, I fear it’s probably worked.”
JODIE GINSBERG, COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS CEO
“Julian Assange faced a prosecution that had grave implications for journalists and press freedom worldwide. While we welcome the end of his detention, the U.S.’s pursuit of Assange has set a harmful legal precedent by opening the way for journalists to be tried under the Espionage Act if they receive classified material from whistleblowers. This should never have been the case.”
GIUSEPPE CONTE, LEADER OF ITALY’S 5-STAR MOVEMENT AND FORMER PRIME MINISTER
“It’s a victory for a global community that asked for his liberation, convinced that in his battle and in his resistance lay the essence of the most profound freedom of expression and the sacrosanct right to information.”
GABRIEL SHIPTON, ASSANGE’S BROTHER
“Millions of people who have been advocating for Julian… it is almost time for them to have a drink and a celebration.”
Photo: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange looks out a plane window as he approaches Bangkok airport for layover, according to the post by Wikileaks on X, in this picture released to social media on June 25, 2024. Wikileaks via X
What is WikiLeaks and why did it get Julian Assange in so much trouble?
WHAT IS WIKILEAKS?
On its website WikiLeaks says it is a multinational media organisation that specialises in analysing and publishing databases of censored or otherwise restricted materials involving wars, spying and corruption.
It was founded by Assange in 2006 and lists several international media organisations among its co-publishers, research partners and funders. It also says that it is a not-for-profit organisation that is funded through public donations.
“WikiLeaks is a giant library of the world’s most persecuted documents,” Assange said of the organisation in an interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel in 2015. “We give asylum to these documents, we analyse them, we promote them and we obtain more.”
The most controversial leaks by WikiLeaks featured classified U.S. military documents and videos from the war it waged in Iran and Afghanistan in the early to mid 2000s that it said highlighted issues such as abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody, human rights violations and civilian deaths.
U.S. authorities said the leaks were reckless, damaged national security, and endangered the lives of agents. Assange’s many supporters said the site upheld free speech and attempts to prosecute him were an assault on journalism.
WHAT DID WIKILEAKS PUBLISH THAT CAUSED SUCH A STIR?
In April 2010, WikiLeaks released a video showing a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff. In June, a U.S. military specialist named Bradley Manning was arrested for releasing the classified video.
Three months later, WikiLeaks released more than 91,000 documents, most of which were secret U.S. military reports about the war in Afghanistan. That was followed in October by the release of some 400,000 classified U.S. military files chronicling the Iraq war from 2004 to 2009.
The releases were the largest leak of their kind in U.S. military history.
Later that same year, WikiLeaks released thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables that included candid views of foreign leaders and blunt assessments of security threats. These included cables from the former king of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah, repeatedly urging the United States to attack Iran’s nuclear program and others about China directing cyberattacks on the United States.
In the meantime, Assange was fighting against an order by a Swedish court to detain him as a result of an investigation into allegations of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion. He was arrested in December 2010 in Britain on a European warrant. Assange denied the allegations and said from the outset that it was a pretext to extradite him to the United States to face charges over the WikiLeaks releases.
In 2011, WikiLeaks released thousands of previously unpublished U.S. diplomatic cables from its cache of more than 250,000 State Department reports.
WAS WIKILEAKS THE ONLY ONLINE ACTIVIST?
No. A loose grouping of cyber activists supporting WikiLeaks launched a spate of online attacks on organisations seen as hostile to the site, and then after Assange’s arrest in 2010, they started spreading the leaked documents far and wide online.
Another group of internet activists operating under the name “Anonymous” temporarily brought down websites of credit card giants MasterCard and Visa after they had stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks.
Today, the site says it accepts donations in crytocurrencies, including bitcoin.
Via Reuters
