Transcript: The Assange interview The founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has been holed up in a mansion in East Anglia since he was released from prison last week. He is under strict bail conditions while he fights extradition to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning about claims of sexual assault. Today programme presenter John Humphrys went to meet him for what is Mr Assange's first face-to-face broadcast interview since his release. Q: Why won't you go back to Sweden? JA: I have been back. Q: But it has now. JA: It did not happen, and then I asked: "OK, I have things to do, I had only planned to be in Sweden for one week, it's time to leave. Q: Why can't you go back to Sweden? JA: I don't need to go back to Sweden. Q: You do because the law says you must. JA: Well no, the law says that I also have certain rights. Q: But they don't just want to have a chat, do they? JA: No, they do. Q: That rather belittles what this is all about. JA: I have already spoken to them. Q: But they want to talk to you again. Q: Yet. Q: No.
How I met Julian Assange and secured the American embassy cables Julian Assange. Photo: AFP GETTING to WikiLeaks's secret headquarters took quite some time and was not without complications. This year a careful reading of statements by the WikiLeaks co-founder, Julian Assange, led me to conclude his small organisation had landed what could be the biggest leak of classified information - a vast trove of US documents that, among other things, would provide deep insight into the realities of Australia's relationship with our most important ally, the US. As a journalist I thought this was a story worth going for. Curiously few, if any others, thought likewise. Advertisement Six months of emails, clandestine meetings and confidential exchanges followed before arrangements for a visit to Britain were locked in. WikiLeaks takes security very seriously, and it is right to do so. There, using a public telephone, I phoned a number that had been provided earlier through a secure channel. Assange doesn't stand on ceremony and is always focused on the task.
The Blueprint With every day, with every passing hour, the power of the state mobilizes against Wikileaks and Julian Assange, its titular leader. The inner processes of statecraft have never been so completely exposed as they have been in the last week. The nation state has been revealed as some sort of long-running and unintentionally comic soap opera. None of it is very pretty, all of it is embarrassing, and the embarrassment extends well beyond the state actors – who are, after all, paid to lie and dissemble, this being one of the primary functions of any government – to the complicit and compliant news media, think tanks and all the other camp followers deeply invested in the preservation of the status quo. Meanwhile, the diplomatic cables slowly dribble out, a feed that makes last year’s MP expenses scandal in the UK seem like amateur theatre, an unpracticed warm-up before the main event. It’s this triviality which has angered those in power. You know what Terms of Service are?
Julian Assange's rape case: is Sweden just making it up? Julian Assange's former lawyer writes for Crikey Apparently having consensual sex in Sweden without a condom is punishable by a term of imprisonment of a minimum of two years for rape. That is the basis for a reinstitution of rape charges against WikiLeaks figurehead Julian Assange that is destined to make Sweden and its justice system the laughing stock of the world and dramatically damage its reputation as a model of modernity. Sweden’s Public Prosecutor’s Office was embarrassed in August this year when it leaked to the media that it was seeking to arrest Assange for rape, then on the same day withdrew the arrest warrant because in its own words there was “no evidence”. The damage to Assange’s reputation is incalculable. More than three quarters of internet references to his name refer to rape. Now, three months on and three prosecutors later, the Swedes seem to be clear on their basis to proceed. The women here are near to and over 30 and have international experience, some of it working in Swedish government embassies. *James D.
WikiLeaks and Julian Paul Assange The house on Grettisgata Street, in Reykjavik, is a century old, small and white, situated just a few streets from the North Atlantic. The shifting northerly winds can suddenly bring ice and snow to the city, even in springtime, and when they do a certain kind of silence sets in. This was the case on the morning of March 30th, when a tall Australian man named Julian Paul Assange, with gray eyes and a mop of silver-white hair, arrived to rent the place. Assange was dressed in a gray full-body snowsuit, and he had with him a small entourage. “We are journalists,” he told the owner of the house. Eyjafjallajökull had recently begun erupting, and he said, “We’re here to write about the volcano.” Assange is an international trafficker, of sorts. Iceland was a natural place to develop Project B. Assange also wanted to insure that, once the video was posted online, it would be impossible to remove. Assange typically tells would-be litigants to go to hell. “That’s for you,” she said.
[2010] July 27 Interview with WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange TIME July 27 Interview with WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange In a previously unreleased interview from July 27, 2010, TIME talks with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange soon after the release of more than 90,000 documents about the Afghanistan War. RELATED TIME's November 30 interview with WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange More Video Video by Topic Popular Topics Video Series See All Video Topics » Similar Videos for: TIME July 27 Interview with Julian Assange Sign In Not a memeber? Email address or Password is incorrect Want the Full Story?
WikiLeaks defies the “war on hi-tech terror” The attacks on WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, are a response to an information revolution that threatens old power orders, in politics and in journalism. The incitement to murder trumpeted by public figures in the United States, together with attempts by the Obama administration to corrupt the law and send Assange to a hell-hole prison for the rest of his life, are the reactions of a rapacious system exposed as never before. In recent weeks, the US justice department has established a secret grand jury just across the river from Washington in the eastern district of the state of Virginia. The object is to indict Assange under a discredited espionage act used to arrest peace activists during the First World War, or one of the "war on terror" conspiracy statutes that have degraded US justice. When we met in London last year, I said: "You are making some very serious enemies, not least of all the most powerful government, engaged in two wars. “China is the worst offender.
2010-12-04: NSW Supreme Court Solicitor Peter Kemp: Letter to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard By Peter Kemp, Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, on 2010-12-04 Dear Prime Minister From the Sydney Morning Herald I note you made a comment of "illegal" on the matter of Mr Assange in relation to the ongoing leaks of US diplomatic cables. Previously your colleague and Attorney General the Honourable McClelland announced an investigation of possible criminality by Mr Assange. As a lawyer and citizen I find this most disturbing, particularly so when a brief perusal of the Commonwealth Criminal Code shows that liability arises under the Espionage provisions, for example, only when it is the Commonwealth's "secrets" that are disclosed and that there must be intent to damage the Commonwealth. Likewise under Treason law, there must be an intent to assist an enemy. Those offences remain unclear and the Swedish prosecutor Ms Ny appears to be making up the law as she wants. An Australian citizen is apparently being singled out for "special treatment" Prime Minister.