Julian Assange: Wikileaks founder extradition to US blocked by UK judge https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13634425/boris-johnson-schools-coronavirus/
Early publications[edit] Assange at the "New Media Days 09" in Copenhagen November 2009 Assange and others established WikiLeaks in 2006. Assange became a member of the organisation's advisory board[65] and described himself as the editor-in-chief.[66] From 2007 to 2010, Assange travelled continuously on WikiLeaks business, visiting Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.[31][37][67][68][69] WikiLeaks published internet censorship lists, leaks,[70] and classified media from anonymous sources, including revelations about drone strikes in Yemen, corruption across the Arab world,[71] extrajudicial executions by Kenyan police,[72] 2008 Tibetan unrest in China,[73] and the "Petrogate" oil scandal in Peru.[74] Assange and Daniel Domscheit-Berg at the 26C3 in Berlin, December 2009 WikiLeaks first came to international prominence in 2008,[75] when "most of the US fourth estate" filed an amicus curiae brief—through the organizational efforts of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP)—to defend Wikileaks against a DMCA request from the Swiss bank Julius Baer, which had initially been granted.[76] In September 2008, during the 2008 United States presidential election campaigns, the contents of a Yahoo! account belonging to Sarah Palin (the running mate of Republican presidential nominee John McCain) were posted on WikiLeaks after being hacked into by members of Anonymous.[77] After briefly appearing on a blog, the membership list of the far-right British National Party was posted to WikiLeaks on 18 November 2008.[78] In 2009, WikiLeaks released a report disclosing a "serious nuclear accident" at the Iranian Natanz nuclear facility.[79] According to media reports, the accident may have been the direct result of a cyber-attack at Iran's nuclear program, carried out with the Stuxnet computer worm, a cyber-weapon built jointly by the United States and Israel.[80] Cypherpunks was published in November 2012.[81] In 2012, Assange hosted a television show called the World Tomorrow on RT, a network funded by the Russian government.[82] Iraq and Afghan War logs and US diplomatic cables[edit] The material WikiLeaks published between 2006 and 2009 attracted various degrees of international attention,[83] but after it began publishing documents supplied by U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, WikiLeaks became a household name. In April 2010, Wikileaks released the Collateral Murder video,[5] which showed United States soldiers fatally shooting 18 people from a helicopter in Iraq, including Reuters journalists Namir Noor-Eldeen and his assistant Saeed Chmagh.[6] Reuters had previously made a request to the US government for the Collateral Murder video under Freedom of Information but had been denied. Assange and others worked for a week to break the U.S. military's encryption of the video.[84][85] In October 2010, Wikileaks published the Iraq War logs, a collection of 391,832 United States Army field reports from the Iraq War covering the period from 2004 to 2009.[86] Assange said that he hoped the publication would "correct some of that attack on the truth that occurred before the war, during the war, and which has continued after the war".[87] Regarding his own role within Wikileaks he said "We always expect tremendous criticism. It is my role to be the lightning rod … to attract the attacks against the organization for our work, and that is a difficult role. On the other hand. I get undue credit".[88]
Other Manning material published by Wikileaks included the Afghanistan War logs in July 2010,[89] and the Guantánamo Bay files in April 2011.[90] Wikileaks published a quarter of a million U.S. diplomatic cables,[91] known as the "Cablegate" files, in November 2010. Wikileaks initially worked with established Western media organisations, and later with smaller regional media organisations, while also publishing the cables upon which their reporting was based.[92][93] The files showed United States espionage against United Nations and other world leaders,[94][95][96] revealed tensions between the U.S. and its allies, and exposed corruption in countries throughout the world as documented by U.S. diplomats, helping to spark the Arab Spring.[97][98] The Cablegate and Iraq and Afghan War releases impacted diplomacy and public opinion globally, with responses varying by region.[93] Assessments[edit] Opinions of Assange at this time were divided. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard described his activities as "illegal",[99] but the police said he had not broken Australian law.[100] Then United States Vice-President Joe Biden and others called him a "terrorist".[101][102][103][104][105] Some called for his assassination or execution.[106][107][108][109][110] Support for Assange came from Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,[111] Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa,[112] Russian President Dmitry Medvedev,[113][114] British Member of Parliament (and later Labour Party leader) Jeremy Corbyn,[115] Spanish Podemos party leader Pablo Iglesias,[116] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay,[117] and Argentina's ambassador to the UK, Alicia Castro.[118] He also garnered support from many leading activists and celebrities, including Tariq Ali,[119] John Perry Barlow,[120] Daniel Ellsberg,[121][122] Mary Kostakidis,[123] John Pilger,[124][125] Ai Weiwei,[126] Michael Moore,[127] Noam Chomsky,[126] Vaughan Smith,[128][129] and Oliver Stone.[130 Gun camera footage of the airstrike of 12 July 2007 in Baghdad, showing the deaths of journalists Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh by a US helicopter In 2010 Assange received the Sam Adams Award,[131] and a string of distinctions: the Le Monde readers' choice award for person of the year,[132][133] the Time readers' choice award for person of the year,[134][135] a deal for his autobiography worth at least US$1.3 million,[136][137][138] and selection by the Italian edition of Rolling Stone as "Rockstar of the year".[139]
Other Manning material published by Wikileaks included the Afghanistan War logs in July 2010,[89] and the Guantánamo Bay files in April 2011.[90] Wikileaks published a quarter of a million U.S. diplomatic cables,[91] known as the "Cablegate" files, in November 2010. Wikileaks initially worked with established Western media organisations, and later with smaller regional media organisations, while also publishing the cables upon which their reporting was based.[92][93] The files showed United States espionage against United Nations and other world leaders,[94][95][96] revealed tensions between the U.S. and its allies, and exposed corruption in countries throughout the world as documented by U.S. diplomats, helping to spark the Arab Spring.[97][98] The Cablegate and Iraq and Afghan War releases impacted diplomacy and public opinion globally, with responses varying by region.[93] Assessments[edit] Opinions of Assange at this time were divided. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard described his activities as "illegal",[99] but the police said he had not broken Australian law.[100] Then United States Vice-President Joe Biden and others called him a "terrorist".[101][102][103][104][105] Some called for his assassination or execution.[106][107][108][109][110] Support for Assange came from Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,[111] Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa,[112] Russian President Dmitry Medvedev,[113][114] British Member of Parliament (and later Labour Party leader) Jeremy Corbyn,[115] Spanish Podemos party leader Pablo Iglesias,[116] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay,[117] and Argentina's ambassador to the UK, Alicia Castro.[118] He also garnered support from many leading activists and celebrities, including Tariq Ali,[119] John Perry Barlow,[120] Daniel Ellsberg,[121][122] Mary Kostakidis,[123] John Pilger,[124][125] Ai Weiwei,[126] Michael Moore,[127] Noam Chomsky,[126] Vaughan Smith,[128][129] and Oliver Stone.[130 Gun camera footage of the airstrike of 12 July 2007 in Baghdad, showing the deaths of journalists Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh by a US helicopter In 2010 Assange received the Sam Adams Award,[131] and a string of distinctions: the Le Monde readers' choice award for person of the year,[132][133] the Time readers' choice award for person of the year,[134][135] a deal for his autobiography worth at least US$1.3 million,[136][137][138] and selection by the Italian edition of Rolling Stone as "Rockstar of the year".[139]
In 2011, Assange won the Sydney Peace Foundation Gold Medal for Peace with Justice.[140] Two weeks later, he filed for the trademark "Julian Assange" in Europe, which was to be used for "Public speaking services; news reporter services; journalism; publication of texts other than publicity texts; education services; entertainment services".[141][142][143] Assange was made an honorary member of the Australian trade union, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, in 2010.[144][145][146] He was awarded the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in June 2011,[147][148] having earlier won the Amnesty International UK Media Award (New Media) in 2009.[149] In 2011, the Walkley Foundation awarded WikiLeaks the Walkley Award for "Most outstanding contribution to journalism".[150] It commended WikiLeaks and Assange for their "brave, determined and independent stand for freedom of speech and transparency that has empowered people all over the world".
Wkilieaks started off OK and took a neutral and responsible position on what it exposed. I donated to keep it going in the early days. However, Assange gradually got more of a messiah complex, Wikileaks became more targetted in its exposes and responsibility went out of the window. A shame, but Assange is a twat. DS
He has saved lives! There should be a place for whistle blowing, and Wikileaks is as good as any. Can you just right him off and let him get locked up for years cos hes a twat. Anyone with that many endowments from World Leaders and News Papers, Amnesty International UK Media award, etc . There is no doubt he is being hounded as an example to make others button it. He may have went nuts, but who can say they would still be sane after all he's been through.
