Controversial Figures

Episode 12: Julian Assange Part 2 (Hacker Interrupted)

• Tammy Hawkins • Season 1

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We start Part 2 of the Julian Assange story with many questions. Will Julian Assange evade extradition and his numerous looming legal charges? Did Julian assist Russia with illegal United States Presidential election interference in 2016? Did Julian help Edward Snowden escape capture by the United States? And maybe most controversially - did Julian really date Pamela Anderson? Find out all of this and much, much more on the Part 2 of wild and crazy Julian Assange today on Controversial Figures.


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00:00

In 2012, Julian Assange was on the run from Interpol as a wanted fugitive to be extradited immediately to Sweden. He was living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London under diplomatic asylum to avoid that extradition. And, Julian and Wikileaks were actively being investigated by the US government for espionage charges. You could say Julian had gotten himself into quite the pickle.

 

00:26

Julian had created the confidential secret revealing website Wikileaks in 2006 - and since that creation, Wikileaks disclosures had caused uprisings and chilling international relations between superpowers. Some considered Julian a fighter for radical transparency and media freedom; others saw him as a selfish, terroristic anarchist and sought retribution for his perceived crimes.

 

00:53

We start Part 2 of the Julian Assange story, there are many questions. Will Julian Assange evade extradition and his numerous looming legal charges? Did Julian assist Russia with illegal United States Presidential election interference in 2016? Did Julian help Edward Snowden escape capture by the United States? And maybe most controversially - did Julian really date Pamela Anderson? Find out all of this and much, much more on the Part 2 of wild and crazy Julian Assange story today on Controversial Figures.

 

01:32

Musical Interlude

 

02:00

Welcome to Controversial Figures; a podcast about intriguing figures in the media. My name is Tammy Hawkins. If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a 5 star rating and comment on Apple Podcasts; it really helps others find the podcast. We are on Twitter @figurespodcast if you would like to suggest any controversial figures to be covered in a future episode.

 

02:20

And finally, thank you so much to those that donated to Patreon this week. Donating to Controversial Figures on Patreon helps me continue to bring new content - and you will get a shout out on a future show. Today I'd like to extend a mighty thank you to Kyle Wilhoit and Lashana Lewis - I'll be sending your swag out this weekend!

 

02:39

Alright, let's get started with the Part 2 of the wild life story of Controversial Figure Julian Assange.  We highly suggest you listen to Part 2 of this story before proceeding. This episode will discuss Julian's years on the run.

 

02:56

When we left Julian Assange, it was 2012, and he had an extradition warrant pending in Sweden for sexual assault charges stemming from 2010. This warrant would soon be followed by an Interpol Red Notice, or an international wanted person's notice, issued for Julian Assange in November 2010 at Sweden's request once Julian informed the Swedish authorities that he refused to return to the country to face his charges.

 

03:26

And things were only getting tougher for Julian in the coming months. WikiLeaks had recently released the highly confidential and controversial Chelsea Manning material, which lead the United States to begin investigating WikiLeaks and Julian Assange for prosecution under the Espionage Act of 1917.

 

03:44

Now, let's double click on really enraged the United States, beyond what Wikileaks was publishing. 

 

03:51

In August 2010, Julian Assange gave Guardian journalist David Leigh an encryption key and a URL where he could locate the full Cablegate file. 

 

04:03

Now, as a reminder, Cablegate consisted of over 250k messages sent to the US State Department by hundreds of its consulates, embassies, and diplomatic missions around the world between December 1966 and February 2010. This was the largest payload of confidentially leaked data from the US Government ever.

 

04:28

In February 2011, David Leigh and follow Guardian journalist Luke Harding, published a book titled WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy via Guardian Books. Now, I quoted from this book, which was later published in parts as Guardian articles, in the Part 1 of this podcast tale. In this book, David Leigh would reveal the encryption key Assange had given him to access the unredacted cables for his reporting for The Guardian.

 

05:02

When the cables had been published on Wikileaks, sensitive information, such as government worker and civilian names, were redacted to protect them. 

 

05:12

The irresponsible publication of this password by The Guardian journalists meant anyone on the internet that could find the original encrypted packaging of the cables could now crack the password and see unredacted information that would put many US government employees and civilians at risk, in addition to leaking lots of confidential information captured about countries around the world. 

 

05:36

After the fact, the journalists would try to defend themselves by saying Julian had told them the password would not longer be valid after a number of hours. One thinks a responsible journalist might have tested this theory to protect others' lives, but this journalistic organization didn't find that important.

 

05:56

And unfortunately copies of the bittorrent mirror file were not private, and it was pretty easy for folks to search and find using a magnet link. I'm not going to go into depth on these technology areas, but will suffice to explain that bittorrent is a peer to peer sharing network protocol, and a magnet link is a way to find a content using a cryptographic hash value as opposed to the location. If you're curious to know more about this, security guru Bruce Schneier has a fantastic article on this you can find in the show reference notes.

 

06:40

In case you are curious, the key to the document was: ACollectionOfDiplomaticHistorySince_1966_ToThe_PresentDay#. Julian provided the password without the word Diplomatic in the string. He handed a scrap of paper to the journalist and told him verbally "That’s the password. But you have to add one extra word when you type it in. You have to put in the word ‘Diplomatic’ before the word ‘History’. Can you remember that?” This is common in the security world - the password is combination of something you have (the password on a piece of paper) and something you know (the extra word in your head to be added to the password).

 

07:26

There is an interesting 2016 documentary film on Showtime by the name of Risk which was written and directed by Laura Poitras. Laura's name may sound familiar, as she also directed Citizenfour, the documentary about Edward Snowden. Citizenfour documented Edward Snowden as he was leaking sensitive information he had stolen from the US government to the media. I highly recommend you check it out if you haven't watched it. 

 

07:53

Back to Laura's movie about Julian - the opening scene of the film Risk shows Julian Assange with Wikileaks staffer Sarah Harrison calling the U.S. State Department, in response to the unredacted cable password leak. It is absolutely stunning to watch how calm yet sharply assertive Julian is in calling and talking to White House and governmental staff during this interchange. Julian demands the US step-up security procedures, and Julian attempts to make it clear that this unredacted leak was not an intentional act of damage to the United States by Wikileaks or Julian Assange. 

 

08:40

Predictably, the lawyer on the other end of the phone gives Julian a tongue lashing on this is why the US government has asked you time and again not to take any of this information onto yourself and Wikileaks, as you are not prepared to protect it and you do not have the right to it. Now you've yet again put lives at risk. To which Julian always reverts to his "freedom of media" defense and states this is United States problem, not a Julian or Wikileaks problem, I'm just trying to help you protect lives.

 

09:13

To me, honestly, the phone call and entire action looked like Julian attempting to save face in front of the documentary cameras. A lame attempt to protect the thinning veneer of the Robinhood of Hacking he once was. Attempting to justify actions that often have produced as much harm as help.

 

09:28

The coup de grace of the Risk documentary is when director Laura Poitras documents Julian donning his disguise, including brown hair dye, brown facial hair, fake ear plugs, a motorcycle outfit, and eye color changing contacts. This is what he wore to abscond to the Ecuadorian embassy to apply for asylum, and it is all documented. Julian successfully made his escape to the embassy in his disguise, and would remain there for much longer than anyone, including Julian, had considered.

 

10:02

Starting in June 2012, officers from the London Metropolitan Police Service were stationed outside the Ecuadorian embassy building 24x7 to arrest Julian Assange for breaching the bail conditions and to take him to court to face the Swedish extradition appeal hearing, should he ever leave the embassy. 

 

10:22

The Ecuadorian foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, announced that Julian Assange had applied for political asylum, and they were considering the request due to the threat represented by the United States investigation against him, and the United States belief in the death penalty. While his asylum request was processed, Julian would remain free at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

 

10:46

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa confirmed that Julian Assange could stay at the embassy indefinitely. The office in the embassy was converted into a studio apartment, equipped with a bed, telephone, sun lamp, computer, shower, treadmill, and kitchen.

 

11:05

Julian certainly did not let his new living situation slow down Wikileaks. According to documents CNN obtained from an Ecuadorian intelligence official, Julian continued to publish Wikileaks material while in the Ecuadorian embassy in London at a regular cadence.

 

11:21

Julian also didn't let his permanent embassy stay limit his political aspirations. That's right, Julian would run for office from the Ecuadorian embassy. Julian  Assange stood for the Australian Senate in the 2013 Australian federal election for the newly formed WikiLeaks Party, and probably to no one's surprise, failed to win a seat.

 

11:51

Also in 2013, Julian Assange and others within WikiLeaks would help a whistleblower we covered on episode 1 of Controversial Figures and mentioned a little earlier in this episode - Edward Snowden! 

 

12:05

Julian would indeed help Edward Snowden flee from United States law enforcement. After the US cancelled Snowden's passport, stranding him in Russia, Julian and Wikileaks were supposedly involved in transporting Snowden to Latin America on the presidential jet of a sympathetic Latin American leader. 

 

12:24

In order to throw the US off the scent, Wikileaks intentionally privately leaked information about Snowden being aboard the jet of the Bolivian president Evo Morales, instead of the jet they were actually considering. As a result of this false flag leak, Morales' jet was forced to land in Austria in July 2013. The ruse worked, Snowden disappeared.

 

12:51

It is said, on Julian Assange's advice, Edward Snowden sought asylum in Russia, where he still resides today.

 

13:00

In 2013, the US said it was unlikely that the Justice Department would indict Julian Assange for publishing classified documents because "it would also have to prosecute the New York Times and other news organizations and writers who published classified material, including The Washington Post and Britain's Guardian newspaper".

 

13:21

However, Julian Assange was being examined by several other government agencies, including the FBI. Documents that Edward Snowden would later publish in 2014 showed the US government put Julian on a "2010 Manhunting Timeline" and they had urged allies to also open criminal investigations into Julian. The same documents also exposed a proposal from the National Security Agency (or NSA) to designate Wikileaks as a "malicious foreign actor". This would allow for increased surveillance against the entity as well as Julian.

 

14:01

In January 2015, WikiLeaks issued a statement saying that three members of the organization had received notice from Google that Google had complied with a federal warrant by a US District Court to turn over their emails and metadata on April 5, 2012. By 2015, WikiLeaks had published more than ten million documents. And the noose was tightening on Julian from the US investigative perspective.

 

14:32

On July 3, 2015, Paris newspaper Le Monde published an open letter from Julian Assange to the French President in which Julian urged the French government to grant him refugee status. In response to this letter, the French President said: "France cannot act on his request. The situation of Mr. Assange does not present an immediate danger."

 

14:55

Back in London, the Metropolitan Police Service were withdrawn from the Ecuadorian embassy due to cost in October 2015, but the police said they would still deploy "several overt and covert tactics to arrest Julian". The cost of the policing to UK taxpayers for this period was reported to have been over £12.6 million pounds.

 

15:20

In what would be yet another controversial move, Julian would write on WikiLeaks in February 2016: "I have had years of experience in dealing with Hillary Clinton and have read thousands of her cables. Hillary lacks judgment and will push the United States into endless, stupid wars which spread terrorism. ... she certainly should not become president of the United States."

 

15:48

It is important to note he made this comment when America was in a heavy election cycle, with Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton being the forerunners. Hillary in particular had been rather vocal about her disdain for Julian Assange during her stint as Secretary of State during the Obama administration in 2009 and 2013 when Julian and Wikileaks were very busy. Julian would not forget this when she was nominated as the Democratic primary elect.

 

16:18

On July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks released damning emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) seemingly showing that the DNC favored Clinton’s campaign and tried to undercut other Democratic candidates such as Bernie Sanders. These email disclosures lead to the resignation of DNC party chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.  And unfortunately lead to all Americans hearing about Hillary Clinton's emails for the rest of the election cycle as opposed to real political issues. This had a mighty impact on Clinton's campaign, but there was much more to come.

 

16:56

3 days later on July 25, after the Republican National Convention had been held and had elected Donald Trump as the Republican primary elect, Julian Assange said during an interview that choosing between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is like choosing between cholera or gonorrhea. "Personally, I would prefer neither." WikiLeaks editor Sarah Harrison claimed publicly that the site was not choosing which damaging publications to release, rather they were simply releasing the information available to them when questioned as to why they released the hacked DNC server emails. 

 

17:34

The New York Times reported that "Julian Assange accused Mrs. Clinton of having been among those pushing to indict him..." and that he had timed the initial email release to coincide with the 2016 Democratic National Convention in an attempt to knock her out of the election. In an interview with Robert Peston of ITV News, Julian himself suggested that he saw Hillary Clinton as a personal foe.

 

18:02

Cybersecurity experts and firms would ultimately attribute the cyberattack to Russia. The Central Intelligence Agency concluded in a leaked secret report, that Russian intelligence agencies hacked the DNC servers, as well as the email account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, and provided the stolen information to WikiLeaks to bolster Trump's chances of winning the presidency.

 

18:26

As a result of the  Special Counsel investigation into the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, 12 Russian GRU military intelligence agents were indicted for being behind the attack on the DNC mail-server. According to the special counsel's findings, this group shared these mails using the pseudonym Guccifer 2.0 with WikiLeaks and other entities. The investigation also unearthed direct message exchanges between Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks, in which they coordinated the release timing of the shared material.

 

19:02

Julian Assange would repeatedly deny that the Russian government was the source of the DNC and Podesta emails, but refused to provide who the actual source was. 

 

19:11

According to additional research from Harvard political scientist Matthew Baum and political scientist Phil Gussin, WikiLeaks strategically released emails related to the Clinton campaign whenever Clinton's lead expanded in the polls. And these email releases were combined with social media influence tactics to bolster the echo chamber of controversy louder, also influenced by Russia.

 

19:34

It would also later be revealed in October 2017 that during the 2016 presidential election, Cambridge Analytica funder and substantial Republican donor Rebekah Mercer had proposed creating a searchable database for the Hillary Clinton emails in the public domain and then forwarded this suggestion to several people, including Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix, who personally emailed a request to Julian Assange for Clinton's emails. Julian Assange claims he denied Nix's request. 

 

20:07

It should be noted, later Cambridge Analytica and Facebook would also be heavily embroiled in 2016 election interference controversy with the US government. This was due to Cambridge Analytica obtaining private information it used illegally from Facebook amongst other private data sources to target political propaganda information towards US citizens using unlawful data methods. Mark Zuckerberg would later have to testify to congress as to how he would prevent this type of illegal election interference and use of American's data for the 2020 and future elections.   

 

20:46

For someone claiming he didn't interfere with the election, Julian Assange sure seemed to be involved with quite a few folks that have been proven to have interfered with the Presidential election. And his company WikiLeaks has been involved with email leaks from multiple elections. Where there's smoke, there's usually fire…

 

21:06

As a reminder, as if anyone needs one, Donald Trump would ultimately win the 2016 United States Presidential election through the electoral college. This would be despite Hillary Clinton leading in the polls throughout 2016 and winning the popular vote by a nearly 3 million vote margin. Alas, I'll save my views on how utterly flawed the US political and election systems are for another day…back to Mr. Assange…

 

 21:33

In September 2016, Julian  made the news yet again when he tweeted that he would agree to US prison in exchange for the current US President Obama granting Chelsea Manning clemency. And to extreme controversy, Obama did commute Chelsea Manning's sentence on January 17, 2017 just prior to his departure from office as President.

 

21:59

The following day, at his final presidential news conference, Obama said, "I don't pay a lot of attention to Mr. Assange's tweets, so that wasn't a consideration in this instance."

 

22:13

That same day, Julian Assange's US-based attorney Barry Pollack stated that Julian "had called for Chelsea Manning to receive clemency and be released immediately". Therefore, Pollack maintained, the commutation, which specified Manning would be freed in four months, did not meet Julian Assange's conditions. Details details.

 

22:35

Just a side note, while Julian's attorney said this, he never offered any proof of Julian actually stating the immediate release condition prior to Manning's commutation details. But, hey, no one ever said attorneys are paid to be honest. Chelsea Manning would be released from prison in early 2017.

 

22:55

Interestingly, a Trump presidency would not serve Julian well in 2017. Under the Obama Administration, the Department of Justice did not indict Julian because it was unable to find any strong evidence that his actions differed significantly from those of a journalist.

 

23:13

However, after President Trump took power and appointed his new cabinet, CIA director Mike Pompeo and Attorney General Jeff Sessions stepped up the pursuit of Julian. By April 2017, US officials were preparing to file formal charges against Julian Assange, with Pompeo publicly calling WikiLeaks "a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia".

 

23:40

It should be noted that the CIA leader's accusations followed a series of confidential document leaks, codenamed Vault 7, which included details on the CIA's own hacking capabilities. These documents leaked the CIA's capabilities to compromise or hack into a lot of things - including cars, smart TVs, all major web browsers (including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Opera), the operating systems of most smartphones (including Apple's iOS and Google's Android), as well as other more traditional personal computing operating systems such as Windows, macOS, and Linux. 

 

24:15

A later CIA internal audit identified 91 malware tools out of more than 500 tools in use in 2016 had been compromised by the release of this information alone. That is a huge breach in cyber capabilities lost by the US government. So, one might think the CIA's about face towards Julian could be tied to this.

 

24:38

Therefore, Julian accused the CIA of trying to "subvert" his First Amendment rights, saying that "History shows the danger of allowing the CIA or any intelligence agency, whose very modus operandi includes misdirection and lying, to be the sole arbiter of what is true or what is prudent. Otherwise, every day might see a repeat of the many foolish CIA actions which have led to death, displacement, dictatorship and terrorism." 

 

25:09

You can decide which version of the altered truth you wish to believe. I'm going to guess probably both versions of the story have their flavors of truth, all throughout this tale…and lies. Hackers aren't t trustworthy, and neither is most of the government, so it's healthy to be skeptical from all angles.

 

25:28

In a bit of better news for Julian, on May 19, 2017, 10 years after the initial charges, the Swedish authorities suspended their investigation against him. As to why the case was dropped, the Deputy Director of Public Prosecution said "the evidence has weakened considerably due to the long period of time that has elapsed since the events in question. 

 

25:53

I would like to emphasize that the injured party has submitted a credible and reliable version of events. Her statements have been coherent, extensive and detailed; however, my overall assessment is that the evidential situation has been weakened to such an extent that that there is no longer any reason to continue the investigation."

 

26:16

In May 2018, the Guardian reported over a five-year span, Ecuador had spent at least $5 million through a secret intelligence budget to protect Julian Assange at its London embassy, "employing an international security company and undercover agents to monitor his visitors, embassy staff and even the British police". Visitors included "individuals linked to the Kremlin". 

 

26:44

Ecuadorian officials had reportedly also devised plans to help Julian escape should British authorities enter the embassy and attempt to seize him. They reported that documents and "a source who wished to remain anonymous" had indicated that, by 2014, Assange had "compromised" the embassy's communications system and arranged his own satellite Internet hookup. "By penetrating the embassy's firewall", Julian Assange was allegedly able to "access and intercept the official and personal communications of staff". According to The Guardian, this claim was denied by WikiLeaks as an "anonymous libel aligned with the current UK–US government onslaught against Mr. Assange".

 

27:31

On October 16, 2018, congressmen from the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs wrote an open letter to Ecuadorian President Moreno which described Julian Assange as a dangerous criminal, and stated that progress between the US and Ecuador in the areas of economic co-operation, counter narcotics assistance and the return of a USAID mission to Ecuador depended on Julian being "handed over to the proper authorities". What's a little threat between not friends.

 

28:04

Three days later, on October 29, 2018, BBC News reported that Julian was starting legal action against the government of Ecuador, accusing it of violating his "fundamental rights and freedoms". Weeks later, an Ecuadorian judge ruled against Julian, saying that a requirement for Assange to pay for his Internet use and clean up after his cat did not violate his right to asylum. 

 

28:35

Yes, you heard that correctly. This tiff was supposedly over paying for Julian's internet and taking care of his cat. If I were in Julian's position, I think I'd probably do pretty much whatever Ecuador wanted me to remain out of jail, but me thinks there's probably more to the real story here. Remember, always be skeptical. 

 

28:55

Julian did have some interesting visitors to his hideaway bungalow. One very photographed guest was former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson. Pamela was a close friend and regular visitor of Julian at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Pamela would publicly call her and Julian's relationship a "romantic struggle" - whatever that means. 

 

29:24

On November 2018, Pamela gave an interview with 60 Minutes in Australia. During the interview, she asked the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, to "defend your friend, and get Julian his passport back, and take him back to Australia and be proud of him". Maybe not so surprisingly, Prime Minister Morrison rejected Pamela Anderson's request.

 

29:50

Letting him know how she really felt, Pamela Anderson would describe the Prime Minister's response as "smutty" and "lewd"  in an open letter to Prime Minister Morrison. This was after Morrison was quoted as saying "I've had plenty of mates who have asked me if they can be my special envoy to sort the issue out with Pamela Anderson." Rolls her female eyes at such a cheap, dumb misogynistic joke. Kinda team Pamela on this guy. Anyway.

 

30:21

Pamela Anderson would respond "you trivialized and laughed about the suffering of an Australian and his family. You followed it with smutty, unnecessary comments about a woman voicing her political opinion." …and she went on with her sternly worded letter, "[r]ather than making lewd suggestions about me, perhaps you should instead think about what you are going to say to millions of Australians when one of their own is marched in an orange jumpsuit to Guantanamo Bay – for publishing the truth. You can prevent this."

 

30:57

In December 2018, Ecuadorian President Moreno said he had reached an agreement to have Julian leave the embassy in what he called "near liberty". Unfortunately, Julian wouldn't agree. The formal offer simply stated Julian would not be extradited to a country with the death penalty; that was not liberty. Julian Assange's lawyers declined, citing a need for further protection.

 

31:24

Then some rays of light for Julian. In February 2019, the parliament of Geneva passed a motion demanding that the Swiss government extend asylum to Julian Assange. The move was proposed by the Swiss People's Party and supported by the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland. That same month, it was revealed that Julian Assange had been issued a new Australian passport, replacing his passport which had expired several years ago.

 

31:50

In February 2019, Chelsea Manning received a subpoena to appear before a grand jury in Virginia in a case against Julian Assange. When Manning condemned the secrecy of the hearings and refused to testify, she was once again jailed, this time for contempt of court on March 8, 2019. On May 16, 2019, Manning again refused to testify before a new grand jury investigating Julian Assange, stating that she "believe[d] this grand jury seeks to undermine the integrity of public discourse with the aim of punishing those who expose any serious, ongoing, and systemic abuses of power by this government". She was returned to jail for the 18-month term of the grand jury with financial penalties.

 

32:40

In worsening news, on April 2, 2019, Ecuador's president Lenín Moreno stated that Julian Assange had violated the terms of his asylum, after photos surfaced on the internet linking Moreno to a corruption scandal. WikiLeaks denied that it had acquired any of the published material, and stated that it merely reported on a corruption investigation against Moreno by Ecuador's legislature. Had Julian bitten the hand that was feeding him one too many times?

 

33:09

WikiLeaks soon wrote on Twitter that an agreement had been reached to expel Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy and place him in the custody of UK police. They claimed that the expulsion from the embassy would occur in retaliation against WikiLeaks' tweet noting corruption charges against Moreno. On April 5, Ecuador's Foreign Ministry denied the existence of any planned expulsion.

 

33:34

On April 10, 2019, WikiLeaks said it had uncovered an extensive surveillance operation against Julian from within the Ecuadorian embassy. Wikileaks claimed that videotapes of Julian taken at the embassy constituted an invasion of privacy. WikiLeaks said that "material including video, audio, copies of private legal documents and a medical report" had surfaced in Spain and that unnamed individuals in Madrid had made an extortion attempt.

 

34:05

Finally, 7 years after he had arrived, on April 11, 2019, the Metropolitan Police were invited into the Ecuadorian embassy and arrested Julian Assange in connection with his failure to surrender to the court in June 2012 for extradition to Sweden. Ecuadorian president Lenin Moreno stated that Ecuador withdrew Assange's asylum after he repeatedly violated international conventions regarding domestic interference.

 

34:40

Showing a clear annoyance with Julian, Moreno publicly referred to Assange as a "spoiled brat" and "miserable hacker". British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt thanked the Ecuadorean president. Then British prime minister, Theresa May, said that "no one is above the law". 

 

35:00

Julian Assange was charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, a minor crime that carries a maximum 5-year sentence if found guilty. The charges stem from the allegation that Julian attempted and failed to crack a password hash so that Chelsea Manning could use a different username to download classified documents and avoid detection, details which had been part of Chelsea Manning's trial.

 

35:25

Julian was also charged with breaching the Bail Act 1976 and was found guilty after a short hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court. 

 

35:34

Julian Assange was remanded to HM Prison Belmarsh, and  sentenced to 50 weeks imprisonment. The judge said he would be released after serving half of his sentence, subject to other proceedings and conditioned upon committing no further offences.

 

35:49

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a statement through the website of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights that the verdict contravened "principles of necessity and proportionality" for what it considered a "minor violation". Surely, you don't think the world's governments are done punishing Mr. Assange with this first punishment, right? Right. Of course the United States waned their turn to make an example of Julian, take their pound of flesh…especially since they still haven't caught his friend Snowden.

 

36:26

On May 23, 2019, Julian Assange was indicted on 17 new charges relating to the Espionage Act of 1917 in the United States. The Espionage Act charges carry a maximum sentence of 170 years in prison. 

 

36:45

The primary charges related to the publication of the documents having revealed the names of sources in dangerous places putting them "at a grave and imminent risk" of harm or detention. 

 

36:55

The New York Times commented that it and other news organizations obtained the same documents as WikiLeaks also without government authorization. It also said it is not clear how WikiLeaks's publications are legally different from other publications of classified information. These reasons stated by the New York Times were the reason Obama's government had chosen not to proceed with charges. You gotta wonder if Assange regretted allegedly helping Trump get elected by this point?

 

37:27

Usually cases brought under the Espionage Act have been against government employees who accessed sensitive information and leaked it to journalists. Prosecuting people for acts related to receiving and publishing information had not previously been tested in court. 

 

37:43

Many viewed the arrest of Julian Assange as an attack on freedom of the press and international law.

 

37:50

On May 2, 2019, the first extradition hearing was held in London per the request of the United States. When asked by the judge whether he consented to the extradition, Julian replied "I do not wish to surrender myself for extradition for doing journalism that has won many, many awards and protected many people".

 

38:12

Julian has remained in detention, working his way through the courts very slowly in London. There's no telling if or when he will be extradited to the United States to face any of the many charges against him.

 

38:25

So, what are we to take away from this story? Is Julian a hero or villain? Is what he did justified, or did he deserve his punishment?

 

38:36

I would offer that like many things in life, the answer is not a binary yes or no. 0 or 1. Hero or villain. Like most people, Julian is a complex being. 

 

38:48

I believe there are things he has done which are commendable and even admirable. To risk and essentially give up your personal freedoms based on convictions of doing what you feel is morally right can be admirable. But I guess that all depends on what each human and the groups and societies we form deem as morally right. And that is very open for interpretation and constant consideration as we grow as humans.

 

39:18

I also personally believe there are things Julian has done which are questionable and perhaps irreprehensible. I think he has taken a no holds bar approach at times due to his own personal dogma, and obsessions that have put others potentially at risk. In watching the Risk documentary, I found myself consistently reflecting upon how narcissistic Julian appeared throughout. 

 

39:45

I personally think it's a shame that Julian has for essentially for a decade been locked away from the world and may be so forever more. I think he had a lot more to give to the world. I cannot imagine what his life on the run literally from a child onward was like for him. To now be locked in a room without his only escape - the internet.

 

40:13

It's been mentioned that Julian Assange has been unwell the past year in prison. I wish him health and peace. I do not think that governments should make an example out of people like Julian nor like Edward Snowden. Our prisons are meant for reform not retribution. Maybe some day these incredibly intelligent and talented gentlemen will have an opportunity for reform and to use their skills for the betterment of our world.

 

40:43

Thank you for listening to this episode of Controversial Figures. Just a reminder, please like, subscribe, and leave a rating and comment for Controversial Figures in your favorite podcast app. We have a Twitter page @FiguresPodcast - so please follow us, give us recommendations of Controversial Figures you'd like to hear.

 

41:02

This podcast is an independent podcast created by Tammy Hawkins. This is funded by those that donate, so please join Controversial Figures on Patreon and give what you can - I'll send out swag to all donators! And I'll give shout outs during the show to anyone that's donated. Research references are available in the show notes as are musical references. Thank you so much for listening.