Julian Assange, the man behind WikiLeaks

 

WikiLeaks, the website which solicits and publishes secret and suppressed material from whistleblowers all around the world, was back in the news this week, along with its mysterious and eccentric founder Julian Assange. Someone - it's not clear who - dumped 250,000 unredacted and classified State Department and Pentagon documents, which had been in WikiLeaks possession, onto the Internet.

When Steve Kroft first interviewed Assange last January, he was already under investigation by the Justice Department for publishing classified material and possible violations of the Espionage Act. He was also under house arrest in Britain fighting extradition to Sweden in connection with two sexual assault cases, which he has called part of a smear campaign against him.

None of that has changed and the battle between the freedom to publish and government's need to keep secrets continues. In what is still his most extensive television interview, Assange talked to "60 Minutes" about the idea behind WikiLeaks and the prospect of facing criminal charges in the United States.

"60 Minutes Overtime"
Having Julian Assange sit down for his first major TV interview was not an easy task

Steve Kroft: You've been called a lot of names. You've been characterized as a hero and as a villain. A martyr. Terrorist.

Julian Assange: I'm not yet a martyr.

Kroft: Right.

Assange: Let's keep it that way.

For now, Assange is holed up on a bucolic 600-acre English estate with an ankle bracelet, a 10 p.m. curfew, and a slow Internet connection. He declined to talk to us about the allegations in Sweden, on the advice of his attorney. He has not been charged and proclaims his innocence.

Kroft: Well, I suppose if you have to be under house arrest, there could be worse places.

Assange: Well it's a gilded cage. It's still a cage. But when you are forced to stay somewhere against your will, it does become something that you want to leave.

It's a radical departure from the lifestyle that the peripatetic Internet muckraker is used to - bounding from city to city, country to country, and regularly changing his cell phones, hair styles and general appearance, he says, to elude surveillance and avoid being killed, kidnapped or arrested.

Extra: Assange stays on the move

And there are reasons for his paranoia: in the last four years, WikiLeaks has released information that played some role in deciding the 2007 election in Kenya, and fueling the anger that recently brought down the government in Tunisia. It has also divulged the membership rolls of a neo Nazi organization in Great Britain, and secret documents from the Church of Scientology. And that was before Assange began publishing U.S. secrets, provoking what he calls threatening statements from people close to power.

Kroft: What statements are you referring to?

Assange: The statements by the Vice President Biden saying, for instance that I was a high-tech terrorist. Sarah Palin calling to our organization to be dealt with like the Taliban, and be hunted down. There's calls either for my assassination or the assassination of my staff or for us to be kidnapped and renditioned back to the United States to be executed.

Kroft: Well as you know, we have a First Amendment and people can say whatever they want, including politicians. I don't think that many people in the United States took seriously the idea that you were a terrorist.

Assange: I would like to believe that. On the other hand the incitements to murder are a serious issue. And unfortunately there is a portion of the population that will believe in them and may carry them out.

Howard L. Rosenberg and Tanya Simon are the producers.

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[marilyn4886]

Yes this guy should be in jail, I hope we never let him visit the USA.

[Shocoing]

The interview prompted my investigation of the "Collateral Murder" video on the WikiLeaks post. I intently studied the half-hour video twice. It seemed apparent that besides the Reuter's personnel,in the wrong place at the wrong time with shoulder slung equipment, there were three men carrying long stock arms in open view in addition to another man crouching at the corner of a building with a black object. The object, believed to be an RPG by the helicopter crew, was latter confirmed by boots on the ground to be found under the dead body. These conditions clearly define to me justification for terms of engagement during war. The helicopter crew exhibited measured restraint, analysis, and deliberated before triggers were pulled. Mr. Assange's synopsis of the action as a murderous and indiscriminate slaying seems quite short of the truth. As far as I am concerned Mr. Assange's strange form of objectivity and reporting should not be construed as journalism in any form or manner.

[rwsmith29456]

I don't think he's a terrorist or a hero. But he does deal in stolen intellectual property and took the US documents wholesale as his to decide what he would leak like an extortionist would. Therefore, he's a criminal and should be treated as such. Just the fact that he lives on a 'bucolic 600 acre English estate' shows how he is profiting from what he is doing. He's about as heroic as that 'Anonymous' group of saboteurs, who I feel ARE terrorists.

[alamo2011]

I can't believe, that you feel a Foreigner has the "right" to stand on the American Bill of Rights. This guy keeps talking like he has the rights of an American citizen. Well then come to the U.S. and stand trail. The jerk is NOT a U.S. Citizen, and any subversive actions are subject to the same level of any other non-citizen attack on this country. It is up to Americans to ensure the Bill of Rights-NOT foreigners!

[Kenny777_y]

you mean like the countrys we attack for no reason. what about their rights?

[AOCGUY]

I don't believe that Assange feels he is "protected" by the Bill of Rights anymore than he feels that he is subject to our laws. I'm not aware he has even visited the U.S. As distasteful as we may view his activities, I don't belive he has violated any of our laws, since 1) he is not an American, 2) doesn't operate from U.S. territory, and 3) he never solicited the information he published - it was given to him.

On the other hand, Bradley Manning most definitely broke the laws of the U.S., he is protected by the U.S. Constitution (so he will get his trial), he is also subject to our laws including the oath he took as a soldier and most importantly the seconnd oath he took when he accepted responsibility to protect National Security information.

[GTR5]

AOCGUY is absolutely correct. The information was given to him, he did not steal it.

[voxpopulus]

alama2011, stand trial for what? The State Department, despite trying, has not laid any charges of found anything he is guilty of. Maybe they should make something up for people like you?

[voxpopulus]

"Bradley Manning most definitely broke the laws of the U.S., he is protected by the U.S. Constitution" Not judging by the way he's been treated while in prison.

[AlFranken]

Our constitution was designed to make our government broken for the purpose of being less intrusive in our personal lives but yet

as the purpose seems to be deterioriating in effectiveness, i.e, the Patriot Act...

we find our discours,e from the right to the left, identifying a sense of Nationalism as patriotism.

The final solution was spelled out by Thomas Jefferson in his many letters to the founding fathers insinuating our right to bear arms and form a militia will suite his beliefs that a revolution every once in a while would be healthy for our continuation of our free society.

It is apparent to me our government is held hostage and taken over by the fortunate few who manipulate the feeble minds and use them as tools agianst the Americans who demand accountability to our electoral process.

I pray for this revolution to come much sooner than later as Julian Assange has described how we are already at this dangerous point of our existence throught the disparaging remarks from presidential candidates and people of influence in the extremities of our political system.

We must start the discourse of disengaging our government over us!

[-LiftingSkirts-]

You sound like a Tea Party supporter!

[marisadane]

I think he is a hero and support him and think he should be left free and do his thing, his ideas are letting us know who are the real enemies, the real facts. Old time patriotism and government secrets are not not always for our protection nowadays, it's the new world order and agenda the world needs to know about, along where all the corrupt and evil people are. Maybe ourselves included.

[Kenny777_y]

its called freedom of the press. unfortunatly you dont hear the truth from the so called media we have today. and yes secrets do destroy in some cases. now that i know more about the truth of what this country has done the better off i am. but like i said in another comment we aint seen anything yet.

[Jhihmoac]

Back in the day, there was a "code of silence" when it came to confidential and classified material...Seems that is fast becoming a thing of the past...

[voxpopulus]

The code of silence never applied to atrocity.

[truthandpeace]

Anyone with basic critical thinking skills would know that Julian Assange is dedicated to spreading truth. The Arab Spring is one of the benefits that have resulted. Steve Croft, with his abundant use of opinionated adjectives, is not dedicated to giving us the truth. If the Apache helicopter scene were shown undedited as it was on Frontline (May 25th), everyone would understand why Bradley Manning could not sleep nights without getting the truth out.

[HikerDan]

Your post is a textbook example of why lefties shouldn't be given the right to solely deside how people must live. And Bradley Manning is simply the traitor that mistakenly was entrustet with keeping secret information secret. It was not up to him to deside what to divulge to the world and what not to.

[sojouner12]

I read where Wau Holland has ties to the german Federal police. If this is the case, then wikileaks attacks on the American take on an entire new dimension. That being to undermine and further erode America's reputation and trustworthiness in the Middle East among other places. Its no secret that Germany has been jockeying for position in the Mid-East region for sometime; slowly and quietly working to erode America's influence there so that it can serupticiously replace America as the prevailing power in the region, thereby not only securing itself as the gate keeper of the world's oil but also securing that resource for itself.

America and the rest of the world is likely going to get blindsided by a rapidly rising Germany, and we only have to look back into history to determine the outcome of that.

[voxpopulus]

:I read where Wau Holland has ties to the german Federal police." Misinformation campaign.

[goedel1]

I did not like several of Kroft's remarks. For example, he said that Mr Assange is "holed up". That is a disrespectful description for being confined to a site by a court of law while awaiting a decision on extradition.

There was also a remark, rather stupid by Kroft, that Mr Assange was a martyr. There were many other remarks that show a decided slant on the part of Kroft, who may simply be a dumb-bell, but I think Kroft is a bad reporter.