As the Arab Spring spread across the Middle East, the Egyptian government cut off access to the internet. In the aftermath of the revolution, regional telecoms gather in Cairo. ibid.
In 2010, WikiLeaks published this leaked video showing the US military killing Iraqis, including two Reuters journalists. The source, 22-year-old intelligence analyst Private Manning, is arrested after a hacker informs the FBI. ibid.
As a teenager, Assange formed the International Subversives, a group that hacked into computer networks around the world. In 1996, he plead guilty to hacking a telecom and was ordered to pay damages. ibid.
Assange is wanted for questioning in Sweden over sexual assault allegations made by two women. He is under house arrest at a supporter’s home, and has a 10 p.m. curfew. Sweden has requested Assange’s extradition for questioning over the allegations. The possible counts include unlawful coercion and rape. Assange denies all allegations. No charges have been filed. ibid.
Assange’s final option for appeal is the UK Supreme Court. His lawyers believe if he is sent to Sweden, he will then be extradited to the US as part of the grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks. ibid.
Ecuador grants Assange political asylum. ibid.
And you’d literally just kind of hover over their area. Sometimes you’d watch them for days … And you wait till he walks on to a field to meet with friends for something and you blow him up. National Bird, opening commentary, Netflix 2016
This is global. This is getting information anywhere at any time. Shooting people from anywhere at any time. And it’s not just one person sitting there with a little remote control, a little joystick … It’s like borders don’t matter any more. ibid. Lisa
Why are we seeing so may civilians dying? ibid. Heather
Heather is one of the first analysts to publicly criticize the secret US drone program. The same day her op-ed is published on The Guardian website, she doubts her decision. ibid. caption
I lost part of my humanity working in the drone program. ibid. Lisa
The families were bombed by US forces on February 21 2010. An official military investigation concludes that a Predator drone crew operating out of Creech Air Force Base in Nevada was largely responsible for the attack. A radio traffic transcript documents their failures. ibid. captions
The survivors lost 23 family members in the attack, including children. ibid. caption
From the battlefields of the Middle East to the streets of Europe. Islamic State now threatens us worldwide. In a world exclusive, Sky News uncovered the existence of thousands of Islamic State files. Now we show not only the scale of the organisation’s international recruitment network but the true nature of the threat it posed. Secrets of the IS Files, Sky News 2016
He [defector] handed me thousands of computer files compiled by their high command. The most comprehensive intelligent leak in the organisation’s history. ibid.
An increasingly large number of those volunteers were coming from Britain. ibid.
Julian Assange was born for stardom and his creation Wikileaks made for Hollywood. But when Hollywood embraces history most issues come out black and white … For most people, judging the real Julian Assange is irresistible. The Fifth Estate: The Strange World of Julian Assange, CBC 2013
In his teens he was a gifted hacker. ibid.
The US was the biggest target and the most dangerous. ibid.
Some of the strongest dissent was coming from inside Wikileaks: endangering real and probably innocent people to possible reprisals was too much for some. ibid.
A shocking shift in media attention … ‘He is accused of rape and molestation.’ ibid. television news
On September 15th 2008 Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest investment bank in America, filed for the biggest bankruptcy in history. With $691,063,000,000 of debt, it triggered a global financial crisis. In the years leading up to the disaster, several Lehman Brothers’ employees fought to prevent it. Storyville: Inside Lehman Brothers: The Whistleblowers, captions, BBC 2019
‘I was blacklisted from Wall Street … Lehman had a reputation on Wall Street as being cowboys. And their business practice a bit aggressive … I joined Lehman in 1994: I was vice-president. You were on your toes. You were watching your back. You had to do the best. There was just a certain vibrancy all the time. But I enjoyed that.’ ibid. whistleblower
‘Below that level, in middle management, there were a number of people who were greatly concerned, and believe that Lehman was putting itself at great risk, and that it could be a disaster.’ ibid. Anton Valukas, examiner, Lehman Brother bankruptcy
‘Since 2008 no-one of importance has been convicted.’ ibid. whistleblower
‘In order for them to meet their quotas, they started bringing in junk.’ ibid. mortgage sales woman
Richard D Fuld junior: ‘He was considered one of the most brilliant men on Wall Street’ … Total Compensation: $71.90 million; 5-year compensation Total: $254.03 million. ibid. April 2008
Dodgson, a self-confessed and convicted Soviet agent, was able to hold a position of trust here for ten years. It must not happen again. The Whistle Blower 1985 starring Michael Caine & James Fox & Nigel Havers & John Gielgun & Felicity Dean & Barry Foster & Gordon Jackson & Kenneth Colley & David Langton & Dinah Stabb & James Simmons et al, director Simon Langton
It’s not only your jobs that are at risk, it’s the survival of the free world. ibid.
There are seven thousand of us working at GCHG. ibid. son to father
Because unlike the enemy we err on the side of decency and trust. ibid. toff boss to boss
They have put out the lights in the ordinary world – something Bob said. ibid. father to Bob’s bird
Now nuclear war is expected. And planned for. ibid. mad establishment bloke to Caine
It wasn’t a moral judgment initially – more an aesthetic one. ibid. traitor
Assange was once feted and courted by some of the largest media organizations in the world, including The New York Times and The Guardian, for the information he possessed. But once his trove of material documenting US war crimes, much of it provided by Chelsea Manning, was published by these media outlets he was pushed aside and demonized. A leaked Pentagon document prepared by the Cyber Counterintelligence Assessments Branch dated March 8, 2008, exposed a black propaganda campaign to discredit WikiLeaks and Assange … to destroy the ‘feeling of trust’ that is WikiLeaks’ ‘center of gravity’ and blacken Assange’s reputation. It largely has worked. Chris Hedges, Crucifying Julian Assange, 2018
The Democratic Party – seeking to blame its election defeat on Russian ‘interference’ rather than the grotesque income inequality, the betrayal of the working class, the loss of civil liberties, the deindustrialization and the corporate coup d’état that the party helped orchestrate – attacks Assange as a traitor, although he is not a US citizen. Nor is he a spy. He is not bound by any law I am aware of to keep US government secrets. He has not committed a crime … ibid.
WikiLeaks and Assange have done more to expose the dark machinations and crimes of the American Empire than any other news organization. Assange, in addition to exposing atrocities and crimes committed by the United States military in our endless wars and revealing the inner workings of the Clinton campaign, made public the hacking tools used by the CIA and the National Security Agency, their surveillance programs and their interference in foreign elections … And WikiLeaks worked swiftly to save Edward Snowden, who exposed the wholesale surveillance of the American public by the government, from extradition to the United States by helping him flee from Hong Kong to Moscow. ibid.
What is happening to Assange should terrify the press … The silence about the treatment of Assange is not only a betrayal of him but a betrayal of the freedom of the press itself. We will pay dearly for this complicity … Assange is on his own. Each day is more difficult for him. This is by design. It is up to us to protest. We are his last hope, and the last hope, I fear, for a free press. ibid.
We’re on the trail of an organised crime gang that laundered British drugs cash around the world. We reveal how the financial system failed to stop the dirty money. We expose the big city firm that covered up evidence of crime. And we meet the whistleblowers whose lives were destroyed after speaking out. Panorama: Following the Drug Money, BBC 2019
Banking’s dirty secrets: leaked documents reveal how our banks helped criminals. They show the real cost of a banking system that is open to anyone. The leak exposes the Russian cash in British public life. The £10m Brexit backer with two names. And the secret deals at the heart of UK football. Panorama: Banking Secrets of the Rich & Powerful, Richard Bilton reporting, BBC 2020
An extraordinary leak of files from within the US Treasury … The City of London is at the heart of global money laundering. ibid.
‘Their business is to take the dirty money and make it look clean. The City of London floats on a vast cushion of dirty money.’ ibid. Edward Lucas, Centre for European Policy Analysis