How WikiLeaks Has Survived While Julian Assange Has Been Holed Up in London – Sputnik International

The Australian-born Julian Assange founded WikiLeaks in2006 and he has been a wanted man ever since.

Designed asa "not-for-profit media organization," it was dreamed upby Assange, because he felt mainstream media was not properly holding governments toaccount and was too scared oflosing its advertising or being closed downif it exposed serious wrongdoing.

AP Photo/ Markus Schreiber

In this Oct. 4, 2016 file photo, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange participates via video link at a news conference marking the 10th anniversary of the secrecy-spilling group in Berlin. WikiLeaks said on Monday, Oct. 17, 2016, that Assange's internet access has been cut by an unidentified state actor.

Assange had registered the domain name, a play onWikipedia, in1999 and it was always his intention toget hold ofhighly confidential material.

On its website it says: "WikiLeaks specializes inthe analysis and publication oflarge datasets ofcensored or otherwise restricted official materials involving war, spying and corruption."

For the US government, and many others, that statement alone makes it a hostile organization which threatens the secrecy which the CIA, the Secret Service and the US diplomatic corps rely on.

When WikiLeaks published its most damaging revelations inthe spring of2010 diplomatic cables which had been leaked byUS soldier Bradley Manning Assange was threatened bythe US withprosecution underthe 1917 Espionage Act.

In August 2010 the Swedish prosecutor's office issued an arrest warrant forAssange, inconnection withallegations ofrape and molestation bytwo women dating fromincidents earlier that summer.

In May 2012, Britain's Supreme Court ruled that he should be extradited toSweden and the followingmonth Assange accepted Ecuador's offer ofsanctuary and vanished behindthe doors ofthe Latin American nation's embassy. He has been there ever since.

But despiteall this WikiLeaks did not fold. So how was it able tosoldier on?

As WikiLeaks grew Assange realized he had tocooperate withlike-minded individuals and he worked withpeople likeDaniel Domscheit-Berg, inGermany, and others.

But Assange's abrasive personality makes him a hard person toget alongwith and Domscheit-Berg quit in2010, setting uphis own site, OpenLeaks, withlittle success.

A source withknowledge ofhow WikiLeaks operates said:

"WikiLeaks hasn't operated withoutJulian. It doesn't exist independently ofhim atall. It consists ofhim and whoever he has persuaded tohelp him atany point," the source told Sputnik.

"If there's money, some ofthem get paid a little. If not, they're just volunteers. There have never been more thana handful ofhelpers. There have been times when it was Julian alone," they added.

"For the last five years, he has been running things frominside the Ecuadorean embassy."

WikiLeaks reportedly employs a small paid staff, who work invarious secret locations and is supported byaround a thousand volunteers.

In December 2010, the US government forced PayPal and a number ofcredit card companies tostop accepting donations forWikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks has also been the target ofseveral Denial ofService attacks byhackers, possibly employed bythe US government.

REUTERS/ Toby Melville

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange holds a copy of a U.N. ruling as he makes a speech from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy, in central London, Britain February 5, 2016.

Bradley Manning, the soldier who has undergone a sex change and is now known asChelsea Manning, was released fromprison last month afterPresident Obama commuted the sentence.

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How WikiLeaks Has Survived While Julian Assange Has Been Holed Up in London - Sputnik International