WikiLeaks has made multiple disclosures over the past decade, including one in March 2017 when the group released what it said were CIA technical documents on a range of spying techniques. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

WikiLeaks has made multiple disclosures over the past decade, including one in March 2017 when the group released what it said were CIA technical documents on a range of spying techniques.

To its supporters, the WikiLeaks disclosures have revealed a wealth of important information that the U.S. government wanted to keep hidden, particularly in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This included abuses by the military and a video that showed a U.S. helicopter attack in Iraq on suspected militants. Those killed turned out to be unarmed civilians and journalists.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, now under arrest in Britain, has often argued that no one has been harmed by the WikiLeaks disclosures.

But many in the national security community say the leaks were harmful to a broad range of people. However, they generally say the damage was limited and has faded since the first big WikiLeaks dump in 2010, which included hundreds of thousands of classified documents from the U.S. military and the State Department.

Chelsea Manning, a former Army private, spent seven years in prison for leaking the documents to WikiLeaks in 2010. Manning, who was freed two years ago, was taken back into custody last month when she refused to testify before a grand jury in a case involving WikiLeaks and Assange.

P.J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman when the WikiLeaks story erupted in 2010, said those most at risk were civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq who were secretly passing information to the U.S. military.

"A number of people went into hiding, a number of people had to move, particularly those civilians in war zones who had told U.S. soldiers about movements of the Taliban and al-Qaida," he said. "No doubt some of those people were harmed when their identities were compromised."

WikiLeaks has made multiple disclosures over the past decade, including one in March 2017 when the group released what it said were CIA technical documents on a range of spying techniques.

This revealed ways that a state-of-the art television could serve as a listening device even when it was turned off.

Larry Pfeiffer, the CIA chief of staff from 2006 to 2009, said these kinds of breaches can impose long-term costs, though they can be difficult to quantify.

"It informs the potential enemies of a technique we use, that they can now develop countermeasures against," Pfeiffer said.

This also forces the spy agency to go back to the drawing board, he added.

"Once invalidated, it now creates situations where the U.S. intelligence community is going to have to expend resources and going to have to spend both dollars and people to develop new methods," said Pfeiffer, who now heads the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence at George Mason University.

On the diplomatic front, WikiLeaks shared many examples of U.S. diplomats writing in unflattering terms about foreign leaders, causing the U.S. embarrassment.

But more importantly, said Scott Anderson, a former State Department lawyer who served in Iraq in 2012 and 2013, some of these countries have vulnerable opposition leaders and human rights activists who were quietly in contact with U.S. diplomats. These private, sensitive discussions suddenly became public with the WikiLeaks dumps.

"That can really chill the ability of those American personnel to build those sorts of relationships and have frank conversations with their contacts," said Anderson, now at the Brookings Institution.

Anderson notes that the U.S. still has a program to issue visas to Afghans and Iraqis to the U.S. in return for the help they provided and in recognition of the danger they face.

Crowley pointed to the impact of leaks that upset former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

"We had an ambassador in Libya, and we had to remove him from his post because he was directly threatened by Moammar Gadhafi's thugs," Crowley said.

Some countries, Crowley added, took a much more relaxed approach to the disclosures, even when they were criticized in the documents.

"One foreign minister told the U.S. secretary of state, 'You know, don't worry about it. You should see what we report about you,' " Crowley recalled.

Many of the assessments today are similar to the one offered nine years ago by Bob Gates, who served as defense secretary when the WikiLeaks disclosures took place.

"The fact is, governments deal with the United States because it's in their interest. Not because they like us, not because they trust us and not because they believe we can keep secrets," Gates said. "Is this embarrassing? Yes. Is it awkward? Yes. Consequences for U.S. foreign policy? I think fairly modest."

Greg Myre is a national security correspondent. Follow him @gregmyre1.

Excerpt from:
How Much Did WikiLeaks Damage U.S. National Security?

WikiLeaks founderJulian Assange, a sophisticated computer programmer who helped release thousands of secret materials since his site's launchin the early 2000s, was indicted on 18 counts on Thursday for his role in the release of those secret materials.

Assange hadbeen in hiding in London since 2012 as he facedextradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations though they have since been dropped. Since 2012, Assange has feared arrest and extradition to the U.S., which announced in April a federal chargeagainst him forconspiracy to commit computer intrusion.

The 47-year-old has repeatedly defended WikiLeaks as a transparent non-profit organization, saying the public has a right to know what's going on behind "closed doors."

WIKILEAKS FOUNDER JULIAN ASSANGE ARRESTED AFTER ECUADOR WITHDRAWS ASYLUM

The burden should not shift to Mr. Assange to have to defend against criminal charges when what he has been accused of doing is what journalists do every day, Barry Pollack, a Washington lawyer for Assange, said back in November.They publish truthful information because the public has a right to know and consider that information and understand what its government and institutions are doing."

On April 11, Assange, an Australian native, was arrested at theEcuadorean embassy in London after theSouth American nation revoked his political asylum.

Here's what you need to know about the WikiLeaks mastermind.

Assange made his name after publishing thousands of military and State Department cables from Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, for which Manning served prison time, secret CIA hacking toolsand publicizing email conversations from top Democratic Party officials.

The new indictment on Thursday saidAssange conspired with Manning to obtain and disclose classified national defense documents, including State Department cables and reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prosecutors say his actions "risked serious harm" to the United States.

Ben Brandon, a lawyer representing the U.S. government, said in court earlier this month that American investigators had acquired details of communications between Manning and Assange in 2010. The two had allegedly engaged in real time discussions regarding Chelsea Mannings dissemination of confidential records to Mr. Assange.

He added that the records downloaded from a classified computer included 90,000 activity reports from the war in Afghanistan, 400,000 Iraq war-related reports, 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessments and 250,000 State Department cables.

For years, the U.S. Justice Department has been investigating how WikiLeaks obtained emails stolen from Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and Democratic groups.

WikiLeaks' involvement in the email dump was discussed during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigationinto whetherthe Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.

During a hearing in February, Michael CohenPresident Trump's"fixer" and former personal lawyer alleged he was in Trump's office in July 2016 when longtime adviser Roger Stone called the president.Trump then put Stone on speakerphone and Stone told himhe had communicated with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that "within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage" Clinton's campaign, Cohen claimed.

That month, WikiLeaks released thousands of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee's server.

MOST EXPLOSIVE MOMENTS FROM MICHAEL COHEN'S HILL APPEARANCE

Stone has been indicted on charges of obstruction, making false statements and witness tampering as part of Muellers Russia probe. He has not been charged with conspiring with WikiLeaks and he vehemently denies he had any communication withAssange before the email dump.

There is no such evidence, Stonetold Fox Newsin a text message on Feb.15. Again, on Feb. 27, Stone said Cohen's claims were "not true."

In September 2018, Assange was replaced as editor-in-chief of the anti-secrecy website.Kristinn Hrafnsson, anIcelandic investigative journalist, took over the title.

I condemn the treatment of Julian Assange that leads to my new role ... but I welcome the opportunity to secure the continuation of the important work based on WikiLeaks ideals," saidHrafnsson after accepting the position, according to The Daily Dot.

However, WikiLeaks confirmed in a tweet at the time that Assange would remain publisher. It's unclear ifHrafnsson's role is permanent.

Fox News' Talia Kaplan, Ann W. Schmidt, Frank Miles, Lukas Mikelionis and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Who is Julian Assange? What to know about the WikiLeaks ...

(1971-)

Julian Assange used his genius IQ to hack into the databases of many high profile organizations. In 2006, Assange began work on WikiLeaks, a website intended to collect and share confidential information on an international scale, and he earned the Time magazine "Person of the Year" title in 2010. Seeking to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations, Assange was granted political asylum by Ecuador and holed up at the country's embassy in London in 2012. In 2016, his work again drew international attention when WikiLeaks published thousands of emails from U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. After his asylum was rescinded in April 2019, Assange was indicted in the U.S. for violating the Espionage Act.

Julian Assange was born on July 3, 1971, in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Assange had an unusual childhood, as he spent some of his early years traveling around with his mother, Christine, and his stepfather, Brett Assange. The couple worked together to put on theatrical productions. Brett Assange later described Julian as a "sharp kid who always fought for the underdog."

The relationship between Brett and Christine later soured, but Assange and his mother continued to live a transient lifestyle. With all of the moving around, Assange ended up attending roughly 37 different schools growing up, and was frequently homeschooled.

Assange discovered his passion for computers as a teenager. At the age of 16, he got his first computer as a gift from his mother. Before long, he developed a talent for hacking into computer systems. His 1991 break-in to the master terminal for Nortel, a telecommunications company, got him in trouble. Assange was charged with more than 30 counts of hacking in Australia, but he got off the hook with only a fine for damages.

Assange continued to pursue a career as a computer programmer and software developer. An intelligent mind, he studied mathematics at the University of Melbourne. He dropped out without finishing his degree, later claiming that he left the university for moral reasons; Assange objected to other students working on computer projects for the military.

In 2006, Assange began work on WikiLeaks, a website intended to collect and share confidential information on an international scale. The site officially launched in 2007 and it was run out of Sweden at the time because of the country's strong laws protecting a person's anonymity. Later that year, WikiLeaks released a U.S. military manual that provided detailed information on the Guantanamo detention center. WikiLeaks also shared emails from then-vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin that it received from an anonymous source in September 2008.

In early December 2010, Assange discovered that he had other legal problems to worry about. Since early August, he had been under investigation by the Swedish police for allegations that included two counts of sexual molestation, one count of illegal coercion, and one count of rape. After a European Arrest Warrant was issued by Swedish authorities on December 6, Assange turned himself in to the London police.

Following a series of extradition hearings in early 2011 to appeal the warrant, Assange learned on November 2, 2011, that the High Court dismissed his appeal. Still on conditional bail, Assange made plans to appeal to the U.K. Supreme Court.

According to a New York Times article, Assange came to the Ecuadorean Embassy in London in June 2012, seeking to avoid extradition to Sweden. That August, Assange was granted political asylum by the Ecuadorean government, which, according to the Times, "protects Mr. Assange from British arrest, but only on Ecuadorean territory, leaving him vulnerable if he tries to leave the embassy to head to an airport or train station."

The article went on to say that the decision "cited the possibility that Mr. Assange could face 'political persecution' or be sent to the United States to face the death penalty," putting further strain on the relationship between Ecuador and Britain, and instigating a rebuttal from the Swedish government.

In August 2015 the lesser sexual assault allegations from 2010 with the exception of rape were dropped due to statute of limitation violations by Swedish prosecutors. The statue of limitations on the rape allegations will expire in 2020.

In February 2016, a United Nations panel determined that Assange had been arbitrarily detained, and recommended his release and compensation for deprivation of liberty. However, both the Swedish and British governments rejected those findings as non-binding, and reiterated that Assange would be arrested if he left the Ecuadorian embassy.

On May 19, 2017, Sweden said it would drop its rape investigation of Assange. While today was an important victory and important vindication, the road is far from over, he told reporters from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The war, the proper war, is just commencing.

Assange was granted Ecuadorian citizenship in December 2017, but his relationship with his adopted country soon soured. In March 2018, the government cut off his internet access on the grounds that his actions endangered "the good relations that the country maintains with the United Kingdom, with the rest of the states of the European Union, and other nations."

Assange and WikiLeaks returned to the headlines during the summer of 2016 as the U.S. presidential race was narrowing to two main candidates, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. In early July, WikiLeaks released more than 1,200 emails from Clinton's private server during her tenure as secretary of state. Later in the month, WikiLeaks released an additional round of emails from the Democratic National Committee that indicated an effort to undermine Clinton's primary opponent, Bernie Sanders, leading to the resignation of DNC chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

In October, WikiLeaks unveiled more than 2,000 emails from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, which included excerpts from speeches to Wall Street banks. By this point, U.S. government officials had gone public with the belief that Russian agents had hacked into DNC servers and supplied the emails to WikiLeaks, though Assange repeatedly insisted that was not the case.

On the eve of the election, Assange released a statement in which he declared no "personal desire to influence the outcome," noting that he never received documents from the Trump campaign to publish. "Irrespective of the outcome of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election," he wrote, "the real victor is the U.S. public which is better informed as a result of our work." Shortly afterward, Trump was declared the winner of the election.

In April 2019, after Ecuador announced the withdrawal of Assange's asylum, the WikiLeaks founder was arrested at the London embassy. Shortly afterward, it was announced that U.S. authorities had charged Assange with conspiring with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to break into a classified government computer at the Pentagon.

On May 1, Assange was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for skipping bail back in 2012, when he found refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy.

Steeper charges arrived on May 23, when Assange was indicted in the U.S. on 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act for obtaining and publishing secret military and diplomatic documents in 2010. However, the indictment raised questions about First Amendment protections and whether investigative journalists could also find themselves facing criminal charges.

In January 2021, a UK judge ruled that Assange could not be extradited to the U.S. to face trial on charges for violating the Espionage Act, citing that the WikiLeaks founder was a suicide risk.

Rumors of a relationship between Assange and actress Pamela Anderson surfaced after the former Baywatch star was spotted visiting the Ecuadorian embassy in late 2016. "Julian is trying to free the world by educating it," she later told People. "It is a romantic struggle I love him for this."

In April 2017, Showtime announced that it would air the Assange documentary Risk, which had premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival but updated with events related to the U.S. presidential election.

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Julian Assange - WikiLeaks, Arrest & Facts - Biography