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Trial Portrays Two Sides Private in WikiLeaks Case

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FORT MEADE, Md. The court-martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning, whose secret release of a vast archive of military and diplomatic materials put WikiLeaks into an international spotlight, opened here Monday with dueling portrayals of a traitor who endangered the lives of his fellow soldiers and of a principled protester motivated by a desire to help society who carefully selected which documents to release.

The contrast between the governments description of Private Manning and his lawyers underscored the oddity at the heart of the trial, which is expected to last as long as 12 weeks: There is no doubt that he did most of what he is accused of doing, and the crucial issue is how those actions should be understood.

In February, Private Manning pleaded guilty to nine lesser versions of the charges he is facing and one full one while confessing in detail to releasing the trove of documents for which he could be sentenced to up to 20 years.

But his plea was not part of any deal and prosecutors are going to trial because they hope to convict him, based on essentially the same facts, of 20 more serious offenses including espionage and aiding the enemy that could result in a life sentence.

Since his arrest three years ago, Private Manning, 25, has been embraced as a whistle-blower and hero by many on the political left, including Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers four decades ago. On Monday, dozens of supporters demonstrated in the rain outside the bases main entrance, many holding placards with his picture.

His case has inspired social media activism that has helped raise $1.25 million for his defense from more than 20,000 people, according to the Bradley Manning Support Network. Supporters have planned rallies this week in three dozen cities, including sites in the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy and South Korea.

Inside the courtroom on Monday, as Private Manning sat quietly, David Coombs, his defense lawyer, told the judge that his client had been young, nave, but good-intentioned and that he had tried to ensure that the roughly 700,000 documents he released would not cause harm.

He was selective, Mr. Coombs said. He had access to literally hundreds of millions of documents as an all-source analyst, and these were the documents that he released. And he released these documents because he was hoping to make the world a better place.

But a prosecutor, Capt. Joe Morrow, said that Private Manning was no ordinary leaker who made a particular document public, but rather someone who grabbed classified databases wholesale and sent them to a place where he knew adversaries like Al Qaeda could get to them.

This is a case about a soldier who systematically harvested hundreds of thousands of classified documents and dumped them onto the Internet, into the hands of the enemy material he knew, based on his training, would put the lives of fellow soldiers at risk, Captain Morrow said.

The court-martial comes amid a focus on the Obama administrations aggressive record on leaks. The administration has overseen an unprecedented six leak-related prosecutions, and last month it emerged that the Justice Department had secretly obtained calling records for reporters with The Associated Press and for a Fox News reporter; the department also portrayed the Fox reporter as having violated the Espionage Act as part of an application for a search warrant seeking his personal e-mails.

In his 58-minute opening, Captain Morrow cited logs of searches and downloads from Private Mannings classified work computer, deleted files from his personal laptop including chat logs he contended were between Private Manning and a person he said was the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, and other such records to show the pace and scale of his downloads.

Most of the assertions in Captain Morrows portrayal dovetailed with Private Mannings confession in February, but there remain a few factual disputes. Among them is that he has pleaded not guilty to leaking to WikiLeaks some 74,000 e-mail addresses for troops in Iraq, but Captain Morrow said that list had been downloaded on a computer Private Manning had used.

Captain Morrow also argued that the private started helping WikiLeaks in late November 2009, shortly after his arrival in Iraq. The military has suggested that he might have sent a video of an airstrike that year in Garani, Afghanistan, in which numerous civilians died, to WikiLeaks around then. Private Manning has admitted sending WikiLeaks the video, but said he did not do so until late March 2010.

In his defense, Mr. Coombs said Private Manning started sending files to WikiLeaks later, in January 2010, after a roadside bombing in Iraq on Dec. 24, 2009. Everyone in his unit celebrated, Mr. Coombs said, after learning that no American troops had been seriously hurt, and their happiness did not abate except for Private Mannings when they learned that members of an innocent Iraqi family had been injured and killed. From that moment, Mr. Coombs contended, things started to change and he soon started selecting information he believed the public should see, should hear and sending them to WikiLeaks.

Captain Morrow also emphasized that Private Manning had uncovered an intelligence report warning that foreign adversaries could be gaining access to the information posted on WikiLeaks. He said the government would show that Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, had obtained an archive of wartime incident reports in Afghanistan that Private Manning gave to WikiLeaks. And he argued that some of Private Mannings searches were in response to a 2009 WikiLeaks most wanted list.

But Mr. Coombs rejected the notion that Private Manning was working for WikiLeaks or intended to aid terrorists.

Ben Wizner, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer observing the trial, said that he found it striking that the government focused on the enemy as the audience for leaks. Citing as an example the disclosure of the Abu Ghraib prison torture photographs in 2004, he observed that sometimes what may be helpful to the enemy is also indispensable to the public in a functioning democracy.

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Trial Portrays Two Sides Private in WikiLeaks Case

WikiLeaks claims Ecuadorian Embassy is spying on Assange

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The operation was bought to the attention of WikiLeaks after individuals in Spain demanded 3 million for the material, threatening to publish it otherwise. The case is now being treated as extortion by Spanish Authorities.

While Hrafnsson has not provided further evidence for his claims, he said in a press conference today that he believed the footage has been passed on to the Trump government by Ecuadorian authorities, who are keen to evict Assange. "The government is clearly building a pretext to end the asylum," Hrafnsson said, before adding that the scale of the spying operation would not be "possible without complicity of the government."

Ecuador isn't required to continue granting asylum, but they can only release him under the same protections that were granted in the first place. Assange originally sought asylum at the embassy after Swedish authorities wanted to question him over allegations of sexual assault and rape. The police subsequently withdrew his involvement, but US authorities still want to speak to him. If he leaves the embassy, he will immediately be extradited to the US, where some believe his life would be at risk.

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Chelsea Mannings Dont Tread on Me Moment | The American …

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Chelsea Manning in front of the U.S. District Courthouse in Alexandria, Va., in March before she was jailed. (NBC News screenshot)

Chelsea Manning, the Army whistleblower who released hundreds of thousands of pages of classified documents to Wikileaks in 2011 and who called attention to war crimes committed by U.S. troops, is back in jail. In fact, shes been there for a monthnot that the mainstream media cares. Whats another whistleblower locked up?

But Manning isnt being held in the federal lockup in Alexandria, Virginia, for providing classified information to the media. She was already sentenced to 35 years in a military prison for that. (She served seven years before President Barack Obama commuted her sentence.) This time, shes been thrown behind bars for an indeterminate period of incarceration because she refused to testify before the Wikileaks grand jury. And to make matters worse, she was reportedly held in solitary confinement (or, as sheriff Dana Lawhorne called it, administrative segregation) until April 5.

While the hive media has been all but silent, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at least spoke out in support of Manning last week, calling her jail conditions torture.

What Manning is doing, in my view, is heroic for myriad reasons.There is no need to rehash what shethen Private First Class Bradley Manningdid in 2011. You dont have to like Chelsea to acknowledge that shes a whistleblower. Theres a legal definition of whistleblowing. It is bringing to light any evidence of waste, fraud, abuse, illegality, or threats to the public health or safety. Thats exactly what she did when she downloaded and delivered to Wikileaks thousands of pages of government documents that exposed the real truth about the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The most damning of these for the government weretheCollateral Murder video, the Afghanistan war logs, the Iraq war logs, and the Guantanamo files.

But the price that she has paid has been very high. Manning spent two of her seven years in prison in solitary confinement, a situation the United Nations has characterized as a form of torture. She twice attempted suicide the first time she was in solitary. And she was forced to remain naked for a year in solitary because she was a suicide risk. Authorities were afraid she would use her clothes to hang herself.

In early March, Manning was subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in the federal court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The media reported that the Justice Departments prosecutors wanted her to testify about her relationship with Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange and how she was able to pass classified documents to him in 2011. Manning contended that she had already testified to those questions in her own trial in 2012, and that all the feds had to do was enter into the record the transcript of her trial.

The feds wouldnt relent. But neither would Manning. She said she would invoke her FifthAmendment right against self-incrimination. Then the government offered her qualified immunity. Nothing she said before the grand jury would be used against her. (Except if she contradicted her 2011 testimony. Thats a trick the feds love to use to charge people with perjury or with making a false statement. More on that in a minute.) Manning held firm, however. Even with the qualified immunity offer, she said that she would invoke her First Amendment right to freedom of speech, her FourthAmendment right against illegal search and seizure, and her SixthAmendment right to due process. She wouldnt budge, and the Justice Department asked the judge to hold her indefinitely in contempt of court. That is how Manning found herself behind bars again.

When Manning was arrested and charged with contempt of court, I tweeted:

I said thisand I believe every word of itbecause Mannings actions remind me of those of folk singer and legendary activist Pete Seeger, a personal hero of mine.

Pete Seeger was a member of the Communist Party USA from the early 1940s until 1949, when he split with the party over Josef Stalins atrocities. Still, he remained friendly with many party members. In 1955, Seeger, along with folksingers and members of his band The WeaversLee Hayes, Mil Lampell, and Ronnie Gilbertwere subpoenaed to testify before the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), where they were asked to name names. Hayes, Lampell, and Gilbert all pleaded the Fifthso as not to incriminate themselves. They urged Seeger to do the same. But he did not.

Instead, Seeger went before the HUAC and refused to answer any questions, citing his constitutional rights under the First Amendment. He told the Committee, I am not going to answer any questions as to my associations, my philosophical or religious beliefs, or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this.

Seeger was charged with 10 felony counts of contempt of Congresssimilar to Mannings charge of contempt of courtconvicted, and sentenced to 10 concurrent one-year terms in a federal prison. The conviction was overturned a year later on a technicality.

Like Manning, Seeger could have taken the easy way out. But he didnt. He could have just taken the Fifth. He could have answered each question with I dont recall. But he chose to make a political point, to take a stand. That was courageous in 1955 and it is courageous in 2019.

Seeger got caught up in the anti-communist hysteria of the 1950s. The situation for Manning, though, is more sinister. Contrary to popular belief, President Obama did not pardon Manning in the final days of his administration. Instead, he commuted her sentence, simply releasing her from prison. The conviction still stands and Manning is still in legal jeopardy. Prosecutors could still decide to charge her with crimes related to the original charges. With that said, was Mannings subpoena a ham-fisted attempt to get her to contradict herself in new testimony, thus inviting another felony charge for perjury or making a false statement? Were prosecutors trying to get Manning to implicate herself in some process felony? Or were they simply trying to force her to turn rat on Julian Assange?

Again, Manning could have simply answered each question with I dont recall. She would have been home in time for dinner. Instead, she made a political pointone that all of us should want to emulate. That point is Dont tread on me. That point is Im willing to jeopardize my freedom to protect yours.

I say often that in my time at the CIA, I learned that CIA culture is such that employees are taught that everything in life is a shade of gray. But that is simply not true. Some things are black and white, right or wrong. This is one of those things. Its the government thats the enemy here, not Manning or Assange.

Remember, the American people own the information that Manning and Assange are accused of releasing. We have a right to know what our government is doing in our name. We have a right to know whether the government is covering up crimes. We have a right to know whenand whythose Americans who commit war crimes or crimes against humanity are not being prosecuted. The mainstream media doesnt tell us. But Wikileaks does.

We wouldnt know about some of the most egregious war crimes of the past two decades without Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange. You dont have to like them. You dont have to share their politics. You dont have to want to go out and have a beer with them. But you do have to respect what theyve done.

John Kiriakou is a formerCIAanalystandcaseofficerand seniorinvestigatorfor theSenate Foreign Relations Committee. He served two years in prison (2013-15) for blowing the whistle on the CIAs torture program. He is currently an activist, a radio host, and the author of the recent bookThe Convenient Terrorist: Two Whistleblowers Stories of Torture, Terror, Secret Wars and CIA Lieswith Joseph Hickman.

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Chelsea Mannings Dont Tread on Me Moment | The American ...

Chelsea Manning: Why was the whistleblower who exposed some …

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In a last minute action, President Barack Obama significantly commuted the sentence of incarcerated whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

The outgoing administration had been under enormous pressure to grant Ms Manning clemency before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. She was included in a list of 209 commutations and 64 pardons.

Ms Manning, 29, had been serving a 35-year sentence in a prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for leaking classified military and diplomatic documents.

From 15p 0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.

She will be released on 17 May 2017.

Why was Chelsea Manning in prison?

Ms Manning was convicted of espionage and theft in July 2013 after leaking information obtained while serving as an intelligence analyst in the US Army in 2009. She was stationed at Forward Operating Base Hammer in Iraq, during which time she gained access to such classified information. Among the information that shocked Ms Manning was video depicting the US military killing unarmed civilians.

She passed along the information to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in 2010 after failed attempts to contact the Washington Post and the New York Times. Wikileaks released video in April 2010 showing a US helicopter gunning down civilians including a Reuters journalist in Iraq.

Soldiers could be heard in the video, titled Collateral Murder, ridiculing the victims.

The most alarming aspect of the video to me, however, was the seemingly delightful bloodlust the aerial weapons team, Ms Manning said in a statement read in court. They dehumanised the individuals they were engaging and seemed to not value human life by referring to them as dead bastards, and congratulating each other on the ability to kill in large numbers.

Ms Manning, who was then known as Bradley Manning, revealed she was behind the leaks to former hacker Adrian Lamo in an online forum, under the handle bradass87. Mr Lamo subsequently turned her into the Department of Defense.

The DoD arrested Ms Manning in May 2010.

Gender identity

A day after her 2013 sentencing, Ms Manning announced her transgender identity in a statement given to NBC.

As I transition into the next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female, she said. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition.

She petitioned the court to be legally referred to as Chelsea Manning. The court granted the petition in 2014, and began undergoing hormone therapy.

Failed appeals and subsequent suicide attempts

Ms Manning filed an appeal to her sentence in May 2016. In an unclassified portion of her 250-page appeal, Ms Manning rebuked her sentencing as harsh and unjust.

No whistleblower in American history has been sentenced this harshly, she said, adding that the 35-year sentence is perhaps the most unjust sentence in the history of the military justice system.

Lead counsel for the Chelsea Manning Legal Defence Team called for the full overturn of Ms Mannings punishment.

A war against whistleblowers is being waged in this country and this case represents how this country treats anyone who reveals even a single page of classified information, said attorney Nancy Hollander. We need brave individuals to hold the government accountable for its actions at home and abroad and we call upon this court to overturn the dangerous precedent of Chelsea Mannings excessive sentencing.

Ms Manning attempted suicide twice in 2016 following her rejected appeal. After the first attempt in July, she faced disciplinary action and was sentenced to further solitary confinement. In October, when placed in solitary, she attempted to kill herself once more.

Clemency

The White House made the announcement of Ms Mannings clemency Tuesday afternoon.

While the mercy the President has shown his 1,597 clemency recipients is remarkable, said White House counsel Neil Eggleston, we must remember that clemency is an extraordinary remedy, granted only after the President has concluded that a particular individual has demonstrated a readiness to make use of his or her second chance.

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Ecuador twists embarrassing INA Papers … – defend.wikileaks.org

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(en Espaol)

On 26 March, WikiLeaks Twitter account announced that President Moreno is being investigated by Ecuadors Congress for corruption, sparked by the INA Papers leak. The same tweet referenced President Morenos attempt to surrender Assange in exchange for US debt relief, a fact that had been reported by The New York Times.

The following day, Foreign Minister Jose Valencia said that the WikiLeaks tweet was an absurd lie to harm the dignity of our country we will not tolerate inventions and insults I cannot anticipate when and when we will take action in relation to this, but we will take action for certain.

On 28 March, Communications Minister Andrs Michelena told CNN Espaol that the INApapers were part of a plot of Julian Assange, Venezuelan President Maduro and former Ecuadorian President Correa to bring down Morenos government. He added, You have to understand how these people are connected, Mr. Assange is the Troll Center, the hacker for former President Correa, [Assange] handles the technological and social media side.

That same day, the national assembly, in which Morenos party and other right parties command a majority, passed a resolution inviting the Foreign Ministry to take action against Assanges asylum on the basis of the INApapers leak in the national interest if it considers it pertinent to do so.

In March 2019, Morenos approval ratings dropped to 17%. Statements by the government of Ecuador deliberately implicate WikiLeaks in the INApapers leak. For example, Ecuadors Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner said in a local radio interview, What Wikileaks and other political actors have done, to publish private photos of the President of the Republic, of his family, is a despicable, repugnant, and odious act.

The Foreign Minister said in a radio interview: It is absolutely outrageous, reproachable, it shows Assange for what he is of course we will act. We will not allow his website to interfere in the private channels of communication of the Ecuadorian head of state. he is biting the hand that feeds him.

Foreign Minister Jos Valencia has stated: we are going to analyze whether Mr. Julian Assanges aggressive publications against the Ecuadorian state merits a legal action by the Ecuadorian state.

On 1 April, Ecuador submitted a request to the United Nations Rapporteur on Privacy to take urgent measures in response to the INApapers publication, listing WikiLeaks as the responsible party.

President Moreno, desperate to divert public attention away from the scandal, is using the claims as a pretext to oust Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. On 2 April, the President stated that Assange has violated the conditions of his asylum and that he will take a decision in the short term. He said, In WikiLeaks there is proof of espionage, of hacking, of the fact that phones have been intercepted and private conversations, there are even pictures of my bedroom.

Assanges lawyer in Ecuador, Carlos Poveda, explained that Assange had nothing to do with the publication: Remember that WikiLeaks has an internal organization and Mr. Assange is no longer in the editor. We will now resort to other types of situations, especially the Inter-American Commission. (Listen to audio here.)

Nevertheless, Ecuadors Vice President, Otto Sonnenholzner, has suggested that Assange would be prosecuted over what he described as a WikiLeaks hack, alluding to the rigid protocol that Ecuador has imposed on Assange to maintain a constant threat of expulsion.

The INA Papers are a set of documents published in February 2019, allegedly uncovering the operations of INA Investment Corp, an offshore tax haven created by the brother of Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno. The trove of emails, phone communications and expense receipts are said to link the president and his family to a series of corrupt and criminal dealings, including money laundering and offshore accounts. The leak has sparked a congressional investigation into President Moreno for corruption. Moreno cant be summoned for a criminal probe while he remains president. He is currently being investigated and risks impeachment.

Former Consul of Ecuador Fidel Navarez denounces the resolution based on a lie that blames Assange for the INA Papers:

The recent reaction of the Ecuadorian government to the INAPAPERS scandal could not be worse. Instead of clarifying and making the issue transparent, the government spokesmen, to divert attention from the still timorous official investigations, position a monumental lie, accusing WikiLeaks of having leaked communications and images of President Morenos family circle.

Not a single document referring to INAPAPERS, or the presidents family, has ever been leaked or published by WikiLeaks, let alone by Julian Assange, who for more than half a year has not been its editor and who has been isolated for one year under a regime quasi-prison by the government of Ecuador.

Despite being an outrageous accusation, the farce has reached the point that the Ecuadorian National Assembly has issued a resolution to investigate Julin and encourages the government to take measures to safeguard national interests. In short, the government seeks a false pretext to end the asylum and protection of Julian Assange.

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SECRYPT 2019 – Home

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SECRYPT is part of ICETE, the 16th International Joint Conference on e-Business and Telecommunications. Registration to SECRYPT allows free access to all other ICETE conferences. ICETE 2019 will be held in conjunction with ICSOFT 2019 and DATA 2019. Registration to ICETE allows free access to the ICSOFT and DATA conferences (as a non-speaker).

Position Paper Submission: April 15, 2019

Regular Paper Authors Notification: May 2, 2019

Regular Paper Camera Ready and Registration: May 16, 2019

Position Paper Authors Notification: May 23, 2019

Position Paper Camera Ready and Registration: June 5, 2019

SECRYPT is an annual international conference covering research in information and communication security. The 16th International Conference on Security and Cryptography (SECRYPT 2019) will be held in Prague, Czech Republic on 26-28 July 2019. The conference seeks submissions from academia, industry, and government presenting novel research on all theoretical and practical aspects of data protection, privacy, security, and cryptography. Papers describing the application of security technology, the implementation of systems, and lessons learned are also encouraged. Papers describing new methods or technologies, advanced prototypes, systems, tools and techniques and vision papers indicating future directions are also encouraged.

Pierangela Samarati,Universit degli Studi di Milano, Italy

Submission: May 29, 2019

Proceedings will be submitted for indexation by:

703 papers currently indexed by SCOPUS (and more by others) since 2006

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Edward Snowden, spying on citizens and freedom of the press …

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Edward Snowden

FILE - This June 9, 2013 file photo provided by The Guardian Newspaper in London shows National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, in Hong Kong. Snowden says his "mission's already accomplished" after leaking NSA secrets that have caused a reassessment of U.S. surveillance policies. Snowden told The Washington Post in a story published online Monday night, Dec. 23, 2013, he has "already won" because journalists have been able to tell the story of the government's collection of bulk Internet and phone records. (AP Photo/The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, File)

(Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras via AP)

Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the National Security Agency's secret surveillance of U.S. citizens.

FILE - This Dec. 4, 2012 file photo shows Guardian newspaper editor Alan Rusbridger in London. The Obama administration knew in advance that the British government would oversee destruction of a newspaper's hard drives containing leaked National Security Agency documents last year, newly declassified documents show. The White House had publicly distanced itself from doing the same against an American news organization. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)

Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of the British news organization The Guardian, made sure the world heard it.

The files Snowden stole from the NSA revealed the agency collected phone records in bulk, gained secret access to data kept by private companies such as Google and Facebook, cracked Internet encryption codes and listened in on the private phone calls of 35 world leaders. The British spy agency GCHQ also was implicated. And there likely are more revelations to come.Rusbridger traveled to Syracuse Wednesday to accept the Tully Award for Free Speech from the Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. After publishing the Snowden material, the editor was threatened with espionage charges, grilled by a parliamentary commission and forced to smash computers containing the stolen files. He may still be under police investigation.

Alan Rusbridger (left), editor-in-chief of The Guardian, is interviewed by Roy Gutterman (right), executive director of the Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014, at the Newhouse school on campus. Rusbridger accepted the Tully Free Speech Award for publlishing NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations about NSA spying.

Rusbridger and The Guardian also led reporting on the State Department files leaked by Wikileaks and the phone hacking scandal that rocked Rupert Murdoch's media empire.

In an informal question-and-answer session with Tully Center Executive Director Roy Gutterman, Rusbridger talked about his dealings with Snowden, the changing world of journalism and the challenges facing a free press.

On how the story came to The Guardian: Rusbridger says it began with a willingness to work with a new breed of journalist, Glenn Greenwald.

... Glenn Greenwald is not a conventional journalist. He's a lawyer, a blogger, an activist, he lives in Rio (de Janeiro, Brazil). At the point that we hired him, he had an avid following of about a million of his own people, and he was not a conventional journalist by any stretch of the imagination. But we thought he was interesting figure and we wanted to harness that.

There's a lot of American news organizations that wouldn't touch Glenn Greenwald with a barge pole. And so that's why I link the story to just that -- the hiring of Glenn Greenwald. Edward Snowden, when he wanted to make contact with journalists, didn't go to (The New York) Times, didn't go to a conventional news outlet, he went to somebody he thought would do justice to the story.

On how they got the NSA files: Greenwald and Guardian reporter Ewen McAskill traveled to Hong Kong to meet with Snowden. After 48 hours of "speed-dating,'' they were convinced Snowden was who he said he was and that the documents he had were genuine.

Snowden began by selecting one or two things that he thought were particularly significant. And after that ... it was a case of, "Here is the stuff. I'm coming to you as journalists because I think journalists are the people who should define what the public interest is here, and I'm not going to guide you any further.''

On the difference in responses by the British and U.S. governments: Rusbridger said you can't just "ring up'' the British spy agency to discuss publication of secrets, so they published first and waited to be contacted. When it became clear the British government would try to restrain publication of more stories, The Guardian enlisted a U.S. partner, The New York Times. The NSA and the White House, by contrast, were much more accessible.

The facade of Newhouse III at Syracuse University is emblazoned with the text of the First Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

The NSA didn't (threaten us). I know there are different complaints one could make about the current administration ... But the words that are inscribed on this building mean something. The First Amendment means something and it's internalized in the American mind. ... In Europe it's not internalized ...

On the differing reactions to the story around the world: In the United States, Snowden was reviled as a traitor by the intelligence establishment and hailed as a hero by civil libertarians. Citizens of other countries viewed the disclosures through their own particular lenses, Rusbridger said.

... In Britain the politicians didn't really want to debate the issue. They wanted to attack The Guardian... They weren't very interested in this balancing act that we ask them to do on our behalf ... balancing our civil rights and liberties with our security.

On the fallout from the Snowden disclosures: Rusbridger hopes intelligence agencies are better prepared to negotiate with journalists over the publication of sensitive material.

The big question for the future is that these massive databases don't seem to be very secure. We've seen relatively young, relatively junior people like Chelsea Manning (who gave the State Department documents to Wikileaks) and Edward Snowden, people who work for the government, able to purloin vast amounts of documents. It's likely to happen again.

On what will happen to Snowden now: Rusbridger and McAskill traveled to Moscow in July to interview the whistleblower, who was granted asylum by Russia. He faces espionage charges if he returns to the United States.

... My impression is that he doesn't have access to anything. I don't think the administration considers him a threat. ... We have material. Glenn has material. ... The New York Times has the material that The Guardian had, a copy.

On whether Snowden has regrets:

Not at all. I think he went into it knowing that this was going to change his life forever. I think he felt that this raised enormous questions that society hadn't either known about or dealt with or that we as citizens had given our consent to. I think he felt it really important that this question should be given back to society to discuss, and I don't think he regrets that.

On the importance of journalism and journalism institutions in a free society: Rusbridger harkened back to the founding of The Guardian after the 1819 Peterloo Massacre in Manchester. The paper would publish a true version of events and hold those in power to account.

I think of journalism as like a fire service, or like a water utility. It's one of the essential things a society needs in order to function. ... Going through Snowden, I'm even more convinced of the value of a newspaper. It doesn't have to be a printed thing, but a resilient organization with professional training and standards, that when it comes under ferocious attack can defend its journalism. That's such an important institutional idea.

On the biggest threat to free speech and freedom of the press around the world: Rusbridger worries about the erosion of those rights in countries that historically have supported them, and the message that sends to the rest of the world.

... Turkey is behaving horribly towards journalists. And that's really crucial because there are lots of much nastier Arab and Middle Eastern regimes ... so if Turkey goes, lots of people are going to follow the example of Turkey. Equally when you see countries like Australia and the UK and to some extent America behaving in a repressive way toward whistleblowers and journalists, that's a disaster, because the rest of the world is watching what we do. ... Others will think that's an OK way to behave.

We understand the threat of terror, but if terror is going to be used to trounce 300 years of civil liberties, that's a disaster for the rest of the world.

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Edward Snowden, spying on citizens and freedom of the press ...

Why is WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Ecuador’s embassy …

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Rumours are rife that Julian Assange will soon be released from the Ecuadorian embassy in London after the organisation he founded, WikiLeaks, suggested his exit was imminent.

WikiLeaks tweeted that a high-level source within the Ecuadorian state told it Assange will be expelled from the embassy within hours or days. But a senior Ecuadorian official said no decision had been made to remove him from the building.

In August 2010, an arrest warrant was issued for Assange for two separate allegations one of rape and one of molestation after he visited Sweden for a speaking trip. He was questioned by police in Stockholm and denied the allegations.

Assange revealed his fears that if he were extradited to Sweden, he would then be extradited again to the US to face charges over WikiLeaks publication of secret US government files.

After an international arrest warrant was issued by Swedish police through Interpol, Assange presented himself to the Metropolitan police in December 2010 and appeared at an extradition hearing, where he was granted bail.

Following a couple of years of legal battles, UK courts ruled Assange should be extradited to Sweden, and the WikiLeaks founder entered the Ecuadorian embassy in August 2012 seeking political asylum, which was granted.

Swedish prosecutors dropped a preliminary investigation into the allegation of rape in May 2017, stating that at this point, all possibilities to conduct the investigation are exhausted.

The separate allegations of sexual assault, made by a second Swedish woman, were dropped by Swedish authorities in 2015 after the statute of limitations expired.

The Met issued a warrant for his arrest after he failed to surrender to the conditional bail set in December 2010 this warrant remains.

In January 2018, lawyers for Assange attempted to have the warrant torn up on the grounds it has lost its purpose and its function.

But in February of that year, Westminster magistrates court said the UK arrest warrant was still valid. Assange said he continues to fear an arrest on British soil would ultimately lead to extradition to the US.

We dont know for sure. But a mistake in a document filed by the US authorities, which emerged in November last year in an unrelated case, hinted criminal charges may have been prepared in secret.

The text of the court filing, which relates to a completely separate case, includes two mentions of someone called Assange, including a suggestion that the documentation in the case would need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested in connection with the charges.

In January, lawyers for Assange said they are taking action aimed at making Donald Trumps administration reveal charges secretly filed against the WikiLeaks founder.

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Why is WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Ecuador's embassy ...

Julian Assange expected to be expelled from Ecuadorean …

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A senior Ecuadorean official said no decision has been made to expel Julian Assange from the countrys London embassy despite tweets from WikiLeaks that sources had told it he could be kicked out within hours to days.

A small group of protesters and supporters of the WikiLeaks founder gathered Thursday local time outside the embassy in London where Assange has been holed up since August 2012.

He has feared extradition to the US since WikiLeaks published thousands of classified military and diplomatic cables.

WikiLeaks tweeted today that its founder would be turfed out of the embassy in London where he has lived for more than six years.

A high level source within the Ecuadorean state has told @WikiLeaks that Julian Assange will be expelled within hours to days using the #INAPapers offshore scandal as a pretext and that it already has an agreement with the UK for his arrest, the tweet said.

But a top official said while Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno was angered by the apparent hacking of his personal communications, he denied WikiLeaks claim and said no decision had been taken to expel Assange from the Embassy.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasnt authorised to discuss the matter.

The news comes after the INA Papers website published allegations of corruption involving Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno.

Earlier WikiLeaks told AP: If President Moreno wants to illegally terminate a refugee publishers asylum to cover up an offshore corruption scandal, history will not be kind.

In an interview broadcast by several Ecuadorean radio stations on Tuesday, Mr Moreno said Mr Assange had repeatedly violated the conditions of his asylum at the countrys embassy in London.

Relations between Assange and his embassy hosts have been deteriorating for months.

In October, Assange sued Ecuador for violating his fundamental rights by limiting his access to the outside world after his internet and mobile phone access were blocked back in March.

Ecuadors government has accused him of breaking a written commitment not to interfere in its foreign policies.

It is not that he cannot speak freely, it is not that he cannot express himself freely, but he cannot lie, let alone hack into accounts or intercept private telephone calls under the terms of his asylum agreement, Mr Moreno said.

Mr Morenos comments come after the Ecuadorean government filed a formal complaint to the UN special rapporteur on the right to privacy, Joseph Cannataci, accusing WikiLeaks of spreading private information linked to Mr Moreno.

Photos, videos and private conversations appeared on portals such as Twitter and Facebook.

Mr Moreno was also forced to deny allegations of corruption which surfaced on the website inapapers.org, with the president claiming he knew who was responsible for the accusations.

Assange sought refuge at the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced accusations of sexual assault that prosecutors in Stockholm have since abandoned.

He has refused to leave the embassy to avoid extradition to the United States to face charges over his website publishing huge caches of hacked State Department and Pentagon files in 2010.

The Australian denies the rape claims, and said he feared Sweden would pass him on to US authorities if he was extradited. The Swedish chief prosecutor dropped proceedings against him in 2017 because going ahead and serving notice of charges would necessitate Assanges presence in court.

Mr Moreno reiterated Tuesday that the government continues to seek a solution to Assanges situation.

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Julian Assange expected to be expelled from Ecuadorean ...

Ecuador rejects WikiLeaks claim it plans to expel Julian Assange

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April 6, 2019, 10:38 AM GMT

By Linda Givetash

LONDON Ecuador has denied WikiLeaks' claims that it is set to expel Julian Assange from its embassy in London, rejecting what it called "an attempt to stain the dignity of the country."

Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, hasn't left the embassy since 2012. He sought refuge there to avoid arrest and potential extradition to the United States for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic cables on the website.

The organization has also repeatedly claimed that the U.S. Justice Department is building a criminal case against Assange centered on the leaking of Democratic emails hacked by the Russians in the 2016 election.

On Friday, WikiLeaks tweeted that Assange would be expelled from the embassy "within 'hours to days'" and claimed that Ecuador "already has an agreement with the UK for his arrest."

Ecuador's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement late Friday that Assange and WikiLeaks have shown "ingratitude and disrespect" toward the country that has given him protection on its diplomatic soil by fueling rumors that he would be handed over to British authorities.

Ecuador "has made significant expenditures to pay for his stay" and has "endured its rudeness," the ministry said.

The latest reports surrounding Assange's potential release brought renewed attention to the embassy, a red-brick building in a quiet, upscale area in the southwest of the British capital.

On Friday a few protesters gathered outside along with members of the media.

Assange, who is originally from Australia, founded WikiLeaks in 2006. The website gained global attention in 2010 with the publication of leaks provided by Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Iraq and self-described whistleblower. Manning in March refused to testify before a federal grand jury looking into the release of documents to WikiLeaks.

Assange could also face legal troubles in Britain for violating bail conditions related to an international arrest warrant issued by the Swedish government over allegations of sexual assault and rape. Assange has denied the allegations and surrendered to British police. But once released on bail, he fled.

Sweden has since dropped its investigation and Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Friday that Assange is "a free man, he can leave that embassy whenever he wants to."

Local police said in a statement there is an active warrant for Assange's arrest and that the police are "obliged to execute that warrant should he leave the Embassy."

Assange became an Ecuadorian citizen last year despite his increasingly strained relations with the country.

The government cut off his access to the internet in 2016 after WikiLeaks published a trove of Democratic emails during the U.S. presidential campaign, saying it was preventing him from interfering in the affairs of other countries.

Last month, Ecuador's National Assembly issued a resolution to investigate if Assange played a role in the publishing of private information about President Lenn Moreno on social networks.

On Tuesday, Moreno blamed WikiLeaks for recent allegations of offshore corruption that appeared in local media outlets and the publication of family photos to social media.

WikiLeaks in a statement called Moreno's charges "completely bogus," saying it reported on the accusations of corruption against the president only after Ecuador's legislature investigated the issue.

Moreno provided no evidence, but the speech reflected ongoing tension between Assange and his hosts at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in its statement late Friday that Ecuador had filed a complaint with the United Nations over what they called "illicit publications."

"Mr. Assange has rights but also obligations to comply with," it warned. "No person under the jurisdiction of Ecuador is above the Law."

Linda Givetash is a reporter based in London. She previously worked for The Canadian Press in Vancouver and Nation Media in Uganda.

Laura Saravia and Associated Press contributed.

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Ecuador rejects WikiLeaks claim it plans to expel Julian Assange


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