WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange addresses the media from the balcony of the Embassy of Ecuador in London in 2017.

Julian Assange, who has served as WikiLeaks' editor-in-chief since he founded the document-leaking site in 2006, has been replaced as the site's top editor.

WikiLeaks, in a tweet announcing the appointment of a new editor, cited the organization's inability to communicate with Assange for the past six months as the reason behind the move. Kristinn Hrafnsson, a journalist from Iceland, will become the site's new top editor, but Assange will remain its publisher, WikiLeaks said Wednesday.

Assange has been holed up in a small room in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for more than six years, initially entering it to avoid extradition for a rape charge in Sweden. The country dropped that charge but he's still facing a UK charge of skipping bail.

The UK maintains that Assange's exile is self-imposed, and in February a judge upheld a warrant for his arrest. But Ecuadorian officials have apparently grown weary of Assange's presence in the embassy, saying in January that his situation is "not sustainable."

Assange -- a frequent Twitter user -- lost his internet privileges in March when the Ecuadorian government said he violated an agreement with the country not to interfere in its relations with other countries.

Assange is concerned that if he leaves the embassy the US may also seek to extradite him on espionage charges. Last year, the US Justice Department was reportedly considering filing criminal charges against WikiLeaks and Assange in connection with the 2010 leak of diplomatic cables and military documents.

Over the past 12 years, WikiLeaks says it's released more than 10 million secret government documents through its website. The leaks range from a video showing an American Apache helicopter in the Iraq War shooting and killing two journalists, to emails from the Democratic National Committee exposing alleged misconduct during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The Justice Department under former President Barack Obama declined to press charges for revealing the sensitive secrets, concluding that WikiLeaks was working in a capacity akin to journalism. But the case was never formally closed, and the Justice Department under President Donald Trump has signaled a willingness to take another look at the case.

In June, an international group of lawyers appealed to the UN's Human Rights Council regarding concerns that Assange's protracted confinement is having a severe impact on his physical and mental health.

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WikiLeaks replaces Julian Assange as its editor-in-chief ...

Julian Assange has been replaced as editor in chief of Wikileaks, according to the online publisher.

Former spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson, an Icelandic investigative journalist, will take over the role.

I condemn the treatment of Julian Assange that leads to my new role, Hrafnsson said in a statement, according to a Daily Dot report, an online publication that covers internet culture. "But I welcome the opportunity to secure the continuation of the important work based on WikiLeaks ideals.

Assange, 47, founded Wikileaks in 2006 but has been isolated in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012 to avoid being arrested over sexual assault allegations.

WikiLeaks noted that while Assange will stay on as its publisher.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Assange appoints Hrafnsson Editor-in-Chief after six months of effective incommunicado detention, remains publisher [background: https://t.co/2jOgvSu5bG%5D pic.twitter.com/0Fwvf3SrkL

Six months ago, Assange had all communications from theembassy cut by Ecuadors newly-elected president, Lenn Moreno.

Wikileaks slammed the move, calling it an illegal effort to censor Assange's opinion.

"Ecuador's Moreno confirms he (illegally) isolated Assange to censor his opinion on U.S. and Spain," reads a Thursday tweet from Wikleaks' official Twitter account.

Ecuador's Moreno confirms he (illegally) isolated Assange to censor his opinion on US & Spain https://t.co/FUAVSDOISz

(Note however two gross libels from AP. The entirely unsourced claim Assange 'hacked politicians' and was 'charged') @ClaudiaTorrens.https://t.co/FUAVSDOISz pic.twitter.com/Vx5U8GLP6n

Earlier this month, the FBI indicated that Russian military intelligence handed over emails to Wikileaks accessed from John Podesta, who served as Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonHouse GOP groupcuts financial support for Coffman, Bishop GOP lawmaker's campaign shares meme comparing Ford to Hillary Clinton Voter registration on the rise in Nevada MOREs campaign chairman during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to The Associated Press. Democrats argue Wikileaks played a key role in turning the election to Republican nominee Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpTop consumer bureau official blasts colleague over blog posts dismissing racism Trump 'baby blimp' going to Washington state for Pence visit House GOP groupcuts financial support for Coffman, Bishop MORE.

It was also reported that Assange attempted to obtain a Russian visa in 2010.

I, Julian Assange, hereby grant full authority to my friend, Israel Shamir, to both drop off and collect my passport, in order to get a visa, said a letter obtained by the AP written by Assange in Nov. 2010.

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Julian Assange replaced as Wikileaks editor-in-chief | TheHill

Julian Assange speaks to the media from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in May, 2017.

Image: Jack Taylor / Stringer / Gettyimages

WikiLeaks has replaced Julian Assange as editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, the organization announced Wednesday. Assange, who will remain on board as publisher, has appointed Kristinn Hrafnsson as the new editor in chief.

The decision comes six months after Assange's internet privileges at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London have been revoked.

"Due to the extraordinary circumstances where Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has been held incommunicado (...) for six months while arbitrarily detained in the Ecuadorian embassy, Mr. Assange has appointed Kristinn Hrafnsson Editor in Chief of WikiLeaks," the organization wrote in a statement.

Hrafnsson, an Icelandic journalist, served as WikiLeaks spokesperson until 2016, and has "overseen certain legal projects" for the organization since then.

Assange has spent the last six years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he sought asylum from Swedish government's attempt to extradite him on charges of rape. While those charges have been dropped in 2017, Assange still may be arrested by the UK for violating bail, as well as extradited to the U.S. for publishing state secrets.

But Ecuador appears to have been less willing to continue giving Assange asylum in recent years. The strife between the WikiLeaks founder and Ecuador culminated in March 2018, when Assange's communications with anyone outside the embassy were cut for breaching his commitment to the Ecuadorian government he would not interfere with other states.

Originally posted here:
Julian Assange is no longer editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks

JULIAN Assange has stepped down as editor of WikiLeaks.

The whistleblower, who has lived inside the Ecudorian Embassy in London for six years, will continue as the sites publisher.

Assange, 47 will be replaced by Kristinn Hrafnsson who is an Icelandic investigative journalist.

In a statement, WikiLeaks said, Due to extraordinary circumstances where Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks has been held incommunicado (except visits by lawyers) for six months while arbitrarily detained in the Ecuadorean embassy, Mr Assange has appointed Kristinn Hrafnsson Editor-in-Chief of WikiLeaks. Mr Assange will continue to be the publisher of WikiLeaks.

Hrafnsson, 56, has slammed the treatment off his predecessor, who has continued to be denied access to the internet and other forms of communication, however he welcomed his new responsibility.

Assange also faces an arrest warrant in the UK after skipping a bail payment.

He was also accused of sexual assault in Sweden, however the charges have since been dropped.

The whistleblower also fears being extradited to the US where authorities have spoken about prosecuting him for publishing classified information from the National Security Agency.

RELATED: Ecuador and UK working to end stand-off over Julian Assange

RELATED: Julian Assange faces imminent expulsion from Ecuadorean Embassy

The Ecuadorean Embassy cut off Assanges communications to the outside world in March after he tweeted Britain was readying itself for a propaganda war against Russia following the Salisbury poisoning of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal.

However, Ecuadors president Lenn Moreno recently declared that both his country and Britain were working on a legal solution for Assange to allow him to leave the embassy in the medium term.

Before he was stopped communicating online, Assange continued making provocative statements via social media.

Assange has always argued that he was only exercising his right to free speech and that monitoring power politicians was important.

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Julian Assange steps down at Wikileaks

A botched power play by Julian Assange has led to a split within a key organization supporting whistleblowers and leaves the WikiLeaks founder more isolated than ever among his core constituency of radical transparency activists.

Assange has grown furious at a one-time ally with substantial moral authority within their movement: the journalist and activist Barrett Brown.

Since his release from federal prison on trumped-up charges related to a major corporate hack, Brown been increasingly public in voicing disgust at Assanges embrace of Donald Trump and his general comfort with the nationalist right. That has led Assange, an erstwhile transparency advocate and whistleblower champion, to retaliate.

I have been increasingly vocal about my growing distaste for WikiLeaks in general and Julian Assange in particular, largely due to his close and ongoing involvement with fascist entities, his outright lies about his role in the last U.S. election, and his willingness to have others tell similar lies on his behalf, Brown told The Daily Beast. I have also continued to support his rights against the state and private organizations that have pursued him from the very beginning, when his original mission of ethical transparency was still in play.

Assange had a lever against Brown. Brown has received financial backing from the Courage Foundation, a whistleblower protection group. Courage operates WikiLeaks legal defense fund, which is increasingly important to Assange amid rumors that Ecuador will soon evict Assange from its London embassy, where he has lived since 2012 following a since-shuttered rape investigation in Sweden and possible interest in Assange from U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller, as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, last week subpoenaed an alleged backchannel between Assange and Trump consigliere Roger Stone.

While Assange has no formal role on Courage, multiple knowledgeable sources said he continues to exert informal influence over it. Assange co-founded what would become the group and was an initial trustee. In May 2017, Courage formally took on WikiLeaks as a beneficiary.

On Thursday, three Courage trustees aligned with Assange instructed Courages widely respected director, Naomi Colvin, to cut off Brown. According to a new statement Colvin has posted on Medium, the trustees explicitly based their reasoning on nasty adversarial remarks about WikiLeaks Brown has made.

Colvin rejected the retaliation on principle. But they persisted, instructing her to work out getting rid of Brown expeditiously.

On Sunday, Courage trustee Susan Benn, who came to Courage from the Julian Assange Defense Fund, informed Brown that Courage will no longer represent him.

You have made a number of hostile and denigrating statements about other Courage beneficiaries who are facing grave legal and personal risks, Benn wrote in an email acquired by The Daily Beast. Courage expects solidarity and mutual aid from its beneficiaries, especially when those among you face extreme uncertainty and danger; and Courage as an organisation cannot afford to be conflicted because of the conflicting interests of others. Moreover, your own criminal proceedings have concluded and you were released from prison almost two years ago. (Chelsea Manning, its worth noting, remains a Courage beneficiary despite being released from prison in May 2017.)

Brown told The Daily Beast: Im afraid I cannot agree with the stance, presented by the Courage board to me yesterday via a poorly written email, that I am somehow obligated to not only defend Assanges rights, as Im happy to do, but also to refrain from speaking out about the problems facing a movement that I risked a hundred years of prison time in order to defend.

But the retaliation came with a price for Assange. It prompted a split within Courage, complete with at least one outraged resignation: Colvin, the director of the organization. A transition in staff may be underway, knowledgeable sources said.

The short-term result of Assanges behavior may be to consolidate control over Courage. But it has come at the expense of broken ties with two heavily respected and influential figures within the hacktivist circles from which Assange emerged. At this point, it leaves Assange with more solid support from the extreme right and its media organs than from his original community.

I am fundamentally and implacably opposed to excluding anyone from beneficiary status on the basis of their political speech, and still more when that comes out of responding angrily to being baited on Twitter.

Naomi Colvin

Courage supports our beneficiaries because they have spoken out, at great risk to themselves, in order to make the world a better place, Colvin wrote in a statement. I am fundamentally and implacably opposed to excluding anyone from beneficiary status on the basis of their political speech, and still more when that comes out of responding angrily to being baited on Twitter.

Colvins statement anticipates a line of attack she is likely to face by WikiLeaks remaining supporters and hints at the raw emotions within the transparency community where Assange is concerned.

In resigning from Courage on a fundamental point of principle, I am not turning against WikiLeaks or abandoning Julian in his hour of greatest peril, Colvin continues in the statement. I remain absolutely, unambiguously opposed to the withdrawal of Julian Assanges asylum and the prospect of his extradition to the United States. I do, however, have acute concerns about the way advocacy on this issue is developing.

Losing the Courage money wont be a significant financial blow for Brown.

Courage, though a fine organization staffed by extraordinary people, has provided me with something along the lines of $3,500 out of the total $14,000 that was donated to me since FreeBB [the Free Barrett Brown legal-defense fund] was incorporated into that organization, Brown said. Assange and close associates have nonetheless chosen to publicly imply that I am somehow indebted to Assange for having made me a beneficiary after Id already been sentenced.

But Assanges allies at Courage, sources said, didnt try to argue that Brown no longer needs the money. They instead made it clear they wanted Brown excommunicated for the sin of criticizing Assange and WikiLeaksa move reflecting a willingness to become a cudgel for Assange, despite Courages lofty principles.

Colvins departure from Courage is especially ironic for Assange and speaks to the botched manner in which his allies retaliated against Brown. Colvin led and recently won a fight to prevent the U.K. from extraditing the computer scientist and activist Lauri Love to the United States to face hacking charges. With Assange ostensibly fearing his own prospective extradition, his desire to silence Brown has cost him a key legal asset.

The Assange-Brown falling out is simultaneously predictable and astonishing.

It is predictable because Assanges ego for years has prompted him to publicly condemn ally after ally for minute infractions, usually encouraging a horde of trolls to harass targets and police deviations from a narrative of glory for WikiLeaks. Last year, as The Daily Beast first reported, a formerly crucial source of support and funding for WikiLeaks, the influential Freedom of the Press Foundation, cut ties, in part because of disillusionment with Assange. As well, Browns extensive, National Magazine Award-winning body of writing demonstrates an inability to resist subjecting lordly figures like Assange to abrasive examination and ridicule.

But it is also astonishing considering Browns closeness to WikiLeaks. His willingness, as part of Anonymous, to examine a hack exposing a corporate plot against Assange preceded the Justice Departments malicious, pretextual prosecution that led to Brown doing four years in federal prison.

The original FBI investigation into me stemmed directly from my involvement in defending WikiLeaks from firms like HBGary, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Palantir, as made clear by the FBIs own search warrant, Brown noted.

Many of Assanges dwindling original allies have stuck with Assange in part because of U.S. intelligences now-public assessment that WikiLeaks is a catspaw of Russian intelligence. Mueller, in a recent indictment of 12 members of Russian military intelligence, alleged that the Kremlin used an online persona, Guccifer 2.0, to provide WikiLeaks with thousands of Democratic National Committee emails it had stolen. WikiLeaks published them on July 22, 2016.

Brown is no fan of the intelligence agencies. Yet he has been unsparing in his public criticism of his former ally. WikiLeaks is bullshit and WikiLeaks is over are two of his recent tweets. An appearance last month at the hacktivist HOPE conference in New York featured Brown in conversation with this reporter and is said to have contributed to Assanges desire to retaliate.

During that appearance, Brown reflected that back in WikiLeaks early days, I was very much enthusiastic about WikiLeaks existing. I was enthusiastic about Assange jumping into the vacuum here and serving in a leadership role in an effort to enforce transparency on fascist institutions. But now, Brown continued, Its time for [WikiLeaks] to pass the baton to something with the moral authority and the capability to publish whistleblowers exposs of powerful opaque institutions.

It was difficult for me to come out and have to criticize WikiLeaks for the first time. I just did four years in prison largely because I was inspired by WikiLeaks.

Barrett Brown

I will always defend Julian Assange against governments. They are not going after him for his vices, theyre going after him for his virtues. Theyve been going after him since the very important work that he did. I was not opposed to that release of the DNC emails because that is an appropriate thing for a leaking organization to do, Brown said.

But Assange, Brown continued, has collaborated closely with outright fascists. He has uttered absolute demonstrable falsehoods over and over again recently It was difficult for me to come out and have to criticize WikiLeaks for the first time. I just did four years in prison largely because I was inspired by WikiLeaks. It wasnt fun for me, but it was a necessary thing for me to do if I was to maintain intellectual honesty, which is all I have.

Browns allies consider the retaliation attempt yet another revealing moment from WikiLeaks.

Kevin Gallagher, who ran the Free Barrett Brown legal-defense fund for nearly three years before Courage stepped in, said he was initially hesitant about its involvement. Id thought that WikiLeaks was like an octopus with its tentacles reaching into everything, trying to capture all of the politicized hacktivist legal cases at that time, Gallagher said.

Assange prefers to surround himself with a cult that washes his feet and thinks he can do no harm; and therefore finds himself increasingly isolated due to flexibility of his principles and these devious and foolish machinations of petty revenge, Gallagher continued. That said, I support and defend WikiLeaks and what they stand for and have accomplished, as well as their right to publish, and I once admired and respected Assange. This is not surprising but its completely unwarranted. Julian, were sick of your shit, get a grip, man.

Colvin, in her statement, suggested that Assanges maneuver may fatally weaken Courage.

Building Courage up into a useful organisation has been a major part of the past four and a half years of my life, she said. I still believe that an organisation that fulfills Courages mission would be valuable to have around: we might just have to put together a new one.

Neither Courage nor WikiLeaks responded to The Daily Beasts requests for comment.

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Julian Assange Went After a Former Ally. It Backfired Epically.

In a statement, Hrafnsson blasted Ecuador for the treatment that led him to his new role, but was thankful for the chance to "secure the continuation" of WikiLeaks' work.

This might not represent a significant change in direction for WikiLeaks. Assange hasn't had much input since March, and Hrafnsson appears focused on maintaining the existing strategy. That still leaves it with many issues on its plate, however. It's still facing both a Democratic National Committee lawsuit over allegations it cooperated with Russia to disseminate hacked info from the 2016 presidential election, and the US Department of Justice has indicted 12 Russian intel officers with a not-so-subtle reference to WikiLeaks' role.

And of course, Assange himself isn't out of trouble. While he's no longer facing the Swedish rape investigation that prompted his stay in the embassy, Ecuador's current leadership hasn't been shy about its dislike of the WikiLeaks founder. There's a looming threat of expulsion from the embassy, and he could still face plenty of legal heat if he leaves.

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WikiLeaks replaces Julian Assange as editor-in-chief