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Julian Assange posed ‘no real security threat’ to Australia

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange has been an ''irritant'' and ''a gadfly'' but not a significant security threat, according to former Australian intelligence and security officials.

Former government officials say only one of the 1400 US diplomatic cables relating to Australia published by WikiLeaks caused any major security concern, and no one was harmed as a consequence.

This relatively relaxed view of Mr Assange undercuts assertions by former prime minister Julia Gillard who said that WikiLeaks' release of leaked cables was ''a grossly irresponsible thing to do, and an illegal thing to do.''

Former security and intelligence officers say that while WikiLeaks' disclosures in 2010 and 2011 were embarrassing to the government ''no great harm was done''. ''Assange proved more an irritant or a gadfly than anything else,'' one former intelligence officer said. By comparison former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden's leaks are considered to be ''much, much more damaging''.

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Only one US embassy cable leaked to WikiLeaks by US soldier Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, caused high level concern - a January 2010 list of 23 Australians suspected of terrorist connections by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. Officials urged Ms Gillard in November 2010 to condemn the release of ''ASIO-derived information''. But the cable wasn't published until WikiLeaks' full release of US cables in September 2011.

Top secret intelligence documents leaked by Mr Snowden and reported on last week by American journalist Glenn Greenwald show Mr Assange was listed in a US National Security Agency ''Manhunting Timeline'' recording efforts to eliminate terrorists and other threats to US national security.

The timeline states that in August 2010, shortly after WikiLeaks published thousands of US military reports on the war in Afghanistan, the US government ''urged other nations with forces in Afghanistan, including Australia, United Kingdom, and Germany to consider filing criminal charges against Julian Assange.''

Former attorney-general Robert McClelland has said he received ''no such request'' from the US, though he did not rule out it had pressed for criminal charges in discussions between officials.

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Julian Assange posed 'no real security threat' to Australia

Ecuador says yet to weigh Snowden asylum amid US row

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06-27-2013, 13h26

QUITO (AFP)

Ecuador's president said Thursday he had yet to consider letting US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden enter his country as tensions with the United States rose, with Washington warning Quito against granting the fugitive asylum.

The Ecuadoran leftist government defiantly pulled out of a trade pact with the United States, claiming it had become an instrument of "blackmail" as Quito considers Snowden's asylum bid.

But despite voicing support for Snowden, the Andean nation denied reports that it authorized a "safepass" travel document for the former National Security Agency contractor and said it would not be able to process his asylum bid until he enters Ecuadoran territory.

"Would he be allowed to arrive on Ecuadoran territory? This is something that, in principle, we haven't considered," President Rafael Correa told a news conference.

"We would probably examine it, but for now he is in Russia," he said, adding that Ecuador's ambassador to Russia met Snowden just once on Monday in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and that no more contact had been made.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose anti-secrecy website has assisted Snowden, said on Monday that Quito had given Snowden a "refugee document of passage" that would allow him to travel here.

The US Spanish-language television network Univision published on its website what appeared to be a "safepass" document with the letterhead of Quito's consulate in London, asking authorities in transit countries to "give the appropriate help" as the bearer travels to Ecuador.

"You request asylum when you are on a country's territory. Snowden is not on Ecuadoran territory, so technically we cannot even process the asylum request," Correa said.

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Ecuador says yet to weigh Snowden asylum amid US row

Edward Snowden elected rector of Glasgow University

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Intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden was elected the new rector of Glasgow University on Tuesday.

Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor whose revelations about UK and US surveillance practices have sparked controversy worldwide, beat out three other candidates for the three-year post.

More from GlobalPost: 16 disturbing things Snowden has taught us (so far)

He will succeed the Liberal Democrat's former leader Charles Kennedy.

The rector is elected to represent students to senior management at the university, chairing the university's ruling court.

Previous rectors have included Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordecai Vanunu and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Other candidates for the post this year included cyclist Graeme Obree, author Alan Bissett and Scottish Episcopal clergyman Kelvin Holdsworth.

More from GlobalPost: Norwegian politician nominates Edward Snowden for Nobel Peace Prize

"We're giving students a stage, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to voice their own discontent with mass surveillance. By electing Edward Snowden, we're sending a clear message, also to our government, that we will not allow this kind of surveillance,"Lubna Nowak, a member of Snowden's campaign, told The Guardian.

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Edward Snowden elected rector of Glasgow University

Writer dishes dirt on ‘sexist’ Assange

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Writer dishes dirt on 'sexist' Assange

The man who tried to co-write Julian Assange's autobiography says the Australian can be sexist and anti-semitic as well as a courageous purser of the truth - so long as it doesn't relate to himself.

Scottish writer Andrew O'Hagan has penned a lengthy essay about his three-year relationship with Assange, which started when he was asked to ghostwrite the WikiLeaks founder's autobiography.

Like with journalist David Marr's essay on former prime minister Kevin Rudd, some might accuse O'Hagan of pop psychology.

But no one will deny his London Review of Books (LRB) article is a riveting read.

O'Hagan argues Assange has a habit of self-regard and truth-manipulation.

"The man who put himself in charge of disclosing the world's secrets simply couldn't bear his own," he writes of the failed collaboration which resulted in an unauthorised biography being published in late 2011.

"The story of his life mortified him and sent him scurrying for excuses."

O'Hagan believes the computer hacker was worried personal material - about his stepfather's drinking and the cult leader who followed his mum - would be used to suggest he was "weak".

"He wanted to cover up everything about himself except his fame."

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Writer dishes dirt on 'sexist' Assange


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