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WikiLeaks () is a media organisation and publisher that operates as a non-profit and is funded by donations[13] and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources.[14] It was founded in 2006 by Julian Assange, an Australian editor, publisher, and activist, who is currently challenging extradition to the United States over his work with WikiLeaks.[15] Since September 2018, Kristinn Hrafnsson has served as its editor-in-chief.[16][17] Its website states that it has released more than ten million documents and associated analyses.[18] WikiLeaks' most recent publication of original documents was in 2019 and its most recent publication was in 2021.[19] Beginning in November 2022, many of the documents on the organisation's website could not be accessed.[19][20][21][22] In 2023, Assange said that WikiLeaks was no longer able to publish due to his imprisonment and the effect that US government surveillance and WikiLeaks' funding restrictions were having on potential whistleblowers.[23]

News leak publishing organisation

WikiLeaks has released document caches and media that exposed serious violations of human rights and civil liberties by various governments. It released footage of the 12July 2007 Baghdad airstrike which it titled Collateral Murder, in which Iraqi Reuters journalists and several civilians were killed by a U.S. helicopter crew.[24] WikiLeaks has published diplomatic cables from the United States and Saudi Arabia,[25][26] and emails from the governments of Syria[27][28] and Turkey.[29][30][31] WikiLeaks has also published documents exposing corruption in Kenya[32][33] and at Samherji[34] and cyber warfare and surveillance tools created by the CIA,[35][36] and surveillance of the French president by the National Security Agency.[37][38] During the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign, WikiLeaks released emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and from Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, showing that the party's national committee had effectively acted as an arm of the Clinton campaign during the primaries, seeking to undercut the campaign of Bernie Sanders. These releases resulted in the resignation of the chairwoman of the DNC and caused significant harm to the Clinton campaign.[39] During the campaign, WikiLeaks promoted false conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party and the murder of Seth Rich.[40][41][42]

WikiLeaks has won awards and been commended for exposing state and corporate secrets, increasing transparency, assisting freedom of the press, and enhancing democratic discourse while challenging powerful institutions. WikiLeaks and some of its supporters say the organisation's publications have a perfect record of publishing authentic documents. The organisation has been the target of campaigns to discredit it, including aborted ones by Palantir and HBGary. WikiLeaks has also had its donation systems interrupted by payment processors. As a result, the Wau Holland Foundation helps process WikiLeaks' donations.

The organisation has been criticised for inadequately curating content and violating personal privacy. WikiLeaks has, for instance, revealed Social Security numbers, medical information, credit card numbers and details of suicide attempts.[43][44][45] News organisations, activists, journalists and former members have also criticised WikiLeaks over allegations of anti-Clinton and pro-Trump bias, various associations with the Russian government, buying and selling of leaks, and a lack of internal transparency. Journalists have also criticised the organisation for promotion of conspiracy theories, and what they describe as exaggerated and misleading descriptions of the contents of leaks. The CIA and Congress defined the organisation as a "non-state hostile intelligence service" after the release of Vault 7.[46]

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WikiLeaks - Wikiwand

LONDON (AP) Julian Assanges lawyers opened a final U.K. legal challenge Tuesday to stop the WikiLeaks founder from being sent to the United States to face spying charges, arguing that American authorities are seeking to punish him for exposing serious criminal acts by the U.S. state

READ MORE: UK government approves Julian Assanges extradition to the U.S.

Lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said there is a risk Assange will suffer a flagrant denial of justice if he is sent to the U.S. At a two-day High Court hearing, Assanges attorneys are asking judges to grant a new appeal, his last legal roll of the dice in Britain

Assange himself was not in court. Judge Victoria Sharp said he was granted permission to come from Belmarsh Prison, where he has been held for five years, but had chosen not to attend. Fitzgerald said the 52-year-old Australian was unwell but did not elaborate on his health.

Assange has been fighting extradition for more than a decade, including seven years in self-exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and the last five years in the high-security prison on the outskirts of the British capital.

He has been indicted on 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse over his websites publication of classified U.S. documents almost 15 years ago. American prosecutors say Assange helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks later published, putting lives at risk.

To his supporters, Assange is a secrecy-busting journalist who exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. They argue that the prosecution is politically motivated and he wont get a fair trial in the U.S.

Hundreds of supporters holding Free Julian Assange signs and chanting there is only one decision no extradition held a noisy protest outside the ne-Gothic High Court in London. Rallies were also held in cities around the world, including Brussels and Berlin.

Assanges wife Stella Assange told the crowd the case was about the right to be able to speak freely without being put in prison and hounded and terrorized by the state.

Referring to the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in prison last week, she said: What happened to Navalny can happen to Julian, and will happen to Julian if he is extradited.

Stella Assange, who married the WikiLeaks founder in prison in 2022 said last week that his health has deteriorated during years of confinement and if hes extradited, he will die.

READ MORE: Assange lawyer dismisses U.S. promises over extradition

If the judges rule against Assange, he can ask the European Court of Human Rights to block his extradition though supporters worry he could be put on a plane to the U.S. before that happens, because the British government has already signed an extradition order.

Assanges lawyers say he could face up to 175 years in prison if convicted, though American authorities have said the sentence is likely to be much shorter than that.

While several of Assanges arguments against extradition have already been rejected by British courts, his lawyers are trying to make new points to secure an appeal.

He is being prosecuted for engaging in ordinary journalistic practice of obtaining and publishing classified information, lawyer Fitzgerald said in court, arguing that publication of leaked documents is a common journalistic practice, protected by well-established principles of free speech.

The attorneys argued that the prosecution of Assange is politically motivated retaliation for WikiLeaks exposure of criminality on the part of the U.S. government on an unprecedented scale.

The U.S. was prepared to go to any lengths (including misusing its own criminal justice system) to sustain impunity for U.S. officials in respect of the torture/war crimes committed in its infamous war on terror, and to suppress those actors and courts willing and prepared to try to bring those crimes to account, Assanges lawyers said in written arguments. Mr. Assange was one of those targets.

Assanges lawyers also want judges to reconsider allegations that the CIA developed plans to kidnap or kill Assange while he was in the Ecuadorian Embassy. A lower-court judge has dismissed the claims, but Assange attorney Mark Summers said Tuesday there is compelling evidence now in existence that the plot was real.

There was a plot to kidnap Mr. Assange, to rendition him to America, or else straightforwardly murder him, the lawyer claimed.

James Lewis, a lawyer for the U.S., said Assange was being prosecuted because he is alleged to have committed serious criminal offences.

He argued in written submissions that Assanges actions threatened damage to the strategic and national security interests of the United States and put individuals named in the documents including Iraqis and Afghans who had helped U.S. forces at risk of serious physical harm.

READ MORE: WikiLeaks founder Assange denied bail in UK

Assanges legal troubles began in 2010, when he was arrested in London at the request of Sweden, which wanted to question him about allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women. In 2012, Assange jumped bail and sought refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he was beyond the reach of the authorities but was also effectively a prisoner in the tiny diplomatic mission.

The relationship between Assange and his hosts eventually soured, and he was evicted from the embassy in April 2019. British police immediately arrested him for breaching bail in 2012, and he remains in prison. Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed.

A U.K. district court judge rejected the U.S. extradition request in 2021 on the grounds that Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. Higher courts overturned that decision after getting assurances from the U.S. about his treatment. The British government signed an extradition order in June 2022.

Meanwhile, the Australian parliament last week called for Assange to be allowed to return to his homeland.

The judges, Sharp and Jeremy Johnson, could deliver a verdict at the end of the two-day hearing on Wednesday, but theyre more likely to take several weeks to consider their decision.

See the rest here:
WikiLeaks founder Assange begins final attempt to avoid ... - PBS

'Created a serious and imminent risk': US lawyers argue for spying charges against WikiLeaks founder Juli  The Times of India

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'Created a serious and imminent risk': US lawyers argue for spying charges against WikiLeaks founder Juli - The Times of India