ENTREVISTA: EL ENEMIGO NÚMERO UNO DEL EJÉRCITO DE EEUU Julian Assange fundador y editor de 'wikileaks'
Cita secreta con el hombre que hace temblar al Pentágono
Es la pesadilla de la todopoderosa inteligencia militar de EE UU. Se llama Julian Assange, tiene 39 años y una profesión: reventar a escala mundial los mayores secretos oficiales
JOSEBA ELOLA 24/10/2010
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/reportajes/Cita/secreta/hombre/hace/temblar/Pentagono/elpepuint/20101024elpdmgrep_1/Tes
INTERVIEW: THE ENEMY NUMBER ONE U.S. ARMY Julian Assange founder and editor of 'Wikileaks' Tryst with the man who shakes the Pentagon It is the nightmare of the mighty U.S. military intelligence. His name is Julian Assange, 39 years old and a profession: the global pop over official secrets
Elola JOSEBA 24/10/2010
Julian Assange live in a world of secrets. 400,000 documents were secret about the war in Iraq released yesterday. Secrets are 30 items that the site receives daily handling, inexhaustible source of complaint on a global scale. Try to be their communications secret, its inputs and outputs. His organization also lives shrouded in absolute secrecy.
Secret therefore had to be the appointment with the man who has become a serious enemy of the almighty Pentagon. The man who founded in December 2006 a web site is also the bane of large banks, multinationals and governments. One hundred and twenty people, belonging to the cabinet crisis called Wikileaks, working around the Pentagon to counter the effects of leakage of the militant portal.
Question. I read a headline put it in his mouth the phrase, "I am a journalist activist." Is it?
Response. I am an editor. As editor, also address, and I am spokesperson for my, our, pub. I have been involved in journalism since he was 25, when the book cofirmé Underground, and now, given the state of helplessness of journalism, I think it offensive to call me a journalist.
P. Why?
R. At abuses of journalism.
P. What does abuse mean?
R. The biggest abuse is the war told by reporters. Journalists involved in creating wars through their lack of questioning, his lack of integrity and cowardly rally to government sources.
Assange and his published yesterday which is considered the biggest leak of secret documents in the history of U.S. Army roles in Iraq. Papers released in April of Afghanistan, 77,000 declassified documents that uncovering the death of about 20,000 Afghans. Extrajudicial executions reported in Kenya and thus took an award from Amnesty International. They also put in jeopardy the largest bank in Iceland, The New Kaupthing, uncovering an official document evidencing the irresponsible management of its administrators, who suffered months imprisonment. And manuals unearthed secrets of the Church of Scientology.
Secrets. It is also full of secret research that is being Assange. Two girls denounced him in the same week in late August for sexual harassment in Sweden. On Monday it was known that the Scandinavian country, which had come to protect his regime given guarantees to the press, has refused a residence permit. Assange says he is thinking to settle in somewhere in South America.
Quote bound, specific time, place secret. On Monday in London, 12.00. So the information is concise message that enters the mobile advertising that we can finally talk to the man who has been and is in the eye of the hurricane information.
Assange summer has been fine. This interview was first requested on 19 July. Assange himself responded three days later, on 22, emoticon included: "Sorry. No time For a few weeks" (sorry, no time for a few weeks); smiley penalty.
The night before the game received an email with the address of a restaurant in north London. There we received at 12.00 o'clock the person who has relations with the press. Leads us into an alley and up into offices. A portrait of Nelson Mandela presides over this room with working long rectangular tables and walls in shades of green.
Julian Assange not. It has not arrived. He is expected. We asked whether any other member of the organization with which we can talk. Soon, the door comes a tall, burly, black trousers and jacket, gray turtleneck jersey, blue eyes, gray hair. It Kristinn Hrafnson, Icelandic journalist who worked for 20 years on state television and has been engaged in the firing Assange: "I wanted to work on stories that create large waves in the world," he explains. Hrafnson participated for five months in the development of collateral Collateral-Murder Murder, "the video that went around the world and generated 3,000 headlines in 48 hours. Was seen by more than four million Internet users within 72 hours after its publication in YouTube.
Surely you remember chilling images. Were seen around the world in early April. An Army Apache helicopter flies over the United States a suburb of Baghdad. You see several people walking down the street, one of them, Reuters photographer carries a camera on his shoulder. The military think it's a firearm. Since Apache is shot all to go there at that time. The sequence is creepy. "Keep shooting, keep shooting". " Burst. "Keep shooting." Burst. "Keep shooting."
People who fulminated fall to the ground. Other fleeing the gunfire. Two men trying to help the injured photographer. The Apache fires on them. And the van, inside which there are two children.
Balance: twelve people fulminated. The cold war exposed. The laughs of the soldier who just shot. The crude conversation among the soldiers. The insult to those who lie dead. "Bastards." And on the ground, victims of the shooting package, so that in these modern times has been called "collateral damage."
Assange arrives. The hair flattened and glued to the head, the motorcycle helmet under his arm. Enter the room and tells him something Hrafnson. They apologize and retire to an adjoining room, urgent matters, business secrets. "Sorry, this is always the case," said the thoughtful man crestfallen press.
Assange finally sits in front of the recorder. He's very tall, strong, magnetic. His once long hair completely white, this summer gave way to light brown short hair, is now a mixture of these two phases. At 39 years, shows an undeniable charisma. Two people who have worked with him and did not want to identify a man describe him as extremely intelligent. More adjectives?: Valiente worker fun. The last hero of combative journalism chooses to sit at the table allows you to have a portrait of Mandela behind him: "It is important to have well saved the backs," he jokes.
P. His activity in this farm will Wikileaks a growing collection of enemies. What is now his worst enemy?
R. In terms of resources devoted to follow in our footsteps, the U.S. military. That said, we have good friends there, there are good people. And bad. There is a team supposedly 120 people in the so-called Wikileaks warroom-crisis team / battle-spent 24 hours a day to deal with us. They are led by a man appointed by Defense Secretary Gates-American. Are predominantly members of the military intelligence agency and the FBI.
P. What other enemies have?
R. Banks. Most of the legal attacks that we have received are from banks. Also there has been from China shortly after release critical material on certain activities of government. We have also been attacked in cults, abusive sects like the Church of Scientology, the Mormons ...
P. Those enemies who have "item you make for your life?
R. Some people, like Daniel Ellsberg, the man who revealed in 1971 the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam war, has argued that my life is in danger.
P. What do you think?
R. I think there is a small but not insignificant risk, yes. What there is a significant risk of prosecution and detention. They are trying to create an espionage case against me and other members of the organization, and against people who have been involved with us in the U.S..
The intelligence analyst U.S. Army Bradley Manning was stopped by filtration of video of the killing in Baghdad. "The FBI has visited people in Boston and other American cities connected with Bradley Manning or us," said Assange. "According to my sources, Attorney General of the Australian State approved permits to intercept the communications of our people in Australia. The Swedish Government has been pressed at the level of U.S. intelligence, according to my sources in intelligence. The Icelandic government also has been pressured by the United States, according to my sources in Iceland and the U.S. Senate, and the Ambassador of Iceland came to ask if they had taken steps to ensure that Iceland does not become a haven for Julian Assange. "
Assange he speaks in third person. He is a man that measures like no words. It does not say anything without have thought four times. Speak slowly, with constant pauses that invite the interviewer to brew a question he never answers because he continues with his long-articulated response. Assange, speaks: dicta. He likes being in control.
The combative journalism champion goes on to relate the persecution which was made of the organization, with a steady, runs. A member of Wikileaks was ambushed in a parking lot in Luxembourg in 2008. Two lawyers defending human rights in Kenya Wikileaks worked with were killed in March 2009.
And since the Pentagon does not go by halves. On 3 August, the U.S. defense spokesman, Geoff Morrell, appeared briefly before the media. Wikileaks requesting to return the leaked documents. "If you do the right thing is not enough for them, then we will look at what alternatives we have to force them to do the right thing," said Morell.
"It was extremely unpleasant," said Assange, "an extremely strange decision. We have concluded that this press conference was designed to prepare further legal attacks."
Assange knew how to silence. Speech looking at the horizon, your eyes move from left to right and from right to left while searching for the right word. His deep voice, slightly broken, and his fondness for the whisper, more like the confidence that the interview, gives even greater intensity to their words. He speaks so low that leads the listener to hear a commitment unavoidable. Or listened, whether or not you find out.
That the organization has received a hundred "legal attacks." Two out of five claims / complaints ended up in court. Ensures that were victorious in all cases. It also highlights the attacks that have targeted the media. He complains that the media lies replicate slide and feed off other ad infinitum staining biography. "There have been 15 attacks against us completely made up and down," he says, "sold as leaks of people within the organization. It has been said that I have a life of luxury in South Africa. I've never been to South Africa."
P. Do you think the charges against you weigh in Sweden sexual harassment are connected with it?
R. We do not know. I'd rather talk about this later, I can not speak on my behalf and on behalf of the organization at the same time.
Assange is a haunted man. Must be protected. On September 27 his luggage was seized as he left Stockholm. The assumption that someone is trying to watch their steps or interfere with their communications is not crazy. All communications made by telephone or mail are encrypted, it is a great cryptographer, has a history of hacking. Security protocols to be followed are strict. In some places, he admits, must move with bodyguards.
You never know where you are, where they will sleep tonight, or what goes. His life is nothing in secret. He moves fast and try not to trace.
Somewhat nomadic existence is not something that is foreign. "Our family produces professional theater and television and as a result, we toured the country very often," he recalls. Assange born in 1971 in Townsville, a city of the northwest coast of Australia. When I was eight, her parents separated. The mother began a relationship with a musician with whom she had another child. "During part of my adolescence I had to deal with this man he suspected was connected with the cult of Anne Hamilton-Byrne," he says. A sect in which some members convince mothers to give their children birth to the movement's leader. Children who became foster children of the high priestess, ordering teñirles all blond hair and those who were provided all kinds of drugs, including LSD initiation ceremonies when they were barely teenagers.
There came a time when there was another exit to escape. Fleeing from the clutches of the man. Assange, her brother and her mother were constantly changing three months of residency. Living on the run.
Secrets and leaks. Two concepts that govern the life of Julian Assange. Leaks means escape. And data leakage, filtration.
For those difficult years did your fascination with computers. His expertise, his skills as a programmer, he became a notable hacker. His nom de guerre: Mendax. He began his struggle: the information is to be shared.
As a hacker, was to penetrate the systems of Canadian telephone company Nortel, which is why he became the accused. The judge ended up ruling that behind his attempt was hiding the simple pleasure of being able to penetrate other systems. He had to pay a small fine. "I was an activist", is. "The research that I was subjected ended when I was 20, although the process would last six years, until 1997. Now there are many attempts to call me hacker, based on my activities as a hacker of twenty years ago, to devalue my work as a journalist. This is also meant to divest from the legal protections of any journalist, are against me personally, and against this organization. However, it is true that I've been an activist of free information for a long time. The interests of adolescent even relatively unsophisticated, reflecting the consistency of my character. "
Free information. The secrets uncovered. Transparency. All classified information must be available to the public. Various media, including The New Yorker, have accused him of worship transparency everywhere except within your organization.
Wikileaks The current budget is one million dollars a year (around 712,000 euros). Since January, have a system so that anonymous donations are not influenced by the interests of those who donate, explains Assange. During the first four years, the site drew on the contributions of Assange and some more. The total number of actual donors is 10,000. No donation exceeds 20,000 euros.
Assange says during the interview that 12 people are already fixed and soon to be 20. The number of employees totaled 800. Twitter followers: 150,000.
The Wikileaks website was reopened on Friday after a long season closed. On page maintenance reasons claimed to justify the closure. Assange said that was due to a major reorganization in which they are immersed. A journalist who has worked closely with him maintains that the portal has been closed by internal rebellion which the organization has suffered in recent months. Is the authoritarian methods of Assange have deterred several team members. Some of the technicians have come to boycott the network internally to avoid Assange control everything. Hrafnson, Icelandic spokesman, denied any hint of internal rebellion.
Another journalist from an international gateway, which also prefers to hide his identity, said that in fact is somewhat authoritarian Assange. But he argues that an organization like Wikileaks, under so much pressure, is normal to have debate and tension. It is logical, therefore, there is a time when someone has to make a decision that not everyone likes. "There are some who are more supportive of the action than others," he describes.
P. Domscheit Daniel Berg, the former spokesman in Germany, which has left the organization, told Der Spiegel that you acted with him as prosecutor, judge and executioner. Argues that you can not tolerate criticism.
R. Domscheit Daniel Berg was suspended from the organization for a number of serious reasons. Like many people who are suspended, choose to criticize the decisions of their employer. We believe that trust, confidence and act with integrity are essential components of our work. For this reason I decided not to criticize Domscheit-Berg, despite his statements have not given us anything in these difficult times.
Domscheit Daniel Berg picks up the phone in Berlin. Assange hearing what you said about your way out of this newspaper, stirring, indignant. "First, I am not your employee. This organization is not paying anyone. In my case, besides, I put money into the project," he exclaims, considerably irritated.
The former spokesman stated stunned by his dismissal, which occurred in September. Ensures that at least five people have left Wikileaks for disagreeing with the ways of Assange. "People do not want a dictator is at the head of an organization so powerful that handle sensitive information. Julian is behaving like a dictator and dictators do not work for me, I fought against the dictators."
The German activist, 32, says his words are not the result of a "personal vendetta." He notes that Wikileaks has lost some of its identity. "I do not know whether or not the Pentagon is currently behind Julian. But that can possibly be shown to have committed the greatest of all mistakes: Wikileaks was born as an organization that was involved so many people could never go for a single person. People should be interchangeable, it is important the project is a movement. What is Wikileaks now, an organization or show Julian Assange?. "
The controversial founder of Wikileaks does not leave anyone indifferent. Fascinating to some, irritating to others. For some it is the last hero of journalism, a man who defies the logic of a cynical world in search of maximum transparency. For others, a naive idealist who believes that everything can be counted when there are things that common sense dictates it is better not to publish. For example, those that endanger people's lives. That is accused on several fronts. Have revealed the identity of informants Afghans are now easy targets for the Taliban.
P. His decision to publish the names of Afghan informants to make public the papers of Afghanistan raised dust. Bill Keller, editor of The New York Times, said: "Your decision to publish the book had potential consequences, I think, anyone, whatever their view of the war, he would find deplorable." Do you think that made any mistakes, that put some life in danger?
R. To publish 76,000 to 90,000 classified documents, there are many things to talk about. Those documents revealed the time, date, place and circumstances of the death of about 20,000 people. Period. In the two months since the material was published, as far as can be determined today, no Afghan civilian has been hurt by the publication of the papers. That is not to deny that these are serious issues and interesting, and for that reason to withdraw one of every five documents. The fact that Bill Keller has need to devote their time to discuss this issue, which is not associated with the death of anyone, compared with themes that have led to the deaths of about 20,000 people and killed hundreds in the past two months, is a reflection of the difficulty for The New York Times to criticize the U.S. Army.
P. Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, a few days ago told us sarcastically that the mainstream media have abandoned investigative journalism because it is expensive and not very sexy. Do you agree?
R. Yes, I have almost completely abandoned, it is true. The toll you pay is expensive: you create enemies, to prevent attacks is costly legal action and shall produce offensive against the interests of publishers. I believe that readers demand investigative journalism itself, but the cost per word in relation to other forms of journalism is high, especially journalism funded by special interests.
P. "But he believes most of the major Western media are funded by special interests?
R. That's not exactly what I meant. That is also a factor. I was referring to the billions of dollars the U.S. Army spent a year in its communication of official business to produce protected content such as videos, photos and press releases at the end are stories free for journalists to put the signature. And similar protected content produced by companies and governments. In this sense, newspapers and televisions become coaches of protected content.
P. Do you think this will change? Do you think the digital revolution and initiatives such as Wikileaks bring independent journalism?
R. We can go in both directions. Can we get a system for greater control and international agreements to suppress press freedom, or can we go to a new standard that people expect and demand more material explaining the powers, and a business environment in which Such exposure is profitable, and legal environment in which it is protected.
P. Are you optimistic about?
R. We are at the crossroads between these two futures. So it is so important and so interesting to be involved in this. With our actions now determine the fate of the international media environment in the coming years.
Assange respondent is shown as a rebel. It is very difficult to brew a question in the middle of its slow speech. Of course, many of the things he says are substantial. If not, see your reflection on what has brought his experience in Wikileaks:
"Every person has a unique path in life, but in the last three and half years, I have had a truly unique experience. I have read more documents leaked, probably, than any other person on earth. Very different topics. Like some people have read many, but perhaps not so many different organizations throughout the world. I've got more leaks than any other person inside and I run an organization that has received many attacks of powerful organizations, secrets and neurotic cults. Before being put into this, I thought I knew enough of how the world works, I have made significant and important things before this. But nothing prepared me for the reality that I found. My perspective has changed a lot " .
P. What have you seen?
R. I do not know if it is possible to communicate what I learned. There are two things that come to mind. The first death worldwide civil society. Rapid financial flows, by electronic fund transfers that move faster than the political or moral sanction, destroying civil society across the world. Economic power allows opportunistic in any society connected to the global financial system to extract wealth stolen immoral behavior to carry or haul dark and opaque financial vehicles hard to catch. In this sense, civil society is dead, no longer exists, and there is a broad class of people he knows and is using it know it is dead to accumulate wealth and power.
P. How ...?
R. And the second thing I've seen that works in conjunction and in opposition to this, is that there is a huge and growing security state secret that is spreading around the world, mainly based in the United States. Any state, if you want to survive, must register with one of three providers of intelligence and weapons systems. Providers are the Western Empire, Russia, former Soviet Empire and China, which is not yet an empire, but begins to move in that direction. The hidden security state that is spreading across the western empire has its center of gravity in the U.S., but it is a mentoring network that exists in all Western countries and connects all Western countries. In the U.S., despite the financial collapse, economic power has grown, its share of economic resources has grown between 250% and 300% since the nineties. To give a concrete example, and here I quote "twice Dana Priest's Pulitzer Prize-winner of The Washington Post, there are 817,000 people working on top secret security work.
P. So watch these structures primarily to save capitalism?
R. Large corporations have penetrated both the opaque security state and political system are taking all the value added by the taxpayers.
Assange said that in America there is now a tension between the parallel security system and what he calls anarcho-capitalism, ie big business. Compare the U.S. security state parallel to the one built by Putin to rein in the oligarchs.
Finally, Assange, which leaves no headless puppet reserves its final fireworks for the complacent media. "The international media is a mess. We are in a good position to see it because we get politically and historically significant material, they released him and see how many media echo and how rigor. We can also see efforts to suppress information we give. My conclusion is that the international media environment is so bad and so distorted that we would be better if there were any means, either. "
The interview is finished. Assange rises and evolves. It becomes another person. It follows from a stroke in all its intensity and severity. Becomes light, charming, smiling. Rejuvenate. The last thing you said, once off the recorder. "Do not believe anyone. Do not believe anyone. Do not believe anyone. You will be lying. Wikileaks casings
"WikiLeaks is a website for anonymous publication of secret or sensitive documents. An encrypted connection allows any user to upload videos, confidential documents or audio without a trace.
"It has become a major platform of the leaks, leaks, in English, in the place where the great truths are official questioning.
"Julian Assange, Australian, 39, fears that the United States will open a case of espionage for the filtration of 'roles of Afghanistan." In Sweden, which has just refused a residence permit, has opened an investigation for alleged sexual harassment.
Five key episodes
Yesterday was the most shocking blow to the career of Wikileaks and content filtering platform secrets. Since its founding in December 2006, directed by Julian Assange portal has raised roles in different corners of the globe, although the loudest have been no doubt related to the U.S. military.
Extrajudicial killings in Kenya, the Icelandic bank scandal and The New Khaupting 'roles in Afghanistan' are three of his harshest blows.
But they have also been criticized for not sufficiently edit the material that comes and publish private data. It happened with the episode of the last conversations of the victims of 11-S and the publication of names and addresses of members of the British National Party.
EXECUTIONS IN KENYA. November 2008. Wikileaks leaks a document muted so far in which the National Human Rights Commission of Kenya condemned the extrajudicial execution of 500 young opponents of the regime.
TOXIC WASTE. Six people were killed. 85 needed care. Wikileaks published the company Trafigura had paid a local company in Ivory Coast to get rid of 40,000 tons of low quality gasoline.
The intra OF 11-S. November 2009. Wikileaks publishes calls, SMS messages and emails sent to and from the Twin Towers on 11-S. The publication sparked controversy on the respect for privacy.
NAMES AND RACE. October 2009. Wikileaks has released a list with names, addresses and phone numbers of thousands of people from the British National Party, of a racist. More criticism of the limits of the data publication.
SLAUGHTER IN BAGHDAD. / B> April, 2010. Wikileaks released a video that shows the killing of 12 civilians in Baghdad. Among them, two children. An Apache helicopter fired a photographer for Reuters (thinking about carrying a weapon) and all those who go there at that time.
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/reportajes/Cita/secreta/hombre/hace/temblar/Pentagono/elpepuint/20101024elpdmgrep_1/Tes
INTERVIEW: THE ENEMY NUMBER ONE U.S. ARMY Julian Assange founder and editor of 'Wikileaks' Tryst with the man who shakes the Pentagon It is the nightmare of the mighty U.S. military intelligence. His name is Julian Assange, 39 years old and a profession: the global pop over official secrets
Elola JOSEBA 24/10/2010
Julian Assange live in a world of secrets. 400,000 documents were secret about the war in Iraq released yesterday. Secrets are 30 items that the site receives daily handling, inexhaustible source of complaint on a global scale. Try to be their communications secret, its inputs and outputs. His organization also lives shrouded in absolute secrecy.
Secret therefore had to be the appointment with the man who has become a serious enemy of the almighty Pentagon. The man who founded in December 2006 a web site is also the bane of large banks, multinationals and governments. One hundred and twenty people, belonging to the cabinet crisis called Wikileaks, working around the Pentagon to counter the effects of leakage of the militant portal.
Question. I read a headline put it in his mouth the phrase, "I am a journalist activist." Is it?
Response. I am an editor. As editor, also address, and I am spokesperson for my, our, pub. I have been involved in journalism since he was 25, when the book cofirmé Underground, and now, given the state of helplessness of journalism, I think it offensive to call me a journalist.
P. Why?
R. At abuses of journalism.
P. What does abuse mean?
R. The biggest abuse is the war told by reporters. Journalists involved in creating wars through their lack of questioning, his lack of integrity and cowardly rally to government sources.
Assange and his published yesterday which is considered the biggest leak of secret documents in the history of U.S. Army roles in Iraq. Papers released in April of Afghanistan, 77,000 declassified documents that uncovering the death of about 20,000 Afghans. Extrajudicial executions reported in Kenya and thus took an award from Amnesty International. They also put in jeopardy the largest bank in Iceland, The New Kaupthing, uncovering an official document evidencing the irresponsible management of its administrators, who suffered months imprisonment. And manuals unearthed secrets of the Church of Scientology.
Secrets. It is also full of secret research that is being Assange. Two girls denounced him in the same week in late August for sexual harassment in Sweden. On Monday it was known that the Scandinavian country, which had come to protect his regime given guarantees to the press, has refused a residence permit. Assange says he is thinking to settle in somewhere in South America.
Quote bound, specific time, place secret. On Monday in London, 12.00. So the information is concise message that enters the mobile advertising that we can finally talk to the man who has been and is in the eye of the hurricane information.
Assange summer has been fine. This interview was first requested on 19 July. Assange himself responded three days later, on 22, emoticon included: "Sorry. No time For a few weeks" (sorry, no time for a few weeks); smiley penalty.
The night before the game received an email with the address of a restaurant in north London. There we received at 12.00 o'clock the person who has relations with the press. Leads us into an alley and up into offices. A portrait of Nelson Mandela presides over this room with working long rectangular tables and walls in shades of green.
Julian Assange not. It has not arrived. He is expected. We asked whether any other member of the organization with which we can talk. Soon, the door comes a tall, burly, black trousers and jacket, gray turtleneck jersey, blue eyes, gray hair. It Kristinn Hrafnson, Icelandic journalist who worked for 20 years on state television and has been engaged in the firing Assange: "I wanted to work on stories that create large waves in the world," he explains. Hrafnson participated for five months in the development of collateral Collateral-Murder Murder, "the video that went around the world and generated 3,000 headlines in 48 hours. Was seen by more than four million Internet users within 72 hours after its publication in YouTube.
Surely you remember chilling images. Were seen around the world in early April. An Army Apache helicopter flies over the United States a suburb of Baghdad. You see several people walking down the street, one of them, Reuters photographer carries a camera on his shoulder. The military think it's a firearm. Since Apache is shot all to go there at that time. The sequence is creepy. "Keep shooting, keep shooting". " Burst. "Keep shooting." Burst. "Keep shooting."
People who fulminated fall to the ground. Other fleeing the gunfire. Two men trying to help the injured photographer. The Apache fires on them. And the van, inside which there are two children.
Balance: twelve people fulminated. The cold war exposed. The laughs of the soldier who just shot. The crude conversation among the soldiers. The insult to those who lie dead. "Bastards." And on the ground, victims of the shooting package, so that in these modern times has been called "collateral damage."
Assange arrives. The hair flattened and glued to the head, the motorcycle helmet under his arm. Enter the room and tells him something Hrafnson. They apologize and retire to an adjoining room, urgent matters, business secrets. "Sorry, this is always the case," said the thoughtful man crestfallen press.
Assange finally sits in front of the recorder. He's very tall, strong, magnetic. His once long hair completely white, this summer gave way to light brown short hair, is now a mixture of these two phases. At 39 years, shows an undeniable charisma. Two people who have worked with him and did not want to identify a man describe him as extremely intelligent. More adjectives?: Valiente worker fun. The last hero of combative journalism chooses to sit at the table allows you to have a portrait of Mandela behind him: "It is important to have well saved the backs," he jokes.
P. His activity in this farm will Wikileaks a growing collection of enemies. What is now his worst enemy?
R. In terms of resources devoted to follow in our footsteps, the U.S. military. That said, we have good friends there, there are good people. And bad. There is a team supposedly 120 people in the so-called Wikileaks warroom-crisis team / battle-spent 24 hours a day to deal with us. They are led by a man appointed by Defense Secretary Gates-American. Are predominantly members of the military intelligence agency and the FBI.
P. What other enemies have?
R. Banks. Most of the legal attacks that we have received are from banks. Also there has been from China shortly after release critical material on certain activities of government. We have also been attacked in cults, abusive sects like the Church of Scientology, the Mormons ...
P. Those enemies who have "item you make for your life?
R. Some people, like Daniel Ellsberg, the man who revealed in 1971 the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam war, has argued that my life is in danger.
P. What do you think?
R. I think there is a small but not insignificant risk, yes. What there is a significant risk of prosecution and detention. They are trying to create an espionage case against me and other members of the organization, and against people who have been involved with us in the U.S..
The intelligence analyst U.S. Army Bradley Manning was stopped by filtration of video of the killing in Baghdad. "The FBI has visited people in Boston and other American cities connected with Bradley Manning or us," said Assange. "According to my sources, Attorney General of the Australian State approved permits to intercept the communications of our people in Australia. The Swedish Government has been pressed at the level of U.S. intelligence, according to my sources in intelligence. The Icelandic government also has been pressured by the United States, according to my sources in Iceland and the U.S. Senate, and the Ambassador of Iceland came to ask if they had taken steps to ensure that Iceland does not become a haven for Julian Assange. "
Assange he speaks in third person. He is a man that measures like no words. It does not say anything without have thought four times. Speak slowly, with constant pauses that invite the interviewer to brew a question he never answers because he continues with his long-articulated response. Assange, speaks: dicta. He likes being in control.
The combative journalism champion goes on to relate the persecution which was made of the organization, with a steady, runs. A member of Wikileaks was ambushed in a parking lot in Luxembourg in 2008. Two lawyers defending human rights in Kenya Wikileaks worked with were killed in March 2009.
And since the Pentagon does not go by halves. On 3 August, the U.S. defense spokesman, Geoff Morrell, appeared briefly before the media. Wikileaks requesting to return the leaked documents. "If you do the right thing is not enough for them, then we will look at what alternatives we have to force them to do the right thing," said Morell.
"It was extremely unpleasant," said Assange, "an extremely strange decision. We have concluded that this press conference was designed to prepare further legal attacks."
Assange knew how to silence. Speech looking at the horizon, your eyes move from left to right and from right to left while searching for the right word. His deep voice, slightly broken, and his fondness for the whisper, more like the confidence that the interview, gives even greater intensity to their words. He speaks so low that leads the listener to hear a commitment unavoidable. Or listened, whether or not you find out.
That the organization has received a hundred "legal attacks." Two out of five claims / complaints ended up in court. Ensures that were victorious in all cases. It also highlights the attacks that have targeted the media. He complains that the media lies replicate slide and feed off other ad infinitum staining biography. "There have been 15 attacks against us completely made up and down," he says, "sold as leaks of people within the organization. It has been said that I have a life of luxury in South Africa. I've never been to South Africa."
P. Do you think the charges against you weigh in Sweden sexual harassment are connected with it?
R. We do not know. I'd rather talk about this later, I can not speak on my behalf and on behalf of the organization at the same time.
Assange is a haunted man. Must be protected. On September 27 his luggage was seized as he left Stockholm. The assumption that someone is trying to watch their steps or interfere with their communications is not crazy. All communications made by telephone or mail are encrypted, it is a great cryptographer, has a history of hacking. Security protocols to be followed are strict. In some places, he admits, must move with bodyguards.
You never know where you are, where they will sleep tonight, or what goes. His life is nothing in secret. He moves fast and try not to trace.
Somewhat nomadic existence is not something that is foreign. "Our family produces professional theater and television and as a result, we toured the country very often," he recalls. Assange born in 1971 in Townsville, a city of the northwest coast of Australia. When I was eight, her parents separated. The mother began a relationship with a musician with whom she had another child. "During part of my adolescence I had to deal with this man he suspected was connected with the cult of Anne Hamilton-Byrne," he says. A sect in which some members convince mothers to give their children birth to the movement's leader. Children who became foster children of the high priestess, ordering teñirles all blond hair and those who were provided all kinds of drugs, including LSD initiation ceremonies when they were barely teenagers.
There came a time when there was another exit to escape. Fleeing from the clutches of the man. Assange, her brother and her mother were constantly changing three months of residency. Living on the run.
Secrets and leaks. Two concepts that govern the life of Julian Assange. Leaks means escape. And data leakage, filtration.
For those difficult years did your fascination with computers. His expertise, his skills as a programmer, he became a notable hacker. His nom de guerre: Mendax. He began his struggle: the information is to be shared.
As a hacker, was to penetrate the systems of Canadian telephone company Nortel, which is why he became the accused. The judge ended up ruling that behind his attempt was hiding the simple pleasure of being able to penetrate other systems. He had to pay a small fine. "I was an activist", is. "The research that I was subjected ended when I was 20, although the process would last six years, until 1997. Now there are many attempts to call me hacker, based on my activities as a hacker of twenty years ago, to devalue my work as a journalist. This is also meant to divest from the legal protections of any journalist, are against me personally, and against this organization. However, it is true that I've been an activist of free information for a long time. The interests of adolescent even relatively unsophisticated, reflecting the consistency of my character. "
Free information. The secrets uncovered. Transparency. All classified information must be available to the public. Various media, including The New Yorker, have accused him of worship transparency everywhere except within your organization.
Wikileaks The current budget is one million dollars a year (around 712,000 euros). Since January, have a system so that anonymous donations are not influenced by the interests of those who donate, explains Assange. During the first four years, the site drew on the contributions of Assange and some more. The total number of actual donors is 10,000. No donation exceeds 20,000 euros.
Assange says during the interview that 12 people are already fixed and soon to be 20. The number of employees totaled 800. Twitter followers: 150,000.
The Wikileaks website was reopened on Friday after a long season closed. On page maintenance reasons claimed to justify the closure. Assange said that was due to a major reorganization in which they are immersed. A journalist who has worked closely with him maintains that the portal has been closed by internal rebellion which the organization has suffered in recent months. Is the authoritarian methods of Assange have deterred several team members. Some of the technicians have come to boycott the network internally to avoid Assange control everything. Hrafnson, Icelandic spokesman, denied any hint of internal rebellion.
Another journalist from an international gateway, which also prefers to hide his identity, said that in fact is somewhat authoritarian Assange. But he argues that an organization like Wikileaks, under so much pressure, is normal to have debate and tension. It is logical, therefore, there is a time when someone has to make a decision that not everyone likes. "There are some who are more supportive of the action than others," he describes.
P. Domscheit Daniel Berg, the former spokesman in Germany, which has left the organization, told Der Spiegel that you acted with him as prosecutor, judge and executioner. Argues that you can not tolerate criticism.
R. Domscheit Daniel Berg was suspended from the organization for a number of serious reasons. Like many people who are suspended, choose to criticize the decisions of their employer. We believe that trust, confidence and act with integrity are essential components of our work. For this reason I decided not to criticize Domscheit-Berg, despite his statements have not given us anything in these difficult times.
Domscheit Daniel Berg picks up the phone in Berlin. Assange hearing what you said about your way out of this newspaper, stirring, indignant. "First, I am not your employee. This organization is not paying anyone. In my case, besides, I put money into the project," he exclaims, considerably irritated.
The former spokesman stated stunned by his dismissal, which occurred in September. Ensures that at least five people have left Wikileaks for disagreeing with the ways of Assange. "People do not want a dictator is at the head of an organization so powerful that handle sensitive information. Julian is behaving like a dictator and dictators do not work for me, I fought against the dictators."
The German activist, 32, says his words are not the result of a "personal vendetta." He notes that Wikileaks has lost some of its identity. "I do not know whether or not the Pentagon is currently behind Julian. But that can possibly be shown to have committed the greatest of all mistakes: Wikileaks was born as an organization that was involved so many people could never go for a single person. People should be interchangeable, it is important the project is a movement. What is Wikileaks now, an organization or show Julian Assange?. "
The controversial founder of Wikileaks does not leave anyone indifferent. Fascinating to some, irritating to others. For some it is the last hero of journalism, a man who defies the logic of a cynical world in search of maximum transparency. For others, a naive idealist who believes that everything can be counted when there are things that common sense dictates it is better not to publish. For example, those that endanger people's lives. That is accused on several fronts. Have revealed the identity of informants Afghans are now easy targets for the Taliban.
P. His decision to publish the names of Afghan informants to make public the papers of Afghanistan raised dust. Bill Keller, editor of The New York Times, said: "Your decision to publish the book had potential consequences, I think, anyone, whatever their view of the war, he would find deplorable." Do you think that made any mistakes, that put some life in danger?
R. To publish 76,000 to 90,000 classified documents, there are many things to talk about. Those documents revealed the time, date, place and circumstances of the death of about 20,000 people. Period. In the two months since the material was published, as far as can be determined today, no Afghan civilian has been hurt by the publication of the papers. That is not to deny that these are serious issues and interesting, and for that reason to withdraw one of every five documents. The fact that Bill Keller has need to devote their time to discuss this issue, which is not associated with the death of anyone, compared with themes that have led to the deaths of about 20,000 people and killed hundreds in the past two months, is a reflection of the difficulty for The New York Times to criticize the U.S. Army.
P. Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, a few days ago told us sarcastically that the mainstream media have abandoned investigative journalism because it is expensive and not very sexy. Do you agree?
R. Yes, I have almost completely abandoned, it is true. The toll you pay is expensive: you create enemies, to prevent attacks is costly legal action and shall produce offensive against the interests of publishers. I believe that readers demand investigative journalism itself, but the cost per word in relation to other forms of journalism is high, especially journalism funded by special interests.
P. "But he believes most of the major Western media are funded by special interests?
R. That's not exactly what I meant. That is also a factor. I was referring to the billions of dollars the U.S. Army spent a year in its communication of official business to produce protected content such as videos, photos and press releases at the end are stories free for journalists to put the signature. And similar protected content produced by companies and governments. In this sense, newspapers and televisions become coaches of protected content.
P. Do you think this will change? Do you think the digital revolution and initiatives such as Wikileaks bring independent journalism?
R. We can go in both directions. Can we get a system for greater control and international agreements to suppress press freedom, or can we go to a new standard that people expect and demand more material explaining the powers, and a business environment in which Such exposure is profitable, and legal environment in which it is protected.
P. Are you optimistic about?
R. We are at the crossroads between these two futures. So it is so important and so interesting to be involved in this. With our actions now determine the fate of the international media environment in the coming years.
Assange respondent is shown as a rebel. It is very difficult to brew a question in the middle of its slow speech. Of course, many of the things he says are substantial. If not, see your reflection on what has brought his experience in Wikileaks:
"Every person has a unique path in life, but in the last three and half years, I have had a truly unique experience. I have read more documents leaked, probably, than any other person on earth. Very different topics. Like some people have read many, but perhaps not so many different organizations throughout the world. I've got more leaks than any other person inside and I run an organization that has received many attacks of powerful organizations, secrets and neurotic cults. Before being put into this, I thought I knew enough of how the world works, I have made significant and important things before this. But nothing prepared me for the reality that I found. My perspective has changed a lot " .
P. What have you seen?
R. I do not know if it is possible to communicate what I learned. There are two things that come to mind. The first death worldwide civil society. Rapid financial flows, by electronic fund transfers that move faster than the political or moral sanction, destroying civil society across the world. Economic power allows opportunistic in any society connected to the global financial system to extract wealth stolen immoral behavior to carry or haul dark and opaque financial vehicles hard to catch. In this sense, civil society is dead, no longer exists, and there is a broad class of people he knows and is using it know it is dead to accumulate wealth and power.
P. How ...?
R. And the second thing I've seen that works in conjunction and in opposition to this, is that there is a huge and growing security state secret that is spreading around the world, mainly based in the United States. Any state, if you want to survive, must register with one of three providers of intelligence and weapons systems. Providers are the Western Empire, Russia, former Soviet Empire and China, which is not yet an empire, but begins to move in that direction. The hidden security state that is spreading across the western empire has its center of gravity in the U.S., but it is a mentoring network that exists in all Western countries and connects all Western countries. In the U.S., despite the financial collapse, economic power has grown, its share of economic resources has grown between 250% and 300% since the nineties. To give a concrete example, and here I quote "twice Dana Priest's Pulitzer Prize-winner of The Washington Post, there are 817,000 people working on top secret security work.
P. So watch these structures primarily to save capitalism?
R. Large corporations have penetrated both the opaque security state and political system are taking all the value added by the taxpayers.
Assange said that in America there is now a tension between the parallel security system and what he calls anarcho-capitalism, ie big business. Compare the U.S. security state parallel to the one built by Putin to rein in the oligarchs.
Finally, Assange, which leaves no headless puppet reserves its final fireworks for the complacent media. "The international media is a mess. We are in a good position to see it because we get politically and historically significant material, they released him and see how many media echo and how rigor. We can also see efforts to suppress information we give. My conclusion is that the international media environment is so bad and so distorted that we would be better if there were any means, either. "
The interview is finished. Assange rises and evolves. It becomes another person. It follows from a stroke in all its intensity and severity. Becomes light, charming, smiling. Rejuvenate. The last thing you said, once off the recorder. "Do not believe anyone. Do not believe anyone. Do not believe anyone. You will be lying. Wikileaks casings
"WikiLeaks is a website for anonymous publication of secret or sensitive documents. An encrypted connection allows any user to upload videos, confidential documents or audio without a trace.
"It has become a major platform of the leaks, leaks, in English, in the place where the great truths are official questioning.
"Julian Assange, Australian, 39, fears that the United States will open a case of espionage for the filtration of 'roles of Afghanistan." In Sweden, which has just refused a residence permit, has opened an investigation for alleged sexual harassment.
Five key episodes
Yesterday was the most shocking blow to the career of Wikileaks and content filtering platform secrets. Since its founding in December 2006, directed by Julian Assange portal has raised roles in different corners of the globe, although the loudest have been no doubt related to the U.S. military.
Extrajudicial killings in Kenya, the Icelandic bank scandal and The New Khaupting 'roles in Afghanistan' are three of his harshest blows.
But they have also been criticized for not sufficiently edit the material that comes and publish private data. It happened with the episode of the last conversations of the victims of 11-S and the publication of names and addresses of members of the British National Party.
EXECUTIONS IN KENYA. November 2008. Wikileaks leaks a document muted so far in which the National Human Rights Commission of Kenya condemned the extrajudicial execution of 500 young opponents of the regime.
TOXIC WASTE. Six people were killed. 85 needed care. Wikileaks published the company Trafigura had paid a local company in Ivory Coast to get rid of 40,000 tons of low quality gasoline.
The intra OF 11-S. November 2009. Wikileaks publishes calls, SMS messages and emails sent to and from the Twin Towers on 11-S. The publication sparked controversy on the respect for privacy.
NAMES AND RACE. October 2009. Wikileaks has released a list with names, addresses and phone numbers of thousands of people from the British National Party, of a racist. More criticism of the limits of the data publication.
SLAUGHTER IN BAGHDAD. / B> April, 2010. Wikileaks released a video that shows the killing of 12 civilians in Baghdad. Among them, two children. An Apache helicopter fired a photographer for Reuters (thinking about carrying a weapon) and all those who go there at that time.
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