WANTED: For Speaking the Truth | By Vibha Patawari

This man you can see was WANTED by the police worldwide. He is Julian Assange, an Australian internet activist, more famously, the editor-in-chief and the founder of the online organization WikiLeaks. We all have heard about Wikipedia without which our school projects would have been a complete nightmare.

Is there any connection between Wikipedia and WikiLeaks? Absolutely NOT. Except for the Wiki part.

Now let me tell you what WikiLeaks is.

WikiLeaks is an online, international, non-profit, journalistic organization that publishes news leaks, secret information, and classified media from various anonymous sources. It was started in the year 2006.

In April 2010, WikiLeaks published the Collateral Murder footage from the 2007 Baghdad airstrike in which Iraqi Reuters journalists were among the several civilians killed. Other releases during that year were the "Iraq War Logs", the Afghan War Diary and the US State Department diplomatic "cables"(classified cables which had been sent to the US State Department). In April 2011, 779 secret files in connection with the prisoners detained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp were released. In 2012, "Syria Files," were released containing over two million emails sent by Syrian corporations, politicians and government ministries.

The 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign saw the release of various documents from the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, showing that the party's national committee favoured Clinton over her rival. These releases caused considerable harm to the Clinton campaign, and have been attributed as a potential contributing factor to her loss in the general election against Donald Trump.

Moving on, in 2021, WikiLeaks released an extensive database of 17,000 documents, which it named “The Intolerance Network”, from HazteOir, the ultra-conservative Spanish Catholic organisation and CitizenGo, its international arm. The documents reveal the organisations’ internal workings, their network of donors and their relationship with the Vatican. The publishings also include documents from El Yunque, the secret Catholic organisation.

Although WikiLeaks was founded on 4th October 2006, it did not become a household name until 2010.

So what is the story behind it?

It all started with a young man named Bradley Manning. He was a member of the U.S. Army, stationed in Iraq where he worked as an Army Intelligence Analyst. Manning downloaded some highly classified information from the U.S. Database and saved the material onto a CD.

It happens that the American Embassy keeps dispatching ‘TOP’ secret classified information from different countries to the U.S. Government. For example, details of wars, treatment of prisoners, military targets, personal details of world leaders and more.

After downloading the information Bradley Manning passed on the information to Julian Assange in early 2010. Assange published this information part by part over a period of one year on WikiLeaks.com which revealed many dark secrets of politicians, governments and the armed forces.

Just imagine how embarrassing would you feel if all of your WhatsApp or Instagram chats are exposed to the world and even your phone calls are tapped!

All the Presidents and Prime Ministers were extremely humiliated. How they shook hands in public and then immediately after called each other names behind their backs. It was all revealed. Due to the release of this highly confidential information, the U.S. police went after Bradley Manning. On 21st August,2013, Manning was sentenced to 35 years of jail on the charges of aiding the enemy. After being sentenced, she issued a Press Release saying that she was a female and should from now on be called Chelsea Manning.

However, on 17th May,2017, one of the last things that Obama ever signed before leaving the office was Manning’s pardon. She is now freed and has given many interviews on this.

Now you must be thinking as to what happened to Julian Assange? Obviously, he could not just get away with all this. He had to bear the consequences for his actions.

He became the most despised man by all Presidents and Prime Ministers. They started to dig out his past and as they say, “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” They found some dirt against him too.

On June 19, 2012 an arrest warrant was issued in his name. As soon as Julian Assange came to know about his arrest warrant, he ran and took shelter in the Ecuador Embassy in London.

You must be wondering as to what an Embassy is?

An Embassy is a building in a country where a representative of another country resides or has his office. It is the territory of the foreign country and the local police are not allowed to enter.

Before proceeding further, let me ask you a simple question: How long can you stay in a confined space or a building and not even put your foot out of it?

Maybe a day, a week, a month or a maximum of six months. This man spent 7 years of his life in the Embassy of Ecuador!

Ecuador said he was rude, unhygienic and a bad houseguest. He lived in a female restroom which was converted into a bedroom for him. All he had was a treadmill, kitchen and the Internet. During his time there, he even guest starred himself in the 500th episode of The Simpsons in 2012. He often addressed the public through the balcony of the Ecuador Embassy which was always surrounded by policemen until October, 2015. The British had nearly spent Rs. 120 crores in keeping a strict eye on Julian Assange.

But on 12th October, 2015, they called off the 24-hour police surveillance saying that it was no longer proportionate or in simple terms, it was finally getting too costly for them. Right after that, Assange ordered a Domino’s Pizza to celebrate.

In 2018, Ecuador cut Assange’s communication with the outside world by taking away his access to the Internet. This does not mean that the Tom and Jerry’s game is over. The Police could not go in and he would not step out with the fear of getting arrested. Assange is wanted by people all over the world. He literally has ‘Gyarah Mulkon ki Police’ behind him.

You would be thinking as to why did the Ecuador Embassy shelter him?

Well, Ecuador has bitter relations with America and as we all know, ‘Dushman ka Dushman toh Dost Hota Hai.’

Forget about enemies, it is a fact known worldwide that the USA shares very good relations with France. However, in June 2015, WikiLeaks revealed that the USA was spying upon and tapping phone calls of the three French leaders as well.

In 2013, a Hollywood movie, The Fifth Estate based on Julian’s life was released.

Any guesses who played the character of Julian Assange?

None other than Benedict Cumberbatch, our very own “Doctor Strange”. Amongst the renowned people who visited Assange at the Embassy, the American pop star Lady Gaga has been the most talked about. There are also rumors that he is romantically involved with Pamela Anderson, the famed actress in Baywatch.

Finally in 2019, intimate pictures, text messages and photographs of the Ecuadorian President were published on an anonymous website causing considerable embarrassment to the leader. Though Assange vehemently denied having any hand in it, Ecuadorian leaders totally blamed him and said, ‘You don’t bite the hand that feeds you’.

On 11th April, 2019, the Tom and Jerry game had finally come to an end. Immediately, the British police arrested Assange on the basis that he failed to surrender to the Court. Julian Assange was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for violating the Bail Act.

The U.S. Government unsealed an indictment against Assange, which was related to the leaks provided by Chelsea Manning. On 23rd May 2019, Assange was further charged by the United States government for violating the Espionage Act of 1917. Editors from various newspapers criticised the government's decision to charge Assange under the Espionage Act, characterising it as against the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees freedom of the press.

On 4th January,2021, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled against the United States' request to extradite him, stating that doing so would be "oppressive" given his mental health. On 6th January 2021, Assange was denied bail which was pending an appeal by the United States.In July 2021, his Ecuadorian citizenship was also revoked just because all he did was to speak The Truth.