The adventures of Julian Assange, WikiLeaks and the US government after a decade and a half

Mehr News Agency, International Group: Julian Assange founder of the Wiki site Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in England in 2012. After seven years at this embassy, ​​he was arrested in 2019 and imprisoned for five years in Belmarsh prison in southeast London. -color:white”> England approved his extradition to America in June 2022 However, his appeal for extradition to the United States was upheld on June 9-10. Over the past decade, the WikiLeaks site has played an important role in the knowledge of the secret plans of the American government for more than half a century.

What did Assange reveal?

Julian Assange journalist and social activist born in Australia, one of the founders of Wiki Leaks, with the aim of open society and free access to information, made revelations that the American government and the Pentagon were the most affected by the said site and Assange suffered. In April 2010, WikiLeaks released a video of the 2007 Iraqi airstrikes that took place in Those Iraqi civilians and journalists were killed by American forces. In July of the same year, Wikileaks released the classified documents of the Afghanistan war, which contained more than 76,900 documents about the war in Afghanistan. In October of the same year, WikiLeaks released a package containing another 400,000 classified documents related to the Iraq war. With the release of some of the documents related to US actions, the country asked WikiLeaks officials to stop releasing more documents that except was the classified documents of the United States, but the request of the American authorities was met with the indifference of Wiki Leaks officials.

US charges against Assange

Assange lived in Sweden for a short time and after returning to England he was charged with sexual assault. He encountered two women in Sweden. After that, the Swedish authorities demanded his extradition to this country. Assange, who has always called the accusation of sexual assault baseless, considered the request for his extradition to Sweden to be a prelude to retaliation by the United States and feared that after his extradition to Sweden The American authorities should file a lawsuit against him and demand his extradition to America; An extradition that would be possible for Assange to be sentenced to death or life imprisonment on the charge of treason.

Finally with the confirmation of his extradition order from England to Sweden by the London High Court, Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The government of Ecuador, after unsuccessful efforts to resolve the issue diplomatically, finally put Assange under its political protection and granted him political asylum on August 16, 2012. At the same time, the British government not only did not allow him to leave the UK to Ecuador, but also made every effort to arrest Assange. :justify”>Yeh closed the job.

Until 2018, the United States will officially file a lawsuit against Assange through legal authorities. did not request the arrest and extradition of Assange to any country. But in March 2018, the US Department of Justice charged Assange with conspiracy to commit computer hacking and in May 2019 also brought 17 more crimes against Assange under US espionage laws. The charges included: conspiracy to obtain national defense information, obtain national defense information, disclosure of US national defense information and conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. In total, these charges could make Assange face 175 years in prison.

Reaction of the American authorities

The actions of Assange resulted in the stance of various American officials. In December 2010, Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States Barack Obama, called Julian Assange a terrorist. Introduced superior technology. Biden continued if Assange met with a member of the US military to obtain classified documents. If he cooperated, he is guilty. Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator of South Carolina, also accused the staff of Leaks of having their hands dirty with Accused of human blood. New York Representative Peter King suggested to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that WikiLeaks as a terrorist organization. Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mack Connell used the term “high-tech terrorist” for Assange and said that he has done a lot of damage to our country. I think he should be punished severely. Sarah Palin former governor of Alaska and Eslag vice presidential candidate Assange was introduced as a threat like al-Qaeda.

The collection of these statements has indicated the serious determination of the American authorities to prosecute Assange. At the same time, the very irresponsible and illegitimate issue that the American authorities cited during the years after 2010 was that Assange’s revelations led to retaliatory measures against the American forces in It will be Iraq and Afghanistan. Robert Gates, the US Secretary of Defense at the time, released these documents from the website Wiki Leaks for the lives of soldiers. The American, allies and supporters of this country in Afghanistan, considered it potentially dangerous and warned that it would harm the reputation of the United States in the world. This is despite the fact that the WikiLeaks revelations were not only considered terrorist acts, but were aimed at introducing the state terrorism of this country and a move to prevent terrorism.

Consequences of WikiLeaks

The type of documents disclosed by WikiLeaks were US State Department telexes and memos, and their huge volume caused So that America cannot deny them. In addition to the media and news attention that continued with the gradual release of the documents, this issue has had consequences especially for America:

Doubts about cyber security at home America

Assange’s revelations raised many doubts about America’s cyber security in the Obama era and later eras. Because the disclosed information included things that the American government tried to keep secret. Among other things, we can mention a video that showed the US helicopter attack on military positions in Iraq; While it turned out that the dead were unarmed civilians and journalists. Also, many member institutions of the American national security community, despite the fact that the damage caused by this disclosure was limited, but considered it harmful to a wide range of people.

Increasing concern of other countries

In foreign dimensions, this incident aroused the concern of diplomats of other countries in two issues. One was the insulting tone that American diplomats used about some leaders and officials of other countries. This was while Obama’s foreign policy was trying to promote the position of the United States by using public diplomacy. Another, was the disclosure of the cooperation of many official officials of other countries with the United States. . P. J Crowley the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time of the publication of the Wiki news Leaks said in 2010: “We had an ambassador to Libya and we had to remove him from his position because he came directly from thugs Muammar Gaddafi was threatened”.

Punishment of some army soldiers

In addition to the many soldiers named in the leaked information, another problem that plagued the US military was the refusal of some people to testify against Wiki. It was leaks. Among these people was Chelsea Manning, a former army soldier who served seven years for leaking documents to WikiLeaks. /span> spent in prison in 2010.

Disclosure of classified CIA information

Among the revelations of the Leaks wiki, one of the most important was in March 2017, the release of technical documents The CIA was about a wide range of espionage techniques. For example, one technique showed ways in which a high-tech television can act as a listening device even when it is turned off. CIA Director Larry Pfeiffer stated: “These types of violations can have long-term costs; Because it teaches the enemies countermeasures against our techniques. This forces the US intelligence community to incur high economic and human costs to develop new methods.”

Result

Disclosure of US classified information by WikiLeaks and Julian Assange created an affair that has lasted nearly a decade and a half. This story, on the other hand, the website Wiki Leaks and Assange’s life under impact and on the other hand, while widely reflected among the people and the American national security community, it resulted in heavy security, diplomatic and military costs for this country. These revelations have influenced all American governments since 2008 and have shown the anti-human rights aspects of Washington’s domestic and foreign policies.

Sajad Moradi Kalardeh; Researcher of international relations