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| Julian Assange (Carl Court/Getty Images). |
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| Julian Assange used to release the WikiLeaks document from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been living in asylum since 2012 |
VietPress USA (Oct. 4th, 2016): Wikipedia shows that Julian Paul Assange born on the 3rd of July, 1971, is an
Australian computer programmer, publisher and journalist. He is editor-in-chief
of the organisation WikiLeaks, which he founded in 2006.
Since November 2010, Assange has been subject to extradition
to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning concerning an allegation of rape.
Assange denies the allegation and has expressed concern that he will be extradited
from Sweden to the United States due to his perceived role in publishing secret
American documents.
After exhausting his legal options in the United Kingdom,
Assange failed to surrender for extradition. Instead, he sought and was granted
asylum by Ecuador in August 2012. Assange has since remained in the Embassy of
Ecuador in London, and he is unable to leave without being arrested for
breaching his bail conditions. The United Nations' Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention found, by a majority, that he has been "arbitrarily
detained" and that his detention should be brought to an end. UK
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the claim was "ridiculous" and
that the group was "made up of lay people", and called Assange a
fugitive from justice.
After his period of study at the University of Melbourne,
Assange and others established WikiLeaks in 2006. Assange is a member of the
organisation's advisory board and describes himself as the
editor-in-chief. From 2007 to 2010, Assange travelled continuously on
WikiLeaks business, visiting Africa, Asia, Europe and North
America.
WikiLeaks published secret information, news leaks, and
classified media from anonymous sources. By 2015 WikiLeaks had published
more than 10 million documents and associated analyses, and was described by
Assange himself as "a giant library of the world's most persecuted
documents". The published material between 2006 and 2009 attracted
various degrees of publicity, but it was only after it began publishing
documents supplied by Chelsea Manning that Wikileaks became a household
name.The Manning material included the Collateral Murder video (April
2010) which showed US soldiers shooting dead 18 people from a helicopter in
Iraq, the Afghanistan war logs (July 2010), the Iraq war logs (October
2010), a quarter of a million diplomatic cables (November 2010), and the
Guantánamo files (April 2011).
Today to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of WikiLeaks (2006 to 2016), Julian Assange announces that he plan to release many secret and special documents on US Presidential Election 2016 and on Google over the next ten weeks. His announcement has attracted many people worldwide. Please read this news from The Verge.
VietPress USA
www.vietpressusa.com
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WikiLeaks plans to release documents on US election and
Google over the next ten weeks
Julian Assange teases 'October surprise' at the end of a
self-congratulatory press conference
by Amar Toor @amartoo
Oct 4, 2016, 6:06a
WikiLeaks plans to release documents pertaining to Google
and the US electoral system over the next 10 weeks, the organization announced
today. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange announced the planned release schedule
in a video address at the end of a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday
morning, where the organization was celebrating its 10th anniversary.
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| Julian Assange at a press conference |
Assange said the forthcoming documents will pertain to
Google, the US presidential election, arms trading, war, oil, and mass
surveillance. The organization plans to release them on a weekly basis over the
next ten weeks, with Assange saying that all information related to the US
presidential race will be published before election day on November 8th.
There was a lot of build-up to today's press conference, in
anticipation of what had been billed as an "October surprise" that
could swing the US presidential election. Instead, WikiLeaks devoted most of
the event to recounting its most notorious releases and responding to criticism
levied against it. Assange acknowledged the anticipation of a bombshell release
in a winding address to reporters, though he declined to say whether the
upcoming leaks would tilt the election toward Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.
"THERE IS ENORMOUS EXPECTATION IN THE UNITED STATES."
"There is enormous expectation in the United
States," Assange said of the forthcoming leaks. "Some of that
expectation will be partly answered; but you should understand that if we're
going to make a major publication in relation to the United States at a
particular hour, we don't do it at 3AM."
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| WikiLeaks will celebrate 10 years of establishment |
The upcoming releases would follow WikiLeaks' publication in
July of more than 19,000 emails from seven top officials in the Democratic
National Convention (DNC). The emails, which included full names, phone
numbers, and addresses, suggested that the DNC favored Clinton over her primary
rival, Bernie Sanders, and led to the resignation of chairwoman Debbie
Wasserman Schultz. WikiLeaks did not disclose the source of the emails, but the
leak was published one month after the DNC announced that its servers were
compromised by Russian hackers.
Assange originally planned to announce today's release from
the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been living in
asylum since 2012. But WikiLeaks canceled his appearance this week, citing
"security concerns." Authorities in Sweden have sought to question
Assange since 2010 over a rape allegation, but the Australian national has
dismissed the investigation as a pretext to extradite him to the US.
Prior to today's announcement, Republican operatives had
touted the WikiLeaks release as potentially devastating to the Clinton
campaign. On Sunday, Roger Stone, a surrogate for the Donald Trump campaign,
tweeted that the Democratic nominee would be "done" on Wednesday,
following the WikiLeaks announcement.
Asked whether the upcoming releases would
"destroy" Clinton, Assange appeared to downplay expectations.
"Are upcoming publications significant in relation to the US election?
Yeah, we think they're significant," he said. "Do they show
interesting features of US power factions and how they operate? Yes, they
do."
Assange also denied accusations that he and his organization
are specifically targeting Clinton and the Democratic Party. "I certainly
feel sorry for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump," he said. "These are
two people who are tormented by their ambitions, in different ways."
(Source: http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/4/13159914/wikileaks-hillary-clinton-julian-assange-google)
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