SPIEGEL: Mr. Assange, after the WikiLeaks during the election campaign in the US last year published documents of the Democratic party, Donald trump said, “I love WikiLeaks!” Now the new Director of the CIA Mike Pompeo (Mike Pompeo), announced the organization “non-state hostile to the secret service”. Does it improve the administration of U.S. persecution of WikiLeaks?
Julian Assange: People love WikiLeaks, when he exposes the corruption of their opponents. And they are against WikiLeaks, when we show dangerous actions themselves. We exposed how dangerously incompetent the CIA is dealing with its giant hacker program. And we discovered his hacker group in the U.S. Consulate General in Frankfurt. Now the Director of the CIA Pompeo went on the offensive.
He said: “It means the WikiLeaks “will now cease.” Sounds pretty serious.
— We take very seriously the fact that Pompeo decided to make WikiLeaks a Central theme of his first speech as CIA Director. Especially because the new Minister of justice stated that my arrest is of paramount importance.
— Who else from the staff of WikiLeaks, the Supreme court of Virginia is investigating?
— As far as I know, the investigation is conducted against journalists WikiLeaks Sarah Harrison (Sarah Harrison), Joseph Farrell (Joseph Farrell) and Christine Hrafnsson (Kristinn Hrafnsson), and also against the WikiLeaks supporter Jacob Appelbaum (Jacob Appelbaum). And was recently made an official statement according to which the investigation would be conducted against all of our employees, including against operating technicians.
— The main source of WikiLeaks, a former U.S. soldier Chelsea manning (Chelsea Manning) was released from military prison. Barack Obama has pardoned her after seven years. If she spoke about the cooperation with WikiLeaks?
— First, the release of Chelsea manning is an amazing success, which persevered and WikiLeaks, and many others. We are proud of it, even if we understand that manning had not pardon, and to release and to compensate for the damage. I recall that the then Commissioner of the UN on charges of torture found that manning was subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Before the court, manning stated that she had maintained contact with someone from the WikiLeaks organization, but — in contrast to the statements of the head of the CIA Pompeo — was not given any tasks.
Website WikiLeaks in the past months has often been accused that it is Russian propaganda purposes, and deliberate misinformation.
— That is exactly what I call false information. After Hillary Clinton (Hillary Clinton) lost the election, she began to look for something to blame former CIA Director James Komi (James Comey), Russia and us.
— However, the authenticity of WikiLeaks is still based on the fact. she does not belong to any party, not working with any hidden political plan.
Our accuracy depends on how carefully we work. For ten years we have published over ten million documents. They were all genuine. But, of course, every source, and our sources too, pursues its own interests. This is a basic law of journalism.
— You know Your sources?
— We usually have a pretty good idea about our material, because we thoroughly check. Sometimes we thereby obtain information about the source.
— If the US administration was able to prove that the CIA documents, released by WikiLeaks, handed over to the Russian side, would not put this Your work into question?
— Is a media fantasy. Obama at his last press conference as President he said that the US administration there is no evidence of WikiLeaks cooperation with Russia. Meanwhile, U.S. authorities believe that the CIA documents came not from a state but from a private firm that works for the CIA.
But You can’t deny that WikiLeaks has lost much of its popularity after it was published the documents, which hurt Hillary Clinton.
— What do You mean? That Clinton would have won if we hadn’t published the texts of speeches from the bankers of Goldman-Sachs? Maybe we should censor information to protect certain candidates? We would never do.
— However, the secret service, obviously trying increasingly to influence elections in other countries.
— It is possible.
— If these secret services use WikiLeaks as a useful weapon, You can’t just dismiss it and say “it’s possible”.
— Secret service daily promoted in the media materials. And if WikiLeaks is able to publish documents to the elections, we will do and won’t wait until after the election. This is what we expect from the public.
And You don’t care about Your publications influence the outcome of elections?
The WikiLeaks team consists of people who have different political views. But this should not lead to the fact that we were disloyal.
And those principles say that everything is authentic, I needed to publish, regardless of the fact that someone will benefit and someone harm?
Is our practice today, which could change only in the most extreme circumstances.
— What are the circumstances this could be?
— If we were on the brink of nuclear war, and one publication might be misinterpreted, then it would be advisable to reschedule.
But the publication of the Clinton You are delayed.
We do not collect likes. WikiLeaks publishes documents on influential organizations. For those in power, we will always be bad.
— What would You say to all those who think WikiLeaks is also responsible for the fact that Donald trump became President of the United States?
— WikiLeaks has exposed the dirty election methods Clinton. For some voters it had a definite impact. It was their free decision. Their legitimate right. It is a democracy.
Clinton acted against WikiLeaks. Did you publish a kind of vendetta, a campaign of revenge?
Is the American psychological chatter, popular on the East coast: WikiLeaks publishes the documents, because this person has problems. No! But this is the irony of history. Clinton worked to put in jail our alleged source, Chelsea manning. It’s like a kind of natural justice.
— That is the defeat of Clinton was to You satisfaction?
— …
— You smile.
— It is possible that on a personal level but it is quite well understood each other. She’s charismatic, she’s a little social climber, like me. A bit strange as I am. And still somewhere it is necessary to hold the line. She decided to destroy the Libyan state. Thus, it fueled the European refugee crisis. We have published a lot of e-mails on this topic. The conclusion that she is a war criminal, is obvious.
— Close are we to the time when the election will win is the party which has the best hackers?
— Not necessarily. Look at France: information on the Makron had no influence on the election, for that it came too late. Among other things, these documents contain a very notable metadata that indicate one partner of the Russian secret service FSB. But why Russia had to show that she’s behind this? It would be pretty silly.
— The programme of WikiLeaks from 2006, the year of its creation, said: “Our priority goals are particularly repressive regimes in China, Russia and Central Asia”. However, about these countries You do not know almost nothing.
Is absolutely wrong! You have the impression that the West and Americans always are concerned only with themselves. When we publish the documents are not in English, in the West, nobody is interested.
But Your biggest sensation, the documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, diplomatic cables, e-mails, Clinton or acts of the CIA — it was directed against the United States.
— The US is an Empire with over 700 military bases around the world. When openly show the power of America, that is interested in the world. When we issued 2.3 million Syrian documents, including e-mails of Bashar al-Assad, no one in the West considered it as a sensation.
— After the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, tweeted: “the US annexed the whole world through mass surveillance”. Is it wise, when one crime justified by another?
— Oh, come on, this is a typical journalistic pedantry. I was very critical towards Russia’s actions in Ukraine. At the strategic level it was a disaster for Ukraine and for Russia.
— If You can overthrow Vladimir Putin by publishing a document, would You do it?
— If these documents were genuine, we would get published. But it is not our role to overthrow the politicians. We do not recognize the censorship. We believe that human civilization must be freedom of information so that she could be fair and reasonable.
Do You have border transparency?
— These events should not we, as a society. Every organization has its own special challenges. The task of the police is to stop the mafia.The task of the media is to tell people the truth. That is our task. And not censorship.
— Do You see any danger that anonymous suppliers will be able to abuse the WikiLeaks documents?
Journalists from certain media claim it to justify their failures. However, many media to imitate our method, paving the way to their pages, the network appeared the anonymous information. We published tougher than others. The sources come to us because we stand for our values and protect our reliable sources.
— How do You assess the global attack of the virus “WannaCry” last week?
— National American secret service NSA in 2013, lost its huge Arsenal of cyber weapons. She chose not to inform Microsoft, Apple and other firms about the gaps in the protection of their programs. Instead, the NSA itself has created tools to attack to break into these gaps. And here is the result.
— You expect something worse?
— First, there are serious questions: contained the CIA and the NSA, the fact of loss of control over most of their cyberroute secret, or they informed President Obama? After Snowden’s revelations, the US administration promised that the secret service their knowledge about breach protection will no longer be ignored, and will report them to the companies that it affects. Obviously this was a lie. Another open question is, who will be responsible for a million damage from the NSA, which was the cause of the attack “WannaCry” all over the world.
— You are talking about the world and themselves enclosed in two small rooms without sunlight and in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Does not suffer if Your political competence in this situation?
— That’s right, I don’t live in London and the Embassy. But my visitors come from all over the world, I highly alterglobalists personality. I read a lot. My perception of the world may be distorted the information that I have. But You work in the prestigious German magazine, belong to a particular class — and Your perception of the world is also distorted.
From Lenin Moreno (Lenín Moreno), who was elected in April, the leftist President of Ecuador, depends, can You continue here to read and receive visitors. Do You expect that he will support the resolution on asylum to which his predecessor gave You in August 2012?
— He said it, but one can never be sure. We must not forget that this Embassy is in the UK, and the guards at the doors reliable — with civil cops, cameras, strange things that happen in this building. In Ecuador there was a lot of pressure, including economic, as well as numerous hacker attacks on the Embassy.
— What is the state of the investigation, “rape”, which is the Swedish justice system is against You seven years?
— I was never charged as a result of the Swedish accusations, which I deny. The competent authority, the UN has established that the order for my arrest is illegal. However, Swedish prosecutors continue their delaying tactics.
— How do You cope with this difficult situation?
I have no idea. She is probably already familiar to me.
According to new data, the Swedish Prosecutor’s office shall terminate the investigation against Julian Assange.
After the release of this issue of the magazine DER SPIEGEL, the Swedish Prosecutor’s office reported that it after seven years close the investigation case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. He was accused of “rape”.
Prosecutor Marianne Nude (Marianne Ny) said Friday at a press conference in Stockholm, she decided to take this step, “because I saw no opportunity to further this investigation.” However, she did not make any statements about the guilt of Assange.
“This is a great and belated victory,” said Melinda Taylor (Melinda Taylor), one of the lawyers of Assange’s DER SPIEGEL magazine. “Almost seven years, the Swedish Prosecutor’s office without significant charges not cancelled the order for the arrest and deprived thereby of Julian Assange freedom.” Her client, according to Taylor, was “illegally punished” and sitting on the basis of this persecution since June 2012 in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. “It’s a shame that he was subjected to such torture.”
The founder of WikiLeaks, despite the termination of the investigation will not be able to leave the Embassy in London. British authorities said they will arrest Assange if he leaves the Embassy. It is a violation of reason, which was offered to him in 2012 in case of his temporary release.
WikiLeaks suggests that the us Embassy in London is closed an agreement on mutual extradition of criminals, which American diplomats can at any time to convey to the British administration. In the United States is another trial against Assange. He on Friday evening tweeted from the Embassy: “Seven years without charge was kept in prison, while my children grew up, and my name smeared through the mud. I will not forgive and will never forget”.
