[Louise Bennett]A lot of young people know nothing about Julian Assange or Wikileaks…Do you know who Julian Assange is?
[Louise]Do you know who Julian Assange is?
[Louise]Do you know anything about this man? [Kid] No..
[Louise] And what happened to him... Do you want to know about him? About 10
years ago WikiLeaks released a whole lot of information about the crimes that
were being committed by Western governments, basically. War crimes. But mostly
the US government. And particularly the murder of innocent civilians overseas.
[Angela]Before that, we could just pretend to not know. This is the fascinating thing about
WikiLeaks: it kind of forts us to knowledge this, you know. We couldn't ignore it anymore.
[Mary]He is an idealist and he is on a mission. He
is on a mission to empower people with information.
[Fidel]WikiLeaks is obviously good. But this comes with the price
[Kid] How long has he been in jail for?
[Louise]He was in the Ecuadorian Embassy for 8 years, 7 or 8 years. A long long time he's
been imprisoned basically and now he's been for many months in the in Belmarsh prison.
[Voice]Free! Free! Julian Assange!
[Louise]There are a lot of people that want him in prison. A lot of the very powerful people.
[Robert Gates]"This department is conducting a thorough, aggressive investigation
to determine how this leak occurred, to identify the person or persons responsible.
[Suellete]I don't want to see him die in a US prison. And I think that's what he's facing
[Kid] But he's just trying to make the world a better place?
[Louise]Yeah, well we think so there's hardly any reason to suggest that he's not.
[Louise]He's trying to expose the crimes that our governments are committing in our name.
THE ASSANGE STORY
[GEO]MELBOURN, AUSTRALIA
[Suellete]I don't think you can really understand Julian Assange or WikiLeaks without
seeing an aspect of his life that formed him, and that was absolutely here in Melbourne.
1991
[Suellete]And it formed him not only in terms of his ideas, perhaps, parts of his personality, his
expertise, but also his conceptual thinking about forming software projects, including WikiLeaks.
[Suellete]So Melbourne in late 80ties and early 90ties became the centre of the
Australian underground and also a major hub in International underground which
included hackers and experimenters and also hackers not just in the sense of people
who broke into things illegally, but also people who just experimented with things.
[VO] It didn’t take long for Australia’s hacking community to
embrace the young Julian Assange. As teenagers, they spent most
of their time online, but did occasionally venture outdoors and when they did, they met at this square in central Melbourne.
[SUELETTE DREYFUS WRITER, ACADEMIC RESEARCHER]This is the historic Fitzroy town hall, and
it was the site, along with some other historic town halls in Melbourne, of swap meets.
[Suellete]Julian Assange and other members of that technology community were here in their late teens and early 20s
shopping for computer bits and exchanging ideas and information about how to experiment with hardware and software.
[John Shipton]From a very young age, he was a part of the earliest
cohort of young men and women who moved into understanding computers.
[JOHN SHIPTON JULIAN ASSANDE'S FATHER]It suited his organizational capacity and his patience,
his curiosity and his depth of memory, and understanding of the topology of computing.
[John] But I didn’t at all anticipate that he would be for a short while
world famous and run one of the world’s most powerful news organizations.
[Suellete]So, it's very interesting, the hacker mentality from this time
period… They wanted the thrill of getting into the system that was taboo.
[Suellete]And the more prestigious the institution, the more thrill they got. So if they could break into a NASA
computer, I mean, these were the smartest people in the world. They were the people who had put man on the moon.
[SUELETTE DREYFUS WRITER, ACADEMIC RESEARCHER]Really, if you could break into their
systems then you could prove to yourself, you're a 17 year old boy, you too are very smart.
[VO]The U.S Space Agency NASA is one of the victims of the Melbourne computer hacking syndicate.
[VO]American investigators, including the FBI, contacted Australian authorities with these suspicions.
[VO]On October 16, 1989, NASA fell victim to a hack attack with what was known as the WANK virus. It
caused a space shuttle launch in Florida to be postponed and was traced to Australian hackers in Melbourne.
[Suellete] The WANK worm was one of the first ever worms that had been written.
[Suellete] And it was certainly the first politically motivated worm and that carried
a political message. That message was a quote from a Midnight Oil song. And
that quote was, 'You talk of times a peace for all and then prepare for war.'
[Suellete]And this thing that was the WANK worm, it emerged from a sort of deep dark forest.
[Suellete] You got a glimpse of it, and then it disappeared again. And the authors have never been found.
[Correspondent]Although some say this might be one of the first Julian Assange's dealings?
[Suellete]People have lots of different views on these things.
[Suellete]Julian was very lucky growing up in that, although he grew up
in a fairly poor family, economically, it was very rich intellectually.
[GEO]BROADFORD, AUSTRALIA
[Suellete]Julian's father is a very clever and creative person and quite sensitive, quite a
sensitive person. I think he's been enormously important to Julian's development as a young adult.
[John]As a young man Julian was a delight actually. His nickname was “wizard’ because he would
always been able to come up with a new
approach to things and a new way of looking at thing.
[Suellete]What a number of hackers have said to me is that they get a different perspective on the
world from the system's they've been in. And that's because they are able to see the actual information.
[Suellete]These are directly contradicting what an organization
may say publicly or someone, a politician may say publicly.
[Suellete]They understand that the public is being told something
that is just... not just a little lie, often it's a very big lie. That
that helped maybe develop in Julian's mind the super importance of
media organizations being able to report accurately on information.
[John]Julian was at my place and we were having a cup of tea.
[John]I think it was, I'm not sure, 2006 or something like that,
quite early on anyway. And Julian said I'd like to start a Wiki.
[John]And this wiki would concern itself with leaks. And we would use the Tor as an
anonymizer for people who wanted to leak information and had that information published.
[Correspondent]Did you try to warn him about anything at that time?
[John]No, why would you? This is a young man on the cusp
of life, you don't give warnings, you say: Well, how can I help?
[John]I've always taken Nietzsche’s aphorism to heart: ‘Live dangerously”.
[John]“Live dangerously. Don't creep around the place being frightened of
shadows. Do what you have to do, and face the consequences as the best you can.
[John]That has been my guide all my life.”
[Voice]Hotel Two-Six; Crazy Horse One-Eight. Have five to six individuals with AK47s. Request permission to engage.
[Voice]Roger that. Uh, we have no personnel east of our position. So, uh, you are free to engage. Over.
[VAUGHAN SMITH JOURNALIST]I first heard about WikiLeaks and Julian Assange from the helicopter
footage in Iraq, the famous footage where we saw the helicopter shoot people on the ground.
[Voice]Light 'em all up. Come on, fire!
[Voice]keep shoot’n.
[Vaughn]The helicopter shot up some civilians, and in the process shot two Reuters
journalists, two local Reuters journalists. And they also shot up some children in a car.
[Voice]Got a bunch of bodies layin' there. All right, we got about, uh, eight individuals.
[Voice]Yeah, we got one guy crawling around down there, but, uh, you know, we got, definitely got something.
[Voice]We're shooting some more. - Roger.
[VO]American military personnel misidentified civilians as rebels. From overhead, it looked
as though one of the men had a gun, but it was just a Reuters cameraman holding a long-lens.
[RENATA AVILA FORMER WIKILEAKS LAWYER]The day I saw the Collateral Murder video, yes, I will not forget
it, you know. I will not forget because it was the first time when I was screaming loud at my office.
[Renata]These soldiers act with this emotional detachment as they were
playing video games ending with the life of people in such a cold way.
[Voice]Oh, yeah, look at those dead bastards.
[Voice]Nice.
[SUELETTE DREYFUS WRITER, ACADEMIC RESEARCHER] Here is actual
shocking video footage, fact, irrefutable evidence of what happened,
and what has been described to me by one retired military person,
actually, here in Australia, as, 'Undoubtedly a war crime»
[VO]The day after the shooting of July the 13th 2007 U. S. Military command justified
the attack, claiming that its troops had been in battel with hostile forces
[Voice]Yeah, Bushmaster, we have a van that’s approaching and picking up the bodies
[VO]But two children was also wounded. They were in a van,
when the father approached the scene of shouting to help victims
[Voice]Bushmaster; Crazyhorse. We have individuals going to the scene, looks like possibly uh picking up bodies and weapons.
[Voice]Come on, let us shoot!
[Voice]This is Bushmaster seven, roger. This is Bushmaster seven, roger. Engage Come on!
[Voice]Clear.
[ANGELA RICHTER THEATRE DIRECTOR]What was really fascinating for me was when I saw an interview
with an American soldier who was there on that spot after they killed them and shot them.
[Mary]He was the young army officer who went to the van and
discovered there were two children there that were wounded. He
said the little girl couldn't blink, because her eyes were
full of glass and he tried to remove the glass from her eyes.
[MARY KOSTAKIDIS JOURNALIST]When he spoke to his supervisor and wanted
to take her to a decent hospital, he was told: wash out your vagina.
[Voice]Well it's their fault for bringing their kids into a battle. That's right.
[Mary]For the first time we understood the civilian casualties the innocent people
who were killed in both Afghanistan and Iraq and this was all kept from the public.
[Suellete]Julian Assange showed real bravery in being willing to publish frankly and fearlessly that
video, and I think that there are people within the US military who have never forgiven him for it.
THAT HELICOPTER ATTACK RESULTED IN 12-18 DEATHS TWO CHILDREN WERE
WOUNDED. NO ONE FROM THE AMERICAN MILITARY HAS EVER BEEN HELD ACCOUNTABLE.
[Angela]After Collateral Murder Julian Assange revealed his identity and was
known. I mean, it was front-page news all over the world at that point, yeah.
[VO]Not only did Julian Assange become a hot global topic, but he’d found a way to publish
classified information and made it available to anyone who wanted to share someone else’s secrets.
[Suelette]The idea of developing an anonymous digital dropbox and applying it to a media organisation that
is WikiLeaks, that was a first. People hadn't really done that before. That was Julian Assange.
[Renata]It enabled the whistleblowers at low cost, with just the right connectivity and the use
of the right tools, to anonymously blow the whistle by transmitting like large amounts of data.
JULIAN ASSANGE PRESS-CONFERENCE 2011
[Julian]Today we release over 287 files documenting
the reality of the international mass surveillance
industry. Who here has an iPhone? Who here has a
Blackberry? Who here uses gmail? Well, you’re all screwed.
[Correspondent]May I ask what is this place where all those files were actually kept?
[Renata]I don't know, it’s in the cloud. I don’t know, it’s somewhere.
[John]Julian magically brought
together computers, digitalization,
[JOHN SHIPTON JULIAN ASSANDE'S FATHER]and information, and put those before the public.
[Vaughn]When someone called Julian Assange knocked on the door of the Frontline Club, I was
quite pleased to see him. I was quite keen that we would have somebody who was making the news.
[Vaughn]My name is Vaughan Smith. I'm a journalist, but more, I run something called the Frontline
Club, which I founded, which is a club, a social club and the press club for journalists in London.
[Vaughn]But it all happened in this room. I mean, Julian literally turned
up and knocked on the doo literally unannounced he knocks on the door
two days before that press conference, saying “I want a press conference
on Julian Assange”. And so we arranged the press conference for him,
and it was on a Monday morning. He was standing here. And he was up
here, and we had a podium. We have that podium - and we had it here - and
he was standing here and it's from this position that he raised up the
Guardian front page, and, you know, that's when the whole thing started.
JULIAN ASSANGE PRESS-CONFERENCE 2010
[Julian]So, this is the Guardian from this morning. 14 pages about
this topic, and also you can currently see in The Spiegel 17 pages.
[VO]Just a couple of months after video of the Baghdad helicopter attack against civilians was
published, yet more revelations appeared, this time, it was the Afghanistan and Iraq dossiers.
THE AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ DOSSIERS CLASSIFIED PENTAGON FILES ON US AND
ALLIED MILITARY ACTIVITY IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ FROM 2004 TO 2009
[SUELETTE DREYFUS WRITER, ACADEMIC RESEARCHER] These were logs that were written by members of military who might be out at
the front or patrolling an area. And might be things they've seen or it's something they experienced on their shift or patrol.
[VAUGHAN SMITH JOURNALIST] So it was almost a sort of a very detailed war diary by the Americans and
the British. But it didn't occur to me that it could be so informative because it was a huge dataset.
JULIAN ASSANGE INTERVIEW 2011
[Julian]It’s 400 000 classified field reports by the US army. This is the most accurate
description of a war that has ever been released in historic record. We accounted now 122
000 civilian casualties in the war. There is nearly no street corner in Baghdad that
didn’t have a body found or someone being killed through violence in one form or another.
THE AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ DOSSIERS: THE US AND ITS ALLIES
ALLEGEDLY UNDER-REPORTED CIVILIAN CASUALTIES PRISONERS OF WAR
WERE SUBJECTED TO VIOLENT ACTS OF TORTURE US MILITARY PERSONNEL
WERE REPORTED TO HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN CHILD PROSTITUTION
[Mary]When you have publishers publishing secrets, the government's starts losing control of the narrative.
[MARY KOSTAKIDIS JOURNALIST]They had a narrative in Iraq «no civilian deaths»
and then they lost control of that narrative because we found out the truth.
[Mary]That's the power of WikiLeaks.
2010
[ROBERT GATES U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENCE 2006-2011]The battlefield
consequences of the release of these documents are potentially severe and
dangerous for our troops, our allies, and Afghan partners, and may well
damage our relationships and reputation in that key part of the world.
JULIAN ASSANGE INTERVIEW 2010
One of the main criticism that has been levelled at you is that you have
published villages, the names, in some cases the GPS coordinates of people
who cooperated with the US military. [Correspondent]And US officials called
it a potential hit-list for the Taliban. What’s your response to that?
[Julian]It always appears to be the most media beat up. We’re looking at issues seriously to see whether this is true.
[Julian]And we approached the White House to ask for assistance in reviewing but the WH did not accept this request.
[Angela]They always say, "Oh, they have bloods on their hands. They get people in danger."
[ANGELA RICHTER THEATRE DIRECTOR]But I think that, if anyone would have been killed because of WikiLeaks, they would have
dragged the person in front of the camera. , or proved it, or taken it against them. So, I think it's just a blatant lie.
[Suellete]Is it possible that the first tranche of data from the Afghan war logs could
have been better redacted? Yes. Quite probably, they could have been better redacted.
[SUELETTE DREYFUS WRITER, ACADEMIC RESEARCHER] Had anyone ever done this before? No. There was no roadmap. I mean,
Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, they were bushwhacking through a thick forest to try and figure out how to do this.
THE AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ DOSSIERS WERE THE BIGGEST LEAK EVER. THEY SHED
LIGHT ON WAR CRIMES ALLEGEDLY PERPETRATED BY THE U.S. AND ITS ALLIES
NO ONE FROM AMERICA'S MILITARY HAS EVER BEEN HELD ACCOUNTABLE
[JOHANNES WAHLSTROM JOURNALIST] A little bit over 10 years ago - I was contacted
by a person who I didn't know at that point in time at all, that wanted
to meet. And I met a person who spoke with a very strong Australian accent,
and he told me that he had a program that he wanted to do, a project.
[Johannes]When we met, my initial feeling was that this was completely outlandish.
MEDIASTAN: A WIKILEAKS ROAD MOVIE DOCUMENTARY BY JOHANNES WAHLSTROM
[Johannes]That there was nothing to it, So we parted ways, but we kept contact.
[Johannes]A little bit later came the publications of the Collateral Murder video,
where you could see a helicopter gunning down Reuters journalists on an
open street. And soon I realised that he was serious about this endeavour.
[VO]Julian Assange invited Johannes to work with him on a new collection of classified documents that
had fallen into WikiLeaks’ hands. This time, correspondence from the United States’ diplomatic service.
[Johannes]The Diplomatic Cables that WikiLeaks published
a little bit later. They were a set of internal briefings, if
you put it this way, or analysis that all of the American
diplomats wrote and delivered back to the State Department.
LEAKED US DIPLOMATIC CABLES: DATE: PUBLISHED
ON NOVEMBER 28, 2010 CONTENTS: US DIPLOMATIC
CORRESPONDENCE FROM 1966 TO 2010 STATUS: 100,000
DOCUMENTS MARKED ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ AND 15,000 AS ‘SECRET’
JULIAN ASSANGE INTERVIEW 2011
[Julian]We have to understand the scale of this information. If we took these cables and we
printed them out the would go between Saint-Petersburg and Moscow. It's that much of material.
[Johannes]I can give you a simple example of what was of interest in those cables in
regard to Sweden, because I worked with the materials that were related to Sweden.
[Johannes]In these documents we could see that's Swedish politicians that would come to the
US ambassador - and ask for services. So the services they would ask for would be,
[Johannes]"We have a problem with Swedish public opinion," they would say. "Swedish public
opinion doesn't like the war in Afghanistan and doesn't want us to participate in the war
in Afghanistan. Could you please help us by inviting some Afghani women here to Sweden and
we can put them on Swedish TV so they talk about the good things that we're doing there.
[Johannes] Suddenly we found out that Swedish politicians and Swedish
public servants are undercutting the way that Swedish democracy
is supposed to function. And they're doing that together with
US diplomats, contrary to the interests of the Swedish people.
[Julian]One of the hopeful things that I have discovered is that
nearly every war. That has started in the past 50 years has been a
result of media lies. What does that mean? That means basically
populations don’t like wars. Populations have to be fooled into wars.
[Voice]'WikiLeaks should be closed down' Assange is a traitor' And he broke every laws United States
[Voice]“WikiLeaks” works and talks like hostile intelligence service'. And I'm not for the death penalty,
so there is only one way to do it: illegally shoot son of a bitch.
[Vaughn]Julian was at his height of popularity when
Sweden happened that he attracted amorous ladies.
[MARY KOSTAKIDIS JOURNALIST]It's understandable
that he would be attractive to young women. He's a young
man who set his ambitions very high and the noble
ambitions. So, that made him even more attractive.
[GEO]STOCKHOLM SWEDEN
[VO]Julian Assange travelled to Sweden to deliver a speech. While there, he met two women aged
31 and 26. The Wikileaks founder was soon involved in an intimate relationship with both of them.
[Mary]The woman who had invited him to speak, also
offered her apartment which is a studio apartment, so
there's only one bed in it, and she said: I'm going
to be away, you can stay here. So he thought: Great!
[MARY KOSTAKIDIS JOURNALIST]However, things changed, and
the woman came back early and wanted Julian to stay there anyway.
[ANGELA RICHTER THEATRE DIRECTOR]Those women really
approached him. It seems like, especially the younger one saw him
on TV, fell in love, whatever that means. It looks like someone who wants to be a rock-and-roll groupie or something.
[Angela]And, finally, she also succeeds in it and they share a
one-night stand, which, at some point, becomes about the condom.
[VO]It was only after learning that Assange had slept with
both of them that the women decided to go to the police. That
proved a turning point both for WikiLeaks and for Julian
Assange, and it was when this story took a very different turn.
[Vaughn]The women went to the police, and weren't there to report a
rape, they were, they wanted to encourage Julian to have an HIV test,
[VAUGHAN SMITH JOURNALIST] because they had had sex with him unprotected, and were concerned about that.
[Correspondent]So there was no, like… actual rape right? There was no violence there, although all the newspapers
afterwards, they were saying: rape allegations, rape allegations, there was no actual rape, there was consensual sex.
[Mary]But this is exactly… That was the aim of the whole exercise.
[Mary]To start hearing the word rape in connection with Julian Assange.
[Voice]Rape investigations into Wikileaks founder Julian Assange A rape investigation into Wikileaks founder
[Voice]Julian Assange was questioned over rape allegations Women who accuse him of rape allegations
[Mary]In many people's minds, there's something suspicious about
him and unethical because he hasn't… he's run away from the law.
[Vaughn]I think it would have been better had he gone to Sweden because I think he needed this
opportunity to clear his name. But at the same time I completely understand why he didn't do it.
[Julian]The problem in Sweden, it’s not the country where I understand the languageю.
[Julian]In addition the media climate has been set up in Sweden that is quite hostile.
[Angela]I think that if Julian went to Sweden at that point he would have been extradited,
he was often, like, mocked in the press, and people would say, "Ah! He doesn't want to face
the music in Sweden," and so on, and said he's paranoid, but I think from today's perspective,
and we really know now that that the US is really after him, I think he was never paranoid.
ON 19 NOVEMBER 2019, SWEDEN CLOSED THE CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST JULIAN ASSANGE WITHOUT PRESSING FORMAL CHARGES
U.S. AUTHORITIES ARE STILL SEEKING HIS EXTRADITION
[Vaughn]The big thing that I think truly undermine the
public support for Julian was a Swedish case, obviously.
[Vaughn]You would find newspapers of high repute, television
stations, too, doing Julian in. It became gratuitous.
JULIAN ASSANGE: CAMPAIGNER OR ATTENTION SEEKER? HE IS A NARCISSIST ASSANGE ENDANGERED LIVES UNTIDY
SPOILED BRAT ARROGANT NARCISSIST HE IS FULL OF HIMSELF
[Suellete]It would be fair to say, the mainstream old-style media never really liked Julian. They
didn't really like Julian, because his model of publishing was a threat to their existence.
[John]There was a great deal of jealousy in the mainstream towards WikiLeaks and towards Assange, in particular.
[JOHN PILGER DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER]"Why won't he be more like us?". "Why can't he be one of us?"
BADLY-BEHAVED HOUSEGUEST HYGINE PROBLEMS
[Renata]When they wanted access to the documents they were the nicest persons in planet Earth.
[RENATA AVILA FORMER WIKILEAKS LAWYER]Now they cannot even, you
know, great as a little note with respect informing about his case.
[ANGELA RICHTER THEATRE DIRECTOR]In the moment they collided with him,
they took the information he had, but then, immediately, let's say, the
next day, you had a hit piece in the New York Times from Bill Keller,
he was editor-in-chief at that time, who described him as a bag lady.
[Angela]So, it became immediately something about his character.
[Johannes]Do I think that's a betrayal? It's a betrayal of principles.
[Correspondent]What do you think of the allegations that Julian
Assange is, and the direct quote from New York Times, that, 'He is
a narcissist with an outsized view of his own importance,' and that he has no interest in mundane matters like personal hygiene.
[Suellete]Oh... really.
[Suellete]I can't think of another journalist or publisher
[SUELETTE DREYFUS WRITER, ACADEMIC RESEARCHER] who
has won major international journalism awards, and for who media
organisations have complained about whether his
socks were dirty, or he hadn't washed his hair, I mean, really?
[Vaughn]I wonder whether any single human being has been subjected
to that level of smear in the past. It was extraordinary.
JOURNALISTS FROM THE GUARDIAN AND THE NEW YORK TIMES WHO
WORKED WITH JULIAN ASSANGE DECLINED TO COMMENT FOR THIS FILM
[VO]In 2011 the British Court released Assange on bail on condition that he didn’t leave the country.
[GEO] NORFOLK, UK
[VO]He was also required to remain at the country house
owned by a close friend – the British journalist Vaughn Smith
[VAUGHAN SMITH JOURNALIST]I'm now sitting in a chair in my drawing room
in Ellingham Hall. It's a sort of house that is the product of wealth that
my family has generated for hundreds of years. And my family moved here
in 1795. And I'm fortunate to have that responsibility to look after it.
[Renata]Vaughn Smith is an investigative journalist and is a war journalist, who… kindly
offered this very big secure place to be the place from where the publications will be made.
[Correspondent]Do you feel safe here?
[Julian]I feel as safe as one can be. It’s always a bit safer… It would be much safer if I was here and
no one of you was here. But as far as buildings and grounds concerns this is about as good as you get.
[Vaughn]WikiLeaks basically turn this into their office for quite a while. So you would’ve come in here you would’ve
found people working on computers. It’s a paper prints out everywhere. They running around with this little discs.
[Vaughn]That involved having Julian, it involved having people who worked for him. It involved everybody
who wanted to have an interview with him. But This was the main office, this was WikiLeaks headquarters.
[Johannes]That is the place where a lot of
work later down the road also came to happen,
[JOHANNES WAHLSTROM JOURNALIST]but I would say that the big publications of
CableGate, they were conducted while Julian was in house arrest in Ellingham Hall.
[Vaughn]It was so secret. You'd be here and you see people working on the
computers and, you know, I wouldn't like ask, because it would, you know, you
know, you'd be looked at and then one... you'd think, oh god, what a silly
question, why should I ask what... they'll tell me if they want to tell me.
MEDIASTAN: A WIKILEAKS ROAD MOVIE DOCUMENTARY BY JOHANNES WAHLSTROM
[Vaughn]I saw them release the Afghan war logs. I saw them working on the diplomatic
papers, I saw them working on some stuff that came afterwards when they were here.
[Vaughn]It's interesting how it's very hard to stop organisations
like Wikileaks. And the Wikileaks isn't going to be the end of it,
even if Wikileaks disappears, which has no sign that it will. It's
become a sort of guerrilla organization for freedom of speech.
[Vaughn]I first heard that Julian was in the Ecuadoran embassy the morning after he went to
that embassy because I read it in the news and realised that I'd just lost my bail money.
[GEO] LONDON, UK
[Voice]Julian Assange went to the Embassy of Ecuador and asked for asylum.
[Voice] He’s been granted political asylum by Ecuador.
[Voice]WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange stepped
foot into the Ecuadorian Embassy. There is no indication even though he has
been granted asylum that if he steps out he won’t be arrested by British Police.
[FIDEL NARVEZ FORMER CONSUL OF ECUADOR IN LONDON]Well this the Ecuadorian embassy,
where Julian Assange lived for nearly seven years. The embassy is only one of the
two flats on the first floor. So, you are looking at the balcony – the only balcony
that the embassy has – which in fact was Julian’s room in the last five years.
2012
[Voice]Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks who refuses to leave the Ecuadorian
Embassy in London is expected to make his first public comment this afternoon.
[Julian]I’m here today because I cannot be there with you today.
[Fidel]We knew each other before he came to the embassy, and basically
[FIDEL NARVEZ FORMER CONSUL OF ECUADOR IN LONDON]the
possibility of Ecuador protecting him arise from that friendship.
[Fidel]That was his last resort.
[Correspondent]Do you fear sanctions?
[RAFAEL CORREA PRESIDENT OF ECUADOR 2007-2017]Let’s face it, there could be reprisals, which would be terrible, but
can you imagine the precedent it would set if the UK acted on its threats and raided our embassy to arrest Assange?
[John]The embassy itself, the Ecuadorian embassy
itself is small, it's a flat. It's a three-bedroom flat.
[JOHN SHIPTON JULIAN ASSANDE'S FATHER]And Julian, when he first went there, was contained to
one room, so he had a half of the room to sleep in and half of the room to run WikiLeaks from.
[Fidel]The building is surrounded by high buildings – all over –
which does not allow for the sunlight to come into the embassy.
[Fidel]Julian compared his stay at the embassy to be living in
a spaceship… because he was subjected only to artificial light.
[MARY KOSTAKIDIS JOURNALIST]He never saw sunlight, he didn't have
dental care, proper medical care, there were huge challenges.
[Angela]The first years he was constantly under surveillance there,
like open surveillance, and when you were in the embassy you could
constantly hear the people outside with the... speaking on walkie-talkies…There
was nearly no corner in the embassy where you were not watched
[Fidel]In the surrounding buildings we also had long-range video cameras pointing at the
embassy all the time. This was the
most-surveilled place in the world for many years.
[VO]Julian Assange continued to run WikiLeaks during he stay at the
Ecuadorian embassy, while within its walls, many new publications and
revelations came the light. The highest -profile exposed probably appeared
in 2016. The year which a new president was to be elected un the USA.
2018
[TRUMP]My people want to do one thing: “Make America Great Again”
[VAUGHAN SMITH JOURNALIST]A lot of people I meet believe
that Julian Assange delivered us Trump. And that came from
the fact that he put into the public domain what are called
the DNC Leaks. There were emails from the Democratic party.
[JOHN SHIPTON JULIAN ASSANDE'S FATHER]This
outlined how the Democratic National Council had done its best to
remove the most popular Bernie Sanders to place
Hillary Clinton as the contender for the presidential election.
[Vaughn]And that was something that I think shocked the American public.
US PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES 2016
[Hillary]What’s really important about WikiLeaks is that the Russian government has engaged in espionage against
Americans. Then they’ve given this information to WikiLeaks for the purpose of putting it on the Internet.
[Vaughn]We learned something about somebody called Gucifer 2.0 and various other DNC
leaks and various other means which are supposed to convince us that this information
was from Russia. Well, I don't know. I don't know whether it was from Russia. I
don't know where Julian got the leaks, Julian hasn't told me. Julian says it wasn't.
[Julian]The misquoting has to do with “We intend to harm Hillary Clinton or I intend
to harm Hillary Clinton, that I don’t like Hillary Clinton. All those are false.”
[ANGELA RICHTER THEATRE DIRECTOR]When they revealed those dirty facts about
Hillary, the whole hypocrisy, and so on, everybody was saying, "Yeah, but it's
not so bad." But when she lost the election, everybody said like, "Oh my God!
[Angela]This was the reason why it happened!" because they needed some explanation.
[Renata]Well the reception of those cables was pretty nasty and
[RENATA AVILA FORMER WIKILEAKS LAWYER] there was even this outrage and this hate.
[Renata]“Make him stop! Make him stop!” “Make Assange
stop, kick him out of the embassy, silence him, gag him!”
[Angela]When the years went by his situation became more difficult and difficult, the pressure become bigger
and bigger, and then once, also, the government changed in Ecuador, I think the situation became really grave.
2017
[Vaughn]There was an election in Ecuador and Moreno Lenin became
president, and he was a great supporter of America. Still is.
[Fidel]The new government basically decided to shift Ecuadorian foreign
[FIDEL NARVEZ FORMER CONSUL OF ECUADOR IN LONDON]policy. They decided to have a
different relationship with the United States. Julian was an obstacle for that.
[LENIN MORENO PRESIDENT OF ECUADOR]I have never agreed with Mr. Assange's
activity. I have never agreed with tapping people's private e-mails to obtain
information. It does not matter how valuable this information might be to bring
light to undesirable events committed by governments or people. This is not the way.
[Mary]The Mareno government was determined from the beginning that
[MARY KOSTAKIDIS JOURNALIST]they had to get rid of him and turned his life into hell.
[John]Turning away lawyers… searching visitors…installing cameras in every
room. Private meetings had to be held in the toilet. Not supplying toilet paper.
[Correspondent]Not supplying toilet paper?
[JOHN SHIPTON JULIAN ASSANDE'S FATHER] No just… forgetting so to
speak you know… forgetting to bring food forgetting to bring milk.
[Correspondent]If they forgot to bring food for Julian, then it means what
[John]That he doesn't eat.
[Lenin Moreno]Mr. Assange, I think we all know, is doubtlessly an inherited problem
[Correspondent]I have to ask this because according to the security firm employees
who are hired by the Ecuadorian government, Julian was an extremely difficult
guest himself. In particular, he argued with the embassy staff a lot, he
neglected personal hygiene often leave his bathroom and small kitchen in a mess.
[Mary]This is in the 18 months of the Moreno government you're talking about, that's right. Why is it
that none of that emerged for the preceding six years? Did he change personalities all of a sudden?
[Fidel]They accused him of smearing faeces on the walls,
which is mad.
[Fidel] It’s lie, it’s not true.
[Angela]They wanted to have proof and reasons to throw him out, to take
away his asylum, which is really an international humanitarian scandal
[LENIN MORENO PRESIDENT OF ECUADOR]Today, I announce that Mr. Julian Assange’s rude and
aggressive behavior has led to a point where the asylum is unsustainable and no longer viable
APRIL 2019
[Angela]This was the first time in 10 years when I saw him when he... I could
really see the toll it took on him, you know? It was, like... I was shocked.
[John]If you do cut back to 2011,
when, you know, he's youthful and lively,
and sweet, and makes jokes And
to see him, you know, after 18 months
of torture and seven years of being locked up and dragged out by those
seven policemen… He looked very
old yeah… not at all youthful anymore.
[Voice]Stay strong, Julian! We’ll fight for you! We won’t let it do it to
you! Stay strong! Remember! Remember that! Stay strong, you will be free!
[VO]The United States immediately filed an extradition request to the UK. But
it could not be considered until Julian Assange at serve 11 months in prison for
breaching the terms of his home detention in 2012. And escaping to the Ecuadorian
embassy. The WikiLeaks’ founder was sent to the Belmarsh Prison just outside London.
[John]The Belmarsh prison my Julian currently held is a high security, maximum security
prison. It’s where you keep murderers, and
terrorists, and bombers, and brutal people.
[Angela]Belmarsh Prison is said to be a worse place even than Guantanamo.
[John]He is denied the right of
fraternising with other prisoners.
[JOHN PILGER DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER]He told me that when he
sees people go past his cell, he wished he could speak to them.
[Angela]I saw those leaked videos where he appears to have lost a lot of weight…when I saw that,
I really started crying because when you know someone very well and see him in this position...
[Mary]You not let to hand him anything. You only way communicating
with the outside world is for him to receive letters.
[KONSTANTIN ROZHKOV CORRESPONDENT]We were not sure, if he want to communicate with journalists. But here is
the letter, we’ve just received from Belmarsh prison. And It’s from Julian Assange as it says here on the back.
[VO]That letter reveals his despair and frustration as the trial draws closer.
The WikiLeaks founder says that he has no internet or telephone access, which
seriously hinds his ability to prepare his own defense. And that there is nothing
much to do except for “walking thousands of laps per day across the cell”.
[Suellete]It's very distressing to see someone you have worked with
[SUELETTE DREYFUS WRITER, ACADEMIC RESEARCHER] and who is an old friend in such peril, personal peril.
[Suellete]And to think that they may not come out of it, it's very upsetting
[VAUGHAN SMITH JOURNALIST]The charges that the U.S. government
have raised against Julian to extradite him have shifted.
[Vaughn]At first, they called him a hacker and said that he had
assisted Manning in securing the information that Manning wanted.
[Mary]Bradley Manning was a young man who was in the Armed
Forces, and clearly was shocked by what was going on around him.
[Vaughn]Bradley Manning - now Chelsea Manning - was the original
whistleblower who gave WikiLeaks their most important information. The
Afghan War Logs, the film from helicopter of the Reuters journalists
being killed the Diplomatic Papers all came from Bradley Manning.
[VO]The way the US Ministry of Justice sees it, Julian Assange didn’t just receive information from his informant –
which would not constituting crime. Journalists do have the right to acquire information from sources, even if it is
classified. The American government’s claim, that Assange conspired with private Manning who helped him access classified
information intending to harm the United States. The USA hopes to prove that Assange is a spy, not a journalist.
[Suellete]If you look at the charges, they are absolutely
applicable to potentially other journalism or media publications.
[Johannes]If Julian Assange being a publisher is put in prison for
being a publisher - for no other reason than being a publisher -
[JOHANNES WAHLSTROM JOURNALIST]then we have no rules. There are no rules to the game.
[Suellete]Every journalist in the United States
should feel a cold icy hand running down their
spine at the charges that had been levelled
against this publisher. Because they could be next.
JULIAN ASSANGE FACES UP TO 175 YEARS IN PRISON IF EXTRADITED
[Angela]Dear Julian, you are one of the most bravest person I know, and the
sentence that you repeated often, "Courage is contagious" was really true.
[John]That's the reason that great movements arise and I say this not as words of false hope, but you have
millions, I would think, of people who support you and understand that there is a wider issue at stake here.
[Suellete]He's not alone. He is not alone, you know. There are a large number of
people who value the contribution he has made reporting in the public interest.
[Renata]I’ve remembered you, Julian, when you were not as famous, when you were relatively free. And
I remember that you were just you know carried this little backpack and having a very humble life.
[Vaughn]I would look forward to a day where he's free and not being
monitored and not being chased around the world by the Americans
[Renata]I hope that we can get you out of there and you’ll be sitting next to us
somewhere nice, something warm by the sea. And this will be just like a bad memory.
[Johannes]We have a lot to thank you for.
WRITTEN BY KONSTANTIN ROZHKOV DIRECTED BY ARTYOM SOMOV
CORRESPONDENT ANASTASIA TROFIMOVA CAMERA OPERATORS DMITRY TARARAKO
ALEKSEY POSYSAEV ARTYOM SOMOV PRODUCERS ANDREY ZORIN ALEKSEY
AMELYUSHKIN VIDEO EDITORS ALEKSEY NEKAZAKOV LEONID MIKHAILOV SERGEY
MIKHAILOV SOUND EDITOR ALEKSANDR OSPANOV NARRATOR DAVID A. WATSON
MOTION DESIGN ROMAN KONDRATEV DIANA SHANGARYAEVA STEPAN BURNATOV
EDITOR VALERIA GOLOVKO IRINA GURKINA DEPUTY HEAD OF RTDOC CHANNEL
GALINA ARKHIPOVA HEAD OF RTDOC CHANNEL EKATERINA YAKOVLEVA