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a battle.” Instead, he escaped to London and At the same time, we should not
That recording was first filmed holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy. forget Assange’ role in publishing se-
in July 2007. A secret government Why he did that? He said he was fear- cret and highly sensitive US Embassy
cable. And that was our first intro- ful about the extradition treaty between Cables about the dictatorship of Bela-
duction to WikiLeaks. The army Sweden and America. He could have rus. These data could have been used
intelligence analyst, transgender, been extradited to the US. However, it to act on brave opposition activists. It
Chelsea Manning leaked the foot- was just a fear without any substance. is evident from Assange’ activities that
age to WikiLeaks and its founder Now Assange was detained by the he did not know where to stop. He was
Julian Assange. After the leak the UK government at the request of the reckless and probably narcissus in that
US government, the Pentagon justified US, who have charged Assange with sense and he always wanted to stay on
the killing. conspiring with Manning. And the the news by publishing whatever he
While publishing the ghastly foot- same fate seems now more fearful be- had his hands on.
age in 2010 what Assange said in his cause the UK and the US are closely tied In the truest sense, Assange had nev-
statement had justification too. “If those up through many pacts that we don’t er been a criminal hacker who com-
killings were lawful under the rules know. promised other systems without per-
of engagement, then the rules of From here the whole story takes a mission and stole data. What Assange
engagement are wrong, deeply wrong,” different turn. What WikiLeaks had had done, any journalist without prior
Assange said at that time. And I think published is nothing but a Collateral knowledge of computers would have
he was correct in pointing out the done. Assange got the secret cables
wrongdoing. It is yet not clear through Manning and he published it.
After that, a series of self-contra-
dictory events followed. We have seen which hat Julian Many newspapers published the same
materials. And that is the real danger. A
many twists and turns in the story. Assange was dangerous trend is gaining ground in
Manning was arrested in the US and Trump’s era.
prosecuted. Manning served seven actually donning all We did not come to know about
years for leaking the video while this while. Was he a the trend, until last November; federal
Assange spent seven years in the Ecua- prosecutors inadvertently revealed
dorian embassy in London. journalist, activist, that a sealed indictment had been filed
At the same time, the ghastly video heroic campaigner or against WikiLeaks founder Julian As-
raised many questions: whether US and sange. Many people, journalists, who
UK actions should be trialed under the simply an enemy of despise Assange took the news seri-
allegations of a war crime or not was the US trying to ously and they were deeply concerned.
fiercely debated and came up with no People, who really care about civil
solution at the end. avoid the course of liberties, are concerned and alarmed
Julian Assange faced a rape charge
in Sweden by two Swedish women justice? for one single reason: if Assange can be
prosecuted for publishing leaked clas-
separately, but instead facing the sified documents, every journalist, and
charges there, he flew to London Murder footage, a secret government media outlet are at risk of prosecution
and sought political asylum in the data. Assange was also responsible for doing the same thing. Lawyer Brad-
Ecuadorian embassy and later he for bringing forward the inner story ley P. Moss raised the same question in
declined to travel to Sweden. Besides, relating to the Guantanamo Bay deten- The Atlantic.
Manning was recently seen in a pro- tion camp. I again reiterate, Assange must be
Trump event. Although, Manning Much of the material was published made to answer the allegations of
later refuted the charge of supporting by newspapers across the world. In that sexual assault against him but it will
Trump or the alt-right group. She later sense, Assange has been one of our era’s be highly unfair if he is prosecuted for
shared a photo of herself on Twitter most important whistleblowers. And publishing secret government data. It
informing “crashed the fascist/white for leaking government data he should will simply shake the fourth pillar of
supremacist hate brigade party. All self- not have been arrested. Then the same democracy.
ies were denied.” fate awaits all the journalists.
Truly a self-contradictory behavior; Therefore, what happened on the Sanjib Sinha is an author and tech
we have seen from two great whistle- streets of London is a violent attack on writer. He has written several books
blowers of our time. And I cannot sup- the freedom of the press, on the free- for Apress on Ethical Hacking and
port any one of them. Assange should dom of whistleblowers to publish gov- security programming.
have enough guts to face the rape ernment data that could damage the
charges brought against him in Sweden. powerful institutions. letters@tehelka.com

Tehelka / 30 april 2019 57 www.Tehelka.com