Author: Riley Kimball
Julian Assange may be the most interesting man alive. Since releasing nearly half a million documents about the United States’ conduct in Iraq and Afghanistan through his brainchild WikiLeaks, he has found himself blacklisted in at least six countries. Though the ethical considerations of his enterprise are dubious at best, he has started a revolution in government transparency and accountability that stands to improve the conduct of states in international affairs.
Assange launched his website,WikiLeaks, in 2006 as a vehicle for posting confidential documents. Since its inception, however, Assange has transformed the site into a force for transparency, releasing any and all controversial and secret information that he can uncover.
About three months ago, Wikileaks released 77,000 documents about the war in Afghanistan. Then, on Oct. 22, he upped the ante with another 391,832 classified Pentagon documents about the Iraq War. These releases have raised questions about Assange’s ethical practices. Pfc. Bradley Manning, popularly believed to be the source of the first major leak, has been indefinitely detained by the U.S., according to Wired magazine. In documents identifying Afghan intelligence sources to NATO, Assange refused to alter the names, putting the informants at serious risk.
The Taliban is purportedly cross-referencing these documents with its own watchlist, according to The New York Times. This has garnered Assange criticism from Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.
Assange’s uncompromising pursuit of accountability has earned him the status of a threat to U.S. security. As the U.S. and other cooperative nations pursue him, he is forced to live like Jason Bourne, tailed by intelligence agencies at all times. He dyes his hair regularly, only uses cash, possesses countless cell phones and, when he arranges meetings, often brings a filmmaker to document anything that might happen to him.
On a flight from Stockholm to Berlin, his checked bag full of encrypted computers disappeared. The New York Times reported that an Australian official allegedly told him, “You play outside the rules, you will be dealt with outside the rules.”
Many critics argue over the ethics of releasing information that endangers people, but Assange is steadfast in his mission to achieve transparency. In the past, WikiLeaks has uncovered video footage of American helicopters in Baghdad firing on a group that included two Reuters journalists. The website has also been the forum for revelations such as the Red Cross’s limited access to Guantánamo Bay prisoners, the hacking of Sarah Palin’s personal e-mail account by Internet group “Anonymous” and a secret U.S. Army report on possible methods of marginalizing and destabilizing Assange’s website itself.
His efforts to increase accountability has made him something of a myth. No one can say for certain when he was born, except that it was sometime in 1971 in Australia.
He travels constantly and has no home, and now that the Swedish Migration Board has denied his residency bid, he has no prospect of a home. WikiLeaks releases often come from a bunker somewhere in Iceland.
Assange has built this legend around himself, for his mission threatens every power structure in the world. He has announced that the site will now turn to releasing documents targeting oppressive regimes such as China and some in central Asia, and first up is Russia. Russian intelligence has threatened Assange and WikiLeaks in such a manner that suggests it will shut down the website, or even assassination Assange himself.
Assange, therefore, is a hero. Not deterred by very real death threats, he single-mindedly pursues his mission. His actions have many casualties. But the attention he brings to much greater issues stands to change the way the world works, if the world doesn’t shut him up first.
Riley Kimball is a junior DWA major. He can be reached at kimball@oxy.edu.
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