XPost: talk.politics.libertarian, alt.anarchism, alt.politics.radical-left   
   XPost: alt.politics.socialism, soc.rights.human, alt.society.liberalism   
   From: anarcissie@gmail.com   
      
   Published on Friday, December 3, 2010 by The Guardian/UK   
   Julian Assange Answers Questions in Online Q&A   
   The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, is answering readers' questions   
   about the release of more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables. We will post   
   his responses as we receive them   
      
   Fwoggie: I'll start the ball rolling with a question. You're an   
   Australian passport holder - would you want return to your own country or   
   is this now out of the question due to potentially being arrested on   
   arrival for releasing cables relating to Australian diplomats and polices?   
      
   Julian Assange: I am an Australian citizen and I miss my country a great   
   deal. However, during the last weeks the Australian prime minister, Julia   
   Gillard, and the attorney general, Robert McClelland, have made it clear   
   that not only is my return is impossible but that they are actively   
   working to assist the United States government in its attacks on myself   
   and our people. This brings into question what does it mean to be an   
   Australian citizen - does that mean anything at all? Or are we all to be   
   treated like David Hicks at the first possible opportunity merely so that   
   Australian politicians and diplomats can be invited to the best US   
   embassy cocktail parties.   
      
   girish89: How do you think you have changed world affairs? And if you   
   call all the attention you've been given-credit ... shouldn't the mole or   
   source receive a word of praise from you?   
      
   Julian Assange: For the past four years one of our goals has been to   
   lionise the source who take the real risks in nearly every journalistic   
   disclosure and without whose efforts, journalists would be nothing. If   
   indeed it is the case, as alleged by the Pentagon, that the young soldier   
   - Bradley Manning - is behind some of our recent disclosures, then he is   
   without doubt an unparalleled hero.   
      
   Daithi: Have you released, or will you release, cables (either in the   
   last few days or with the Afghan and Iraq war logs) with the names of   
   Afghan informants or anything else like so? Are you willing to censor   
   (sorry for using the term) any names that you feel might land people in   
   danger from reprisals?? By the way, I think history will absolve you.   
   Well done!!!   
      
   Julian Assange: WikiLeaks has a four-year publishing history. During that   
   time there has been no credible allegation, even by organisations like   
   the Pentagon that even a single person has come to harm as a result of   
   our activities. This is despite much-attempted manipulation and spin   
   trying to lead people to a counter-factual conclusion. We do not expect   
   any change in this regard.   
      
   distrot: The State Dept is mulling over the issue of whether you are a   
   journalist or not. Are you a journalist? As far as delivering information   
   that someone [anyone] does not want seen is concerned, does it matter if   
   you are a 'journalist' or not?   
      
   Julian Assange: I coauthored my first nonfiction book by the time I was   
   25. I have been involved in nonfiction documentaries, newspapers, TV and   
   internet since that time. However, it is not necessary to debate whether   
   I am a journalist, or how our people mysteriously are alleged to cease to   
   be journalists when they start writing for our organisaiton. Although I   
   still write, research and investigate my role is primarily that of a   
   publisher and editor-in-chief who organises and directs other journalists.   
      
   achanth: Mr Assange, have there ever been documents forwarded to you   
   which deal with the topic of UFOs or extraterrestrials?   
      
   Julian Assange: Many weirdos email us about UFOs or how they discovered   
   that they were the anti-christ whilst talking with their ex-wife at a   
   garden party over a pot-plant. However, as yet they have not satisfied   
   two of our publishing rules. 1) that the documents not be self-authored;   
   2) that they be original. However, it is worth noting that in yet-to-be-   
   published parts of the cablegate archive there are indeed references to   
   UFOs.   
      
   gnosticheresy: What happened to all the other documents that were on   
   Wikileaks prior to these series of "megaleaks"? Will you put them back   
   online at some stage ("technical difficulties" permitting)?   
      
   Julian Assange: Many of these are still available at mirror.wikileaks.info   
   and the rest will be returning as soon as we can find a moment to do   
   address the engineering complexities. Since April of this year our   
   timetable has not been our own, rather it has been one that has centred   
   on the moves of abusive elements of the United States government against   
   us. But rest assured I am deeply unhappy that the three-and-a-half years   
   of my work and others is not easily available or searchable by the   
   general public.   
      
   CrisShutlar: Have you expected this level of impact all over the world?   
   Do you fear for your security?   
      
   Julian Assange: I always believed that WikiLeaks as a concept would   
   perform a global role and to some degree it was clear that is was doing   
   that as far back as 2007 when it changed the result of the Kenyan general   
   election. I thought it would take two years instead of four to be   
   recognised by others as having this important role, so we are still a   
   little behind schedule and have much more work to do. The threats against   
   our lives are a matter of public record, however, we are taking the   
   appropriate precautions to the degree that we are able when dealing with   
   a super power.   
      
   JAnthony: Julian. I am a former British diplomat. In the course of my   
   former duties I helped to coordinate multilateral action against a brutal   
   regime in the Balkans, impose sanctions on a renegade state threatening   
   ethnic cleansing, and negotiate a debt relief programme for an   
   impoverished nation. None of this would have been possible without the   
   security and secrecy of diplomatic correspondence, and the protection of   
   that correspondence from publication under the laws of the UK and many   
   other liberal and democratic states. An embassy which cannot securely   
   offer advice or pass messages back to London is an embassy which cannot   
   operate. Diplomacy cannot operate without discretion and the protection   
   of sources. This applies to the UK and the UN as much as the US.   
      
   In publishing this massive volume of correspondence, Wikileaks is not   
   highlighting specific cases of wrongdoing but undermining the entire   
   process of diplomacy. If you can publish US cables then you can publish   
   UK telegrams and UN emails.   
      
   My question to you is: why should we not hold you personally responsible   
   when next an international crisis goes unresolved because diplomats   
   cannot function.   
      
   Julian Assange: If you trim the vast editorial letter to the singular   
   question actually asked, I would be happy to give it my attention.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)