Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes reflected on the enigmatic Julian Assange, in an "Overtime" segment following his six-hour interview with the Wikileaks founder. Kroft stated that Assange’s media image as a paranoid and grandiose subversive is not accurate. Kroft said that Assange is not an evil genius, nor a fraud, but rather is “brilliant” though “slightly eccentric.” Kroft stated that after talking with Assange he considers him to be a journalist and definitely a publisher, who did a “very good job of defending his arguments.”
Wikileak’s Mission
Assange’s mission since starting the organization in 2007 has been to provide an online dropbox for whistleblowers, citizens who want to report abuse within their organizations. According to Assange in his 60 Minutes interview, if the U.S. threatens small publishers to keep them from publishing, then “the U.S. has lost its way. It has abrogated its founding traditions. It has thrown the First Amendment in the bin.” Rather than attacking the U.S., Assange claims that, “Our agenda is not anti-American. Our founding values are those of the American Revolution.”
Wikileaks Releases
Wikileaks came to widespread attention in the U.S. with the release in April of a video of an American Apache helicopter firing on a group of men in Bagdhad. Although one man on the ground apparently was carrying a gun, two Reuters photographers and over a dozen unarmed civilians were machine-gunned, resulting in twelve fatalities. In July, field reports from Afghanistan were released which provided a bleak view of the ground war, and then in October documents proving the deaths of 400,000 Iraqi civilians, a much higher number than the Pentagon had reported. Finally, in November several hundred thousand State Department diplomatic cables were released, revealing that Arab leaders were lobbying Washington to invade Iran and the State Department was secretly collecting intelligence on UN delegates.
Anonymous Retaliates in Support of Wikileaks
With the release of the diplomatic cables, the U.S. Justice Department and the Pentagon began investigating ways to prosecute and extradite Assange to America. Amazon, Paypal, Visa, and Master Card suspended service to Wikileaks, having been informed by the State Department, according to Pay Pal Vice President, that the group was engaged in illegal activities. (Matthew Humphries, ”Why Did Paypal Ditch Wikileaks? The State Department Asked it To,” Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 8, 2010.) When Wikileaks service was suspended, the loose confederation of hacktivists called Anonymous entered the picture. Anonymous retaliated against the offending companies by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on their websites.
Mission of Anonymous
Anonymous is a unorganized group, apparently composed mostly of young, male, highly skilled hackers who are vehemently opposed to censorship of the internet. In a BBC Newsbeat interview, Debbie Randle interviewed a member of Anonymous. When asked why they supported Wikileaks, the youth answered, “One of the main goals of Anonymous is to keep the internet free and open for everyone to use and not to censor data or anything that goes through the internet.” When asked what Anonymous hoped to gain from retaliating against Paypal and others, the youth said that they hoped to prove to companies that even if they “bow down to government pressure they still have to respond to the user.” (Debbie Randle, “Why are Hacktivists Anonymous Defending Wikileaks?” BBC, Dec. 9, 2010)
Arrests Anonymous and Assange
Assange is under house arrest in England on sex charges originating in Sweden, which he claims are unfounded and part of a smear campaign. Three teenagers ages 15 to 19 have been arrested in the U.K, along with two men ages 20 and 26 ages in connection with Anonymous activities. (Josh Halliday, “Police Arrest Five over Anonymous Wikileaks Attacks,” The Guardian, Jan. 28, 2011.) Hacking is illegal and many young men from Anonymous may be arrested, no matter how high their ideals. Assange himself was arrested for hacking at age 20, but received no jail time since he had not stolen anything or caused any harm. In the 60 Minutes interview Assange explained that among his friends, hacking was motivated by whatever motivates young men to attempt dangerous moves on their skateboards. Unfortunately, however, daring skateboarders sometimes get hurt.
