The US government on Thursday unsealed the charge sheet against Australian Julian Assange as the Wikileaks founder was being arrested by U.K. authorities. The indictment, filed in the Eastern District of Virginia in March 2018 states that he and Chelsea Manning worked together in 2010 to crack passwords on government computers. Below is an excerpt from the opening paragraphs.
THE GRAND JURY CHARGES THAT:
GENERAL ALLEGATIONS
At times material to this Indictment:
- Chelsea Manning formerly known as Bradley Manning was an intelligence analyst in the United States Amy, who was deployed to Operation Base Hammer in Iraq.
- Manning held a “Top Secret” security clearance, and signed a classified information nondisclosure agreement, acknowledging that the unauthorized disclosure or retention of negligent handling of classified information could cause irreparable injury to the United States or be used to the advantage of a foreign nation.
- Executive Order No. 13526 and its predecessor orders define the classification levels assigned to classified information. Under the Executive Order, information may be classified as “Secret” if its unauthorized disclosure reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the national security. Further, under the Executive Order, classified information can generally only be disclosed to those person who have been granted an appropriate level of United States government security clearance and possess a need to know the classified information in connection to their official duties.
- Julian Paul Assange was the founder and leader of the WikiLeaks website. The WikiLeaks website publicly solicited submissions of classified, censored, and other restricted information.
- Assange, who did not possess a security clearance or need to know, was not authorized to receive classified information of the United States.
Read the rest of the indictment here.
Greg, a couple of things. First, Assange’s ejection from the Ecuadorian embassy was no surprise to me where it was clear as day from about a year ago that the hint from Quito was that he should get his are out of the embassy as he was no longer welcome. A new government, a right wing paramilitary one replacing the left wing government of Correa uttered that he should leave. That Assange didn’t take that advice and get out while the going was good — a quick mid-night duck out of the embassy into a car and out of England to Germany a year ago would have had him out of danger.
I don’t consider Assange a martyr for investigative journalism as dumping documents most of it sight unseen by his comrades ain’t journalism. The journalists who did read the docs at the Guardian and the New York Times who made sense of the material are the unsung heroes in my book, but that’s me a journo having worked on stories including justice issues in the US for over 30 years.
Further, you exaggerate the way the Grand Jury was meeting for over 9 years, The date the complaint filed was March of last year 2018 which would tell me that while there might have been a Grand Jury impanelled back in 2012, which I serious doubt — that given the substance of the complaint— which carries a penalty if he is found guilty a max or five years — tells me that the Grand Jury met for about a week if that to consider the evidence.
In the uS it is prosecutors who sit on the material for years before they take action while they build uo a case but the way grand juries work, is that they are only impaneled if the prosecutor thinks they have a case, the groundwork is prepared before it meets, the presentation is made and the jury decides, then the complaint is filed. Sometimes it take about an hour.
Assange would be small potatoes in the scheme of the Manning dump and as it happens Chelsea Manning has done her time for the crime. One has to imagine that had Assange gone to Sweden. answered the questions of the prosecutor and if he had been arrested and deported to the US for trial that his trial would have ben over and done with six years ago. Back in the Obama days the then-administration wasn’t itching for a well-publicized fight over an issue that was of immense embarrassment to it. Slap on the wrist and fine at most because at that time Assange had near celebrity status.
Today aside from the few hardcore supporters he has, Assange is history. Now a not-so empathetic administration —one he helped into power — will not jump in and save him, He will likely do time as his enemies in the intelligence community will ensure he will do.Their hatred of him runs deep.
To my mind Assange wasted seven years trying to avoid what has come to pass. If he had of faced up it in 2012 it would have been very different. In summation, Assange was just too smart for his own good and for this he will pay the price.
There was never any question he would have to pay the price if the yanks could get him onto their soil – the only question was, and is, how big will that price be….but it will be huge and painful.
America is just a chamber of horrors these days, a thoroughly spiteful failed democracy.
Assange is probably finished now, but the world owes him a huge debt of gratitude, and the USA can never repair its fractured image.
There was never any question he would have to pay the price if the yanks could get him onto their soil – the only question was, and is, how big will that price be….but it will be huge and painful.
America is just a chamber of horrors these days, a thoroughly spiteful failed democracy.
Assange is probably finished now, but the world owes him a huge debt of gratitude, and the USA can never repair its fractured image.
If only life was so simple, skipping prison and the country at midnight, putting your trust in Obama the cuddly kitten, accurately second guessing Grand Jury schedules. Maybe he should have dumbed down and engaged the Famous Five for assistance.
Yes, indeed. That embassy was one of the most surveiled sites in the most surveiled cities in the world, but a quick duck into a car and over to Germany would have been easy peasy.
This would have to be one of the most naïve posts I’ve read in years – and I read a Murdoch tabloid on a daily basis!
Well I agree with you about the naive comment, but how the heck can you read a murdoch tabloid every day? Do you need to take nausea medication with it?
They say suffering is good for the soul!
Re the charges… is Unstable Ally still hinging the proof of help cracking the password on “No luck so far”?
Also.. Pretty sure this is a Social Contract thingy. The State protects its citizens, not unlike a Union, and we agree to The State, because individually we are vulnerable. But the State is shaped by as well as shaping us. So, if citizens are told serving in the Military is fighting for Democracy, Freedom and Human Rights.. A Better World… but then serving members find that is not what their efforts are enabling at all, and, believing Democracy, Freedom, Human Dignity etc requires the State/ Military to do some serious work in order to actually be fighting for freedom, Democracy, Human Dignity & a better world….