Part 3 (2/2)
I found out what he was doing in Switzerland in early November. He spoke at a conference organized at the UN by an NGO called International Inst.i.tute for Peace, Justice and Human Rights (IIPJDH). Director Mehdi Ben Hamida explained that the organization is fighting against the war in Iraq. It took three months to convince Julian to speak at their conference on the sidelines of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Ben Hamida asked him to present the cases of tortures practiced by the United States in Iraq and elsewhere, published in doc.u.ments on the WikiLeaks site. This NGO was unknown, and Julian was very suspicious at first, then he accepted to go to Geneva on the condition that bodyguards would protect him.
On Friday, November 5th, the Human Rights Council examined the case of the United States. Ben Hamida thought that this would be an opportunity to influence American politics. Friday afternoon Julian went to the Palace of Nations for a meeting organized by the NGO on the sidelines of the council's session. He was flanked by two bodyguards and the international police of Geneva ensured the building's security.
Inside, in a hall in the bas.e.m.e.nt, he gave a one-hour presentation as an expert witness who was able to follow the 400,000 doc.u.ments on Iraq and Afghanistan in a journalistic way.
He's is in a strange position because not only is he an expert witness of all the 'secret' actions of the United States, he's also had his freedom of expression violated with regards to his organization.
The threat weighing down on him is quite real, as the vice is tightening on his organization. The US government declared that it's trying to prosecute him and eventually trying to bring a lawsuit against other WikiLeaks members. Even if he's sure he's respected journalistic procedures, Julian knows that some branches of governments operate above the law. Will WikiLeaks hold tight under the threat of the world's greatest power?
a.s.sange explained that he'd had a one-hour briefing with Geoff Morrell, chief spokesman of the Pentagon. The United States demanded that WikiLeaks destroy everything that was published on Iraq, Afghanistan and the Pentagon.
How did this briefing on behalf of the Secretary of Defense, Department of State and the White House impact the volunteers? I imagine what it would be like if it were my ex Xavier who's just a hacker working at telecoms in Switzerland. He wants to help change the world and all of a sudden he'd be caught up in a war that is much more dangerous than the fight for truth.
There they go again with their authoritarianism and censors.h.i.+p! And Julian doesn't like the Pentagon any more than he did twenty years earlier.
He knows the secrets and plays off the world's greatest power all too well. He imagines blowing it all up, so that the ma.s.ses wake up and start wanting to enjoy freedom and the naked truth.
The US government demands that the organization stop dealing with its sources. This case of intimidation is the first in American jurisprudence. Have they gone nuts? They went as far as saying that they'd force the organization to respect these demands. When Julian asked them how they planned to enforce this, they answered: ”We're the Pentagon, law doesn't concern us. That's the responsibility of other organizations.”
And this is exactly what Julian is fighting against. Is he the Don Quixote of truth?
For once he'd like a government to be accountable for its actions, including circ.u.mstances and consequences. For once a government should stop acting like a bureaucratic system, dividing up responsibilities that cause irresponsibility.
Lawyers warned Julian of some of the possibilities the government had in starting this fight. a.s.sa.s.sinating him is one of them, as they have enough agents who do that very well. Friends advised him to watch out for open windows and avoid parking near bridges because 'accidents' happen. It sounds like a bad spy film, but when it happens to you, it's not cool anymore. Julian is a marked man.
To discredit WikiLeaks, they will try to discredit him, the man carrying the message. Now he must run again like he did so long ago as a child. He has to antic.i.p.ate attacks on his personal life. What kind of attacks could they be? Is he no longer allowed to be a man?
BACK TO REALITY.
Before a ram attacks, it will first back up.
Anonymous.
6.
eLISE AND XAVIER.
elise had been fascinated by Julian a.s.sange's adventures for a week now. She kept collecting tons of information, having entered into a new world she had once glimpsed at briefly when she was living with Xavier. Xavier sent her a text message to suggest meeting up for coffee at a bar on a shopping street of Geneva the next day at 10 a.m.
elise arrived a little bit late for their meeting. She wanted to make sure that Xavier would be there.
”I'm happy to see you,” she said, giving him a kiss.
”You called me first,” he said jokingly. ”In fact you kind of startled me, you sounded worried. I didn't really understand why.”
”Well, I had just watched an interview with Julian a.s.sange and I suddenly remembered that you were interested in the WikiLeaks organization. Is that still the case?”
”Yes, I read what WikiLeaks releases. I downloaded the cables and looked into the sources, and I wrote a program that a.n.a.lyzes and reads them. I wanted to see how it was published and in what format. In the beginning I wanted to build an application to make the cables available on the iPad and see if Apple would authorize it on the Apple Store. In the meantime, someone built an unofficial WikiLeaks application that was refused by Apple, so I didn't bother. Now I just follow the news. And you, why this newfound interest in WikiLeaks?”
”Julian a.s.sange really intrigued me when I saw him on television and I felt like learning more about him. Since then, I've been looking for a lot of information on the Internet and in newspapers. I just read Underground, the book he co-wrote with Australian journalist Suelette Dreyfus on the world of hackers. Then, I felt like forging an opinion on his honesty. He shows up like that all of a sudden on center stage with all his secrets...”
”You know, until now, what WikiLeaks has divulged is a compilation of what's already around on the Internet with, I agree with you, a few new facts that don't add anything important because they just repeat what the entire world already knows. They're especially getting people worried with what they're going to release. WikiLeaks has apparently only released about one per cent of the doc.u.ments already in their possession, which is what governments are worried about.”
”What can they do? Kill the guy?”
”I imagine if they wanted to they could, but I don't think they'd want to turn him into a victim. Governments usually try to leverage him to reduce freedom on the Internet. In France, the LOPPS I and HADOPI laws have already shut out part the Internet.”
”Can you refresh my memory?”
”LOPPS I is a law that reorganizes the structures responsible for the country's domestic security, a law dating back to 2002. The French government is currently voting on LOPPSI 2, a law that will help control information on the Internet. The law plans to store information on the content shared online for a year: IP addresses, nicknames, equipment used and even the person's personal data, including content identifiers as well as logins and pa.s.swords.”
”And HADOPI?”
”HADOPI is a 2009 law that intends to block free broadcasting and protect creation on the Internet. The government wants to stop illegal file sharing.”
”And who decides if it's illegal or not? Major record labels?” Xavier shrugged his shoulders.
”For mp3s maybe, but the goal of the government is mainly to insert an independent organization between the local ent.i.ty that manages the IP address register and the Internet service provider. In the end, this organization will have the authority to block Internet access to anyone the government designates as a pirate.”
”The problem is that security and freedom don't mix very well.”
”I think that less freedom doesn't mean more security, and that's what they're trying to make us believe. France's Internet liberties will be as restrictive as the ones in China with these laws!”
”They keep scaring us with all these baddies running around, but other countries will not necessarily follow suit.”
”In Belgium they tried to pa.s.s the same kind of law, but they didn't succeed. And look what they're doing to a.s.sange! It really bothers them to see that guys like him are able to broadcast things on a large scale. Music bothers major record labels, but the secrets WikiLeaks could reveal terrifies governments.”
”Can we do something about it in our little corner of the world?”
”elise, when you have a computer in your hands, your corner is the world! The days of being scared of the hacker who knows machine language while you just use your computer as a television and a post office are over. Today, all knowledge is accessible to everybody thanks to the Internet: music, information, or even courses at Stanford. Everything you want is there and I'm ready to fight for freedom. Free flow, free access.”
”And how would you go about it?”
”By logging into IRC, there are a lot of things going on.”
”IRC?”
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