By Andrew McKirdy and Harumi Ozawa SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands, June 26, 2024 (AFP) – A US judge freed Julian Assange on Wednesday in a plea deal that ended years of legal drama for the WikiLeaks founder, long wanted by Washington for revealing military secrets. “With this pronouncement, it appears that you will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man,” said the judge in a court in the Northern Mariana Islands, […]
Tag: WikiLeaks
40 years in prison for ex-CIA coder who leaked hacking tools to WikiLeaks
NEW YORK, Feb 1, 2024 (AFP) – A former CIA programmer was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Thursday for leaking the US spy agency’s most valuable hacking tools to WikiLeaks. Joshua Schulte, 35, was found guilty in 2022 of espionage and other charges in what the CIA called a “digital Pearl Harbor” — the largest data breach in the history of the intelligence agency. “Schulte betrayed his country by committing some of the […]
US charges Julian Assange with violating Espionage Act
by Paul HANDLEY WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The Justice Department on Thursday charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with violating the US Espionage Act by publishing military and diplomatic files in 2010, rejecting his claim that he is a journalist. The department unveiled 17 new charges against Assange, accusing him of directing and abetting intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in stealing secret US files, and also recklessly exposing confidential sources in the Middle East and China […]
Ecuador hit by 40 million cyber attacks since Assange arrest
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — Ecuador said on Monday it has suffered 40 million cyber attacks on the webpages of public institutions since stripping Wikileaks founder Julian Assange of political asylum. Patricio Real, Ecuador’s deputy minister for information and communication technologies, said the attacks, which began on Thursday, had “principally come from the United States, Brazil, Holland, Germany, Romania, France, Austria and the United Kingdom,” as well as from the South American country itself. Assange was […]
Ecuador president defends Assange asylum withdrawal
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP0 — Ecuadoran President Lenin Moreno on Sunday defended his decision to overturn Julian Assange’s asylum status, claiming in an interview with the Guardian newspaper that the WikiLeaks founder had tried to set up a “center for spying” in Ecuador’s London embassy. “It is unfortunate that, from our territory and with the permission of authorities of the previous government, facilities have been provided within the Ecuadoran embassy in London to interfere in […]
Conditions met for Assange to leave Ecuador embassy in London: president
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — Ecuador’s president said Thursday that conditions have been met for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to leave the country’s embassy in London, which would end a six-year standoff with British authorities. “The way has been cleared for Mr Assange to take the decision to leave in near-liberty,” President Lenin Moreno told reporters, explaining that he still had to answer in Britain for violating the terms of his bail. Moreno, however, said Britain […]
Ecuador seeks mediator to resolve Assange standoff: minister
by Jordi Miro Agence France Presse QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — Ecuador is seeking a mediator to resolve the standoff with Britain on the future of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up in its London embassy since 2012, the South American country’s foreign minister said Tuesday. Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said the South American country was looking at the possibility of a “third country or a personality” stepping in to settle the […]
Arrest of WikiLeaks’ Assange a “priority:” US top cop
(Agence France Presse) — The arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a United States “priority,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday, as media reports indicated his office was preparing charges against the fugitive anti-hero. “We are going to step up our effort and already are stepping up our efforts on all leaks,” Sessions, America’s top cop, said at a news conference in response to a reporter’s question about a US priority to arrest Assange. […]
CIA blasts WikiLeaks for publishing secret documents
by Paul HANDLEY / Rob Lever Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The Central Intelligence Agency on Wednesday accused WikiLeaks of endangering Americans, helping US rivals and hampering Washington’s fight against terror threats by releasing what the anti-secrecy site claimed was a trove of CIA hacking tools. A CIA spokeswoman would not confirm the authenticity of the materials published a day earlier by WikiLeaks, which said they were leaked from the spy agency’s […]
WikiLeaks exposes alleged CIA hacking program
by Paul HANDLEY Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) –The CIA can turn your TV into a listening device, bypass popular encryption apps, and possibly control your car, according to a trove of alleged documents from the US spy agency released Tuesday by WikiLeaks. The group posted nearly 9,000 documents it said were leaked from the Central Intelligence Agency, in what it described as the largest-ever publication of secret intelligence materials. WikiLeaks claimed that […]
Obama says justice has been served in Manning case
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Barack Obama Wednesday defended his decision to commute the sentence of transgender army private Chelsea Manning, who was jailed for 35 years for handing classified US documents to WikiLeaks. Obama was addressing his final presidential news conference a day after he pardoned 64 people and commuted the sentences of 209 others — including Manning, who will now be released in May — in one of his last acts in […]
Assange welcomes Obama’s decision to commute Manning sentence: lawyer
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday welcomed the decision by US President Barack Obama to commute the sentence of Chelsea Manning, jailed for leaking classified US documents, while calling for an end to a “war on whistleblowers”. “I welcome President Obama’s decision to commute the sentence of Ms. Chelsea Manning from 35 years to time served,” Assange said in a statement sent to AFP by one of his lawyers. He […]





