ASSANGE – HERO, VILLAIN OR THE ANTICHRIST?
BY LUCY MANESS WARNER
OCTOBER 11, 2016


OH DEAR! THESE OBSERVER.COM STORIES SOUND SO PREJUDICIAL AGAINST CLINTON AS TO BE UNLIKELY, AT LEAST WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF WHAT I HAVE ALWAYS BELIEVED ABOUT THE CLINTONS BEFORE THE FEUD WITH SANDERS BEGAN. AS I READ THE ARTICLE AS WELL AS THE HEADLINE, IT SAYS THAT HILLARY MAY HAVE THOUGHT THE PHRASE “EVERYDAY AMERICANS” TO BE “HACKNEYED,” RATHER THAN BEING HER STATED OPINION AND FEELINGS OF THEM. STILL, PEOPLE WILL ALL TOO LIKELY READ IT VERY NEGATIVELY. THE SOURCE OF THE FIRST TWO STORIES IS A BRITISH SUNDAY NEWSPAPER BY THE NAME OBSERVER.COM, IN BUSINESS SINCE THE 1700S IN ENGLAND, WHICH WIKIPEDIA CALLS “CENTER LEFT.” I DOUBT THAT THEY HAVE MANUFACTURED A STORY.

BOTH THE OCTOBER 10 AND 11, 2016 ARTICLES ON WIKILEAKS RELEASES DO CONTAIN SEVERAL MORE DAMNING COMMENTS ON HILLARY, IF THEY ARE TRUE, THOUGH. MR. SAINATO’S PROFILE FROM OBSERVER.COM ARCHIVES STATES THAT HE IS WIDELY PUBLISHED IN A NUMBER OF SOURCES, BUT DOESN’T SEEM TO BE ON THE OBSERVER’S REGULAR STAFF. THE BIO ON HIM CAME FROM THEIR ARCHIVES. HE IS A RESIDENT OF GAINESVILLE, FL.

I DO TEND TO BELIEVE ASSANGE’S INFORMATION, AT ANY RATE, ON THE DOINGS AT THE DNC. CREATING A PROPOGANDA MACHINE AND PLANTING DNC WRITTEN ARTICLES WITH TWO NEWS OUTLETS IS DAMNING INDEED, IN MY VIEW. IF THESE THINGS CAN BE PROVEN, THEY SHOULD BE ILLEGAL. TO BE PERFECTLY FAIR, BUILDING PROPOGANDA MACHINES ISN’T NEW. IT’S JUST DISGUSTING, ESPECIALLY GIVEN THE OPEN WARFARE CARRIED ON BY THE DNC AGAINST SANDERS, EVEN POSSIBLY INCLUDING THREATENING HIS WIFE IN ORDER TO GET HIM TO DROP OUT. NOT ONLY IS HE A VERY GOOD MAN, CLINTON BEGINS TO LOOK LIKE A VILLAIN OF THE SORT THAT TRUMP PAINTS HER AS BEING. SHE MAY WIN THE PRESIDENCY OVER AN INCREASINGLY DESPISED REPUBLICAN, BUT HER REPUTATION IS TOTALLY TRASHED. I WONDER WHAT THE HISTORY BOOKS WILL HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE 2016 ELECTION.

AS FOR ASSANGE, IF YOU READ THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE ON HIS LIFE AND WORK, HE IS PROLIFIC IN HIS OUTPUT, ALMOST CERTAINLY A TRUE GENIUS, A STRONG BELIEVER IN OPENNESS AND FAIRNESS. TO PROVE HIS INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION, HE IS THE WINNER OF QUITE A FEW JOURNALISTIC AWARDS. THAT MAKES ME THINK THAT HIS TRUTHFULNESS IN WHAT HE PRESENTS AS EVIDENCE AGAINST CLINTON IS PROBABLY GOOD. THE QUESTION OF WHETHER PUTIN WAS INVOLVED OR NOT IS LESS LIKELY TO BE PROVEN. PUTIN DENIED IT. THE GREATEST QUESTION IN MY MIND IS WHETHER OR NOT ASSANGE RAPED ANYONE. I WANT TO THINK HE DIDN’T. THAT PROBABLY DEPENDS ON THE AGE OF CONSENT IN SWEDEN, I THINK.

BEFORE LEAVING THIS BLOG, I HOPE YOU WILL READ ABOUT THE COURAGE FOUNDATION, WHO LIST BOTH ASSANGE AND SNOWDEN AMONG THEIR HONOR ROLL. WE WHO LIVE IN THE US OFTEN SIMPLY DON’T LOOK AROUND AT WHAT THE REST OF THE WORLD BELIEVES AND THINKS. I LIKE THE LOOK OF THIS GROUP, BECAUSE I THINK WE HAVE REALLY BEGUN RUNNING LOW ON COURAGE IN THE DEMOCRATIC CAMP. THAT’S WHY THE REPUBLICAN TEA PARTIERS HAVE RUN ALL OVER US IN THE SENATE AND HOUSE. I’VE SAID IT BEFORE AND I’LL SAY IT AGAIN NOW. I REALLY DO MISS TED KENNEDY.



http://observer.com/2016/10/breaking-dnc-chief-donna-brazile-leaked-sanders-info-to-clinton-campaign/

OPINION
Breaking: DNC Chief Donna Brazile Leaked Sanders Info to Clinton Campaign
WikiLeaks hack reveals DNC's favoritism as Clinton staff in damage control over Hillary's support for DOMA
By Michael Sainato • 10/10/16 2:47pm


On October 10, Wikileaks released part two of their emails from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta.

Friday, Wikileaks released their first batch of Podesta’s emails, which included excerpts from Clinton’s Wall Street transcripts that reaffirmed why Clinton refused to release them in full. During the second presidential debate, Clinton confirmed their authenticity by attempting to defend one statement she made in the speech about having a public and private stance on political issues. She cited Abraham Lincoln, a defense comparable to her ridiculous invocation of 9/11 when pressed on her ties to Wall Street during a Democratic primary debate.

The latest release reveals current DNC chair Donna Brazile, when working as a DNC vice chair, forwarded to the Clinton campaign a January 2016 email obtained from the Bernie Sanders campaign, released by Sarah Ford, Sanders’ deputy national press secretary, announcing a Twitter storm from Sanders’ African-American outreach team. “FYI” Brazile wrote to the Clinton staff. “Thank you for the heads up on this Donna,” replied Clinton campaign spokesperson Adrienne Elrod.

The second batch of emails include more evidence of collusion between the mainstream media and Clinton Campaign.

SEE ALSO: CLINTON CAMPAIGN CHAIR: HILLARY HAS BEGUN TO ‘HATE EVERYDAY AMERICANS’

One email, received by prolific Clinton donor Haim Saban, was forwarded to Clinton staff, praising the friendly moderators in the early March 2016 Democratic primary debate co-hosted by Univision in Florida. “Haim, I just wanted to tell you that I thought the moderators for last nights Debate were excellent. They were thoughtful, tough and incisive. I thought it made Hilary appear direct and strong in her resolve. I felt it advanced our candidate. Thanks for Univision,” wrote Rob Friedman, former co-chair of the Motion Picture Group.

Another email discusses planting a favorable Clinton story in The New York Times in March 2015. “NYT heroine. Should she call her today?” Podesta wrote to other Clinton campaign staffers with the subject line ‘Laura Donohoe.’ “I do think it’s a great idea! We can make it happen,” replied Huma Abedin. The story they referred to is likely “In New Hampshire, Clinton Backers Buckle Up,” published in The New York Times on March 12, 2015 about Laura Donohoe, a retired nurse and Clinton supporter in New Hampshire.

John Harwood, New York Times contributor and CNBC correspondent, regularly exchanged emails with Podesta—communicating more as a Clinton surrogate than a journalist.

In an October 2015 email thread, Clinton staff were in damage control over Hillary’s support for the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Hillary Clinton would not disavow her support for it. “I’m not saying double down or ever say it again. I’m just saying that she’s not going to want to say she was wrong about that, given she and her husband believe it and have repeated it many times. Better to reiterate evolution, opposition to DOMA when court considered it, and forward looking stance.”

Former Clinton Foundation director, Darnell Strom of the Creative Artist Agency, wrote a condescending email to Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard after she resigned from the DNC to endorse Bernie Sanders, which he then forwarded to Clinton campaign staff. “For you to endorse a man who has spent almost 40 years in public office with very few accomplishments, doesn’t fall in line with what we previously thought of you. Hillary Clinton will be our party’s nominee and you standing on ceremony to support the sinking Bernie Sanders ship is disrespectful to Hillary Clinton,” wrote Strom.

A memo sent from Clinton’s general counsel, Marc Elias of the law firm Perkins Coie, outlined legal tricks to circumvent campaign finance laws to raise money in tandem with Super Pacs.

In a March 2015 email, Clinton Campaign manager Robby Mook expressed frustration DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz hired a Convention CEO without consulting the Clinton campaign, which suggests the DNC and Clinton campaign regularly coordinated together from the early stages of the Democratic primaries.


SEE ALSO TODAY’S STORY BY SAINATO:

http://observer.com/2016/10/clinton-campaign-chair-hillary-has-begun-to-hate-everyday-americans/

OPINION
Clinton Campaign Chair: Hillary Hates Phrase ‘Everyday Americans’
Clinton camp mocks NH voters for Sanders primary win and releases agenda outlining 'how we'd like to frame Bernie'
By Michael Sainato • 10/11/16 12:35pm

Photograph -- Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

On October 11, Wikileaks released their third batch of emails from Clinton Campaign Chair John Podesta.

In the latest release, Boston Globe is implicated in planting stories directly from the Clinton campaign. The paper endorsed Clinton before the New Hampshire Democratic primary and Massachusetts Democratic primaries, and also employs former Clinton speechwriter Michael Cohen as a columnist.

“Just wondering if we are still on for that piece. Brian said last week it was ready and just needed approval. It would be good to get it in on Tuesday, when she is in New Hampshire. That would give her big presence on Tuesday with the piece and on Wednesday with the news story. Please let me know,” wrote Marjorie Pritchard, op-ed page editor for the Boston Globe, in an email to Podesta about an op-ed from the Clinton campaign.

In July 2015, New York Times’ Mark Leibovitch emailed Clinton staff a transcript of an interview he conducted with Hillary Clinton—for the campaign to edit and amend as they saw fit.

“I know she has begun to hate everyday Americans,” Podesta wrote in an email to Clinton Campaign Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri in April 2015, apparently referring to a phrase she considered hackneyed just a month after Palmieri went into damage control over Clinton’s private email server.

A separate email between Palmieri and Podesta in April 2015 claimed Clinton strategist Phillip Reines, “weirdly has cultivated them,” in reference to Business Insider, providing further evidence the Clinton campaign developed a propaganda media machine to manufacture consent for Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee.

“What is wrong with the people of NH?” wrote former Clinton Policy Adviser and President of the Center for American Progress to Podesta, expressing frustration over Bernie Sanders’ blowout win in the New Hampshire Democratic primary.

A November 2015 memo lists “Discussion of how we’d like to frame Bernie,” as part of a meeting agenda as well as “Top stories we need to land.”

Another email reveals the Clinton campaign outlined points they wanted a Clinton surrogate to summarize in a propaganda hit piece against Sanders in Colorado.

“We are hoping that you’ll help us out by penning an op-ed that we can try to place into Colorado hitting Bernie Sanders for some of the votes he’s made that were harmful to immigrants and stopped our country from making progress toward a fair immigration system. Attached are some of the key points we’d want to hit. We can draft for you, and get placed, but wanted to run the idea by you,” Miryam Lipper wrote in February 2016 to former Secretary of the Interior and former Democratic Senator from Colorado, Ken Salazar—who responded with a draft of the op-ed. According to Lipper’s LinkedIn profile, she was employed by the Democratic National Committee at the time, which suggests the DNC was directly coordinating with the Clinton campaign to smear and suppress the Sanders campaign.

The latest leak brings the Wikileaks emails of John Podesta to just over 5,000 out of 50,000 emails yet to be released from his address, with other Clinton campaign and DNC materials likely to be released in the coming weeks as well.




SCOTT BINSACK, STAR OF THE YOUTUBE BELOW, IS A PROFESSIONAL SCAM ARTIST, I BELIEVE. HIS RANT IS FULL OF TRUMP CATCH PHRASES, AND HE HAS A LONG POLICE RECORD. IF YOU WANT TO GET A TASTE OF HIS STYLE, WATCH THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO, BUT I ADVISE YOU NOT TO BOTHER -- EXCEPT THAT I DID FIND HIM HUMOROUS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAsXlbu7u4I

BREAKING NEWS!! White House Back Room Deal Threats To Ecuador Stopped Wikileaks
Scott Binsack
Published on Oct 5, 2016



THIS JULY STORY WAS THE SCARIEST TO ME, BUT BOTH PUTIN AND ASSANGE FAILED TO BACK IT UP, AND YOURNEWSWIRE.COM IS ON A LIST BY RELEVANT MAGAZINE AS A FAKE NEWS SITE.

http://yournewswire.com/putin-hacked-emails-reveal-that-clinton-threatened-sanders-wife/

Putin: Hacked Emails Reveal That Clinton Threatened Sanders’ Wife
Posted on July 29, 2016 by Baxter Dmitry in News, US

Kremlin sources say the Clinton campaign “sent their goons to give Jane Sanders the shakedown,” in order to end the Bernie Sanders campaign before the convention, citing evidence from one of 10,000 Hillary emails Putin has in his personal possession.

The Clinton campaign needed Bernie Sanders on board before the emails were leaked as they contained evidence that confirmed his suggestions of Democratic establishment bias and would have given him unstoppable momentum heading into the convention – had he chosen to play that game.

However, after the meeting with the Clinton team Sanders unexpectedly suspended his previously gung-ho campaign, and although he refused to wholeheartedly endorse her, he signalled to his supporters that his run for President was effectively over.

Kremlin sources have denied the DNC claims that Russian state-sponsored hackers are behind the email leaks, with Julian Assange also stating the DNC claim is a politically motivated “lame conspiracy smear.”

Despite the FBI asking the Kremlin for copies of any emails they have in their possession, it is understood the Kremlin has not released anything to anyone, including Wikileaks.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abdpMSmrJow

WIKILEAKS UPDATE: Julian Assange Says Next Clinton Emails Before November Will Be Significant
H. A. Goodman


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTv1URT7msg

Julian Assange - Hillary's October Surprise
LibertyPen
Published on Aug 26, 2016


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI1YCx4Upo0

ANONYMOUS WIKILEAKS has the LEAKED email to put CLINTON IN PRISON | Julian Assange
For a better World
October 5, 2016



ASSANGE LIFE AND HISTORY -- TWO ARTICLES

http://www.biography.com/people/julian-assange-20688499

Julian Assange Biography
Journalist, Computer Programmer, Activist (1971–)

Synopsis

Born on July 3, 1971, in Townsville, Australia, Julian Assange used his genius IQ to hack into the databases of many high profile organizations. In 2006, Assange began work on Wikileaks, a Web site intended to collect and share confidential information on an international scale. The information his organization released earned him strong supporters and powerful enemies. For his efforts, the internet activist earned the Time magazine "Person of the Year" title in 2010. After arriving at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London in June 2012, seeking to avoid extradition to Sweden, Assange was granted political asylum by the Ecuadorean government in August 2012.

Early Life

Journalist, computer programmer and activist Julian Assange was born on July 3, 1971, in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Assange had an unusual childhood, as he spent some of his early years traveling around with his mother, Christine, and his stepfather, Brett Assange. The couple worked together to put on theatrical productions. Brett Assange later described Julian as a "sharp kid who always fought for the underdog."

The relationship between Brett and Christine later soured, but Assange and his mother continued to live a transient lifestyle. With all of the moving around, Assange ended up attending roughly 37 different schools growing up, and was frequently homeschooled.


Founding of Wikileaks

Assange discovered his passion for computers as a teenager. At the age of 16, he got his first computer as a gift from his mother. Before long, he developed a talent for hacking into computer systems. His 1991 break-in to the master terminal for Nortel, a telecommunications company, got him in trouble. Assange was charged with more than 30 counts of hacking in Australia, but he got off the hook with only a fine for damages.

Assange continued to pursue a career as a computer programmer and software developer. An intelligent mind, he studied mathematics at the University of Melbourne. He dropped out without finishing his degree, later claiming that he left the university for moral reasons; Assange objected to other students working on computer projects for the military.

In 2006, Assange began work on Wikileaks, a Web site intended to collect and share confidential information on an international scale. The site officially launched in 2007 and it was run out of Sweden at the time because of the country's strong laws protecting a person's anonymity. Later that year, Wikileaks released a U.S. military manual that provided detailed information on the Guantanamo detention center. Wikileaks also shared emails from then-vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin that it received from an anonymous source in September 2008.


Sexual Assault Controversy

In early December 2010, Assange discovered that he had other legal problems to worry about. He had been under investigation by the Swedish police since early August, in connection with sexual assault allegations including two counts of sexual molestation, one count of illegal coercion, and one count of rape. After a European Arrest Warrant was issued by Swedish authorities on December 6, Assange turned himself in to the London police.

After a series of extradition hearings in early 2011 to appeal the warrant, Assange learned on November 2, 2011, that the High Court dismissed his appeal. Still on conditional bail, Assange made plans to appeal to the U.K. Supreme Court, in regard to the case.

According to a New York Times article, Assange came to the Ecuadorean Embassy in London in June 2012, seeking to avoid extradition to Sweden. Nearly two months later, in August 2012, Assange was granted political asylum by the Ecuadorean government, which, according to the Times, "protects Mr. Assange from British arrest, but only on Ecuadorean territory, leaving him vulnerable if he tries to leave the embassy to head to an airport or train station." The article went on to say that the decision "cited the possibility that Mr. Assange could face 'political persecution' or be sent to the United States to face the death penalty," putting further strain on the relationship between Ecuador and Britain, and instigating a rebuttal from the Swedish government.

In August 2015 the lesser sexual assault allegations from 2010 — with the exception of rape — were dropped due to statute of limitation violations by Swedish prosecutors. The statue of limitations on the rape allegations will expire in 2020.

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!


Citation Information

Article Title
Julian Assange Biography

Author
Biography.com Editors

Website Name
The Biography.com website

URL
http://www.biography.com/people/julian-assange-20688499

Access Date
October 11, 2016

Publisher
A&E Television Networks

Last Updated
August 12, 2016

Original Published Date
n/a



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange

Julian Assange
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Julian Paul Assange (/əˈsɒnʒ/;[1] born 3 July 1971) is an Australian computer programmer, publisher and journalist. He is editor-in-chief of the organisation WikiLeaks, which he founded in 2006.

Since November 2010, Assange has been subject to extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning concerning an allegation of rape. Assange denies the allegation and has expressed concern that he will be extradited from Sweden to the United States due to his perceived role in publishing secret American documents.[2][3]

After exhausting his legal options in the United Kingdom, Assange failed to surrender for extradition. Instead, he sought and was granted asylum by Ecuador in August 2012. Assange has since remained in the Embassy of Ecuador in London, and he is unable to leave without being arrested for breaching his bail conditions.[4] The United Nations' Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found, by a majority, that he has been "arbitrarily detained" and that his detention should be brought to an end;[5] UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the claim was "ridiculous" and that the group was "made up of lay people", and called Assange a fugitive from justice.[6]

Early life

Assange was born in the north Queensland city of Townsville,[7][8] to Christine Ann Hawkins (b. 1951),[9] a visual artist,[10] and John Shipton, an anti-war activist and builder.[11] The couple had separated before Assange was born.[11]

When he was a year old, his mother married Richard Brett Assange,[12][13][14] an actor, with whom she ran a small theatre company.[15] They divorced around 1979, and Christine Assange then became involved with Leif Meynell, also known as Leif Hamilton, a member of the Australian New Age group the Family, with whom she had a son before the couple broke up in 1982.[7][16][17] Assange had a nomadic childhood, and had lived in over thirty[18][19] different Australian towns by the time he reached his mid-teens, when he settled with his mother and half-brother in Melbourne, Victoria.[12][20]

He attended many schools, including Goolmangar Primary School in New South Wales (1979–1983)[15] and Townsville State High School,[21] as well as being schooled at home.[13] He studied programming, mathematics, and physics at Central Queensland University (1994)[22] and the University of Melbourne (2003–2006),[12][23] but did not complete a degree.[24]

Hacking

In 1987 Assange began hacking under the name Mendax.[13][25] He and two others—known as "Trax" and "Prime Suspect"—formed a hacking group they called the International Subversives.[13] During this time he hacked into the Pentagon and other US Department of Defense facilities, MILNET, the US Navy, NASA, and Australia's Overseas Telecommunications Commission; Citibank, Lockheed Martin, Motorola, Panasonic, and Xerox; and the Australian National University, La Trobe University, and Stanford University's SRI International.[26] He is thought to have been involved in the WANK (Worms Against Nuclear Killers) hack at NASA in 1989, but he does not acknowledge this.[27][28]

In September 1991, Assange was discovered hacking into the Melbourne master terminal of Nortel, a Canadian multinational telecommunications corporation.[13] The Australian Federal Police tapped Assange's phone line (he was using a modem), raided his home at the end of October,[29] and eventually charged him in 1994 with 31 counts of hacking and related crimes.[13] In December 1996, he pleaded guilty to 25 charges (the other six were dropped), was ordered to pay reparations of A$2,100 and released on a good behaviour bond,[27][30] avoiding a heavier penalty due to the perceived absence of malicious or mercenary intent and his disrupted childhood.[31][32][33][34] After the trial, Assange lived in Melbourne, where he survived on single-parent income support.[30]

Programming

In 1993 Assange gave technical advice to the Victoria Police Child Exploitation Unit and assisted with prosecutions.[35] In the same year he was involved in starting one of the first public Internet service providers in Australia, Suburbia Public Access Network.[12][36] He began programming in 1994, authoring or co-authoring the Transmission Control Protocol port scanner strobe.c (1995);[37][38] patches to the open-source database PostgreSQL (1996);[39][40] the Usenet caching software NNTPCache (1996);[41] the Rubberhose deniable encryption system (1997),[42][43] which reflected his growing interest in cryptography;[44] and Surfraw, a command-line interface for web-based search engines (2000).[45] During this period he also moderated the AUCRYPTO forum;[44] ran Best of Security, a website "giving advice on computer security" that had 5,000 subscribers in 1996;[46] and contributed research to Suelette Dreyfus's Underground (1997), a book about Australian hackers, including the International Subversives.[25][47] In 1998, he co-founded the company Earthmen Technology.[33]

In 1999 Assange registered the domain leaks.org, but, as he put it, "I didn't do anything with it."[33][unreliable source?] He did, however, publicise a patent granted to the National Security Agency in August 1999 for voice-data harvesting technology: "This patent should worry people. Everyone's overseas phone calls are or may soon be tapped, transcribed and archived in the bowels of an unaccountable foreign spy agency."[44] Systematic abuse of technology by governments against fundamental freedoms of world citizens remained an abiding concern — more than a decade later in the introduction to Cypherpunks (2012) Assange summarized "the Internet, our greatest tool for emancipation, has been transformed into the most dangerous facilitator of totalitarianism we have ever seen".[48]

WikiLeaks

Main article: WikiLeaks

Assange, c. 2006
After his period of study at the University of Melbourne, Assange and others established WikiLeaks in 2006. Assange is a member of the organisation's advisory board[49] and describes himself as the editor-in-chief.[50] From 2007 to 2010, Assange travelled continuously on WikiLeaks business, visiting Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.[13][19][51][52][53]

WikiLeaks published secret information, news leaks,[54] and classified media from anonymous sources.[55] By 2015 WikiLeaks had published more than 10 million documents and associated analyses, and was described by Assange himself as "a giant library of the world's most persecuted documents".[56] The published material between 2006 and 2009 attracted various degrees of publicity,[57] but it was only after it began publishing documents supplied by Chelsea Manning that Wikileaks became a household name.[58] The Manning material included the Collateral Murder video (April 2010)[59] which showed US soldiers shooting dead 18 people from a helicopter in Iraq, [60] the Afghanistan war logs (July 2010), the Iraq war logs (October 2010), a quarter of a million diplomatic cables (November 2010), and the Guantánamo files (April 2011).

Opinions of Assange at this time were divided. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard described his activities as "illegal,"[61] but the police said that he had broken no Australian law.[62] US Vice President Joe Biden and others called him a "terrorist."[63][64][65][66][67] Some called for his assassination or execution.[68][69][70][71] Support came from people including the Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva,[72][73] Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa,[74] Russian President Dmitry Medvedev,[75][76] Britain's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn,[77] Spain's Podemos party leader Pablo Iglesias,[78] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay,[79] Argentina's ambassador to the UK Alicia Castro,[80] and activists and celebrities including Tariq Ali,[81] John Perry Barlow,[82] Daniel Ellsberg,[83][84] Mary Kostakidis,[85] John Pilger,[86][87] Ai Weiwei,[88] Michael Moore,[89] Noam Chomsky,[88] Vaughan Smith,[90][91] and Oliver Stone.[92]

The year 2010 culminated with the Sam Adams Award, which Assange accepted in October,[93] and a string of distinctions in December—the Le Monde readers' choice award for person of the year,[94][95] the Time readers' choice award for person of the year (he was also a runner-up in Time's overall person of the year award),[96][97] a deal for his autobiography worth at least US$1.3 million,[98][99][100] and selection by the Italian edition of Rolling Stone as "rockstar of the year."[101][102]

Assange announced that he would run for the Australian Senate in March 2012 under the newly created WikiLeaks Party,[103][104] had his own talk show on Russia Today in April–July and Cypherpunks[48] was published in November. In the same year, he analysed the Kissinger cables held at the US National Archives and released them in searchable form.[105][106] On 15 September 2014, he appeared via remote video link on Kim Dotcom's Moment of Truth town hall meeting held in Auckland.[107]

The following February he won the Sydney Peace Foundation Gold Medal for Peace with Justice, previously awarded to only three people—Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, and Buddhist spiritual leader Daisaku Ikeda.[108] Two weeks later he filed for the trademark "Julian Assange" in Europe, which was to be used for "Public speaking services; news reporter services; journalism; publication of texts other than publicity texts; education services; entertainment services."[109][110][111] For several years a member of the Australian journalists' union and still an honorary member,[112][113][114] he was awarded the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in June,[115][116] and the Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism in November,[117][118] having earlier won the Amnesty International UK Media Award (New Media) in 2009.[119]

Assange wrote on WikiLeaks in February 2016: "I have had years of experience in dealing with Hillary Clinton and have read thousands of her cables. Hillary lacks judgement and will push the United States into endless, stupid wars which spread terrorism. ... she certainly should not become president of the United States."[120]

On 22 July 2016, WikiLeaks released emails and files sent from or received by Democratic National Committee (DNC). The New York Times reported that "Assange accused Mrs. Clinton of having been among those pushing to indict him..." and that he had timed the release to coincide with the 2016 Democratic National Convention.[121] In an interview with Robert Peston of ITV News Assange suggested that he saw Hillary Clinton as a personal foe.[122][123] He said in an interview with “Democracy Now!” that choosing between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is like choosing between cholera or gonorrhea. "Personally, I would prefer neither."[124]

US criminal investigation

Assange speaks on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral in London, 16 October 2011
After WikiLeaks released the Manning material, US authorities began investigating WikiLeaks and Assange personally with a view to prosecuting them under the Espionage Act of 1917.[125] In November 2010 US Attorney-General Eric Holder said there was "an active, ongoing criminal investigation" into WikiLeaks.[126] It emerged from legal documents leaked over the ensuing months that Assange and others were being investigated by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia.[127][128][129] An email from an employee of intelligence consultancy Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (Stratfor) leaked in 2012 said, "We have a sealed indictment on Assange."[130] The US government denies the existence of such an indictment.[131][132]

In December 2011 prosecutors in the Chelsea Manning case revealed the existence of chat logs between Manning and an alleged WikiLeaks interlocutor they claimed to be Assange;[133][134] he denied this,[135][136] dismissing the alleged connection as "absolute nonsense."[137] The logs were presented as evidence during Manning's court-martial in June–July 2013. The prosecution argued that they show WikiLeaks helping Manning reverse-engineer a password.[138][139] The evidence that the interlocutor was Assange is circumstantial, however, and Manning insists she acted alone.[129][139]

Assange was being examined separately by "several government agencies" in addition to the grand jury, most notably the FBI.[140] Court documents published in May 2014 suggest that Assange was still under "active and ongoing" investigation at that time.[141]

Moreover, some Snowden documents published in 2014 show that the United States government put Assange on the "2010 Manhunting Timeline",[142] and in the same period they urged their allies to open criminal investigations into the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks.[143] In the same documents there was a proposal by the NSA to designate WikiLeaks as a "malicious foreign actor", thus increasing the surveillance against it.

On 26 January 2015, WikiLeaks revealed that three members of the organisation received notice that "Google had handed over all their emails and metadata to the United States government".[144] In the notifications, there was the list of possible charges that originated the warrant to Google and that the secret grand jury intends to use against WikiLeaks and likely Assange too. They were espionage, conspiracy to commit espionage, theft or conversion of property belonging to the United States government, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and general conspiracy. They carry up to a minimum of 45 years in prison, if they amount to one charge per these five types; otherwise, even more years could be added.

The United States investigation confirmed its ongoing proceedings against WikiLeaks in a 15 December 2015 court submission.[145]

Swedish sexual assault allegations

Demonstration in support of Assange in front of Sydney Town Hall, 10 December 2010
See also: Assange v Swedish Prosecution Authority

In November 2010 Assange was alleged to have committed several crimes against two different women during a visit to Sweden that August. He was wanted for questioning in Sweden over two counts of sexual molestation, one count of unlawful coercion and one count of "lesser-degree rape" (mindre grov våldtäkt). Assange denies the allegations.[146][147]

After 18 August 2015, Assange could no longer be charged for all three of the less serious allegations, as the Swedish prosecutors did not succeed in interviewing Assange before the statute of limitations for these alleged crimes ran out. However, he is still wanted for questioning over the allegation of rape. The preliminary investigation still continues as the statute of limitations here will only expire in 2020.[148][149][150][151][152]

Political asylum and life at the Ecuadorian embassy

Julian Assange on a balcony in the Ecuadorian embassy in London
On 19 June 2012, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño announced that Assange had applied for political asylum, that his government was considering the request, and that Assange was at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.[153][154][155][156]

Assange and his supporters claim he is concerned not about any proceedings in Sweden as such, but that his deportation to Sweden could lead to politically motivated deportation to the United States, where he could face severe penalties, up to the death sentence, for his activities related to WikiLeaks.[60]

Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño met with Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy on 16 June 2013

On 16 August 2012, Foreign Minister Patiño announced that Ecuador was granting Assange political asylum because of the threat represented by the United States secret investigation against him and several calls for assassination from many American politicians.[157][158][159][160] In its formal statement, Ecuador reasoned that "as a consequence of [Assange's] determined defense to freedom of expression and freedom of press… in any given moment, a situation may come where his life, safety or personal integrity will be in danger".[161] Latin American states expressed support for Ecuador.[162][163][164][165] Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa confirmed on 18 August that Assange could stay at the embassy indefinitely,[166][167][168] and the following day Assange gave his first speech from the balcony.[169][170][171][172] Assange's supporters forfeited £293,500 in bail[173] and sureties.[173][174] His home since then has been an office converted into a studio apartment, equipped with a bed, telephone, sun lamp, computer, shower, treadmill, and kitchenette.[175][176][177]

Just before Assange was granted asylum, the UK Government wrote to Foreign Minister Patiño stating that the police were entitled to enter the embassy and arrest Assange under UK law.[178] Patiño criticised what he claimed to be an implied threat, stating that "such actions would be a blatant disregard of the Vienna Convention". Officers of the Metropolitan Police Service were stationed outside the building from June 2012 to October 2015 in order to arrest Assange for extradition and for breach of bail, should he leave the embassy. The police guard was withdrawn on grounds of cost in October 2015, but the police said they would still deploy "a number of overt and covert tactics to arrest him". The cost of the policing for the period was reported to have been £12.6 million.[179]

In April 2015, during a video conference to promote the documentary Terminal F about Edward Snowden, Bolivia's ambassador to Russia, María Luisa Ramos Urzagaste, accused Assange of putting the life of Bolivian president Evo Morales at risk by intentionally providing the United States with false rumours that Snowden was on the president's plane when it was forced to land in Vienna in July 2013. "It is possible that in this wide-ranging game that you began my president did not play a crucial role, but what you did was not important to my president, but it was to me and the citizens of our country. And I have faith that when you planned this game you took into consideration the consequences," the ambassador told Assange. Assange stated that the plan "was not completely honest, but we did consider that the final result would have justified our actions. We weren't expecting this outcome. The result was caused by the United States' intervention. We can only regret what happened."[180] Later, in an interview[181] with Democracy Now, Assange explained the story of the grounding of Morales' plane, claiming that after the United States cancelled Snowden's passport, WikiLeaks thought about other strategies to take him to Latin America, and they considered private presidential jets of those countries which offered support. The appointed jet was that of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, but Assange stated that "our code language that we used deliberately swapped the presidential jet that we were considering for the Bolivian jet [...] and in some of our communications, we deliberately spoke about that on open lines to lawyers in the United States. And we didn’t think much more of it. [...] We didn’t think this was anything more than just distracting." Eventually, the plan was not pursued and, under Assange's advice, Snowden sought asylum in Russia.

Paris newspaper Le Monde in its edition of 3 July 2015 published an open letter from Assange to French President François Hollande in which Assange urged the French government to grant him refugee status.[182] Assange wrote that "only France now has the ability to offer me the necessary protection against, and exclusively against, the political persecution that I am currently the object of."[183] In the letter Assange wrote, "By welcoming me, France would fulfill a humanitarian but also probably symbolic gesture, sending an encouragement to all journalists and whistleblowers ... Only France is now able to offer me the necessary protection ... France can, if it wishes, act."[182][183]

In a statement issued by the Élysée Palace on 3 July 2015 in response to this letter, the French President said: “France cannot act on his request. The situation of Mr Assange does not present an immediate danger.”[184]

On 4 July 2015, in response to the denial of asylum by France, a spokesman for Assange denied that Assange had actually "filed" a request for asylum in France. Speaking on behalf of Assange, Baltasar Garzón, head of his legal team, said that Assange had sent the open letter to French president Francois Hollande; but Assange had only expressed his willingness "to be hosted in France if and only if an initiative was taken by the competent authorities".[183]

UNWGAD ruling

On 5 February 2016, the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention decided that Assange had been subject to arbitrary detention by the UK and Swedish Governments since 7 December 2010, including his time in prison, on conditional bail and in the Ecuadorian embassy. According to the group, Assange should be allowed to walk free and be given compensation.[185][186]

The UK and Swedish governments rejected the ruling,[187] as did the UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Philip Hammond, and the UK and Swedish prosecutors.[188][189] The UK maintained it would arrest Assange should he leave the Ecuadorian embassy.[190] Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association, stated that the ruling is "not binding on British law."[191] United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein has said that the ruling is based on binding international law.[192]

Writings

Assange is an advocate of information transparency and market libertarianism.[193] He has written a few short pieces, including "State and terrorist conspiracies" (2006),[194] "Conspiracy as governance" (2006),[195] "The hidden curse of Thomas Paine" (2008),[196] "What’s new about WikiLeaks?" (2011),[197] and the foreword to Cypherpunks (2012).[48] He also contributed research to Suelette Dreyfus's Underground (1997),[25] and received a co-writer credit for the Calle 13 song "Multi_Viral" (2013).

Cypherpunks is primarily a transcript of the The World Tomorrow episode eight two-part interview between Assange, Jacob Appelbaum, Andy Müller-Maguhn, and Jérémie Zimmermann.

Assange's book, When Google Met WikiLeaks, was published by OR Books on 18 September 2014.[198] The book recounts when Google CEO Eric Schmidt requested a meeting with Assange, while he was under house arrest in rural Norfolk, UK. Schmidt was accompanied by Jared Cohen, director of Google Ideas; Lisa Shields, vice-president of the Council on Foreign Relations; and Scott Malcomson, the communications director for the International Crisis Group. Excerpts were published on the Newsweek website, while Assange participated in a Q&A event that was facilitated by the Reddit website and agreed to an interview with Vogue magazine.[199][200][201]

Personal life

While in his teens, Assange married a woman named Teresa, and in 1989 they had a son, Daniel Assange, now a software designer.[12][24][202] The couple separated and initially disputed custody of the child.[13] Assange was Daniel's primary carer [sic] for much of his childhood.[203] In an open letter to French President François Hollande, Assange stated his youngest child lives in France with his/her mother. He also claimed that his family had faced death threats and harassment due to his work, forcing them to change identities and reduce contact with him.[204]

Work

Bibliography
Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier (1997)
Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet (2012) OR Books
When Google Met WikiLeaks (2014) OR Books [205]
The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to The US Empire (2015) Verso Books [206]

Filmography
ProducerCollateral Murder (2010)
The World Tomorrow (2012) (host)
Mediastan (2013)
The Engineer (2013) [207]
As himself The War You Don't See (2010)
The Simpsons (2012) (cameo - episode At Long Last Leave)
Citizenfour (2014)
The Yes Men Are Revolting (2014)
Terminal F/Chasing Edward Snowden (2015) [208]
Asylum (2016) [209]

Honours and awards
2008, Economist New Media Award[210]
2009, Amnesty International UK Media Awards[211]
2010, TIME Person of the Year, Reader's Choice[212]
2010, Sam Adams Award[213]
2011, Free Dacia Award[214]
2011, Sydney Peace Foundation Gold Medal[215]
2011, Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism[216]
2011, Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism[217]
2011, Voltaire Award for Free Speech[218]
2012, Big Brother Awards Hero of Privacy[219]
2013, Global Exchange Human Rights Award, People’s Choice[220]
2013, Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Award for the Arts[221]
2013, New York Festivals World's Best TV & Films Silver World Medal[222]
2014, Union of Journalists in Kazakhstan Top Prize[223]

Works about Assange

Wikinews has news related to:
Julian Assange


Books
Nick Cohen, You Can't Read this Book: Censorship in an Age of Freedom (2012).
Suelette Dreyfus, Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier (1997), with research by Julian Assange.
Andrew Fowler, The Most Dangerous Man in the World: The Explosive True Story of Julian Assange and the Lies, Cover-ups and Conspiracies He Exposed (2011).
David Leigh and Luke Harding, WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy (2011).
Andrew O'Hagan, Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography (2011).

Essays
Raffi Khatchadourian, "No secrets: Julian Assange's mission for total transparency," The New Yorker, 7 June 2010.
Robert Manne, "The cypherpunk revolutionary: Julian Assange," The Monthly, March 2011. Reprinted in Robert Manne, Making Trouble: Essays Against the New Australian Complacency (Melbourne: Black Inc. Publishing, 2011).
Andrew O'Hagan, "Ghosting: Julian Assange," London Review of Books, vol. 36, no. 5 (6 March 2014).

Films
Underground: The Julian Assange Story (2012), Australian TV drama that premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.
Julian (2012), Australian short film about nine-year-old Julian Assange. The film won several awards and prizes.
The Fifth Estate (2013), thriller.
Mediastan (2013), documentary produced by Assange; to challenge that of The Fifth Estate.
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks (2013), American documentary.
Risk (2016), American documentary.

See also
WikiLeaks
United States diplomatic cables leak
Chelsea Manning
Courage Foundation
List of people who took refuge in a diplomatic mission

References [THE SIX MOST RECENT ONLY.]

1.Jump up ^ "WikiLeaks Founder on History's Top Leaks". Time Video. New York. No date. Retrieved 4 October 2016. Check date values in: |date= (help)
2.Jump up ^ "What next for Julian Assange?". 5 February 2016 – via www.bbc.com.
3.Jump up ^ "Britain 'sets dangerous precedent' by defying UN report on Assange". The Guardian (London). 24 February 2016.
4.Jump up ^ "Q&A: Julian Assange and the law". 13 March 2015 – via www.bbc.com.
5.Jump up ^ "Julian Assange should be allowed to go free, UN panel finds". BBC News. 5 February 2016.
6.Jump up ^ Hammond calls U.N. Assange report 'ridiculous', Reuters



http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35499942

Julian Assange should be allowed to go free, UN panel finds
5 February 2016
From the section UK

STILL SHOT -- Mr Assange appeared at a press conference via a video link


Wikileaks founder Julian Assange should be allowed to walk free and be compensated for his "deprivation of liberty", a UN legal panel has found.

Mr Assange, 44, - who faces extradition to Sweden over a rape claim, which he denies - claimed asylum in London's Ecuadorean embassy in 2012.

He has been arbitrarily detained since his arrest in 2010, the panel said.

The UK foreign secretary said the decision was "ridiculous", but Mr Assange hailed a "significant victory".

Speaking at a news conference via a video link from the embassy, he said the opinion of the panel was "vindication", adding: "The lawfulness of my detention is now a matter of settled law."

Mr Assange said it was a "really significant victory that has brought a smile to my face".

However, the UK Foreign Office said the report "changes nothing" and it will "formally contest the working group's opinion".

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Mr Assange was a "fugitive from justice", adding that he can come out "any time he chooses" but will still have to face justice in Sweden.

The Met Police said it will make "every effort" to arrest Mr Assange should he leave the embassy.

The government says the panel's ruling is not legally binding in the UK and a European Arrest Warrant remains in place - meaning the UK continues to have a legal obligation to extradite Mr Assange.

Why is Julian Assange back in the news?
Who is Julian Assange?

The UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention insisted Mr Assange's detention "should be brought to an end, that his physical integrity and freedom of movement be respected".

"Mr Assange should be afforded the right to compensation," it added.

The Wikileaks founder had been subjected to "different forms of deprivation of liberty" it said, initially while he was held in isolation at London's Wandsworth Prison for 10 days in 2010.

The deprivation had been "continuous" since he was initially arrested in the UK on 7 December 2010.

It also found a "lack of diligence" by the Swedish Prosecutor's Office in its investigations, which resulted in his lengthy loss of liberty.

Three members of the five-person panel found in Mr Assange's favour, while one rejected his claim and another did not take part in the investigation.


Media caption -- Is Julian Assange leaving the Ecuadorean embassy?
By Caroline Hawley, BBC diplomatic correspondent

Julian Assange and his supporters will see this as a significant moral victory.

The Wikileaks founder, who walked into the Ecuadorian Embassy after losing a series of appeals in British courts, now has an important panel of UN legal experts on his side.

Legally binding or not, a UN official said the decision was based on international law.

Although both Britain and Sweden are firmly sticking to their guns, they are now in an extremely awkward position. The Swedish government has seized on the dissenting voice in the panel - who argued, as Britain does, that Mr Assange fled bail and was using the Ecuadorian embassy to evade arrest.

The call for compensation for Mr Assange is particularly controversial when there is already public anger in the UK over the cost of policing his confinement at the embassy.

A Foreign Office spokesman said Mr Assange "has never been arbitrarily detained by the UK", adding: "He is, in fact, voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by choosing to remain in the Ecuadorean embassy."

"We are deeply frustrated that this unacceptable situation is still being allowed to continue," the spokesman added.

The UK's permanent representative to the UN, Julian Braithwaite, has written to the panel expressing the government's surprise and disappointment with the outcome.

The Swedish government said Mr Assange was free to leave the embassy at any point and said he was not being deprived of his liberty.

In September 2014, Mr Assange - who has been living in the embassy for more than three years - complained to the UN that he was being "arbitrarily detained" as he could not leave without being arrested.

The complaint against the UK and Sweden claimed Mr Assange had been deprived of his liberty for an "unacceptable length of time".

In a statement posted on Twitter on Thursday, Mr Assange said his passport should be returned and his arrest warrant dropped if the UN panel ruled in his favour. The Australian had his passport taken by UK authorities during the investigation.

What does the UN panel do? The UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is made up of five legal experts from around the world. Established in 1991, it has made hundreds of rulings on whether imprisonment or detention is lawful. High profile complainants include Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, who was released in Iran last month. It also offered an opinion on former pro-democracy President Mohamed Nasheed, released in the Maldives last year, and Myanmar party leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

Mr Assange was originally arrested in London in 2010 under a European Arrest Warrant issued by Sweden over rape and sexual assault claims.

In 2012, while on bail, he claimed asylum inside the Ecuadorean embassy in Knightsbridge after the UK Supreme Court had ruled the extradition against him could go ahead.


Media caption -- Assange's supporter and friend Vaughan Smith hopes he will now be freed

Swedish prosecutors dropped two sex assault claims against Mr Assange last year. However, he still faces the more serious accusation of rape.


Julian Assange: Key dates
◾ August 2010 - Swedish prosecutors issue an arrest warrant for Mr Assange
◾ May 2012 - UK Supreme Court rules he should be extradited to Sweden to face questioning
◾ June 2012 - Mr Assange claims asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London
◾ September 2014 - Mr Assange submits complaint against Sweden and the UK to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
◾ August 2015 - Swedish prosecutors drop their investigation into two allegations - one of sexual molestation and one of unlawful coercion - but say he still faces the more serious accusation of rape.
◾ October 2015 - Met Police announce officers will no longer be stationed outside the Ecuadorean embassy




https://couragefound.org/about-the-courage-foundation/

Courage Foundation | The world needs truthtellers. They need Courage.

About Courage

The Courage Foundation is an international organisation that supports those who risk life or liberty to make significant contributions to the historical record. We fundraise for the legal and public defence of specific individuals who fit these criteria and are subject to serious prosecution or persecution. We also campaign for the protection of truthtellers and the public’s right to know generally.

The public’s right to know

When powerful institutions retreat into secrecy, they prevent proper accountability and oversight. Whistleblowers become the public’s regulators of last resort. Without them, we would know far less about international diplomacy, offshore banking or the excesses of the War on Terror.

Because whistleblowers are a vital link in the chain, they are also vulnerable. Courage upholds the principle of public access by aiding the whistleblowers who make it possible, forcing their cases into the public sphere and funding effective defences in the courtroom.

Freedom of the press

Journalists and publishers increasingly find themselves subject to the same types of reprisal as the whistleblowers they work with. Threats against those who seek out and publish sensitive information are also threats against the press’s most essential function: providing a check on the powerful in the service of the powerless.

By protecting whistleblowers, we can engender a culture of support for radical transparency, adversarial journalism and democratic accountability. Courage recognises courage by fighting for those who stand up to power and expose the truth.

Human rights

Whistleblowers around the world face a range of negative consequences, from alienation and dismissal to state prosecution and abusive prison conditions. Conscientious objectors who expose rampant or heinous human rights violations have themselves been deprived of their basic rights, such as the expectation of humane treatment or a fair and speedy trial.

Courage prepares legal defence funds to defend whistleblowers in court and campaigns for their freedom and protection. By publicising any punitive measures imposed on truthtellers and ensuring their plight is not ignored in the press, Courage can prevent the next whistleblower from becoming the next political prisoner.