Dream - The United States Army says it's a crime. When First Class Soldier Bradley Manning downloaded tens of thousands of diplomatic cables onto a CD-RW disk at the Army's front post in Iraq from November 2009 to April 2010, he violated 18 US laws that criminalize unauthorized computer downloads. However, this is not just an ordinary crime. When Manning later handed over these electronic records to information freedom activist Julian Assange and his revolutionary website, WikiLeaks, he did something broader, where personal communication can easily and quickly spread worldwide.

WikiLeaks published the diplomatic cable documents starting from November 28, 2010, which included more than 250,000 diplomatic cables. This is the largest contemporary disclosure of secret information in history. It contains 11,000 documents marked as secret; the release of one of them, according to the US government's definition, would cause "serious damage to national security."

In the US, this leak has forced restrictions on intelligence sharing between agencies and new measures to control electronically stored secrets. And diplomats ranging from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the lowest-ranking political officials are trying to minimize the impact of the information disclosure on foreign countries. The impact of WikiLeaks is just beginning to be seen. In Korea, the Kim Jong Il regime, which possesses nuclear weapons, knows that its old protector, China, may oppose it and be willing to consider peninsula unification under the leadership of the South Korean government in Seoul.

In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad learned through the leaked documents that despite their neighbors in the Arab countries being friendly in public, they privately pleaded with the US to launch an attack on Tehran's nuclear program. Whether this revelation will weaken Iran's bargaining position or encourage Iranian leaders to be more calm and less cooperative in negotiations remains to be seen. What is clear is that in Iran and other countries, the WikiLeaks disclosure can change history.***

For Julian Assange, it is not the same. Like it or not, the founder of WikiLeaks has become so famous that he has the authority to determine what can or cannot be kept secret. Assange is a story in himself. He was born in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, in 1971 to parents who ran a theater company and moved more than 30 times before he was 14 years old.

In 1991, Assange was arrested along with several other Australian teenagers and charged with over 30 counts of hacking and other related computer crimes. He studied mathematics at the University of Melbourne but never graduated. Assange became a talented programmer. In 1997, he developed what he called a cryptography system to be used by human rights workers.

In the beginning of 2006, Assange realized the immense opportunities created by the combination of technology and the expansion of secrecy. It was reported that he was inspired by the leaking of the Pentagon documents, or the Pentagon Papers, and launched WikiLeaks in December 2006. The idea was to provide a platform for anyone, anywhere, who disagreed with the activities or secrets of any organization, wherever they may be.

Initially, a handful of activists recruited by Assange ran the site; and by 2010 they had five full-time staff and around 40 volunteers, as well as 800 people assisting, according to Assange. Assange remained a nomad, moving from one country to another and often claiming to be followed. An arrest warrant has been issued by the Swedish authorities who want to question Assange about allegations reported to have been made by two women regarding rape. Assange denies these allegations, but Interpol has issued a "red notice" against him.

In its first year, the WikiLeaks database grew to 1.2 million documents, and according to its website, they now receive 10,000 new documents every day. Among the millions of publications, there are some impressive pieces of information: documents accusing the family of President Kenya Daniel Toroitich arap Moi of corruption, the secret manual of the Church of Scientology, and the operating manual of the US detention center in Guantanamo Bay, revealing a determination to hide prisoners from the International Committee of the Red Cross's supervision.

Initially, Assange was treated with indifference by the US government, who seemed more amused than concerned about his activities. Then came Bradley Manning. Manning, a 22-year-old who had been trained as an intelligence analyst in the US Army in Arizona, was sent to the Hammer Contingency Operations Station in Baghdad last year. In May, Manning told his hacker friend that he had downloaded data onto a CD labeled Lady Gaga and had given WikiLeaks a video from Afghanistan, a secret Army document regarding the security threat of WikiLeaks, and 260,000 US diplomatic cables.

Hackers handed Manning over to the US military, and Administration officials said Manning was the only suspect in the cable case. In late May, the US military captured Manning. But it was already too late. At that time, WikiLeaks already had its diplomatic cables. And then leaked them. It became the largest intelligence disclosure in world history.***

For its supporters, Julian Assange is a brave truth campaigner. Assange is described by those who have worked with him as an intense, passionate, and highly intelligent individual, with exceptional abilities to crack computer codes. He founded Wikileaks, which publishes secret documents and images, in 2006, and became global news in April 2010 when they released footage showing US soldiers shooting dead 18 civilians and two Reuters journalists from a helicopter in Iraq.

However, at the end of that year, he was detained in England \u2013and later released on bail\u2013 after Sweden issued an international arrest warrant on charges of sexual assault. Swedish authorities wanted to question him regarding claims that he had raped one woman and sexually assaulted another woman, as well as forcing another woman in August 2010, while visiting Stockholm to give a lecture.

Assange said both meetings were entirely consensual. And a long legal battle ensued, leading him to seek asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden. He feared Sweden would extradite him to the United States. After spending nearly seven years inside the embassy, Assange was arrested by British police on April 11, 2019. This happened after Ecuador's newly elected President Lenín Moreno tweeted that his country had made a "sovereign decision" to withdraw his asylum status.

The founder of Wikileaks always argued that he couldn't leave the embassy because he feared being extradited from Sweden to the US and being tried for leaking classified US documents. Officials moved him from the embassy building and detained him at the central police station in downtown London. On May 1, 2019, Assange was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for violating his bail conditions. Several weeks later, the investigation into the rape allegations against Assange in 2010 was reopened by Swedish prosecutors.

Recently in that month, the US filed 17 new charges against Assange for violating the Espionage Act, related to the publication of classified documents in 2010. Wikileaks said the announcement was "madness" and "the end of national security journalism." As Assange prepared to fight extradition to the US, Swedish prosecutors announced that the investigation into the 2010 rape allegations had been dropped.

The prosecutor said that the evidence against Assange "is not strong enough to form the basis for filing charges," ending a decade-long case. In April 2020, it was revealed that Assange had become a father to two children while living inside the Ecuadorian embassy. Stella Morris, a lawyer from South Africa, said she has been in a relationship with the founder of Wikileaks since 2015 and has raised their two sons alone.

Julian Assange's fiancée said she is afraid their relationship will be made public. Currently imprisoned in Belmarsh Prison in London, Assange's legal battle against extradition to the US continues.***Assange started WikiLeaks in 2006 with a group of like-minded individuals from across the web, creating a web-based "dead drop" for potential whistleblowers.

"\u201cTo maintain the security of our sources, we must spread assets, encrypt everything, and move telecommunications and people around the world to activate protection laws in different national jurisdictions,\u201d said Assange. \u201cWe are skilled in this, and have never lost a case or source, but we cannot expect everyone to make extraordinary efforts like we do.\u201d He adopted a nomadic lifestyle, running WikiLeaks from temporary locations and constantly moving."

"He can go for long periods without eating and focus on work with little sleep, according to Raffi Khatchadourian, a reporter for the New Yorker magazine who spent several weeks traveling with him. 'He creates an atmosphere around him where people close to him want to take care of him, help him survive. I think it may have something to do with his charisma.' Important dates in Assange's legal battle:"

May 2012: The Supreme Court of England decided that Assange should be extradited to Sweden for questioning on the charges. June 2012: He entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London. August 2012: Ecuador granted him asylum, citing concerns that his human rights would be violated if he were extradited. August 2015: Swedish prosecutors dropped their investigation on the two charges.

December 2017: He was granted Ecuadorian citizenship October 2018: The Ecuadorian Embassy gave him a series of house rules to follow April 2019: Ecuador revoked his asylum status and he was arrested at the embassy May 2019: He was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for violating his bail conditions May 2019: Sweden reopens investigation into sexual violence.

May 2019: The US Department of Justice filed 17 new charges against him. November 2019 - Swedish prosecutors dropped the investigation into the rape allegations against him. However, on June 6, 2023, the UK High Court rejected WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange's appeal against his extradition order, which could lead to his extradition to the United States, where he could face a life sentence for leaking classified US documents in 2010.

In a three-page written decision issued on June 6, a single judge, Judge Swift, rejected all eight of Assange's appeals against the extradition order signed by then-UK Home Secretary Priti Patel in June 2022. This leaves only one final step in the English court, as the defense has five working days to file a 20-page appeal to a panel consisting of two judges, who will hold a public hearing.

Further comparison cannot be made at the domestic level, but Assange can take this case to the European Court of Human Rights. "It doesn't make sense if a judge can issue a three-page decision that can imprison Julian Assange for life and have a permanent impact on the climate of journalism worldwide. The historical significance of what happens next cannot be overstated; now is the time to stop this relentless targeting of Assange and take action to protect journalism and press freedom," said Rebecca Vincent, Director of the Reporters Without Borders Campaign or RSF.

Stella Moris Assange, who recently became Julian's wife, made a statement on Twitter: "Next Tuesday, my husband Julian Assange will file an appeal to the High Court. This issue will then proceed to a public hearing before two new judges at the High Court, and we remain optimistic that we will win and Julian will not be extradited to the United States where he faces charges. This could result in him spending the rest of his life in a maximum-security prison for publishing truthful information exposing war crimes committed by the US government."

This is the final stage in over three years of legal process in the English courts, when the US government has filed a request to extradite Assange to prosecute him on 18 charges related to the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked secret documents by WikiLeaks, which informed public interest reporting worldwide. Although the first-level court rejected extradition on the basis of mental health, the Appeals Court overturned that decision by considering the diplomatic assurances provided by the US government.

Assange will become the first publisher to be prosecuted under the Espionage Act, without any defense for public interest. He faces a total potential combined sentence of 175 years in prison. This is a tragedy for Julian Assange after all his contributions in exposing US military war crimes. His only mistake was performing journalistic work: revealing the truth.

"Fortunately, 63 members of the Australian Parliament recently moved to the US to prevent Assange from being extradited to the US, as it would anger Australian citizens. Did the call from the 63 members of the Australian Parliament and Senate have any effect? Only Allah knows. (eha)Source: Time, Guardian, BBC, CNN, RSF"