WikiLeaks (Organization) - Wikileaks inside Julian Assanges war on secrecy

WikiLeaks

M ELBOURNE , N AIROBI , R EYKJAVIK, BERLIN ,
L ONDON , N ORFOLK , S TOCKHOLM

Julian Assange WikiLeaks founder/editor

Sarah Harrison aide to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Kristinn Hrafnsson Icelandic journalist and WikiLeaks supporter

James Ball WikiLeaks data expert

Vaughan Smith former Grenadier Guards captain, founder of the Frontline Club and Assanges host at Ellingham Hall

Jacob Appelbaum WikiLeaks representative in the US

Daniel Ellsberg Vietnam war whistleblower, WikiLeaks supporter

Daniel Domscheit-Berg German programmer and WikiLeaks technical architect (aka Daniel Schmitt)

Mikael Viborg owner of WikiLeaks Swedish internet service provider PRQ

Ben Laurie British encryption expert, adviser to Assange on encryption

Mwalimu Mati head of anti-corruption group Mars Group Kenya, source of first major WikiLeaks report

Rudolf Elmer former head of the Cayman Islands branch of the Julius Baer bank, source of second major WikiLeaks report

Smri McCarthy Iceland-based WikiLeaks enthusiast, programmer, Modern Media Initiative (MMI) campaigner

Birgitta Jnsdttir Icelandic MP and WikiLeaks supporter

Rop Gonggrijp Dutch hacker-businessman, friend of Assange and MMI campaigner

Herbert Snorrason Icelandic MMI campaigner

Israel Shamir WikiLeaks associate

Donald Bstrom Swedish journalist and WikiLeaks Stockholm connection

The Guardian

L ONDON

Alan Rusbridger editor-in-chief

Nick Davies investigative reporter

David Leigh investigations editor

Ian Katz deputy editor (news)

Ian Traynor Europe correspondent

Harold Frayman systems editor

Declan Walsh Pakistan/Afghanistan correspondent

Alastair Dant data visualiser

Simon Rogers data editor

Jonathan Steele former Iraq correspondent

James Meek former Iraq correspondent

Rob Evans investigative journalist

Luke Harding Moscow correspondent

Robert Booth reporter

Stuart Millar news editor, guardian.co.uk

Janine Gibson editor, guardian.co.uk

Jonathan Casson head of production

Gill Phillips in-house head of legal

Jan Thompson managing editor

New York Times

N EW Y ORK , L ONDON

Max Frankel former executive editor

Bill Keller editor

Eric Schmitt war correspondent

John F Burns London correspondent

Ian Fisher deputy foreign editor

Der Spiegel

H AMBURG , L ONDON

Georg Mascolo editor-in-chief

Holger Stark head of German desk

Marcel Rosenbach journalist

John Goetz journalist

El Pas

M ADRID , L ONDON

Javier Moreno editor-in-chief

Vicente Jimnez deputy editor

Other Media

Raffi Khatchadourian New Yorker staffer and author of a major profile of Assange

Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen Reuters news agency employees accidentally killed by US army pilots in 2007

David Schlesinger Reuters editor-in-chief

Kevin Poulsen former hacker, senior editor at Wired

Gavin MacFadyen City University professor and journalist, London host to Assange

Stephen Grey freelance reporter

Iain Overton former TV journalist, head of Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Heather Brooke London-based American journalist and freedom of information activist

Bradley Manning

Bradley Manning 23-year-old US army private and alleged WikiLeaks source

Rick McCombs former principal at Crescent high school, Crescent, Oklahoma

Brian, Susan, Casey Manning parents and sister

Tom Dyer school friend

Kord Campbell former manager at Zoto software company

Jeff Paterson steering committee member of the Bradley Manning support network

Adrian Lamo hacker and online confidant

Timothy Webster former US army counter-intelligence special agent

Tyler Watkins former boyfriend

David House former hacker and supporter

David Coombs lawyer

Julian Assange

Christine Hawkins mother

John Shipton father

Brett Assange stepfather

Keith Hamilton former partner of Christine

Daniel Assange Julians son

Paul Galbally Assanges lawyer during his 1996 hacking trial

Stockholm allegations / extradition

Sonja Braun plaintiff; member of Brotherhood movement

Katrin Weiss plaintiff; museum worker

Claes Borgstrm lawyer for both women, former Swedish equal opportunities ombudsman and prominent Social Democrat politician

Marianne Ny Swedish chief prosecutor and sex crimes specialist

Mark Stephens Assange lawyer

Geoffrey Robertson, QC Assange lawyer

Jennifer Robinson lawyer in Mark Stephens office

Gemma Lindfield lawyer acting for the Swedish authorities

Howard Riddle district judge, Westminster magistrates court

Mr Justice Ouseley high court judge, London

Government

Hillary Clinton US Secretary of State

Louis B Susman US ambassador in London

PJ Crowley US assistant secretary of state for public affairs

Harold Koh US state departments legal adviser

Robert Gates US defence secretary

Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles former UK government special representative to Afghanistan and former ambassador to Kabul

Back in the days when almost no one had heard about WikiLeaks, regular emails started arriving in my inbox from someone called Julian Assange. It was a memorable kind of name. All editors receive a daily mix of unsolicited tip-offs, letters, complaints and crank theories, but there was something about the periodic WikiLeaks emails which caught the attention.

Sometimes there would be a decent story attached to the emails. Or there might be a document which, on closer inspection, appeared rather underwhelming. One day there might arrive a diatribe against a particular journalist or against the venal cowardice of mainstream media in general. Another day this Assange person would be pleased with something wed done, or would perambulate about the life he was living in Nairobi.

In Britain the Guardian was, for many months, the only paper to write about WikiLeaks or to use any of the documents they were unearthing. In August 2007, for instance, we splashed on a remarkable secret Kroll report which claimed to show that former President Daniel Arap Moi had been siphoning off hundreds of millions of pounds and hiding them away in foreign bank accounts in more than 30 different countries. It was, by any standards, a stonking story. This Assange, whoever he was, was one to watch.

Unnoticed by most of the world, Julian Assange was developing into a most interesting and unusual pioneer in using digital technologies to challenge corrupt and authoritarian states. Its doubtful whether his name would have meant anything to Hillary Clinton at the time or even in January 2010 when, as secretary of state, she made a rather good speech about the potential of what she termed a new nervous system for our planet.