Exclusive interview: Julian Assange, a Spy for the People

A long interview . Definitely worth reading .

Exclusive interview: Julian Assange, a Spy for the People

His big goal and ideal remains to create Wikileaks, an encyclopedia for the 21st century.

Jela Krečič, London

Now, every person in the world has his or her own biographer,« said the Wikileaks founder and its chief editor Julian Assange before we started the interview - this was his ironic comment on today's massive state monitoring of people.

Mr. Assange did a lot to disclose to the wide public how state agencies - of intelligence, defense, and diplomacy - effectively operate. Among other things, Wikileaks has also been instrumental in assuring Edward Snowden an asylum in Russia.

Individuals who delivered documents and data to Wikileaks have suffered a lot - Bradley (Chelsea) Manning will stay in prison for 35 years. Mr. Assange himself has for the last 15 months been confined to a couple of rooms in an upscale London apartment which serves as the Ecuadorian embassy to the United Kingdom.

A dozen policemen are posted day and night around the building to prevent his escape; the apartment is monitored from outside and the flats above and below; Assange cannot step even into the corridor of the building since policemen are also waiting for him there; he is unable to open a bank account, etc.

The United Kingdom thus employs around 50 people just to control Mr. Assange - why are they spending so much money in these times of austerity? Officially, because he refused to go to Sweden where the police wants to question him concerning some rather ridiculous allegations of sexual misconduct, a case that was previously closed, and he is not even formally charged of anything!

In spite of this heavy ordeal, Mr. Assange is not demoralized by the situation. Wikileaks has won some important court cases, and Mr. Assange's own court case in the UK may be reopened by the Supreme Court. He is still fully occupied with Wikileaks and several other engagements connected with it.

His big goal and ideal remains to create an encyclopedia for the 21st century - a website where the wide public would have free access to millions of suppressed documents and data that provide an insight into how state apparatuses which control us effectively function. Or, as he put it in theinterview for Delo, he wants to be a »spy for the people«.

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