Long interview with Julian Assange

I read this when it was first published, before the current crop of shit hit the fan. It was brewing at this stage. This is about the most information available on Assange. Definitely worth a read.

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http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/the-secret-life-of-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-20100521-w1um.html
The secret life of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange
May 22, 2010

Julian Assange, the man behind the world's biggest leaks, believes in total openness and transparency - except when it comes to himself. Nikki Barrowclough tracked him down.

Julian Assange has never publicly admitted that he's the brains behind Wikileaks, the website that has so radically rewritten the rules in the information era. He did, however, register a website, Leaks.org, in 1999. ''But then I didn't do anything with it.''

Wikileaks appeared on the internet three years ago. It acts as an electronic dead drop for highly sensitive or secret information: the pure stuff, in other words, published straight from the secret files to the world. No filters, no rewriting, no spin. Created by an online network of dissidents, journalists, academics, technology experts and mathematicians from various countries, the website also uses technology that makes the original sources of the leaks untraceable.

In April the website released graphic, classified video footage of an American helicopter gunship firing on and killing Iraqis in a Baghdad street in 2007, apparently in cold blood. The de-encrypted video, which Wikileaks released on its own sites as well as on YouTube, caused an international uproar.