Having read the indictment,
https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1165556/download
36. The significant activity reports from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars that ASSANGE
published included names of local Afghans and Iraqis who had provided information to U.S. and coalition forces. The State Department cables that WikiLeaks published included names of persons throughout the world who provided information to the U.S. government in circumstances in which they could reasonably expect that their identities would be kept confidential. These sources included journalists, religious leaders, human rights advocates, and political dissidents who were living in repressive regimes and reported to the United States the abuses of their own government, and the political conditions within their countries, at great risk to their own safety.
By publishing these documents without redacting the human sources’ names or other identifying information, ASSANGE created a grave and imminent risk that the innocent people he named would suffer serious physical harm and/or arbitrary detention.
37. On May 2, 2011, United States armed forces raided the compound of Osama bin
Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. During the raid, they collected a number of items of digital media, which included the following: (1) a letter from bin Laden to another member of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda in which bin Laden requested that the member gather the DoD material posted to WikiLeaks, (2) a letter from that same member of al-Qaeda to Bin Laden with information from the Afghanistan War Documents provided by Manning to WikiLeaks and released by WikiLeaks, and (3) Department of State information provided by Manning to WikiLeaks and released by WikiLeaks.
38. Paragraphs 39 and 40 contain examples of a few of the documents ASSANGE
published that contained the unredacted names of human sources. These are not the only documents that WikiLeaks published containing the names of sources, nor the only documents that put innocent people in grave danger si
39. The following are examples of significant activity reports related to the Afghanistan
and Iraq wars that ASSANGE published without redacting the names of human sources who were vulnerable to retribution by the Taliban in Afghanistan or the insurgency in Iraq:
a. Classified Document CI was a 2007 threat report containing details of a planned
anti-coalition attack at a specific location in Afghanistan. Classified Document CI
named the local human source who reported the plaimed attack. Classified
Document CI was classified at the SECRET level.
b. Classified Document C2 was a 2009 threat report identifying a person who supplied
weapons at a specific location in Afghanistan. Classified Document C2 named the
local human source who reported information. Classified Document C2 was
classified at the SECRET level.
c. Classified Document D1 was a 2009 report discussing an improvised explosive
device (lED) attack in Iraq. Classified Document D1 named local human sources
who provided information on the attack. Classified Document D1 was classified at
the SECRET level.
d. Classified Document D2 was a 2008 report that named a local person in Iraq who
had turned in weapons to coalition forces and had been threatened afterward.
Classified Document D2 was classified at the SECRET level.
40. The following are examples of State Department cables that ASSANGE published
without redacting the names of human sources who were vulnerable to retribution.
a. Classified Document A1 was a 2009 State Department cable discussing a political
situation in Iran. Classified Document A1 named a human source of information
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located in Iran and indicated that the source’s identity needed to be protected.
Classified Document A1 was classified at the SECRET level.
b. Classified Document A2 was a 2009 State Department cable discussing political
dynamics in Iran. Classified Document A2 named a human source of information
who regularly traveled to Iran and indicated that the source’s identity needed to be
protected. Classified Document A2 was classified at the SECRET level.
c. Classified Document A3 was a 2009 State Department cable discussing issues
related to ethnic conflict in China. Classified Document A3 named a human source
of information located in China and indicated that the source’s identity needed to
be protected. Classified Document A3 was classified at the SECRET level.
d. Classified Document A4 was a 2009 State Department cable discussing relations
between Iran and Syria. Classified Document A4 named human sources of
information located in Syria and indicated that the sources’ identities needed to be
protected. Classified Document A4 was classified at the SECRET level.
e. Classified Document A5 was a 2010 State Department cable discussing human
rights issues in Syria. Classified Document A5 named a human source of
information located in Syria and indicated that the source’s identity needed to be
protected. Classified Document A5 was classified at the SECRET level.
g. ASSANGE Knew that the Dissemination of the Names of Individual Sources
Endangered Those Individuals.
41. ASSANGE knew that his publication of Afghanistan and Iraq war-related
significant activity reports endangered sources, whom he named as having provided information to U.S. and coalition forces.
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42. In an interview in August 2010, ASSANGE called it “regrettable” that sources
disclosed by WikiLeaks “may face some threat as a result.” But, in the same interview, ASSANGE insisted that “we are not obligated to protect other people’s sources, military sources or spy organization sources, except from unjust retribution,” adding that in general “there are numerous cases where people sell information … or frame others or are engaged in genuinely traitorous behavior and actually that is something for the public to know about.”
43. ASSANGE also knew that his publication of the State Department cables
endangered sources whom he named as having provided information to the State Department. In a letter dated November 27,2010 from the State Department’s legal adviser to ASSANGE and his counsel, ASSANGE was informed, among other things, that publication of the State Department cables would “[place at risk the lives of countless innocent individuals—from journalists to human rights activists and bloggers to soldiers to individuals providing information to further peace and security.” Prior to his publication of the unredacted State Department cables, ASSANGE claimed that he intended “to gradually roll [the cables] out in a safe way” by partnering
vrith mainstream media outlets and “reading through every single cable and redacting identities accordingly.” Nonetheless, while ASSANGE and WikiLeaks published some of the cables in redacted form beginning in November 2010, they published over 250,000 cables in September
2011, in unredacted form, that is, without redacting the names of the human sources.
44. On July 30,2010, the New York Times published an article entitled “Taliban Study
WikiLeaks to Hunt Informants.” The article stated that, after the release of the Afghanistan war significant activity reports, a member of the Taliban contacted the New York Times and stated, “We are studying the report. We knew about the spies and people who collaborate with U.S. forces. We will investigate through our own secret service whether the people mentioned are really
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spies working for the U.S. If they are U.S. spies, then we know how to punish them.” When confronted about such reports, ASSANGE said, “The Taliban is not a coherent outfit, but we don’t say that it is absolutely impossible that anything we ever publish will ever result in harm—we cannot say that.”
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Of course, the US government covered up the outright, casual murders by military personnel. There is no talk about charging those exposed.
Jimmy Walter 