This topic is a call for help, that's why I posted it in the Beginners & Help board. It's a call for helping Julian!
I planned writing this topic for a while, but from various reasons (the most important being the lack of time) I delayed it. However,
The last sentence of this topic is a cautionary tale: "All of us should continue Cypherpunks' work and to fight for freedom!".
The Cypherpunks group emerged initially in 1992 from Eric Hughes, the author of "The Cypherpunk Manifesto", John Gilmore and Timothy May, the author of "The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto". From a former meeting in Gilmore's office, a mailing list was born, under the name of Cypherpunks mailing list.
During time, others joined Cypherpunks' fight against the State surveilling the citizens. They eventually reached a number of over 1000 contributors.
Julian Assange was part of the group between 1995 and 2002. His brilliant mind was easily observed by the others. If May, Hughes or Gilmore were focused more on "algorithms for people", on digital cash and on public's access to cryptography (in an era when NSA was fighting with all its powers against that), Assange had a different principle: “Freedom of information is a respected liberal value”.
The WikiLeaks Manifesto, a document less known, unfortunately, contains other words of wisdom from Julian: "Only revealed injustice can be answered; for man to do anything intelligent he has to know what's actually going on".
Since the apparition of Gutenberg's printing press in 1448, which led to the Printing Revolution, elites' power over classified documents decayed constantly. This was one of the first forms of the information decentralization. Julian Assange took it to a whole new level.
And this happened after the launch of WikiLeaks, in 2006.
"I grew up with the understanding that the world I lived in was one where people enjoyed a sort of freedom to communicate with each other in privacy, without it being monitored, without it being measured or analyzed or sort of judged by these shadowy figures or systems, any time they mention anything that travels across public lines." - Edward Snowden
Sharing a similar thought with Snowden; and even more: trying to help him by recommending him where to settle and where not to settle his new life after betraying the govern; Assange published thousands of classified information from all parts of the world.
His connection to Bitcoin?, some may ask.
After US govern initiated a financial blockade over WikiLeaks' accounts, Julian realized the potential of Bitcoin and intended to accept the new cryptocurrency as a form for donations. The idea put BitcoinTalk on flame at that time:
"Bring it on”, emphasized RHorning.
However, continues Assange, ""Satoshi Nakamoto,” the pseudonymous inventor of Bitcoin, responded: “No, don’t "bring it on". The project needs to grow gradually so the software can be strengthened along the way. I make this appeal to WikiLeaks not to try to use Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a small beta community in its infancy. You would not stand to get more than pocket change, and the heat you would bring would likely destroy us at this stage.” [...] Six days later, on 12 December 2010, Satoshi famously vanished from the Bitcoin community, but not before posting this message: “It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context. WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet’s nest, and the swarm is headed towards us.”".
As a deep sign of respect for Satoshi and for his work, as Assange stated also (in the previous mentioned link), "WikiLeaks read and agreed with Satoshi’s analysis, and decided to put off the launch of a bitcoin donation channel until the currency had become more established. WikiLeaks’ bitcoin donation address was launched after the currency’s first major boom, on 14 June 2011.".
A sign of respect which is a rara avis nowadays.
But Julian's rely on Bitcoin certainly didn't help just WikiLeaks: it also helped Bitcoin to become more popular; it raised awareness about Satoshi's creation; it brought more and more people on the path opened by Satoshi.
What happened next is known better than the above mentioned history. US govern started to hunt Assange in 2011, and as a response, Julian managed to help himself by asking asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy from London. His request was granted in 2012. However, his staying in the embassy was not easy - among others, he never put his step outside the embassy until 2019(!), living almost as an inmate. Between a fabricated accusation of sexual harassment, which was dropped after years by the Swedish govern, and his continuous work for WikiLeaks, Assange also tried to keep his moral and to do his best to avoid the extradition to US, being well aware this would mean if not a death penalty, then at least 175 years behind the bars.
Unfortunately, in 2019 Ecuador ended his asylum, for reasons more or less ridiculous, but it's almost clear that the decision was forced somehow by other secret agencies or by other governs.
At the moment of writing this thread, Julian's trial for extradition has started. During the trial, he is staying in prison.
As I was saying recently, in a previous topic,
The fight for freedom of speech, for privacy and for rendering governs as irrelevant started a long time ago. Now it is in our hands.
It is in our hands also to help Julian. And helping him means to help freedom of information!
I'm not going to say how to offer this help. I'm sure everybody knows, or, at least, has an intuition about that.
There is time for debates and time for action. Debating is dead now.
Issues of note:
I also recommend reading the following:
- Nils Melzer's The Trial of Julian Assange: A Story of Persecution - The shocking story of the legal persecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and the dangerous implications for the whistleblowers of the future
- Robert Manne's piece of art The Cypherpunk Revolutionary Julian Assange
- The Most Dangerous Man In The World: The Inside Story On Julian Assange And WikiLeaks, written by Andrew Fowler
- Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet, by Julian Assange. The book is a discussion between Julian, Jacob Appelbaum (Tor developer) and Jérémie Zimmermann (co-founder of La Quadrature du Net)
- Underground, by Suelette Dreyfus & Julian Assange. It is a fascinating book about the rise of Australian hackers and phreakers from 1980s, including the early activity of Julian Assange which, by that time, was known under the nym Mendax
- When Google Met WikiLeaks, by Julian Assange
- The Unauthorised Autobiography, by Julian Assange.
Besides, the following movies are parts of the must watch category:
Ithaka - a documentary showing Julian's struggle to avoid extradition to US
Mediastan: A Wikileaks Road Movie - a WikiLeaks very own documentary - full movie
Risk - a WikiLeaks documentary, directed by Laura Poitras (a friend of Julian Assange) - full movie
The Fifth Estate - a great movie about WikiLeaks
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks - yet another documentary about WikiLeaks
Underground: The Julian Assange Story - another movie about Julian, depicting his early career.
Translations (in chronological order):
- Română: Apelul pentru Assange || Manifestul WikiLeaks – Cu toții ar trebui să-l citim, translation by GazetaBitcoin
- Filipino: Ang tawag para kay Julian Assange || Ang Pagmanipesto ng WikiLeaks - Basahin, translation by jeraldskie11
- Polish: Wezwanie do Juliana Assange || Manifest WikiLeaks - Wszyscy powinniśmy go przeczytać, translation by cygan
- Pidgin: De call for Julian Assange || De WikiLeaks Manifesto - Make all of us read, translation by sokani
- Bengali: জুলিয়ানের জন্য ডাক - সবার পড়া উচিৎ, translation by Learn Bitcoin
- French: L'appel pour Julian Assange || Le Manifeste de WikiLeaks - Nous devrions le lire, translation by iwantmyhomepaidwithbtc2
- Urdu: جولین اسانج کی کال || وکی لیکس کا منشور - ہم ک, translation by JunaidAzizi
- Indonesian: Panggilan untuk Julian Assange||Manifesto WikiLeaks-Kita semua harus membacanya, translation by dansus021
- German: Der Aufruf für J. Assange || Das WikiLeaks-Manifest - Wir alle sollten es lesen, translation by cygan
- Russian: Пpизыв Джyлиaнa Accaнжa || Maнифecт WikiLeaks - мы вc, translation by DrBeer