85-477: Julian Paul Assange ( / ə ˈ s ɑː n ʒ / ə- SAHNZH ; né Hawkins ; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to international attention in 2010 after WikiLeaks published a series of leaks from Chelsea Manning , a United States Army intelligence analyst: footage of a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad , U.S. military logs from
170-555: A plea deal with U.S. prosecutors. He pleaded guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defence documents in return for a sentence of time served . Following the hearing Assange flew to Australia, arriving on 26 June. Assange was born Julian Paul Hawkins on 3 July 1971 in Townsville , Queensland, to Christine Ann Hawkins, a visual artist , and John Shipton , an anti-war activist and builder. The couple separated before their son
255-545: A "LEAKS" project. Assange stated that he registered the domain "leaks.org" in 1999, but did not use it. He publicised a patent granted to the National Security Agency in August 1999, for voice-data harvesting technology saying "This patent should worry people. Everyone's overseas phone calls are or may soon be tapped, transcribed and archived in the bowels of an unaccountable foreign spy agency." Assange and
340-520: A book on the Internet about how to build a bomb". In the same year, he took over running one of the first public Internet service providers in Australia, Suburbia Public Access Network, when its original owner, Mark Dorset, moved to Sydney . He joined the cypherpunk mailing list in late 1993 or early 1994. According to Robert Manne , Assange's main political focus at this time seems to have been
425-766: A data network used by the US military, where Assange found reports he said showed the US military was hacking other parts of itself. Assange found a backdoor and later said they "had control over it for two years." In 2012, Ken Day, the former head of the Australian Federal Police computer crime team, said that there had been no evidence the International Subversives had hacked MILNET. In response to Assange's statements about accessing MILNET, Day said that "Assange may still be liable to prosecution for that act—if it can be proved." Assange wrote
510-616: A former adoptee of The Family, said the group had become a "toothless tiger". Sarah Hamilton-Byrne died in 2016, aged 46. Anne Hamilton-Byrne died on 13 June 2019, aged 97. In 2016, a documentary on the sect entitled The Family was released at the Melbourne International Film Festival ; it was produced by Anna Grieve and written, directed, and co-produced by Rosie Jones. It has been published on DVD by Label Distribution Pty Ltd, designated LAB005. A companion book, The Family: The Shocking True Story of
595-406: A group of other dissidents, mathematicians and activists established WikiLeaks in 2006. Assange became a member of its advisory board. From 2007 to 2010, Assange travelled continuously on WikiLeaks business, visiting Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. In December 2006, the month WikiLeaks posted its first leak, Assange published a five-page essay that outlined the "thought experiment" behind
680-536: A guard shouted. The Kenya leak led to corruption being a major issue in the election that followed, which was marred by violence. According to Assange, "1,300 people were eventually killed, and 350,000 were displaced. That was a result of our leak. On the other hand, the Kenyan people had a right to that information and 40,000 children a year die of malaria in Kenya. And many more die of money being pulled out of Kenya, and as
765-518: A lot of trouble at the South Fallsburg ashram and some of Muktananda's devotees defected to The Family. Sarah was present when Swami Tejomayanand was initiated into The Family, later saying that she could not understand why he would want to join a sect where everyone was so miserable when it seemed that everyone around Muktananda was so happy. In 1987, Hamilton-Byrne expelled Sarah from the group because of arguing and rebellious behaviour. With
850-539: A meeting hall called Santiniketan Lodge. The group consisted of middle-class professionals, a quarter of whom were medical personnel recruited by Johnson via Hamilton-Byrne's hatha yoga classes. Members mainly lived in the suburbs of Melbourne and in townships of the Dandenong Ranges, meeting each Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday evening at Santiniketan Lodge, at Crowther House in Olinda , or another property in
935-583: A mixture of Western and Eastern religious doctrines, with Hamilton-Byrne claiming to have been a reincarnation of Jesus . It has widely been described as a cult . The group became the centre of controversy when its compound in Olinda, Victoria , was raided by police on 14 August 1987 amid allegations of child abuse . All children were removed from the premises, and were discovered to have been adopted through illegal means. Hamilton-Byrne and her husband were eventually arrested in 1993 and charged with conspiracy to defraud and to commit perjury in relation to
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#17327755412441020-566: A password. When Manning told Assange she had nothing else to submit to WikiLeaks, he replied that "curious eyes never run dry in my experience." During her court martial, Manning said she downloaded the detainee assessment briefs (DABs) for Guantanamo Bay after speaking to a member of Wikileaks via a secure online chat log. While discussing files on Guantanamo Bay, Manning asked Assange about detainee assessment briefs. She said that "although he did not believe that they were of political significance, he did believe that they could be used to merge into
1105-466: A patient in 1975 that was alleged to have been due to deep sleep therapy . The inquest heard evidence concerning the use of electroconvulsive therapy, LSD, and other practices at Newhaven, but found no evidence that deep sleep had been used on the deceased patient. The hospital was later reopened as a nursing home with no connections to its previous owner or uses. Hamilton-Byrne acquired fourteen infants and young children between 1968 and 1975. Some were
1190-416: A program called Sycophant that allowed the International Subversives to conduct "massive attacks on the US military". The International Subversives regularly hacked into systems belonging to a "who's who of the U.S. military-industrial complex " and the network of Australia National University . Assange later said he had been "a famous teenage hacker in Australia, and I've been reading generals' emails since I
1275-535: A result of the Kenyan shilling being debased". Reporters have discussed the moral dilemma involved in reporting the corruption in Kenya. WikiLeaks' international profile increased in 2008 when a Swiss bank, Bank Julius Baer , tried via a Californian court injunction to prevent the site's publication of bank records. Assange commented that financial institutions ordinarily "operate outside the rule of law", and he received extensive legal support from free-speech and civil rights groups. Bank Julius Baer's attempt to prevent
1360-432: A result of the disclosures in the agreement submitted to the court prior to his release. The US cited the release in the opening of its request for extradition of Assange, saying his actions put lives at risk. John Young, the owner and operator of the website Cryptome , testified at Assange's extradition hearing that the unredacted cables were published by Cryptome on 1 September, the day before WikiLeaks, and they remain on
1445-570: A rural property usually referred to as "Uptop", at Taylor Bay on Lake Eildon . All were told that Hamilton-Byrne was their biological mother and knew the other adults in the group as "aunties" and "uncles". They were denied almost all access to the outside world, and subjected to a discipline that included starvation diets and frequent, unprovoked beatings. Doses of the psychiatric drugs fluphenazine , diazepam , haloperidol , chlorpromazine , nitrazepam , oxazepam , trifluoperazine , carbamazepine , or imipramine were frequently administered to
1530-558: A series of disputes with Ecuadorian authorities. The police were invited into the embassy and he was arrested. He was found guilty of breaching the United Kingdom Bail Act and sentenced to 50 weeks in prison. The U.S. government unsealed an indictment charging Assange with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion related to the leaks provided by Manning. In May 2019 and June 2020, the U.S. government unsealed new indictments against Assange, charging him with violating
1615-448: Is my role to be the lightning rod... to attract the attacks against the organization for our work, and that is a difficult role. On the other hand, I get undue credit." Assange travelled often and tried to stay away from Western intelligence agencies by checking into hotels under false names, sleeping on sofas and floors, and using encrypted phones and cash. According to David Leigh and Luke Harding they had to persuade Assange to redact
1700-508: Is the name given to a person upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname , the given name , or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth register may by that fact alone become the person's legal name . The assumption in the Western world is often that the name from birth (or perhaps from baptism or brit milah ) will persist to adulthood in
1785-461: Is the masculine form. The term née , having feminine grammatical gender , can be used to denote a woman's surname at birth that has been replaced or changed. In most English-speaking cultures, it is specifically applied to a woman's maiden name after her surname has changed due to marriage. The term né can be used to denote a man's surname at birth that has subsequently been replaced or changed. The diacritic mark (the acute accent ) over
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#17327755412441870-447: The 12 July 2007, Baghdad airstrike , that have been regarded by several debaters as evidence of war crimes committed by the U.S. military. The news agency Reuters had earlier requested the footage through a US Freedom of Information Act request, but the request was denied. Assange and others worked for a week to break the U.S. military's encryption of the video, which they titled Collateral Murder and which Assange first presented at
1955-528: The Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and U.S. diplomatic cables . Assange has won multiple awards for publishing and journalism. Assange was raised in various places around Australia until his family settled in Melbourne in his middle teens. He became involved in the hacker community and was convicted for hacking in 1996. Following the establishment of WikiLeaks, Assange was its editor when it published
2040-472: The Arab Spring . In March 2010 a member of WikiLeaks using the handle "Ox", widely believed to be Julian Assange, talked to Chelsea Manning by text chat while she was submitting leaks to WikiLeaks. The US referred to these chat logs in the 2018 indictment of Julian Assange and filed an affidavit which said they were able to identify Assange as the person chatting with Manning using hints he made during
2125-557: The Arab world , extrajudicial executions by Kenyan police, 2008 Tibetan unrest in China, and the "Petrogate" oil scandal in Peru . From its inception, the website had a significant impact on political news in a large number of countries and across a wide range of issues. From its inception, WikiLeaks sought to engage with the established professional media. It had good relations with parts of
2210-530: The Australian Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents, and secretly recorded meetings with Health and Community Services. The group also used flyers to encourage insiders to anonymously come forward, and according to Assange they "had moles who were inside dissidents." An insider leaked a key internal departmental manual about the rules for custody disputes to the group. In November 1996 Assange sent an email to lists he had created and mentioned
2295-570: The Bank Julius Baer documents , footage of the 2008 Tibetan unrest , and a report on political killings in Kenya with The Sunday Times . Publication of the leaks from Manning started in February 2010. In November 2010 Sweden wished to question Assange in an unrelated police investigation and sought to extradite him from the UK. In June 2012, Assange breached his bail and took refuge in
2380-489: The Crimes Act , and fraudulent use of a telecommunications network. The judge called the charges "quite serious" and initially thought a jail term would be necessary but ultimately sentenced Assange to a fine of A$ 2,100 and released him on a A$ 5,000 good behaviour bond because of his disrupted childhood and the absence of malicious or mercenary intent. After his sentencing, Assange told the judge that he had "been misled by
2465-700: The Embassy of Ecuador in London . He was granted asylum by Ecuador in August 2012 on the grounds of political persecution and fears he might be extradited to the United States. In 2013, he launched the WikiLeaks Party and unsuccessfully stood for the Australian Senate . Swedish prosecutors dropped their investigation in 2019. On 11 April 2019, Assange's asylum was withdrawn following
2550-637: The Espionage Act of 1917 and alleging he had conspired with hackers. Assange was incarcerated in HM Prison Belmarsh in London from April 2019 to June 2024, as the U.S. government's extradition effort was contested in the UK courts. In 2024, following a High Court ruling that granted Assange a full appeal to extradition, Assange and his lawyers negotiated a deal with the DOJ. Assange agreed to
2635-800: The Sanskrit name Ma Yoga Shakti. In 1979 and 1981 she took some of the children to stay with Muktananda at his ashram at South Fallsburg, New York , United States, and purchased a nearby property as her own base in America. Sarah Hamilton-Byrne later recalled how Muktananda would give a private audience (or darshan) once a week to The Family. He once asked the children if they would like to leave The Family and live with him at his Gurudev Siddha Peeth ashram in India. The children all gave an enthusiastic yes but were later punished by Hamilton-Byrne for disloyalty. According to Sarah, Hamilton-Byrne eventually caused
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2720-634: The U.S. National Press Club . It shows United States soldiers fatally shooting 18 civilians from a helicopter in Iraq, including Reuters journalists Namir Noor-Eldeen and his assistant Saeed Chmagh . WikiLeaks published the Afghan War logs in July 2010. It was described by the New York Times as "a six-year archive of classified military documents [that] offers an unvarnished and grim picture of
2805-791: The University of Melbourne (2003–2006), but did not complete a degree. Assange started the Puzzle Hunt tradition at the University of Melbourne, which was modelled after the MIT Mystery Hunt . He was involved in the Melbourne rave scene, and assisted in installing an internet kiosk at Ollie Olsen 's club night called "Psychic Harmony", which was held at Dream nightclub in Carlton (now called Illusion). Assange's nickname at
2890-507: The Victoria Police Child Exploitation Unit to prosecute individuals responsible for publishing and distributing child pornography. His lawyers said he was pleased to assist, emphasising that he received no benefit for this and was not an informer. His role in helping the police was discussed during his 1996 sentencing on computer hacking charges. According to his mother, Assange also helped police "remove
2975-523: The WANK hack at NASA in 1989, but this has never been proven. Assange called it "the origin of hacktivism ", and the Swedish television documentary WikiRebels , which was made with Assange's cooperation, also hinted he was involved. The WANK worm was also discussed in the opening chapter of Underground , a book for which Assange was the researcher. In mid-1991 the three hackers began targeting MILNET ,
3060-456: The e is considered significant to its spelling, and ultimately its meaning, but is sometimes omitted. According to Oxford University 's Dictionary of Modern English Usage , the terms are typically placed after the current surname (e.g., " Margaret Thatcher , née Roberts" or " Bill Clinton , né Blythe"). Since they are terms adopted into English (from French), they do not have to be italicized , but they often are. In Polish tradition ,
3145-444: The " network intrusion detection technologies" company Earthmen Technology which developed Linux kernel hacking tools. During this period he also earned a sizeable income working as a consultant for large corporations. In October 1998, Assange decided to visit friends and announced on the cypherpunks mailing list he would be "hopscotching" through Russia , Mongolia , China , Poland and Eastern Europe . According to Assange, in
3230-545: The 1990s, he and Suburbia Public Access Network facilitated leaks for activists and lawyers. Assange told Suelette Dreyfus that he had "acted as a conduit for leaked documents" when fighting local corruption. While awaiting trial and trying to get custody of his son, Assange and his mother formed the activist organisation Parent Inquiry Into Child Protection. An article in the Canadian magazine Maclean's later referred to it as "a low-tech rehearsal for WikiLeaks". The group used
3315-515: The AUCRYPTO forum, ran a website that gave advice on computer security to 5,000 subscribers in 1996, and contributed research to Suelette Dreyfus 's Underground (1997), a book about Australian hackers including the International Subversives. According to Assange, he "deliberately minimized" his role in Underground so it could "pull in the whole community". In 1998 he co-founded with Trax
3400-618: The Afghan war". In October 2010, WikiLeaks published the Iraq War logs , a collection of 391,832 United States Army field reports from the Iraq War covering from 2004 to 2009. Assange said that he hoped the publication would "correct some of that attack on the truth that occurred before the war, during the war, and which has continued after the war". Regarding his own role within WikiLeaks, he said, "We always expect tremendous criticism. It
3485-612: The Commission released a redacted report and then removed it. WikiLeaks obtained and restored the full text. The report found that foreign property developers had given millions of US dollars in payments and secret loans to senior politicians in the islands, including the TCI's former premier, Michael Misick . The Cablegate as well as Iraq and Afghan War releases impacted diplomacy and public opinion globally, with responses varying by region. In April 2010, WikiLeaks released video footage of
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3570-455: The Cryptome site. Lawyers for Assange gave evidence it said would show that Assange was careful to protect lives. In December 2010, PostFinance said it was closing Assange's Swiss bank account because he "provided false information regarding his place of residence during the account opening process" but that there would be "no criminal consequences" for misleading authorities. WikiLeaks said
3655-549: The German and British press. A collaboration with the Sunday Times journalist Jon Swain on a report on political killings in Kenya led to increased public recognition of the WikiLeaks publication, and this collaboration won Assange the 2009 Amnesty International New Media Award. Assange said that six men with guns tried to attack the compound that he slept at in Kenya after the report was published, but were scared away when
3740-456: The German magazine Der Freitag published an article giving details which enabled people to piece the information together. On 1 September 2011, WikiLeaks announced they would make the unredacted cables public and searchable. The Guardian wrote that the decision to publish the cables was made by Assange alone, a decision that it and its four previous media partners condemned. Glenn Greenwald wrote that "WikiLeaks decided—quite reasonably—that
3825-518: The WikiLeaks strategy: use leaks to force organisations to reduce levels of abuse and dishonesty or pay "secrecy tax" to be secret but inefficient. Assange explained: The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in the leadership and planning coterie. This must result in minimization of efficient internal communications mechanisms (an increase in cognitive "secrecy tax") and consequent system-wide cognitive decline resulting in decreased ability to hold onto power as
3910-540: The account was used to "donate directly to the Julian Assange and other WikiLeaks Staff Defence Fund" and said the closing was part of a banking blockade against WikiLeaks . According to the Associated Press , leaked documents from WikiLeaks include an unsigned letter from Julian Assange authorising Israel Shamir to seek a Russian visa on his behalf in 2010. WikiLeaks said Assange never applied for
3995-482: The accusations he said "It is absolutely right to name names. It is not necessarily right to name every name." John Goetz of Der Spiegel, who was also at the dinner, says that Assange did not make such a statement. In November 2010 WikiLeaks published a quarter of a million U.S. diplomatic cables, known as the "Cablegate" files. WikiLeaks initially worked with established Western media organisations, and later with smaller regional media organisations while also publishing
4080-416: The adoption scams, but those charges were eventually dropped. She pleaded guilty to the remaining charge of making a false declaration and was fined $ 5,000. The Family taught an eclectic mixture of Christianity and Hinduism with other Eastern and Western religions, on the principle that spiritual truths are universal. Children raised in the group studied the major scriptures of these religions as well as
4165-521: The area known as the White Lodge. By the 1980s, police estimated that Hamilton-Byrne's fortune was as much as A$ 50 million. During the late 1960s and 1970s, Newhaven Hospital in Kew was a private psychiatric hospital owned and managed by Marion Villimek, a Family member; many of its staff and attending psychiatrists were also members. The Family recruited some of the hospital's patients into
4250-488: The argument that WikiLeaks' publications put lives at risk. At one of Assange's extradition hearings in 2020, a lawyer for the US said that "sources, whose redacted names and other identifying information was contained in classified documents published by WikiLeaks, who subsequently disappeared, although the US can't prove at this point that their disappearance was the result of being outed by WikiLeaks." The US Justice Department conceded that it had not identified anyone harmed as
4335-451: The best and safest course was to release all the cables in full, so that not only the world's intelligence agencies but everyone had them, so that steps could be taken to protect the sources and so that the information in them was equally available". The US established an Information Review Task Force (IRTF) to investigate the impact of WikiLeaks' publications. It involved as many as 125 people working over 10 months. According to IRTF reports,
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#17327755412444420-507: The biological children of members of The Family; others had been obtained through illegal adoptions arranged by lawyers, doctors, and social workers within the group who could bypass normal protocols. The children's identities were changed using false birth certificates or deed polls . All were given the surname "Hamilton-Byrne" and made to dress alike, even to the extent that most had their hair being dyed uniformly blonde. The children were kept in seclusion and home-schooled at Kai Lama,
4505-520: The births of three unrelated children as their own triplets, charges that were later dropped. Elizabeth Whitaker, the wife of Howard Whitaker, was their co-defendant. Hamilton-Byrne and her husband pleaded guilty to the remaining charge of making a false declaration and were fined $ 5,000 each. The conspiracy charges against Whitaker were dropped, but she was convicted of falsely obtaining nearly $ 23,000 between 1983 and 1987. Other members of The Family were also tried at court. Margot MacLellan, aged 64,
4590-474: The cables upon which their reporting was based. Assange told a media partner that he owned the information and had a financial interest in how it was released. The files show United States espionage against the United Nations and other world leaders, revealed tensions between the U.S. and its allies, and exposed corruption in countries throughout the world as documented by U.S. diplomats, helping to spark
4675-454: The chats and that Manning identified him as Assange to Adrian Lamo . In the chat logs, Manning asks Assange if he was "any good at LM hash cracking", which would decrypt passwords. Assange said he was, and told Manning about rainbow tables that WikiLeaks used to crack hashes and find passwords associated with them. An affidavit by an FBI agent involved in bringing the case against Assange claimed this showed an "illegal agreement" to help crack
4760-495: The children. On reaching adolescence they were compelled to undergo an initiation process involving LSD; while under the influence of the drug the child would be left in a dark room, alone, apart from visits by Hamilton-Byrne or one of the psychiatrists from The Family. For several years, Hamilton-Byrne developed a connection to the Siddha Yoga movement, receiving shaktipat initiation from Swami Muktananda and taking
4845-479: The court did not take the case, sending it back to the County Court. Assange fell into a deep depression while waiting for his trial and checked himself into a psychiatric hospital and then spent six months sleeping in the wilderness around Melbourne. In December 1996, facing a theoretical sentence of 290 years in prison, he struck a plea deal and pleaded guilty to 24 hacking charges including breaches of
4930-570: The documents was unsuccessful and few of the leaks attracted mainstream media attention. In July 2009 Assange released through Wikileaks the full report of a commission of inquiry, set up by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office , into corruption in the Turks and Caicos Islands . The report had been due for publication earlier in the year but an injunction obtained by some of those named had prevented its publication. According to Assange,
5015-526: The encryption key in their book WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy . Leigh said he believed the key was a temporary one that would expire within days. WikiLeaks supporters disseminated the encrypted files to mirror sites in December 2010 after WikiLeaks experienced cyber-attacks. When WikiLeaks learned what had happened it notified the US State Department . On 25 August 2011,
5100-811: The environment demands adaptation. Assange found key supporters at the Chaos Computer Club conference in Berlin in December 2007, including Daniel Domscheit-Berg and Jacob Appelbaum and the Swedish hosting company PRQ . During this period, Assange was WikiLeaks' editor-in-chief and one of four permanent staff. The organisation maintained a larger group of volunteers, and Assange relied upon networks of others with expertise. The organisation published internet censorship lists, leaks , and classified media from anonymous sources . The publications include revelations about drone strikes in Yemen , corruption across
5185-464: The general historical account of what occurred at Guantanamo." She added that "after this discussion, I decided to download the data." In 2011, a series of events compromised the security of a WikiLeaks file containing the leaked US diplomatic cables. In August 2010, Assange gave Guardian journalist David Leigh an encryption key and a URL where he could locate the full file. In February 2011 David Leigh and Luke Harding of The Guardian published
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#17327755412445270-461: The group, and administered the hallucinogenic drug LSD to both patients and members under the direction of Family psychiatrists John Mackay and Howard Whitaker. One of the original members of the Family was given LSD, electroconvulsive therapy , and two leucotomies during the late 1960s. Although Newhaven Hospital had been closed down by 1992, an inquest was ordered that year into the death of
5355-600: The information-sharing possibilities created by the internet and its threats. He began programming in 1994, authoring or co-authoring network and encryption programs, such as the Rubberhose deniable encryption system. Assange wrote other programs to make the Internet more accessible and developed cyber warfare systems like the Strobe port scanner which could look for weaknesses in hundreds of thousands of computers at any one time. During this period of time he also moderated
5440-515: The leaks could cause "serious damage" and put foreign US sources at risk. The head of the IRTF, Brigadier General Robert Carr, testified under questioning at Chelsea Manning's sentencing hearing that the task force had found no examples of anyone who had lost their life due to WikiLeaks' publication of the documents. Ed Pilkington wrote in The Guardian that Carr's testimony significantly undermined
5525-412: The names of Afghani informants, expressing their fear that they could be killed if exposed. In their book WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy they say Declan Walsh heard Assange say at a dinner when asked about redaction "Well, they're informants, so if they get killed, they've got it coming to them. They deserve it." Assange denies making this statement; speaking on PBS Frontline about
5610-405: The normal course of affairs—either throughout life or until marriage. Some reasons for changes of a person's name include middle names , diminutive forms, changes relating to parental status (due to one's parents' divorce or adoption by different parents), and gender transition . The French and English-adopted née is the feminine past participle of naître , which means "to be born". Né
5695-535: The only data he inserted or deleted was his program. The prosecution argued that a magazine written by the International Subversives would encourage others to hack, calling it a "hacker's manual" and alleging that Assange and the other hackers posted information online about how to hack into computers they had accessed. His trial date was set in May 1995 and his case was presented to the Supreme Court of Victoria , but
5780-541: The others in, and the AFP tapped Assange's phone line (he was using a modem ) and raided his home at the end of October. The earliest detailed reports about Assange are 1990s Australian press reports on him and print and TV news of his trial. He was charged in 1994 with 31 counts of crimes related to hacking, including defrauding Telecom Australia , fraudulent use of a telecommunications network, obtaining access to information, erasing data, and altering data. According to Assange,
5865-645: The process". Over the next several years, WikiLeaks published the Guantanamo Bay files leak , the Syria Files , the Kissinger cables , and the Saudi cables. As of July 2015, Assange said WikiLeaks had published more than ten million documents and associated analyses; he described it as "a giant library of the world's most persecuted documents". Birth name#Maiden and married names A birth name
5950-423: The prosecution in terms of the charges" and "a great misjustice has been done". The judge told Assange "you have pleaded guilty, the proceedings are over" and advised him to be quiet. Assange has described the trial as a formative period and according to The New Republic , "the experience set him on the intellectual path" leading him to found WikiLeaks. In 1993, Assange provided technical advice and support to help
6035-531: The publication via injunction backfired. As a result of the Streisand effect , the publicity drew global attention to WikiLeaks and the bank documents. By 2009 WikiLeaks had succeeded in Assange's intentions to expose the powerful, publish material beyond the control of states, and attract media support for its advocacy of freedom of speech , though not as much as he hoped; his goal of crowd-sourcing analysis of
6120-735: The raid, Hamilton-Byrne and her husband, William, left Australia for a period of six years. Operation Forest, an investigation involving police in Australia, the UK, and the US, resulted in their arrest in June 1993 by the FBI in New York. This followed admissions by former members of The Family, including the group's solicitor Peter Kibby, that the group had engaged in adoptions scams, including acts of forgery . Hamilton-Byrne and her husband were extradited to Australia and charged with conspiracy to defraud and to commit perjury by falsely registering
6205-455: The raves was "Prof". By 1987, aged 16, Assange had become a skilled hacker under the name Mendax , taken from Horace 's splendide mendax (from Latin, "nobly untruthful"). Around this time, the police raided his mother's home and confiscated his equipment. According to Assange, "it involved some dodgy character who was alleging that we had stolen five hundred thousand dollars from Citibank". Ultimately, no charges were raised and his equipment
6290-581: The same category as these teachers. On the basis of this belief, members of her inner circle claimed to be the reincarnations of the original Twelve Apostles . Beginning around 1964, Anne Hamilton-Byrne led a religious and philosophical discussion group at Santiniketan, the home of parapsychologist Raynor Johnson on the eastern outskirts of Melbourne in the Dandenong Ranges suburb of Ferny Creek . The group purchased an adjoining property which they named Santiniketan Park in 1968 and constructed
6375-493: The support of a private investigator and others, she then played an instrumental role in bringing The Family to the attention of the Victoria Police . As a result of her efforts, a raid took place at Kai Lama on 14 August 1987, and all children were removed from the premises. Sarah later went on to study medicine and became a qualified doctor. She learned about her adoption and eventually met her biological mother. After
6460-697: The term z domu (literally meaning "of the house", de domo in Latin ) may be used, with rare exceptions, meaning the same as née . The Family (Australian New Age group) The Family , also known as the Santiniketan Park Association or the Great White Brotherhood , was an Australian New Age group formed in the mid-1960s under the leadership of Anne Hamilton-Byrne (born Evelyn Grace Victoria Edwards; 30 December 1921 – 13 June 2019). The group taught
6545-647: The visa or wrote the letter. According to the New York Times , in November 2010 "Assange had mused about seeking refuge in Russia", and Russia issued Assange a visa in January 2011. According to Andrew O'Hagan , during the 2011 Egyptian revolution when Mubarak tried to close the mobile phone networks, Assange and others at WikiLeaks "hacked into Nortel and fought against Mubarak's official hackers to reverse
6630-511: The works of gurus including Sri Chinmoy , Meher Baba , and Rajneesh . One adopted daughter, Sarah Hamilton-Byrne , later described the group's beliefs as a "hotch-potch" of Christianity and Eastern mysticism. The basis of The Family's philosophy was that their founder, Anne Hamilton-Byrne, was the reincarnation of Jesus and a living god. Within the group, Jesus, Buddha , and Krishna were regarded as enlightened beings who came down to Earth to aid humanity, with Hamilton-Byrne being put in
6715-536: Was "probably Australia's most accomplished hacker". Assange's official biography on WikiLeaks called him Australia's "most famous ethical computer hacker", and the earliest version said he "hacked thousands of systems, including the Pentagon " when he was younger. He and two others, known as "Trax" and "Prime Suspect", formed a hacking group called "the International Subversives". According to NPR , David Leigh , and Luke Harding , Assange may have been involved in
6800-431: Was 17". Assange has attributed his motivation to this experience with power. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) set up an investigation called Operation Weather targeting The International Subversives. In September 1991, Assange was discovered hacking into the Melbourne master terminal of Nortel , a Canadian multinational telecommunications corporation. Another member of the International Subversives turned himself and
6885-1102: Was born. When Julian was a year old his mother married Brett Assange, an actor with whom she ran a small theatre company and whom Julian Assange regards as his father (choosing Assange as his surname). Christine and Brett Assange divorced around 1979. Christine then became involved with Leif Meynell, also known as Leif Hamilton, whom Julian Assange later described as "a member of an Australian cult" called The Family . Meynell and Christine Assange separated in 1982. Julian Assange lived in more than thirty Australian towns and cities during his childhood. He attended several schools, including Goolmangar Primary School in New South Wales (1979–1983) and Townsville State High School in Queensland as well as being schooled at home. In his mid-teens, he settled with his mother and half-brother in Melbourne . He moved in with his girlfriend at age 17. Assange studied programming , mathematics , and physics at Central Queensland University (1994) and
6970-573: Was convicted of falsely obtaining $ 28,000 between 1978 and 1988. Joy Travellyn, aged 56, was convicted of falsely obtaining over $ 38,000 between 1979 and 1988. Helen Buchanan, aged 49, was convicted of falsely obtaining almost $ 15,000 between 1980 and 1987. In August 2009, two individuals received financial compensation from Hamilton-Byrne after suing her. Her granddaughter, Rebecca Cook-Hamilton, had sued for alleged psychiatric and psychological illnesses, alleging malnourishment and "cruel and inhuman treatment" by Hamilton-Byrne and her followers. Her award
7055-478: Was estimated at $ 250,000. Hamilton-Byrne's husband died in 2001; she attended the funeral in her only public appearance following her conviction. In later years it was reported that Hamilton-Byrne was living in a Melbourne nursing home and suffering from dementia , and that an internal succession crisis for leadership of the group was unfolding. In an interview with ABC Local Radio in Ballarat , Ben Shenton,
7140-478: Was estimated to be $ 250,000. Another former member of The Family, Cynthia Chan, alleged that she paid the sum of $ 352,115 to Hamilton-Byrne for real estate in Olinda, but the property was never transferred to her. She also alleged that she paid the sum of $ 70,400 to Hamilton-Byrne for another property, but this too was never transferred to her. Hamilton-Byrne said she had no memory of the transaction. Chan's judgement
7225-492: Was returned, but Assange "decided that it might be wise to be a bit more discreet". In 1988 Assange used social engineering to get the password to Australia's Overseas Telecommunications Commission's mainframes. Assange had a self-imposed set of ethics: he did not damage or crash systems or data he hacked, and he shared information. The Sydney Morning Herald later opined that he had become one of Australia's "most notorious hackers", and The Guardian said that by 1991 he
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