Trump Selects Former Indiana Senator Dan Coats for National Intelligence Director — Is Julian Assange A Russian Cuttout? — American People Rejected Clinton and Obama — Videos
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Director of National Intelligence
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Agency overview | |
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Formed | April 22, 2005 |
Preceding agency | |
Jurisdiction | Federal Government of the United States |
Headquarters | Liberty Crossing Tysons Corner, Virginia[1] |
Employees | 1,750[2] |
Agency executives |
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Child agencies | |
Website | www.dni.gov |
The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) is the United States government official – subject to the authority, direction, and control of the President – required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to:
- Serve as principal advisor to the President and his executive offices of the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council about intelligence matters related to national security;
- Serve as head of the sixteen-member United States Intelligence Community; and
- Direct and oversee the National Intelligence Program.
On July 30, 2008, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13470,[3] amending Executive Order 12333 to strengthen the DNI’s role.[4] Further, by Presidential Policy Directive 19 signed by Barack Obama in October 2012, the DNI was given overall responsibility for Intelligence Community whistleblowing and source protection.
Under 50 U.S.C. § 403-3a, “under ordinary circumstances, it is desirable” that either the Director or the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence be an active-duty commissioned officer in the armed forces or have training or experience in military intelligence activities and requirements. Only one of the two positions can be held by a military officer at any given time. The statute does not specify what rank the commissioned officer will hold during his or her tenure in either position, but historically a four-star general or admiral has served. On July 20, 2010, President Obama nominated retired Lt. (three-star) Gen. James R. Clapper for the position. Clapper was confirmed by the Senate on August 5, 2010, and replaced acting Director David C. Gompert. The prior DNI was retired Navy four-star admiral Dennis C. Blair, whose resignation became effective May 28, 2010.[5]
History
Founding
Before the DNI was formally established, the head of the Intelligence Community was the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), who concurrently served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The 9/11 Commission recommended establishing the DNI position in its 9/11 Commission Report, not released until July 22, 2004, as it had identified major intelligence failures that called into question how well the intelligence community was able to protect U.S. interests against foreign terrorist attacks.
Senators Dianne Feinstein, Jay Rockefeller and Bob Graham introduced S. 2645 on June 19, 2002, to create the Director of National Intelligence position. Other similar legislation soon followed. After considerable debate on the scope of the DNI’s powers and authorities, the United States Congress passed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 by votes of 336–75 in the House of Representatives, and 89–2 in the Senate. President George W. Bush signed the bill into law on December 17, 2004. Among other things, the law established the DNI position as the designated leader of the United States Intelligence Community and prohibited the DNI from serving as the CIA Director or the head of any other Intelligence Community element at the same time. In addition, the law required the CIA Director to “report” his agency’s activities to the DNI.
Critics say compromises during the bill’s crafting led to the establishment of a DNI whose powers are too weak to adequately lead, manage and improve the performance of the US Intelligence Community.[6] In particular, the law left the United States Department of Defense in charge of the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). (The limited DNI role in leading the US Intelligence Community is discussed on the Intelligence Community page.)
History (2005–2007)
On February 17, 2005, President George W. Bush named US Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte to the post, pending confirmation by the Senate. It was reported that President Bush’s first choice for Director of National Intelligence was former Director of Central Intelligence Robert M. Gates, who was serving as president of Texas A&M University; however, Gates declined the offer.[7] Negroponte was confirmed by a Senate vote of 98 to 2 in favor of his appointment on April 21, 2005, and he was sworn in by President Bush on that day.
On February 13, 2007, John Michael McConnell became the 2nd Director of National Intelligence, after Negroponte was appointed Deputy Secretary of State.
Donald M. Kerr was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence on October 4, 2007 and sworn in on October 9, 2007. Kerr, from Virginia, was most recently the Director of the National Reconnaissance Office, and previously the Duty Director for Science and Technology at the US CIA and earlier in his career the Assistant Director of the Justice Department’s FBI.
Declan McCullagh at News.com wrote on August 24, 2007, that the DNI site was configured to repel all search engines to index any page at DNI.gov. This effectively made the DNI website invisible to all search engines and in turn, any search queries.[8] Ross Feinstein, Spokesman for the DNI, said that the cloaking was removed as of September 3, 2007. “We’re not even sure how (the robots.txt file) got there” – but it was again somehow hidden the next day. Another blog entry by McCullagh on September 7, states that the DNI site should now be open to search engines.[9] This explanation is plausible because some software used for web development has been known to cause servers to automatically generate and re-generate robots.txt, and this behavior can be difficult to turn off. Therefore, if the web developers working for the DNI had tried to solve the issue by simply removing robots.txt, it would have looked like it worked at first, but then fail once the server had undergone a self-check for the robots.txt file.[10] http://dni.gov/robots.txt has been configured to allow access to all directories for any agent.
In September 2007, the Office of the DNI released “Intelligence Community 100 Day & 500 Day Plans for Integration & Collaboration”. These plans include a series of initiatives designed to build the foundation for increased cooperation and reform of the U.S. Intelligence Community.[11]
Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)
The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 established the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) as an independent agency to assist the DNI. The ODNI’s goal is to effectively integrate foreign, military and domestic intelligence in defense of the homeland and of United States interests abroad.[12] The budget for the ODNI – and the Intelligence Community for fiscal year 2013 was $52.6 billion[13] and the base request for fiscal year 2014 was $48.2 billion.[14] The Military Intelligence Program (MIP) base budget request for fiscal year 2014, excluding overseas contingency funds, is $14.6 billion, which together with the NIP, comprise an Intelligence Community budget request of $62.8 billion for fiscal year 2014.[15] The ODNI has about 1,750 employees.[2]
On March 23, 2007, DNI Mike McConnell announced organizational changes, which include:
- Elevating acquisition to a new Deputy DNI position
- Creating a new Deputy DNI for Policy, Plans, and Requirements (replacing the Deputy DNI for Requirements position)
- Establishing an Executive Committee
- Designating the Chief of Staff position as the new Director of the Intelligence Staff
The ODNI continued to evolve under succeeding directors, culminating in a new organization focused on intelligence integration across the community. The ODNI has six centers and 15 Offices that, together with the centers, support the Director of National Intelligence as the head of the Intelligence Community (IC) in overseeing and directing implementation of the NIP and acting as the principal advisor to the President, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council for intelligence matters related to national security. The six ODNI centers include:
- Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA)
- Information Sharing Environment (ISE)
- National Counterproliferation Center (NCPC)
- National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC)
- National Intelligence Council (NIC)
- Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive (ONCIX).
ODNI organization
The ODNI is divided into core, enabling, and oversight offices. The Principal Duty Director (PDDNI) to the DNI, in a role similar to that of a Chief Operating Officer, oversees operation of ODNI offices, manages Intelligence Community (IC) coordination and information sharing, reinforces the DNI’s intelligence-integration initiatives, and focuses on IC resource challenges.
Core missio
The core mission functions of the ODNI are organized under the Deputy DNI for Intelligence Integration (DDNI/II). The DDNI/II facilitates information sharing and collaboration through the integration of analysis and collection, and leads execution of core mission functions. These include:
- Integration Management Council
- National Intelligence Council
- Mission Integration Division
- National Counterterrorism Center
- National Counterproliferation Center
- Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive
Mission enabler
Mission enablers include policy, engagement, acquisition, resource, human capital, financial, and information offices.
Oversight
Oversight offices include the General Counsel, civil liberties, public affairs, Inspector General, Equal Employment Opportunity, and legislative affairs functions.[12] 78
Directors
No. | Director | Term of Office | President(s) served under | |
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Position succeeded the Director of Central Intelligence | ||||
1. | ![]() |
John D. Negroponte | April 21, 2005 – February 13, 2007 | George W. Bush |
2. | ![]() |
VADM John M. McConnell, USN (Ret.) | February 13, 2007 – January 27, 2009 | |
Barack Obama | ||||
3. | ![]() |
ADM Dennis C. Blair, USN (Ret.) | January 29, 2009 – May 28, 2010 | |
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David C. Gompert* (Acting) | May 28, 2010 – August 5, 2010 | ||
4. | ![]() |
Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper, USAF (Ret.) | August 5, 2010 – present |
Line of succession
The line of succession for the Director of National Intelligence is as follows:[16]
- Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence
- Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Intelligence Integration
- Director of the National Counterterrorism Center
- National Counterintelligence Executive
- Inspector General of the Intelligence Community
Subordinate
Principal Deputy Directors of National Intelligence
Name | Term of Office | President(s) served under |
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Gen Michael Hayden, USAF | April 21, 2005 – May 26, 2006 | George W. Bush |
LTG Ronald L. Burgess, Jr., USA (Acting) | June 2006 – January 2007 | George W. Bush |
Donald Kerr | October 2007 – January 2009 | George W. Bush |
LTG Ronald L. Burgess, Jr., USA (Acting) | January 2009 – February 2009 | Barack Obama |
David C. Gompert | November 10, 2009 – August 2010 | Barack Obama |
Stephanie O’Sullivan | February 18, 2011 – present | Barack Obama |
Director of the Intelligence Staff/Chief Management Officer
Name | Term of Office | President(s) served under |
---|---|---|
LTG Ronald L. Burgess, Jr., U.S. Army | May 2007 – February 2009 | George W. Bush, Barack Obama |
LTG John F. Kimmons, U.S. Army | February 2009 – October 2010 | Barack Obama |
Mark Ewing | November 2010–present | Barack Obama |
Intelligence Community Inspector General
Name | Term of Office | President(s) served under |
---|---|---|
I. Charles McCullough, III | November 2011–present | Barack Obama |
Deputy Directors of National Intelligence
Name | Office | Term of Office | President(s) served under |
---|---|---|---|
Robert Cardillo | Intelligence Integration (oversees collection and analysis) | September 2010–present | Barack Obama |
Peter Lavoy | Analysis | December 2008–? | George W. Bush |
Vacant | Collection | April 2010–? | Barack Obama |
David Shedd | Policy, Plans and Requirements | May 2007–? | George W. Bush |
Dawn Meyerriecks | Acquisition and Technology | September 2009–? | Barack Obama |
Assistant Directors of National Intelligence
Name | Office | Term of Office | President(s) served under |
---|---|---|---|
Deborah Kircher | ADNI for Human Capital | October 2011–present | Barack Obama |
Al Tarasiuk | IC Chief Information Officer | February 2011–present | Barack Obama |
Marilyn A. Vacca | Chief Financial Officer | April 2009–present | Barack Obama |
L. Roger Mason, Jr. | ADNI for Systems & Resource Analyses | May 2009–present | Barack Obama |
Dawn Meyerriecks | ADNI for Acquisition, Technology & Facilities | ?–present | Barack Obama |
Assistant Deputy Directors of National Intelligence
Name | Office | Term of Office | President(s) served under |
---|---|---|---|
Dan Butler | Assistant Deputy Director for Open Source | April 2008–? | George W. Bush, Barack Obama |
Andrew Hallman | Assistant Deputy Director for Intelligence Integration | September 2010–present | Barack Obama |
See also
References
- Jump up^ “Director James R. Clapper Interview With Andrea Mitchell”. DNI.gov.
- ^ Jump up to:a b Clark, Charles (September 2012). “Lifting the Lid”. Government Executive. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
- Jump up^ “Executive Order 13470”. Federal Register. National Archives and Records Administration. July 30, 2008. Retrieved November 22, 2016.
- Jump up^ “Bush Orders Intelligence Overhaul”. The New York Times. Associated Press. July 31, 2008.
- Jump up^ Miller, Greg (May 21, 2010). “Dennis C. Blair to resign as Director of National Intelligence”. Washington Post. Retrieved June 3, 2010.
- Jump up^ Kaplan, Fred (7 December 2004). “You Call That a Reform Bill?”. Slate.
- Jump up^ “Robert M. Gates profile”. Washington Post. November 8, 2006. Retrieved November 22, 2016.
- Jump up^ McCullagh, Declan (2007-08-24). “Feds use robots.txt files to stay invisible online. Lame.”. CNET. Retrieved 2014-02-14.
- Jump up^ McCullagh, Declan (2007-09-07). “National Intelligence Web site no longer invisible to search engines”. CNET. Retrieved 2014-02-14.
- Jump up^ “Auto generated robots.txt file in WordPress”. Codegrad. February 10, 2013. Retrieved 2013-08-12.
- Jump up^ “Director of National Intelligence Moves Forward with Intelligence Reform” (PDF). ODNI News Release No. 20-07. DNI.gov. September 13, 2007.
- ^ Jump up to:a b “Public Affairs Office, ODNI”. Office of the Director of National Intelligence. ODNI. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
- Jump up^ “National Intelligence Program” (PDF). Budget for Fiscal Year 2013. US Government Publishing Office. p. 85. Retrieved 14 Apr 2013.
- Jump up^ “National Intelligence Program” (PDF). The Budget for Fiscal Year 2014. US Government Publishing Office. p. 75. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
- Jump up^ “DoD Releases MIP Base Request for FY 2014”. Department of Defense. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
- Jump up^ “Designation of Officers of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence To Act as Director of National Intelligence”. Federal Register. 78 FR 59159. 2013-09-25. Retrieved 2016-10-30.
External links
- Office of the Director of National Intelligence
- US Intelligence Community
- The National Counterproliferation Center at the Wayback Machine (archived April 28, 2015)
- The National Counterterrorism Center
- The National Counterintelligence Executive
- Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment
- Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004
Articles
- U.S. News & World Report: First line of Defense: Inside the Efforts to Remake U.S. Intelligence
- Fact Sheet: Real Progress in Reforming Intelligence
- The Washington Post – December 29, 2006: DNI Awards $2 Million in Hush-Hush Money
- The National Security Archive: From Director of Central Intelligence to Director of National Intelligence
- U.S. National Intelligence: An Overview 2013
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Director_of_National_Intelligence
Dan Coats
Dan Coats | |
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United States Senator from Indiana |
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In office January 3, 2011 – January 3, 2017 |
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Preceded by | Evan Bayh |
Succeeded by | Todd Young |
In office January 3, 1989 – January 3, 1999 |
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Appointed by | Robert Orr |
Preceded by | Dan Quayle |
Succeeded by | Evan Bayh |
United States Ambassador to Germany | |
In office August 15, 2001 – February 28, 2005 |
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President | George W. Bush |
Preceded by | John Kornblum |
Succeeded by | William Timken |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana‘s 4th district |
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In office January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1989 |
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Preceded by | Dan Quayle |
Succeeded by | Jill Long |
Personal details | |
Born | Daniel Ray Coats May 16, 1943 Jackson, Michigan, U.S. |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse(s) | Marsha Coats |
Children | 3 |
Education | Wheaton College, Illinois (BA) Indiana University, Indianapolis(JD) |
Website | Senate website |
Military service | |
Allegiance | ![]() |
Service/branch | ![]() |
Years of service | 1966–1968 |
Daniel Ray “Dan” Coats (born May 16, 1943) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1989 to 1999, and again from 2011 to 2017.
Born in Jackson, Michigan, Coats graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois and Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. He served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1968. Before serving in the U.S. Senate, Coats was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Indiana’s 4th congressional district from 1981 to 1989. He was appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated by Dan Quayle following Quayle’s election as Vice President of the United States in 1988. Coats won the 1990 special election to serve the remainder of Quayle’s unexpired term, as well as the 1992 election for a full six-year term. He did not seek reelection in 1998, and was succeeded by Evan Bayh.
After retiring from the Senate, Coats served as U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005, and then worked as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. He was re-elected to the Senate by a large margin in 2010, succeeding Bayh, who announced his own retirement shortly after Coats declared his candidacy. Coats declined to run for re-election in 2016, and was succeeded by Todd Young.
On January 5, 2017, Coats was nominated by President Elect Donald Trump for Director of National Intelligence, succeeding James R. Clapper.[1]
Early life, education and career
Coats was born in Jackson, Michigan, the son of Vera (Nora) Elisabeth (née Swanlund) and Edward Raymond Coats. His father was of English and German descent, and his maternal grandparents emigrated from Sweden.[2] Coats attended local public schools, and graduated from Jackson High School in 1961. He then studied at Wheaton College in Illinois, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1965. At Wheaton, he was an active student athlete on the soccer team. He served in the United States Army from 1966 to 1968, and earned a Juris Doctor from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis in 1972, where he was also the associate editor of the Indiana Law Review.[3] He also served as assistant vice president of a Fort Wayne life insurance company.
U.S. House of Representatives
From 1976 to 1980, Coats worked for then-U.S. RepresentativeDan Quayle, a Republican from Indiana’s 4th congressional district, as Quayle’s district representative. When Quayle decided to challenge three-term Democratic incumbent Birch Bayh in the 1980 U.S. Senate election, Coats ran for and won Quayle’s seat in the U.S. House.
U.S. Senate
Senator Coats visits Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1996
When Quayle resigned from the Senate after being elected Vice President of the United States in 1988, Coats was appointed to Quayle’s former seat. Coats was subsequently elected to the seat in 1990 and 1992 and served in the Senate until January 1999, when Evan Bayh became the new Senator. Coats announced on February 3, 2010, he would run [4] for his old Senate seat and on February 16, 2010, Bayh announced his intention to retire.[5] Coats went on to win that Senate seat. He announced in March 2015 that he would not run for re-election in 2016.
Political positions
Gun laws
On multiple occasions, Coats has supported gun control measures. In 1991, he voted in favor of the Biden-Thurmond Violent Crime Control Act of 1991. This act, which did not become law, would have created a waiting period for handgun purchases and placed a ban on semi-automatic firearms. Subsequently, he supported the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act that President Clinton signed into law in 1993.[6] The legislation imposed a waiting period before a handgun could be transferred to an individual by a licensed dealer, importer, or manufacturer. This waiting period ended when the computerized instant check system came online. Coats also supported Feinstein Amendment 1152 to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1993.[7] The purpose of the Feinstein Amendment was to “restrict the manufacture, transfer, and possession of certain semiautomatic assault weapons and large capacity ammunition feeding devices”.[8]
In April 2013, Coats was one of forty-six senators to vote against passage of a bill which would have expanded background checks for gun buyers. Coats voted with 40 Republicans and 5 Democrats to stop the passage of the bill.[9]
Taxes
In 1995 Senator Coats introduced S. 568: Family, Investment, Retirement, Savings, and Tax Fairness Act[10] which would provide “family tax credits, increase national savings through individual retirement plus accounts, indexing for inflation the income thresholds for taxing social security benefits, etc”.[11] The bill did not become law.
LGBT issues
In 1993, Coats emerged as an opponent of President Clinton’s effort to allow LGBT individuals to serve openly in the armed forces.[12] Coats was one of the authors of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy and opposed its 2011 repeal. He does not support same-sex marriage but opposes interference with “alternative lifestyles“.[13]
Other
Coats cosponsored, with former Senators Edward M. Kennedy, Christopher Dodd, and James Jeffords, S.2206: Coats Human Services Reauthorization Act of 1998. This bill, which was enacted into law, “amended the Head Start Act, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act of 1981, and the Community Services Block Grant Act…in order to provide an opportunity for persons with limited means to accumulate assets.”[14]
In 1996, Coats cosponsored the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 which President Clinton signed into law. The bill allowed the President to “rewrit[e] legislation by vetoing single items of spending or specific tax breaks approved by Congress.”[15] The Supreme Court of the United States declared the law unconstitutional in Clinton v. City of New York in a 6-3 decision.
Coats made headlines in August 1998, when he publicly questioned the timing of President Bill Clinton’s cruise missile attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan, suggesting they might be linked to the Lewinsky scandal: “While there is clearly much more we need to learn about this attack and why it was ordered today, given the president’s personal difficulties this week, it is legitimate to question the timing of this action.”[16]
Between U.S. Senate tenures
Coats worked as Special Counsel member in the firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand in 2000 and 2001.
In 2001, Coats was reportedly one of George W. Bush’s top choices to be Secretary of Defense, a job eventually given to Donald Rumsfeld who had previously held it under President Gerald Ford.
From August 15, 2001, to February 28, 2005, Coats was the United States Ambassador to Germany.[17][18] As ambassador during the lead-up to the Iraq war, he pressured the German government not to oppose the war, threatening worsened US relations with Germany.[19] As Ambassador he also played a critical role in establishing robust relations with then opposition leader Angela Merkel and in the construction of a new United States Embassy in the heart of Berlin next to the Brandenburg Gate.[20]
In 2005, Coats drew attention when he was chosen by President George W. Bush to shepherd Harriet Miers‘s failed nomination to the Supreme Court through the Senate. Echoing Senator Roman Hruska‘s famous 1970 speech in defense of Harrold Carswell, Coats said to CNN regarding the nomination: “If [being a] great intellectual powerhouse is a qualification to be a member of the court and represent the American people and the wishes of the American people and to interpret the Constitution, then I think we have a court so skewed on the intellectual side that we may not be getting representation of America as a whole.”[21]
In 2007, Coats served as co-chairman of a team of lobbyists for Cooper Industries, a Texas corporation that moved its principal place of business to Bermuda, where it would not be liable for U.S. taxes. In that role, he worked to block Senate legislation that would have closed a tax loophole, worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Cooper Industries.[22]
The NYT also reported that Coats was co-chairman of the Washington government relations office of King & Spalding, with a salary of $603,609.[22]
Political campaigns
2010
On February 10, 2010, Coats confirmed that he would return to Indiana to run for the seat held by incumbent Evan Bayh in the 2010 United States Senate election.[23][24] Bayh had made no previous announcements and was fully expected to run for another term, but after Coats announced his candidacy, Bayh announced his retirement on February 15, 2010. On May 4, 2010, Coats won the Republican primary over state Sen. Marlin Stutzman and former Congressman John Hostettler.[25][26]
Coats received endorsements from National Right to Life Committee, Indiana Right to Life, and the Susan B. Anthony List.[27]
Coats defeated Democratic Rep. Brad Ellsworth by a fifteen-point margin to return to the Senate.[28]
Coats became the senior senator from Indiana after Richard Lugar lost a challenge in the 2012 Republican primary election and subsequently was not re-elected to the Senate in 2012. Coats is currently serving with Democrat Joe Donnelly.
Personal life
Coats is married to Marsha Coats, Indiana’s female representative to the Republican National Committee. During the 2016 presidential campaign she endorsed Donald Trump, saying, “I truly believe the office will change Donald Trump. I believe it will humble him. And, I think even Donald will be impelled to turn to God for guidance. . . I believe our party needs to give Donald Trump a chance.”[29]
Coats is affiliated with the Fellowship, an informal association of Christian lawmakers. Coats lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana.[30] Coats received Big Brothers Big Sisters of America’s Charles G. Berwind Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 for his decades of involvement with the organization. He also frequently donates to charity and has even helped underprivlaged Youth such as rising YouTuber Dhommay[31]
See also
Julian Assange
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The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (December 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) |
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This article’s introduction section may not adequately summarize its contents. (November 2016) |
Julian Assange | |
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![]() Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy, London (August 2014)
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Born | 3 July 1971 Townsville, Queensland, Australia |
Residence | Embassy of Ecuador, London, England, UK |
Nationality | Australian |
Alma mater | |
Occupation | Editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks |
Home town | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
Julian Paul Assange (/əˈsɒnʒ/;[1] born 3 July 1971) is an Australian computer programmer, publisher and journalist. He is editor-in-chief of the organisation WikiLeaks, which he founded in 2006. He has won numerous accolades for journalism, including the Sam Adams Award and Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism.
Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006 but came to global prominence in 2010 when WikiLeaks published a series of leaks, allegedly provided by Chelsea Manning. These leaks included the Collateral Murder video (April 2010),[2][3] the Afghanistan war logs (July 2010), the Iraq war logs (October 2010), and CableGate (November 2010). Assange became even more globally recognised after WikiLeaks published more leaks—the DNC leaks and the Podesta emails—during the United States presidential election, 2016.
Following the 2010 leaks, the United States government launched a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks and asked allied nations for assistance.[4] In November 2010, a request was made for Assange’s extradition to Sweden, where he had been questioned months earlier over allegations of sexual assault and rape.[5] Assange continued to deny the allegations, and expressed concern that he would be extradited from Sweden to the United States due to his perceived role in publishing secret American documents.[6][7] Assange surrendered himself to UK police on 7 December 2010 and was held for ten days in solitary confinement before being released on bail. Assange sought and was granted asylum by Ecuador in August 2012. Assange has since remained in the Embassy of Ecuador in London, and is unable to leave without being arrested for breaching his bail conditions.[8]
- 1Early life
- 2Hacking
- 3Programming
- 4WikiLeaks
- 5US criminal investigation
- 6Swedish sexual assault allegations
- 7Political asylum and life at the Ecuadorian embassy
- 8UNWGAD ruling
- 92016 US presidential election
- 10Allegations of anti-Semitism
- 11Writings
- 12Personal life
- 13Honours and awards
- 14Work
- 15See also
- 16References
- 17Further reading
- 18External links
Early life
Assange was born in the north Queensland city of Townsville,[9][10] to Christine Ann Hawkins (b. 1951),[11] a visual artist,[12] and John Shipton, an anti-war activist and builder.[13] The couple had separated before Assange was born.[13]
When he was a year old, his mother married Richard Brett Assange,[14][15][16] an actor, with whom she ran a small theatre company.[17] They divorced around 1979. Christine Assange then became involved with Leif Meynell, also known as Leif Hamilton, a member of Australian cult The Family, with whom she had a son before the couple broke up in 1982.[9][18][19] Assange had a nomadic childhood, and had lived in over thirty[20][21] different Australian towns by the time he reached his mid-teens, when he settled with his mother and half-brother in Melbourne, Victoria.[14][22]
He attended many schools, including Goolmangar Primary School in New South Wales (1979–1983)[17] and Townsville State High School,[23] as well as being schooled at home.[15] He studied programming, mathematics, and physics at Central Queensland University (1994)[24] and the University of Melbourne (2003–2006),[14][25] but did not complete a degree.[26]
Hacking
In 1987 Assange began hacking under the name Mendax.[15][27] He and two others—known as “Trax” and “Prime Suspect”—formed a hacking group they called the International Subversives.[15] During this time he hacked into the Pentagon and other US Department of Defense facilities, MILNET, the US Navy, NASA, and Australia’s Overseas Telecommunications Commission; Citibank, Lockheed Martin, Motorola, Panasonic, and Xerox; and the Australian National University, La Trobe University, and Stanford University’s SRI International.[28] He is thought to have been involved in the WANK (Worms Against Nuclear Killers) hack at NASA in 1989, but he does not acknowledge this.[29][30]
In September 1991, Assange was discovered hacking into the Melbourne master terminal of Nortel, a Canadian multinational telecommunications corporation.[15] The Australian Federal Police tapped Assange’s phone line (he was using a modem), raided his home at the end of October,[31] and eventually charged him in 1994 with thirty-one counts of hacking and related crimes.[15] In December 1996, he pleaded guilty to twenty-five charges (the other six were dropped), was ordered to pay reparations of A$2,100 and released on a good behaviour bond,[29][32] avoiding a heavier penalty due to the perceived absence of malicious or mercenary intent and his disrupted childhood.[32][33][34][35][36]
Programming
In 1993 Assange gave technical advice to the Victoria Police Child Exploitation Unit and assisted with prosecutions.[37] In the same year he was involved in starting one of the first public Internet service providers in Australia, Suburbia Public Access Network.[14][38] He began programming in 1994, authoring or co-authoring the Transmission Control Protocol port scanner strobe.c (1995);[39][40] patches to the open-source database PostgreSQL (1996);[41][42] the Usenet caching software NNTPCache (1996);[43] the Rubberhose deniable encryption system (1997),[44][45] which reflected his growing interest in cryptography;[46] and Surfraw, a command-line interface for web-based search engines (2000).[47] During this period he also moderated the AUCRYPTO forum;[46] ran Best of Security, a website “giving advice on computer security” that had 5,000 subscribers in 1996;[48] and contributed research to Suelette Dreyfus’s Underground (1997), a book about Australian hackers, including the International Subversives.[27][49] In 1998, he co-founded the company Earthmen Technology.[35]
In 1999 Assange registered the domain leaks.org, but, as he put it, “I didn’t do anything with it.”[35][unreliable source?] He did, however, publicise a patent granted to the National Security Agency in August 1999 for voice-data harvesting technology: “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.”[46] Systematic abuse of technology by governments against fundamental freedoms of world citizens remained an abiding concern — more than a decade later in the introduction to Cypherpunks (2012) Assange summarised “the Internet, our greatest tool for emancipation, has been transformed into the most dangerous facilitator of totalitarianism we have ever seen”.[50]
WikiLeaks
After his period of study at the University of Melbourne, Assange and others established WikiLeaks in 2006. Assange is a member of the organisation’s advisory board[51] and describes himself as the editor-in-chief.[52] From 2007 to 2010, Assange travelled continuously on WikiLeaks business, visiting Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.[15][21][53][54][55]
WikiLeaks published secret information, news leaks,[56] and classified media from anonymous sources.[57] By 2015 WikiLeaks had published more than 10 million documents and associated analyses, and was described by Assange as “a giant library of the world’s most persecuted documents”.[58] The published material between 2006 and 2009 attracted various degrees of publicity,[59] but it was only after it began publishing documents supplied by Chelsea Manning that Wikileaks became a household name.[60] The Manning material included the Collateral Murder video (April 2010)[2] which showed US soldiers shooting dead 18 people from a helicopter in Iraq,[3] the Afghanistan war logs (July 2010), the Iraq war logs (October 2010), a quarter of a million diplomatic cables (November 2010), and the Guantánamo files (April 2011).
Opinions of Assange at this time were divided. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard described his activities as “illegal,”[61] but the police said that he had broken no Australian law.[62] US Vice President Joe Biden and others called him a “terrorist”.[63][64][65][66][67] Some called for his assassination or execution.[68][69][70][71] Support came from people including the Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva,[72][73] Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa,[74] Russian President Dmitry Medvedev,[75][76] Britain’s Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn,[77] Spain’s Podemos party leader Pablo Iglesias,[78] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay,[79] Argentina‘s ambassador to the UK Alicia Castro,[80] and activists and celebrities including Tariq Ali,[81] John Perry Barlow,[82] Daniel Ellsberg,[83][84] Mary Kostakidis,[85] John Pilger,[86][87] Ai Weiwei,[88] Michael Moore,[89] Noam Chomsky,[88] Vaughan Smith,[90][91] and Oliver Stone.[92]

Gun camera footage of the airstrike of 12 July 2007 in Baghdad, showing the slaying of Namir Noor-Eldeen and a dozen other civilians by a U.S. helicopter.
The year 2010 culminated with the Sam Adams Award, which Assange accepted in October,[93] and a string of distinctions in December—the Le Monde readers’ choice award for person of the year,[94][95] the Time readers’ choice award for person of the year (he was also a runner-up in Time’s overall person of the year award),[96][97] a deal for his autobiography worth at least US$1.3 million,[98][99][100] and selection by the Italian edition of Rolling Stone as “rockstar of the year”.[101][102]
Assange announced that he would run for the Australian Senate in March 2012 under the newly created WikiLeaks Party,[103][104] had his own talk show on Russia Today in April–July and Cypherpunks[50] was published in November. In the same year, he analysed the Kissinger cables held at the US National Archives and released them in searchable form.[105][106] On 15 September 2014, he appeared via remote video link on Kim Dotcom‘s Moment of Truth town hall meeting held in Auckland.[107]
The following February he won the Sydney Peace Foundation Gold Medal for Peace with Justice, previously awarded to only three people—Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, and Buddhist spiritual leader Daisaku Ikeda.[108] Two weeks later he filed for the trademark “Julian Assange” in Europe, which was to be used for “Public speaking services; news reporter services; journalism; publication of texts other than publicity texts; education services; entertainment services.”[109][110][111] For several years a member of the Australian journalists’ union and still an honorary member,[112][113][114] he was awarded the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in June,[115][116] and the Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism in November,[117][118] having earlier won the Amnesty International UK Media Award (New Media) in 2009.[119]
US criminal investigation
Assange speaks on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, 16 October 2011
After WikiLeaks released the Manning material, US authorities began investigating WikiLeaks and Assange personally with a view to prosecuting them under the Espionage Act of 1917.[120] In November 2010 US Attorney-General Eric Holder said there was “an active, ongoing criminal investigation” into WikiLeaks.[4] It emerged from legal documents leaked over the ensuing months that Assange and others were being investigated by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia.[121][122][123] An email from an employee of intelligence consultancy Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (Stratfor) leaked in 2012 said, “We have a sealed indictment on Assange.”[124] The US government denies the existence of such an indictment.[125][126]
In December 2011 prosecutors in the Chelsea Manning case revealed the existence of chat logs between Manning and an alleged WikiLeaks interlocutor they claimed to be Assange;[127][128] he denied this,[129][130] dismissing the alleged connection as “absolute nonsense”.[131] The logs were presented as evidence during Manning’s court-martial in June–July 2013. The prosecution argued that they show WikiLeaks helping Manning reverse-engineer a password.[132][133] The evidence that the interlocutor was Assange is circumstantial, however, and Manning insists she acted alone.[123][133]
Assange was being examined separately by “several government agencies” in addition to the grand jury, most notably the FBI.[134] Court documents published in May 2014 suggest that Assange was still under “active and ongoing” investigation at that time.[135]
Moreover, some Snowden documents published in 2014 show that the United States government put Assange on the “2010 Manhunting Timeline”,[136] and in the same period they urged their allies to open criminal investigations into the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks.[137] In the same documents there was a proposal by the NSA to designate WikiLeaks as a “malicious foreign actor”, thus increasing the surveillance against it.
On 26 January 2015, WikiLeaks revealed that three members of the organisation received notice that “Google had handed over all their emails and metadata to the United States government”.[138] In the notifications, there was the list of possible charges that originated the warrant to Google and that the secret grand jury intends to use against WikiLeaks and likely Assange too. They were espionage, conspiracy to commit espionage, theft or conversion of property belonging to the United States government, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and general conspiracy. They carry up to a minimum of 45 years in prison, if they amount to one charge per these five types; otherwise, even more years could be added.
The United States investigation confirmed its ongoing proceedings against WikiLeaks in a 15 December 2015 court submission.[139]
Swedish sexual assault allegations
Assange visited Sweden in August 2010, where he became the subject of sexual assault allegations from two women with whom he had sex. He was questioned, the case was closed, and he was told he could leave the country. In November 2010, however, the case was re-opened by a special prosecutor who said she wanted to question Assange over two counts of sexual molestation, one count of unlawful coercion and one count of “lesser-degree rape” (mindre grov våldtäkt). Assange denied the allegations and said he was happy to face questions in Britain.[5][140]
In 2010, the prosecutor said Swedish law prevented her from questioning anyone by video link or in the London embassy. In March 2015, after public criticism from other Swedish law practitioners, she changed her mind and agreed to interrogate Mr Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, with interviews finally beginning on 14 November 2016.[141]
On 18 August 2015, the statute of limitations expired on all three of the less serious allegations, as the Swedish prosecutor still had not interviewed Assange. However, he is still wanted for questioning over the allegation of “lesser degree rape”, and the statute of limitations for this will not expire until 2020.[142][143][144][145][146]
On 14 November 2016, Police, Swedish Prosecutors, and Ecuadorian officials met with Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London about the sexual assault allegations.[147]
Political asylum and life at the Ecuadorian embassy
On 19 June 2012, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño announced that Assange had applied for political asylum, that his government was considering the request, and that Assange was at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.[148][149][150][151]
Assange and his supporters state he is concerned not about any proceedings in Sweden as such, but that his deportation to Sweden could lead to politically motivated deportation to the United States, where he could face severe penalties, up to the death sentence, for his activities related to WikiLeaks.[3]
On 16 August 2012, Foreign Minister Patiño announced that Ecuador was granting Assange political asylum because of the threat represented by the United States secret investigation against him and several calls for assassination from many American politicians.[152][153][154][155] In its formal statement, Ecuador reasoned that “as a consequence of [Assange’s] determined defense to freedom of expression and freedom of press… in any given moment, a situation may come where his life, safety or personal integrity will be in danger”.[156] Latin American states expressed support for Ecuador.[157][158][159][160] Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa confirmed on 18 August that Assange could stay at the embassy indefinitely,[161][162][163] and the following day Assange gave his first speech from the balcony.[164][165][166][167] Assange’s supporters forfeited £293,500 in bail[168] and sureties.[168][169] His home since then has been an office converted into a studio apartment, equipped with a bed, telephone, sun lamp, computer, shower, treadmill, and kitchenette.[170][171][172]
Just before Assange was granted asylum, the UK Government wrote to Foreign Minister Patiño stating that the police were entitled to enter the embassy and arrest Assange under UK law.[173] Patiño criticised what he said was an implied threat, stating that “such actions would be a blatant disregard of the Vienna Convention“. Officers of the Metropolitan Police Service were stationed outside the building from June 2012 to October 2015 in order to arrest Assange for extradition and for breach of bail, should he leave the embassy. The police guard was withdrawn on grounds of cost in October 2015, but the police said they would still deploy “a number of overt and covert tactics to arrest him”. The cost of the policing for the period was reported to have been £12.6 million.[174]
In April 2015, during a video conference to promote the documentary Terminal F about Edward Snowden, Bolivia‘s ambassador to Russia, María Luisa Ramos Urzagaste, accused Assange of putting the life of Bolivian president Evo Morales at risk by intentionally providing the United States with false rumours that Snowden was on the president’s plane when it was forced to land in Vienna in July 2013. “It is possible that in this wide-ranging game that you began my president did not play a crucial role, but what you did was not important to my president, but it was to me and the citizens of our country. And I have faith that when you planned this game you took into consideration the consequences,” the ambassador told Assange. Assange stated that the plan “was not completely honest, but we did consider that the final result would have justified our actions. We weren’t expecting this outcome. The result was caused by the United States’ intervention. We can only regret what happened.”[175] Later, in an interview[176] with Democracy Now!, Assange explained the story of the grounding of Morales’ plane, saying that after the United States cancelled Snowden’s passport, WikiLeaks thought about other strategies to take him to Latin America, and they considered private presidential jets of those countries which offered support. The appointed jet was that of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, but Assange stated that “our code language that we used deliberately swapped the presidential jet that we were considering for the Bolivian jet […] and in some of our communications, we deliberately spoke about that on open lines to lawyers in the United States. And we didn’t think much more of it. […] We didn’t think this was anything more than just distracting.” Eventually, the plan was not pursued and, under Assange’s advice, Snowden sought asylum in Russia.
Paris newspaper Le Monde in its edition of 3 July 2015 published an open letter from Assange to French President François Hollande in which Assange urged the French government to grant him refugee status.[177] Assange wrote that “only France now has the ability to offer me the necessary protection against, and exclusively against, the political persecution that I am currently the object of.”[178] In the letter Assange wrote, “By welcoming me, France would fulfill a humanitarian but also probably symbolic gesture, sending an encouragement to all journalists and whistleblowers … Only France is now able to offer me the necessary protection … France can, if it wishes, act.”[177][178]
In a statement issued by the Élysée Palace on 3 July 2015 in response to this letter, the French President said: “France cannot act on his request. The situation of Mr Assange does not present an immediate danger.”[179]
On 4 July 2015, in response to the denial of asylum by France, a spokesman for Assange denied that Assange had actually “filed” a request for asylum in France. Speaking on behalf of Assange, Baltasar Garzón, head of his legal team, said that Assange had sent the open letter to French president Francois Hollande; but Assange had only expressed his willingness “to be hosted in France if and only if an initiative was taken by the competent authorities”.[178]
On 16 August 2016, Assange’s lawyer in the UK, John Jones, was found dead, according to the first reports after being hit by a train in an apparent suicide.[180] An inquest into his death found that the lawyer was accepted since March to a private psychiatric hospital with several issues of mental health, including bipolar disorder, and closed-circuit television cameras showed no-one was near him when he jumped before the train.[181] The death of both lawyers in such a short time span sparked conspiracy theories, and a tweet by WikiLeaks on 21 August said that an inquest rules it was not suicide, implying that he was assassinated.[182]
The next day, on 22 August, a man scaled the embassy’s walls, but was caught by the embassy’s security.[183]
On 17 October 2016 WikiLeaks announced that a “state party” had severed Assange’s internet connection at the Ecuadorian embassy.[184] The Ecuadorian government stated that it had “temporarily” severed Assange’s internet connection because of WikiLeaks’ release of documents “impacting on the U.S. election campaign”.[185] In an interview published Dec 29, Assange said,”“The internet has been returned”.[186]
UNWGAD ruling
On 5 February 2016, the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention decided that Assange had been subject to arbitrary detention by the UK and Swedish Governments since 7 December 2010, including his time in prison, on conditional bail and in the Ecuadorian embassy. According to the group, Assange should be allowed to walk free and be given compensation.[187][188]
The UK and Swedish governments rejected the ruling,[189] as did the UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Philip Hammond, and the UK and Swedish prosecutors.[190][191] The UK maintained it would arrest Assange should he leave the Ecuadorian embassy.[192] Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association, stated that the ruling is “not binding on British law”.[193] United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein has said that the ruling is based on binding international law.[194]
2016 US presidential election
During the 2016 presidential election, Assange repeatedly criticised Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, promoted conspiracy theories about Clinton and the Democratic Party, released emails from Clinton campaign staff and the DNC on Wikileaks, expressed only muted criticism of Donald Trump and did not release any content on Wikileaks damaging to the Trump campaign or the Republican Party.
Criticism of Clinton and the Democratic Party
Assange wrote on WikiLeaks in February 2016: “I have had years of experience in dealing with Hillary Clinton and have read thousands of her cables. Hillary lacks judgement and will push the United States into endless, stupid wars which spread terrorism. … she certainly should not become president of the United States.”[195] On 25 July, following the Republican National Convention (RNC), during an interview by Amy Goodman, Assange was quoted saying, “You’re asking me, do I prefer cholera or gonorrhea? … Personally, I would prefer neither.”[196][197][198] WikiLeaks editor, Sarah Harrison, has stated that the site is not choosing which damaging publications to release, rather releasing information that is available to them.[199]
During the presidential election, Wikileaks popularised conspiracies about the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton, such as tweeting an article which suggested Clinton campaign chairperson John Podesta engaged in satanic rituals, which was later revealed to be false[200][201][202] implying that the Democratic Party had Seth Rich killed,[203] stating that Hillary Clinton wanted to drone strike Assange,[204] promoting conspiracy theories about Clinton’s health,[205][206][207] and promoting a conspiracy theory from a Donald Trump-related internet community tying the Clinton campaign to child kidnapper Laura Silsby.[208] According to Harvard political scientist Matthew Baum and College of the Canyons political scientist Phil Gussin, Wikileaks strategically released e-mails related to the Clinton campaign whenever Clinton’s lead expanded in the polls.[209]
On 26 August, Assange spoke to Fox News and said that Clinton was causing “hysteria about Russia”. This statement was repeated in the Russian media outlet RT.[210]
Leaks
On 4 July 2016, during the Democratic Party presidential primaries, WikiLeaks hosted information and content of emails sent or received by candidate Hillary Clinton from her private email server when she was Secretary of State[211] as originally released by the State Department in February 2016, based on a FOIA request.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned as DNC chairwoman following WikiLeaks releases suggesting collusion against Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.
On 22 July 2016, WikiLeaks released emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) seemingly presenting ways to undercut Bernie Sanders and showing apparent favouritism towards Clinton, leading to the resignation of party chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.[212][213] The New York Times reported that “Assange accused Mrs. Clinton of having been among those pushing to indict him…” and that he had timed the release to coincide with the 2016 Democratic National Convention.[214] In an interview with Robert Peston of ITV News Assange suggested that he saw Hillary Clinton as a personal foe.[196][215]
On 4 October 2016, in a WikiLeaks anniversary meeting in Berlin with Assange teleconferencing from his refuge in the Ecuador embassy in London, reporters spoke of a supposed promise to reveal further information against Hillary Clinton which would bring her candidacy down, calling this information “The October Surprise”.[207]
On October 7, Assange posted a press release on WikiLeaks exposing over 2000 emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.[216] The emails, ranging from 2007-2016, revealed excerpts of Clinton’s paid Goldman Sachs speech in 2013.[217] In the emails, she explained her relationship to Wall Street and how she had previously represented the community: “even though I represented [people in finance] and did all I could to make sure they continued to prosper, I called for closing the carried interest loophole and addressing skyrocketing CEO pay. So when I raised early warnings about subprime mortgages and called for regulating derivatives and over complex financial products, I didn’t get some big arguments, because people sort of said, no, that makes sense.”[218][219]
On 9 October 2016, during the second presidential debate, Clinton accused Russian hackers for the leak of information to WikiLeaks, presumably working under the orders of Vladimir Putin: “… But you know, let’s talk about what’s really going on. Because our intelligence community said the Kremlin, meaning Putin and the Russian government, are directing the attacks, the hacking, on American accounts to influence our election … And believe me, they’re not doing it to get me elected. They’re doing it to try to influence the election for Donald Trump”.[220] While the two candidates faced off during the third and final presidential debate, Hillary Clinton criticised the Russian government for giving private information to WikiLeaks: “…this is such an unprecedented situation, we’ve never had a foreign government trying to interfere in our election. We have 17, 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military, who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyber attacks come from the highest levels of the Kremlin and they are designed to influence our election.” [221]
On the topic of WikiLeaks, host Chris Wallace directly asked Donald Trump if he would denounce Russia’s actions if the country actually interfered with the American election. Although Trump did not condemn Putin, he did express that he would not condone hacking “By Russia or anybody else.”[222][221] On the eve of the general presidential election, Assange wrote a press release addressing the criticism around publishing Clinton material on WikiLeaks.”We publish material given to us if it is of political, diplomatic, historical or ethical importance and which has not been published elsewhere. When we have material that fulfills this criteria, we publish.” He explains that the website received pertinent information related to the DNC Leaks and Clinton political campaign, but never received any information on Trump, Jill Stein, or Gary Johnson’s campaign, and therefore could not publish what they did not have.[223]
Allegations of anti-Semitism
In 2011, the British magazine Private Eye reported that one of Assange’s associates in Russia was a Holocaust denier. The magazine further reported that the WikiLeaks founder said that Jewish journalists in Britain were trying to discredit his organisation.[224][225] Assange responded that the magazine’s allegations of anti-semitism are false and stem from “distortions” on the part of its editor, Ian Hislop. On 1 March 2011, Assange released a statement in which he said, “Hislop has distorted, invented or misremembered almost every significant claim and phrase. In particular, ‘Jewish conspiracy’ is completely false, in spirit and in word. It is serious and upsetting. We treasure our strong Jewish support and staff, just as we treasure the support from pan-Arab democracy activists and others who share our hope for a just world.”[226][227]
In July 2016, Wikileaks suggested that the parentheses bracketing, or (((echoes))) — a tool used by neo-Nazis to identify Jews on Twitter, appropriated by Jews across the Twittersphere — had been used as a way for “establishment climbers” to identify one another.[228][229] Haaretz reported that this led to anti-Semitism allegations towards Assange.[224] Assange denied making claims of a Jewish conspiracy, stating, “‘Jewish conspiracy’ is completely false, in spirit and in word. It is serious and upsetting”.[224]
Writings
Assange is an advocate of information transparency and market libertarianism.[230] He has written a few short pieces, including “State and terrorist conspiracies” (2006),[231] “Conspiracy as governance” (2006),[232]“The hidden curse of Thomas Paine” (2008),[233] “What’s new about WikiLeaks?” (2011),[234] and the foreword to Cypherpunks (2012).[50] He also contributed research to Suelette Dreyfus’s Underground (1997),[27]and received a co-writer credit for the Calle 13 song “Multi_Viral” (2013).
Cypherpunks is primarily a transcript of the World Tomorrow episode eight two-part interview between Assange, Jacob Appelbaum, Andy Müller-Maguhn, and Jérémie Zimmermann.
Assange’s book, When Google Met WikiLeaks, was published by OR Books on 18 September 2014.[235] The book recounts when Google CEO Eric Schmidt requested a meeting with Assange, while he was under house arrest in rural Norfolk, UK. Schmidt was accompanied by Jared Cohen, director of Google Ideas; Lisa Shields, vice-president of the Council on Foreign Relations; and Scott Malcomson, the communications director for the International Crisis Group. Excerpts were published on the Newsweek website, while Assange participated in a Q&A event that was facilitated by the Reddit website and agreed to an interview with Vogue magazine.[236][237][238]
Personal life
While in his teens, Assange married a woman named Teresa, and in 1989 they had a son, Daniel Assange, now a software designer.[14][26][239] The couple separated and initially disputed custody of their child.[15]Assange was Daniel’s primary carer for much of his childhood.[240] In an open letter to French President François Hollande, Assange stated his youngest child lives in France with his/her mother. He also said that his family had faced death threats and harassment due to his work, forcing them to change identities and reduce contact with him.[241]
Honours and awards
- 2008, Economist New Media Award[242]
- 2009, Amnesty International UK Media Awards[243]
- 2010, TIME Person of the Year, Reader’s Choice[244]
- 2010, Sam Adams Award[245]
- 2011, Free Dacia Award[246]
- 2011, Sydney Peace Foundation Gold Medal[247]
- 2011, Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism[248]
- 2011, Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism[249]
- 2011, Voltaire Award for Free Speech[250]
- 2012, Big Brother Awards Hero of Privacy[251]
- 2013, Global Exchange Human Rights Award, People’s Choice[252]
- 2013, Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Award for the Arts[253]
- 2013, New York Festivals World’s Best TV & Films Silver World Medal[254]
- 2014, Union of Journalists in Kazakhstan Top Prize[255]
Work
Bibliography
- Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier (1997)
- Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet (2012) OR Books
- When Google Met WikiLeaks (2014) OR Books[256]
- The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to The US Empire (2015) Verso Books[257]
Filmography
- Producer
- Collateral Murder (2010)
- The World Tomorrow (2012) (host)
- Mediastan (2013)
- The Engineer (2013)[258]
- As himself
- The War You Don’t See (2010)
- The Simpsons (2012) (cameo; episode “At Long Last Leave“)
- Citizenfour (2014)
- The Yes Men Are Revolting (2014)
- Terminal F/Chasing Edward Snowden (2015)[259]
- Asylum (2016)[260]