Assange vows to release 'significant' material on US election

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pledged Tuesday to publish 'significant' new material on the US election before the November 8 vote, speaking on the 10th anniversary of the online leaking platform.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in a live video link at a press conference on the 10th anniversary of Wikileaks, in Berlin, Germany, 04 October 2016

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in a live video link at a press conference on the 10th anniversary of Wikileaks, in Berlin, Germany, 04 October 2016 Source: DPA

Assange said there were "enormous expectations in the United States" about the material and that "some of that expectation will be partly answered", with "a lot of fascinating angles" in the documents.

"Do they show interesting features of US power factions? Yes they do," he said, addressing an anniversary event in Berlin via videolink.

On why WikiLeaks was holding back for now, he added that "if we're going to make a major publication in relation to the United States at a particular hour, we don't do it at 3am," referring to the time in the eastern United States.

He also said that "we hope to be publishing every week for the next 10 weeks," promising documents on the subjects of war, arms, oil, Google and mass surveillance.

Assange -- speaking from the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he has been holed up for over four years to avoid being extradited to Sweden to face rape allegations -- hailed WikiLeaks for releasing 10 million documents over the past decade, exposing state and corporate secrets.

He pledged that WikiLeaks would seek to expand its activities with extra staff and new media partnerships, with plans to hire 100 more journalists over the next three years.

"We're going to need... an army to defend us from the pressure that is already starting to arrive," said Assange, wearing a black T-shirt with the word 'truth' on it.

On the eve of the US Democratic Party convention in July, WikiLeaks published some 20,000 internal emails pointing at an apparent bias of its leaders for Clinton during the primary campaign.

Assange charged that WikiLeaks was now the target of a witch hunt orchestrated in particular by Clinton, likening it to the repression of American communists in the 1950s driven by then senator Joseph McCarthy.

Assange said WikiLeaks would scale up to "amplify our publications and to defend us against what is really a quite remarkable McCarthyist push in the United States at the moment, principally by Hillary Clinton and her allies because she happens to be the person being exposed at the moment".

Asked whether he felt affinity with Clinton's Republican rival Donald Trump, he said: "I feel personal affinity with all human beings. Through understanding someone, you can feel sorry for them.

"I certainly feel sorry for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. These are two people who are tormented by their ambitions."


Share
Published 4 October 2016 9:58pm
Updated 5 October 2016 6:34am
Source: AFP


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world