Former WikiLeaks Employee James Ball Describes Working With Julian Assange

[struggle4progress]

by James Ball
May 30, 2013 4:45 AM EDT

... He and Julian — unknown to us — had been in friendly contact for years ... Introduced .. under a false name, Shamir was given direct access to more than 90,000 of the U.S. Embassy cables ... This was, for quite some time, denied by WikiLeaks. But that’s never a denial I’ve found convincing: the reason I know he has them is that I gave them to him, at Assange’s orders, not knowing who he was.

... A pro-Putin outlet got in touch to say Shamir had been asking for $10,000 for access to the cables. He was selling the material we were working to give away free ...

... The NGO Index on Censorship sent a string of questions and some photographic evidence, suggesting Shamir had given the cables to Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Europe’s last dictator. Shamir had written a pro-Belarus article, shortly before photos emerged of him leaving the interior ministry. The day after, Belarus’s dictator gave a speech saying he was establishing a WikiLeaks for Belarus, citing some stories and information appearing in the genuine (and then unpublished) cables.

Assange ... blocked any attempts at investigation, and released public statements that were simply untrue ...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/30/exclusive-former-wikileaks-employee-james-ball-describes-working-with-julian-assange.html

[Zorro]

1. It's a pretty damning article

"Myself, I’m reminded of the conclusion of George Orwell’s Animal Farm: Julian Assange has become everything he originally, rightly, despised."

And that's from someone who knew Assange well.