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WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy
A team of journalists with unparalleled inside access provides the first full, in-depth account of WikiLeaks, its founder Julian Assange, and the ethical, legal, and political controversies it has both uncovered and provoked.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
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February 28, 2011
I'm not telling you what I think of this book, because it's a secret. However, it really was a Lady Gaga CD. Allegedly.
August 15, 2014
"Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process."
These words of Obama sounds ridiculous now after his administration took serious actions against both Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden as Whistle Blowers themselves! A Whistle blower according to Wikipedia "is a person who exposes misconduct, alleged dishonest or illegal activity occurring in an organization."
The importance of this book doesn’t come only as a book that tells the story of Wikileaks from the inside but from behind the scenes stories of the biggest digital leak in history. To be honest, I’m not a media fan myself and I always been skeptical of media in generals and what they do usually to get a story but for the first time in years I was mind blown by the great efforts and remarkable work the Guardians, New York times and Der Spiegel had done to get the leaked cables about Afghanistan, Iraq and others to the public.
The Wikileaks video that shows Reuters reporters being killed in Iraq along with those who came to rescue the injured!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13qWAD...
David Leigh starts his book by talking about the motive behind Manning’s leaking of the US government documents that in subsequent chapters became more understandable by tracing the growth of Manning till his service in the US military. Hacktivism is the global phenomenon that drove the young US soldier to do what he did. Hacktivism according to Wikipedia (a portmanteau of hack and activism) is the use of computers and computer networks to promote political ends, chiefly free speech, human rights, and informationethics. If you are a techie person as myself, you will be fascinated by the employment of the internet, security, open source, file transfer, encryption techniques that was used to transfer and route data and cable files without being traced back!!
I was mind blown and went into hilarious laughter when I found that Julian Assange gave files passwords to the editors on a restaurant napkin! The work the IT staff along with the journal’s editors work was really impressive given limited time and expertise to analyze the document, check their authenticity and provide statistics on the horrible war causalities of the war in both Afghanistan and Iraq along with how these incidents and direct actions were reported by the US soldiers.
Through the pages of this book, you will learn more about Julian Assange, his childhood and early brilliance, Wikileaks, the sexual accusation against him the happened in Sweden with in depth focus on these stories, what people who worked with him think of and you may come with some conclusions that he was a brilliant dude but yet an idiot!! His asylum in Ecuador embassy where he still lives till the moment and how he advised Snowden on how to act after his leaked documents as well who himself now has an asylum in Russia!! for those who are more interested in Assange, you can check the documentary: We steal secrets, the story of Wikileaks.
We steal secrets: the story of Wikileaks
As a book in general, the book is well-written and smooth. David Leigh for sure is a good journalist who was able to grab your attention and thrill you through the chapters urging you to hub in into the next chapter. I can’t imagine how this would felt if it was published as stories in the Guardians, it would strike publishing for sure.
Oscar Wilds says: Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth! but these young men didn't need the mask to stand up and tell the truth... when would we be brave enough to stand and own this truth!
PS: you can check this link on the verdict on Bradley Manning and the implication on the free of speech that his trial invoked.
Investigative journalist on Manning verdict with Jeremy Scahill
May 21, 2014
Sharp, systematic, chronological narrative that focuses on the effects of WikiLeaks’ whistleblowing activities, from a global political perspective. Much space devoted to succinct descriptions of the leaked documents and their impact on international relations and government policy. Written from a relatively detached "outsider’s" point of view and based on verifiable information, with little of the sensationalized personality profiling and gratuitous speculation that afflicts many biographies- likely a happy consequence of the fact that both authors are professional journalists.
The objective and matter-of-fact treatment particularly befits the sections relating to alleged sexual crimes- rather than moralizing over sordid details, or playing up the charges and the evidence behind them, it brings the ambiguity and culture-specificity of sexual overtures and relations into focus, demonstrating how easily miscommunication and divergent perspectives and expectations create a minefield out of the rarely-openly-discussed topic of casual sex.
A small amount of repetition in turns of phrase and quotes- could have benefitted from tighter editing- but overall quite coherent and consistent in style and content, especially considering that authorship was shared between Leigh and Harding.
Found this a much more mature, disciplined piece of writing than This Machine Kills Secrets (the latter was less carefully edited, and focused on digital security, hacker culture, and personality clashes within WikiLeaks and its collaborators- hence occupying a different niche, with little overlap beyond the initial chapters).
For the record, I abhor descriptions of Manning as 'naïve'- she had the courage, foresight, principles, and inner clarity, to bring about concrete change at great personal expense- it is those who distort her intentions and deprecate her contributions, or who believe that they can suppress such spirits- these are the naïve ones.
The objective and matter-of-fact treatment particularly befits the sections relating to alleged sexual crimes- rather than moralizing over sordid details, or playing up the charges and the evidence behind them, it brings the ambiguity and culture-specificity of sexual overtures and relations into focus, demonstrating how easily miscommunication and divergent perspectives and expectations create a minefield out of the rarely-openly-discussed topic of casual sex.
A small amount of repetition in turns of phrase and quotes- could have benefitted from tighter editing- but overall quite coherent and consistent in style and content, especially considering that authorship was shared between Leigh and Harding.
Found this a much more mature, disciplined piece of writing than This Machine Kills Secrets (the latter was less carefully edited, and focused on digital security, hacker culture, and personality clashes within WikiLeaks and its collaborators- hence occupying a different niche, with little overlap beyond the initial chapters).
For the record, I abhor descriptions of Manning as 'naïve'- she had the courage, foresight, principles, and inner clarity, to bring about concrete change at great personal expense- it is those who distort her intentions and deprecate her contributions, or who believe that they can suppress such spirits- these are the naïve ones.
March 31, 2017
An interesting look inside WikiLeaks and the main players of that movement. Well worth the few bucks I paid for it.
January 13, 2014
Chiefly, I think this book now suffers from being out-of-date; the story ends with Assange being released on bail pending his extradition hearing, and so obviously lacks anything about his subsequent flight to the Ecuadorean embassy, nor Manning's trial, sentencing and change of gender. It does, however, provide interesting insight into the lead-up to and background of the "biggest leak in history".
In particular, I would have been interested to see some commentary on the subsequent Snowden leak, which also went through the Guardian (but not Wikileaks); and what this says about Wikileaks' relevance today. But it is unfair to complain that a book doesn't cover the events that occurred after it is published.
That said, I think this book could have used a little more time in the oven; there were definitely errors in the text that should have been caught by proofreaders/editors; I don't doubt the book was written and published in a rush, but it's written by journalists, who must surely be used to producing cleaner copy than this on tight deadlines.
Additionally, I found the way that the authors refer to themselves in the third-person jarring and disingenuous; as though they were trying to make the story seem more objective by pretending that the authors of the book weren't also participants in the events. I suppose it's possible that all the sections that mention Leigh were written by Harding, and vice-versa, but that seems unlikely.
Finally, the inclusion of some of the cables at the end of the book seemed somewhat superfluous, given that most of them were fairly heavily quoted in the book itself. There also were a couple of sections where the book repeated itself a little more than was really necessary.
In particular, I would have been interested to see some commentary on the subsequent Snowden leak, which also went through the Guardian (but not Wikileaks); and what this says about Wikileaks' relevance today. But it is unfair to complain that a book doesn't cover the events that occurred after it is published.
That said, I think this book could have used a little more time in the oven; there were definitely errors in the text that should have been caught by proofreaders/editors; I don't doubt the book was written and published in a rush, but it's written by journalists, who must surely be used to producing cleaner copy than this on tight deadlines.
Additionally, I found the way that the authors refer to themselves in the third-person jarring and disingenuous; as though they were trying to make the story seem more objective by pretending that the authors of the book weren't also participants in the events. I suppose it's possible that all the sections that mention Leigh were written by Harding, and vice-versa, but that seems unlikely.
Finally, the inclusion of some of the cables at the end of the book seemed somewhat superfluous, given that most of them were fairly heavily quoted in the book itself. There also were a couple of sections where the book repeated itself a little more than was really necessary.
March 13, 2011
This very well written book from the Guardian journalists who worked with WikiLeaks to break the story gives a lot of interesting backstory to the cables, the alleged leaker Bradley Manning (who so far has been the real innocent victim of all this - a disillusioned kid from the bible belt who only joined the Army to please a father who disowned him after he revealed he was gay) and of course Julian Assange (who comes out of this a much more human creature, full of foibles - such as the 'Aussie coarseness' the Brit writers keep assigning him, and the history as a mixed-up hippy kid on the lam much of his childhood from his mother's lover). Assange certainly loses much of the shine from the tin halo assigned to him as the 'Ned Kelly of the internet generation' (as The Sydney Morning Herald famously christened him). Importantly the book gives the full text of the more controversial cables and puts them in context in a way, as it points out repeatedly, that only a large news organisation has the resources and experience to do. I dare say Assange will be unhappy with much of this book, and it will be interesting to see what comes out in his upcoming autobiography (due this April apparently). Of course the story is still very much alive, ending as it does in January 2011 with Assange in his mansion-detention awaiting extradition hearings and WikiLeaks in financial strain after attacks from the US administration via Visa, Mastercard and PayPal, but whatever happens next having read this book will help give me a much fuller understanding of where it fits into the whole picture. I did love that all this began, in some ways, with Assange getting a Commodore 64 as a kid. I had one too, but all I did was write a version of Hangman in BASIC.
January 8, 2017
Kupio sam ovu knjigu prije godinu dana u Ljubljani za smiješna tri evra, ali tek sada sam našao vremena da je pročitam. Knjigu su napisala dvojica Guardijanovih novinara koji su imali pripremu objavljivanja najvećeg curenja tajnih podataka ikada i kako je bilo koordinisati rad pet redakcija (NY Times, Guardian, El Pais, Le Monde i Der Spiegel) sve što je moguće dalje od američkih tajnih službi. Ukratko, knjiga je strašna. Daje uvid i u Asanžov život prije WikiLeaksa koji je i tada bio i više nego fascinantan. Već u prvoj polovini devedesetih slovio je za najsposobnijeg australijskog hakera. Ali prava poslastica je na kraju, neke od depeša koje je WL objavio. Ubjedljivo najluđa je ona američkog ambasadora iz Moskve, jednog jako dobrog stiliste i čovjeka koji baš zna da piše, koji se zadesio na jednoj dagestanskoj svadbi. Kakvo je to ludilo bilo nema ovdje prostora da se napiše, ali dovoljno je reći da traje tri dana, da su svi naoružani i mrtvi-pjani. Ima na YT dosta dagestanskih svadbi pa bacite pogled. Inače, knjiga je čista desetka.
May 6, 2011
I couldn't put this down. A fascinating expose by London Guardian reporters into Assange's personality and the process of releasing the Afghanistan, Iraq, and diplomatic logs to the public. Goes into great detail about the Swedish rape charges.
March 18, 2011
The book gives a good overview of the Wikileaks situation to date. Its more of a blatant attempt bythe Guardian to cash in on the Julian Assange drama one feels, rather than an attempt to give a heretofore unseen side of the Wikileaks story.
Most of the book deals with the documented story of Wikileaks, only more analytically and with a level of perspective that has built up over the ensuing months. It also takes a bit of a dim view of Assange himself and one can sense a clear vein of arrogance that constantly seeks to downplay the efforts of Wikileaks and Assange and highlight the work of the Guardian in bringing the whole thing to light. Therefore it is less the story of Wikileaks itself and more the story of 'this Wikileaks business' from the rather self-righteous outlook of The Guardian.
But still, i wouldn't say the book is filled with lies and slander, far from it. The Guardian lives up to its reputation for good journalism and tries to remain objective and open to reason despite its constant monkey-praising-its-own-tail self congratulatory tone.
Gaga in the Desert
The tale starts with the disillusioned Bradley Manning, a computer operator in Iraq, who gets frustrated with the politics of the Iraqi war when it dawns on him that the values the US stands for there are only concerned with integrity so long as they helped further US interests. Simultaneously he realizes that the computer department he works in has very bad security and finds out that he can write classified files by burning them onto his Lady Gaga CD (a bizarre image, a desert dust battered army trailer room with battle hardened soldiers listening to Lady Gaga, but Manning wasn't a fighting man. He was highly idealistic, opinionated and smart, with a mopey childhood and homosexual tendencies).
To get back to the point Manning then tries to figure out a way of doing some 'good' with the data he has found because he has come to realize that large amounts of the information are things that the 'people should know about'. Enter Assange, who Manning hears about because of the former's rapidly growing popularity as a result of the work of Wikileaks in exposing the corrupt activities of African, European and other governments. Manning soon gets in touch through the equivalent of underground comm lines in the internet and the rest is baked cheesecake.
Death tolls, civilian casualties (including children), extra-judicial killings, hit squads etc were all packed away in the bits of data relating to the Afghan and Iraqi conflicts that were finally released through Wikileaks. Whereas the US previously claimed not to have specific figures for the number of dead in the wars, the final figure for Iraq was exposed as being somewhere between 100,000-108,000. Every single one of these deaths were meticulously recorded by soldiers filling out post-battle reports. Many other juicy details were also put out for the public consumption. The most controversial of all released data were the cables that were sent from US embassies around the world back to Washington, finally causing the US to sit up and take notice, and they were very, very ticked off. Manning was arrested and jailed. he is pending trial and will possibly face long years in prison, if not the death penalty for treason.
'Hacktivist'
Anyway if you've been following the news with half a ear, you already know this. So lets stick to the book itself. We are treated to a brief overview of Assange's vegabond, peripatetic childhood and his subsequent metamorphosis into a young father and unberhacker. It is through his hacking that Assange first comes into contact with the law, from the wrong side, and he does not like what he sees. His subsequent disillusionment with justice and governments is what leads to his conviction that 'all information must be free' and Wikileaks. he essentially becomes a hacker with a cause, a hacktivist.
Now enters the Guardian as an opportunistic Main Stream Media (the MSM is portrayed as highly derided by new media) element swooping in for the jackpot. Its editors strike up deals with Assange, who also brings in Der Spiegel and the New York Times, and set about analyzing, breaking down and narrativizing the think chunks of almost incomprehensible numbers and other data that was pratically 'dumped' by Manning on Assange. This proves to be a complex task and the experienced team of mainstream journalists take months to carefully sift through, contextualize, redact (where needed to protect lives)and break down what would otherwise have been a meaningless pile of numbers, acronyms and random figures.
This task could only have been done by experienced journalists and this is consequently where the Guardian's smugness shines out the most. At one point, elaborating on the glories of MSM journalists, it gushes 'they could be the genuine information professionals, standing out in an otherwise worthless universe of internet froth'. Except of course, they couldn't. 'Cablegate' and the 'biggest journalistic scoop since the the Pentagon Papers and possibly the biggest scoop of all time' would never have been possible without the so called 'internet froth' it so callously refers to.
Moments like that are rare however, and most of the book tries to stick to telling the story as it is. It is only when the authors' (senior Guardian journos both) personal views and observations come frothing to the top that the pith creates a bitter taste in your mouth. Otherwise, Assange is described in rather enigmatic terms. He is a bit of a mystery. But he is also a bit naive, arrogant and hubristic. Highly intelligent and charming, he has a tendency for paranoia and to engage in cloak and dagger behavior.
The book reads like a spy novel and is slightly prone to purplish prose and melodrama here and there. But it was compelling and had me glued until the end. A good journalistic account of the Wikileaks saga so far. It also discusses the allegations of sexual assault leveled at Assange and the ensuing chaos. It ends somewhere before his extradition to Sweden. All in all a good read, but for a more in depth look at the man himself and a behind the scenes look at the inner workings of Wikileaks i daresay we could do worse that wait for Assange's upcoming biography. Rather snortingly described in this book as having 'an ambitions deadline' for April 2011.
Most of the book deals with the documented story of Wikileaks, only more analytically and with a level of perspective that has built up over the ensuing months. It also takes a bit of a dim view of Assange himself and one can sense a clear vein of arrogance that constantly seeks to downplay the efforts of Wikileaks and Assange and highlight the work of the Guardian in bringing the whole thing to light. Therefore it is less the story of Wikileaks itself and more the story of 'this Wikileaks business' from the rather self-righteous outlook of The Guardian.
But still, i wouldn't say the book is filled with lies and slander, far from it. The Guardian lives up to its reputation for good journalism and tries to remain objective and open to reason despite its constant monkey-praising-its-own-tail self congratulatory tone.
Gaga in the Desert
The tale starts with the disillusioned Bradley Manning, a computer operator in Iraq, who gets frustrated with the politics of the Iraqi war when it dawns on him that the values the US stands for there are only concerned with integrity so long as they helped further US interests. Simultaneously he realizes that the computer department he works in has very bad security and finds out that he can write classified files by burning them onto his Lady Gaga CD (a bizarre image, a desert dust battered army trailer room with battle hardened soldiers listening to Lady Gaga, but Manning wasn't a fighting man. He was highly idealistic, opinionated and smart, with a mopey childhood and homosexual tendencies).
To get back to the point Manning then tries to figure out a way of doing some 'good' with the data he has found because he has come to realize that large amounts of the information are things that the 'people should know about'. Enter Assange, who Manning hears about because of the former's rapidly growing popularity as a result of the work of Wikileaks in exposing the corrupt activities of African, European and other governments. Manning soon gets in touch through the equivalent of underground comm lines in the internet and the rest is baked cheesecake.
Death tolls, civilian casualties (including children), extra-judicial killings, hit squads etc were all packed away in the bits of data relating to the Afghan and Iraqi conflicts that were finally released through Wikileaks. Whereas the US previously claimed not to have specific figures for the number of dead in the wars, the final figure for Iraq was exposed as being somewhere between 100,000-108,000. Every single one of these deaths were meticulously recorded by soldiers filling out post-battle reports. Many other juicy details were also put out for the public consumption. The most controversial of all released data were the cables that were sent from US embassies around the world back to Washington, finally causing the US to sit up and take notice, and they were very, very ticked off. Manning was arrested and jailed. he is pending trial and will possibly face long years in prison, if not the death penalty for treason.
'Hacktivist'
Anyway if you've been following the news with half a ear, you already know this. So lets stick to the book itself. We are treated to a brief overview of Assange's vegabond, peripatetic childhood and his subsequent metamorphosis into a young father and unberhacker. It is through his hacking that Assange first comes into contact with the law, from the wrong side, and he does not like what he sees. His subsequent disillusionment with justice and governments is what leads to his conviction that 'all information must be free' and Wikileaks. he essentially becomes a hacker with a cause, a hacktivist.
Now enters the Guardian as an opportunistic Main Stream Media (the MSM is portrayed as highly derided by new media) element swooping in for the jackpot. Its editors strike up deals with Assange, who also brings in Der Spiegel and the New York Times, and set about analyzing, breaking down and narrativizing the think chunks of almost incomprehensible numbers and other data that was pratically 'dumped' by Manning on Assange. This proves to be a complex task and the experienced team of mainstream journalists take months to carefully sift through, contextualize, redact (where needed to protect lives)and break down what would otherwise have been a meaningless pile of numbers, acronyms and random figures.
This task could only have been done by experienced journalists and this is consequently where the Guardian's smugness shines out the most. At one point, elaborating on the glories of MSM journalists, it gushes 'they could be the genuine information professionals, standing out in an otherwise worthless universe of internet froth'. Except of course, they couldn't. 'Cablegate' and the 'biggest journalistic scoop since the the Pentagon Papers and possibly the biggest scoop of all time' would never have been possible without the so called 'internet froth' it so callously refers to.
Moments like that are rare however, and most of the book tries to stick to telling the story as it is. It is only when the authors' (senior Guardian journos both) personal views and observations come frothing to the top that the pith creates a bitter taste in your mouth. Otherwise, Assange is described in rather enigmatic terms. He is a bit of a mystery. But he is also a bit naive, arrogant and hubristic. Highly intelligent and charming, he has a tendency for paranoia and to engage in cloak and dagger behavior.
The book reads like a spy novel and is slightly prone to purplish prose and melodrama here and there. But it was compelling and had me glued until the end. A good journalistic account of the Wikileaks saga so far. It also discusses the allegations of sexual assault leveled at Assange and the ensuing chaos. It ends somewhere before his extradition to Sweden. All in all a good read, but for a more in depth look at the man himself and a behind the scenes look at the inner workings of Wikileaks i daresay we could do worse that wait for Assange's upcoming biography. Rather snortingly described in this book as having 'an ambitions deadline' for April 2011.
October 30, 2017
Read to find about the man who visioned Wikileaks. Clearly, he was brave to dare to do something of this degree and also a man of white and black as he simply puts away that the leaking of informer's name is no big deal beacuse if they did it they have it coming to them. His motto may well have been- "Publish and be damned" !
January 28, 2024
I think this was well written. My copy was probably published before chelsea manning changed her name though
Shelved as 'watched-film-only'
January 16, 2015I watched the movie, "The Fifth Estate" via a DVD from our public library. The film was adapted from this book and some others (see below). I was mainly interested in seeing the actor Benedict Cumberbatch who played the part of Julian Assange.
IMDb page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1837703/?...
Below is a summary about the movie from my library catalog:
============================
"Summary: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg team up to become underground watchdogs of the very powerful. They create a platform that allows whistleblowers to anonymously leak covert data. But when Assange and Berg gain access to the biggest trove of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history, they battle each other and a defining question of our time: what are the costs of keeping secrets in a free society, and what are the costs of exposing them? "
============================
More about the film:
"The Fifth Estate is a 2013 thriller film directed by Bill Condon, about the news-leaking website WikiLeaks. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as its editor-in-chief and founder Julian Assange, and Daniel Brühl as its former spokesperson Daniel Domscheit-Berg.
"The film's screenplay was written by Josh Singer based in-part on Domscheit-Berg's book Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange and the World's Most Dangerous Website (2011), as well as WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy (2011) by British journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding.
"The film's name is a term used to describe the people who operate in the manner of journalists outside the normal constraints imposed on the mainstream media."
ABOVE INFO IS FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fift...
The books mentioned above:
WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy by David Leigh, Luke Harding
OR A DIFFERENT LINK:
WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy by Luke Harding, David Leigh
Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website by Daniel Domscheit-Berg
IMDb page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1837703/?...
Below is a summary about the movie from my library catalog:
============================
"Summary: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg team up to become underground watchdogs of the very powerful. They create a platform that allows whistleblowers to anonymously leak covert data. But when Assange and Berg gain access to the biggest trove of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history, they battle each other and a defining question of our time: what are the costs of keeping secrets in a free society, and what are the costs of exposing them? "
============================
More about the film:
"The Fifth Estate is a 2013 thriller film directed by Bill Condon, about the news-leaking website WikiLeaks. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as its editor-in-chief and founder Julian Assange, and Daniel Brühl as its former spokesperson Daniel Domscheit-Berg.
"The film's screenplay was written by Josh Singer based in-part on Domscheit-Berg's book Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange and the World's Most Dangerous Website (2011), as well as WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy (2011) by British journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding.
"The film's name is a term used to describe the people who operate in the manner of journalists outside the normal constraints imposed on the mainstream media."
ABOVE INFO IS FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fift...
The books mentioned above:
WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy by David Leigh, Luke Harding
OR A DIFFERENT LINK:
WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy by Luke Harding, David Leigh
Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website by Daniel Domscheit-Berg
August 24, 2013
I started reading this book a few years ago and somehow never finished it. The whole Snowden affair made me want to pick it up again and I do not regret it. To start with, it is a nice piece of juicy journalism. More importantly, it shows us there is no such thing as a public secret. For me it is not so much the content of what is revealed by whistleblowers like Snowden and Assange that suprises me. It is the extent to what governments go through in order to keep it quiet. And it is so unnecessary too. For example, The New York Times published an article as early as 2005, in which it revealed the illegal eavesdropping activities of the NSA. Having been educated in International Relations the revelations of Manning and Snowden are not news to me and do not reveal really surprising stuff. But as the book rightly points out, these documents are proof of the afore mentioned "public secrets" and give historians like me a nice close look in the world of diplomacy.
The book also reveals how similar the US approach is toward Snowden and Assange. Both have been drastically isolated by US diplomacy and have virtually become stateless, sought after suspects. Let's not start about Bradley Manning and the degrading treatment he receives from government and military alike. These men paid a very high price, the ultimate and universal faith of whistleblowers, even in the supposedly free democratic Western world. It sure makes one realize that becoming a whistleblower is not a very wise thing to do, however brave and ideologically correct the goals may be.
The book also reveals how similar the US approach is toward Snowden and Assange. Both have been drastically isolated by US diplomacy and have virtually become stateless, sought after suspects. Let's not start about Bradley Manning and the degrading treatment he receives from government and military alike. These men paid a very high price, the ultimate and universal faith of whistleblowers, even in the supposedly free democratic Western world. It sure makes one realize that becoming a whistleblower is not a very wise thing to do, however brave and ideologically correct the goals may be.
November 2, 2013
WikiLeaks is a very informative story about how the website WikiLeaks came to be a controversial site. His site included various videos and accounts from soldiers in Afghanistan, at the time, these videos being posted on Youtube were making front page news. Everybody found out about the civilian casualties in Afghanistan, its not all about our "Hero's".If you don't already know what WikiLeaks is then this will be an interesting story about the hacker who created it.
Julian Assange the man behind the story is similar to a real life version of DC comics The Joker, Julian doesn't have a motive for why he hacks federal systems of security like National Defense or Banks other then to prove to himself that he can. This left me riveted after hearing how Julian could do all of this while remaining under the radar. The illegal hacking he does may make him a criminal but the reasons he provides to his colleagues prove to everyone that he really has a reasonable ulterior motive that makes us see him as a true law abiding citizen.
This book not only informed us about Julian Assange's upbringing but we were told about WikiLeaks harsh rise to bringing classified information to the public eye. Julian stretched his 1st amendment right as far as possible and endured serious drawbacks because of it. This story was clever, informative, and very entertaining I encourage everybody to pick it up and decide whether Julian's actions were right or wrong.
Julian Assange the man behind the story is similar to a real life version of DC comics The Joker, Julian doesn't have a motive for why he hacks federal systems of security like National Defense or Banks other then to prove to himself that he can. This left me riveted after hearing how Julian could do all of this while remaining under the radar. The illegal hacking he does may make him a criminal but the reasons he provides to his colleagues prove to everyone that he really has a reasonable ulterior motive that makes us see him as a true law abiding citizen.
This book not only informed us about Julian Assange's upbringing but we were told about WikiLeaks harsh rise to bringing classified information to the public eye. Julian stretched his 1st amendment right as far as possible and endured serious drawbacks because of it. This story was clever, informative, and very entertaining I encourage everybody to pick it up and decide whether Julian's actions were right or wrong.
May 17, 2011
This book written by editor and war correspondent in Guardian leading UK Newspaper. The style of writing bit close to spy novel rather than fact finding with such exciting characters and chronologies. I found it very helpful to explain the rise of Julian Assange from humble hacker into stardom of free information. It looks deeper to the core of democracy and secrecy. Do Government has a right to keep secret? Who has the accountability to public or even to the world?
Julian Assange undoubtedly became two faces, evil and god. He can be seen as traitor or hero depends which side you on. But reading the book will give enormous story of background of his childhood, his lifestyle and his political agenda (or technological agenda I assumed). Including who and who behind the underground Wikileaks and conspirators (media, journalist, financial institution, or personal).
The book launched in advance than Daniel Domscheit Berg, a Wikileaks associates that disgruntled about Assange's leadership. In the end, the leaks changes few faces of the world now, including several leaders and government. Obviously it embarrassed to some, but it will make better public account.
Julian Assange undoubtedly became two faces, evil and god. He can be seen as traitor or hero depends which side you on. But reading the book will give enormous story of background of his childhood, his lifestyle and his political agenda (or technological agenda I assumed). Including who and who behind the underground Wikileaks and conspirators (media, journalist, financial institution, or personal).
The book launched in advance than Daniel Domscheit Berg, a Wikileaks associates that disgruntled about Assange's leadership. In the end, the leaks changes few faces of the world now, including several leaders and government. Obviously it embarrassed to some, but it will make better public account.
August 16, 2013
Wikileaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy is a first hand account into the Wikileaks release of the Afghanistan, Iraq, and diplomatic logs to the public.
Despite the bias of the journalists against Bradley Manning, it is an informed account of the relationship between Bradley Manning and Julian Assange; and The Guardian and Wikileaks.
The writers (who were the journalists in collaboration with Julian Assange) present themselves and The Guardian as moral guardians who educated Julian Assange about media’s ethics. While that’s probably true, this aspect of the narrative felt like the writers are too eager to delineate their own position, and distance themselves from Assange.
Nevertheless, the writers debunk the spin and propaganda around the sexual assault charges against Julian Assange.
Written by one of Britains’ most distinguished investigative journalists, it’s a real page turner, full of twists and turns, that held my interest from beginning to end.
If the reader can bypass the writers bias, it’s a must read for anyone interested in investigative and citizen journalism, and it’s relationship to Whistleblowers.
Despite the bias of the journalists against Bradley Manning, it is an informed account of the relationship between Bradley Manning and Julian Assange; and The Guardian and Wikileaks.
The writers (who were the journalists in collaboration with Julian Assange) present themselves and The Guardian as moral guardians who educated Julian Assange about media’s ethics. While that’s probably true, this aspect of the narrative felt like the writers are too eager to delineate their own position, and distance themselves from Assange.
Nevertheless, the writers debunk the spin and propaganda around the sexual assault charges against Julian Assange.
Written by one of Britains’ most distinguished investigative journalists, it’s a real page turner, full of twists and turns, that held my interest from beginning to end.
If the reader can bypass the writers bias, it’s a must read for anyone interested in investigative and citizen journalism, and it’s relationship to Whistleblowers.
May 20, 2014
A fascinating and enjoyable read. I've read a bit about Assange and there is plenty more detail here to round out the portrait of this unusual and compelling individual. Alongside the story of the leaks and the individuals involved of course are the cables themselves. It really is fascinating to get a glimpse into the world of international diplomacy and what goes on inside the embassy and behind the bland smiles. The long appendices with some of the juicier and more interesting leaked cables are great and as has been said many times the US diplomats involved really are a smart incisive bunch who came out of the whole affair with their reputations greatly enhanced. It was Interesting to learn that Tunisians were very impressed with the US analysis of their feckless corrupt leaders after they read about the local US officials dim view of them on their front pages.
November 20, 2016
This was an interesting read from the perspective of getting some background on Wikileaks and Julian Assange, but suffered significantly from the authors being far too close to the subject matter (in fact they often appear in the book, which treats them in the third person and is forever telling the reader how brilliant, hardworking and handsome they are). Occasionally they were critical of Wikileaks and Assange, but mostly they presented every criticism of the issue as some offense to journalism and free speech. Numerous arguments they put forth haven't aged well (for example, discussions about Bradly Manning being transgender as some kind of smear campaign against him to discredit Wikileaks). It's worth reading as a just after the moment snapshot of the issue, but it was written too soon after, and by people too close to Wikileaks to be much beyond personal opinion.
February 26, 2011
An interesting but not a riveting read.
Julian comes across as an intelligent man, driven by a fractured childhood. A gifted hacker who, by serendipitous circumstances crosses paths on the internet with a troubled young US Army private, who unbelievably had access to reams of sensitive military and diplomatic traffic.
This book, written under the auspices of The Guardian, gives us a shallow view of a silly imbroglio that by all rules of statecraft, should have never happened.
As is normal in today's America, no General or politico will be punished or relieved of duty. Everything will be focused on a kid just three years off the high-school playground.
Read the book, but don't expect much more than you already knew.
Julian comes across as an intelligent man, driven by a fractured childhood. A gifted hacker who, by serendipitous circumstances crosses paths on the internet with a troubled young US Army private, who unbelievably had access to reams of sensitive military and diplomatic traffic.
This book, written under the auspices of The Guardian, gives us a shallow view of a silly imbroglio that by all rules of statecraft, should have never happened.
As is normal in today's America, no General or politico will be punished or relieved of duty. Everything will be focused on a kid just three years off the high-school playground.
Read the book, but don't expect much more than you already knew.
April 25, 2014
An interesting insight into the secretive world (no pun intended!) of WikiLeaks and especially of its founder, the enigmatic Julian Assange. This book gives some of the background story of Assange, his unusual upbringing and entry in the world of "hacktivism" in the 1990s and examines his motivation for seeking to make the secrets of the wealthy and powerful open to public scrutiny. The book also goes in to the connected story of Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning and why that young US soldier was willing to risk so much in the cause of exposing the mis-deeds and crimes carried out by US forces in Iraq.
Overall, I found it an informative read and well worth a look for any reader interested in World affairs, online security and the rights to privacy in the digital age.
Overall, I found it an informative read and well worth a look for any reader interested in World affairs, online security and the rights to privacy in the digital age.
September 3, 2011
Assange is an interesting character. The WikiLeaks concept is a good one, but it seemed obvious that just dumping a lot of data onto the Net is not a useful thing; you need to sort and edit and analyze and then, arguably, the information is not longer "free".
Interestingly, the subject of information (freedom of and access to, cryptography, information and meaning, networks...) has been a major focus of three books (each of which I happened upon indepentently and an in a diffent context) that I have read in past month: this one, THE INFORMATION by James Gleik and LITTLE BROTHER by Cory Doctorow.
Interestingly, the subject of information (freedom of and access to, cryptography, information and meaning, networks...) has been a major focus of three books (each of which I happened upon indepentently and an in a diffent context) that I have read in past month: this one, THE INFORMATION by James Gleik and LITTLE BROTHER by Cory Doctorow.
August 28, 2012
Eminently readable account of Assange and the Wikileaks saga from the Guardian hacks who worked with him on the release of much of the leaked US material into the public domain. Assange is a divisive figure of course, but you may finish this feeling sorry for his helper, the US marine Bradley Manning. He can look forward to years in jail while the authors point out that State Department got over the disclosures remarkably quickly and even Assange has scored a book deal. The key US cables are at the back of the book and make for an informative read if you wonder about how governments conduct foreign affairs.
June 26, 2014
I would recommend this book to other people because for one it is written very well and also because it opened my understanding of of how the government keep so much secret even though it should be shared with the public. For instance i learnt after reading the book that a hacker by the name of Julian Asange had hacked information and gotten hold of military footage of an Apache Helicopter killing innocent civilians in Afgahnastan. Afterwards i searched it up on google and sure enough they definitely were. Also Wikileaks has leaked and Published over 2 Million pages of Military documents as well as countless other government secrets.
May 21, 2015
Не устаю удивляться, насколько психологически изломаны и отличаются от "среднего члена общества" те, кто выполняют очень нужные обществу функции, вполне искренне "ложащиеся на амбразуру".
Иметь в друзьях Маннига или Ассанжа очень мало кому захочется, но общество функционирует в том числе благодаря тому, что они есть.
Что касается самой книжки, написана она неплохо, сказывается журналистский опыт авторов. Я вначале сомневался, не может ли такой толстенький томик оказаться щедро "разбавленным водой", но все написано по существу, пролистал с интересом.
Иметь в друзьях Маннига или Ассанжа очень мало кому захочется, но общество функционирует в том числе благодаря тому, что они есть.
Что касается самой книжки, написана она неплохо, сказывается журналистский опыт авторов. Я вначале сомневался, не может ли такой толстенький томик оказаться щедро "разбавленным водой", но все написано по существу, пролистал с интересом.
September 1, 2012
A fascinating insight into the workings of WikiLeaks and the story which created the myth of Julian Assange. Written as part-biography, part-thriller, part-textbook it is an essential read for anyone interested in the future of investigative journalism and the power of citizen journalism on the internet. Yet it also reveals the naivety of Assange... how he struggled with the ethical questions raised by the leak of the diplomatic cables and his fraught relationship with traditional media. If he was a visionary, then he was a myopic one.
August 9, 2011
Reads like a thriller suspense novel. But what was interesting is the collaborative journalism that was going on prior to the publication of the Afghan, Iraq and Embassy logs. That made for an interesting read. Reveals a lot about the dynamics and the inner-workings of top publications in the world. I would recommend it for media studies.
August 18, 2012
Actually borrowed this book two weeks ago from the library, and I must indeed say the authors did a pretty good job in detailing us the life and works of this hacker-cum-journo-gone molester-gone celebrity, another reason to rally behind the man of the moment Julian Assange and the idea of free access of information! Keep it up the guardian veterans...
January 19, 2013
A fascinating read, I thought it provided a balanced account of WikiLeaks, and of Assange as somewhat aloof, arrogant and gregarious. The back room accounts of international newspaper hand wringing was equally riveting to read. The included referenced cables in the appendix is a good finishing touch.
October 20, 2013
2013, updated edition
Dramatic, compelling and well written, but has 3 minor flaws: several chapters in the middle read like they have been written separately then merely cobbled together, rather than properly edited; the book seems to take an awkward stance on rape 'as the term is understood by many'; and, most seriously of all, Chelsea Manning is too often omitted from the narrative.
Dramatic, compelling and well written, but has 3 minor flaws: several chapters in the middle read like they have been written separately then merely cobbled together, rather than properly edited; the book seems to take an awkward stance on rape 'as the term is understood by many'; and, most seriously of all, Chelsea Manning is too often omitted from the narrative.
April 7, 2011
Covers Wikileaks from the point of view of the Guardian. The story is split between Assange and Manning and mostly covers Wikileaks after they had approached the major newspapers. Daniel Domscheit-Berg's book is a much more interesting read.
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