Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder is helping a fellow whistleblower, Edward Snowden with his problems.
During a conference call on Wednesday Assange confirmed that his organization is helping Snowden obtain asylum in Iceland.
He stated that they have been in contact with Snowden and have been helping him. “I feel a great deal of personal sympathy with Mr. Snowden.” Yahoo reports.
WikiLeaks came to notoriety for publishing the largest amount of classified information, which it received from US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning .
Manning is currently in a court martial charged with the biggest leak of classified information in US history.
“As a matter of policy, we don’t speak about investigations or upcoming publications,” Assange repeated several times Wednesday, refusing to say whether he had spoken directly with Snowden. But, he hinted, “significant material will be published in coming weeks.”
In the meantime Julian Assange is marking the one year anniversary of being holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He took refuge there last year to avoid questioning for alleged sexual misconduct charges in Sweden.
He has stated that since he doesn’t have anything else to do to pass the time, he is continuing with his whistle blower campaigns for which WikiLeaks is known.
The press conference included whistle blowers and their advocates who are strongly opposed to the Obama administration’s policies on government leakers.
WikiLeaks is also focused on the recent Associated Press secret phone probes as well as that of a Fox News reporter.
Daniel Ellsberg, who gave top secret documents on President Nixon in 1971, said that Edward Snowden’s revelations indicate that the Obama administration has taking spying on private citizens to a new height.
“ President Obama has gone farther than any of the others in using the power of the government,” Ellsberg said. “What’s new is not only prosecutions under the Espionage Act but criminalizing the process of investigative journalism.”
Do you think that Assange will be successful in helping Snowden gain asylum?