SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Marking 10 Years, WikiLeaks Says 'October Surprises' Coming...Soon
'Our upcoming series includes significant material on war, arms, oil, Google, the U.S. elections, and myself,' said Julian Assange on Tuesday
Oct 04, 2016
During a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday, the media organization WikiLeaks touted 10 years of drawing the veil of secrecy away from governments and businesses worldwide while also confirming that a new batch of documents--specifically targeting the U.S. government and internet giant Google--will be released over the next two months.
"Our upcoming series includes significant material on war, arms, oil, Google, the U.S. elections, and myself," WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said via video link from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he has been living since 2012. He said the documents would be released before the end of the year, with the first cache coming within the week.
There was significant anticipation surrounding Tuesday's announcement, which was originally set to come from a balcony at the embassy but was reconfigured due to "security concerns." As the New York Times noted, "[the] remarks from Mr. Assange disappointed many followers of WikiLeaks in the United States, who had stayed up into the early hours hoping to hear information relevant to the presidential election."
Indeed, The Verge reported:
There was a lot of build-up to today's press conference, in anticipation of what had been billed as an "October surprise" that could swing the U.S. presidential election. Instead, WikiLeaks devoted most of the event to recounting its most notorious releases and refuting criticism levied against it. Assange acknowledged the anticipation of a bombshell release in a winding address to reporters, though he declined to say whether the upcoming leaks would tilt the election toward Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.
"There is enormous expectation in the United States," Assange said of the forthcoming leaks. "Some of that expectation will be partly answered; but you should understand 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."
Assange's previous hints about forthcoming leaks led Republican operatives to express hope that WikiLeaks' "October Surprise" would cripple Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy. But Assange appeared to quash that narrative on Tuesday, declaring: The idea that "we intend to harm Hillary Clinton, or I intend to harm Hillary Clinton, or I don't like Hillary Clinton, all those are false."
WikiLeaks.org was registered as a website on October 4, 2006. A press pack (pdf) accompanying the video conference listed the "Top 10 Greatest Hits of WikiLeaks," including:
- the Guantanamo Files, which exposed "systematic and routine violations of the Geneva Conventions and abuse of 800 prisoners as young as 14 and as old as 89 at Guantanamo Bay;"
- the Collateral Murder classified U.S. military video, which showed a helicopter gunship slaying 18 people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad, including two Reuters journalists and their rescuers;
- leaks related to the corporate-friendly trade triumvirate of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP); Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP); and Trade in Services Agreement (TISA);
- and this summer's Democratic National Committee Leaks, "which resulted in the resignation of five top officials who had stacked the chips against one of the two Democratic candidates, Bernie Sanders, to favor Hillary Clinton by pressuring media outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, and black PR methods."
Watch a highlight reel here:
"WikiLeaks has provided a unique and quite outstanding service to the people of the world," leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky said Tuesday, "bringing to them information that they should and deserve to have and that has been illegitimately concealed by systems of power."
Watch the full press conference (which begins at approx. 32-minute mark):
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
During a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday, the media organization WikiLeaks touted 10 years of drawing the veil of secrecy away from governments and businesses worldwide while also confirming that a new batch of documents--specifically targeting the U.S. government and internet giant Google--will be released over the next two months.
"Our upcoming series includes significant material on war, arms, oil, Google, the U.S. elections, and myself," WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said via video link from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he has been living since 2012. He said the documents would be released before the end of the year, with the first cache coming within the week.
There was significant anticipation surrounding Tuesday's announcement, which was originally set to come from a balcony at the embassy but was reconfigured due to "security concerns." As the New York Times noted, "[the] remarks from Mr. Assange disappointed many followers of WikiLeaks in the United States, who had stayed up into the early hours hoping to hear information relevant to the presidential election."
Indeed, The Verge reported:
There was a lot of build-up to today's press conference, in anticipation of what had been billed as an "October surprise" that could swing the U.S. presidential election. Instead, WikiLeaks devoted most of the event to recounting its most notorious releases and refuting criticism levied against it. Assange acknowledged the anticipation of a bombshell release in a winding address to reporters, though he declined to say whether the upcoming leaks would tilt the election toward Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.
"There is enormous expectation in the United States," Assange said of the forthcoming leaks. "Some of that expectation will be partly answered; but you should understand 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."
Assange's previous hints about forthcoming leaks led Republican operatives to express hope that WikiLeaks' "October Surprise" would cripple Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy. But Assange appeared to quash that narrative on Tuesday, declaring: The idea that "we intend to harm Hillary Clinton, or I intend to harm Hillary Clinton, or I don't like Hillary Clinton, all those are false."
WikiLeaks.org was registered as a website on October 4, 2006. A press pack (pdf) accompanying the video conference listed the "Top 10 Greatest Hits of WikiLeaks," including:
- the Guantanamo Files, which exposed "systematic and routine violations of the Geneva Conventions and abuse of 800 prisoners as young as 14 and as old as 89 at Guantanamo Bay;"
- the Collateral Murder classified U.S. military video, which showed a helicopter gunship slaying 18 people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad, including two Reuters journalists and their rescuers;
- leaks related to the corporate-friendly trade triumvirate of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP); Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP); and Trade in Services Agreement (TISA);
- and this summer's Democratic National Committee Leaks, "which resulted in the resignation of five top officials who had stacked the chips against one of the two Democratic candidates, Bernie Sanders, to favor Hillary Clinton by pressuring media outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, and black PR methods."
Watch a highlight reel here:
"WikiLeaks has provided a unique and quite outstanding service to the people of the world," leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky said Tuesday, "bringing to them information that they should and deserve to have and that has been illegitimately concealed by systems of power."
Watch the full press conference (which begins at approx. 32-minute mark):
Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
During a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday, the media organization WikiLeaks touted 10 years of drawing the veil of secrecy away from governments and businesses worldwide while also confirming that a new batch of documents--specifically targeting the U.S. government and internet giant Google--will be released over the next two months.
"Our upcoming series includes significant material on war, arms, oil, Google, the U.S. elections, and myself," WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said via video link from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he has been living since 2012. He said the documents would be released before the end of the year, with the first cache coming within the week.
There was significant anticipation surrounding Tuesday's announcement, which was originally set to come from a balcony at the embassy but was reconfigured due to "security concerns." As the New York Times noted, "[the] remarks from Mr. Assange disappointed many followers of WikiLeaks in the United States, who had stayed up into the early hours hoping to hear information relevant to the presidential election."
Indeed, The Verge reported:
There was a lot of build-up to today's press conference, in anticipation of what had been billed as an "October surprise" that could swing the U.S. presidential election. Instead, WikiLeaks devoted most of the event to recounting its most notorious releases and refuting criticism levied against it. Assange acknowledged the anticipation of a bombshell release in a winding address to reporters, though he declined to say whether the upcoming leaks would tilt the election toward Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.
"There is enormous expectation in the United States," Assange said of the forthcoming leaks. "Some of that expectation will be partly answered; but you should understand 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."
Assange's previous hints about forthcoming leaks led Republican operatives to express hope that WikiLeaks' "October Surprise" would cripple Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy. But Assange appeared to quash that narrative on Tuesday, declaring: The idea that "we intend to harm Hillary Clinton, or I intend to harm Hillary Clinton, or I don't like Hillary Clinton, all those are false."
WikiLeaks.org was registered as a website on October 4, 2006. A press pack (pdf) accompanying the video conference listed the "Top 10 Greatest Hits of WikiLeaks," including:
- the Guantanamo Files, which exposed "systematic and routine violations of the Geneva Conventions and abuse of 800 prisoners as young as 14 and as old as 89 at Guantanamo Bay;"
- the Collateral Murder classified U.S. military video, which showed a helicopter gunship slaying 18 people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad, including two Reuters journalists and their rescuers;
- leaks related to the corporate-friendly trade triumvirate of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP); Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP); and Trade in Services Agreement (TISA);
- and this summer's Democratic National Committee Leaks, "which resulted in the resignation of five top officials who had stacked the chips against one of the two Democratic candidates, Bernie Sanders, to favor Hillary Clinton by pressuring media outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, and black PR methods."
Watch a highlight reel here:
"WikiLeaks has provided a unique and quite outstanding service to the people of the world," leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky said Tuesday, "bringing to them information that they should and deserve to have and that has been illegitimately concealed by systems of power."
Watch the full press conference (which begins at approx. 32-minute mark):
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.