from YouTube Website

 

 

Julian Assange report by Mark Davis

...on SBS's Dateline - August 01, 2010
by struth1969
August 04, 2010

Dateline's Mark Davis was filming as Assange prepared to release his massive cache of highly classified US documents and as he weathered the media storm that followed.

 

The documents reveal hundreds of civilian casualties, secret hit squads to track and kill Taliban leaders, a steep increase in Taliban attacks, and collusion between Pakistan's intelligence service and the Taliban leadership.

 

Davis first connected with the mysterious whistleblower in Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Australia for a story broadcast in May, called The Whistleblower.

 

This time he has been filming in London where Assange was working with journalists from The Guardian, The New York Times and Germany's Der Spiegel.

 

The release of the documents has rocked the White House and drawn comment from Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Some of the classified reports refer to Australia's military operations in Afghanistan.

 

In a move that will further shake governments and top military brass around the world, WikiLeaks says they have delayed the release of a further 15,000 reports, but these will eventually be released in full.

 

Hero or villain, Julian Assange stunned the world when he leaked more than 90,000 war files.

 

Accompanying Assange through every step of the unfolding drama, this report reveals a man on a mission.

"We get attacked not in proportion to whatever we are doing wrong or doing right, but in proportion to the impact that our material is having. They'll attack the messenger and try to discolour the message by proxy."

Shaking off claims that he has endangered lives, Assange is determined:

"this historical archive belongs to the people of Afghanistan".

Speaking from a temporary HQ in London, Assange and his nomadic team may be staying on the move, but they don't plan on staying in hiding.

 

Packing up his rucksack and heading 'to the bunker in The Guardian' to prepare for the release, the whistleblower is stoic:

"My function in Wikileaks is to take all the heat. I've had my baptismal fire".

And he isn't showing signs of stopping; threatening to release a further 15,000 reports, his message is clear:

"stay tuned".