Some photos of him....
Date: September 11, 2011
Day: Sunday
Weather: Sunny
Hi Kitty~ how are you doing? :)
How was your day?? I assume that it was a great day for you since it was a very sunny day with clear sky and snow-white clouds.
Today, I had a wonderful day; I had lunch with JULIAN ASSANGE!!
My first impression? Umm... he was... quite nice-looking (though not as good as I am :D )
He had a white hair finely styled with wax and an angel-like smile - this pretty much surprised me because I couldnot believe that this bright gentleman disclosed so much confidential secrets worldwide without sympathy. He was 10minutes late to the appointment, and he said that he had to give the slip to paparazzis and reporters.
We had lunch at Nilli; he ordered Funghi pasta with a potato soup and a cup of coke; I had Bolognese pasta with corn soup. He refused to talk while eating, so we had to silently eat our dishes - without a single question!! Then, I was very worried because he was a busy man and I had to ask so much questions. After swiftly finishing all the food, I poured tons of questions on him! Here are the questions and answers... (I'm not sure I got all of his points... I couldn't adjust to his Australian accent and speaking style ;( )
Me: Tell me about your earlier life.
JA (Julian Assange):
Okay.... I was born in Townsville, Queensland though I spent significant years of my youth in Magnetic Island. I grew up under a step father who ran a touring theatre company but when my mother got divorced once again and remarried to a musician. Though I suffered very much from sudden change in my environment, I surmounted the accident without much backlash. It was in 1982, however, that the worst event in my life occured. My mother broke up with the musician AGAIN; and this time, she was in a very bad situation in which I and my step brother might have had to live with the singer - who I did not know and who was not nice to me at all. In a desperate hope, my mother escaped from home with us and we had to live 5 years hiding secretly from then: I moved 30 times before even turning 14 and live in 50 different towns and attended 37 different schools. It is explicit that my earlier life was not that happy and bright but I think that is the root of my persistent challenge. Also, it is then when I firmly decided that I would try my best to form a healthy, transparent society.
Later, I found out that I had a talent in computer programming and thus, I studied the field and attained professional degrees with many distinctions and honors.
Me: How did you start studying computer programming?
JA:
In 1987, when I was 16, I first formed a hacking community named International Subversives. I hacked others' computers under a fake id of Mendax. Though I recklessly hacked and obtained information, I followed strict rules that reflected my life-long aim: that my computer work should be devoted to form a better, cleaner society. My rules were,
1. Don't damage computer systems you break into (including crashing them)
2. Don't change the information in those systems (except for altering logs to cover your tracks)
3. Share information
I was caught by the Australian Federal Police while hacking into the Melbourne master terminal of Nortel, the Canadian telecommunications company. I pleaded guility to 25 charges of hacking because I was proud of my conducts and had a firm conviction that my hacking had no victims. I paid 2100 Australian dollars and was let go for, according to the judge, "there is just no evidence that there was anything other than sort of intelligent inquisitiveness and the pleasure of being able to—what's the expression—surf through these various computers". Also, my disrupted childhood helped me out a lot.
Me: What are your motivations for founding WikiLeaks?
JA: As I said, it has been my dream to establish a medium that would create an open society. As I became a hacker and a computer programmer, I decided to challenge the governments. Thus, in 2006, I founded WikiLeaks under a firm philosophy; "To radically shift regime behavior we must think clearly and boldly for if we have learned anything, it is that regimes do not want to be changed. We must think beyond those who have gone before us and discover technological changes that embolden us with ways to act in which our forebears could not." The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. Since unjust systems, by their nature, induce opponents, and in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of governance. With this belief, I devoted my whole life to WikiLeaks during the past 6years; and I will continue my work until my time in this planet allows me to do so.
Me: What does WikiLeaks do?
JA: WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organization that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Launched in 2006, WikiLeaks has revealed more than 1.2million classified documents.
Me: How does WikiLeaks work?
JA: Classical whistleblowers release the documents and send such documents to WikiLeaks. The methods to hide their identities are
1. We sometimes use state-of-the-art encryption to bounce stuff around the internet, to hide trails, and to pass through legal jurisdictions like Sweden and Belgium. We get information in the mail, and check the credibility of the stuff. When the truth is confirmed, we format them and release them.
Me: What is your stance on 9/11?
JA: I am constantly ANNOYED that people are distracted by false conspiracies like 9/11. I am utterly disappointed with the obviously faked conspiracies told by governments and also am very willing to reveal all the documents that I am aware of. I actually published more than 500,000 intercepted pager messages on November 25th, 2009. Since the WikiLeaks is constantly working on intercepting even more detailed information from the Pentagon, I assume we will very soon be able to uncover the whole picture of what 9/11 is all about.
Me: How are the governments' responses to your actions?
JA: Well... I didn't expect them to be "GOOD" of course.... (smile)
umm.... the United States vice president referred to me as "high-tech terrorist" at the beginning of this year.... and the U.S. government is always trying to block me from releasing secret information. The Secretary of State has been kind enough to send black mails to me with all the threats.... the government hacked the cctv cameras located in front of my house.... which is clearly a conduct of spying....However, it is not only the United States government that tries to block me. The British government had been kind enough to freeze all my cards and bank accounts - even that from the Swiss bank - with a broadscale threat on the institutions. It banished me from their country and is always looking for an opportunity to arrest me. But, I WILL NOT GET CAUGHT. I have an obligation to uncover all the dirty and unnecessarily hidden information to the public because the public has 'right to know'. I'd like to thank all the supporters of WikiLeaks here for their help.
Me: All your properties were frozen? How did you overcome the difficulty?
JA: Then, I was utterly thwarted. However, I thought that there was always a way to solve out things.... so I sought for a solution and thought of a system of 'donation'. Currently, WikiLeaks is completely operated by donation; information are donated and funds are donated. Again, thank you dear advocates!
Me: What are your and WikiLeaks' future plans?
JA: I am definitely gonna continue my job in the WikiLeaks. My future goal is to feature more on public speeches held in universities, famous squares, and so on. I hope more people recognize the existence and the significance of WikiLeaks and at the same time send more information for the sake of universal democracy.
Me: Thank you so much, Mr. Assange.
JA: Your welcome young man~ :)
[Interview Clips]
-> part of the interview.... soooo memorable!!
What a day.... right?
How does it sound? Pretty exciting huh?
It was a fabulous experience and I can't go to bed for I fear that I might lose even a little fragment of this wonderful recollection!!
Good night Kitty :)
Warmest Regards,
Gyutae Park
Excellent work GT. You clearly did your research and I like the videos and pics. You went the extra mile, and you probably know what I like from debate. I also like your "diary" approach, as it makes the introduction and lead-in quite effective and un-abrupt. I'm a little confused about who Kitty is, but maybe I should just leave that one alone.(?)
답글삭제Anyways, I learned some stuff here and was pretty surprised about Assange's childhood with the schools and towns. I even looked it up to make sure you got it tight. Weird! No wonder he's such a "different" guy. I hope he manages to stay relevant and isn't a "flash in the pan."
Good writing as usual.