On April 11, 2019, in front of a red-walled and white-tiled apartment building in London, England, crowds of police and security guards, with media, demonstrators, and some passing onlookers on the periphery.
A silver-haired man, dragged out of his apartment by six or seven strong men, holding the "National Security History" in his hand, kept shouting in his mouth despite the restrictions on his movement:
“Resist! We must resist!”
Resist, we must resist!
He pleaded not guilty, but for the past seven years, he has been "trapped" in a room in this building, looking through thick curtains to see the outside world.
Also in this closed house, with a wave of his sleeves, he can stir up a country's general election.
He is regarded as a thorn in the side of many "big shots" in the center of power, and is regarded as a lone hero by countless ordinary people.
He is Julian Paul Assange, founder of WikiLeaks.
Since his arrest in 2019, Assange has been held in Belmarsh Prison, London's highest-security prison, for five years, until two days ago—
On June 24, Assange reached a plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice, in which he pleaded guilty to violating espionage laws in exchange for the U.S. Department of Justice terminating the proceedings.
An Australian, accused in Sweden, spent seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in the United Kingdom, then five years in a British prison before being "let go" by the United States.
All these legendary experiences began with the phrase in Assange's mouth: resistance.
What is he resisting?
Is today's freedom the result of his resistance, or a bargaining chip for compromise?
Beneath the surface of the water
In April 2010, WikiLeaks shocked the world with a video titled "Collateral Murder."
During the Iraq War (2007), two U.S. Army Apache helicopters attacked a residential area in Baghdad, and pilots reported spotting a group of Iraqis, two of whom were carrying shoulder-mounted missiles (RPGs) and AK-47s, and the helicopters fired at 30mm guns, killing seven people and seriously injuring three on the spot.
In fact, the two men who appeared to be armed were Reuters photojournalists, and one of them had a telephoto lens that was used as a weapon and was fired.
另一位受到重伤的记者，挣扎着爬向墙边，美军飞行员口中却难掩兴奋地说，“你现在要做的就是拾起武器”（All you gotta do is pick up a weapon）——以给他再次开火的机会。
Later, when a passing van stopped, the driver and another passenger tried to lift the struggling reporter into the car for treatment, and the U.S. pilot again asked to open fire, and after two consecutive indiscriminate strafing shots, the innocent van driver and passengers, along with Reuters reporters, died under the U.S. military's machine guns.
When the ground troops arrived, they found that there were two terrified children in the van, perhaps they were just on the way home, trying to save a helpless person, but they had spent the darkest day of their lives.
As soon as this video was released, it raised questions around the world.
Since then, WikiLeaks has exposed 483,562 secret documents of the U.S. government on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
This has smeared the face of the world's largest power, and the US government has set its sights on Assange.
In August 2010, a month after the WikiLeaks video was released, Assange, who had already fled to Sweden, was charged with "suspected rape", but the arrest warrant was revoked due to insufficient evidence.
By November, Interpol had issued a red notice for Assange, also on sexual misconduct.
Interpol, the Red Notice, turned out to be to catch a guy suspected of a sex crime, and it was really an anti-aircraft gun to hit mosquitoes.
In December, Assange fled to the United Kingdom and surrendered to the London police, where he was released on bail after paying bail.
Since you have all surrendered, it means that you have sinned, so why should you go to England?
It's actually for self-preservation. If Assange is arrested in Sweden, he is likely to be extradited to the United States, and it is up to him to be convicted of any crime.
In the midst of the turmoil, Assange sought political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in the United Kingdom, where he lived in the small red building for seven years.
During this time, he still ran WikiLeaks, and in 2016, he threw out the breaking news again - Hillary Clinton's mailgate.
Regarding the scandals within the US Democratic Party, such as how Hillary Clinton hacked opponents, how she colluded with high-level internal candidates, and alleged money laundering and media manipulation, Assange released a total of 19,252 emails and 8,034 attachments, and slapped the Democratic Party in the face.
coincided with the U.S. election, and Trump, who had been lagging behind in the polls, threw Hillary Clinton by 3 percentage points overnight with 48% support.
Trump has also endorsed WikiLeaks on many occasions, saying "I love WikiLeaks", but after entering the White House, Trump's classmates also turned into "scumbags", bluntly saying that they are "unfamiliar" and "none of my business".
The two faces before and after also prove the attitude of the US government towards WikiLeaks - Assange must die.
In fact, judging by Assange's subsequent behavior, he has already predicted the prediction of the United States.
But he knew that the United States would not let him go, so why did he challenge Americaka's authority?
Genius hacker
Assange's distrust of authority began in childhood.
Born in 1971, Assange had a tumultuous childhood. His mother was an artist and his father was an anti-war activist and architect, and they met at a rally against the Vietnam War, but when Assange was born, his parents broke down, and his mother took him to marry another actor, then divorced again, remarried, and then divorced after having a child.
Fearing that her children would be taken away, Assange's mother took her two sons on a five-year run, moving from house to neighborhood, during which she transferred 37 times and later six universities to study mathematics, physics, philosophy and neuroscience.
Assange as a young man
At the age of 13, Assange got his first computer, an "outsider" in the real world, who soon found a home in the online world.
He taught himself to code, and the code that constantly appeared on the screen became his most loyal friend, and Assange freely traveled through the world of 0s and 1s, writing programs, cracking software, and soon taught himself to become a hacker.
That year, Assange was 16 years old.
At that time, the Internet was not yet developed, and Assange, together with a group of like-minded people, formed a group called "Transnational Subversion" to hack into the computer systems of some official institutions in Europe and North America.
Assange also has his own "standards" when he wantonly crosses the network fence, he will not steal or tamper with any information, but just break in like a show of skills, observing the hidden humanity under the network.
Assange was charged with 31 counts of hacking, but since Assange's hacking did not cause any damage and he did not profit from it, the prosecution sentenced him to plead guilty to 25 of the charges, reach a plea agreement, and pay a fine of $2,100.
Assange felt unjust, but the judge advised him to remain silent, with the implication that you are free to confess your guilt.
The 1996 verdict, and today's Assange plea agreement, form a wonderful intertextuality, and the beginning of Assange's legendary life – there are so many injustices in the world that "illegitimate rule is essentially a conspiracy, the product of officials 'secretly cooperating and working to harm the people.'" ”
This experience led him to the path of founding WikiLeaks.
In 2006, WikiLeaks was officially founded, declaring that "the approach is transparent and the goal is justice". Assange is the editor-in-chief, and the website, which is maintained by volunteers from around the world, accepts contributions from anonymous sources, mainly classified information, such as the coup d'état in Somalia and the corruption of the former president of Kenya, which is reviewed and posted on WikiLeaks.
The essence of human beings is to spread gossip, WikiLeaks was established a year ago, the document database exceeded 1.2 million, the media stared at WikiLeaks to find out, and politicians will also pay attention to WikiLeaks' "hot search".
But these news were all petty until the release of "Collateral Murder", when Assange publicized what the US military did on the battlefield in Iraq, so that the United States, which was already questioning its legitimacy, was condemned by the world.
The U.S. government quickly unraveled Private Bradley Edward Manning (now Chelsea Elizabeth Manning) who leaked secrets to Assange and sentenced him to 35 years in prison.
And in the face of Assange, they have nothing to do.
Because of Assange, he has already thought of a posterior move.
Resist to the end
First of all, although Assange publicized the actions of the US military on the battlefield in Iraq, he did not break the law.
Because first, this video was not "stolen" by him, but uploaded by someone else, and it cannot be regarded as him stealing secrets.
Second, the First Amendment in the United States clearly says that to protect press freedom, I upload a news as a platform, no problem.
Third, if you want to sue and say that this video has damaged the image of the United States, doesn't that just prove that this video is real?
Assange didn't break the law legally, so wouldn't it be okay to just do WikiLeaks?
Unfortunately, out of the care of hackers, Assange hosted the WikiLeaks website on the host of the Swedish web service PRQ, and anonymized documents from all over the world were sent to a server in Belgium, then to a server in "another legally friendly country", and finally to be transferred elsewhere and deleted.
The entire process and documents are encrypted and transmitted anonymously via Tor (The Onion Routing), and many fake documents are submitted at the same time in the WikiLeaks system to prevent the real documents from being discovered.
It's hard to know where to start.
Still, the United States has found some flaws.
You WikiLeaks have migrated the address to Amazon's server, I can't control you, and I can't control Amazon? You operate on donations, so the money has to go through PayPal, PayPal has to listen to me, right?
And when I got to Assange, thanks to the U.S. government, I accepted some bitcoin donations, and accidentally, bitcoins skyrocketed, and I also sent a sum.
Assange claims that thanks to the U.S. government, he received a 50,000% return on Bitcoin
Of course, as the number one power, the United States still has a little bit of face and means.
So there was a Swedish sex crime with insufficient evidence, an Interpol red notice, a desperate pursuit by the British police, and the indifference of the Australian government, and finally, a helpless Assange knocked on the door of the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK.
Even so, the British police still put a lot of effort into spying on Assange, who, according to WikiLeaks, spent about £19 million on a budget and did nothing but keep an eye on Assange until 2015, when funding was tight.
Assange, for his part, also imagined disguised as a woman and escaped from the crowd at Harrods, or ran out of the roof of the embassy and jumped onto a nearby helipad.
However, Ecuador's political asylum only lasted for seven years.
The reason is that at that time, Erador and the United States did not deal with each other, and the then Ecuadorian President Correa held high the banner of anti-American victory in the election, coupled with the high oil prices in 2012, Ecuador's economy was improving, and Correa had the confidence to call the United States.
And in 2017, in the Ecuadorian presidential election, Moreno was elected, coinciding with the collapse of crude oil and export commodity prices, Ecuador wanted to hug the thigh of the United States, and "expelling Assange" became a hot issue.
The story later was that Ecuador stopped granting political asylum to Assange on the grounds that Assange interfered in the internal affairs of other countries.
In return, in February 2019, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $4.2 billion loan to Ecuador.
In April, Assange was taken away by British police and subsequently held in Belmarsh prison for five years.
For five years, the United States has been seeking extradition, and Assange and his lawyers have been trying their best to refuse extradition.
It wasn't until June this year, after 14 years of running and pursuing, that Assange, 53, reached a plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice and regained his freedom.
End
From the perspective of an ordinary person, Assange does not seem to be guilty, but he must plead guilty.
In a way, Assange's confession is a warning to those who challenge the United States.
Even if there is a banner of press freedom, and even if there is the eyes of the whole world, the United States will never be soft on those who want to teach a lesson.
"Oriental Outlook Weekly" has counted the "American-style beheading" operations since World War II, as well as Soleimani who was killed in 2020, and behind them, they all have a common name: American-style hegemony.
For those who are disobedient, even the leadership of the country is not taken seriously, let alone just one Assange.
I let you go today because you pleaded guilty and because I still need to keep telling stories about press freedom.
If I'm going to cure you tomorrow, there's no other reason than because I'm the United States.
As for Assange, who has regained his freedom, whether he will continue to resist and fight, or be on the beach in Australia, basking in the sun and singing, it is unknown.
However, in the diplomatic game and political struggle, it may be a kind of heroism for a person to resist and let the outside world get a glimpse of some truths hidden under the water, so that people in high positions are afraid because they have a pair of overseer eyes.