UNITED KINGDOM/AUSTRALIA: Julian Assange says he has had 'indirect contact' with Edward Snowden

Record ID: 217275

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM/AUSTRALIA: Julian Assange says he has had 'indirect contact' with Edward Snowden
  • Date: 11th June 2013
  • Summary: LONDON, UK (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF JULIAN ASSANGE ADDRESSING CROWDS AT THE ECUADOR EMBASSY IN LONDON
  • Embargoed: 26th June 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Australia, United Kingdom
  • City:
  • Country: United Kingdom Australia
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Conflict,General
  • Reuters ID: LVAB0IXW3VJAYESY5SVVGIVC2ZWB
  • Story Text: Fugitive WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange on Monday (June 10) spoke to Australian television from London and said he had been in indirect contact with former CIA contractor Edward Snowden.
    Snowden, an outside contractor for the NSA, announced in a video on Sunday (June 9) from Hong Kong that he was the source of leaks about the ultra-secret agency's surveillance programs.
    By Monday, he had dropped out of sight and was expected to be at the centre of an extradition battle to face U.S. legal charges.
    "We have had indirect communication with his people," Assange said, adding "I don't think it's appropriate at this time that I go into further details" when asked to elaborate.
    Assange took refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in London last June to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over sex assault and rape allegations.
    Later, speaking to CNN, Assange said he believed Snowden should take refuge in Latin America, rather than look to Iceland, which has earned a reputation as a safe haven and acts as the home base for the fundraising efforts of Assange's anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
    The 41-year-old backed demands by Green lawmakers in Australia that the government there reveal whether its own electronic intelligence agencies had aided the clandestine U.S. data mining programme known as PRISM, revealed by Snowden.
    "We must ask the question and the Australian government must answer the question how many Australians have been intercepted? In the relationship between the Defense Signals Directorate and ASIO (Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation) and U.S. intelligence has the Australian government been puling that information about Australians, has it been pulling that information about Americans?," he said.
    Assange has formed a political party in Australia, the WikiLeaks Party, and is personally running for a seat in the Senate in September elections.
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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