Assange defends ‘whistle blower’ WikiLeaks 2 yrs after ‘cablegate’

Sydney: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has vowed to keep exposing secret documents and defended his whistle blowing website, two years after it published sensitive US diplomatic cables.

Marking the anniversary of "cablegate", Assange said his anti-secrecy website had uncovered US attempts to hide atrocities, coerce other governments and dominate the global economy.

"Since 2010, Western governments have tried to portray WikiLeaks as a terrorist organisation, enabling a disproportionate response from both political figures and private institutions,” he wrote in The Huffington Post.

"It is the case that WikiLeaks'' publications can and have changed the world, but that change has clearly been for the better," he said.

“Two years on, no claim of individual harm has been presented, and the examples (cables) above clearly show precisely who has blood on their hands,” he added.

According to News.com.au, Assange's commentary appeared as the army private accused of leaking the US documents to WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning, testified for the first time at a pre-trial hearing after two years in detention.

Assange has been holed up in Ecuador's London embassy for five months to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is facing allegations of rape and sexual assault.

He says that if extradited, he could be handed over to the United States for prosecution.
Source http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/assange-defends-whistle-blower-wikileaks-2-yrs-after-cablegate_813976.html