'All the ships came in' – how Assange and Manning plotted WikiLeaks story

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/06/assange-manning-chatlogs-wikileaks

Version 0 of 1.

The instant-message conversations between Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning have been released by the army, buried in a tranche of files made public just before the Thanksgiving weekend in the US.

Covering a period of time between 5 and 18 May 2010, they provide a new insight into the working relationship between Assange and Manning, as well as illuminate the pressures on Assange during the period of Wikileaks' history when it was gaining notoriety.

Iceland's bid to be a free speech haven

Throughout the logs, Assange is occupied with his ongoing project to launch IMMI, the Icelandic Modern Media Institute. The project's aim was to turn the country into a legal safe haven for journalists.

Manning: 2010-03-05 21:07:12 hi

Assange: 2010-03-05 21:07:49 hiya

Assange: 2010-03-05 21:08:15 I like debates.

Assange: 2010-03-05 21:09:27 Just finished one on the IMMI, and crushed some wretch from the journalists union.

…

Assange: 2010-03-07 07:19:51 BTW

Assange: 2010-03-07 07:20:12 WE won the referendum - only 1.4% voted against.

Manning: 2010-03-07 07:20:17 i saw

Assange: 2010-03-07 07:20:25 How cool is that?

Assange: 2010-03-07 07:20:54 First referendum in Icelandic history, ever.

Manning: 2010-03-07 07:20:56 not sure how much influence you actually had... though im sure you had an impact of some kind

Assange: 2010-03 07 07:21:13 by 'we' i mean everyone working towards it

Manning: 2010-03-07 07:21:20 ah, been there before

Manning: 2010-03-07 07:21:28 im wary of referenda

Manning: 2010-03-07 07:21:51 democracy sounds good... until you realize you're a vulnerable minority...

Assange: 2010-03-07 07:21:57 but quite possibly swung it.. there was lots of stuff going on behind the scenes here.

Manning: 2010-03-07 07:22:09 case in point: proposition 8 in California

Assange: 2010-03-07 07:22:21 Yes. This is democracy in the negative though, which is usually great

Assange: 2010-03-07 07:22:34 indeed it is

Assange: 2010-03-07 07:22:51 i.e vetoing bills [go back and do it again!]

Assange: 2010-03-07 07:23:32 cali is bad, I agree, anyone with some $ has a syringe right into the heart of the state constitution

Manning: 2010-03-07 07:23:40 >nod<

But even in Iceland, old habits die hard:

Assange: 2010-03-10 03:48:24 we now have the last 4 months of audio from telephones at the .is parliament

Manning: 2010-03-10 03:48:29 bbl

Manning: 2010-03-10 03:48:35 yes, you said earlier

Assange: 2010-03-10 03:48:51 it was might before

Manning: 2010-03-10 03:48:55 somebody's bad…=)

Manning: 2010-03-10 03:49:11 ttyl

Assange: 2010-03-10 03:49:16 yup nixon tapes got nothing on us

Julian Assange always wanted that movie deal

At one point, Assange apparently quotes someone else suggesting that a thriller be made all about WikiLeaks. Like that'll ever happen…

Assange: 2010-03-10 06:04:02 Wikileaks is looking for donations, but what its founders should do, is call upon script writers to make a, perhaps reality based, dramatized, thriller movie of one of the wikileaks cases, with corruption, infiltration, espionage, hitmen, sabotage, etc and call the movie "WikiLeaks!" I see great potential for such a movie, and massive money and advertising it would generate would establish them firmly. I'd then support by seeing the movie Hollywood would likely support.

How World of Warcraft train future soldiers

One odder digression sees the two discussing whether or not MMORPGs, video games like World of Warcraft, are evil.

Assange: 2010 03 10 06:05:51 sense deceptions to suck $ out of people

Assange: 2010 03 10 06:06:06 It's as old as lipstick and the guitar of course, but mmorpg are evil in a whole new way

Manning: 2010 03 10 06:06:39 voluntary matrix-style society?

Assange: 2010 03 10 06:06:46 yes

Manning: 2010 03 10 06:07:08 hmm

Assange: 2010 03 10 06:07:25 might be ok in the end

Assange: 2010 03 10 06:07:53 mmorpg's that have long term users are incentivised to keep them profitable

Assange: 2010 03 10 06:08:59 but I imagine they'll merge into hybrid revenue modes, where congnitive tasks and free labor are done using sense deception incentives

Manning: 2010 03 10 06:09:48 like the "video games" from toys?

Assange: 2010 03 10 06:10:12 haven't seen that

Assange: 2010 03 10 06:10:34 but it sure isn't a decade to be a gullible idiot:)

Manning: 2010 03 10 06:11:24 basic gist: retired general takes over a toy company, invests in video games for kids to "play", but they're actually training to remotely use little toy sized weapons

Manning: 2010 03 10 06:11:40 former toy owner tries to stop him

Manning: 2010 03 10 06:11:52 ^company

Assange: 2010 03 10 06:12:11 heh. that's the example I was going to use for mmorpg (with drones) but decided it was too grotesque

Manning: 2010 03 10 06:12:47 its not... its logical in frightening ways

Source protection

At one point, Assange becomes concerned about Manning's safety. He recommends the young marine get an encrypted phone, but Manning thinks better of it. Instead, Assange offers a phrase.

Assange: 2010 03 17 22:54:03 is there some way I can get a crypto phone to you?

Manning: 2010 03 17 22:54:14 not at this time

Assange: 2010 03 17 22:54:40 actually...

Assange: 2010 03 17 22:54:47 probably best if you just order one?

Assange: 2010 03 17 22:54:57 or rather some friend

Assange: 2010 03 17 22:55:14 bit pricy though

Assange: 2010 03 17 22:55:26 hmm

Assange: 2010 03 17 22:55:29 actually never mind

Manning: 2010 03 17 22:55:38 yes,i dont have access at present

Assange: 2010 03 17 22:56:35 these things are good for urgent contact, but it's safer to avoid due to location tracking possibilities

Manning: 2010 03 17 22:56:47 i know that very well

Assange: 2010 03 17 22:56:56 although there is a satphone module

Manning: 2010 03 17 22:57:21 forget the idea for now

Assange: 2010 03 17 22:57:45 yes. you just contact us

Assange: 2010 03 17 22:57:52 but don't disappear without saying why for an extended period or I'll get worried;)

Manning: 2010 03 17 22:58:03 i wont

Assange: 2010 03 17 22:58:16 you'll know if something's wrong

Manning: 2010 03 17 22:58:39 ok

Assange: 2010 03 17 22:58 57 you can just tell me "all the ships came in"

The bank documents

Early on in the chat logs, Assange mentions getting hold of data for a major American bank.

Assange: 2010-03-05 21:12:44 Source here just gave me 10Gb of banking docs.

Manning: 2010-03-05 21:13:10 lb?

Assange: 2010-03-05 21:13:11 He leaked some before, was exposed by the husband of the wretch.

Assange: 2010-03-05 21:13:27 cross-bank, was an it consultant.

Assange: 2010-03-05 21:13:39 got arrested two weeks ago

Assange: 2010-03-05 21:13:50 Had is bank accounts frozen.

Assange: 2010-03-05 21:14:02 and has been offered 15 million kroner to shut up

Assange: 2010-03-05 21:14:09 /is/his

Manning: 2010-03-05 21:14:26 mmm

Assange: 2010-03-05 21:15:04 needed to offload them so they'd stop going after him

Those documents would go on to become one of the biggest missing stories in WikiLeaks' history. In November 2010, Assange went public with the fact that he was holding "tens of thousands" of documents from a major US financial firm, which he would release in early 2011. But that release never came. What was in the documents? And why were they never released?

• WikiLeaks staffer Sarah Harrison has criticised Pierre Omidyar, the eBay founder who is setting up a new journalism venture with Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill, for his involvement in the 2010 financial blockade against WikiLeaks

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