Julian Assange

Julian Assange (1971 - ) is an Australian hacker and activist, best known as the founder of the controversial liberal website Wikileaks, a repository of leaked government documents. Assange actively tries to undermine various western governments, especially that of the United States, by releasing classified material via his website. He studied physics and mathematics at the University of Melbourne. He wrote Strobe, the first free and open-source port scanner, and contributed to the book Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier. [1]

Prior to WikiLeaks, Assange was involved with an organization of computer hackers and was arrested for his involvement with the group in 1991. After the arrest, he became an independent programmer. Most of the software he produced was designed to keep whistleblowers and dissidents anonymous.

As of November 18, 2010, there is a warrant out for his arrest in Sweden. Assange was previously investigated for rape, but the charges were ultimately dropped. However, there is an international warrant for Assange, as he is wanted for questioning in Sweden in relation to a rape investigation.

His anarchistic hope is that faith in government will decline and individuals will take on more personal responsibilities for their lives. [2] It is not clear how exposing classified documents of democratic countries will encourage people to become more responsible for their lives.

Assange has a 20-year-old son in Australia.

See also

• Bradley Manning