John Goetz on the stand. He is the Senior Editor of Investigations for NDR which is German Television. He also worked at Der Spiegle. He worked investigating alongside WikiLeaks on the disclosures #Assange is being indicted for in this case.
Goetz describes the partnership: We discussed that we would all be partners in researching the material but each outlet would do its own stories on the files. This was very unorthodox, it was fascinating and very unique at the time. #AssangeCase
What did the Afghan War Logs contain? They were a fascinating insight into the day to day of war. I made a story on Task Force 373 which was a death squad in Afghanistan. In the documents you could follow their activities which was very new. #AssangeCase
Goetz: At that time I remember being very irritated by #Assange's constant insistent that we kept data secure, and secure communications, and encrypted chats and that everything was handled with absolute care. #AssangeCase
#Assange was concerned with the technical aspects of how to finding names on the material so that they could be redacted and that no one would be harmed. All the partners were on board with this. #AssangeCase
We interviewed #Assange on what the harm minimization process and all the steps that were taken to make sure no one would be harmed as a result of the publications. #AssangeCase
Goetz: The White House was contacted by the media partners and it was communicated that 15 thousand documents would not be published and that any extra help in harm minimization was welcomed. #AssangeCase
Goetz: There was a glitch in the publication process and Der Spiegle published first followed by the Guardian and the New York Times and finally @wikileaks published last. #AssangeCase
Goetz: The redaction process developed over time, in the Iraq War Logs were redacted to the point that the US government had released some documents with fewer redactions than those that WikiLeaks published. #AssangeCase
Goetz: describes how the WikiLeaks documents helped him to find the CIA kidnappers and torturers of German Citizen Khaled El-Masri and how these documents helped in the prosecution in the European Court. #AssangeCase
Goets: continues by saying there was also a Cable that said that the US threatened Germany to not prosecute this Khaled El-Masri case because there would the "serious repercussions" to the German-American relations. #AssangeCase
Goetz: David Lee and Luke Harding published a book where a password was mentioned. There was a breakdown in the relations the Guardian and other partners.
The password he is talking about is the password which lead to the publication of all the cables unreacted by a third party
Prosecution starts by asking that that WikiLeaks published all the unredacted cables.
Goetz: You have the chronology wrong. The cables were first published by third parties including a well known website called cryptome published the documents first. #AssangeCase
Lewis is arguing that a number of cables were published a week before.
Those cables were all classified unclassified. #AssangeCase
Lewis: Names were revealed.
Goetz: I don't know that names were published.
Lewis: yes but some of the documents had been labelled "Strictly protect".
As Lewis cannot prove anyone was hurt by the publications, he's trying to go for the National Security angle which is very week.
Goetz: WikiLeaks had invested a lot of resources, money, time, staff on another year of rolling out stories on all the countries in the world. They had a major effort to have controlled publications country by country.
They did not want to have them all published. #AssangeCase
Lewis: Regardless of intention, WikiLeaks had published all the documents by 2nd September.
Goetz: well they re-published what Cryptome had already published. #AssangeCase
Goetz: The statement condemning #WikiLeaks by media partners concerning the re-publication of documents was made before all the facts were known. The story that the Guardian published the password that lead to the eventual publication of the cables by Cryptome wasn't known.
Lewis: Did WikiLeaks ever publish the 15 thousand Afghan War Logs that were redacted?
Lewis is asking about #Assange's humour and him being a selfless father.
Goetz: Sure, he has a sense of humour, I didn't really focus on his humour. I have never seen him around children so I can't comment on that.
Lewis abruptly ends his questioning. Weird! #AssangeCase
Fitzgerald: Lets talk about the period when the cables being published in a redacted form. Were any names being published?
Goetz: No, there was a rigorous process of redaction that Wikileaks put in place. They had a year of publication planned on all countries of the world.
Fitzgerald: were all cables classified?
Goetz: No.
Fitzgerald: What does "strictly protect" mean? Were names marked strictly protect?
Goetz: I remember that it was for the cable, not for names. #AssangeCase
Fitzgerald: Were there cables marked Strictly Protect during the time of controlled release?
Goetz: Yes. #AssangeCase
Fitzgerald: In August, the week prior to all cables being published by Cryptome, were the cables released by WikiLeaks marked Classified or Unclassified.
Goetz: I believe that they were unclassified. #AssangeCase
Fitzgerald: Are you aware that anyone who has been hurt by the publication of these documents?
Goetz: I believe this was all covered in the Manning trial where it was concluded by the Government that no one was hurt by these publications.
Goetz: Cryptome published the unredacted cables first, I don't think that there is any dispute on this. WikiLeaks just republished it.
I was a witness #Assange's attempts to try that the unredacted material wouldn't get out. #AssangeCase
Jennifer Robinson is going to give evidence next. #AssangeCase
The defence and prosecution are discussing the admissibility of the evidence of the El-Masri. The defence argues that the prosecution accepted into evidence and the prosecution says that it never did. #AssangeCase
The prosecution is still attempting to suppress a statement on el-Masri -- he is a victim of CIA kidnap & torture.
The Court will hear arguments against bail first.
Clair Dobbin: The high court can overturn the conviction, the court must be careful not to render the result academic. #AssangeCase
Day 17 of the #AssangeHearing, with three days left, open justice has not been done in these proceedings. The Judge blocked 40 political and NGO observers (including @amensty & @RSF_inter) from monitoring the most important #FreeSpeech trial of the century.
Thread:
Defence is reading from/summarizing a witness statement from war reporter Patrick Cockburn. He was in Kabul when the war logs were released, and he says they confirmed civilian casualties he and other journalists suspected. #AssangeCase
Cockburn's statement includes the importance of the war logs and Collateral Murder video to prove these incidents in the face of official denial.
Day 16 of the #AssangeCase proceedings. By this stage it is very likely that the 40 political observers that the judge arbitrarily banned from the observing proceedings virtually will not be allowed to do so. 4 left & I feel the decision was made before we started.
Thread:
We have Maureen Baird on the stand: 28 years experience with the Bureau of Prisons in various capacities, with her final positions as Warden and Senior Executive Service Warden at three various Federal Prisons. #AssangeCase
September 28th, day 15 of the #AssangeCase extradition proceedings. 40 political and #FreeSpeech advocate observers including @RSF_inter and @amnesty are still banned from observing the most important trial of our lifetime by Judge Baraitser without any explanation.
Thread:
Sorry for being a bit late, this morning the court heard from Yancey Ellis, US attorney, with experience of the federal prison system. He talked about how #Assange would be placed under a strict solitary confinement regime.
As a pre-trial defendant, Assange would be detained in the ADC for months or potentially years. Ellis: "I believe it's most likely" #Assange would be held in administrative segregation (ad-seg). #AssangeCase