WikiLeaks

• AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- BitChute , the leading platform for free speech and uncensored content, proudly announces the launch of the FreeSpeak Fund, a dedicated initiative aimed at championing the fundamental right to free expression.
• The FreeSpeak Fund pledges 10% of BitChute's revenues to support individuals embroiled in legal battles concerning free speech issues.
• The FreeSpeak Fund is another step in furtherance of BitChute's mission to defend and uphold the principles of free thought and expression worldwide.
• Furthermore, BitChute extends an invitation to other platforms, including X and Rumble, to join the FreeSpeak Fund in supporting individuals facing legal challenges due to their commitment to free speech.

• SMX (the “Company”), a leader in next-generation mission support, digital transformation and IT solutions, announced today the appointment of Andrew Makridis , former Chief Operating Officer of the Central Intelligence Agency (the “CIA”), to its Board of Directors.
• Makridis spent nearly four decades of service in the U.S. Intelligence Community and national security establishment, rising to the number three position at the CIA until his retirement at the end of 2022.
• As Chief Operating Officer, Makridis was responsible for managing the CIA’s day-to-day operations, including budgeting, personnel-related issues, resource management, security and information technology, and developing the multi-year strategy for fulfilling the agency’s primary mission as the nation’s first line of defense.
• Among his many other distinguishments, Makridis was awarded the CIA’s George H.W.

• WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s hopes of avoiding extradition to the United States, where he’s charged with espionage and computer misuse offences, have taken a blow.
• From a diplomatic perspective, moving from silence or ambiguity to clearer opposition to the Australian government’s position suggests the US may have decided to prosecute Assange despite Australia’s objections.
• He regards the diplomatic process as ongoing – though none can doubt it’s now more challenging.

How’d we get here?

• In parallel, Assange has challenged the order before the European Court of Human Rights.
• However, his best chance for freedom is for the US to withdraw the prosecution, or to pardon him.
• Under former president Barack Obama, the US declined to prosecute Assange because his case could open the door to prosecution of journalists for espionage.
• The Trump administration issued an indictment against Assange in 2019, and the Biden administration has continued the extradition process.

What if the government’s efforts fail?

• In 2022, Australian pressure led to the return of Professor Sean Turnell from Myanmar, where he had been charged with national security offences.
• Australia, working with the UK, secured the release of British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert from Iran in November 2020.
• This was a more challenging diplomatic situation because of the less friendly relations between Iran and both the UK and Australia.
• While Albanese has said Australia will continue to make representations concerning Assange, the diplomatic road has become rockier.

• And how US intelligence security could have allowed him to allegedly share this classified material on a Discord server normally used to discuss video games.
• The affair suggests that US intelligence agencies are still as vulnerable to this kind of leak as it was at the time of Chelsea Manning in 2010.
• Russia’s large intelligence community is skilled in both electronic interception, and human intelligence through its undercover officers and informant handling.
• More importantly, the intelligence trove will show how US, Ukraine and other countries’ analysts are assessing the progress of the war.

Intelligence lapses

• But it is not immediately clear why the Massachusetts Air National Guard needs top-secret intelligence about Ukraine.
• This suggests, as was the case with Manning, that the armed forces are the weak link in US intelligence.
• The siloing of intelligence is part of how the plotters managed to evade the US authorities.
• Siloed information was judged to be a weakness of the US intelligence system, and resulted in more openness.

Special relationship?

• For the UK, the confirmation that special forces are operating in Ukraine is potentially awkward.
• Limited special forces activities to extract individuals or perform limited tasks, such as destroying a particular Russian capability on a “get in and get out” basis, has some logic to it.
• Reports have focused on the “revelation” that the US might be spying on its allies, and the United Nations.