Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.07.2013, Blaðsíða 26

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2
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co
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tr
ie
s.
wikileaks Timeline — From 2007 to present
“I was arrested for the Milestone
leak in late January 2010. Kristinn
Hrafnsson called me after that, I had
been providing him with documents
[the Milestone leak], and he wanted
me to meet this guy named Julian
Assange. I had no idea who he was
at the time. I tried googling him, but
I didn’t come up with much. I found
one YouTube video of a radio inter-
view with him, and I just thought
that he was like 90% of the activists
out there, who say they are going to
do all kinds of things and then noth-
ing comes of it. But my schedule
was open, so I went to see him give
a talk on whistleblowers at a local
university.”
“When I walked into the audito-
rium, he wass telling off a journalist
who outed me on the front page of
his newspaper as the provider of the
Milestone documents, so my first
impression was great. I introduced
myself to him after the talk and he
said that Kristinn had mentioned
me. We then talked for three or four
hours. He ended up giving me a
crypto phone to use for contacting
him. I was seventeen; I had no idea
about anything like this and thought
it was very cool. The next weeks we
met daily. We went and bought two
laptops—by some strange coinci-
dence, they were of the same make
and model as the laptop that was
later found in Alþingi [see sidebar].
Collateral Murder
“We started meeting regularly, him
and me and some Icelanders. Usu-
ally at the restaurant Sægreifinn by
the harbour. Assange really liked
their lobster soup. Then one day
Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a local MP for
the Movement, picked me up from a
café downtown and we went to her
home, where Assange showed me
the “Collateral Murder” video. This
was in February or March of 2010.”
“I remember that night especially
well. I had never seen a video like it
before. It was like watching a movie
or a computer game. Later, I went to
a friend’s house, where some peo-
ple were playing “Call of Duty” [a
war-simulation videogame]. I looked
at it and thought, 'wow; this is exact-
ly the same as the video I just saw.'
The day after, I met with Assange,
and he told me that there was more
material of the same kind coming in.
I felt like I was in a spy movie. It was
exciting.”
“Assange then left Iceland and
I continued working for him. Do-
ing research and things like that.
He gave me another laptop and
things were going great. And then
the “Collateral Murder” video gets
published. I was on the phone with
Kristinn Hrafnsson that day. He was
in Iraq. Everything went crazy. I con-
tinued to keep contact with Assange
over the Internet and I hung out in
the WikiLeaks IRC chatroom. Then,
that summer, a number of people
left WikiLeaks, Daniel Domscheit-
Berg, Herbert Snorrason and Smári
McCarthy for example. That’s when
my role within the organisation
changed.”
Chief of staff
“I essentially took over the organisa-
tion’s IRC chatroom. WikiLeaks was
getting really famous at that point,
and all kinds of individuals were
joining in the conversation on the
chatroom. A lot of media agencies
and people wanting to volunteer for
WikiLeaks joined. At that time, the
key-group running WikiLeaks num-
bered 6 or 7 people, which was pret-
ty small for the work we were doing
at the time. So it was decided to
use the people who joined the chat,
if they wanted to help. We set up
around 100 groups that each num-
bered from 10 to 20 people. These
were all individuals that I handled
for WikiLeaks. Their only connec-
tion to the organisation was through
me. The tasks came from Assange
or whomever needed work done.
Some involved programming, some
involved research. It all went very
well at that time.”
“Instead of explaining my role for
each and every volunteer, it was eas-
ier to just tell them that I was Chief
of staff or Chief of volunteers. In re-
ality, WikiLeaks had no official titles
or roles, but this was just easier
to say.”
Sigurður Ingi Þórðarson
The star of this story, Sigurður
Ingi—Siggi or Q—is a former WikiLeaks
volunteer turned FBI informant. Siggi has
claimed several roles within WikiLeaks,
however the organisation will only con-
firm that he operated the WikiLeaks IRC
chatroom in 2010.
Kristinn Hrafnsson
Icelandic investigative journal-
ist and WikiLeaks spokesperson. He was
working at Iceland’s national broadcasting
company RÚV when WikiLeaks released
“Collateral Murder.” He and WikiLeaks are
currently working with Edward Snowden
to assist him in avoiding extradition to the
United States.
Kristinn on Siggi:
“Oh I could say a lot about Sigurður
Þórðarson. I mean, he is a liar, a pathologi-
cal one it seems from our experience. He
is of course a thief. His involvement, ap-
parent involvement with the US Embassy
and the FBI, started in late August 2011,
when I was starting to press him about
the proceeds of the sales from WikiLeaks
merchandise. And shortly thereafter, he
indicated that he would break up all rela-
tions and was no longer volunteering for
WikiLeaks, so from the point he was in
contact with the US Embassy and started
this contact as a voluntary informant for
the FBI, he had no contact with the organ-
isation.”
Birgitta Jónsdóttir
Icelandic MP for Pirate Party,
former volunteer for WikiLeaks and Chair-
person of the Board of International Mod-
ern Media Initiative. She co-produced
“Collateral Murder.”
Julian Assange
Founder of WikiLeaks. Cur-
rently under house arrest at the
Embassy of Ecuador in London to avoid
extradition to Sweden where he faces al-
legations of sexual assault.
Daniel Domscheit-Berg
German technology activist
previously known as Daniel
Schmitt. He volunteered for WikiLeaks and
worked as their spokesperson in Germany
until September 2010.
Herbert Snorrason
Former WikiLeaks volunteer,
member of the Icelandic Pirate Party and
self-proclaimed anarchist. Google gave
his Gmail records to the US government.
Smári McCarthy
Former WikiLeaks volunteer,
member of the Icelandic Pirate Party and
Executive Director at International Modern
Media Initiative. His Gmail metadata was
given to the US government by Google.
Smári on Siggi:
"I've never met Siggi, and all of my deal-
ings with him have been through others."
Sabu
Sabu, AKA Hector Xavier Mon-
segur, is a hacktivist and the
leader of LulzSec hacker group. He has
also been a member of the influential hack-
er group Anonymous. Sabu worked as an
informant for the FBI, and his information
resulted in the arrests of other hackers.
Photo by Hörður Sveinsson
Courtesy of Sigurður Ingi Þórðarson
Photos in sidebar by
Árný Herbertsdóttir
Julia Staples
www.newmediadays.com — Peter Erichsen
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JD Lasica
26The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 10 — 2013