Reykjavík Grapevine - 21.06.2019, Blaðsíða 14

A Brief
History
Of Iceland-
Wikileaks
Relations

Julian Assange first publicly vis-
ited Iceland in 2010, in the hopes
of convincing Parliament to pass
crucial whistleblower protection
laws, and Iceland has been involved
with both Assange and Wikile-
aks in some form or another since
then. Three Icelanders in particu-
lar have been heavily involved with
the organisation—activist and poet
Birgitta Jónsdóttir, hacker and con-
victed sex offender Sigurður Ingi
Þórðarson (who was booted for
felony theft from Wikileaks) and
Kristinn Hrafnsson, a journalist
who is Wikileaks’ editor-in-chief.
In 2011, Valitor—a partner
of Visa and Mastercard in Iceland—
made international headlines when
they unilaterally blocked card pay-
ments to DataCell, Wikileaks’ pay-
ment processing unit, and Sunshine
Publishing, Wikileaks’ publishing
house. Both Reykjavík District Court
and Iceland’s Supreme Court not
only overturned the blockade, but
ordered Valitor to pay damages to
Wikileaks totalling $10 million USD.
In 2013, when famed
whistleblower Edward Snowden
was on the run from US authori-
ties and in hiding in Hong Kong
while seeking more permanent
sanctuary, DataCell founder
Ólafur Sigurvinsson told report-
ers that his company was pre-
pared to pay for a private jet to fly
Snowden to Iceland, in the event
he would be granted asylum here.
Finally, the FBI and Depart-
ment of Justice have both either
sent agents to Iceland or reached
out to authorities here in connec-
tion with prosecuting Assange, with
a particular focus on Sigurður Ingi
and his testimony—the credibility
of which leaves much to be desired.
On April 11th, the world watched as
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was
arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy
in London, facing extradition to the
United States to answer for charges on
18 counts related to his "alleged role
in one of the largest compromises of
classified information in the history
of the United States," according to a
statement from the US Department of
Justice. This refers specifically to the
2010 release of material given to Wikile-
aks by former US
Army intelligence
analyst Chelsea
Manning, which US
authorities charac-
terise as "unlaw-
fully obtaining and
disclosing classi-
f ied documents
related to national
defence."
T h e m a t er i a l
in question high-
l i g h t e d a l l e g e d
war crimes occur-
ring in Iraq. This,
in particular, has
raised criticism
from journalist
organisations the world over, and natu-
rally so: the Pentagon Papers, which
exposed war crimes in the Vietnam
War in 1971, never resulted in crimi-
nal charges sticking to the New York
Times, whose reporting was based on
similarly classified material given to
them by Daniel Ellsberg—culminating
in the US Supreme Court affirming the
New York Times’ right to report from
illegally obtained classified material.
While both Assange and Manning
languish in custody, with the debate
about the nature of a free press contin-
uing, Iceland’s role has gone largely
overlooked in the international press.
But Iceland played
a critical role in the
growth of Wikile-
aks, and continues
to be a significant
part of this story.
When the
FBI came to
town
In the wake of
the 2008 finan-
cial crash, many
r e p o r t e r s i n
Iceland were look-
ing for answers,
and some of those
a n s w e r s w e r e
provided by Wikileaks. Specifically, the
site published a data dump in 2009 that
included information about Robert
Tchenguiz, a financier who was deeply
involved with the failed Kaupthing
bank. This data attracted the attention
of journalist Kristinn Hrafnsson, who
reached out to Assange and is today the
editor-in-chief of Wikileaks.
This connection did not go unno-
ticed by the US Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI). In a candid inter-
view with EU analysis site Katoikos in
2016, former Minister of the Interior
Ögmundur Jónason described how, in
2011, the FBI sent agents to Iceland
“seeking our cooperation in what I
understood as an operation set up to
frame Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.”
Ögmundur reportedly pointed out
the obvious to these agents; that they
were way outside their jurisdiction (the
FBI is tasked with operations within
the US) and as such, that the Icelandic
government would not cooperate and
they should leave at once. But the saga
doesn’t end there.
Did Iceland help US
authorities after all?
Earlier this month, Kristinn disclosed
on Facebook that reliable sources
informed him that Icelandic authori-
ties assisted US authorities last May
in their investigation and prosecu-
tion of Assange. In following up, he
sent formal questions to the National
Commissioner of the Icelandic Police,
the Director of Public Prosecutions,
the Minister of Justice, the Minister of
Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister
about their involvement and knowl-
edge of the affair.
The specific charge concerns
Sigurður Ingi Þórðarson, better known
in Iceland as “Siggi the Hacker”, who
has disclosed that he gave a statement
to the FBI about Wikileaks with the
help of the Icelandic police. Kristinn, in
his statement, echoes this, saying that
his sources say that Siggi was offered
immunity by US authorities for his
help, with the assistance of Icelandic
law enforcement.
Siggi was at one time a Wikileaks
volunteer, until he embezzled some
$50,000 from the organisation, and
has since been convicted of sexual
assault charges against underaged
boys. A psychological assessment of
Siggi found that he is likely a socio-
path, and Kristinn himself has said in
the past that he considers Siggi to be
a pathological liar. His testimony to
US authorities, whatever the nature
of it may be, is therefore unlikely to be
highly credible, to say the least.
“A very strange case”
For their part, both Minister of Justice
Þórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð Gylfadót-
tir and Prime Minister Katrín Jakob-
sdóttir have publicly denied having
any involvement or knowledge of US
authorities trying to reach out to Siggi.
That said, Katrín did tell reporters that
she found it “a very strange case” that
US authorities would come to Iceland
looking for witnesses, and get help
from Icelandic law enforcement to
do so, without the matter ever being
brought up to any of the pertinent
ministries.
At the time of this writing, both the
Pirate Party and the Icelandic Journal-
ists’ Union have condemned Assange’s
possible extradition to the US, for
similar reasons: the charges Assange
faces have profound implications for
investigative journalism. Important
reporting that is crucial to the public
interest has, at times, been based on
leaked classified material, and the right
to report from such material has been
upheld time and again by the high-
est court in the United States. If the
current composition of the Supreme
Court ends up allowing for charges to
stick to Assange, the practice of this
kind of investigative journalism may
end up effectively criminalised.
“While both
Assange and
Manning
languish in
custody, with the
debate about
the nature of
a free press
continuing,
Iceland’s role
has gone largely
overlooked in
the international
press.”
Assange, while still at the Ecuadorian embassy in London
Words:
Andie Fontaine
Photos:
Art Bicnick and
the Embassy of
Ecuador
14 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10— 2019News
We had a live one on Twitter who thought
this was a psy-ops "old Assange" photo.
It's Wikileaks edtior Kristinn Hrafnsson.
Undermining
Investigative
Journalism
Iceland, Wikileaks and the extradition of Julian Assange