Foreword by Ken Loach
Introduction: The Man Who Stood Up to Secret Power
1. The Wikileaks Revolution
2. The Exceptional Courage of Chelsea Manning
3. Afghanistan: The Faraway War
4. The Cypherpunk
5. A Database from Hell: the Iraq War Logs
6. Rattling Power at the Highest Levels: Cablegate
7. Guantanamo: The Black Hole of Civilisation
8. "The Huffington Post gang is driving me nuts"
9. From Sweden to Ecuador
10. No Place for Protection
11. My Trench Warfare to Unearth the Truth
12. Arbitrarily Detained
13. A Russian Connection?
14. The Fury of the CIA
15. Under Siege
16. The Final Attempts
17. In the Would-be Guantanamo
18. 175 Years for the Crime of Journalism
19. Only Kafka
20. A Monstrous Injustice
21. Secret Power
Acknowledgments
Stefania Maurizi is an Italian investigative journalist working for
the daily Il Fatto Quotidiano, having previously reported for La
Repubblica and l'Espresso. She began working with Julian Assange
and WikiLeaks in 2009 for her newspaper. Among international
journalists, she is the only one who has worked on the entirety of
the WikiLeaks secret documents and the only one who has conducted a
multi-jurisdictional litigation to defend the right of the press to
access the full documentation on the WikiLeaks case.
Ken Loach was born in 1936 in Nuneaton. After a brief spell in the
theatre, Loach was recruited by the BBC in 1963 as a television
director. This launched a long career directing films for
television and the cinema, from Cathy Come Home and Kes in the
sixties to Land And Freedom, Sweet Sixteen, The Wind That Shakes
The Barley (Palme d’Or, Cannes Film Festival 2006), Looking for
Eric, The Angels’ Share and I, Daniel Blake (Palme d’Or, Cannes
Film Festival 2016).
'The vindictive hounding of Julian Assange by the US government
deserves as wide an audience as possible. There is no journalist
better placed to tell the story than Stefania Maurizi. This Italian
journalist has been following the story of Assange and
WikiLeaks closely for more than a decade and personally knows most
of those involved. But what stands out is her sheer
perseverance. Many journalists would have given up after her
multiple requests under the Freedom of Information Act were largely
rebuffed by governments in the UK, US, Sweden and Australia. But
she proved dogged, engaging in what she describes as ‘trench
warfare', taking them to court, the legal costs often paid for by
her personally. Through this persistence, she uncovered lots of new
information. As well as being the most detailed account of the
persecution of Julian Assange, Maurizi weaves in the stories of
whistle-blowers such as Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, making
it one of the most comprehensive accounts yet of the battle between
the national security apparatus and advocates of privacy and press
freedom. It should be a must-read for all journalists. If Assange
can be persecuted on the flimsy grounds exposed by Maurizi, then
all journalists anywhere in the world who challenge the US are at
risk.'
*Ewen MacAskill, Pulitzer Prize winner for Public Service 2014*
'A rigorous, compelling and highly readable reconstruction of the
WikiLeaks case. I highly recommend this work. No one conveys better
the urgency of averting the extradition and prosecution of
Assange'
*Daniel Ellsberg, US whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon
Papers*
'Maurizi's relentless, rigorous and courageous work has produced
compelling evidence for the flagrant and deliberate illegality of
Julian Assange's persecution. She has decisively contributed to my
official investigation into the case as the United Nations Special
Rapporteur on Torture'
*Professor Nils Melzer, United Nations Special Rapporteur on
Torture (2016-2022)*
'Stefania Maurizi's book on the persecution of Julian Assange is
the definitive text on this tragedy. To read it is to resist, it is
a must read. Free Assange'
*Roger Waters, co-founder of Pink Floyd*
'Stefania Maurizi's revelation of the role of the UK Crown
Prosecution Service, then run by Keir Starmer, in the persecution
of Julian Assange was a journalistic landmark. Her book is a lesson
to all who expose the malign secrets of state power'
*John Pilger*
'Heroic freedom-fighter or maverick controversialist - Assange is a
polarising character. But we can all agree that the classified
documents he published revealed much of the heinous barbarity of
the post 9/11 US-led wars. This book is a passionate plea in
Julian's defence. To extradite would send the message that no
journalist or publisher is safe anywhere in the world'
*Kathy Lette, best-selling author and TV presenter*
'Everything you think you know about this story is not what you
think. Maurizi brilliantly tells the real story of what happened
with WikiLeaks and the powers that went out to destroy it'
*John Goetz, Editor of Investigations at German State Broadcaster
'NDR'*
'The best possible tribute to Julian Assange's sacrifice on behalf
of Western citizens whose governments have been committing, in
their name, crimes against humanity. Stefania Maurizi has
sacrificed much to write this book, making it a book to read,
behold and promote to anyone who cares about the truth'
*Yanis Varoufakis, Professor of Economics at the University of
Athens*
'An exceptional book by an exceptional journalist. Written like a
political thriller, 'Secret Power' is not only one of the best
accounts of the WikiLeaks revolution and the man behind it. It's
also a deeply disturbing investigation into the
military-intelligence complex and secret power determined to
dismantle the last strongholds of democracy, namely freedom of the
press'
*Srecko Horvat, philosopher and author of 'Poetry from the
Future'*
'The story of the aftermath of the biggest story in journalism in
generations brilliantly laid out by Maurizi. A must read for
everyone interested in finding out how democratic and free, the
'free and democratic west' indeed is.'
*Helgi Seljan, investigative journalist at 'Stundin'*
'A gripping first-hand account of the Assange affair'
*Gavin Jones, senior Reuters correspondent in Rome*
‘Superb’
*Thomas A. Drake, whistleblower and former senior executive of the
National Security Agency*
'Masterful…Maurizi has very likely produced the definitive version
of the WikiLeaks story, and it’s a page-turner to boot'
*Chip Gibbons, ‘Jacobin’*
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