Assange: WikiLeaks to release over a million new docs in 2013

Assange: WikiLeaks to release over a million new docs in 2013

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gestures from the balcony of Ecuador's Embassy as he makes a speech, in central London December 20, 2012.(Reuters / Luke MacGregor)

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Despite all the difficulties the WikiLeaks faced in 2012, Julian Assange vowed to publish some 1,000,000 new documents in the coming year. In his Christmas speech he called for people to continue fighting for democracy “from Tahrir to London.”
­WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared on the balcony of London’s Ecuadorian embassy at 19:00 GMT welcoming the cheering crowd in the street.
The whistleblower, who took shelter there in June, said he was very grateful to people who provided him refuge and supported WikiLeaks and recalled the names of those who were “unlike him in prison tonight.”
"My freedom is limited, but I am at least able to communicate. Unlike Gottfrid Svartholm, Jeremy Hammond, Nabeel Rajab, Bradley Manning," Assange said.
WikiLeaks already has over a million documents nearly ready for release – “documents that affect every country in the world,” according to Assange.
“Every country in this world!” he reiterated, trying to speak over the crowd of cheering supporters.
The WikiLeaks boss also mentioned his plans to run for a seat in the Australian Senate, indicating confidence that he would win next year’s federal election. “In Australia, an unelected senator will be replaced by one that is elected,” he stated.

­‘We continue to stand up to bullies’

­Assange praised the Ecuadorian government and other Latin American governments for showing how cooperation and shared values can embolden countries to “stand up to coercion and support self-determination.”
“Their governments threaten no one, attack no one, send drones at no one – but together they stand strong and independent,” he stated.
The power of people uniting to speak up and resist terrifies corrupt and undemocratic powers, Assange said, adding that every day ordinary people teach us that democracy is free speech.
“Ordinary people here in the West are now the enemy of governments, an enemy to be watched, an enemy to be controlled,” he said. “True democracy is the resistance of people armed with the truth against lies, from Tahrir to right here in London.”

Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange hold a vigil ahead of his appearance and speech at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London December 20, 2012.(Reuters / Luke MacGregor)