Our values are those of US revolution: Assange

LONDON - Julian Assange has compared the values of WikiLeaks to those of the founding fathers of the US and asserted that the whistleblowing website does not have a political agenda, a media report said Monday.

The WikiLeaks founder, who enraged the US by obtaining a cache of some 250,000 secret diplomatic cables and slowly releasing the documents through his website, also denied that he was motivated by a dislike of America, the Daily Telegraph reported.

“Our founding values are those of the US revolution,” Assange said. “They are those of people like (Thomas) Jefferson and (James) Madison,” he said in a CBS interview aired Sunday night.

Assange described members of WikiLeaks as “free press activists” and said the website did not have a political agenda.

“It’s not about saving the whales. It’s about giving people the information they need to support whaling or not support whaling,” the 39-year-old Australian said.

“That is the raw ingredient that is needed to make a just and civil society. And without that you’re just sailing in the dark.”

Assange insisted that WikiLeaks was playing “inside the rules” and “operated just like any US publisher operates”.

According to the report, the WikiLeaks founder also disclosed that a plan exists to release a deluge of secret documents should WikiLeaks be permanently shut down.

Assange said his group had a “system whereby we distribute encrypted backups of things we have yet to publish”.

“There are backups distributed amongst many, many people, 100,000 people, and all we need to do is give them an encrypted key and they will be able to continue on,” he said.

Assange, who is on bail in Britain and facing extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations, said the key would only be released as a last resort.

“If a number of people were imprisoned or assassinated, then we would feel that we could not go on, and other people would have to take over our work, and we would release the keys,” he said.