WikiLeaks, David Leigh
WikiLeaks, David Leigh
4 Rating(s)
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WikiLeaks
Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy

Author: David Leigh, Luke Harding

Narrator: Richard Powers

Unabridged: 13 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/01/2011


Synopsis

A team of journalists with unparalleled inside access provides the first full, in-depth account of WikiLeaks, its founder Julian Assange, and the ethical, legal, and political controversies it has both uncovered and provoked.The extraordinary twists and turns of WikiLeaks have been closely followed by the Guardian newspaper ever since the website launched in 2006, and Guardian journalists have had unprecedented access to all the major players, from angry and embarrassed politicians and diplomats to the extraordinary figure of Julian Assange himself. At different times Assange hid at David Leigh’s homes. Here they reveal the many strands—legal, ethical, security related—of a story that continues to dominate world headlines. They look at the Internet culture and technology that made the mining of secret information possible and at the fanatical hackers who set up WikiLeaks. They explore the secret goings-on that WikiLeaks has uncovered, from the revelation of extrajudicial killings in Kenya in 2008 to the avalanche of US diplomatic cables in 2010. They study the implications of the latest revelations and reveal the strange and contradictory nature of Assange himself: a man praised by Amnesty International in 2009 but also, barely a year later, accused by Swedish police of sex crimes.The WikiLeaks story has received worldwide attention and reaction. WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy presents the whole history of the organization and the ethical debate that surrounded the use of its material, plus the inside story of the personalities that created then threatened to destroy the website that has changed our view of secrecy forever.

About David Leigh

David Leigh is a British journalist, author, editor, and Anthony Sampson Professor of Reporting in the journalism department at City University London. He has been a prominent investigative journalist since the 1970s and is currently investigations editor of the Guardian. He was educated at Nottingham High School and King’s College, Cambridge, receiving a research degree from Cambridge in 1968. He was a journalist for the Scotsman, Times, and Guardian (UK) and a Laurence Stern fellow at the Washington Post in 1980. From 1980, he was chief investigative reporter at the Observer.

About Luke Harding

Luke Harding is a journalist, writer, and award-winning correspondent with the London Guardian. He is the author of several award-winning nonfiction books.

About Ed Pilkington

Ed Pilkington is the Guardian’s New York correspondent. He is a former national and foreign editor of the paper and is the author of Beyond the Mother Country.

About Robert Booth

Robert Booth is the author of Boston’s Freedom Trail, which has been in print for twenty-five years, and has contributed to the anthology Salem: Place, Myth & Memory. A graduate of Harvard and Boston Universities, he is curator emeritus of the Pickering House in Salem and serves on the boards of several history organizations. He lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

About Richard Powers

Richard Powers has published thirteen novels. He is a MacArthur Fellow and received the National Book Award. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory, and Bewilderment was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Peter

I'm not telling you what I think of this book, because it's a secret. However, it really was a Lady Gaga CD. Allegedly.......more

Goodreads review by Ishraq

"Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rathe......more

Goodreads review by Xing

Sharp, systematic, chronological narrative that focuses on the effects of WikiLeaks’ whistleblowing activities, from a global political perspective. Much space devoted to succinct descriptions of the leaked documents and their impact on international relations and government policy. Written from a r......more

Goodreads review by Matthew

An interesting look inside WikiLeaks and the main players of that movement. Well worth the few bucks I paid for it.......more

Goodreads review by Spencer

Chiefly, I think this book now suffers from being out-of-date; the story ends with Assange being released on bail pending his extradition hearing, and so obviously lacks anything about his subsequent flight to the Ecuadorean embassy, nor Manning's trial, sentencing and change of gender. It does, how......more


Quotes

“In unraveling the murky details, the book has also provided a rip-roaring narrative of secrets, tantrums, technological wizardry, personal betrayal and vengeance.” Irish Independent

“Fantastic…a complicated story of the relationship between a man who is a fanatical political activist (Assange) with no formal journalistic training and no background in the media, and a group of esteemed, famous professional media practitioners.” Kaietur News

“The novelistic lens serves an important purpose by painting a richer, more three-dimensional portrait of the people behind WikiLeaks and the controversies in which they became embroiled.” Eurasian Review

“A manifesto for the future of professional journalism.” TechCrunch