I saw The Fifth Estate ... Now I go and study why it sucks. wikileaks.org/IMG/html/wikileaks-dreamworks-memo.html#about Release of WikiLeaks internal memo on The Fifth Estate WikiLeaks has decided to release this internal talking points memo to the public alongside the script, because it represents a frank internal appraisal of the Dreamworks film, THE FIFTH ESTATE, and what is wrong with it. This document is now issued to media during publicity for the film, which is due for general release on 18 October, 2013. The points below represent how WikiLeaks believes it should have been portrayed in the film, and why the film is, from WikiLeaks’ perspective, irresponsible, counterproductive and harmful. Talking Points on The Fifth Estate WikiLeaks has multiple versions of the script WikiLeaks has multiple versions of the script for THE FIFTH ESTATE from several different sources. The most recent script released to the public is a mature version, obtained at a late stage during the principal photography of 2013. Some of the attendees at the film premiere in Toronto on 5 September, 2013 are friends and supporters of WikiLeaks and were able to compare the final product to the most recently obtained script. In the finished film, the scripted scene set in Iran has been transplanted to Libya, but serves the same plot function. Besides this, there have been no significant changes. WikiLeaks knowledge of the film is accurate and current, and our official position is well-founded and based in fact. Director Bill Condon is therefore mistaken when he says: [Assange] got hold of a very, very early draft of the script, which he has commented on, which really bears little resemblance to the movie we made. WikiLeaks caused no harm to anyone THE FIFTH ESTATE falsely implies that WikiLeaks harmed 2,000 US government informants. Not even the US government alleges that WikiLeaks caused harm to a single person. Apologists for US government misconduct tried to argue that WikiLeaks caused harm to distract attention away from the serious stories coming out of WikiLeaks disclosures. But despite spending millions of dollars over three years in preparation for the trial of Private Manning, the US government was unable to present any evidence of anyone coming to harm as a consequence of the WikiLeaks publications. US Brig. Gen. Robert Carr – who was tasked to investigate this matter by the Pentagon – in fact stated under oath when examined by the defense counsel that there was no harm whatsoever. As Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in 2010: Is this embarrassing? Yes. Is it awkward? Yes. Consequences for U.S. foreign policy? I think fairly modest. The Fifth Estate is a work of fiction masquerading as fact The film is fictional. Most of the events depicted never happened, or the people shown were not involved in them. It has real names, real places, and looks like it is covering real events, but it is still a dramatic and cinematic work, and it invents or shapes the facts to fit its narrative goals. There are very high stakes involved in how WikiLeaks is perceived. This film does not occur in a historical vacuum, but appears in the context of ongoing efforts to bring a criminal prosecution against WikiLeaks and Julian Assange for exposing the activities of the Pentagon and the US State Department. The film also occurs in the context of Pvt. Mannings upcoming appeal and request for a presidential pardon. People should not in any way treat this film as an historical account of WikiLeaks, its activities or its personnel. Hopefully, they will be inspired to approach the topic with an open mind, and to support WikiLeaks. Even those working on The Fifth Estate said it had an agenda The star of THE FIFTH ESTATE, Benedict Cumberbatch, stated that director Bill Condon wanted him to play Julian Assange as an antisocial megalomaniac: Reading an early version of the script, which was partly adapted from Daniel Domscheit-Bergs memoir of working with Assange, Cumberbatch realized that some of Assanges fears were justified. On a lot of the stage direction, we collided paths because Bill did seem to be setting him up as this antisocial megalomaniac. -- Vogue Cumberbatch worried that there was an agenda to make Assange a cartoon baddie: When Cumberbatch first read the script, he worried that it cast Assange as some kind of cartoon baddie. I think I may get my head bitten off by Disney for saying so, but everyone agreed with that. -- The Guardian The Fifth Estate is only one side of the story THE FIFTH ESTATE is based on two books, both written by people who had personal and legal disputes with WikiLeaks. These are personally biased sources and are now outdated by three years. They tell only one side of the story. These authors had an interest in portraying Julian Assange as dishonest or manipulative for competitive, personal and legal reasons. It is hard to imagine how a film which aims to dramatise only their version of events could genuinely aspire to being fair or accurate. The film does not tell the story Julian Assange or WikiLeaks staff such as Sarah Harrison, Joseph Farrell or Kristinn Hrafnsson would tell. Hopefully, soon, their story too can be told. This is not the first feature film about Julian Assange Underground: The Julian Assange Story, directed by Robert Connolly, and starring Rachel Griffith and Antony LaPaglia premiered at Toronto Film Festival 2012, twelve months before THE FIFTH ESTATE. The theatrical trailer is here. The world has changed because of WikiLeaks THE FIFTH ESTATE is careful to avoid most criticism of US foreign policy actually revealed by WikiLeaks. The film covers 2010, but almost none of the evidence WikiLeaks published that year of serious abuses within the US military and the State Department. The Afghanistan War Diaries exposed the use of secret kill lists and assassination squads, and dramatically shifted perception of the occupation of Afghanistan and significantly reduced support for the war. The Iraq War Logs showed direct US complicity in torture carried out by Iraqi authorities, enabling research and advocacy by human rights groups such as Amnesty International and efforts to obtain justice for the victims of torture and killing. They showed the true civilian death toll of the war, kept secret by the US military. Cablegate has produced more news stories than any single leak in history. For years after Cablegate, the world has been awash with revelations. The BBC, the New York Times and Amnesty International, and even the US government during the trial of Private Manning, have all argued that the publication of Cablegate helped to trigger revolutions in Tunisia and across the Middle East. One cable showed US troops carrying out war crimes with impunity, triggering the Iraq governments decision to remove legal immunity from prosecution for US troops in Iraq, which directly led to the US withdrawal from Iraq and therefore helped end the Iraq War. The character Anke wasnt there Although the film shows several hostile interactions between Julian Assange and Anke Domscheit-Berg, in fact Julian Assange has never met or spoken with Anke. The character Daniel wasnt there THE FIFTH ESTATE inserts a Daniel Domscheit-Berg into the story for the events of 2010, during which Collateral Murder, the two sets of War Logs and Cablegate were released. The real Domscheit-Berg was not present for any of these. The character of Daniel in the film is almost entirely fictitious. WikiLeaks was founded in 2006 by Julian Assange. Domscheit-Berg started as a part-time volunteer during the year 2008, based in Germany and helping remotely from there. He worked as a full-time volunteer only during the year 2009. He last saw Julian Assange in Iceland in February 2010, and was not significantly involved in Wikileaks after this point. All of the key releases of US government documents in 2010 happened after this point. Domscheit-Berg had no involvement in the production of the Collateral Murder film. He was not even in the same country as the Collateral Murder team. The Afghan War Diaries were published from London in July 2010. Domscheit-Berg was in Berlin. Domscheit-Berg was suspended in August 2010. He finalized his own departure from WikiLeaks in September 2010 with the acts of sabotage against WikiLeaks servers hinted at (but perversely celebrated) in the film, making off with leaked documents which included evidence of more than 60 women and children being massacred in Afghanistan by US forces. He refused to return these materials to WikiLeaks and later claimed to have destroyed them. Within days he was promising to launch his own rival project, OpenLeaks, which was subsequently abandoned without publishing a single document. The Iraq War Logs were published in October 2010. Domscheit-Berg was not there. Having been suspended back in August, he was at this point courting publicity for himself and speaking to Tina Klopp who ghostwrote the book on which THE FIFTH ESTATE is based. Domscheit-Berg has received hundreds of thousands of dollars of profit from the sale of the film rights to Dreamworks. Cablegate began publication in late November 2010 and the events following its launch went on throughout 2011. Domscheit-Berg was not there. Between them, Daniel Domscheit-Berg (who had been formally suspended a year prior) and the Guardian journalist David Leigh (now retired) brought about the unredacted publication of Cablegate in September 2011, but then falsely attempted to attribute the incident to WikiLeaks, a fiction the movie repeats. A film about WikiLeaks without WikiLeaks Although THE FIFTH ESTATE purports to be about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, the film was made without the involvement of WikiLeaks or any of its staff, including Julian Assange. However, parties to disputes with WikiLeaks were given consulting contracts to work on the script. These include Daniel Domscheit-Berg and Nick Davies. False statements were made in the closing text of the screenplay. WikiLeaks submitted via Jeff Skoll of Participant Media suggested corrections. These corrections were ignored and the closing text of the finished film retains the falsehoods. Although the film has premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and numerous other media organizations have been shown review copies, the studio continues to refuse to show the film to WikiLeaks staff. The multi-million dollar production, produced by Dreamworks and distributed by Disney, has not financially contributed to WikiLeaks or any of its defence funds. The fourth wall in The Fifth Estate The conclusion of THE FIFTH ESTATE breaks the dramatic “fourth wall”, depicting the fictional Julian Assange speaking about the film itself from the Embassy of Ecuador in London. The fictional Assange recites lines paraphrased from the real Julian Assange in public statements: JULIAN The Wikileaks movie? Which one. That one? Its based on the worst two books. Full of lies and distortion, like all bad propaganda. This attempts to make the film immune to criticism by WikiLeaks or by Assange himself. It contaminates any future act of criticism by the real Julian Assange with the stigma of the fictional one. The cult narrative is completely made up Julian Assange was never in a cult, but THE FIFTH ESTATE claims that he was. Julian Assange does not dye or bleach his hair white, as claimed in the film. While these interpolations may serve to enhance the dramatic narrative of the film, or to build an enigmatic or interesting central character, they have the effect of further falsely mythologizing a living person as sinister and duplicitous. Julian Assange has not been charged in Sweden The film falsely states that Julian Assange has been charged (with rape) and makes a number of other related false imputations. Julian Assange has not been charged at any stage in any country. That he has been detained in the United Kingdom for three years without charge is one of the reasons he has been granted political asylum. For more information, see justice4assange/ WikiLeaks really was being surveilled in 2009 and 2010 WikiLeaks and Julian Assange were subject to a series of surveillance events in late 2009 and during 2010. The film portrays this as fanciful but this is naïve. A few months ago it emerged that the FBI had sent undercover agents to Iceland to attempt to infiltrate WikiLeaks. A recent criminal complaint submitted to German authorities details these surveillance events fully. Government transparency and personal privacy go together THE FIFTH ESTATE presents Julian Assange as a transparency zealot who believes everything should be made public, but this is wrong. Julian Assange believes transparency should be in proportion to power. For example, when the police are investigating the mafia, their operations should be kept secret as long as they need to be. But when they are using secrecy to cover up police brutality or other abuses, there is a need for transparency. The press should work hard to keep the identity of its sources secret, and WikiLeaks was built to do exactly this. The population has a right to privacy: the right not to be subject to mass surveillance by their governments. Without this, each of us is vulnerable to the abuse of power, as happened in East Germany under the Stasi. Working to make governments more transparent and accountable is part of the same cause as safeguarding the privacy of ordinary people. I believe in the right to communicate and the inviolability of history, privacy for the weak, transparency for the powerful. -- Julian Assange WikiLeaks protects people, not reputations WikiLeaks implemented rigorous harm-minimization procedures in order to ensure that no person would come to harm, and it was successful. Nobody has ever been put in danger of harm. WikiLeaks held back 15,000 Afghan field reports for harm minimization, but the film argues that there was no harm minimization in place. WikiLeaks adopted a policy of maximum disclosure, subject to the demands of protecting human life. The Guardian and the New York Times were more concerned with appearing to be “responsible” than with protecting human life. WikiLeaks published the original source material for the Iraq and Afghanistan War Diaries and for Cablegate, while the Guardian and the New York Times abused redaction in order to distort stories in line with their institutional interests and biases. The mainstream media partners published a tiny fraction of the State Department cables and stopped publishing them in early 2011, while WikiLeaks went on to collaborate with over 120 media organizations all over the world, bringing the full set of cables into the historical record. WikiLeaks modernized the press WikiLeaks media collaborations in 2010 were a pioneering form of journalism. In large part, WikiLeaks dragged traditional news organizations into the 21st century: by organizing a powerful and effective international collaboration between hundreds of media organizations, by pioneering the use of large datasets in journalism, by demonstrating the importance of tough source protection to combat surveillance of journalists, by taking aggressive action against censorship, and by reasserting the importance of strong adversarial journalism. The innovations of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have since formed a WikiLeaks model for how journalism can be done, and this has been copied by media organizations all over the world. Even parties hostile to WikiLeaks have acknowledged this. See New York Times Bill Keller, On The Media 2013. Exposing wrongdoing is what journalists are supposed to do US government officials responded negatively to WikiLeaks because they were embarrassed. They should be embarrassed. WikiLeaks publications showed that they were doing something wrong. It is not the job of journalists to rescue government officials from embarrassment. It is also not the job of journalists to protect governments from the diplomatic or political consequences of their own wrongdoing. When powerful wrongdoers fear being found out, they are forced to behave more acceptably. That is a good thing. Chelsea Manning must be supported Chelsea Mannings case is extremely important, and everyone should campaign for her. Her case is on appeal, and she has just issued a plea for a pardon from US President Barack Obama. This process is happening right now. Public opinion is crucial. A film which falsely portrays the publications of 2010 in an ambivalent light, alleging non-existent harm, risks undercutting public opinion and playing into the hands of the US government. Emphasize that THE FIFTH ESTATE is fictional and there is a distinction between what it portrays and reality. Emphasize that Chelsea Manning should be considered to be a classic whistleblower. Quote from her recent statement Urge people to support and campaign for her. Chelsea Mannings case is an LGBT issue It is also important to note that Chelsea Mannings treatment in US military detention has acquired a new human rights dimension. Chelsea Manning has now publicly and voluntarily announced her status as a transgendered individual. This is no longer ambiguous. In 2011, she was subjected to treatment which UN Rapporteur Juan Mendez formally found to be cruel, inhumane and degrading”. Even former State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said that her treatment was “ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid”. This involved prolonged solitary confinement, forced nudity and misogynistic and homophobic verbal abuse. In the context of her declared gender identification, this treatment acquires a new dimension and should be of concern to everyone. This story is not over yet The story of WikiLeaks does not end with THE FIFTH ESTATE. The film makes it look like WikiLeaks was finished in 2010. Three years later, WikiLeaks is still here, has been going from strength to strength, and the issues raised in 2010 are more urgent and relevant than ever. The US and UK governments are in the middle of a crackdown on whistleblowers and national security journalism. A confrontation between the free press and the secret state is currently playing out. The scope of the crackdown on journalism has been expanded to include the Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Associated Press and FOX News. Recent months have seen the worlds press slowly wake up to this fact. In the past year, we have seen the Department of Justice ordering dragnet surveillance operations against Associated Press. In 2012, Julian Assange published a book showing how the world was being spied on by US and UK intelligence agencies, and calling for the mobilization of a mass movement against bulk surveillance. Just recently, WikiLeaks published “SpyFiles 3” — 249 documents from 92 global intelligence contractors. These documents reveal how, as the intelligence world has privatized, US, EU and other nations intelligence agencies have rushed into spending millions on next-generation mass surveillance technology to target communities, groups and whole populations. Edward Snowden revealed that the US and UK governments are violating the privacy rights of the worlds population en-masse. The UK government is engaging in prior restraint actions against the press. It has issued so-called “Defence Advisory” notices to dissuade newspapers in the UK from reporting on NSA and GCHQ spying. It has intimidated the Guardian UK into destroying hard drives and ceasing to report on leaked documents about GCHQ surveillance. The most significant journalists and whistleblowers in the world are either political exiles, political prisoners, or the targets of criminal investigations by an overreaching security state. The US government has just convicted Chelsea Manning and sentenced her to 35 years in prison. The journalist Barrett Brown is in prison, facing trial. The charges he faces carry a maximum sentence of 105 years in prison. His pretrial detention has lasted for longer than a year so far. There is a gag order in place to prevent reportage on his trial. NSA whistleblowers Thomas Drake, William Binney and Kirk J. Wiebe have been subjected to a vicious persecution effort over the last six years. New York Times reporter James Risen is facing imprisonment because he refuses to reveal a journalistic source of a national security story. FOX News reporter James Rosen was named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the prosecution of a State Department leaker. His phone records were taken, his emails were read, and his movements were tracked by the FBI. A grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks has been active and ongoing for over three years. An unlawful blockade against WikiLeaks carried out by private financial firms and instigated by US government officials has been in effect for three years. Julian Assange has been granted asylum by the government of Ecuador. In anticipation of this, the UK government threatened to raid the Embassy of Ecuador in London in violation of the Vienna Conventions. The threat was withdrawn after global political fallout and public outcry. Edward Snowden is in exile in Russia having been forced to ask Russia for asylum. The US government and the governments of Europe prevented him from travelling to Latin America to seek asylum by applying diplomatic pressure, forcing down the plane of president Evo Morales of Bolivia – in violation of the Vienna Conventions, ironically in Vienna – and issuing pre-emptive extradition requests to most countries in the Western Hemisphere. Glenn Greenwald, a US citizen, is in effective exile in Brazil. Laura Poitras, the other US journalist working on the Snowden revelations, is in effective exile in Germany. Sarah Harrison, the WikiLeaks journalist who accompanied Edward Snowden from Hong Kong and assisted his successful asylum bid, is in effective exile in Russia. The UK government has abused terrorism legislation to detain David Miranda, the partner of Glenn Greenwald, in Heathrow airport and confiscate his property. Despite all of this, WikiLeaks has kept strong. WikiLeaks has continued publishing throughout the last three years. WikiLeaks has fought the unlawful banking blockade, and has partially defeated it in a significant Supreme Court victory in Iceland. In 2011, WikiLeaks released the Guantánamo Files — thousands of pages of documents from the Guantánamo Bay detention facility dating from 2002 to 2008. Later in 2011, in collaboration with Privacy International, Bugged Planet, ARD, the Bureau of Investigatiev Journalism, The Hindu, OWNI, LEspresso and the Washington Post, WikiLeaks released the SpyFiles 1 and SpyFiles2 — hundreds of documents from as many as 160 intelligence contractors in the mass surveillance industry. In early 2012, in conjunction with over 30 media partners, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files – more than five million emails from the Texas-headquartered global intelligence company Stratfor. The emails date from between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defense Intelligence Agency. The Global Intelligence Files publication is ongoing. In mid 2012, along with over ten media partners, WikiLeaks began publishing the Syria Files – more than two million emails from Syrian political figures, ministries and associated companies, dating from August 2006 to March 2012. The Syria Files publication is ongoing. In late 2012, WikiLeaks began releasing the Detainee Policies: more than 100 classified or otherwise restricted files from the United States Department of Defense covering the rules and procedures for detainees in U.S. military custody. In early 2013, along with over ten media partners, WikiLeaks released the Kissinger Cables — more than 1.7 million US diplomatic records for the period 1973 to 1976, including 205,901 records relating to former US Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. The cables were released along with the State Department cables from Cablegate, as part of the Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD) — the worlds largest searchable collection of United States confidential, or formerly confidential, diplomatic communications. Just recently, WikiLeaks published “SpyFiles 3” — 249 documents from 92 global intelligence contractors. These documents reveal how, as the intelligence world has privatized, US, EU and other nations intelligence agencies have rushed into spending millions on next-generation mass surveillance technology to target communities, groups and whole populations. In June 2013, WikiLeaks made an intervention in the case of Edward Snowden in order to assist his exit from Hong Kong, and escort him to a safe haven where he was able to successfully avail of his universal human right to apply for asylum from US persecution. The success of this action, under the noses of intelligence agencies, shows WikiLeaks expertise and efficiency as a source-protection organization. WikiLeaks has remained true to its principles, has supported the strong journalism of the Snowden stories, and has committed significant resources to ensuring that Edward Snowdens rights are protected.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 06:35:36 +0000
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