Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last week, Majid Jamali Fashi was hung in Iran's notorious Evin Prison. He joined hundreds of political prisoners, human rights activists and minority religious people executed in that country by that harsh regime. Fashi had been accused of being responsible for the death of an Iranian nuclear scientist, Massoud Ali Mohammadi. Fashi's death is a result of an unredacted WikiLeaks report released a month before his arrest. A cable from the US embassy in Azerbaijan described one of its sources as an Iranian martial arts expert. Apparently Fashi had visited Azerbaijan the month before the cable was released for a kickboxing tournament. Analysts argue that Fashi might have lost his life because the confidential cable was published by WikiLeaks. Even if Fashi was not the source of the cable, the document gave the Iranian regime a pretext for charging him, torturing him and executing him.

Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a former associate of Julian Assange who defected from WikiLeaks in 2010, said the reason he split from Assange and WikiLeaks was that the disputes within that organisation had created a siege mentality. In an interview two years ago, Domscheit-Berg said WikiLeaks released thousands of internal US Army documents relating to the Afghan war. Around this time, collaborators of the allies were exposed by leaked information. The moral responsibility of WikiLeaks was pushed aside for publicity and notoriety. WikiLeaks dissidents argued that releasing these names did not serve WikiLeaks's original purpose of questioning US foreign policy but simply placed the lives of individuals in jeopardy. This is another example of the narcissism, in my view, of Julian Assange, who recently disparaged our Prime Minister. Similarly, in 2006, elections in Kenya were marred by violence following a WikiLeaks leak about an individual. Assange told the London Observer, '1,300 people were eventually killed and 350,000 were displaced. That was a result of our leak.' Some people might think that was commentary; others might think it was a narcissist playing God.

I am very proud to have been criticised by WikiLeaks as a person that Mr Assange does not like in Australia who is a friend of the Americans. Obviously, as the Chair of the Australia-US Parliamentary Friendship Group, one naturally and openly speaks to the American diplomatic establishment in Australia. For instance, we are holding a forum today on the US elections. People in this place honestly strive to change the world by politics—conservative or social democrat. The Assange anarchist way is not my way.

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