It has been 5 years to the day since Ecuador first granted political asylum to Julian Assange. So to continue the celebration of 10 years of Wikileaks I have decided to delved into the dramatic events both Julian Assange and Wikileaks have had to face over the last 12 months.

Since the death of Seth Rich and the first publications of the DNC archive, Wikileaks has come under vast amounts of pressure from many sides. Not only have they had to deal with state sponsored DDOS attacks, possible 'assassinations', visits from John Kerry, and attempted kidnappings by armed police, they've also had to fight sustained attacks on their employees and reputation. Below I have put together an in depth, and fully sourced timeline of events covering the last 12 months leading up to the present day.

 

 

A Year In The Life Of Wikileaks

 

• 07/10/2016: Seth Rich, the DNC Director of Voter Expansion Data was shot in the back and dies. Police say it was a robbery but the Police documents reveal nothing was stolen.

DNC Staffer Seth Rich Shot, Killed in D.C. | NBCwashington - 07/11/2016

"There had been a struggle. His hands were bruised, his knees are bruised, his face is bruised, and yet he had two shots to his back, and yet they never took anything"

 

• 07/22/2016 Wikileaks publishes the DNC archives. These leaks are widely thought to have come from Seth Rich.

DNC Archive | Wikileaks - 07/22/2016

Starting on Friday 22 July 2016 at 10:30am EDT, WikiLeaks released over 2 publications 44,053 emails and 17,761 attachments from the top of the US Democratic National Committee -- part one of our new Hillary Leaks series.

 

• 08/03/2016: Edward Snowden tweet references 'It's time'. The tweet has since been deleted.
  

Cryptic Edward Snowden "it's time" tweet then bizarre coded message sparks fears whistleblower has been captured or killed | The Mirror - 08/07/2016

• On Wednesday he took to Twitter and posted a series of messages which some took to indicate he may have been about to reveal another batch of classified information.
• On Friday he followed up with another post, which contained 64 seemingly random characters .
• Both of the messages have since been deleted.
• Various theories have started to surface about what the posts could mean.
• There have been claims the code was the result of a “dead man’s switch” – a message set up to be automatically sent out if an account is inactive for a particular period of time.

 

• 08/05/2016: Edward Snowden tweets 64 bit code which was swiftly removed.
  
  ffdae96f8dd292374a966ec8b57d9cc680c e1d23cb7072c 522efe32a1a7e34b0

Edward Snowden Tweets Cryptic Code: Was it a Dead Man’s Switch? | Sputnik - 08/06/2016

After posting a 64 character hex code that is believed to be an encryption key, the internet worries that the famed whistleblower may have been killed or captured resulting in the triggering of a dead man’s switch and potentially the release of many more US national secrets.

 

• 08/06/2016: RT reporter Afshin Rattansi interviews Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy for 'Going Underground'.
  

 

• 08/06/2016: 4chan /Pol solved the code but the thread has since been removed and isn't in any of the archives anywhere. It seems to have been removed from the internet.
  Here's some other threads from around the internet of people trying to solve the riddle. 1 2 3. The general consensus was it was either a SHA encryption key and/or a Bitcoin wallet private key.

 

• 08/09/2016: Julian Assange was interviewed a Dutch TV station Nieuwsuur where he comments on Seth Richs murder and eludes to him being the source of the DNC leaks.

Julian Assange on Seth Rich | You Tube - 08/09/2016

 

• 08/09/2016: Wikileaks offers $20,000 reward for information on the murder of Seth Rich.
  

WikiLeaks offers $20,000 for information about killing of DNC staffer | WashingtonTimes 08/09/2010

WikiLeaks announced Tuesday it will provide a $20,000 reward for information that helps police solve the fatal shooting of a 27-year-old D.C. man who worked for the Democratic National Committee.

 

• 08/21/2016: Wikileaks tweets attempted break in at the Ecuadorian Embassy.
  

Ecuadorian Embassy break-in: Police took 2hrs to reach building where Assange is holed up | RT 08/23/2016

Ecuador has criticized British police for their slow response to a call reporting that an unknown man was trying to break into at its London embassy, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been living for four years.

The Ecuadorian government condemned the “inadequate response” of London police, who it claims arrived two hours after the incident took place.

 

• 10/03/2016: Julian Assange Cancels his balcony appearance.

WikiLeaks cancels Assange’s live balcony appearance over ‘security concerns’ | RT - 10/03/2017

Julian Assange will not be delivering his eagerly anticipated WikiLeaks 10th anniversary address from the Ecuadorian embassy’s balcony in London due to security concerns. However, he will still appear at an event in Berlin via a video link.
For almost a month now the public has held its breath waiting for the so-called “October surprise” leak of classified data that is rumored to deal a devastating blow to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

 

• 10/07/2016: Wikileaks tweets out the first batch of The Podesta Emails.
  

The Podesta Emails | Wikileaks

• 10/08/2016: Wikileaks explains they have only published 1% of the Podesta Emails.
  

 

• 10/12/2016: London Police tweet that they are removing the 24 hour police guard from the Ecuadorian Embassy.
  

London police take 24-hour guard off Ecuadorian Embassy | RT 10/12/2016

Scotland Yard has announced it will end its 24-hour guard of WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy because it is no longer “proportionate.” The Metropolitan Police will instead deploy “overt and covert tactics” to arrest the Australian citizen. Police insist they are still committed to arresting Assange under a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued in December 2010, which seeks his extradition to Sweden to answer allegations of rape.

Assange has been under 24-hour watch by the Metropolitan Police since he entered the Ecuadorian Embassy, despite having never been charged with a crime.

In June, Scotland Yard admitted the stakeout had cost over £11 million.

 

• 10/15/2016 Wikileaks tweets out the transcript from Hilary Clinton's 2013 Goldman Sachs speeches.
  

 

• 10/15/2016: Wikileaks tweets saying that Julian Assanges internet had been cut.
  

 

• 10/16/2016: Wikileaks tweets confirming Assange's internet was cut by a state party.
  

WikiLeaks Confirms Ecuador Cut Off Assange Internet | Arizona Independent Daily - 10/17/2016

WikiLeaks is confirming in a tweet that Ecuador cut off Julian Assange’s internet access this Saturday. According to WikiLeaks, the action took place after the publication of Hillary Clinton’s Goldman Sachs speechs.
Late Sunday night, WikiLeaks tweeted: WikiLeaks is reporting that “Julian Assange’s internet link has been intentionally severed by a state party. We have activated the appropriate contingency plans.”

 

• 10/16/2016: John Kerry visits the UK to 'discuss Syria'.

Syria conflict: West considers new sanctions over Aleppo | BBC 10/16/2016

Mr Kerry is in London taking part in talks aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the Syria conflict.
Speaking alongside the UK's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, he said that "crimes against humanity" were taking place daily in Aleppo.

 

• 10/16/2016: Pamela Anderson visits Assange with a vegan sandwich.
  Pamela Anderson brings Julian Assange a vegan lunch at the Ecuadorian Embassy | The Telegraph - 10/16/2016

Pamela Anderson has spoken of her fears over Julian Assange's health after visiting him at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The former Playboy model said the WikiLeaks founder was doing "really well" but expressed concern for him and his family.

 

• 10/16/2016: At 10:08GMT Wikileaks tweets SHA-256 pre-release keys. These were a pre-comitment plan to ensure that leaked files are not altered from their original state.
  
  Tweet 1 | Tweet 2 | Tweet 3

WikiLeaks Tweets Hash Codes, Worry For Assange, Damaging Info On Kerry Expected - Arizona Daily Independent

On Sunday, WikiLeaks tweeted hash codes in what many hope is an effort to authenticate emails ahead of time that could prove to be very damaging to Secretary of State John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. Hash codes are a digital “fingerprint” of a file that can demonstrate provenance of the file itself and authenticate its source.

The United State government has been embarrassed by the emails obtained and released by WikiLeaks.

 

• 10/18/2016: Wikileaks tweets claiming John Kerry put pressure on Ecuador to stop Assange from publishing documents about the DNC and Hilary Clinton.
  

 

• 10/18/2016: Heavily armed police outside Ecuadorian Embassy. Onlookers are barred from approaching and have mobile devices confiscated. Live feeds of the Ecuadorian embassy set up by concerned Wikileaks supporters are cut off.
  
  Tweet

 

• 10/18/2016: Fox News reported that Julian Assange could be 'arrested within hours'.
  

 

• 10/18/2016: a previously hidden part of Wikileaks database, https://file.wikileaks.org/file, was made publicly available with all the file dates set to 1984 (Orwell reference).

Confusion Surrounds Wikileaks Data Dump | ZeroHedge -10/18/2017

While it is unclear if it was done on purpose or by mistake, or if it is new disclosure moments ago a folder within what appears to be the Wikileaks server seems to have opened at the URL: https://file.wikileaks.org/file/ which provides a glimpse into thousands of doc, pdf, wav, jpg and various other files, as well as dozens of subdirectories including Videos, Syria-files, Collateral Murder, Japan Bribery Affair, and many others.

 

• 10/20/2016: Wikileaks replies to a tweet by Dan Gillmor, a digital media literacy teacher at Arizona State University, calling out the "corrupt ruling power factions" that will "take power on Jan 20?"
  

WikiLeaks: ‘Corrupt Ruling Power Factions’ Are Going To Win The Election | Daily Caller - 10/20/2016

WikiLeaks suggested in several tweets Thursday that the 2016 election for president of the United States is rigged.
In response to criticism from blogger Dan Gillmor that WikiLeaks recent leaks have outed it as picking a side and playing partisan politics in the presidential election, WikiLeaks tweeted back, “You are not a fan of publishing true information about corrupt ruling power factions who will take power on Jan 20?”

 

• 10/20-21/2016: Wikileaks tweeted 5 consecutive misspelled tweets. The incorrect letters spelt HELP HIM. The Wikileaks twitter account has never knowingly made a spelling mistake, especially not 5 in 2 days.
  

 

• 10/21/2016: London Airport was evacuated due to a “chemical attack”. At the time, wikileaks supporters theorized that this could have been set up by the US and UK governments to potentially be used as a cover to fly Julian Assange out of country.

London City airport: Met explores CS gas link to 'chemical incident' | The Guardian -10/21/2016

Police investigating the suspected chemical incident which led to the evacuation of London City airport have discovered what is “believed to be a CS gas spray”, a spokesman said.

The airport spokesman said it was unclear what had caused the chemical incident, but officers were “investigating whether it was the result of an accidental discharge of the spray”.

 

• 10/21/2016: Massive DDoS attack on the Dyn DNS servers in the US. Wikileaks tweets to imply the attack originates from its supporters, asking them to stop, no evidence supports claim.
  

Massive DDoS Attack Brings Down Twitter, Netflix, Reddit | Security Today - 10/21/2016

Websites like Twitter, Reddit, Netflix, Spotify and Etsy were briefly offline on Friday morning following a DDoS attack on Dyn Managed DNS. An incident report from Dyn stated that at 11:10 UTC they began “monitoring and mitigating a DDoS attack against our Dyn Managed DNS infrastructure.” The company told customers that they may experience delayed zone propagation or increased DNS query latency during the incident.

Widespread cyberattack takes down sites worldwide | CNN Money - 10/21/2016

"We've never really seen anything this targeted [that] impacts so many sites," said David Jones, director of sales engineering at software IT company Dynatrace. "Typically DDoS attacks are targeted at individual sites. DNS is like a phone book: this is like someone is attacking the phone company and burning all the phone books at the same time."

On Friday afternoon, WikiLeaks posted a tweet asking its supporters to stop the DDoS attacks, although it was not immediately clear if they were behind it.

 

• 10/22/2016: Wikileaks tweets saying that they would release a statement tomorrow about Assange and reassures everyone he's safe.
  

 

• 10/23/2016: Wikileaks tweets a statement.
  

 

• 10/23/2016: At 20:29 Wikileaks Tweets a video of Michael Moore outside the Ecuador Embassy which was recorded in June.
  

 

• 10/23/2016: At 21:16 Wikileaks Tweets a poll asking how best to prove Julian Assange is alive.

WHERE IS JULIAN ASSANGE? Still no word from WikiLeaks after video proof he's alive demand | The Express

WIKILEAKS has yet to provide further proof that its editor Julian Assange is alive despite asking Twitter followers to vote on what evidence they would accept to confirm he is not dead. Conspiracy theories have flooded the internet since Mr Assange went quiet after being stripped of his internet access in the Ecuadorian embassy last week. On Sunday WikiLeaks tweeted that he was "safe" and still in charge of the organisation, and promised a further statement on Monday. WikiLeaks launched a Twitter poll asking what proof people would accept he was alive, after Monday's statement failed to convince people.

 

• 10/26/2016: 4chan users decode their first message in Wikileak’s blockchain. Threads are instantly flooded by shills saying that it’s not worth looking into. The blockchain is blocked with fees and 43000 unconfirmed transactions appear in the mempool.

 

• 11/05/2016: Secret World of US Election: Julian Assange talks to John Pilger.
  

 

• 11/06-07/2016: Huge DDoS takes down Wikileaks.

Why Was Twitter Down? Another DDoS Attack? Everything You Need To Know | Heavy - 11/07/2016

On November 7, starting around midnight Eastern Time, Twitter.com went down. The outage only lasted around 30-45 minutes, but users believe it had to do with WikiLeaks, the U.S. election, and a DDoS attack. Before the outage, WikiLeaks tweeted about DNCLeak2, a release of 8263 new emails from the DNC.

Conspiracy theories abound as Twitter goes down after WikiLeaks 'DDoS attack' | The Independent - 11/07/2016

Some believe the 'attacks' are designed to suppress a new WikiLeaks release about the Clintons. Twitters users in Japan and across the US reported that the service was down on Monday morning, shortly after WikiLeaks claimed to have been the subject of a cyber-attack. According to a Twitter status monitor, the outage began at around 6.45am GMT and continued for around half an hour, though reports suggested the impact varied from user to user.

 

• 11/07/2016: Various entities notice hundreds of Podesta and DNC emails were missing from recent leaks possibly accessed via direct entry.

 

• 11/08/2016: Trump wins the US presidential election.

 

• 11/13/2016: Pamela Anderson visits Julian Assange again.
  

 

• 11/14/2016: Assange meets with Swedish prosecutor regarding rape allegations, lawyers barred from attending,
  meeting meeting conducted via an Equadorian ambassador (not face to face)

Julian Assange faces Swedish prosecutor in London over rape accusation | The Guardian 11/14/2016

In a statement released on Monday night, WikiLeaks said there had been “numerous irregularities” in the Swedish investigation. “Unfortunately, the irregularities with procedure have continued today,” it said, citing the fact that Samuelson had not been permitted to attend, which it called a “clear breach of process”.

 

• 11/17/2016 Post appears on 8chan claiming Wikileaks was compromised.
  

 

• 11/18/2016: First bitcoin transaction since Julian Assange's internet had been cut. Wikileaks BTC account moves 50 btc to a new address.

 

• 11/20/2016: 2 days after the first transcation, the 13LB wallet broadcasts a secret message embedded in public keys saying "were fine 8chan post fake"

Address

 

• 12/07/2016: Pamela Anderson Visits Julian Assange for the 3rd time.
  

 

• 12/12/2016: Pamela Anderson Visits Julian Assange for the 4th time.

 

• 12/19/2016: Wikileaks tweets out a link to an 83gb 'insurance' file.
  

 

• 01/03/2017: Julian Assange interviewed By Sean Hanity for Fox news.
  

 

• 01/13/2017: Wikileaks Tweets confirming the health of Wikileaks staff.
  

 

• 01/21/2017: Pamela Anderson Visits Assange for the 5th time.

• 01/29/2017: Julian Assange interview with Robert Peston for Peston on Sunday
  

 

• 02/04/2017: Wikileaks tweets What is Vault7?

 

• 02/06/2017: Wikileaks tweets When is Vault7?

 

• 02/07/2017: Wikileaks tweets Who is Vault7?

 

• 02/07/2017: Pamela Anderson visits Julian Assange for the 6th time.

Pammy's back! Pamela Anderson makes a SIXTH visit to 'lover' Julian Assange as she brings vegan cheeseburgers to the Ecuadorian Embassy for the Wikileaks founder

Pamela Anderson yesterday visited Julian Assange in London for at least the sixth time in five months, as rumours build that they are in a relationship. The 49-year-old Baywatch actress and model is said to be dating the Wikileaks founder while he is stuck inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in Knightsbridge.

 

• 02/08/2017: Wikileaks tweets Why is Vault7?

 

• 02/09/2017: Wikileaks tweets How did Vault7 make its way to WikiLeaks?

 

• 02/10/2017: Julian Assanges Reddit AMA
  
  

 

• 02/14/2016: Julian Assange activates his personal twitter account.
  

 

• 02/15/2017 Assange tweets abou the deepstate.
  

 

• 02/16/2017: Wikileaks tweets out leaks involving the CIA's involvement in the 2012 French general election. This is the first CIA file from the Vault7 archive.
  

 

• 02/19/2017: Ecuadorian holds first round of their general election.

Julian Assange’s Fate Could Be Decided by Ecuador’s Election | NY Times - 02/17/2017

LONDON — When Ecuador holds a general election on Sunday, the results could have international repercussions linked to one man thousands of miles away: Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who took refuge in the country’s embassy in London nearly five years ago and who remains there.

 

• 04/03/2017: Moreno wins Ecuadorian elections.

Moreno's Ecuador 'win' will be relief for Assange | Sky News - 04/03/2017

Leftist government candidate Lenin Moreno has claimed victory in Ecuador's presidential elections, but conservative challenger Guillermo Lasso has asked for a recount as his supporters took to the streets in protest.

 

• 04/07/2017: Part 1 of Vault 7 is published.

 

• 03/23/2017 - 08/10/2017: Wikileaks continues to publish CIA hacking tools from their Vault 7 archive.

 

• 05/19/2017: Julian Assange finally reveals himself on the Ecuadorian Embassy balcony to declare Sweden dropped rape charges.
  

Julian Assange emerges on embassy balcony to say he will not 'forgive or forget' as Swedish rape investigation is dropped | The Telegraph - 05/19/2017

Julian Assange has said he will remain inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London in order to avoid extradition to the United States, despite being told he no longer faces a sex investigation by the Swedish authorities. The WikiLeaks founder hailed the decision to discontinue the seven-year case against him as an "important victory", but said the "proper war was just commencing", after the Metropolitan Police said he would still be arrested if he stepped outside.

 

• 07/31/2017: Macron emails and documents published.

Today, Monday 31 July 2017, WikiLeaks publishes a searchable archive of 21,075 unique verified emails associated with the French presidential campaign of Emmanual Macron. The emails range from 20 March 2009 to 24 April 2017. The 21,075 emails have been individually forensically verified by WikiLeaks through its DKIM system.

 

• 08/16/2017: It's been 5 years to the day since Ecuador granted political asylum to Julian assange.

On 16 August 2012, Foreign Minister Patiño announced that Ecuador was granting Assange political asylum because of the threat represented by the United States secret investigation against him and several calls for assassination from many American politicians.

 

 

As you can see over the last 12 months Wikileaks has endured an exceptional amount of pressure from various governments and agencies that want to arrest Julian Assange and to shut Wikileaks down. The incredible creativity, ingenuity, and resilience of both the organization and it's infrastructure have held up well and now seem to bigger and stronger than ever before. The battle may have been won but the war is far from over.

In tomorrows Wikileaks Week post I shall be taking a look at some of the people and organizations that are involved with and that support Wikileaks.

Previous Wikileaks Week Posts:

WIKILEAKS WEEK DAY 1 | The Leaks

WIKILEAKS WEEK DAY 2 | Vault 7

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