As Julian Assange touched down in Australia for the first time in 14 years as a free man, former Australian soldier Shane Healey wasn’t celebrating.
Mr Healey witnessed the impacts Assange’s actions caused in the Middle East in the wake of his explosive Wikileaks reports in 2010, the first of which released 92,000 documents relating to the war in Afghanistan between 2004 and 2009.
The second leak involved up to 400,000 documents relating to the Iraq war.
Mr Healey served in both Iraq and Afghanistan before and after the Wikileaks scandals.
He said local sources feared for their lives, others fled Iraq and the relationship between western armies and the contacts they’d spent years building were in tatters.
Assange, 52, avoided extradition to the United States to face charges relating to the leaks by seeking asylum for seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK.
When that relationship collapsed, he was arrested and transferred to Belmarsh Prison, a maximum security facility in London where he spent the past five years before his release on Tuesday.
Assange struck a deal with US officials this week which saw him plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents.
Former Australian Defence Force soldier Shane Healey witnessed the impacts that Julian Assange’s actions caused in the Middle East
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange kisses his wife Stella Assange as he arrives in Canberra
He gave a thumbs up to the gathered crowd as he touched down on home soil
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, left, embraces his father John Shipton on his arrival at RAAF air base
He is therefore guilty of espionage but was released on the back of 62 months already spent in custody.
While his return has been hailed a diplomatic success for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his long list of international backers – proven by the hero’s welcome he received upon landing in Canberra at 7.30pm – Mr Healey insists Assange deserves no such treatment.
The former intelligence analyst described the fanfare and treatment Assange has received from the Australian government as ‘disgusting’.
‘Why are we celebrating a convicted criminal?’ he said.
‘Nobody has spoken about Kevin Rudd parading around with Assange. And how much does Anthony Albanese know?
‘What risk assessment has the federal government done on Julian Assange and his prospects of reoffending?’
Mr Healey is concerned that Assange will go on to reoffend due to his ‘lack of remorse over the past 14 years’.
‘He has a God complex and he thinks that he was right,’ Mr Healey said.
‘He gets a pass because we’re in the day and age of virtue signalling.’
Julian Assange is pictured in the US territory of Saipan where he was sentenced to time served and subsequently released. He arrived as a free man in Australia on Wednesday evening
Assange and his supporters have long argued that he was a journalist when he released what the Pentagon described as ‘the largest leak of classified documents in its history’.
But Mr Healey noted Assange has no media degree, asking: ‘What makes him a journalist? When did he become a journalist? He has no degree. He is a glorified, proud hacker.’
Many politicians and members of the general public agree with Mr Healey. Some have labelled Assange a hero for his work in exposing war crimes committed by the USA.
One such video published in April 2010 revealed an airstrike in Baghdad conducted by a US helicopter killed between 12 and 18 people, including two Reuters news staff. Children were also injured.
Assange has been repeatedly nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize on the back of his work.
But for Mr Healey and other serving members who felt the aftermath of the leaks, they’re not sure justice has been served.
‘One of my roles was to generate local sources… it’s not the information we’re protecting, it’s the source,’ Mr Healey said.
‘What Assange did was put all of those sources in danger.’
Mr Healey said as a result of breaching trust and putting sources’ lives in danger, they stopped being so forthcoming with information.
‘This is why people don’t understand why what Assange did was so dangerous.’
There are mixed feelings about Assange’s release but Anthony Albanese says he has served enough time. ‘Regardless of the views that people have about Mr Assange’s activities, the case has dragged on for too long,’ Mr Albanese said
Assange’s guilty plea
Assange touched down in Canberra about 7.30pm from Saipan, a US territory where he was tried for espionage.
He was joined in Saipan by former Australian prime minister and current Ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, as well as Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK Stephen Smith.
He received a hero’s welcome when he touched down on home soil, waving at the crowd which had gathered outside the RAAF base in Canberra.
As he hurried inside for a long-awaited kiss with his wife, Assange was greeted with cheers of ‘we love you, Julian’ and ‘welcome home’.
Mr Albanese called a press conference back in Parliament House a short time later, where he revealed he had a phone call with Assange the moment his plane arrived in Australia.
‘This is the culmination of careful, patient and determined advocacy work that I am very proud of,’ Mr Albanese said.
‘It is yet another example of why mature, calibrated, and consistent engagement with our partners is the best way to get results in Australia’s national interest.’
He didn’t go so far as to weigh into whether he thinks justice was served, but noted ‘there was no purpose to be served by this ongoing incarceration’.
‘The Australian government stands up for Australian citizens. That’s what we do.’
Assange’s supporters were seen scattered around Canberra on Wednesday night
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange kisses his wife when he arrives in Canberra
Assange’s legal team and wife, Stella, gave a press conference in Canberra after he arrived home, and apologised that he wasn’t up to attend and face the public himself.
Legal counsel Jennifer Robinson noted: ‘There’s no evidence of any actual harm. And that’s exactly what the US government acknowledged in court today,’ citing a ruling made in the court on Wednesday that there were no known victims presented by the US legal team.
Stella said: ‘Julian wanted me to sincerely thank everyone. He wanted to be here but you have to understand what he has been through. He needs time. He needs to recuperate.
‘This is a process… freedom comes slowly, and I want Julian to have that space to rediscover freedom, slowly.
‘I ask you please to give us space, to give us privacy, to find our place, to let our family be a family, before he can speak again at a time of his choosing.’
Stella revealed Assange has plans to one day seek a pardon, and warned ‘freedom of the press is in a very dangerous place’. She said Assange’s conviction has set a precedent which ‘will be used again’.
‘Now you have the press in as vulnerable a position as Julian has been.’
It was confirmed in the press conference that Assange will face no further restrictions as a result of the legal proceedings and can live his life as he sees fit.
Asked whether Assange has any ambitions to continue publishing on Wikileaks, Stella said it was ‘a premature’ question.
‘Look, he just arrived in Australia after being in a high security prsion for five years… It’s premature. Julian has to recover, that’s the priority.
‘The fact is Julian will always defend human rights, will always defend victims, he’s always done that. That’s part of who he is. He is deeply principled, and he remains deeply principled.’
Legal counsel Jennifer Robinson noted: ‘There is no evidence that any harm was done’ as a result of Wikileaks, citing a ruling made in the court on Wednesday that there were no known victims presented by the US legal team
Stella added: ‘Julian wanted me to sincerely thank everyone. He wanted to be here but you have to understand what he has been through. He needs time. He needs to recuperate’
Broader public reaction
Former vice-president Mike Pence lashed the proceedings, describing the plea deal as a ‘miscarriage of justice’.
He said it ‘dishonours the service and sacrifice of the men and women of our armed forces and their families’ and rallied against any form of plea deal ‘for anyone that endangers the security of our military or the national security of the United States. Ever’.
‘Julian Assange endangered the lives of our troops in a time of war and should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,’ Mr Pence said.
James Clapper, director of US national intelligence in 2010 at the height of the scandal, insisted Assange had ‘paid his dues’ over the years.
‘There was a damage assessment done at the time – there was concern but I don’t recall direct proof that assets in Afghanistan and Iraq supporting or helping the US were exposed,’ he said.
Assange’s Wikileaks publicly released a trove of classified military and diplomatic material which exposed information to the US was trying to keep secret, and was accused of thereby endangering military personnel and compromising operations.
He received a hero’s welcome when he touched down on home soil, waving at the crowd which had gathered outside the RAAF base in Canberra
Assange and his supporters insist he was doing nothing different to media organisations who expose confidential government material
Assange and his supporters insist he was doing nothing different to media organisations who expose confidential government material.
Mr Albanese had directly raised the issue with US President Joe Biden and a group of politicians from across Australia’s political spectrum converged on Washington in September to lobby US decision-makers.
‘Regardless of the views that people have about Mr Assange’s activities, the case has dragged on for too long,’ Mr Albanese said.
Assange’s family are relieved at his release, with his father John Shipton praising the Australian government for its efforts to end the ‘persecution’ of his son.
His mother, Christine Assange, said his release showed ‘the importance and power of quiet diplomacy’.
‘Many have used my son’s situation to push their own agendas, so I am grateful to those unseen, hard-working people who put Julian’s welfare first,’ she said.
‘The past 14 years has obviously taken a toll on me as a mother.’
Assange’s wife Stella said while there had been uncertainty about the situation leading up to her husband being released from prison, she was ‘elated’ by the developments.