Julian was “the most surveyed person on the planet,” - John Shipton, Assange’s father EXCLUSIVE interview

Julian and his mother 

John Shipton: I met Christine Assange, Julian’s mum, at an anti-war rally. Christine is a marvelous woman and a terrific mother. When we became close, Julian was born in Townsville. Christine brought Julian down to see me in Sidney after he was born. And then shortly thereafter married Brett Assange. And Julian took Brett Assange’s name as did Christine.

Christine kept in contact with me over the years and organized a reunion between Julian and I. It was a pleasure to meet Julian. Strangely his interesting way of thinking about things I found very close to mine, the way I am thinking. And his appearance and voice is very similar to mine.

Konstantin Rozhkov: When did Julian actually got gray hair?

JS: Quite young, at 20. Yeah. He married young, he had his first child at 18. I don't know why he went gray so quickly, but he did. Yeah. Silver. 

About Julian’s formative years

JS: As a young man Julian was a delight actually. His nickname was “wizard’ because he would always been able to come up with a new approach to things and a new way of looking at things. And his curiosity was very deep. And his capacity to remember material that he read was phenomenal. 

From a very young age he was a part of the earliest cohort of young men and women who moved into understanding computers and of course it suited his organizational capacity and his patience, his curiosity and his depth of memory, and understanding of the topology of computing. 

I expected that he would do remarkably well. But I didn’t at all anticipate that he would be for a short while world famous and run one of the world’s most powerful news organizations

About starting WikiLeaks

JS: Julian was at my place and we were having a cup of tea. And Julian said I'd like to start a Wiki.

And this wiki would concern itself with leaks. And we would use the Tor which was developed by the American Navy as an anonymizer for people who wanted to leak information and had that information published.

KR: And you weren’t caught by surprise when he told you this?

JS: No, I thought that was a good idea.

KR: Did you try to warn him about anything back at that time?

JS: No, why would you? No. Warnings were unnecessary. This is a young man on the cusp of life, you don't give warnings, you say: Well, how can I help?

I don't know I've always taken Nietzsche’s aphorism to heart: 'Live dangerously'. Don't creep around the place being frightened of shadows. Do what you have to do, and face the consequences as the best you can. That has been my guide all my life. I expect all young people are similar.

Julian magically brought together computers, digitalization, and information, and put those before the public in a form whereby you could check that information. And if you wished, you could get the original documents yourself from WikiLeaks, and analyzed them yourself, if you had those sort of skills. This was very new. It was only available to people in… I guess secretive organizations, intelligence services, and so on. All of a sudden I could go to WikiLeaks and analyze a cable that had to do with the Ambassador of Australia seeing one or other politician. This was phenomenal.

About anti-americanism

JS: He never was anti-American. In fact the cyberpunks with whom he corresponded over the Internet are mostly Americans and today the number of cyberpunks are billionaires, you know, and Silicon Valley titans.

So he never had any anti-this, he was pro-justice, or pro-fairness, or pro-truth. 

About WikiLeaks revelations

JS: Thinking about that, what are the most important revelations of WikiLeaks, if I was the nephew of the Reuters cameraman who was slaughtered, that we were speaking of a second ago, I would think that the collateral murder was the most important revelation. That is, if I was an individual involved, I would think it's vital. But for the general population the most important I imagine… 

If you're not personally involved, but politically involved, and socially involved, the most important would be the cables. Because the cables show how the world is composed, how the geopolitical world will last since the war has been composed. And how nations are disposed of, if they're no longer useful.

About Rape allegations

JS: By the time when Swedish sex allegations came about, Julian was a famous person. And had considerable attention wherever he went.

I understand that… he went out with two girls, and they went to the police and asked that Julian be forced to have… some sort of test.

* Women wanted Julian tested for HIV as they had unprotected sex

The entirety of the relationships between the two women were consensual. Entirety of the relationships. And those relationships continued for a number of days. And continued off into crayfish parties and political meetings and so on

So in nine years, there were no charges made. There were four prosecutors. And still, there are no charges made. All of the allegations have expired, in time. It's just a scandal, you know. It just shows that the Swedish Prosecuting Authority is an instrument of MI6 and the Commonwealth, and foreign office. In constant persecution of Julian. They are not independent, and they're not… and they're not avenues of justice in any way. They're scandalous.

About Julian’s life in the Embassy

JS: The Embassy of Ecuador… And Julian, when he first went there, was contained to one room, so he had a half of the room to sleep in and half of the room to run wikileaks from. The room was about this size here. This room is about 3.5 meters by 3 meters. So then he slept in one part and Wikileaks ran their businesses and their conversations in the other half.

Julian's food was brought in by Julian's friends or myself, or Ecuadorian staff. Usually prepared each day for him, or by him, and by one of the staff. That was the situation. I remember the Argentinean ambassador brought a meal for Julian when Christmas… a lovely woman by the way. Intellectual and vigorous. Handsome.

Julian's cat… It was a gift and I thought it was a good idea at the time to have a cat. And I thought it was wonderful companion. I met the cat a couple of times and even had a Twitter account as I remember.

Julian was in the embassy I think for almost nine years. At the first part, when he was there, the embassy was a cultural center, and had visitors from all over the world. Russians even. It was a cultural center… brilliant people and filmmakers and Lady Gaga… politicians… The hundreds of visitors, constant stream of people.

That changed when Lenin Moreno's government took power in Ecuador, and it became exactly like a prison.

Turning away lawyers… searching visitors…installing cameras in every room, installing voice devices in every room. Private meetings had to be held in the toilet. Not supplying toilet paper. Every cruel…

KR: Not supplying toilet paper?

JS: No just… forgetting so to speak you know… forgetting to bring food, forgetting to bring milk.

KR: If they forgot to bring food for Julian, then it means what?

JS: That he doesn't eat.

About Expulsion from the Embassy

JS: I felt that Julian’s stay in the embassy would end in the worst possible way. Either Julian would be taken out on a litter to hospital or the United Kingdom police force would go in and drag him out if they did, yeah.

And to see him, you know, after 18 months of torture and seven years of being locked up and dragged out by those seven policemen. Not the best thing to see.

He looked very old yeah… not at all youthful anymore.

About the allegations that Julian is “a Russian tool” 

JS: The proposition is absurd. Julian is the most surveyed person on the planet rather than prime ministers and presidents. Every person who comes and goes into the Embassy is recorded and photographed by the English, by the United Kingdom rather, by the Ecuadorian secret services and by the Ecuadorians themselves on the front desk. It’s just impossible to imagine that Julian has contact with the Russian Federation or any of its secret services.

Nothing to do with Russia, nothing to do with WikiLeaks. It’s just an entirely political ploy – place the burden of Hillary Clinton’s failure on the Russian Federation and WikiLeaks.

It’s the same as the Skripal poisoning. Another ridiculous MI6 scandal. 

About the HP Belmarsh prison

JS: The Belmarsh prison my Julian currently held is a high security, maximum security prison. It’s where you keep murderers, and terrorists, and bombers, and brutal people. I don’t know why they put Julian there.

Julian came down. He’s emaciated, he’s thin. Although he is very careful and as you may guess Julian has got very strong mind. So he is very careful not to show distress in front of me. No, he doesn’t want to upset his father. But I can see that his anxiety his high.

No, I’m alright. As you can see I am alright. The only problem is that I am getting old and it’s a privilege not afforded to everybody. But Julian is not alright, so that’s a bit of a job to do. And with RT’s help and other genuine news outlets in the world we should be able to succeed.