Secret Power: Wikileaks and it's Enemies

Secret Power
WikiLeaks and Its Enemies
by Stefania Maurizi
Foreword by Ken Loach

'The vindictive hounding of Julian Assange by the US government deserves as wide an audience as possible. There is no journalist better placed to tell the story than Stefania Maurizi. This Italian journalist has been following the story of Assange and WikiLeaks closely for more than a decade and personally knows most of those involved. But what stands out is her sheer perseverance.  Many journalists would have given up after her multiple requests under the Freedom of Information Act were largely rebuffed by governments in the UK, US, Sweden and Australia. But she proved dogged, engaging in what she describes as ‘trench warfare', taking them to court, the legal costs often paid for by her personally. Through this persistence, she uncovered lots of new information.

As well as being the most detailed account of the persecution of Julian Assange, Maurizi weaves in the stories of whistle-blowers such as Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, making it one of the most comprehensive accounts yet of the battle between the national security apparatus and advocates of privacy and press freedom. It should be a must-read for all journalists. If Assange can be persecuted on the flimsy grounds exposed by Maurizi, then all journalists anywhere in the world who challenge the US are at risk.'

- Ewen MacAskill, Pulitzer Prize winner

It is 2008, and Stefania Maurizi, an investigative journalist with a growing interest in cryptography, starts looking into the little-known organisation WikiLeaks. Through hushed meetings, encrypted files and explosive documents, what she discovers sets her on a life-long journey that takes her deep into the realm of secret power.

Working closely with WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange and his organisation for her newspaper, Maurizi has spent over a decade investigating state criminality protected by thick layers of secrecy, while also embarking on a solitary trench warfare to unearth the facts underpinning the cruel persecution of Assange and WikiLeaks.

With complex and disturbing insights, Maurizi's tireless journalism exposes atrocities, the shameful treatment of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, on up to the present persecution of WikiLeaks: a terrifying web of impunity and cover-ups.

At the heart of the book is the brutality of secret power and the unbearable price paid by Julian Assange, WikiLeaks and truthtellers.