Who is Sarah Harrison and why is she holed out with Edward Snowden in Moscow?

LONDON -- Holed up with a fugitive computer expert and negotiating a legal minefield to avoid the US authorities -- WikiLeaks staffer Sarah Harrison has been here before.

As one of Julian Assange's closest aides, the blonde, willowy Briton is uniquely qualified to help US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden avoid extradition to the United States for exposing a massive surveillance program.

Snowden and Harrison have been stuck together in the transit zone of a Moscow airport since the weekend, after she accompanied him on a flight from Hong Kong as part of efforts by anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks to help the American.

Harrison has been closely involved in Assange's own battle to avoid extradition to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault, which he fears will lead to transfer to the United States and possible prosecution over his whistleblowing activities.

She virtually lived with the Australian WikiLeaks founder when he was under house arrest in the English countryside, and there have been reports that they were in a relationship.

Harrison now acts as a kind of gatekeeper at the Ecuadorian embassy in London where Assange sought asylum last year -- a move that personally cost her £3,500 ($5,300, 4,100 euros) she had put up for his bail.

Friends said the researcher, believed to be in her late 20s, was an obvious choice to help Snowden.

"She's completely trusted," said Vaughan Smith, a video journalist who owns the house in Norfolk in eastern England where Assange lived under strict bail conditions between December 2010 and June 2012.

Harrison had her own room and was at the house most of the time, but Smith rejected suggestions she was simply Assange's adoring lackey.

"I don't think I ever saw her washing socks," Smith told AFP, referring to one newspaper report from the time.

"She's a key part of the team, she's one of the people who makes everything happen.

"She was very committed to the idea of greater government openness, very hard-working -- and put up with conditions of a very difficult job under great pressure."

Smith refused to comment on rumors that Harrison was Assange's girlfriend.

"I know everything about it, but I'm not prepared to talk about that," he said.

Both are fiercely committed to their cause and Harrison appeared to complement Assange during a recent visit to the embassy by AFP, seeming organized and efficient where he is dreamy and remote, and helping him to find documents he has misplaced.

Harrison has worked for WikiLeaks since late 2010 as a researcher, media organizer and occasional spokeswoman, and is now Snowden's constant companion as he seeks refuge from US law.

A former WikiLeaks intern who asked not to be named described her as "formidable."

"Miss Harrison has courageously assisted Mr. Snowden with his lawful departure from Hong Kong and is accompanying Mr. Snowden in his passage to safety," WikiLeaks said of her role.

Questions have been raised about how a journalist with no formal legal training can help Snowden, but one of Harrison's former employers said she had unique insight into his situation.

"This is all new territory, when you're treated like some kind of enemy of the state," Gavin MacFadyen, director of the Center for Investigative Journalism, told AFP.

"WikiLeaks has been treated like that now for two years, and everybody who's been through it would have much more experience than [someone] who's never been there, hasn't heard the legal arguments, hasn't been subjected to the attacks."

Harrison shares Assange's well-documented concerns that WikiLeaks is under surveillance, making careful arrangements for encrypted communications with journalists about any of the group's projects.

She spent 18 months working for CIJ, located at City University London, sifting through WikiLeaks data and contributing to an as-yet-unpublished report on multinational corporations.

Harrison then worked for a couple of months at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, also based at City, analyzing classified US documents from the war in Iraq published by WikiLeaks.

"She came very highly recommended," recalled Rachel Oldroyd, deputy editor of the bureau. "She was very, very young, in her early 20s. She was a good researcher, very diligent."

Harrison's job is demanding and badly paid, but like everyone else working with WikiLeaks, money was never a factor. "She believes what she is doing is in the public interest," Smith said.

source: interaksyon.com

WikiLeaks begins publishing two million Syria emails

LONDON - WikiLeaks said Thursday it was publishing over two million emails from Syrian political figures dating back to 2006 but also covering the period of the crackdown on dissent by Syria's regime.

"Just now... WikiLeaks began publishing the Syria files, more than two million emails from Syrian political figures, ministries and associated companies dating from August 2006 to March 2012," said Sarah Harrison, spokeswoman for the anti-secrecy website.

The latest disclosures could throw fresh light on the workings of the Syrian regime and its interactions with allies in the run-up to and during the current bloody crackdown.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the 16 months of bloodshed in Syria have claimed more than 16,500 lives.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is currently holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London seeking political asylum, said in a written statement: "The material is embarrassing to Syria, but it is also embarrassing to Syria's external opponents.

"It helps us not merely to criticise one group or another, but to understand their interests, actions and thoughts.

"It is only through understanding this conflict that we can hope to resolve it."

WikiLeaks said the first files, released on Wednesday, reveal that Italian defence giant Finmeccanica has provided communications equipment to the Syrian regime since the unrest began.

The communications system was provided by Finmeccanica's subsidiary SELEX Elsag, in claims by WikiLeaks published by Italian magazine L'Espresso.

WikiLeaks' announcement comes a day after Russia denied having discussed with Washington offering exile to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.

It also comes ahead of a meeting Friday in Paris of the "Friends of Syria" group of countries which support tougher action against Assad's government.

WikiLeaks said the 2,434,899 emails came from Syrian ministries including foreign affairs, finance and presidential affairs. There are around 400,000 emails in Arabic but also 68,000 in Russian.

Harrison said WikiLeaks could not comment on the full contents of the release, which is being organised in collaboration with media partners in countries including the US, Lebanon, Egypt, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

"This is a large data set. It will take time for these stories to come out," she said at a press conference in London announcing the release.

She refused to comment on how WikiLeaks had obtained the emails, telling AFP: "We never comment on our sourcing."

The publication comes amid continued wrangling between world powers about how the bloody conflict in Syria should be tackled.

Russia has indicated it will stay away from the Paris meeting on Friday after accusing the West of seeking to distort a deal struck last weekend for a political transition in the violence-hit nation.

Moscow's move to shun the gathering comes after UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan stressed that a ceasefire was imperative.

Assange, meanwhile, has been inside the Ecuadorian embassy since June 19 in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations that he sexually assaulted two female former WikiLeaks volunteers.

Assange denies the allegations, which he says are politically motivated. The 40-year-old Australian fears he could be extradited from Sweden to the United States, where he claims he could face the death penalty.

WikiLeaks enraged Washington in 2010 by publishing a flood of secret documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as more than 250,000 confidential US diplomatic cables that embarrassed a slew of governments.

The Syria files are WikiLeaks' first major publication since it began disclosing internal emails from the US-based intelligence firm Stratfor in February.

WikiLeaks was forced to suspend many of its publishing operations last October after Visa, MasterCard and PayPal refused to continue processing donations to the whistleblowing website.

source: interaksyon.com