Julian Speaks: A timeless analysis from the “Festival of Dangerous Ideas” (2011)
This 2011 speech is focused on issues front & centre in 2025, as the world's gaze is directed to USAID, NED, & other manipulators of truth used to achieve US plans for world domination & subjugation.
Last UPDATED: 10 February 2025
INDEX:
INTRODUCTION
The Festival of Dangerous Ideas
FODI SESSION 1 Oct 2011
Summary (from video header):
TRANSCRIPT
0:00 Fran Kelly - Introduction
2:32 Julian Assange: Prepared Address
26:23 JULIAN ASSANGE: Q & A SESSION
56:16 JULIAN ASSANGE Final Question
♦ INTRODUCTION:
The Festival of Dangerous Ideas
“This home-grown festival launched in 2009 to give Sydney audiences access to high quality thought leaders, culture creators and radical artists from all over the world.
With its unique offering, FODI quickly secured acclaim, becoming a globally respected cultural asset that has helped define Sydney as the ‘smart capital’ of Australia. …”
Festival of Dangerous Ideas is a curated festival.
Read more about the FODI curators and advisors and the curatorial framework.”
The 2011 event was held in Sydney’s Opera House.
Julian Assange spoke (by telelink) at the 1-2 Oct 2011 FODI event
At the time, Assange and WikiLeaks had already been “in business” for four years, and they were well into publishing the Bradley/Chelsea Manning leaked documents, having already published:
- Collateral Murder,
- The Afghan War Diary (2004-2010),
- The Iraq War Logs,
- and having released many of the 250,000 US State Dept files of Cablegate.
Assange had also already been arrested pursuant to an Interpol warrant from Sweden, on what purported to be a separate (and unrelated) matter, related to Assange’s sexual activities while in that jurisdiction.
Hearings aimed at his extradition to Sweden “for questioning” (he had not been - and never was - “charged” in relation to the purported offences) were underway, and his bail conditions mean he was resident (with ankle bracelet) at Vaughn Smith’s Ellingham Hall.
After losing his final appeal re that first extradition request, Assange entered Ecuador’s London Embassy on 19 June 2012 seeking asylum, which was eventually granted 16 Aug 2012.
Included in this file is an ANNOTATED TRANSCRIPT of Assange’s prepared statement at the 2011 FODI event.
♦ FODI SESSION 1 Oct 2011
Summary (from video header):
[YouTube]
In 2010 when WikiLeaks publicly released tens of thousands of military communiques, its founder Julian Assange found himself thrust into the global spotlight with the US Government treating him as public enemy number one.Currently imprisoned and facing extradition charges over a decade later, we revisit Assange’s FODI talk from 2011 to reflect on the stakes involved when it comes to knowledge, truth, power and freedom.
Chaired by journalist and political correspondent Fran Kelly.
This discussion was recorded live by The Sydney Opera House as part of The Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2011. Presented by the Sydney Opera House and The Ethics Centre.
Julian Assange is an Australian editor, publisher and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to wide international attention in 2010 when WikiLeaks published a series of leaks from US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning: footage of a US airstrike in Baghdad, US military logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and US diplomatic cables. Assange has won multiple awards for publishing and journalism.
Fran Kelly is one of Australia’s leading political interviewers and commentators. She has earned a reputation as an intelligent, informed and balanced journalist who has been a key contributor to the nation’s political and social debates for the past 25 years. In that time she’s been the ABC’s Europe Correspondent based in London, the political editor for The 7.30 Report and the political correspondent for the prestigious AM program. Fran is the Presenter of ABC RN Breakfast,and is currently hosting the political panel programme, Insiders.
NOTE: This UNOFFICIAL transcription has been created from a publicly available video file so as to enhance accessibility to the subject matter for the purpose of commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching &/or scholarship. The transcription may not be completely accurate - those wishing to quote from this interview should refer to the original VIDEO SOURCE.
Any LINKS provided within the transcript itself are solely to assist the reader, and were NOT provided by the speaker, and so should not be construed as any kind of representation by them.
♦ TRANSCRIPT
NOTE: Time stamps are for the YouTube video linked above. Any other versions may differ slightly.
0:00 Fran Kelly - Introduction
Fran Kelly:
Hello everybody. Julian Assange. WikiLeaks,
For some, just those few words epitomise danger. Still, here we are tonight, talking about WikiLeaks, and talking to Julian Assange.
We're talking about WikiLeaks not just to dwell on what it's achieved so far - and that is significant: a rewriting of the rules of Official Secrets, of journalism, of the citizen’s right to know, and we're not just talking about what WikiLeaks has been doing in the last few weeks - because that's incredible too: the public release of 250,000 Diplomatic Cables, every single one of them with “Secret” stamped all over them.
So we are talking here tonight about the future of the WikiLeaks project, and the suggestion - as Simon said - that WikiLeaks has not gone far enough.
There is more to do.
Only 5 years ago - and I know some of you know this story - that Julian Assange, legend has it, wrote the word WikiLeaks on a whiteboard in his Melbourne terrace home, giving name to a concept that would really shake the world, embarrass governments, embarrass big business, shame those in power into back downs, into coverups, into apologies, into excuses, and ultimately into threats.
Julian Assange is called variously: brave, brilliant, a crusading revolutionary, and secretive, paranoid, and yes, even dangerous. And for a man who spends a lot of his life in the shadows, really, in the back rooms devising computer models, secret passwords encrypting information so others can drop in there their leaked documents and their secrets.
We know an awful lot about him - his life is now extremely public. We know about his childhood - or some of it. We know he was a teenage hacker.
We know a little bit about his loves, even.
We know about his enemies. We even know it all started with that Commodore 64, and aren't we thankful for that.
For many he is a hero, he is the deserving recipient, for instance, of accolades like the Sydney Peace Prize.
For others, well they see him as a terrorist.
Some have even said out loud they wish that a drone could move in and take him out.
Dangerous indeed.
Could you please welcome now, live by satellite from Ellingham Hall in Norfolk in the UK, a very long way away: Julian Assange.
(Very loud applause]
As you can hear, not just an appreciative crowd - and you haven't even started yet - but pretty close to a sellout crowd too. A very big crowd here tonight. So over to you.
2:57 Julian Assange: Prepared Address
Julian Assange:
Thanks. It is heartening to me to hear that kind of response in Australia. The Australian public, and its support of our work, is really something that keeps us going.
The reaction from Washington and London is really very different, and that's something I'd like to explore a little bit - about how different nationalities and different states perceive our work and react to it.
[3:32]
310 days ago I was in Wandsworth prison, in winter, in London. I was placed into the basement, into the CSU - the Separation Unit - kept away from all other prisoners, confined to my cell for 24 hours a day. And during that time I had a moment to reflect upon what had been going on.
[4:04]
On the outside world at that time we had a “whole-of-government task force”1 in Australia set up against us - publicly declared - involving the AFP, ASIS ASIO, the Department of Defense and the Attorney General, looking into whether there was any way to stop what we were doing, whether we had committed criminal offenses in Australia.
[4:35]
And that swift reaction by the Australian government was only stopped by the Australian population, and by our friends in the Australian media. It was an expression of democratic discipline. Left to its own device, the Australian government - the Australian Labour cabinet - would have done everything in their power to see me and other people working for WikiLeaks shipped off to the United States.
[5:09]
In fact, we received back, recently, a Freedom of Information [FOI] request from the Australian government and some 270 pages produced about us, here. The first entry for this particular request is 4 days before the public release of Cablegate on November 29 2010. So already, before publication, the Australian government was working hand in glove with the United States to try and spin, and manipulate, and stop our work.
[5:59]
You'll notice in this FOI something that is really the cause for WikiLeaks entire existence.
Notice all the black. Notice at the top of these documents: it does not say “classified”. It says “unclassified”. Unclassified documents redacted, whole-of-government talking points back from December the 3rd. Now, you would think, completely irrelevant to any security situation, yet completely redacted.
And it is that failure of governments to hold themselves to account, to hold dear to their own mechanisms that they say that they believe in, that means there has to be, there must be, external accountability for the actions of the large and the powerful, and governments are some of the largest and the most powerful in the world.
[6:57]
So when I was considering this internal state, the Australian task force against us, an equivalent in the United States - a publicly declared CIA task force2, a publicly declared 120 man task force3 being run by the Pentagon, demands and threats by the Pentagon that we cease publishing or else we would be compelled to do so and the mechanism by which we would be compelled they would not disclose.
I asked myself: had I done the right thing? Had, in fact, I bitten off more than I could chew? I have a strong belief in what we are doing. I have a strong belief in the principles by which we stand for, but had I misplayed the game? Had I made a strategic or tactical error that was so significant that it would mean that we would not be able to pursue our beliefs and objectives anymore, but rather that everything had come to an end?
[8:03]
And eventually, when I managed to suss out the bureaucratic system within the Wandsworth prison basement, I got hold of a single book that I wanted to read. Everything else, rather unsurprisingly, is the Express newspaper, or the worst kind of male [Daily Mail?] Mills and Boon trash. But there - alone on a shelf that I passed when taken to the showers each day - was Cancer Ward by [Aleksandr] Solzhenitsyn.
And when I returned to my cell I read that book by the great Soviet dissident and novelist. And reading through it I came to a scene where Oleg, the principal character, based after Solzhenitsyn himself, is sitting in a cancer ward in Siberia - something that happened to him post-exile - and he was speaking to a nurse and the nurse was asking him for advice.
[9:14]
And she speaks the following quote: “The trouble is my boy is growing up. He asks about everything. How should I bring him up …
[Assange repeats]
The trouble is my boy is growing up. He asks about everything.
How should I bring him up? Should I burden him with the truth? The truth's enough to sink a grown man, isn't it? it's enough to break your ribs.”
In response Oleg says confidently: “Burden him with the truth.”
And that's the situation that I was in, and the situation that I believe everyone should be in. We should all be burdened with the truth, because to not be burdened with the truth is to live a lie. It is to not understand the world around us. It is to be drugged by ignorance, or by falsehoods.
[10:23]
And as a civilisation - not merely as a country, not merely as a group, not merely as an individual, but as a civilisation - we cannot live with illusion. If we live with illusion our entire civilisation will end up driving off slowly (or quickly) some cliff - some uncertain destiny that we cannot see.
Some people say, perhaps, that uncertain destiny is global warming. Other people say, perhaps, that destiny is being ruled in a duplicitous way by transnational elites. Other people say it is the market and global capitalism run amuck. Others say that it is the rise of Islam. Well which is it? Which one of these things should we be concerned for as a civilisation? Which should we be concerned for as individuals?
[11:28]
The only way that we can know is to know what the truth of the matter is. But people don't want to tell us the truth of the matter. People want to conceal the truth of the matter. Is that [displays redacted FOIA reply] a representation of the Australian elite - those people intimately involved in power in the Australian Labour Party operating together as part of a transnational elite, with the United States?
Is it an example of a security complex, transnational and run amuck? Something that is producing papers like this? That is producing actions against us that all of you are familiar with as a result of press reportage .
[12:20]
The only way that we can know is by seeing the truth. Now the question about what is the truth, and who has the truth, and how can you determine what is true, and what is not, is something that we looked at 5 years ago, and my view - from studying physics - was that it is not possible to determine what is true, but it is possible to determine what is false - with enough information.
And the best way to determine what is false is to have information that is straight from reality; that is straight from the horse's mouth. And in the case of titanic institutions that have made up our civilisation over the last 100 years - for us to understand them properly we cannot look merely at their public pronouncements. We cannot look at what their leaders say. We cannot look at the information that they pass out under the surface to the Fourth Estate - to journalists, one way or another, to buy favorable press coverage and spin.
[13:40]
The proper way to understand them is the same way that physicists understand reality, and that is by seizing on raw experimental data.
It is the same way that anatomists understand the human body - it is by cutting it open and looking at what is inside.
That is how we have to understand the organisations which comprise our civilisation - what their agendas are, how they work, how they interact with each other, and how they all strive in this worldwide environment for power and for domination (and in some cases for cooperation).
[14:21]
And, while that's a nice theory, is it borne out by the work that we have done in practice? So that's an interesting question. You will see, in response to our labours, and no doubt tonight there will be questions which are speculative in nature that look forward and say: What if …? Can you guarantee? Could this happen? Are you sure this will work?
[14:50]
But we don't need to speculate. We can look back upon our four and a half years of labour, of what we have done over 120 countries, of millions of pages of material released - not just to the public, not just to journalists, but into our shared historical record, into that sacrosanct intellectual book which we all feed from, which influences all of us as we go forward - every decision that we make, every academic decision, every personal decision, every institutional decision.
That is our common heritage as human beings.
And as information is available from every corner of the earth to every other corner of the earth, it is no longer just an instrument that belongs to one language or to one nation rather it is our shared, global intellectual record.
[15:59]
By obtaining the information that we have, by helping those who want to speak to the public and speak to that record, we have fleshed out a hidden part of civilisation, we have fleshed out that record of how human institutions actually behave, that we have been missing for so many years.
More clips will follow
Check back later
[16:25]
Now, that's an enviable achievement. And the practical consequences of that are also something that we are proud of, but it is not nearly enough. We have only just begun.
We have put into that historical record really less than 1,000th of the serious information that is concealed but needs to be there. The amount of material WikiLeaks has released - what is that a function of? Is it a function merely of our strong belief and our work?
No. It is not merely a function of these things. It is a function of the vast number of secrets that have been accumulated. Every day, more and more information is kept concealed because it is so easy to create information, and it is so easy to transport information around.
[17:27]
The new transnational security elite is forming what academics call a “shadow state”, ie a state that administers who has what in terms of wealth and power, and who knows what. That is sometimes obvious in countries like Bulgaria, where the shadow state - comprising intelligence agencies and oil interests, and some parts of big business - is often revealed as a result of the work of some other Western countries looking at it.
[18:10]
But the shadow state that exists in the United States is a new development. We are not talking about simple patronage networks that have always existed - way back to Rome. We are talking about an organised system - not organised in the sense of a classical conspiracy, but logistically organised as a result of top secret, secret, classified, confidential, compartmentalised information networks and agreements between military contractors, which now number in their tens of thousands, and secretive government intelligence agencies operating in the United States military, State Department, even USAID.
It is not the case that that is simply a Cold War relic that has drifted on. Rather, that is a state, a shadow state, that is expanding dramatically.
[19:27]
And it's not just me who is saying this. Dana Priest4 , a fine reporter at the Washington Post, over a 2-year period looked at a part of the United States national security shadow state, and she found that there's over 900,000 current “top secret” US security clearances. That's 1 in 300 people (including children) in the United States have a top secret security clearance.
They are part of a small civilisation that exists within the United States that has its own rules, its own words, its own language, its own methodology, that is separate to the rest of the United States. If you include the other security clearances, that's 3.5 million people in the United States who are compelled by law and by self-interest to not talk about what they are doing.
[20:30]
It is the case now that there is no single individual that is aware of [all] the parts of this National Security shadow state. It is properly without oversight because its very mechanism is secrecy. Even the government committees that are set up in the United States to oversee the US Intelligence industry are not aware of many of the pieces involved. And that is because of the way classification systems work, and the vast amount of information that flows around.
[21:09]
Now, if we ask ourselves: how can we tell whether this National Security shadow state is gaining power [or] losing power? Perhaps we're just detecting it now? Perhaps it wasn't something that was easy to see before and so we think it is a new phenomena but really it's an old phenomena that we've suddenly discovered?
Well we can look at the United States budget - how much of the budget is going towards this shadow state? Is it increasing over time, or is it decreasing over time?
Well, despite US tax revenue falling nearly 20% since before the US financial crisis, we see that in fact that sector, the US national security shadow state, is increasing its take in real terms - in the first year of Obama by 6%. In fact, to get elected Obama had to promise that he would increase military spending by 5% in real terms, while all the rest of the pie is decreasing.
[22:20]
And what do we call it when a single organ in a body increases and increases and increases in size, while the rest of the body is becoming more frail and becoming weaker? We call that cancer.
More and more elements of Western governments - it is not just the United States, because this is a transnational enterprise, but particularly the United States - more and more elements of the United States are being sucked up and enmeshed into this system.
That is a type of governmental cancer. It's a type of system whereby more and more pieces are being sucked into it and in order to do something significant in the United States, or significant in other parts of the world, one has to get a sponsor within that system.
[23:13]
In Russia in the 1990s, Putin came in and he “tamed the oligarchs”. What does that
mean? There are approximately ten points of power in Russia. I lived in Russia for part of the 1990s, and the media in Russia at that time was the freest in the world, because each oligarch was an independent pole of power. The KGB was an independent pole of power. All these independent poles of power could put out information - out against their enemies and their opponents.
But when Putin came in he drew all the oligarchs under his central pyramid of power, and those that would not conform were evicted from Russia, or placed into prison - like Khodorkovsky.
[24:06]
A similar thing is happening now in the United States, where in order to do anything meaningful at a high level one has to have sponsorship from this system.
And just 3 weeks ago the State Department - the entire budget of the State Department and USAID, which is meant to be an independent national aid body by the United States, which gives foreign aid, were all moved under the National Security Budget.
The pretense about USAID being an independent organisation is completely gone.5
And the justification for moving USAID and the entire State Department budget into the military budget was that they work hand-in-hand with military operations around the world.
So WikiLeaks has not gone nearly far enough - just for that one system.
[25:11]
But it's not only this system. There's systems everywhere, in every government, that are like this - that are forming contacts with each other; that are forming part of a new transnational security elite.
And until we come to a position whereby every individual can feel safe, completely safe, about communicating directly to the public, every individual can feel completely safe that their private communications with each other cannot be surveilled, then we are not in a position where we have either a society that is free to communicate, or that knows itself.
And until we know ourselves, until we know the civilisation that we're working in, we cannot possibly address the problems of our civilisation.
Thanks
26:23 JULIAN ASSANGE: Q & A SESSION
More of this transcript may follow if time permits.
Check back later.
56:16 JULIAN ASSANGE Final Question
56:16
Fran Kelly
If you are extradited I think, you know, it's the fear, and it's the - what you stated in your defense - that, you know, you fear being then sent, extradited, to the United States. What do you say to the idea that I understand some are espousing, that you should do it - you should go to America and you should stare down your accusers. Is there any value in that?
56:46
Julian Assange
Well, you know, I have thought about doing this. It's not as if we haven't played this scenario through. It would be a tremendous platform to speak about all these issues that we hold so dear.
But let's look at the reality. The grand jury which is sitting now, and has been sitting since last year, trying to indict me (and others) for “Conspiracy to commit espionage” was chosen to be in Alexandria, Virginia - that is 6 kilometers from the center of Washington DC. It has the highest density of US government employees and military contractors in all of the United States. The jury is drawn from that area. It also has jury selection rules that are advantageous to prosecutors. That is why all national security cases are held in Alexandria, Virginia
So the reality is that if I entered into this environment -bar a miracle, I would end up spending life in a supermax [prison].
57:57
Fran Kelly
Well Julian, I don't think there's anyone in this room who hopes that is your fate.
Good luck with that. Thank you very much for giving us your time tonight.
I'm sorry I didn't get to ask the question from Nick which was - out of all those cables, have we found anything fun: eg UFOs, Loch Ness, etc, but perhaps another day.
Thank you very much Julian Assange.
58:19
Julian Assange
There is one on UFOs. (smiles).
[Applause]
58:42 ENDS
NOTE: A PDF is provided for those who would like to save this for offline viewing.
If more is later added to the transcript, a new PDF will be provided.
See also commentary on this event, from someone who was at the Sydney Opera House, in person, to observe the event. Cathy Vogan: “The Time Julian Assange Packed the Sydney Opera House and Conquered a 7-Second Delay” [Consortium News]
Her article was first published 1 October 2011 in [Thing2Thing]
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♦ The author
The author of this article lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
As a long time supporter of Julian Assange, I had become aware that many of those new to the story of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange found it hard to get a picture of the enormity and multidimensionality of the abuse that has gone on here, and what that says about the current state of the world we live in.
You can find me on Twitter at La Fleur Productions.
The Julian Assange Archives series:
This is the twelfth in a series of lengthy pieces that explore the history of Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks community via different themes:
The first was an essay “Julian Speaks: Two Voices from behind The Wall” looking at Julian Assange’s life inside the embassy, putting it in a particular historic context. Read it here.
The second was a chronological record of the (ongoing) attempts of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, to educate states and the wider world about the ongoing abuse of Julian Assange, and the wider significance of that abuse: “Nils Melzer on the torture of Julian Assange: A compendium”. Read it here.
The third was another compendium “The Persecution of WikiLeaks: Counting the Cost” covering a wide range of costs incurred by those associated, in almost any way, with WikiLeaks. In particular, it looks at the rollcall of the dead, and lists some of the many whistleblowers and truthtellers who have suffered under this regime of persecution. Read it here.
The fourth was also a compendium “Craig Murray on the Julian Assange Show Trial - Our Man in the Public Gallery”. Within it, readers can choose to go direct to the Craig Murray blog entry of interest via the index link, or to meander through the previews (and further links) which then follow. Read it here.
The fifth documents what was mostly a happy hiatus in this litany of abuse: “The Assange Wedding”. But even on that special day, the apparatus of the state managed to intrude with its petty (and not so petty) cruelties. Read it here.
The sixth compendium “A Chorus of Courage: Speaking Up for Assange”, provides a roll call of many of those who have spoken up for Julian Assange - using their professional &/or personal voices - and provides a little information about their role, together with links to some key statements. This list represents only the tip of the enormous mass of support for Julian that exists - especially at the grass roots level. Read it here.
The seventh compendium “Prizes for Assange: Praise where Praise is Due” celebrates many of the prizes and other awards showered on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks over nearly fifteen years. These give the lie to the vile smears by politicians and stenographers to power in the legacy press - that he "is not a journalist".
Read it here.The eighth compendium “Torrent of Truth: A Timeline of Assange Speech” provides a timeline of many articles and videos that record the direct speech of Julian Assange. While not exhaustive, it provides a fairly comprehensive and accessible overview of his online public life. Read it here.
The ninth part “View from the Other Side: Proponents of Prosecution” is a review of a one hour long podcast from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Australia’s flagship, state funded broadcaster broadcast June 2022. Much of that podcast is preserved and analysed as an exemplar of the kind of misinformation which is spread at the “intellectual” and academic end of the legacy press spectrum. Read it here.
The tenth part was an essay “All Roads Converge … on Julian Assange”. It looks at the place of Julian Assange - as a man, a representative of free speech and a free press, and as a symbol of the values of the Enlightenment - asking why it matters what happens to him. Why is his fate centrally related to the crises - coronavirus, Ukraine, climate - currently swirling around us? Read it here.
This very long essay is also available as an annotated reading, spread over an eight part video series. See more here.The eleventh contains an annotated TRANSCRIPT of Julian’s first public speech (1 Oct 2024) after regaining his freedom (26 June 2024), plus other details of the PACE context of that speech: “Julian Speaks: a free man among friends, at last”.
Read it here.The twelfth (this entry - numbered PART 8.1) contains an annotated TRANSCRIPT of an October 2011 speech made, via satellite, to a full house in Sydney’s Opera House, already included in PART 8 “Torrent of Truth: A Timeline of Assange Speech”, but made extremely topical in February 2025, when President Trump’s DOGE tore USAID apart and displayed its corruption for all to see.
The SERIES INDEX. This is a one-stop-shop window on the series - listing and linking to all the topics and resources provided within all parts of the archive.
See it here.
For those only now thinking about joining the chorus of courage supporting Julian - please speak up. Your efforts will be appreciated, and you will find yourself on the right side of history. The fight has not ended yet, as although Julian is now free, he still needs a pardon, and safe legal conditions in which to continue his work - when he is well enough to do so.
Many of the reports in this series, while interesting to read for those new to this topic, are mainly intended as ongoing resources: documents to bookmark, dip into, refer back to, and share with those needing sources and perspective, rather than pieces to read at one sitting. The compendia are updated regularly as new events arise, so you might want to check back from time to time.
Related readings - further recommendations
I also recommend Gary Lord’s FREE online book: "A True History of WikiLeaks".
And of course you must order a copy of Nils Melzer’s “The Trial of Julian Assange”.
Also a compilation by Karen Sharpe “Julian Assange in his own words”. [Book review]
The recent book by Kevin Gosztola is a must: “Guilty of Journalism”
As is Stefania Maurizi’s “Secret Power: WikiLeaks and its enemies”
An interesting wiki for more information is “Challenge Power”.
See also Paula Iasella’s FREE “The Evidence Files” in flip book as well as PDF files.
This “whole-of-government task force” commenced 20 Nov 2010, initiated by the Prime Minister (then Julia Gillard) and her cabinet. See the Parliamentary Record.of the proceedings of the Senate LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS LEGISLATION COMMITTEE for 22 Feb 2011, after 10:05pm (final section).
The name of this CIA Task Force was given as ”WTF” - an acronym more commonly use to stand for “What The Fuck?”. Assange spoke somewhat angrily about the way many journalists joked about this (rather than coming to his defence) in his speech accepting the Sydney Peace Foundation Gold Medal at the Frontline Club in London on 10 May 2011. See Green-Left “Assange: 'WikiLeaks is an intelligence agency of the people'” (19 May 2011)
A partly redacted copy of the report from that Task Force: “Defense Intelligence Agency, Final Report of the Deparment of Defense Information Review Task Force on Wikileaks, Jun 15 2011” is held in the National Security Archive. The report was referenced during the 2013 court martial of Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning.
See “Starr Forum: Top Secret America: The Rise of the American Security State” (9 Sept 2011) [YouTube] Book Talk with Dana Priest, Washington Post
It had been gone for a long time, as emails in the Hillary Clinton collection showed, when WikiLeaks eventually obtained access to them. See this 2010 email: [WikiLeaks archive] [WikiLeaks Tweet].
Goodness, this feels like it was 100 years ago.