WikiLeaks: The Hacker Who Exposed America's Darkest Secrets
REDACTED: Declassified Mysteries with Luke Lamana
Wondery | Ballen Studios
4.3 • 668 Ratings
🗓️ 19 August 2025
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Julian Assange released classified footage of a U.S. helicopter strike that killed two journalists and several civilians in 2010, it catapulted WikiLeaks into global headlines. As Assange unleashed a flood of classified documents, he sparked protests, fractured alliances, and ignited a global war over secrecy and truth. But the deeper he dug into the hidden machinery of power, the more isolated—and dangerous—his mission became.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Love unsettling stories. |
| 0:02.4 | Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to redacted, declassified mysteries, early and ad-free, |
| 0:07.8 | as well as another twisted tale from Bollin Studios and Wondery called Wartime Stories, |
| 0:12.8 | also hosted by me, Early and Ad-Free on Wondry Plus. |
| 0:16.7 | Start your free trial today. On April 5, 2010, a slim man with striking white hair stepped up to the podium at the U.S. National Press Club in Washington, D.C. |
| 0:35.6 | He looked over the faces in the crowd, watching him with mild |
| 0:39.3 | skepticism. In an Australian accent, he thanked the journalists for coming to such a momentous |
| 0:44.9 | event. He was about to reveal a video that would change the world. Most of the reporters in the |
| 0:51.3 | room had no idea who this man was. They didn't even really know why he |
| 0:55.0 | had brought them here. But by the end of the day, newspapers all over the world would be printing |
| 1:00.2 | his name, Julian Assange. Julian's pulse quickened as he queued up the video. He warned the crowd |
| 1:07.9 | that it was disturbing. It had been for him, at least at first, but now |
| 1:12.6 | he didn't feel anything but excitement for the attention it would bring. The lights in the room dimmed, |
| 1:18.7 | and a grainy black and white video appeared on the screen. It showed a handful of men standing |
| 1:23.5 | on a Middle Eastern street, viewed from a camera mounted on a military helicopter, |
| 1:28.1 | circling above them. Julian watched as the reporters in the room leaned in. The men in the video |
| 1:34.3 | continued about their business, completely unaware of the danger looming overhead. The helicopter was |
| 1:39.9 | thousands of feet in the air. A voice on the radio cut through the sound of the rotors. |
| 1:46.6 | The pilot asked for permission to open fire. |
| 1:51.6 | Another pilot shouted that one of the men below had an RPG, a rocket-propelled grenade. |
| 1:56.3 | They received confirmation to shoot, and bullets began raining down on the street below. |
| 1:59.8 | Dust scattered into the air, as the men ducked for cover. |
... |
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