Washington, March 15: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has challenged Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard with ‘treason’ raising doubts that her government was exchanging intelligence on Australian citizens with foreign governments.
Gillard however rejected Assange’s allegations saying: On the exchange of information, I honestly don”t know what he is talking about so I can”t help him with full and frank disclosures about exchanging information about people who work for WikiLeaks because to my knowledge, it hasn”t happened.”
The Prime Minister did however admit that the Australian government did exchange intelligence with foreign governments on criminal matters, but did not allow the extradition of Australian citizens to jurisdictions that allowed the death penalty, The Australian reports.
Gillard had earlier criticised WikiLeaks as “anarchic”.
She said she respected whistleblowers and that Deep Throat, who provided information on the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s, had done the right thing.
Gillard was challenged on the warmth of her speech to the US Congress last week, but she insisted that a “bold” US was in the world”s interests.
“We don”t want a hesitant America,” she said.
Assange is currently out on bail in London, and fighting his extradition to Sweden over sexual assault charges.