WikiWars: the Mission of Julian Assange
COOPER: Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks remains free on bail in England as he appeals a ruling allowing his extradition to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual molestation. Now this Sunday, a "CNN Presents" documentary reveals a side of the former hacker turned whistle-blower you haven't seen. In this excerpt, CNN's Kaj Larsen talks with journalists who teamed up with Assange to expose the innermost secrets of the U.S. military.</s>KAJ LARSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So I've come here to London to the headquarters of "The Guardian" newspaper to meet up with some of the journalists who were holed up for weeks in a bunker with Julian Assange as they sifted through the secret cables and documents that were eventually to become known as the Iraq and Afghanistan war box. What were your impressions of Assange the man when you first met him?</s>DAVID LEIGH, JOURNALIST, "THE GUARDIAN": He didn't behave like earthlings, you know. He would stay up all night tapping away at his laptop. And suddenly he would keel over and there's like the jacket buttoned up to the neck and like crash and go to sleep where he lay.</s>LARSEN: The more than 90,000 documents revealed a side of the Afghan war hidden from public view.</s>NICK DAVIES, JOURNALIST, "THE GUARDIAN": We started coming across really interesting information about collusion between the Pakistani intelligence service and the Taliban. So this was rich stuff that was buried in this database.</s>JULIAN ASSANGE, FOUNDER, WIKILEAKS: If you want see it on the map, it's easy --</s>LARSEN: But there was growing tension with Assange.</s>DAVIES: All of us came across material which was clearly likely to lead to the death of innocent civilians if we published it. All of us had the experience of bringing this to his attention and being told by him in effect in an Afghan civilian helps coalition forces, then they deserve to die.</s>LARSEN: Does Assange understand that there are flesh and blood consequences to the actions of say releasing secret documents?</s>LEIGH: He has to have it explained to him. He is not a person who is very high on empathy with other humans.</s>DAVIES: Finally in the last few days before we published, he got it. And he made a rather crude attempt to make the material which he was publishing on the Web site safe by withholding 15,000 documents out of the total of 92,000. But it wasn't enough.</s>ASSANGE: That's a direct quote.</s>LARSEN: On the eve of the launch date, names of Afghan civilians were still in WikiLeaks documents.</s>ASSANGE: We go at 10:00 p.m. tomorrow, London time tomorrow.</s>LARSEN: On July 25th, 2010, WikiLeaks released over 70,000 classified documents on the Afghan war.</s>ASSANGE: The material exposes an extraordinary range of abuses.</s>LARSEN: And all three newspapers published stories about the war box.</s>DAVIES: Within 48 hours, other news organizations were finding material on the WikiLeaks Web site which clearly was dangerous. And that meant that the political damage was done. His moral authority was reduced. He had made a terrible tactical mistake.</s>COOPER: Kaj Larsen reveals a lot more about the private world of Julian Assange, "</s>WIKIWARS: THE MISSION OF JULIAN ASSANGE" airs Sunday at 8:00 p.m. on CNN. Up next, meet this week's CNN hero, she is rescuing kids from lives of picking through garbage dumps and giving them an education.