PM has betrayed me: Assange

Return to Australia impossible: Assange

Julian Assange still calls Australia home, but has little hope for return following his website's release of 250,000 confidential US government cables.

To play the video HERE.

Josh Gordon

AS THE net closes around WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the notorious whistleblower has accused Prime Minister Julia Gillard of betraying him as an Australian citizen in her eagerness to help the United States attack him and his organisation.

Ahead of his imminent arrest - over an alleged sexual assault in Sweden - Mr Assange yesterday broke cover to lash out at the Gillard government, comparing his treatment to that of former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Photo: Mark Chew

''I am an Australian citizen and I miss my country a great deal,'' Mr Assange wrote in a live question-and-answer session on the website of UK newspaper The Guardian.

''However … the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and the Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, have made it clear that not only is my return impossible but they are actively working to assist the United States government in its attacks on myself and our people.''

Mr Assange's cyber retaliation against the government's condemnation of his decision to publish thousands of sensitive US diplomatic cables came as:

■ Mr McClelland yesterday slammed Mr Assange's actions as potentially life endangering and ''incredibly irresponsible and reprehensible''.

■ Government authorities around the world worked overtime to determine if Mr Assange could be charged with a crime related to the leaks.

■ WikiLeaks data analyst James Ball revealed a cache of documents relating to Australia was to be released late next month.

■ The WikiLeaks website battled to stay online as governments in several countries tried to block it.

■ British authorities said Mr Assange, believed to be hiding in the UK, could be arrested at any time on the Swedish warrant.

■ US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was forced to issue yet another apology, this time declaring her ''deep respect and admiration'' for the British military after US criticism of their efforts in Afghanistan was published.

Mr Assange, 39, said his treatment by the federal government raised questions about what it meant to be an Australian citizen. ''Are we all to be treated like David Hicks at the first possible opportunity merely so that Australian politicians and diplomats can be invited to the best US embassy cocktail parties?''

Prominent human rights lawyer Julian Burnside told The Sunday Age Mr Assange's reference to Mr Hicks was apt, given the government's apparent enthusiasm to assist the US rather than an Australian citizen.

But he said he ''wouldn't be surprised'' if Mr Assange had committed an offence, given he almost certainly knowingly assisted with the publication of classified documents when the first wave of 250,000 sensitive US diplomatic cables was posted on WikiLeaks last Monday.

Ms Gillard has asserted that Mr Assange's actions were illegal. A taskforce of Australian soliders, intelligence officers and officials is investigating whether he has breached any Australian laws.

Mr McClelland yesterday said Mr Assange might not be welcome back in Australia if he is convicted over the leaks. He confirmed Australia was providing ''every assistance'' to US authorities in their investigation.

''Some of these documents [have] … the potential to put an individual's safety or national security at risk,'' Mr McClelland told The Sunday Age. Should Mr Assange be arrested, he will be offered consular assistance.

The WikiLeaks drop has caused enormous diplomatic problems for the US, with Senator Clinton describing it as ''an attack on the world''. Some senior US politicians have called for Mr Assange's arrest as a terrorist; others for his execution.

Mr Assange said on The Guardian website that he had stepped up security around his hiding place following threats.

So far, the only charges that may be brought against Mr Assange relate to an alleged sex assault in Sweden. Mr Assange's lawyer in London, Mark Stephens, said that neither he nor Scotland Yard had received the new arrest warrant from Sweden. Mr Assange has denied the sex assault allegations.

Meanwhile, Mr Assange's Melbourne-based son Daniel has defended his father's decision to publish the diplomatic cables, declaring that attempts to silence him and WikiLeaks are pointless.

The 20-year-old software developer's comments were posted on an American blogger's website yesterday in response to the blogger's calls for the former Box Hill High student to be physically harmed or kidnapped in a bid to flush out his father.

With JILL STARK, AGENCIES