Jack Lawrence

When we think of whistleblowers who have risked their lives and their freedom in the pursuit of keeping those in power accountable for their actions, I think one name will stand at the forefront of most.

Australian-born Julian Assange.

Who founded the now infamous WikiLeaks in 2006.

He would gain worldwide attention in 2010 when WikiLeaks would publish a series of leaks from US Army intelligence of footage from airstrikes conducted by US Apache helicopters in 2007 during the Iraq insurgency.

These airstrikes would claim the lives of several people, including two journalists and civilians.

The crews can be heard laughing about some of the casualties.

In November of 2010, Sweden would issue an arrest warrant for Assange for questioning in an ongoing investigation.

After losing his appeal against the warrant, he would breach bail and take refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

He would be granted asylum by Ecuador in 2012 under political grounds and fears of extradition to the United States.

However, this was later revoked in 2019 and British police were invited into the embassy and he would be arrested.

He was convicted on breach of bail and sentenced to 50 weeks in prison.

Since 2019, has been held in Britain's maximum security prison, Belmarsh, ever since.

As the United States continues their efforts to have him extradited.

Julian Assange started his campaign of whistleblowing almost a decade after Annie Macron and David Shaler would go out against their own employer, MI5, a decision which would see them wanted forever.

and on the run.

My name's Jack Lawrence.

Welcome to Wanted.

So Annie and David had been privy to information from within MI5, information that concerned them, mistakes that had been made by the organisation, mistakes that had had catastrophic consequences.

However, Annie says it was the mere fact that they were seemingly not willing to learn from these mistakes and things were essentially swept under the carpet, which didn't sit well with her and David.

She does also point out that there were plenty of very successful missions for MI5.