Assange vows avalanche of 1 mn documents before US polls

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Tuesday the group would publish about one million documents related to the US election as well as three governments in coming weeks, but denied reports that the release was aimed at damaging Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Speaking over a video link from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Assange admitted he was not releasing any new explosive documents immediately, but had a packed schedule over the next ten weeks.

WikiLeaks held a press conference to celebrate the organization's tenth anniversary in Berlin amid intense speculation that Assange was going to release data which could torpedo Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Assange said the documents would be released before the end of the year, starting with an initial batch in the coming week.

Assange, 45, who remains at the Ecuadoran embassy where he sought refuge in 2012 to avoid possible extradition to Sweden, said the election material was "significant" and would come out before the 8 November US presidential election.

The website's boss said he plans ''to be publishing every week for the next 10 weeks'' and the leaks include material on war, arms, oil, Google and the US election.

However, following some 90 minutes of appeals for more funding and several plugs for a new WikiLeaks book, no new information was released into the public domain at the conference in Berlin.

Instead, the organization went through a 'greatest hits' compilation of the most important data dumps of the past decade.

Assange criticised Clinton for demonising his WikiLeaks group's work after a spate of releases related to the Democratic National Committee before the Democratic political convention during the summer.

Assange said her campaign had falsely suggested that accessing WikiLeaks data would expose users to malicious software.

But he denied that release of documents relating to the US election was specifically aimed at damaging Clinton, saying he had been misquoted.

"The material that WikiLeaks is going to publish before the end of the year is of  ... a very significant moment in different directions, affecting three powerful organisations in three different states as well as ... the US election process," he said.

He said the material would focus on war, weapons, oil, mass surveillance, the technology giant Google and the US election.

"There has been a misquoting of me and Wikileaks publications ... (suggesting) we intend to harm Hillary Clinton or I intend to harm Hillary Clinton or that I don't like Hillary Clinton. All those are false," he said.

Assange had told Fox News in an interview conducted by satellite in August that the group would release significant information related to Clinton's campaign.

Clinton likened to McCarthy
And there seemed to be a distinctly anti-Clinton stance on Tuesday. Assange claimed that WikiLeaks was now the target of a witch hunt orchestrated in particular by Clinton, likening it to the repression of American communists in the 1950s driven by then senator Joseph McCarthy.

Assange said WikiLeaks would scale up to ''amplify our publications and to defend us against what is really a quite remarkable McCarthyist push in the United States at the moment, principally by Hillary Clinton and her allies because she happens to be the person being exposed at the moment''.

Asked whether he felt affinity with Clinton's Republican rival Donald Trump, he said, ''I feel personal affinity with all human beings. Through understanding someone, you can feel sorry for them.

''I certainly feel sorry for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. These are two people who are tormented by their ambitions.''

Assange refused to say when the first US election leaks would be published.

Assange also signalled changes in the way WikiLeaks is organised and funded, saying the group would soon open itself to membership. He said the group was looking to expand its media ties beyond the 100 outlets it already works with.

He told journalists gathered at a Berlin theatre that the group's work would continue, even if he had to resign in the future, and he appealed to supporters to fund its work. He also held up copies of several forthcoming books.

Assange and his attorney said Britain's vote to leave the European Union could complicate his situation by limiting his ability to appeal to the European Court of Justice or the Council of Europe, a European human rights body.

Asked how he felt after four years in the embassy, he said "pale" and joked he would be a good candidate for medical study since he was otherwise healthy but had not seen the sun in over four years.

Assange is wanted in Sweden for questioning about allegations that he committed rape in 2010. He denies the charges, and says he fears subsequent extradition to the United States, where a criminal investigation into the activities of WikiLeaks is underway.

In 2010, WikiLeaks released more than 90,000 secret documents on the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan, followed by almost 400,000 US military reports detailing operations in Iraq. Those disclosures were followed by the release of millions of diplomatic cables dating back to 1973.