WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange: On the Run

He grew up constantly on the move, the child of parents in Australia's theater business. Now Julian Assange, 39, is on the move again — wanted in Sweden over alleged sex crimes, and wanted in effect by governments around the world for his website's publication of hundreds of thousands of classified documents.

His mother, Christine, describes a "highly intelligent" boy who received a Commodore 64 in his early teens, attached a modem, and disappeared into the growing world of computer networks. "It's like chess," he later told the New Yorker. "Chess is very austere in that you don't have many rules, there is no randomness and the problem is very hard." She raised him without religious influence but sensed early that he was driven by a strong desire to do what he perceived as just — "a lovely boy, very sensitive, good with animals, quiet, with a wicked sense of humor."

He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Melbourne. In 1991 he hacked into the master terminal of the telecom company Nortel; years later he was charged with 31 counts of hacking in Australia and ended up paying only a small fine. He had married and fathered a child at 18; the relationship did not survive. The young hacker's attention shifted from network flaws to what he saw as the wrongdoings of governments.

In a 2007 blog post on IQ.org — a site registered under the name "JA" and widely believed to be his — he wrote: "The whole universe or the structure that perceives it is a worthy opponent, but try as I may I can not escape the sound of suffering... men in their prime, if they have convictions are tasked to act on them." The blog ranged across mathematics, philosophy, censorship in Iran, and the death of Kurt Vonnegut.

Driven by the conviction of an activist and the curiosity of a journalist, Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006. "People should understand that WikiLeaks has proven to be arguably the most trustworthy new source that exists, because we publish primary source material," he told CNN. The site skyrocketed to notoriety in July 2010 with 90,000 secret documents on the Afghanistan war, followed in October by the Iraq war logs, and then this week by the diplomatic cables.

The lean, lanky figure with pale skin and a mop of white hair became a global celebrity — Time nominated him for Person of the Year as "a new kind of whistle-blower for the digital age." But the notoriety had a shadow. In August, two women in Sweden made allegations against him; on November 18 the Stockholm court issued an international arrest warrant on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation, and unlawful coercion, and Interpol followed with a red notice. Assange has maintained his innocence and called the case a smear campaign. He also dismissed reports of internal strife after longtime spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg quit, complaining that Assange's personality was distracting from the group's mission.

"It is my role to be the lightning rod," Assange said. "That is a difficult role. On the other hand, I get undue credit." His mother, watching from Australia, said she feared her son had become "too smart for himself."