Welcome to Spycraft, a podcast that tells gripping life and death spy stories and the amazing devices and operations that made them possible. Now let's get started. I'm sure many of you already found out. Weekileaks founder Julian Assan shelled out is going to be released. He has shelled out though half a million dollars to fly a remote island to avoid returning to the American mainland after accepting a plea deal with the US government and being freed from prison. Assan fifty two was freed from Monday morning from UK prison and flew from London Stanstad Airport to the US territory of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands. He will have a US Federal Court hearing Wednesday morning on the remote Commonwealth Island. There, he will plead guilty to conspiracy to obtain and disclosed national defense information for releasing classified reports on the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on his Wiki league site, the Dojson and the Court Docks. Asians reportedly refused to set foot on the American mainland and instead opted for the tropical island as it was closer to his homeland of Australia. The American territory is only about eighteen hundred miles away from Australia compared to the seven thousand miles from Hawaii. A law professor explained the decision to writers. He has to face the charges that have been brought under US law. It had to be US territory, but it had to be the US territory closest to Australia that wasn't a US state like Hawaii. I think she was with him on the flight. After he pleads guilty to the one charge, he is expected to be allowed to fly home with his five years in UK prison counting as time served. His wife, Stella, s that he will seek a pardon from the US after pleading guilt to the charge. The wife said told Reuters that had been in rough years and that she would not really believe he was free until they were reunited. Anything could happen, She says, I'm worried that until it's finally signed off, I worry, But it looks like we've got there, she said. The couple's two children are with her in Australia, but she has yet to tell them that he's been freed. His wife confirmed that they intend to launch a fun fundraising campaign, as the flight he charted to Saipan cost a half a million dollars. Assan, heralded as a hero journalist by some for exposing military abuses and others as a criminal who threatened national security and threatened the lives of many in the military. Was accused in a federal indictment of aiding US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning and stealing hundreds of thousands of classified files from the military, which Wiki Leagues published online in twenty ten. Manning was convicted of violating the Espionage Acting sentenced to thirty five years in prison, but was released after about seven when Obama commuted her sentence in twenty seventeen. So it looks like the majority of people are supporting and Songs's release. Others have not, especially those in the intelligence community and military. Some former politicians as well are not very happy. But there you go. That's it for now. So Julian Songs looks like to be freed, and maybe we'll update if anything out of the ordinary happens in the next couple of days, but if not, that's the story for today.