WikiLeaks touts Barack Obama's brother's pardon request for Assange

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appears to have found an unlikely ally in Barack Obama's half-brother, Malik Obama. The other Obama, who is a supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, took to Twitter to advocate on behalf of WikiLeaks for a pardon for Assange.

WikiLeaks has retweeted Malik Obama's tweet, which has since garnered over 7,400 likes and has been retweeted over 5,000 times, at the time of writing. Assange's supporters were recently up in arms after Ecuador cut off his internet connection. However, the whistle-blower website has since confirmed that Assange is safe and still in control, despite limited communications.

According to reports, Malik Obama is not the only one to call for a pardon for Assange. On 21 October, Republican US Senate candidate Wendy Long called for a full pardon of Assange, claiming that WikiLeaks' publication of hacked emails have "served a far greater good of truth and transparency".

"Assange is the only source of transparency and truth that most Americans now have about some of the most important matters affecting this election and our country," Long said in a news release. "We need him, we need his help, and we need him on the side of America."

However, not all are in agreement with this theory. Former NSA deputy director John C Inglis said that WikiLeaks has of late become "internally confused" and that "natural forces" may soon wipe it out. "WikiLeaks might be in fact be sowing the seeds of its own destruction. My sense is that when Ecuador shuts down the internet access of Julian Assange — they say we are no longer comfortable with what you do — it might be that WikiLeaks has lost its way," Inglis said.

Meanwhile, WikiLeaks continues to publish material related to the US elections, with the latest batch of Podesta emails totalling 19 leaked data caches so far. The Podesta dump has led to various revelations, including unprecedented insight into Hillary Clinton's speeches to private banking institutions, emails detailing Saudi Arabia and Qatar's alleged "clandestine" funding offer to the Islamic State (IS) and more.